Cheap Dell Laptop Inspiron 1.5 GHz 1300 £299 delivered. (merged) [CLOSED]

skipton

Our second one just arrived ordered late Monday afternoon. I have been deaking with a guy called Alex in the business section on 0870 907 5550. Hope this might help someone. There was no hard sell either as I said we only needed the basic computer.

Sid_Harper

I dunno folks. What are you doing with these machines? It's a basic laptop running WinXP Home... if, as is most likely with a laptop, you're doing one thing at a time (e.g. surfing the web, or writing a letter, or counting your millions in your spreadsheet ) , then 256Mb is ample. Don't think you need extra RAM just because most machines come with 512 or 1Gb. Try it out and see. Let it fire up windows and finish loading everything up, then do what you want to do. Then bring up task manager and see what the memory usage is like.

I'm sitting here in front of a powerful workstation running 10 apps and it's only using about 500Mb of memory. And I'm only running 10 apps because I've got two screens and I never turn the machine off!

Laptop usage? Different kettle of fish... seriously - extra memory will only make a difference if the combination of applications being used at one time demand it. Else your machine will behave exactly the same.

jess_skaterdude

Im usually playing poker surfing the net and listerning to music so i think i may need some extra but we will see. thanks for the advise tho

DGH_2

I'm no expert and would appreciate the opinions of others on this but how about the following system rom Dell Outlet:

System Price £331.98
Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional


Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
Memory: 512MB, DDR2, 533MHz (2x256) ULD
Hard Disk Drive: 40GB (5400rpm) IDE Hard Drive
NoteBook Screen: 15.4 inch WXGA (1280x800) LCD Panel
Modem: Internal 56K Modem
DVD Drive: 24xCDRW/8xDVDComboDrive
Software: AOL, Dellnet + Tiscali UK ISP Combo
Microsoft® Works® 7.0
MISC: Global - Dell Wireless 1370 802.11b/g Mini PCI Card
UK/Ire - Internal Keyboard
60W AC Adapter

It has more RAM and a bigger screen but not sure about the deal with Dell outlet .

Any thoughts anyone??

kingkano

It doesnt seem to have a processor installed??? lol

It also sounds alot like an EPP price to be that cheap..... of course I could be wrong. and if you qualify for EPP then fine good deal

jess_skaterdude

doesnt say what processer

DGH_2

Processor CEL - 1400. Def. not EPP, it's the DEll Outlet which are products which have been returned because of cancellations etc.

Sid_Harper

jess_skaterdude wrote:

Im usually playing poker surfing the net and listerning to music so i think i may need some extra but we will see. thanks for the advise tho

None of those things need huge amounts of RAM though - so I think you'll find you'd actually be fine!

RAM and processor define what you can and can't do at any one time. The hard disc space defines how much storage you have.

Playing a single MP3 track does not need much memory (storing loads does need a big hard disc though). And internet surfing, maybe average 30Mb per open window tops if you've got a complex site open with Java and suchlike?

All IMHO of course!

kingkano

DGH wrote:

Processor CEL - 1400. Def. not EPP, it's the DEll Outlet which are products which have been returned because of cancellations etc.

if its got a warranty then it sounds like a good deal mate. cel 1400 is one step down (this one has cel 1500) but your getting more mem and bigger screen (which costs around 360 done yourself) so I guess its aboiut the right money. hardly a steal but still a good deal

Id disagree with the dont need RAM comment. A desktop is much more effecient than a laptop with memory etc. Added to which, desktop computers have fast harddrives so pagefile usage is not necessarily a large drag on system performance. A laptop has a much slower hard disk in comparison. SO any pagefile usage WILL impact more heavily.

You say you use only 500mb with 10 applications open on your desktop, but you may not be noticing how much pagefile and swapping is being done at the same time....

I found adding another 256mb just made this laptop alot more responsive, swapping tasks became more fluid and overall the performance has increased. Im not sure going for much is worth it because the hard disk and processor would be the choke points not the memory....

But this is all just different people's 2cents'

DGH_2

DGH wrote:

Processor CEL - 1400. Def. not EPP, it's the DEll Outlet which are products which have been returned because of cancellations etc.

Forget it price excludes VAT and delivery