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thinking of buying this 9300 advice plz

post #1 of 13
9/15/05 at 10:23pm
Thread Starter 
hey all im thinking of buying a 9300 with the following specs

sorry for the wall of text down there =)

i just wanted to know what poeple like and dislike, tho for that price i can hardly see not getting it ( discount with EEP form ym company

my main concern is im a programmer and i keep reading a lot of reviews that say it has real poor productivty proformance, i can;t see why that is but thats the benchmarks.

any thoughts?

thx!


Inspiron 9300 Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Remote Control
LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen XGA+ Display
Memory 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
Video Card 256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
Hard Drive 80GB Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
Combo/DVD+RW Drives 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Wireless Networking Cards Intel® PRO 2200 and Dell 350 Bluetooth Internal Wireless Cards
Office Productivity Software No productivity suite- Corel WordPerfect word processor only
Security Software No Security Subscription
Digital Music Musicmatch® Jukebox Basic
Primary Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-In Service, and 1Yr Technical Support
Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Digital Imaging Photo Album™ SE Basic
Financial Software No QuickBooks package selected - includes limited use trial
Operating System Backup & Recovery Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition backup CD

TOTAL1,524.00

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post #2 of 13
9/15/05 at 10:40pm
That's a decent configuration you have there. Maybe just a thought (since you're a programmer) about taking 1GB of RAM instead of 512MB. Although some ppl do upgrade that down the road and buy it for less at newegg or somewhere else. Oh, one more advise: 100GB 5400rpm HDD costs only $60 more than the 80GB. Other than that, you're good to go.

P.S.: Welcome aboard
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post #3 of 13
9/15/05 at 10:43pm
Thread Starter 
hehe, im a intern so money is a issue, hence the 512 =) tho i might if money permits
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post #4 of 13
9/15/05 at 11:15pm
Thread Starter 
also, i won;t be buying now, but how much better is the 9 cell battry?
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post #5 of 13
9/15/05 at 11:38pm
Oh, I understand. I'm on tight budget too. My limit is only a few $100 higher then yours. Other than that I think we're in the same part of the airplane - Economic Class. ... As far as your specs are concerned ... well I think you're pretty much set. I've checked at dell.com and there isn't anything more you could get for a similar price. One more thing (since you're new here and I don't know whether you know anything about coupons etc.): If you don't need it now, try checking from time to time for some coupons. It's more of a long shot, but you might get a better system for a similar price.

As far as 9-cell battery: try Search. There was a topic about the 6-cell and 9-cell battery a few days ago. Sorry, but I don't remember the exact numbers right now. I'm more towards the 9-cell myself, since I have a need for better battery.
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post #6 of 13
9/15/05 at 11:45pm
from what I have read for the last few days, Dell is not having any more coupons so at $1500, that's a nice configuration. Dell actually has a 35% coupon right now but only for specific E code. Even with 35%, you are getting a system same as yours but has x300 128mb video instead
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post #7 of 13
9/16/05 at 12:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nartac
from what I have read for the last few days, Dell is not having any more coupons so at $1500, that's a nice configuration. Dell actually has a 35% coupon right now but only for specific E code. Even with 35%, you are getting a system same as yours but has x300 128mb video instead
Yup, yup. That's true. They say hope dies last. I hope they bring back those wonderful BIG% coupons after a month or so. It was meant more as an advise, since psi777 also stated he won't be buying his notebook right now.
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post #8 of 13
9/16/05 at 12:55am
The notebook configured doesn't look bad, though I would upgrade to the DVD burner in order to take full advantage of Windows Media Center Edition. Trust me, buying RAM off of newegg.com will cost a lot less than it does through Dell. Dell charges $400 for 2GB while newegg.com charged around $200 for 2GB.

It is too bad you weren't looking to get a notebook last week as Dell has pretty much done away with their coupon codes. They have some coupon codes but it is to "special" E code notebooks which often don't have the best configurations and you can't really upgrade much.
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post #9 of 13
9/16/05 at 1:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by psi777
also, i won;t be buying now, but how much better is the 9 cell battry?

Your setup looks great, I cant imagine why anyone would say that the 9300 performs poorly, nothing could be farther from the truth, I would go with what you have but I would get the 9 cell battery now, actually get the 6 cell and then add the 9 cell for 99 dollars, that way you get both and save thirty bucks, it is also much cheaper to get that 9 cell battery NOW, when you buy your system, otherwise you will pay much much more for it so get it now. Buy your memory from someone other than dell, I got a gig stick of OCZ for a hundred bucks at tigerdirect.com or try newegg.com.
Thats a great price too, is that with a coupon? They no longer work you know. OH yeah, I would get XP Pro over the MCE, MCE is just a doctored up XP home and really doesnt offer anything special, you can have plenty of media player on XP and also get a remote if you like. Dont get the DVD burner as there are problems with some of these, the CDRW/DVD rom is just fine especially if you already have a DVD burner at home on a desktop OR you could get an external one.
You will really enjoy the 9300, had mine two months now and its a great machine!!
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post #10 of 13
9/16/05 at 1:16am
Thread Starter 
thats with EPP, im not real concerened about the dvd burner, i have one on my deskstop and i can tranfer files vianetwork so that shouldn;t be a problem, i love to get the extra battery now but i really do need to try and cut corners, i should be running off ac mostly anyway less i take to a coffee shop or somthing, my college has outlets at the desks so its pretty easy. im going with 6800 vid card cuz that can be upgraded, but thx for the advice.
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post #11 of 13
9/16/05 at 1:45am
Dude I got the Xps2 and as far as I know the i9300 rock. Now how do I KNOW????? I don't, but the spec of your i9300 is as close as my Xps gen2 the only main difference is the video card that seperate us, though my xps 2 is a big brother and the i9300 is the little sister w/ serious punch. lol how's that for a comparison. All I can say is go for it, the price range is also pretty good too. Enjoy
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post #12 of 13
9/16/05 at 6:27am
I got the same setup, except I got the 9-Cell battery, ATI X300 128MB, TrueLife screen, and XP Pro for about $1350.00. I used the Dell 45% coupon which made me order it with a 3 year on site warranty. After it shipped... I called Dell and told them to downgrade the warranty to 1 year mail-in. They refunded $250 + 10% tax. Nice huh?

The system in my signature is the one I have listed on eBay.
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post #13 of 13
9/18/05 at 4:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by psi777
hey all im thinking of buying a 9300 with the following specs

sorry for the wall of text down there =)

i just wanted to know what poeple like and dislike, tho for that price i can hardly see not getting it ( discount with EEP form ym company

my main concern is im a programmer and i keep reading a lot of reviews that say it has real poor productivty proformance, i can;t see why that is but thats the benchmarks.

any thoughts?

thx!


Inspiron 9300 Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Remote Control
LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen XGA+ Display
Memory 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
Video Card 256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
Hard Drive 80GB Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
Combo/DVD+RW Drives 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Wireless Networking Cards Intel® PRO 2200 and Dell 350 Bluetooth Internal Wireless Cards
Office Productivity Software No productivity suite- Corel WordPerfect word processor only
Security Software No Security Subscription
Digital Music Musicmatch® Jukebox Basic
Primary Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-In Service, and 1Yr Technical Support
Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Digital Imaging Photo Album™ SE Basic
Financial Software No QuickBooks package selected - includes limited use trial
Operating System Backup & Recovery Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition backup CD

TOTAL1,524.00


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That looks like a great setup, get yourself a gig stick of ram somewhere else, dont worry about dual channel, its really a moot point on the 915 chipset anyhow, just get a single gig stick from newegg.com or tigerdirect.com, I would also get the 9 cell battery in addition to the 6 cell, you can get both for thirty dollars more than if you just ordered the 9 cell alone.
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