WTB Latitude D820 w/ $1,000 budget

I have a budget of $1,000 for a new laptop and the Dell Latitude D820 fits my needs perfectly. I'd like to start with a good base configuration that I can upgrade later on.. so, I want the most powerful video card option & all other features are secondary. I'm willing to sacrifice other features to fit the budget (i.e. least memory, slowest dual core cpu, etc). Who can help me buy this dell laptop immediately within my budget? I work full time and attend university full time so any help from you more experienced folks would be much appreciated .

 

two words. Dell outlet

 

I second Dell outlet... You can find some great deals on, new, referbs, and scratch and dent notebooks. www.dell.com/outlet

 

I searched Dell Outlet, but it doesn't list which video card is included in either of the Dell Latitude D820's. How do I ascertain this information?

 

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...emId=EW75RA56&~lt=popup&c=us&l=en&s=dfb&cs=28

Thats the closest to 1000 with video card that i could see, the other one had the better vid option but was ~200-300 more so I'm assuming it had better other specs.

 

I paid a little extra since they were giving me On-Site Next business day warranty for 3 years . Here are my certified refurbished Latitude D820 specs:

Windows XP Pro
2.00Ghz Intel Core Duo T2500 w/ 667Mhz bus-memory speed
2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DiMMS)
80GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200rpm)
512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache
9 Cell Primary Battery
8x DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
3945 802.11 a/g Wireless Mini Card
Bluetooth Wireless Card
15.4 inch WXGA screen

$1,383 before tax and ~$1,497 after tax (includes shipping). Is this a good deal or did I make a mistake?

 

Looks pretty good to me, about 2/3 the price of new. A T2500 and 80 GB 7200 RPM drive; Quadro 120M GPU and 2 GB RAM; DVDRW. Between the one you got and the above link, I would have spent the extra $300 too. Dell Outlet is the way to go for those kind of specs in a business-class machine. As indicated, a similarly configured D820 or HP nc8430 (with an ATI x1600) probably would have cost something like 50% more.

 

Thanks for the reassurance ..it's a big chunk of money for me so nice to get some positive feedback. But I'm curious, how much did you score your M65 for?

 

Actually, there's a thread about my purchase ("Received damaged Precision M65 from Dell Outlet"). With tax, I paid 1154 (1059 base price). A great price, found after a couple weeks of regular checking, but a T2400 and 5400 RPM drive were fine. With a T2500 + 7200 RPM, I imagine the price would have been a couple hundred more anyway. It now looks like I'm going to get a new machine due to the chassis damage, but I would guess that's pretty unusual. And there are very few M65s available. I was looking at D820s and M65s until this particular machine came up. The main thing is that you should have a very nice notebook, and I doubt the price would have swung much one way or the other. And machines like yours never last long. Hope you like it.

 

I hope mine lasts long as well. It was labelled as "certified refurbished" instead of the scratch & dent like the other ones. I hope this means I don't have to worry about any damage sustained to the laptop. Do you know if I can upgrade the lcd on this laptop later on? I know I've seen Dell notebook lcd panels for sale on ebay so I'm curious to know. Thanks again!

 

Well, you get the 3-year on-site warranty, so you should be good. The vast majority of people who get "certified refurbished" seem happy, otherwise I wouldn't have gone that route. The "scratch and dent" machines seem good too, though I did read of one unlucky experience. I just think Outlet is a great way to go if you're looking to save some money. As for the LCD, I don't think it's too bad to swap it out. I knew I wanted WSXGA when I started looking, so I really had to keep checking over a period of a couple of weeks. WSXGA + 2GB RAM + Bluetooth was kind of limiting. Bluetooth wasn't that big a deal because it's supposed to be very easy to add it, but I was hoping to get it already installed. And it was.

 

I like the WXGA resolution and think it's PERFECT for the 15.4in screen. Any smaller text would not be to my liking at all. yea, i can't believe I got the laptop already..so far so good. I'll try a few games/apps before posting a mini-review.

But now the big question, do I get the Dell 2007WFP external monitor and who can give me the best price?