Dell Vostro 1500 - $599 Good deal???

Dell has their Vostro 1500 with the Core2 Duo 1.4 discounted at $599 right now. Is it worth it to buy this unit over a cheaper unit like the

Toshiba Satellite A215-S7411 Notebook for $399.99 and upgrade the RAM to 2GB and save about $150?

I do mainly photoshop work with multi-task with Quickbook, word, excel etc. I don't plan on using it to play any crazy games, if any at all. Can the experts here tell me if I will see a difference between these 2 units?

 

if all the specs are the same except for the raM go for the toshiba

 

The Dell has a better CPU, video card etc. But for my applications being:

"I do mainly photoshop work with multi-task with Quickbook, word, excel etc. I don't plan on using it to play any crazy games, if any at all."

I want to see if anyone has experience with these computers or similar spec ones to tell me if its worth it to get the the Core2Duo for my usage.

 

I'm not sure what the Toshiba specs are so it's hard to say. But just build quality I'm sure the Vostro wins.

 

This is the specs for the Toshiba

Toshiba Satellite A215-S7411 Notebook
AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-53 1.7GHz Processor
1GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive
15.4-inch WXGA TFT Display
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium

Was: $639.99
SAVE $240 eRebate
$399.99

 

If you are gonna be working away from the power jack, then C2D from Dell is better. Athlon 64x2 is probably a bit hotter than and eats up the battery life more. But performance gap between the two for Quick and Excel is not that big.

BTW, the Compaq deal for 399 is another option.

 

Comparing the Compaq deal with the Toshiba $399 deal... which one is better?

I read some people say that a slightly lower CPU speed on an Intel chip is still faster than the AMD's with higher speed rating...... is that true?

Thanks guys for the answers.

 

If you are comparing solely on the processor alone, I would pick Compaq.

 

To simply answer the question posed by the OP's thread: "Dell Vostro 1500 - $599 Good deal???", you'd have to say "Yes". The same deal comes and goes in different guises, but the package of C2D1.4/2GB/120GB/DVDRW/8400GS at $599 is as good as it's been getting on the Vostro 1500...at least in recent memory. Dell might get generous and toss in a 160GB hard drive or perhaps bump the processor up one notch, but that price for those specs seems to be the floor for now.

 

Thats what I was thinking...... I've been comparing the different brands and it seems the other brands charge hundreds more for something like this.

 

Can anyone tell me if the Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 that comes with the Dell Vostro systems is good enough to run Vista? The system would be a core2duo 1.4 with 2GB ram.

I won't be really using it to play crazy games, just don't want the system to have problems running vista with that card.