Smokin hot deal on a Core 2 laptop from Dell

Capitalizt

Capitalizt

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I found a huge price drop on a quality Core 2 Duo laptop from Dell...This configuration was $850 last month, now only $436 shipped. :hot: Seems very hot so I thought I'd share..

LINK

Comes with CD burner, truelife screen, integrated wireless...everything you need for movies, music, web surfing, and light gaming.

You get a free upgrade to the Core 2 duo processor (normally costs +$100). I also HIGHLY recommend you double the RAM to 2GB for $24, and upgrade to a 120GB hard drive for just $5. Those 3 upgrades bring the grand total to $465...giving you a kickass machine for $400 less than it was a month ago. ;)
 
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Looks pretty good, but I'd recommend against spending the $24 on the 2GB RAM, and put that money towards a separate order of 2x2GB sticks from somewhere else. The 2GB configuration is 2 sticks, so they'd both have to be replaced for the upgrade.

Also, for $15, get the DVD+/-RW, either with or without Roxio as you prefer.

The free upgrades (Core 2 Duo, TrueLife screen) are nice, be sure to select them. Also, the $5 HD upgrade is well worth it, as the OP suggested. If I hadn't just bought a laptop, I'd seriously think about this one.
 
[quote name='guessed']Looks pretty good, but I'd recommend against spending the $24 on the 2GB RAM, and put that money towards a separate order of 2x2GB sticks from somewhere else. The 2GB configuration is 2 sticks, so they'd both have to be replaced for the upgrade.
[/quote]


This machine is Windows XP, so even if we assume the laptop can handle 4GB, it won't recognize it all. You need Vista to recognize more than 3GB of RAM.

I think 2GB for $24 is a helluva deal. This isn't a super high-end gaming machine anyway...Those cost $2000+ a pop.

2GB of DDR667mhz + a Core 2 Duo should be plenty of power for most people.
 
[quote name='Capitalizt']This machine is Windows XP, so even if we assume the laptop can handle 4GB, it won't recognize it all. You need Vista to recognize more than 3GB of RAM.

I think 2GB for $24 is a helluva deal. This isn't a super high-end gaming machine anyway...Those cost $2000+ a pop.

2GB of DDR667mhz + a Core 2 Duo should be plenty of power for most people.[/quote]

Fair enough. Ram is pretty cheap now - I just bought a 4GB kit for $45 after rebate for my new laptop - so I wanted to present another option.
 
Since this link is through the PartnerDirect portal, do you have to meet any particular requirements (be a business, etc.) to get it for the price shown, or can anyone get it for that price as long as they go through the link?
 
A similar setup was posted on slickdeals a few days ago, and hundreds (thousands?) of people were ordering from the link, so I assume you should be fine.

and daminion, as for the upgrades...Anything other than the ones I mentioned is an absolute ripoff. You can upgrade your ram 100% and hard drive size by 50% for $30 total...but if you go anywhere beyond those upgrades, the price hikes are huge. It will cost you several hundred $$ more for a 10-15% upgrade in speed. It's just not worth it.

Stick with the Core 2 T5270 + 2GB RAM and 120GB HD. You can't beat that performance for under $500 shipped.
 
I just bought a new desktop, but my brother is in the market for a laptop and I think he's going to be very tempted by this one. Thanks, OP!
 
The wife is looking for a docking station for her home office for her (soon to be new) laptop. Are the ones offered here any good? I know nothing about docking stations, any advice would be appreciated.
 
[quote name='Capitalizt']A similar setup was posted on slickdeals a few days ago, and hundreds (thousands?) of people were ordering from the link, so I assume you should be fine.

and daminion, as for the upgrades...Anything other than the ones I mentioned is an absolute ripoff. You can upgrade your ram 100% and hard drive size by 50% for $30 total...but if you go anywhere beyond those upgrades, the price hikes are huge. It will cost you several hundred $$ more for a 10-15% upgrade in speed. It's just not worth it.

Stick with the Core 2 T5270 + 2GB RAM and 120GB HD. You can't beat that performance for under $500 shipped.[/quote]

I still think the DVD burner upgrade for $15 would be worth it for many people.
 
Yes the DVD burner is a good deal. I forgot about that..

and hannibal, You really don't need an extra hard drive partition. Just leave it on "none" and all of your disc space will be available under the C: drive.

Creating extra partitions is like having an "artificial" hard drive on your computer. It divides the C: drive into chunks...giving you a "D:" under 'My Computer'. Some people like to do this to make it easier to organize their files...installing programs on one chunk of disc space, and saving files (music etc) on another chunk.

Personally, I think it's kind of pointless...You can organize your files in different folders on the desktop just as efficiently. If you ever do want to create another partititon, there is free software out there that does the job easily. Don't pay Dell to do it.
 
op!! thank you so much!! i turned my comp into a brick and im looking for a decent gaming machine, nothing overly fancy, but something i can play some games with...my gf spent all last night trying to fix my comp and its a goner...
this is just what im looking for..but umm..can anyone answer my question...what is a duel core with 1.4 ghz? does that mean the comp becomes 2.8 ghz?
 
[quote name='Capitalizt']Yes the DVD burner is a good deal. I forgot about that..

and hannibal, You really don't need an extra hard drive partition. Just leave it on "none" and all of your disc space will be available under the C: drive.

Creating extra partitions is like having an "artificial" hard drive on your computer. It divides the C: drive into chunks...giving you a "D:" under 'My Computer'. Some people like to do this to make it easier to organize their files...installing programs on one chunk of disc space, and saving files (music etc) on another chunk.

Personally, I think it's kind of pointless...You can organize your files in different folders on the desktop just as efficiently. If you ever do want to create another partititon, there is free software out there that does the job easily. Don't pay Dell to do it.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info...also, is the default video card adequate for games, or would something more powerful be required?
 
The Core 2 Duo 1.4ghz is quite fast...It's actually a little faster than a Pendium D 3.0ghz (the previous generation dual core chip).. And then Pentium D was around twice as fast as the Pentium 4 (the generation before that).. If I had to guess, I'd say this is roughly equal in speed to a 5.5ghz Pentium 4 ;)

As for the video card, the integrated video is actually not bad at all. It should be able to run games from 2006 and before very smoothly, but anything from 2007 and 2008 will struggle on that chip on anything but medium-low settings.

The 8400M is a nice improvement, and should be able to play most modern games at smooth framerates with medium detail. The 8600GT is very fast, and should be able to run modern games with high details and fancy effects, etc.. Of course at +$150 you are paying for performance, but if you want a gaming laptop, it's probably worth the investment.
 
While this is a good deal, the Vostro laptops are big and heavy compared to others. They are business class though, so they are of better quality than average consumer laptops.
 
There is one negative thing about Dells, and that is that they load tons of software on your computer that you don't really need.

For those who get this laptop (or any computer really), I recommend you visit www.ccleaner.com and install the program. Click the "tools" button on the left, then "startup", and delete everything on the startup list except your antivirus and firewall. This will prevent all the media players, messengers, adobe acrobat, etc from loading into memory every time you reboot the computer.

I did this on mine, and the startup time was cut down to under 20 seconds...very fast and furious ;)
 
I believe because this is a business class laptop, there is minimal bloatware installed on it. I might be wrong though if Dell has changed their business practices on it. On the consumer models, though, bloatware is common on almost all computers.

[quote name='Capitalizt']There is one negative thing about Dells, and that is that they load tons of software on your computer that you don't really need.

For those who get this laptop (or any computer really), I recommend you visit www.ccleaner.com and install the program. Click the "tools" button on the left, then "startup", and delete everything on the startup list except your antivirus and firewall. This will prevent all the media players, messengers, adobe acrobat, etc from loading into memory every time you reboot the computer.

I did this on mine, and the startup time was cut down to under 20 seconds...very fast and furious ;)[/quote]
 
I noticed that on the checkout for this, they ask for a company name as required information...can you just put down something like the company you work for, but have the address as your personal home address?
 
[quote name='hannibalplan']I noticed that on the checkout for this, they ask for a company name as required information...can you just put down something like the company you work for, but have the address as your personal home address?[/quote]

i just put "personal"

anyway thanks OP, i took advantage of this deal. the tax was pretty annoying, but still a good deal
 
Would this be a decent gaming laptop? Was thinking of the standard setup (2GB Ram, and 256mb 8600M GT video card) Nothing excessive, but like starcraft and possibly WoW and some counter-strike source.
 
[quote name='sasukekun']Would this be a decent gaming laptop? Was thinking of the standard setup (2GB Ram, and 256mb 8600M GT video card) Nothing excessive, but like starcraft and possibly WoW and some counter-strike source.[/QUOTE]

That should be plenty for WOW and CS:S. Starcraft 2? Should be enough to run it, I don't know what the requirments are yet
 
[quote name='striker199']That should be plenty for WOW and CS:S. Starcraft 2? Should be enough to run it, I don't know what the requirments are yet[/QUOTE]

Ya, maybe Starcraft 2, but was planning to use my desktop for that. But I'll probably order this on Mon/Tues.
 
OMG I want to buy this so bad, since I am back in school for my Masters degree and something like this would be awesome for the price
 
I bought a Vostro 1500 for my girlfriend a few months back, it was a bit cheaper with better upgrades. Its been a fantastic laptop so far, and there wasn't very much bloatware. When ordering it you can deselect some of that stuff from the configuration.

I'm going to send this to her mom since she is desperately in need of a new laptop, as you can see I highly recommend it for the price.
 
I'd stay away if I were you. Integrated graphics ruin it.

It could run CS:S and Starcraft, but WoW would probably be pretty low settings (integrated graphics suck that bad).
 
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