A Good Cheap Laptop (gaming friendly!)

crystalklear64

CAGiversary!
Feedback
7 (100%)
Foreword: By cheap I mean cheap for the stuff in it.

Alright, I finally broke down and bought a laptop. The Inspiron 600m to be precise. I found a good deal that I am now going to share with my fellow CAG's that will net you an above average set-up for just under 1100 bones (includes tax and shipping). Alright, first off go to the Dell Home site and get to the Notebook section. Now, select the Inspiron 600m from the list of Notebooks there. Select the first and lowest priceed model for customization.

Now our goal is to get the base price of the laptop to be either $1399 or a little bit more, to take advantage of Dell's $400 off of $1399+ deal.

Heres the setup I used to get exactly $1399.

Processor/Video: I chose a Pentium M processor over Celeron for better performance. I also really wanted SXGA and the 64mb video card (its a Radeon card, not generic onboard) so I went for it. I believe it is the 3rd choice down on the list.

Pentium®M Processor 725(1.60 GHz/400MHz FSB)14.1-in SXGA+ w/64MB Video

Operating System: I stuck with the default Windows Home because I know someone who works for MS who can give me a cheap copy.

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home

Memory: I was looking for 512MB of DDR RAM. I originally went for the 2 sticks of 256 but needed to add more money to get the price to $1399, so we end up with one stick of 512 and an open slot for upgrading later.

512MB DDR SDRAM 1 Dimm

Hard Drive: On my desktop I only have 20gb and that suits my needs just fine (music storage on CD's not your HD :p ) so I just stuck with the default 40gb hard drive.

40GB Hard Drive

Optical: This one was a no brainer. I need my 24x Burner and with combined DVD drive, that makes it all the sweeter.

24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive

Office Productivity Suite: Wtf? I don't need this crap. Once again, I have the MS hook-up for Software. Just say no.

NONE

Security Software: See Above. None.

NONE

Limited Warranty, Services and Support: This is the one iffy place. These things already come with a 1 year warranty, but someone else already said that these thing's batteries can go funny just after a year. I decided to chance it and went with no extended warranty.

NONE

CompleteCare Accidental Damage (except NY and FL): Uh, I plan on taking VERY good care of a $1000+ purchase. I don't feel this is necessary if you are careful enough.

NONE

And thats it for our setup. The base price should now be $1399 exactly. Now go through till you get to the cart and locate the "Apply Coupon" box. You wanna enter this code. F9G031P4W7JXB2 . That will give you the 400 dollars off. Your total should now be $999 before tax and shipping. After tax, it shuold come out to around $1083.

And there you have it.

A decent laptop with a good graphics card and display. A decent processor. b/g wireless functionallity. 512mb of RAM with the ability to upgrade. A 40gb hard drive. A x24 CD Burner/DVD drive.

Damn this thing is hot.

Enjoy.

Oh one last note, the $400 off coupon expires tommorow (5/25/05) so if you wanna hit this up, don't hesitate.
 
You could get

Inspiron 9300
$1568 - $750 = $818
Pentium M 1.6GHz, 17" UltraSharp WXGA+, 7.85 lbs
ATi x300, 8x DVDROM, 802.11g, 40GB


check out slickdeals.net lot of $750 off coupons for laptops
 
You should have bought last month. Dell was doing a huge coupon blitz in the beginning to middle of April and I managed to grab the following Inspirion 6000 for my parents for about $1100 after rebate:
1.6 Pentium M (Sonoma with 2MB cache and 533 fsb)
15.4 wsxga screen
512 ram
40 gig hd
8x dual layer DVD+/-RW
64 MB Radeon x300
Intel 2915 a/b/g wireless card
4 year extended warranty with complete care
 
Dell has these sorts of coupons every other week. They do this so you think that you are getting a deal when in reality that is the normal price.

On the other hand, Dell laptops always have the lowest prices in general.
 
[quote name='kaji7p56']Dell has these sorts of coupons every other week. They do this so you think that you are getting a deal when in reality that is the normal price.

On the other hand, Dell laptops always have the lowest prices in general.[/QUOTE]

Also if you bother them enough typically you can get them to combine any of these "special" deals with any discounts they offer to students.
 
[quote name='zionoverfire']Also if you bother them enough typically you can get them to combine any of these "special" deals with any discounts they offer to students.[/QUOTE]

Dell's lappys usually take 2-3 weeks to "build". If you call up customer service (in India) and complain, they usually hook you up with all kinds of free shit. I haven't tried this myself, but visit any notebook forum or fatwallet and they'll tell you all about it.
 
[quote name='kaji7p56']Dell's lappys usually take 2-3 weeks to "build". If you call up customer service (in India) and complain, they usually hook you up with all kinds of free shit. I haven't tried this myself, but visit any notebook forum or fatwallet and they'll tell you all about it.[/QUOTE]

Yup. I got a free notebook case, free extra battery, free printer, and free digital camera. I could have got more, but I felt bad.
 
[quote name='kaji7p56']Dell's lappys usually take 2-3 weeks to "build". If you call up customer service (in India) and complain, they usually hook you up with all kinds of free shit. I haven't tried this myself, but visit any notebook forum or fatwallet and they'll tell you all about it.[/QUOTE]

Lol... I ordered mine and the ship date isn't until 3 months (august 31). Thats just ridiculous! Won't even be here in time for college... needless to say I sent an e-mail and they gave me a free printer, battery, and 75$ to spend on accesories, in addition to upgrading my shipping to next day. So I dunno, hopefully it gets done sooner than they're prediction and I'll score a buncha free shiz.
 
bread's done
Back
Top