Advice on a New Laptop

sb12

Hi all,

Have looked at the Dell website and have come across the XPS 17. Looking to future proof it so I'm interested in the i5-2430 processor, 6Gb RAM, and 1Gb Geforce GT 550m for the graphics. Dell do add a couple of sweeteners such as additional hard drive storage and 1 year next day business service.

All this can be had for around £675. My questions are:

1. Are Dell as good as other competitors out there?
2. Can a similar spec be found for that kind of price?
3. Is this good value for money?

grumpycrab

I'd get a longer warranty for an outlay of £675. Give them a ring if you decide to go for it.

sb12

Are there technical issues with Dell? Just wondered why you mentioned the need for a warranty beyond the standard 1 year...

closed

yes
probably
are you including evalue 15% discounts and cashback to get that price, do you need 17"/6GB?

http://www.dmxdimension.com/

sb12

Included discount codes. Now found free delivery and am aware of cashback. If everything on those went ok (cashback doesn't always happen) it would cost £610.

Going for the 17" option purely down to the fact that I feel a lot of tv will be shifting towards the iPlayer kind of setup. So catch up tv can be done on a nice size screen.

Trying to cover all options with the RAM as my partner is a keen photographer and does a lot of editing. The thinking is that this should be able to cope with any new photo editing software that may appear in the future. Larger screen will also help here too.

closed

A 17" will be quite heavy, for £610 it's not a bad deal, there are cheaper 17"'s available from Dell (17R etc) without all the bells and whistles.

afaik you can only use one code, so if it will either be 15% off or free delivery if they are both code discounts, + 8.08% on non vat price cashback

I'd guess the longer warranty comment was because it's a fair chunk of money if it does fail out of warranty, but Dell are still subject to the sale of goods act, and often fix out of warranty problems free.

sb12

Good to hear that Dell customer service looks ok. Submitted both codes in the basket and went through ok. Will have to think long and hard about screen size.

£70 less for the 15" but does require a drop to 500Gb for the hard drive.

Apart from the screen size dilemma, are Dell computers well built and reliable?

NeverAgain_2

Many laptop problems are caused by screen and case flexing in use.

The bigger the screen and case, the more likely a problem will occur.

Not moving it around very much is one solution.

But if you really need a 17" screen, it might be wise to consider a PC and separate monitor.

I've not checked, but I suspect that would be a lot cheaper for the same spec.

grumpycrab

Out of interest what do you need the 1Gb Geforce GT 550m for?

sb12

Do like the odd racing game or two when I get the time, and as mentioned before, my other half is keen on photography/video editing. Thought it would be wise to have a dedicated graphics card, and to cover all developments in software in the future.

Am currently leaning towards the 15" model, although this does come with a smaller hard drive and the graphics card is a GT 525M. This is for £70 less.

Any significant difference between the two graphics cards?

sb12

All feedback/advice very welcome. Just can't seem to come to a decision on this one...