Re-Ordering My e1705 - What do you guys think about this price?

From Dell Home using a 35% off coupon and $35 off coupon I managed to come up with these upgrades and this price...

Core Duo T2400 (1.83GHz) Centrino (Intel Wireless PRO)
60gb hdd @ 5400
17" WXGA Display
256mb GeForce Go 7900 GS
Sound Blaster Audigy
24x CDRW/DVD Combo
6-Cell

The rest is the usual default. Basically I'll be paying a total of $90 more for the EXACT same configuration (except I am getting the ****ty 1-year warranty, I had a 2-year warranty) than I had before with the Go 7800. I think I can add another 2% off using my DPA account as well. to drop another $20 or so.

I'm defintely looking for the best bang for my buck here since I only wanted to spend around $800 initially for a laptop, but for $300ish more I can get a nice gaming laptop so yeah.... Any thoughts? Should I just pull the trigger and go for it or wait for a better deal? Even if a better price came out tomorrow with coupons I could call, cancel, and re-order.

A second question I have is if you use a coupon to order a system like the 35% off and then call and cancel your oder, will you get the coupon code back or is it a done deal and long gone? Anybody have any idea?

Comments are appreciated! ^_^

 

No DVD-burner?
17" UWXGA with True Life?
RAM?

Honestly, a Core Duo with a 7900GS for near $1100 is an amazing deal any way you slice it. I would buy it, but I would save some $$$ and get the T2300 CPU and then upgrade to a Merom CPU later!

 

I think for a gaming lappy, I'd want a 7200 RPM drive for loading maps quicker.

As Nick says, go with lowest CPU up front, as you can always upgrade to Merom later anyway for cheap, and the difference between 1.6 and 1.8 will be less than 5400RPM v 7200 RPM! Yeah, a DVD burner would be nice too.

But go with the lowest RAM config available and upgrade through another source, as it will be considerably cheaper (see dealnews.com/dealram.com).

Nice system - good luck. I'm getting an e1705 next payday.

 

I actually have a 60gb HDD @ 7200 RPM ordered from Newegg sitting on my desk just waiting for installation. ^_^ I also have 1GB Free RAM (HAH, as tho they dont raise the overall price of the laptop) and I believe the 533MHz is prefectly fine for this.

Personally, I don't find much of a use for a DVD Burner. What do you guys use burners for in laptops?? I am ordering this for college, work, and gaming. I find my desktop to be sufficient enough for burning DVDs when the need arises. Other than that a 700mb CD should be perfectly fine for data storage.

Also, I guess from what I heard the difference between 1.66GHz and 1.83GHz isn't much, but it's only what, like $70 more after 35% off??? People are also saying that Merom will be able to plop into place of any Yonah chip, but this isn't a fact from what I know. I've read this is only speculation and assumption because the two chips have the same number of pins. If there is facts of this then please provide links and I will most defintely drop down to a 1.66GHz CPU ^_^

 

Good call. You won't notice a massive improvement in loading maps unless it is BF2, in which case more 2GB RAM makes the biggest difference, but saving large documents, loading XP, loading apps, defragmenting, or copying files around will see a benefit.

Yeah, I've been going back and forth between 533 and 667, but I've only held off on a RAM upgrade because I want to wait until Merom comes out. Merom will simply drop in in place of my Yonah, but there still lies the question of full 800MHz bus support...

I keep music, pictures, and movies on my laptop... if someone wants a copy of something, I can deliver!

From the beginning, Intel itself has stated that Merom would be backward compatible with Yonah. They even demoed a live swap using a Dell notebook to show the performance increase. Here's a Merom in its (near) full glory on a Dell 1710.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1455787&posted=1#post1455787