Is this a good deal on a Dell laptop?

[paddlefoot]

Dell 6400

Intel® Core™ DUO T2350 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WXGA+ Display with TrueLife™ (1440x990)
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
Integrated Audio
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Windows Vista Basic

$738 plus tax with free shipping

[iowaholdem]

I'd say it's a pretty decent deal. Though I would suggest you upgrade to a TrueLife gloss screen and a 9-cell primary battery. Also check out this site: http://www.notebookreview.com/dellCoupon.asp to make sure there isn't any better deal.

[paddlefoot]

I'd say it's a pretty decent deal. Though I would suggest you upgrade to a TrueLife gloss screen and a 9-cell primary battery. Also check out this site: http://www.notebookreview.com/dellCoupon.asp to make sure there isn't any better deal.

Yeah, I actually checked notebookreview first for a look at some better deals. I wish I had the money to buy a nice asus G1 or something, but I can't really afford it at the moment. Rather than spend 1000-1200 on a mid-tier system, I thought it might be more prudent to get the cheapest laptop with decent specs I could find.

I always hear people say about upgrading to the 9-cell, so I will definitely do that. As for the screen I thought what I had was the glossy screen.

[iowaholdem]

Oh! I didn't notice that. The TrueLife was written all the way at the end. Well then, good choice.

The 9-cell gets me about 3.5-4 hours with wireless enabled. I'd say it's the best upgrade to get.

[Kendro]

$738 is pretty damn cheap. I'd definitely spring an extra couple of hundred to get a better video card though.

[NoRain]

I just got mine in the mail today.

1.86 core duo
512 ram (2 gigs in the mail)
85 whr battery
80 gb sata
geforce go 7300
bluetooth and intel pro wireless.
XP home
dvd burner
693.58 shipped and taxes.

1 gb ram is 45 with a 20 rebate at zip zoom fly. (x2 =90 -40 rebate =50 ) I had to go that route instead of paying dell too much for ram.

DEFINETLY get the battery upgrade and the intel wireless vs the dell wireless. The dell one sucks. I havent gotten my RAM yet, but it blazes even with 512 mb. So yeah thats not a bad deal considering you get a lil better video card more hard drive and more ram. Yet I'd still drop the dough on the battery and intel wireless and maybe bluetooth if ya want it.

[banpeikun]

don't upgrade to vista or your computer will slow to a crawl.

[uncbaseballfreak]

Don't use windows or your system will slow to a crawl.
Spyware kills, as does M$.

Do yourself a real favor: buy a Mac.

[Thongsy]

Don't use windows or your system will slow to a crawl.
Spyware kills, as does M$.

Do yourself a real favor: buy a Mac.

Oh good sir, tell me where I can buy a new current generation Mac for that price than?

[kPod]

I doubt you can. However, when you think about it, getting a Mac isn't that bad of a deal. You get a laptop that runs MacOSx AND Windows. Not only that, but it runs Windows faster than Microsoft's own boot environment runs windows.

Look into rebates and such. An example being that if you can prove that you're a student, you get VAT off (at least in England, and here it's 17.5%). And don't forget the finance plans they have too.

[paddlefoot]

$738 is pretty damn cheap. I'd definitely spring an extra couple of hundred to get a better video card though.

Kendro, unfortunately the X1400 is the most best video card dell offers for the E1505/6400 series. It's either Integrated/Go7300/X1400. That's the best I could get.

Part of me just wants to spend sub $500 for an XP system. I still haven't played some of the older games I own like Fallout 1&2, C&C2, Warcraft 3, etc. My current home system at my apartment is a PIII 997Mhz, 128MB ram, Geforce4 MX440 64MB, running XP and it is SLLLLOWWWW.