Need new laptop, any must have options?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by lendaddy

OK, I'll hold off and give it more thought later today. But to be honest ordering a custome build and going two-three weeks without is a tough pill.

The Dells normally come within a week of order. That's been my experience with quite a few of them.

[BRPORSCHE]

www.delloutlet.com

That's where I got the labtop I am typing on right now. Love the thing, has never missed a beat in the year and a half I have owned it. Got it for college Latitude, XP, 17 inch screen. I am looking for almost the same exact thing minus now I want a 12 inch screen. I bring this thing with me to every class, and the 17 inch screen really is a nusance.

[gr8fl4porsche]

I am tying this on a 17" notebook. It is way too big to haul around. I am also looking for a smaller one.

If the notebook is going to sit at your house most of the time - then go for a big screen and full sized keypad.

If you plan on carrying it around, go small.

[lendaddy]

Tenative order placed: I know, I know Vista bad I can always load up my copy of XP if I hate it.

XPS M1530

* XPS M1530 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate


Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
Memory
3 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive200 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM (7200)
Video 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GTSoftware Upgrade
Microsoft Works 8.5Media Bay
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

[BRPORSCHE]

Len that will be just fine. The 3Gb of ram will support Vista plenty.

[Halm]

Len, excellent choice! Since I have the sister product, feel free to PM me with questions.

[lendaddy]

Thanks Hal, your PM put that choice over the top. Great price too

[onewhippedpuppy]

Nice numbers on that, it should run anything you throw at it.

[KaptKaos]

Be careful of wide screens. 15.4 is common wide screen size. They are nice, but make sure it will fit in your briefcase/laptop bag. Sometimes they don't. Also, the wide ones can be a challenge on airplanes.

Have fun!

[lendaddy]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

Be careful of wide screens. 15.4 is common wide screen size. They are nice, but make sure it will fit in your briefcase/laptop bag. Sometimes they don't. Also, the wide ones can be a challenge on airplanes.

Have fun!

Thanks, I'm replacing a 15.4 wide. I almost went 13.3 but I know I haven't been unhappy with the 15.4 so why risk it.

[Overpaid Slacker]

Weird! My Dell of 6 years' vintage just had its HDD crap out last Friday. It was a refurb and served me well!

I just ordered an M1530 -- 2.4G/800 Core 2 Duo, 4MB 667 DDR, 8X DVD R/W DL, 250GB HDD, 256M GeForce 8600, 15.4" WXGA and 9-cell battery (the most important part, IMHO) Bluetooth, yadda yadda yadda. It's Vista Home Premium, but I'll try to deal. If not, I'll load XP.

All-in (tax & ship) $1250. More than I wanted to spend, but if it gives me even 5 years, I'll be happy.

Have fun!



JP

[JavaBrewer]

As Mule already mentioned for previous Windoz users Vista will take some getting used to. Access to settings and default window behaviors are slightly changed. It took me a day/two to get comfortable but so far it has been a pleasant experience.

I've been messing around with my *new* G5 Power Mac that has OS X 10.5 loaded. Pretty nice OS but honestly it's not all that different to my nicely setup XP work machine and ~ == to Vista as far as pretty/slick UI stuff.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by lendaddy

Tenative order placed: I know, I know Vista bad I can always load up my copy of XP if I hate it.

XPS M1530

* XPS M1530 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate


Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
Memory
3 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive200 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM (7200)
Video 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GTSoftware Upgrade
Microsoft Works 8.5Media Bay
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

Bad piece. When you get it let us know. Set up & utils are the key to being happy w/ Vista. Uninstall McAffee or Nortoon & install Avast or AVG ASAP. A free util called combofix is super bad, as is Malwarebytes (also free). Turn off user access controls as it will be a constant annoyance. Enjoy!