Please look, about to pull trigger on 9300, what do you think?

Ok, im about to place this order, ive been researching about laptops these past 2 weeks, and i think this is the best so far (for me)

here are the specs:
Inspiron 9300 Intel® Pentium® M Processor 750 (1.86 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Display 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
Memory 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm (i plan to buy 1 gig through newegg)
Video Card 256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
Hard Drive 60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
CD/DVD Drives 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Wireless Networking Card Intel® PRO 2200 and Dell 350 Bluetooth Internal Wireless Cards
Primary Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)


TOTAL:$1,276.94

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Is this a good price for this system? My cupons expire tomarrow morning, and im worried that there will not be any better ones before Jan 06 (thats when i need the laptop).

Im going to use it for gaming (UT, CS:S, Doom3, Quake4, etc), and for internet surfing, MS Word, powerpoint, access, etc. Ill be using it at work, and at home, mostly at home though.

After Tax and Shipping the total is $1383.95. Almost $100 more just for this stuff

what do you guys think? is this a good buy?
Im planning on keeping the laptop for 3 - 4 years, and hope to be able to play games on it, etc until then. Do you think its futureproof enough to play games for another 3 - 4 years?

Dan

 

For another 3-4 years? Probrably. But not at max settings of course.

As always, the i9300 is a good deal with a coupon for the money.

 

wait...u need it in January???...the price will deff. go down by then...it's gone down since june...and will continue to go down for the next 2-3 months, at least...if u can wait...then wait a lil bit

 

Well really, the price will be not to differrent. If you need it now and have the money, you should just get it. Something and anything can happen between now and then, like cancelling the coupons or cutting them down more.

 

Thats what i was worried about. I was thinking that more people would probably be buying computers around xmas time, thus dell would probably not issue as good discounts...
if a killer deal comes out within 21 days of my buying my 9300, can i still return it? and reorder one later?

 

I'd say that is a good price especially with the 7200RPM drive. I have seen it go for less, but only Dell knows when they will be offering coupons again.

 

I just bought it! :w00t:

unit price: $1845.00 - $550 (%30 off), after tax/shipping = $1383.95 . Im happy with that, I just saw the new cupon that comes out tomarrow for $500 off, $550 with the %30 was a little better
i cant wait til it gets here


Dan

 

That is a very good setup, I would add the 9 cell battery to it and get an 80 or 100 gig hard drive 5400 rpm though, you'll appreciate the space more than the marginal increase in performance in a 7200 rpm drive and the 5400 is much queter.
Just my two cents, your going to really enjoy the 9300 congrats.

 

I do agree with you on the HDD size, it is a bit small...unlike the 250 gigs i have on my desktop right now. however most of that stuff is movies, tv shows, pictures, etc... stuff that is easily burnable to a DVD-R. (i dont have a dvd burner on my desktop). So im not too worried about that. I was more concerned with better performance, esp with games, thats why i opted for the 7200 rpm drive (the 100 gig 7200 drive was like $120 more than the 60 gig ) Ive also read several posts on how the 7200 rpm drive is super quiet (anyways, im used to my noisy desktop with like 8 fans in it.. going from that to this will be a dream)

I was pretty much at my limit for my budget, and i figure with a 6 cell battery ill atleast get a few hours on browsing time with out AC. If i do need to go totally mobile for longer periods, at that point i figure ill just get a 9 cell from ebay or something.

I cant wait to get it, estimated delivery time is Nov. 28th... arghhhh sooo long lol

dan

 

Could get an external hard drive and put in a case for the extra storage you need.

 

almost exactly what i bought a few weeks ago, and for almost the same price.

 

How do you like the 9300 that you got so far?

 

ive got it, its ok great big screen very nice, out of all the laptops theres only two other ones i would get that have earlier gfx cards so im happy with this one.

 

Its awesome, so glad i got it. I have been playing BF2 and HL2 as well as Madden 2006 all on max settings and it runs flawlessly. Just make sure to buy yourself a 1gig stick of ram from Newegg like i did, makes all the difference.

 

Awsome, im glad to hear

 

7200rmp super quite. Bought hp and toshi and returned both b4 the dell because of the fan noise. It's there, as a 'hum', but not unplesent. The only issue is the resess for the headphones doesn't let me plug my $300 senheisers in!! (got to find me an extention)...

 

doh!

glad to hear its superquite, thanks for the comment!

 

yeah...you could probably take the 100Gig 5400rpm drive instead of the 60GB 7200rpm drive, and take the 1Gig RAM from newegg. my machine gives a 50250 score in aquamark3 which is pretty impressive. it should give a better score with 1.86M and 7200rpm drive.

 

w00t! ..i checked out the dell website today, expecting my 9300 to be in the "building" stage, to be shipped "on or before the 28th" ..so i figure its going to be closer to the 28th, and what do i see? Its been already "shipped" as of today!!! i cant wait

dan

 

Nice, should be arriving soon then. Look forward to the feedback.

 

Hey Red, I got mine in exactly one week. Unless you ordered parts that were not in stock, expect the same

 

Awsome. I just got a tracking #, and it will be here on the 22nd!

I also just bought this on newegg: "TRANSCEND 1G SO TS533N2-1024 RT - Retail" because I just got the regular 512MB when i ordered. Im guessing that the regular ram from dell is in 2 sticks? Can I run the 1 GB stick with the 256 MB stick in at the same time, or do they both have to be the same memory size?

dan

 

I look forward to the i9300 reviews/comments .

As for external hardrives, I have seen some really sleek petite ones that at first glance, you do not know whether that is a MP3 player or some other gadget in the sleeve. It was a USB external HD.

 

Red, don't worry about the ram. It should work without any problems. Many people throw one of their 256mb sticks back in there for good measure. Actually, I hear 1.3ghz is around the sweetspot for system performance, so that's a good news for you

 

Awsome, glad to hear it! im happy i can acutally use one of the sticks of ram ill have laying around..

dan