Questions about M1530

Hey all, I'll porbably be ordering a new laptop soon, and so far the XPS M1530 is what I'm leaning towards. I do have a couple questions though, but first here are the specs I've been looking at:

Dell XPS M1530
Tuxedo Black
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800MHz FSB/4MB Cache)
Glossy 1440x900 LCD
2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DIMM)
160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW drive
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
Intel Wireless-N mini-card
Dell Bluetooth Internal
6 cell battery
High Def Audio 2.0
Finger Print Reader

Alright, question time- With 2 years of college left, I want this notebook to last at least that long, and not be terribly out dated any time soon. I'm a fairly casual gamer nowadays, so I don't need to be able to run the latest FPS on max settings or anything, but decent performance for most games would be nice. Would dropping the processor down to the 1.83GHz core 2 duo have that much of an impact? What about going with the 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS instead of the 8600M GT?

I'm trying not to spend more than $1250 or so, which means the only way I'll be able to get something with the above specs is with a 20-25% coupon. How often does Dell run those sort of deals? The ones I see in the coupon thread on this site all expire tonight, but I won't be ordering until next week at the soonest. I've also been looking around on the Dell Outlet a little bit, I'm a little hesitant about ordering refurb/scratch+dent/etc though. If I took this route, and wasn't happy with the machine when I got it, how does Dell usually handle things like that?

Any feedback you guys could give would be great, and if there are any other things I should know as far as pricing goes, please let me know! Thanks!

 

well it seems you are in luck. there is a coupon/deal here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=254463.

seems to have similar specs.

as far as your questions, i really am not that experienced with processors or video cards, so i can't really answer.

 

Do not downgrade the video card if you are going to be doing gaming, the 8400 GS has less than half the power of the 8600 GT. Also, I wouldn't downgrade that processor either since it is only like $70 between the T5550 and T7500, it's worth it for the performance increase.

As for the coupons, assuming you live in the US, Dell has some form of good coupon for them fairly often. Hopefully you can wait about a month or so.

 

I've had good success with the Outlet. If you can get a coupon you can save quite a bit. I saved $800 on my M1330 purchase with a coupon.

I would keep the video card where it is at. Dell is always running some sort of special so the price should remain stable for the most part unless there is another huge EPP deal.

 

If you are doing gaming get a good video card. Also get the least Ram possible and then order more ram from newegg at a cheaper price.Should save you about $200 dollars

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

atbnet, can you use coupon codes in the outlet? Knocking a $1000 refurb or whatever down to $750 or so would be very very nice, assuming it doesn't have any major flaws.

And 2GB was the lowest ram option I saw, I'll definitely be upgrading it myself rather than paying so much for Dell to do it instead.