buying a e1505 for college...good deal?

Inspiron E1505: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB)

Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows® XP Professional

LCD Panel: 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™

Memory: 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm

Video Card: 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™

Hard Drive: 100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive

Network Card and Modem: Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Adobe Software: Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0

Combo/DVD+RW Drives: 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

Sound Options: Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ HD Software Edition

Wireless Networking Cards: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless

Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed): No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD

Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed): I chose Security included with Starter, Silver, Gold or Platinum Package.

Primary Battery: 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 4Yr LtdWarr, At-Home,CompleteCare,30Day DOC,PC Training, 2Yr AntivirusSuite

Dial-Up Internet Access: No ISP requested

Dell Digital Entertainment: Starter pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo

Dell Branded Printers: Dell 924 Printer with 1 Yr Advanced Exchange
924STD - [ 222-2049 ] [ 960-2840 ] [ 960-4638 ] [ 960-8500 ] [ 983-2207 ]
Additional Options: PC BACKUP,90DAY,V10,ENG,INSP

Additional Options: AOL SOLO

Additional Options: STATE ENVIRONMENTAl FEE



$1,687


(1) is this a good deal or not? i went through the EPP website of my college and clicked on a recommended/preconfigured e1505....it says "featured at $1,973" but it's price is crossed out and it is priced at $1,199. i then added some upgrades (pretty much maxed everything except the processor is 2.00 instead of 2.16 and i didnt add RAM) so it came out to be $1,687.....

(2) i dont see anywhere where i can add a coupon so i figure after the EPP i can't add coupons since it's already under "special offers". am i right?

(3) i want a well-rounded laptop that will last a long time and that won't become obsolete anytime soon. i want it to be capable of performing well on anything i might need to use it for throughout college (not sure on my major yet)...i'm not planning on doing much gaming, but i'd like the option to if i ever want it. having said all this, is this a good laptop choice?

is this a reasonable deal or not? i havent bought it yet...waiting on your guys' expert advise as i'm not particularly knowledgable about laptop shopping. the bottom line is i want to know if i could i get a better deal through use of coupons and such...(i can't wait for any other coupons to come up, i've already waited...the 20% off is pretty much the only coupon right now, right?) thx in advance!

ps: is this windows vista capable? it doesnt say it is in the specs (i copied and pasted all of the specs right off the site)...does this matter if its not?

 

XP Media Center comes standard on these machines which is built ontop of XP Professional. I would advise against the XP Professional upgrade. Huge waste of money unless you need the ability to join an Active Directory domain. This is the only feature omitted. All of the other XP Pro features are there. Encrypted file system, remote desktop, the whole shazam.

 

yeah when i was configuring the different laptops i thought it was weird that xp pro cost over $100 more when the "learn more" tab said that the media edition had way more additions.

but the epp preconfigured "special offer" system that i'm thinking about getting has the xp pro already included and i cant even change to media if i wanted to. it seems like a system similar to the preconfigured "special offer" with the media would still cost more than this preconfigured system even though it has the xp pro..

 

that's really expensive. 1700 for that config? I can get that plus 2 Gigs of ram at the canadian dell site for around US $1200.

 

how? do you have some magical 40% off coupon or something?

 

oh wait... nevermind.. you have the 4yrs of complete care - do you really need that? You'll probably need a new lappy after 4 years.

 

well i'm hoping to keep this laptop for a long time, and i also thought it would be good to have since i'm bringing it to college. i heard that its good for a college student to have a warranty on his/her laptop that will last their 4 years of college. also, the 4 year warranty came in the preconfigured "special offer" so i cuoldnt take it out even if i wanted to. i'm actually learning towarda a m1210 now though...

 

Don't go through the EPP site, using the 20% off coupon ends up being a lot cheaper.

 

That is a really nice config. and would be really fast for a while.