Laptops?

[oweban]

Got a Dell for my sister for christmas:

14"

Core i5 2.3Ghz

4Gb RAM

500Gb HDD (will be 5400 but oh well)

some ATi video, so at least not intel 3000

was like < $600 from JB, pretty happy about that

has gone back up $100 in case you wanna look:

https://www.jbhifionline.com.au/computers-laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-u560604au-14-notebook/653322

[Jonno34]

that sounds great!

In that case I should be able to get something similar (same size, i5, etc) with maybe a faster HDD n graphics card for 900 !

[oweban]

Srsly, have a look at this:

http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-l502x/pd

You should be able to shave off ~80 by choosing you don't need any help setting it up. Also look at the other options re: resolution, might be worth spending a little more.

The graphics on that won't be wonderful, but they'll be better than the Intel 3000.

Customise the bottom end one; I saw you can upgrade the CPU by 100Mhz for free. Having said that, the 15's aren't exactly light, but hey, if you want a bit of grunt you've gotta sacrifice weight.

UPDATED:: it has a 7200rpm drive, don't i feel silly

also get the media kit ($2.20), will save time when reformatting.

if you're after Office and you know anyone with a .edu address, www.itsnotcheating.com.au ... Full version of Office 2010 for $99. If you get that, make sure to remove the "Office Media" or whatever from the cart, they automatically add it and want to charge $15 for the dvd.

[bozodos]

+1 for dell Inspiron, I specced one up for a reletive of mine recently, worked out to ~900 including buying a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD from PCCasegear and the Inspiron off the Dell website. If you can't afford an SSD still, then at least get the 7200rpm disk. (I incidentally find it HILARIOUS that even the newest Macbook Pros, which are a large part of Apple's market, have 5400rpm drives when they cost between 1400 and 3k [with extended warranty etc])

jonboy: Even the cheaper Dell laptops / netbooks I've encountered have been comparatively well made, IMO; ACER are known for making cheap computers - it's unlikely that someone is going to buy a higher end one over say a Sony for argument's sake.

BTW, under our site licencing agreement, our staff members can purchase a legit copy of office for $35, but it comes in the same packaging and disc type as the volume licence versions, so could be worth hitting up your IT dept if you work for a large enterprise

Edited December 20, 2011 by bozodos

[Jonno34]

+1 for dell Inspiron, I specced one up for a reletive of mine recently, worked out to ~900 including buying a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD from PCCasegear and the Inspiron off the Dell website. If you can't afford an SSD still, then at least get the 7200rpm disk. (I incidentally find it HILARIOUS that even the newest Macbook Pros, which are a large part of Apple's market, have 5400rpm drives when they cost between 1400 and 3k [with extended warranty etc])

the XPS 15 seems lovely, with a 7200 rpm HD, 2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M graphics with Optimus, 8GB of ram ..

unfortunately with all that it and a 3 yr warranty it comes to almost 1.5 k... (warranty is about 150), so about 1.3 ish without warranty. about 400 over budget lol .. pretty much everything ill need though!

I was also looking at the inspiron 14Z - it has the intel 3000 graphics and only 4gb of ram and only a 5400rpm HDD - but its 978, so within my budget!

[oweban]

srsly though... 150 for another 2 years warranty is good. if you can stretch yourself, do eeeettttt

[Jonno34]

yeah ill definitely pay for warranty! budget would be like 900-1000 without warranty i guess.

the number of things i've had go wrong with laptops ill definitely get extended warranty haha.