Vostro 1720 / 1721 - Please Help Me Choose!

For the love of badgers, I'm befuddled...

Looking for a 17" beast for the wife to replace our noble, but hulking, desktop.

Originally looked at Acer Aspire 7720 - nice reviews of these Gemstone oddities, but my £800 limit meant poor graphics card. Sony Vaio are seemingly built well, but you don't get much for your money, spec-wise.

So I stumbled on Dell and their tumbling prices. The Vostro is almost identical to the Inspiron 1720/1721 but much cheaper when configured similarly it seems. The Inspiron 1721 has an AMD CPU which may negate the "CPU whine" issue, but has a feeble GPU. So my issues are:

1. Will getting the AMD Inspiron 1721 model kill the "whining CPU" issue that affects audio? (the Vostro appears not to have an AMD option in the UK, but the Inspiron does)
2. Should I be worried about the LCD quality issues also?
3. Can I purchase through Dell Business website as a home user without hassle?
4. Can I have Vista Premium put on instead of Business or is Vista Business a better choice?
5. Will getting the 3 year warranty in 11 months cost me a lot more than buying with machine?

Yeah, I know Dell could answer the last 3 questions, but they're not the easiest lot to get hold of... Busy fielding order enquiries methinks...

A great many thanks to anybody who read this far!

 

1. Dont know. I dont think that there are many people bying the 1721. Intel is pretty strong in the mobile section. Therefore most people will buy the 1720.

2. A bit. But other manufacturers have reportedly also problems with screens. I have heard rumours about Asus.

3. No.

4. That is up to you. See what the difference is and decide yourself.

5. Dont know about that.

 

Go with the 1720. The C2D is much better. Also, I'm pretty sure you can configure a better 1720 than vostro with the $325 off coupon. Did you include that. I just bought a 1521 and a 1720, and I configured a lot of different options, and I could get a better 1720 than the vostro, with the coupon. Best of luck.

 

$325 off coupon? I'm in the UK - our oxegen is due to be taxed in 2008...

Why are so many normal folk buying Vostro notebooks if buying through Dell Business is not possible? The Home site doesn't sell them and they are cheaper here than the equivalent Inspiron. Try the UK Dell sites to see for yourselves...

 

1. Not sure. I would search the forum and elsewhere for references to audio problems against all inspiron and vostro systems that use amd cpus as I would guess they share a common motherboard.

2. LCD panel quality seems to be an issue throughout the entire industry at the moment so I think you basically have to get one to see if you get lucky. The Vostro line in the U.S. has a no questions asked 30 day return policy so you can return it if you get a bad one.

3. It seems that you can purchase without hassle in the U.S. I just did. When purchasing they just demand you fill a field for company name so feel free to put anything you like there....No Company Inc. or whatever.

Oddly enough I called Dell to ask a question and the operator wanted my Federal Tax ID number and claimed they only sold Vostro's to businesses. Obviously this is not the case as you can see from all the kids on this board buying them. The Dell operator got somewhat hostile when I pointed this out. I have no freaking clue why they would be hostile to anyone who wanted to purchase anything they are selling. There are some seriously confused sales and marketing people over there. If anyone can explain to me whey Dell would claim on the phone that they would not sell me a Vostro or answer questions about them unless I verified my companies identity with a tax id # and then proceed to happily sell me one online I would be grateful.

4. Frankly, I would get xp pro.