Difference between these 2 specs before I buy?

gotan

Dell supervisor wouldn't negotiate at all and moaned at me for having the temerity to have been sent several different quotes! £715 for 1024MB RAM, 120HDD (I want 80 but 120 is this week's standard), 1.6GHz core 2 duo processor, ATI Radeon dedicated graphics card, Trulife 1400x900 and XP Pro and bluetooth. She quoted me from their website for the bluetooth ie "it will cost you £29". As for negotiating double memory they wanted more than the price on dmxdimension.com! Plus claims XP Pro is 'expensive'. I am sure they are pushing Vista but it's ridiculous to charge extra for XP when MS now insists we pay for any upgrade (upgrade offer expired 15 March).
Supervisor was worse than the salesman.
I will ask him to drop to £650 with a non Trulife 1200 x 800 screen but will check them out first. Actually don't like any of the screens I've seen incl the macbook.
Is it worth trying yet another salesman? I get exhausted at the thought.
As for their 2 yr NBD intl warranty, is it worth the paper it's written on? Do Dell actually send someone to your house?!

Millionare

gotan wrote: »

Dell supervisor wouldn't negotiate at all and moaned at me for having the temerity to have been sent several different quotes! £715 for 1024MB RAM, 120HDD (I want 80 but 120 is this week's standard), 1.6GHz core 2 duo processor, ATI Radeon dedicated graphics card, Trulife 1400x900 and XP Pro and bluetooth. She quoted me from their website for the bluetooth ie "it will cost you £29". As for negotiating double memory they wanted more than the price on dmxdimension.com! Plus claims XP Pro is 'expensive'. I am sure they are pushing Vista but it's ridiculous to charge extra for XP when MS now insists we pay for any upgrade (upgrade offer expired 15 March).
Supervisor was worse than the salesman.
I will ask him to drop to £650 with a non Trulife 1200 x 800 screen but will check them out first. Actually don't like any of the screens I've seen incl the macbook.
Is it worth trying yet another salesman? I get exhausted at the thought.
As for their 2 yr NBD intl warranty, is it worth the paper it's written on? Do Dell actually send someone to your house?!

The Macbook pro's run the 1400*900 screens on 15.4"

The Macbooks on 13.3" are running 1280*800.

I like 1280*800 on my 15.4" dell 6400, but its personal choice, check it out before you buy.

Dell do send someone out next day to your house and normally they are quite good.

isnt this what you want

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=N03643%20XP

if your gonna run XP pro and not Vista, just get the integrated graphics card as XP is quite easy on the ram.

gotan

How did you find the XP link? I could only configure with Vista.

This PC is going black screen on me so I have to buy something soon. If I go with XP Pro, I may go with the 640M as it is lighter. Have just worked out that the 6400 weighs 2.85kg and the carry case 1.4kg.
PC permitting, may see what price I can configure on the 640M. I do have a lot of photos though and hope that graphics card is good enough?
I don't ever play games - multiple business apps, photos and videos, music.

If I don't check back in to thank you for your advice it's because the black screen has logged me out! I have to turn off the PC for an hour and reboot and stay online only 15 mins at a time.

gotan

Thank you for saying to check. I went to Comet. The screens are all awful. The only one I liked was on the macbook pro and on an entry level Toshiba satelllite L30-105. Toshiba's Tecras have the non glossy screens too. Also rather pricey.
I can get XP Pro with Tecra but only Vista basic with the Satellite and Toshiba don't allow any changes.
So will have to go entry level with a slightly flimsy keyboard or find more money.

Millionare

Hi, Nice to hear you went and personally checked it out so at least you know what suits you screenwise.

An integrated graphics card is fine for what you want to do including photos, its only when you start to do such things as heavy video editing or high end gaming that you need a Dedicated Card.

However the main issue is what OS you want to run? XP or Vista?

XP will easily run on the integrated graphics card becasue it uses nothing like the ram Vista uses and will easily do what you want to do.

Vista is abit of a Ram hog. Thats why im saying, get a system with either a dedicated graphics card with 1GB RAM to counter this OR get more memory e.g 2GB with a integrated grahpics card, whichever suits you.

Its the best advice i can give you

By the way dont buy additional RAM from dell, you can get it cheaper elsewhere, such as ebuyer, or crucial is thats what you decide.

Robinhood

Millionare wrote: »

Hi, Nice to hear you went and personally checked it out so at least you know what suits you screenwise.

An integrated graphics card is fine for what you want to do including photos, its only when you start to do such things as heavy video editing or high end gaming that you need a Dedicated Card.

However the main issue is what OS you want to run? XP or Vista?

XP will easily run on the integrated graphics card becasue it uses nothing like the ram Vista uses and will easily do what you want to do.

Vista is abit of a Ram hog. Thats why im saying, get a system with either a dedicated graphics card with 1GB RAM to counter this OR get more memory e.g 2GB with a integrated grahpics card, whichever suits you.

Its the best advice i can give you

By the way dont buy additional RAM from dell, you can get it cheaper elsewhere, such as ebuyer, or crucial is thats what you decide.

Forgetting about system requirements what are the advantages/disadvantages of Vista and XP?

PeteHerts

Once again i'd be very wary of Dell.
A couple of months ago i started out with 2 different machines but configured them to the same spec and there was a £70 price difference.
Yesterday i did the same and this time there was a £44 price difference but this time the cheaper machine had a 160GB HD and the dearer one only had a 120GB HD!
Some people may think what a good deal but i think its very worrying and if you ring up you can get it even cheaper or have a better warranty for the same price but this just shows how much they are overpriced to start with.

Millionare

PeteHerts wrote: »

Once again i'd be very wary of Dell.
A couple of months ago i started out with 2 different machines but configured them to the same spec and there was a £70 price difference.
Yesterday i did the same and this time there was a £44 price difference but this time the cheaper machine had a 160GB HD and the dearer one only had a 120GB HD!
Some people may think what a good deal but i think its very worrying and if you ring up you can get it even cheaper or have a better warranty for the same price but this just shows how much they are overpriced to start with.

I dont think Dells are overpriced, just compare them with other half-decent makes with similiar spec and most of the time the dells will be cheaper.

The problem with dell is their configuration and discounts which cause the difference in prices. when they offer all the different configurations that you can change there is bound to be a difference in final cost.

gotan

Dell have a different price per week. If you aren't in a hurry, customise the same spec model every week. You can get a bit off that on the phone to a salesperson.
I've got fed up and am looking at matte screen lenovo and toshy tecras although have no idea if they are any good. I don't think they can be any worse than a Dell?

allan2006

hang on am i missing something, i thought you got it cheap buying online??

Are you saying if you phone them you can get it discounted further????