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About to buy my first dell.. suggestions?

post #1 of 16
6/12/06 at 10:39am
Thread Starter 
Hey dell guys

I'm about to buy a dell, especially because of the price. I have a 2K+ notebook and I dont think its worth it for my needs (wich are basic, I dont really game anymore). I'm looking for a 15.4" with a core duo and as cheap as possible.

I'm not in the USA but I'm buying it from there and bringing it over to Brazil.

With that in mind, I have a peculiar situation:

-Inspirons have the best price over performance from dell, but I cannot get the warranty on them to be tranferred to Brazil

-Latitudes are supposed to be better constructed (big plus) and I can get their warranty trasnferred here.

Now the million dollar question here is price. Configuring an E1505 with the same specs as a latitude B620 (not sure if thats the model, but its the 15.4" core duo one) makes the inspiron about $300 cheaper (using the 30% off coupon). $300 is alot to pay for the warranty, so I rather go for the e1505 if I cant get a better deal on the lattitude.

Questions:

-Can I get a better deal/coupon that will dramatically reduce the price on the the latitude?

-How many coupons can I stack up, and wich are currently the best ones to use with the inspiron and the latitude? (Even if I have to pay for them, to me its a good deal because the lesser the final invoice is, the lesser import taxes I'll have to pay)



Thanks in the advance
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post #2 of 16
6/12/06 at 10:50am
id say pay the extra $300. what if your video card fry's? you have no warrenty and your out, what $1500. if you have the warrenty, u get a new video card free.
and try ebay for some stackable coupons

just my $0.02
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post #3 of 16
6/12/06 at 10:56am
Thread Starter 
Well thats true, it is a risk indeed... However its not impossible to RMA the notebook, but it will be expensive (shipping both ways). Still, you have to consider that this is a $800 system, so $300 is actually more than a 50% increase in price, (after taxes) wich is way too much to pay for 1 year of warranty, IMO...


edit: and I tried ebay for the coupons, but a friend of mine told me that I can only use one % and one $ coupon. Is that true?
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post #4 of 16
6/12/06 at 11:34am
There are rarely good coupons on the Latitude Systems. And for the record the Latitude D820 comes with a MINIMUM 3 year warranty. There is no 1 year option anywhere (at least when I purchased mine). So you'll have 2 extra years of coverage. Dell also doesn't do RMA's on notebooks. They send you a box and you put the laptop in there and they send it back to you in about 5 business days in the US. The only way you'd get an Inspiron serviced is to send it to a buddy here in the US, they call tech support and get the box and ship it. Looks like the reason an Inspiron's warranty can't transfer to Brazil is because Inspirons aren't sold in Brazil, only Latitudes.

Really the only reason I don't think warranties carry over from country to country is because laws vary.
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post #5 of 16
6/12/06 at 12:15pm
Thread Starter 
Ok here's what I configured so far:


Latitude D520 Intel® Core™ Duo T2300E 667Mhz Dual Core
LCDs 14.1 inch XGA LCD Panel
Memory 1.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Hard Drives 80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM
Bluetooth FREE! Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Module
Module Bay Devices 24X CD-ROM Drive
Hardware Support Service 3 Year Mail-in Economy Plan (costs $130)

TOTAL928.00

Its more expensive than what I wanted to pay, its 14" (but I can live with that), not even a DVD reader.. but the 3 year warranty is definitely a big plus, and it comes with 1GB ram already


The E1505 is a much cheaper option (using the 30% coupon):

Inspiron E1505 Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2300E (2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MH
LCD Panel 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™
Memory 512MB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ, 1 DIMM
Video Card 128MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory™
Hard Drive FREE! 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
Combo/DVD+RW Drives 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Primary Battery 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Hardware Warranty 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-In Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support

TOTAL746.90

This is a config that pleases me a lot more, I like the bigger screen, dedicated video, cd combo and the final price difference between this and the latitude is $230. However tha latitude does come with 1GB with ram, so taking $50 off, it should be about a $180 difference... If I remove the extende warranty on the latitude, the price will be about the same as the inspiron, the only real difference will be the specs.

What should I do? Is there a better (cheaper) way to get a latitude?
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post #6 of 16
6/12/06 at 1:43pm
unless u get an EPP code, or something, thats prolly it. id say go with the latitude, just cause build is better, and you have a longer warranty
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post #7 of 16
6/12/06 at 5:03pm
I'd go with the Inspiron myself. Once you've had a widescreen everything else looks funny! Also remember that you can always extend the warranty next year if you need or want to. You simply call Dell and ask for a 1, 2 or 3 year warranty extention. Saves you from shelling out the cash now. As for the build quality I know the latitudes used to have a better build but I have no complaints over the build quality of my 9300! Its a very well put together system and its fairly tough. If the newer Inspirons are like it I wouldn't worry about it at all.
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post #8 of 16
6/12/06 at 7:08pm
Thread Starter 
Adreno read my post damnit

I cant get a warranty for inspirons here in Brazil!
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post #9 of 16
6/12/06 at 8:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adrenolin
I'd go with the Inspiron myself. Once you've had a widescreen everything else looks funny! Also remember that you can always extend the warranty next year if you need or want to. You simply call Dell and ask for a 1, 2 or 3 year warranty extention. Saves you from shelling out the cash now. As for the build quality I know the latitudes used to have a better build but I have no complaints over the build quality of my 9300! Its a very well put together system and its fairly tough. If the newer Inspirons are like it I wouldn't worry about it at all.

i agree with widescreen comment. i got a widescreen TV, and the rest of the TVs in my house are normal 4:3, and they look so small and squished. haha
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post #10 of 16
6/12/06 at 9:08pm
There is a $400 off Latitude notbooks priced at $1599+ right now. I recommend you to upgrade the warranty and some hardwares to use that coupon. It is worth it because you don't have to worry about not being able to transfer the warranty and the build of the Latitude notebooks are better than some of the Inspiron notebooks.
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post #11 of 16
6/13/06 at 11:53am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joako
There is a $400 off Latitude notbooks priced at $1599+ right now. I recommend you to upgrade the warranty and some hardwares to use that coupon. It is worth it because you don't have to worry about not being able to transfer the warranty and the build of the Latitude notebooks are better than some of the Inspiron notebooks.
Yes I saw that yesterday! I think thats a good deal for me.. even though its more than I wanted to spend, I think it'll be worth it...

What coupons could I stack with that $400 off?

And wich latitude do you guys recommend, D620 or D820? I read about some people being disappointed at the D820's build (latch). Are there any particular issues to them?
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post #12 of 16
6/13/06 at 12:43pm
i believe its one percentage coupon and one monetary coupon that you can stack.....i think thats right
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post #13 of 16
6/13/06 at 12:48pm
Thread Starter 
I see, and is there any possible % coupon for the latitudes?
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post #14 of 16
6/13/06 at 4:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Filippo
I see, and is there any possible % coupon for the latitudes?
The $400 off coupon is from Dell Small Business. I don't think you can stack it with anything else. Yes, there are % off coupons, but you have to wait for those ones.
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post #15 of 16
6/18/06 at 8:24pm
what about like a 35$ off 300 from ebay?
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post #16 of 16
6/18/06 at 11:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrEvil
There are rarely good coupons on the Latitude Systems. And for the record the Latitude D820 comes with a MINIMUM 3 year warranty. There is no 1 year option anywhere (at least when I purchased mine). So you'll have 2 extra years of coverage. Dell also doesn't do RMA's on notebooks. They send you a box and you put the laptop in there and they send it back to you in about 5 business days in the US. The only way you'd get an Inspiron serviced is to send it to a buddy here in the US, they call tech support and get the box and ship it. Looks like the reason an Inspiron's warranty can't transfer to Brazil is because Inspirons aren't sold in Brazil, only Latitudes.

Really the only reason I don't think warranties carry over from country to country is because laws vary.


I think you sort of hit on, and and the same time overlooked the reason some items may be warrantied... some may not when a product (any product) is not used in the country is was sold in.


In most any business you have markets... in each market you have distributors (or divisions)... Each distributor (or division) making a profit off sales within their market.

While they are all part of the same parent company.. I've found that over the years most distributors , divisions aren't "happy" with having to handle product from another market.... since they didn't make the profit from the org sale.

In other words it's sort of like "greymarket" stuff.... Stuff sold by a distributor in another market.

In some cases the reason they may not want to touch /service a item is that product was not sold in that market.. Which means they aren't going to stock parts and / or their techs may not be certified to work on that model.
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