Dell XPS 1530

thats not a bad deal but i bet dell will knock more off the price soon.

 

That's what I'm hoping too

 

i think that is all we can do haha i check this damn thread a few times a day just hoping somoene will update us with a coupon or a price change

 

still no penryn in the 1530. Im pretty shocked. The 1330 has had it about 2 weeks now. Hopefully some deals come soon as well

they just added it to the 17" XPS today. looks like the M1530 is all they are keeping it from so far

 

djtootles,

There's currently a president's sale going on for $599 off ($100 more than yesterday).

HOWEVER, be warned that this is not Dell taking off an additional $100 off from yesterday's price, as yesterday, the thin LED screen was automatically included in the price, while in this current sale, you need to add the thin screen as an option.

You DO, however, get a 200GB 7200rpm HDD (as opposed to the 160GB), so let's just say that as compared to yesterday, this "President's Sale" essentially throws you an extra 40GB in HDD space and nothing more.

Either way, NOT a bad sale, especially if you can add a 12% EPP + 4% Dell Preferred.

 

oops, just realized you were looking at the 1530. these specs apply to the 1330, sorry.

 

you had me all excited however they DO have the same deal for the M1530 HOWEVER its pretty ex*****ve once u add the better vid card, draft N and 9cell battery.

If there is any coupon for this that is stackable someone please pm me definatly would buy this if i could get 10+ % off on this .

otherwise ill hold off until they offer the penryn in it.

 

How did you spell "expensive" to get it to star out...?

 

haha i have no idea. i spelt it correct. weird.
lets see if it does it again.
expensive

 

switch the "i " and “s" ex*****ve

 

it would have the word expen isve

 

and if i did accidently spell it that way, what makes that word so bad it needs to be blocked out?

 

This may be a dumb question but what is the DELL EPP about? and how do people become a part of it? Cuz i know right now you can get an additional 12% off with it on the best option for the M1530. Just kinda curious how it all works. 12% off would probably make that laptop just in my range .

 

If you're a student or the company you work for is part of it, you can get the EPP (educational/employee personal purchase) discount...

 

awww, sucks for me my work doesnt have that and i dont go to school lol.

 

has anyone used the EPP before? I went to the epp site and just used the pulldown and put higher learning for students or whatever and it brought me ot the screen to do everything and i was able to add it to cart.

Does anyone know if they call or anything to verify or if it will just process?

 

no they dont

 

They may ask for verification (your school)...check the link here

http://www.delluniversity.com/faq.aspx

 

i looked and my old community college is actualyl on the list so i assume i can just use that. I remember my school id#.

I dont know if anyone has done the research but i kinda cross referenced the M1330 and M1530 it seems the prices on the cpu's are a bit skewwed. the 1330 doesnt have the 2.2ghz 4meg cache chip. and the 2.4 4meg chip is cheaper in the M1330.

But if say the 1530 got the penryn they used the same prices the T9300 (2.5ghz 6meg cache) would be a $125 upgrade from the 2.2ghz 4meg cache do you guys think the performance and battery life warrents that much money and to wait?

 

Does anyone even use the EPP program in Canada? I go to Gov/Education/Health care --> higher education --> then brings me to this page



This mean I can only choose from these notebooks to get the discount? Anyone know how to access the EPP code for XPS notebooks? Cause the Latitude and Precision notebooks are outdated and not what I"m looking for.

 

I'm in Canada and my company has EPP, so does my wife's. They are pretty much the same

3% SAVINGS on SELECT desktops, notebooks and accessories. Some conditions apply.

So I asked about it... if I buy the exact machine as specified by Dell, with their specific config today... I'll save 3%! Whoop-de-doo Totally lame so I have no idea who uses EPP in Canada?

 

bummer its 12% here in the US for the time being.

So anyone have any insight on my previous post?

 

SYSTEM COLOR Tuxedo Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition edit
LCD AND CAMERA High Resolution glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1680x1050) & 2MP Camera edit
MEMORY 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms) edit
HARD DRIVE Speed: 200GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write) edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
WIRELESS CARDS Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card edit
BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate) edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0 edit

Shipping & Handling 1 Calculate $19.99

Shipping Discount Shipping Discount Calculate -$19.99

Tax 2 Calculate $111.89

State Environmental Fee State Environmental Fee More Info Calculate $8.00

Total Total 3 Calculate $1,606.21

thats what i get shipped to my door btw. Or do you guys think i should holdout for the penryns to come into the m1530's and see what deals and what price they have the T9300 (2.5ghz 6mb cache) penryn chip.

 

I think you shoud wait... That's what I'm doing too. Remember that you can stack up another 10% holiday epp coupon that Dell gives out once in a while. That would make it 22% off on top of any current deal in the future...

Are you sure about that resolution? I would go for the 1440x900 instead. I know you can't lower the ram with the current deal, but it looks very easy to upgrade the ram on the 1530

 

yeah resolution is huge for me. i spend many hours behind illustrator and photoshop . higher the resolution the better.

however the deal they have now is pretty big with that 200gig 7200rpm drive. thats the big kicker. the ram is no biggie.

just tough to know real world results between the penryn and the santa rosa core 2 duos. 2.2ghz 4mb vs 2.5ghz and 6mb isint really a giant leap they need some real world benchmarks .

 

Is there a site or an email list that would send notifications when a good coupon come along? The sense that i got higher price because i did not my home work would always bug me.

 

This is what I use, samerjb: http://www.xpbargains.com/dell_coupons/

Just click on Dell Coupons RSS, and you'll receive a feed (if you use Firefox) whenever a new coupon comes along.

 

Thanks...a rep point coming up

 

Dj, I hope you are going to be smart and go with the 1GB RAM configuration. Then buy more RAM separately from places like newegg.com or frys.com. My brother is looking into an XPS and that is what he is going to be doing.

 

no i would get it with the 3gb. If you build a laptop off the "best" option you get the ram free basically and you get a giant deal on the 200gig 7200rpm drive.

if you configure any other M1530 with just 1 or 2gb of ram and the better vid card you already pay more. The $599 off plus 12% epp makes the best option the cheapest of the M1530's with alot of upgrades.

trust me if there was a way to save money and just get the 1gb and ditch the 3 year warrenty and save money and the lojack i would . probably save a few hundo.

 

Stunner,

This may seem silly question, but is it really that easy to install ram? I wanted to order a 1530 with the 3GB Ram configuration built in. But it certainly looks cheaper to order a 1GB config and buy additional RAM on the website you suggested. My worry, though, is whether or not I (a computer novice) could put the ram in myself. Would I need to take it to a shop and have someone else put the ram in ? And how will I know it works?

 

Can you hold a screwdriver?

If yes, then yes installing RAM is that easy. Remove two (or four) screws, remove panel, insert stick, replace panel, insert two (or four) screws.

 

yeah there is videos on youtube. Replacing ram in a laptop is brainless. However now im debating about passing this order up right now for the fact alienwares 15" model just got the penryn and from what im told dell owns alienware so my guess is its the exact same mb. So dells m1530 should have the penryn anyday now.

And in another thread someone said they called about it a few different times and the sales person said they havent released it in the 15" model just due to a sales ploy. Force people to look at other models which have it. "1425, M1330, M1730"

 

Hmm it appears dell also released penryn into its inspirons today everything but the 1525. To me it seems nothing more then a sales strategy. the 15.4" is the most consumer based. I think they want to try to get sales up on the other models before releasing it in the 15.4" models.

To me it seems like a bad idea because people will just buy from hp, lenovo, sony. If it wasent for the video options and 7200rpm drive i would have done the same by now as well.

 

I think the 1530 is plenty popular enough that they can clear out lots of Merom CPUs without much worry. The Penryn's are really not that much of a step up. Smaller, less heat, more efficient but this adds up to what to the average user? MAYBE a hint of better battery life or slightly cooler laptop. Most people who buy computers couldn't even tell you how much Ram they have or the size of there HDD, nevermind worry about Penryn vs Merom - LOL

 

Greg, djtoodles

Can I do the same with the graphics card? E.g., I see the 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce 8600M GT on sale at Buy.com. If my laptop came with a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, could I buy the GeForce 8600 card myself to insert into my laptop? Do I have to take out the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator in order to do that?

Maybe you can see where I'm going with this. When I look at Dell's Inspiron 1525, it's so much cheaper and I figure if I can replace the graphics card, upgrade the memory (and a few other things) cheaply and easily, why not buy the cheaper model and do all the upgrades I need/want on my own. What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

I dont think the MB in the inspiron can handle the 8600 which is why its not an option. I could be wrong. However i dont think you can replace the graphics cards on laptops.

I dont know that much on hardware replacements on laptops beyond a busted kb, hard drive, and ram. From my knowledge you cannot change the video card but i could be wrong on that.

however when you stated you were a novice and were worried if the ram would be hard to replace, I can tell you even if the video card is replaceable you will have to remove alot of stuff to get to it. And if you were to take it to someone to do the work for you their labor would end up costing more then it would to just upgrade to the 8600 anyway. Just my 2 cents maybe somoene with more light on the subject can help you .

 

Agreed, if you are iffy on putting ram in... why are you thinking about more DIY upgrades? And DJ is right, notebooks are not desktops. The video card is not really upgradeable when the next best thing hits the market. This may not be true in every case but as far as I know it's not really an option. I'd just order what you want and forget the DIY for now.

 

either dells deal for the holiday was selling like hotcakes or it sold terrible because its still going and it was supposed to end on thursday.

my guess is they are banking on the xps m1530 and the inspiron 1525 to get rid of the older santa rosa chips.

 

another few days still no penryn.

 

Your average computer user probably would buy a $499 notebook on sale.

I disagree with you. The Penryn is a great upgrade and Dell should offer it for the XPS 1530 and the 1525 by now.


I bought a Lenovo T61p last week with a Penryn T9300. I did consider the M1530 but they didn't offer it. I called Dell 3 times about it over a 3 week period. I was alway told "Marketing controls the configurations".


So now I have a Lenovo T61p and I'm very happy with it.

 

I'm NOT an "average computer user," and I bought a sub-$400 laptop for my wife on a special promotional sale this past Christmas. She's tickled to death with it. I know exactly what kind of configuration it has, and I also know it's nothing I would buy for myself, but it serves her needs amply. Guess that makes me stupid in your book?[/quote]

I disagree with you. The Penryn is a great upgrade and Dell should offer it for the XPS 1530 and the 1525 by now.[/quote]

Great by what standards? Marketing?

Benchmarks I've seen so far say that you buy a fractional increase in speed and slightly less power consumption. All well and good, but hardly the things that qualify as a "great" upgrade - especially considering the premium they seem to be carrying from most vendors at the moment. For that markup, one could consider additional RAM or an upgrade in a video subsystem that is MUCH more likely to be realized in a true performance boost than buying the latest processor.

You expected someone on the answering end of an 800-number to give you a prime, detailed technical answer about their notebook configurations? C'mon...

Great for you.

-soonerdew

 

I just posted facts.

I have ordered a few Dell Notebooks over the last 2 years. I have found that a good Dell Sales REP will refer to their technical department if they don't know the answer to a hardware/software question. They do a good job IMO.

My wife is pleased with her Dell E1405(4GB RAM upgrade). She doesn't game at all. She doesn't use any graphic intensive applications at all. She is happy with it. I'm not saying you are stupid. IMO tech savy computer users want the latest and greatest technology. Not because of "hype" but because it works.

In the case of the Penryn processor it really seems to be a great upgrade.

The Penryn T9300 is a great upgrade. It's an affordable upgrade. Should cost about $80-$90 above an Intel T7250.

How good is the Penryn Processor?

Please read about PC World's Top ten Power Laptops for February 2008:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123729-page,1-c,notebooks/article.html

 

Whatever is available via Dell's 1530 for GPU options is all you'll ever get. The 8600 you saw @ Buy.com was probably a desktop card.

Dell 'modular' GPUs use a Dell-proprietary design, so what you see is what you have available.

Also, the X3100 will NEVER be upgradeable so don't think about it.

 

btw saying you pay more for penryn is actually not true. i forget the exact model but the current 2.4ghz 4meg cache chip is just being replaced with the T9300 at no charge. THats the beauty of the penryn they arent charging the user to upgrade. However to go from the T7500 to the T9300 u will just pay the difference that you would have with the older chip.

to me even though i wanted a laptop in dec and the 1530 didnt offer the better lcd for awhile and once they did a great deal has not come around. Now its just a matter of time for the penryn and a great deal to both come. sucks and it could be a waiting game forever but i think its worth the wait for the battery life alone.

 

I would have bought a lenovo over the XPS M1530 anyday except for the lcd and the video card. Thats the main reasons im getting it. The lenovo's are a better build quality and those keyboards are a dream.

so now i am just forced to sit and wait while dell continues to shaft us.

 

What about the Lenovo LCD and Video card is the deal closer?


The standard T61p 15.4" screen is a wide screen that displays 1680x1050. There is an upgraded option for a "brighter" WideUXGA 15.4" screen that displays 1920x1200.

The video card on the T61p is a FX 570m with 256mb DDR3 which peforms very well for gaming. Look at my sig for gaming benchmarks.


I like the modern looks of the M1530, I don't think it would dominate the
T61p for gaming though. (It would stand a better chance with a Penryn T9300 though).

 

i need a high gloss screen. i work with graphics alot in photoshop and illustrator. they only offer matte on the lenovo. and the Y series laptops look cheap to me.

 

You could connect it to a 24" glossy screen.

 

I don't want to hijack the thread but i think its relevant to 1530 screens:
Is the glossy easier to clean? My 3 years old daughter's finger marks are very hard to get rid of in my Matte 19" desktop screen. They leave a smudge no matter what i use to clean them.