So I'm thinking about an XPS 1210

Hey guys
I came accross this forum while looking for XPS 1210 reviews. Anyway by the looks of the opinions here and elsewhere it's a nice laptop, and I'm seriously considering buying one.

Anyway I have a couple of small questions in relation to upgrades. See, today Dell decided to add an extra variant to the XPS range, for AU$300 less. The only differences with this is that it doesn't have the free upgrade to 1GB RAM and only has a 60GB hard disk drive. I'm not too fussed about the HDD for now, but the RAM will be a problem for me. Oh I will also be getting the NVidia gpu as well, which puts the cost up a little.

So, on the 1210, are both RAM slots user upgradeable? Basically I'm thinking of buying it with 512MB of RAM, then buying my own 1 or 2 GB and putting that in. The HDD doesn't bother me for now (I have a pretty decent desktop, this is more for portability). Is it worth me doing this? Or am I just as well off spending the extra $300 and getting the RAM and HDD as 'free bonuses'?

If you can't tell, budget is a concern for me as I'm a student. Also the prices I'm talking about are Australian.

Cheers
Michael

 

I'm not a pro here,but you can go online to the dell website and check out the prices of ram upgrading.It's quite expensive though,some upgrades can cost you about 1500 USD or more ,so think carefully.Like you said, you can also buy your own ram and upgrade it, but I don't know if that will void your warranty or "fry" your motherboard.the laptop has a max. limit of ram though 4GB at most.Again,just be careful not to void your warranty if that applies.

 

I am a student as well with the 1210. Both slots are upgradeable, one slot is easily accessable under the notebook. It is much cheaper to buy ram after. Definetly get the lowest amount of ram with the system and buy the other ram somewhere else.

If it were me I would just get the lowest config with ram and hd. Most people would not need more than 60gb. In fact I get by fine with 20gb.

 

Thanks confusered and jtom! Yeah I will be purchasing my RAM and installing it myself. I was pretty sure at least one slot was user upgradeable, wasn't sure about the other. I don't really see a need for more than 60GB of disk space for a notebook either. For me anyway, this won't be to use as a desktop replacement, but as a portable computer that I can take around the place so 60GB should be more than ample.

So this is what I'm thinking:

Dell XPS M1210
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83 GHz, 2MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB
Windows XP Media Centre Edition (or maybe pro for $10 extra)
12.1" XGA Display, WITHOUT the camera
512MB RAM (I plan on doing the upgrade myself)
NVidia GeForce 7400 GPU
60GB HDD
DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
9 Cell battery

Total: AU$2117.50

Any thoughts?

 

thats fine except I would advise you to upgrade to the dvdrw depending on the upgrade cost. For me I use dvdrw alot so it was an easy decision. Both slots are user upgradable, the other slot is under the keyboard. While this requires more work to get to its definetly nothing incredibly difficult.

Definetly dont even consider the camera, waste of money. Also see what the cost is to have the 6 cell battery for the primary and getting a 9 cell for a seconday battery. In the states it cost $99 to just get the 9 cell whereas it cost $129 for the 6 cell and 9 cell. So you get here 6 extra cells for only $30 more.

 

Hmm, well to get the 9 cell as a secondary battery is an extra AU$167, so that is not going to happen. As for the dvd burner, its an extra AU$48. Thats not a big deal, so I'll see how I feel when I'm on the customise page. I don't know how much it would get used, because like I said I'd still have my desktop that has all the bells and whistles.


EDIT
Ordered.... Thanks jtom. I got the setup I listed above, but got the dvd burner. So, I guess we see what happens when it arrives.


... I hate spending money!

 

Arrived today! Hooray!

Well, right now I'm waiting for Windows to install. I was a bit surprised with the amount of crap these systems have preinstalled. I had braced myself after reading around here, but 71 processes running at idle, and a system tray with so many icons it stretches a third of the way across the taskbar!

So yeah, haven't had a real chance to play with it yet. Will post later

 

congrats and enjoy it, I've had mine a few days, and I've never been more satisfied with a computer purchase, and I've made quite a few of them

 

You can always get the extra ram from Newegg which will be much cheaper than getiing it through dell