Inspiron Questions before purchase

I like to start off by saying what an awesome place this is and everyone seems to friendly and knowledgeable. I been snooping around for a few days now and have pretty much answered most of my questions just from reading from the archives. But I do have some questions that I know can be answered by everyone here.

I have decided that I will be purchasing the Inspiron notebook (my first laptop purchase by the way) I just have not decided if I want the 17inch or 15 inch screen. The 15 inch screen will be practical for me but the 17 inch would by luxury. But that’s for me to decide later on.

Although I will be getting the 8x DVD-/CD+- combo drive, does the Inspiron come with it's own DVD burning software or is that something I need to get on my own?

And the Bluetooth capabilities, is that something I need to order as well or does that come standard with the laptop.

And finally, what is exactly the external T.V. tuner that comes as an option? I haven’t really found any answers in a Google search.

Any feed back and opinions will be greatly appreciated.

 

Comes with Sonic. They don't seem to send a CD for it though, so, if you format the laptop when you get it, which you should, you'll lose the Sonic. They should send it to you on a CD if you bug them for it on Dell Support Chat.

Blue tooth is an option. Around $20

External TV would be USB2. Not sure who makes it.

 

theres a software upgrade option that will give you the cd plus some other software....I think I payed ~70 for all the software....3 or 4 programs as I recall.

 

Yeah, but it should come with Sonic LE or some sort of basic something to burn a CD or DVD?

I dunno, I clean format and installed my Roxio Suite, so, I have no idea what really comes with it out of the box. Seems like I see Sonic LE on my invoices.

 

I would go with the 15 inch if you want mobility. 17 inch notebooks are out of the question for me since I carry it alot. Believe me, 15 inches is plenty; I have a 12 inch and its fine with me.

 

Dell's E1505 and E1501 are a couple pounds lighter than their 17" E1705. The one major advantage of the E1705, is the option for a high end 7900GS graphics card. If your not gaming though, either notebook with integrated graphics should do just fine.

Dell usually includes sonic pre-installed as well as sometimes some trial junk-ware. Bluetooth is a great option and is ~$30 upgrade. The external TV tuner option allows you to plug your cable TV into the tv tuner, that plugs into your USB so you can watch and record tv. It's not something you need to buy directly from dell, other companies offer tv tuners and perhaps at a better price.

 

I wanted the 7900GS and the DVI on the E1705, but after seeing one in person, it was just too large.

I have the E1505 with an SXGA+ screen (1680x1050) and I love it. When I need more screen, I drive an external monitor.

I'm not a gamer, but it plays the few games I do play (BF1942, GTR, Civ) just fine.

I'd def get the X1400 over the integrated graphics. Can game a little, and will give the laptop more legs in the era of Vista.

 

One note:

The X1400 IS an upgrade over the GMA 950 -- but not a massive amount. it'll help with games, doesn't help with Vista.

Vista has Experience scores which are based on the LOWEST systenm score.

I have a 1405 for personal use (see sig) that has the GMA 950. it rated a 3.0 -- which is the score of my graphics. It runs Areo fine with everything on.

I am temporarily using a 1505 at work with the X1400 and it scores a 3.6 -- which once again is the score of the graphics card.

So, it's not a huge leap at all as far as DX9 and Areo are concerned. I'll admit, I was surprised, but it is what it is.

 

It comes with the Sonic

 

Mostly, for the money, I think the X1400 would help Vista by freeing up the computercpu and the system ram to do computer and system ram stuff by offloading gfx to a GPU.

For the money, I think the X1400 is worth it.

 

I'm not sayings its not worth it, but the GMA doesn't impact the CPU.

It shares system memory. So, what it does is free up memory. But, don't order expecting some huge leap looks or performance, because it won't happen.

Like I said, in some games, I'm sure it'll help. But if you read about experience scores, a .6 increase isn't gonna help too much in areo.

Oh, and yes, it ships with Sonic LE -- It will let you do the basic burning operations needed.

 

thanks everyone for answering my questions.

I think i'm leaning more on the E1705 becouse it has the option for the Nvidia 7900 GS GPU. although I'm not a gamer in anyway I want my laptop to be absolutly Vista ready and also I want something that i wont have to worry about upgrading for atleast 2-3 years. And as far as portability is concerned...I have muscles, lol I know the E1705 is pretty hefty. Whatever I'm going to get will replace my ancient old desktop. just thinking about having something I can carry with me when I need to is exciting enough.

 

I just got my E1705 to replace my 4 year old desktop. It is a large laptop but I won't be lugging it around. Your friends will be impressed by the size alone. For me it was between the E1705 and the XPS M1710. I'm glad I got the E1705. I plan on watching movies with external speakers once I re-format the drive. I'm sure you will be glad you went with the E1705.