m1210 with Celeron for $1000

Hello,
I currently live in Japan, and I am looking at a new (small) laptop for my (small) Japanese wife. On the Dell Japan site, you can configure a Dell m1210 with a Celeron M 1.4, 512 MB RAM, 80 gig HD, built-in camera, and DVD burner for about $1000 US. It would only be used for internet, typing, and Skype communication, so I think the specs are plenty. Dualcore would be a $180 upgrade. 1GB RAM upgrade is $120. I dont think either is necessary or worth it for the price. But perhaps waiting for the new Intel Merom processors from August might be. But the lack of details on those isnt encouraging me to wait especially for a basic needs laptop.

I favor Dell because I know that I can install English OS Windows XP and download English version drivers for a dual boot English XP/Japanese XP system (This isnt easily done for the vast majority of Japanese only laptop models.)

Any thoughts on the price and specs?

Thanks!

 

The Dual core is definitely definitely worth a $180 upgrade.....


Though the celeron M is enough for the needs that you listed, you may as well get a cheaper Celeron M Acer Travelmate for the equivalent of 500-600 US $ and you will easily be able to install English version of XP on it

However, if you have your eyes set on the 1210, do take the Dual core upgrade if not the 1GB upgrade....
Not only the Dual core will be noticeably faster, but The celeron M will stutter when in the near future, you decide to run Vista on the lappy....

The dual core option makes your lappy future proof for at least he next 2 years + if you want to upgrade to a Merom, the Dual core and the merom are slot compatible, so you could do that too in the future

 

Thanks for the comments.

At the moment, Windows Vista offers nothing to me and it certainly will not offer anything to my wife. I have been very unimpressed with Vista and I see no need to buy or upgrade a new laptop for $300 just to run it.

I am a fan of dual core and merom, but I am a bit skeptical of the benefit to thier benefit on a 12 inch screen. I would rather use my desktop for gaming and rendering. Intead of spending $300 to upgrade the Dell, I think it would be better to spend a little more and get a E1505 or what not in the US for myself and get the m1210 for my wife.

I am not looking for upgrades I just wanted to know if $1000 is a fair price for a minimum spec m1210. I can't really find anything that is as good for the price. I really like the build quality, keyboard, screen, and versatility due to the weight. Prices in Japan are quite attrocious for low weight laptops.

Speed and Vista are not important in the long run to me. In the future I would probably upgrade the hard drive and add more RAM and maybe add a merom processor if the motherboard is compatible. Any word on merom support on the m1210?

 

I would pickup the Compaq V2000 for half the price and better specs. You can get it off of hp.com for around 40o bucks. It is 14" which is still small, has a Sempron 3100 which is better than the intel celerons, and an ATI R200 integrated graphics card. It was not a bad looking notebook and is what I would have purchased had I not bought the 1210 with dual core and nvidia option. The other option if you want a dell is to go with the 1405 which also has better specs then the m1210 you are referring to for about $700. Bottom line to your question is I do not think a DELL m1210 with a celeron and 512mb ram is a good deal at $1000.

 

A Compaq V2000Z would be a better budget option if you can find it. I would also look into an Averatec 2100; good budget machine.

 

Thanks for all the advice folks. Computers in the U.S. are very cheap, but in Japan the prices are generally much higher. So, the options recommended above don't really suit my search for a Japanese laptop. My wife is happy with the price, weight, and features. I am happy with the build quality, screen, and practicality. Nothing else seemed to offer this combination in the $1000 price range in Japan.

We ended up getting 1GB of RAM. I thought that would make the most difference. I also prefer to upgrade the slowest part of a computer first. So, sometime in the future, I'll certainly upgrade the hard drive to something faster and perhaps get a Core 2 Duo if the price is right and we need it for a particular task. I'm certainly a gearhead, but I'll save most of my tinkering for a Core 2 Duo desktop after Vista comes out. The laptop config should be fine as a secondary use portable computer or relaxing around the house.

Thanks again! This board is great.

I'll post again after receiving and testing the laptop. My basis for comparison will be coming from a daily-used, heavily upgraded AMD 1.73Ghz Athlon XP system, so I expect the laptop to compare favorably.

 

avoid celeron like the plague! Sorry, that sounded a bit too biased. Seriously, if you want to do anything more intense than word processing, Celeron is a poor choice.

If its of any consequence to you, Vista will suffer terribly when you install/upgrade it.

 

Are Celeron Sockets Merom compatible? If I were you, dont even change to Vista, its not worth it. its just XP with some graphical upgrades.