Scholarship Laptop: How will it run?

So in reward for my highschool records, my college (TCNJ) granted me a free dell laptop among other things. I plan to sell it to one of my friends, but want to see if it looks like a decent system before I go ahead and sell it. I don't have too much experience with the Latitude line, so I know little about battery life, build quality, etc.

Here are the specs:

Latitude D520
Intel Core Duo T2300E 1.66GHz 667Mhz 2M L2Cache
14.1 inch XGA LCD
512MB DDR2-533 SDRAM 1 DIMM
80GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 5400RPM
Windows XP Professional, SP2 with media
65W AC Adapter
8X DVD+/-RW
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11a/g) mini Card Latitude
Resource CD w/ Diagnostics and Drivers
6-Cell/56 WHr Primary Battery
Corporate Nylon Backpack for Dell Latitude
Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, 2YR Extended
CompleteCare Accidental DamageSvc, Lat, 3Yr
Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service, Initial Year
Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service, Extended Year
128MB Dell USB 2.0, Memory KeyLatitude Notebooks, Factory Tied
McAfee Security 7.0, English 90 Day Trial,Dell OptiPlex Precision and Latitude


So yeah, it looks like an alright system, and I plan on buying another stick of 512mb Ram to bring it up to 1gb 533 2-dimm.

*Side question: Will this ram work

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231038

But yeah, just want to see your opinions of the system. Also, will installing the extra bit of ram void the warantee at all? Thanks for your replies.

 

Congratulations on your academic achievements.

It's a solid notebook. I don't like notebooks unless they are widescreens.

http://notebookreview-cnet.com.com/...bj=fdba&part=notebookreview-cnet&tag=_Laptops

 

Its not a majorly bad system. I personally do not like dell, but many others don't find problems with them. One of the biggest +'s to the system is the extended warranty which is free with the laptop.

As for the installation of new ram voiding your warranty. I'm not 100% becasuse I have not seen it in writing anywhere from dell, but I have always been told that you need to have someone who is authorized by dell preform the upgrade.

 

Lol, thanks, yeah me either really. I'm perfectly content with my Inspiron E1705 and really don't need this laptop, which is why I want to sell it to my friend. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't too bad, can't be selling bad laptops to friends lol.

Ah alright, well then I'll have to be giving dell a call I suppose.


Anyone know if the ram I'm planning to buy will work? Link in original post.

 

ram, HD, miniPCI card are all "user upgradeable"

there is no warranty problem.

 

Alright, brilliant. Thanks a ton for the help.

 

Yeah, it'll work great. Core Duo is compatible with 667 mhz, but you won't notice a performance difference using the 533 you picked out.

 

yeah i went for the 533 a) cuz i plan on selling anyhow, and b) the installed ram is already at 533, so if i get the 667, the 533 would just bottleneck anyhow, making the 667 pretty much a waste of money. Thanks though, now I can go ahead and order that.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't spend more on 667 either; in fact, I didn't. no problem.

 

yeah lol. Gonna open it up, run some benchmarks on it, then sell it off to my friend. I'm sure she won't notice any difference between having 533 or 667, especially since I doubt she will use it for much more than watching movies, word processing, internet browsing, etc. Just basic stuff.