What's Up with Dell changing the video card offerings for the Inspirons?

Dell changed the video card offering for the 17" Inpsiron. I had the 256Mb 8600 GT card selected and they pulled it from the web site and offerings in any inspiron. The only offering for inspirons now is the much slower 128Mb 8400 GS.
I have been researching, configuring (for a couple weeks now) and waiting for the right price for a laptop and go into my wishlist/cart yesterday (July 22nd) only to find my "selection not avaiable".
I have had it saved and was going to take advantage of the "30%" coupon that is supposed to be valid till the end of this month. I figured that I had till then to make up my mind but I guess not.
Definately have put the Dell purchase on hold and may have opened up the research again to another supplier. I think that is crap. Too bad there loss!!!

 

You can always call their sales department for items that aren't available on the net anymore... their call people have access to more options than the internet configurator.

But if I were you, I would leave Dell alone and buy something else!

 

They are doing that in order to make the Inspiron line (not the Studio) to be more budget and have more of a difference in comparison to XPS and Studio. Basically Dell is trying to raise a sign that clearly says in HUGE print "If you got some money, you want the Studio. If you really really don't have that much, you should have well enough for an Inspiron. Though your options will be limited."

I agree, it is pretty sad. Before the new Inspiron 1521 and such were out, Inspiron was no "budget" line that it is today. E1505 really looks sleek, nice, and not really bulky compared to the new designs. It also came with a decent GFX card for its time. Though, its all changed now.

If price is a factor... since Studio and XPS are currently at very high prices unless you are interested in the M1330 which only has the 8400GS... I suggest you wait for a coupon or deal. Otherwise... you may have to take a glance at... I can't believe I'm saying this... "H P".

 

Hmm in the Uk I see you can still get the 8600M GT 256mb BUT it is the DDR2 version. In the XPS you get the GDDR3 version.

It even says when adding it to the 17" inspiron its the DDR2 version. When adding it to the XPS 1530 it doesn't say on the spec sheet but a customer rep confirmed this to me in writing that all XPS's with 8600M GT are GDDR3 now.

That may be the steps they have taken in the Uk instead of removing it completely. They offer the card but a slightly(?) inferior version.

We can't get the LED screen for the 1530 XPS though at the moment, only the 1330!

 

I think its all about product differentiation. Dell wants to take a premium for the fastest parts, so clearly they want to position Inspiron in the low end, studio in the middle, and XPS at the high end. Before the Studios were out, the Inspirons had access to some of the better Graphics cards. Now they do not (why there is no discrete option for a 1520 is beyond me - everything esle can have it). The studio gives you access to some of the better XPS stuff, but the premium processors and graphics really aren't there. I am not really surprised.
Dell and anyone else will continue to play with their available configurations in order to best benefit the bottom line. I think that sucks since, in the desktop world, you can put the money where it counts much more easily. Want to watch a DVD? buy a cheap graphics card and mid-range CPU. Want to play Crysis? Spend it all on the GPU, but keep the mid-range CPU. These notebooks make it super hard to find the balance you need for the applications that you want. A starting price of 600 bucks is great on an inspiron, until you realize that you will never game on it. XPS starts at 1000 and it going to be more like 1300-1500 before it starts to be seriously capable.

 

Thanks for elongating, rephrasing, and making longer the point I made in my post. ^_^

 

That's really lame, I ordered my 1720 last week (also using the 30% off coupon), and was able to get the 8600, may be worth a call to them.

 

It could just be the wrong page or something of the sort where the option wasn't available. You never know.

 

My biggest hang up was that I wanted a decent video card on a 17" platform that had access to the Intel N wireless and a anti-glare screen. The 17" inspiron was the only one that fit the bill. I really want to try and stay away from the glossy screens since I do not want to be too limited to where I compute. I did call the sales group and they could not do anything for me. This has prompted me to look into other manufacturers and now I am considering the HP dv7t, the Toshiba Qosmio X305 and possibly the Gateway FX series (the gateway kinda sucks since you can not configure too much with it, but does seem to come outfitted pretty good from the start). The XPS 1730 just seems to be priced to high for what you get and for the money it looks like the Toshiba would be a better bet in the lower price range and non-sli configs.... I would like to do occasional gaming on the laptop not much since I do have a powerhouse desktop with dual 8800GTXs.... Any thought?

 

either call them or wait a little

sometimes a laptop allows a 8400 card, but the conifgs only give u a integrated card... just dell trying 2 force u to buy something that they wanna sell

 

If you really wanted to, you could order the 8400 and then buy the 8600 from Dell's website. It wouldn't be the cheapest alternative, for sure.

Or, check on dell's outlet http://outlet.dell.com I'm sure they have a 1720 with the 8600 on there.