My ultra-vostro 1400 configuration, take a look!

updated configuration
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
14.1 inch Wide Screen XGA+ LCD Display with TrueLife™
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11 g WiFi
No Camera
Integrated High Definition Audio
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

This is what im looking at right now, its got a base price of 1060, and a shipped price of about 1130. I'll be calling up the Dell Salepeople Saturday night (I'm currently out of the country) and I'll be lobbying mainly for three things, in order of importance:

1. Free Vista upgrade to either Business or Ultimate (ill ask for Ultimate and see if they settle for Business at least)
2. Free warranty upgrade from the base warranty (meh, I dont care about warranty, but my parents will...I guess its for the better since its a dell, but my dimension that i bought 5 years ago was more than great for my needs)
3. Free shipping upgrade (again, I won't ask If i can get some of the above)

Questions I've got:
1. Suggestions? Ways to cut costs? Should I wait for coupons?
2. Will the dell salespeople offer a straight pricedrop or % off? Can they do that?
3. Would a 7200 rpm HDD offer significant gains in real-world performance over a 5400 rpm HDD? My main activities are light gaming, heavy p2p/bit torrent downloading, browsing, chatting, and multimedia. I wont be doing any video/music editing. How would the faster disk speed affect the computer?

My goal is to get as close to possible to (edit)1000 shipped with as many of the above concessions as possible. Thanks a lot for any feedback.

 

is getting a 1520 an issue? u can get it for less than $1100 shipped with $325 coupon: http://www.notebookreview.com/dellCoupon.asp

 

Yea, I'd really like a 14.1 in screen.

edit: hmm, I see the same coupon is available for the 1420. Do you think the inspiron will be just as portable? What about the screen, it doesn't offer the same one as the Vostro?

edit(2) : I've gone through an equivalent configuration scheme and the final base price is $1550 after the coupon for the 1420. For the 1520, its 1220 base price after the coupon.

 

1.) The T7500 is likely overkill depending on your usage. Do no bother waiting for coupons, there are always more deals coming, however yours looks like a fair price
2.) I would skip on the Draft N card for now unless you already have a Draft N network in place. The 1400 is pre-wired with 3 antennas (antennae?) so you can add N anytime.
3.) The sales people may actually offer you nothing. How are you planning to ask for all those upgrades? What problems do you have with your current order that warrant free upgrades?
4.) 2GB would be fine for what you listed, of course 3GB would be better though Also depending on the config, it may be a lot cheaper to buy RAM yourself and put it in.

 

Ok, thats what I thought, I'll remove the N-Card.

From what I've read with some posts, I've heard the salespeople will usually throw in a concession or two you can't get online with every order. Would I have to order and have problems to gain any kind of freebies? I realize I listed a lot of upgrades, but I was realistically only hoping to gain 1-2 of them, if even that. I read about this on this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=153492 by flamenko

From my configuration, you need to select a minimum of 2 GB ram, and 3 GB is $90 extra so I think its a good deal.

The T7500 is an extra $100. I thought in the long run a better processor would make up for the extra charge. I just have bad memories of not upgrading m dimension from 1.8 ghz to 2.2 ghz for a measly $50 and I dont want to make the same mistake again, because its the one thing i can't take back, so i figure i might as well make it the best. Do you think the jump from 2.0 to 2.2 ghz would be negligible?

How much performance increase would I feel for a 7200 rpm HDD for the usages I listed?

Thanks for the responses

 

3 antennas? My Dell 1505 card in my Vostro 1500 only has 2 antenna connectors...now my D-Link N router has 3 antennas, but am I missing something on my Dell 1505 card for the 3rd antenna wire?

 

As mentioned above, T7500 will probably be an overkill for you, T7300 is good enough. As far as RAM goes, more is always better. However aftermarket RAM upgrades are generally cheaper .Since Vostros have the option of configuring with 512MB, get that and upgrade yourself, that would be cheaper I guess.

 

good luck is all I can say...I had little success with CSR at Dell.

 

I have black/grey/white antenna wires in my 1400. The 802.11g cards I looked at were all 2 wire designs (black/white) and the n cards utilized the grey wire from my understanding. If you have a n card using two wires, I am sure it works fine.

 

for your use CPU is not really important, even T5470 would be fine, and I doubt you'll be able to tell a differerence between T5470 and a T7500 for your use.

stick with 2gb of ram, upgrade to 3gb later if you feel its inadequate,,, which for your listed uses seems highly unlikely.

 

Aright, I think you guys are right, from what I've read, the increase in mhz is pretty useless unless your doing video editing or music editing, which I dont.

Would a 7200 rpm aftermarket HD be a good idea? Would it have a significant effect?

Can anyone confirm the 1400 has 3 antennas?

 

From what I have heard, wireless N uses three antennas while G uses two, the Vostros have three antennas so they are capable of being upgraded later to N, but still work with G. Nice run on sentence.

 

Mine has 3, and I ordered it with the Dell 1390 card. I purchased the Intel card seperately.

 

I spent another 500 on mine, and im sure people have spent even more on XPS systems, why do you expect them to bow to you and give you what you want? I mean, if I were you, I would try to make sure it arrived withought any delays before I looked at over 400 bucks in free upgrades just for saying hi.

EDIT: if you do get your upgrades, tell everyone, becuase I want a piece of the pie too...

 

I'm just hoping to get one during my sales order, and another when my order is inevitably delayed.

ocellaris, which intel, and is it a lot better in terms of speed, reception, and distance than the dell?

 

Imo, you should just place an order online for what you want, then call sales and ask "Here is what I ordered, did I miss out on any promotions to lower the price, or can you top this level of hardware and the same price" and see what they say. Its in the best interest of the sales person to cancel and re-order a PC for you, then they get $

Also I would not count on the 1400 getting delayed too much. Dell has been hitting the ship dates for most of the 14 and 15 inch models.

 

aright thats good, even if they hit the date, im gonna have to wait 2-3 weeks into college until i can use it.

is the intel a lot better in terms of speed and reception? which model is it?

 

If you are talking about the wireless card I have (3945), it work the same as the Dell 1390 at my house. I was able to find a neighbors wireless network I did not see before with the Dell too. I have an Atheros card in a Macbrook Pro and that works good for me too. Other than being able to see an extra access point, it was worth what I paid ($11 on eBay) to get 802.11a support "just in case" I wander across some random 11a network when I travel and for Linux support.