Doing research,to buy a new laptop,my first one..I dont need all the bells and whistles,just something to surf the net,open funny emails,listen to car

Laptop help?

Doing research,to buy a new laptop,my first one..I dont need all the bells and whistles,just something to surf the net,open funny emails,listen to carib radio stations,ect..but,i also dont want to be stuck,with something too basic..My price range is 700 to 1000... I found this laptop on Dell.com,its the Inspiron B130 with 15 inch screen,Intel Celeron M Procesor 370,512MB DDR2,SDRAM2,60GB,combo/dvd+rw drives,24xcdburner/dvd combo drive,and its wireless 802.11b/g..its on sale for 499.00 after a 260.00 instant discount..Would this be a decent laptop for me,or is it too basic? Do you folks like Dell products? Any input would be great.

Re: Laptop help?

Hi Peter

Sounds like a pretty good deal. I use Dell because I acquire them as a business lease and upgrade my laptop every 2-3 years. I have a dell latitude D510 which is about 6 months old. My previous DELL laptop had an Intel Celeron processor and I was not happy with it. My present one has the Pentium M750 (1.86 GHz) and seems to be much, much better. I am not sure if the Celeron processor was the reason, but it took forever to boot up and shut down with the Celeron processor while it is very quick with the Pentium M processor.

Mine has the 512MB SDRAM and while it is pretty quick for most applications if I had to do it over again I would have upgraded to a faster/larger ram. Also, if you plan on keeping it for a while I would upgrade the hard drive memory to 80GB - it won't add much to the cost of the unit but the extra 20GB could be worthwhile if you think you will keep it for a long time.

I have DELL computers in the office and at home and my office landlord's company has several hundred DELL computers networked in their 5-6 offices around the country plus 50 or more DELL laptops and they swear by them.

JEK and KevinS are much more computer savvy than I could ever hope to be so maybe they can chime in on your choice.
take care
georgedp

Re: Laptop help?

Peter,

I like a deal as well or better than anyone but you might want to do a little more research on the primary component. That Celeron chip has been around for a long time and the P4 is available in a pretty nice Dell unit for about $999.oo.

I'm not an expert by any means but I did a lot of research when I bought my new system from Dell in January. Old technology can become frustrating far sooner than you think.

Re: Laptop help?

The company that I work for is currently buying Dell laptops after buying IBM ThinkPads for years.

My basic rule for buying any PC is to buy the fastest processor that I fits in my budget, at least 512MB of memory, and a bigger hard drive than I think that I need.

Re: Laptop help?

Peter,

Take a look at the Dell INSPIRON systems and maybe we will get some more input from people who have them. A co-worker of mine just bought one but he did a fair amount of upgrading and spent maybe $1600.oo

Gregg

Re: Laptop help?

I have a Dell Inspiron with a Pent 4 and 512 MB...I also have a Toshiba Satelite with the same specs....I like both, but prefer the Toshiba

Re: Laptop help?

Hi Peter

A couple of things I forgot to mention in my previous post. Buy an extra charger and get the best speakers that DELL has for your unit. I had a case where my charger went bust and was no longer being built and could not find a replacement. Had to send it out to get repaired and my laptop was out of commission for 10 days.

Re: Laptop help?

Peter:

I'm generally a Mac guy, but broke down and bought a Dell for home use. As mentioned above, buy the fastest processor and largest amount of memory that you can afford - performance is what you will notice the most.

In addition, it has been said that Dell is a marketing company that happens to sell computers. Keep an eye out for deals and discounts. If you are patient, you can get a good system at a reasonable price. Dell loves uneducated buyers.

Keep an eye on Slick Deals for current coupon codes and hot deals. People often share one time use coupon codes for free shipping or accessories. Do a search for "Dell Coupons" and a number of threads with shared codes will come up.

Good Luck

Re: Laptop help?

thanks to everyone...you guys rock...i would rather spend more and be happy,than slumming it...you get what you pay for,and in computers,this really rings true..i will look into some different dell laptops,and run it by you guys again.

Re: Laptop help?

oh yea,any thoughts on Gateway laptops? or should i stick with Dell?

Re: Laptop help?

oh yea,any thoughts on Gateway laptops? or should i stick with Dell?

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My uncle was head of IT for a large company and they had Gateway PC's exclusively and he swore by them. I think, however, that DELL probably has better support if you should have a problem and last time I checked seemed to get more bang for the buck with DELL than with Gateway.

Re: Laptop help?

Peter ..if you know anyone who works for a big corp that has a business account with Dell...you can really save big..I have a friend who works for a big trucking company...and every now and then ( usually once a quarter ) Dell offers them huge discounts .....I built my laptop and it came to 1100 dollars and waited for the corporate deal through my friends company and he got it for me for 650....

Re: Laptop help?

Peter ..if you know anyone who works for a big corp that has a business account with Dell...you can really save big..I have a friend who works for a big trucking company...and every now and then ( usually once a quarter ) Dell offers them huge discounts .....I built my laptop and it came to 1100 dollars and waited for the corporate deal through my friends company and he got it for me for 650....

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You actually can buy under "Dell Small Business" - they don't check. I bought an 80G 4700 with a few other upgrades - a $1200 system - for $699 after my Small Business discounts, online coupon codes (see SlickDeals above), free shipping, flat panel monitor upgrade, etc.

Better bang for the buck with Dell.

Re: Laptop help?

all excelent advice..this is why i brought it to the experts..great idea about the small business deal...we are a small family business,so that works for me...it can get overwelming trying to pick one out...my gut is telling me to spend more,rather than skimping,even if its more laptop than i need...

Re: Laptop help?

all excelent advice..this is why i brought it to the experts..great idea about the small business deal...we are a small family business,so that works for me...it can get overwelming trying to pick one out...my gut is telling me to spend more,rather than skimping,even if its more laptop than i need...

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"better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it"

I have found over the years that features and programs which I didn't think I would ever need or use, once I became proficient with them I was very happy that I spent the extra bucks to get them.

Re: Laptop help?

Food for thought,

I have a friend who was in the computer leasing business for 20 years. A big part of the job was reconditioning and reselling the equipment when it came back at the end of the lease. He has seen a lot of brands over the years and when he bought his last laptop 2 years ago he chose IBM. He also thinks highly of the Dell equipment.

Re: Laptop help?

I have a Dell desktop and it is fine. My two recommendations would be to steer clear of the Celerion processor and if they are still offering XP home as the operating system upgrade to XP Professional.

Re: Laptop help?

ditto on both Celuron and XP professional

Re: Laptop help?

peter- the first thing is to get a laptop that spells correctly. Next, get the 130- I have the predecessor 1200 and it's great- small and compact and plenty of power and the CD DVD Burner is an added bonus.

Re: Laptop help?

Thanks again everyone..I will take everything into consideration..Andy,in my next life,i will try to be as perfect as you..