Finally Purchased The Dell!

COngradulations I hope to be seeing you often in the forums for any questions and hopefully not for problems

Man that is a great deal. I think if I ever buy another Dell lappy again I will definately go the refurb route. I know they have that killer 500 dollar off deal every once in a great while.. and it is definately worth it to wait for it ..

its dells clever way of dealing with the 30 day returns

Which coupon code did you use from fatwallet? I can't find it.

Wow I have the same one at the same price....You will LOVE it. And don't worry about the Go5200 Video Card. I expected the same after reading many posts. You will be pleasantly surprised aat how many games you will be able to run great with that setup. I don't think you will find you need the 7200 RPM drive either. If so buy a 120 gig external FW/USB for $159. You'll have it for all your machines.

Actually your deal is BETTER as You got the DVD burner. I got a floppy (Boooo) I did not the DVD burner as I use an external between three machines and the CDRW alone burns faster plain jane CDs. There were only two 64mb V card modeld left when I ordered and one 128! I refurse to go back and look after mine came. But I got a good one anyway.

The refurb route is a great route and in a couple years you will be able to do it again and have a nice 9100 or 9500 hundered 1.4 with 2 gig cache for about the same, as well as a better V card and LCD maybe.

Good Luck and keep the board informed on how you are doing with that card and any games. I think people think I am lying about how capable that little Nvidia 64mb 5200 go really is even in its Dell underclocked state. I have not found a need to run the OC driver software yet anyway!

This is my take for what it's worth. Been buying PC's since the 8088's.

I look at lappys as "disposable consummables" (unlike Desktops which are easily upgradable) I decided what do based on the following factors and self issued rules!:

1. What do I want to do TODAY?
2. What is the minimum outlay/specs I need to do THAT?
3. Seek information via forums etc.
4. Buy the lowest priced configuation and work up from there
5. NEVER buy the fastest GPU or CPU out there.
6. Pass on all extended warrantees

Now understand I could care less about 3D bench marks or the wow factor from friends. That aside:

Because laptops are obsolete in a couple years. (See the "loaded at the time" 8200 owners screaming for upgraded V cards etc elsewhere) I figure If I can get the experience I NEED today with a minimum configuration, I can then save $1000-$1500 and use that money in two years to buy another refub under the bleeding edge BUT BETTER AND FASTER THAN TODAYS" $2500 machine in any case for around the same money.


It's a matter of what do you want to do today. No matter what you buy It's old news tomorrow.

8600 1.4
512 mb ram 2700
Nvidia 5200 go 64mb
40 G 5400 rpm (I really wanted this minimum rpm. It's only available on a refurb)
DVD/CDRW
WXGA (Samsung)
Win XP Home
1 year warranty
$1268 refurb

Thanks DBK

You will love that lappy and (the wife will love you). Believe me I did a lot of research. A lot. Hundreds of forum threads in five forums. All the current PC and Lappy mags. Smart logiacal friends, a local used lappy store (should have seen the dinosaurs there). Even after all that I had my finger on the trigger of a loaded Dell...But I realized many on the forums are "young speed demons looking to best each other's configurations and 3D mark scores" I did not want in that D**k fight. So I trusted my instincts and some lower end X1000 buyers. They were right and so was I. I could enjoy a fine gaming machine as well as everything else with a humbly spec'e refurb which I will give away in a couple years and buy another!!

Good Luck and keep posting. I'd like to hear how you like it as well/ The SXGA+ should be fine. Even the Hitachi for your needs. You would have been fine with the SXGA as well. I actually preferred the SXGA after seeing them all.

8600 1.4
512 mb ram 2700
Nvidia 5200 go 64mb
40 G 5400 rpm
DVD/CDRW
WXGA (Samsung)
Win XP Home
1 year warranty
$1268

I am right there with you as far as the over excitement level right now. I just bought mine last night and I think that I have checked my order status about ten times alreay as if somehow that will make it get to my house faster. The good news is that it has been shipped and should be here the middle of next week. That is a great deal that you got. I think refurbs are definitely the way to go. I had configured mine for a new retail model and it was about $800 more. I couldn't spend that much more so I would have been stuck with a lesser model. Good luck and keep us posted.

8600 P M 1.3GHz
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
512 MB 333MHz SDRAM (2 DIMMs)
40 GB EIDE Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
64MB nVidia GeForce4, 4200Go Video Card
15.4 inch WUXGA Notebook Screen
Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 mini PCI Card
24X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
Microsoft® Office 2003 Small Business
3 year mail in warranty
$1565