dell 9100 specification challenge

how much money is that in american dollars so the americans can have a say

that would come out to about $3500 US dollars, or close to that.

Howdy! Well I'm an artist/graphic designer/photographer, and while I can't really say exactly why I got what I did, since I bought a refurb from the Dell outlet (what a deal with coupons!), I would definitely get the largest HD I could, even if it was a 4500rpm. (Though I wouldn't go any slower.) 1gb of ram is definitely a must as well. I bought mine with 512 and it was just pokey untill I upgraded. I'd say the faster the better, buy the best you can, it will last a lot longer, especially with Intel and AMD starting to slow down in the megahurtz race. As to the 1gb to 2gb question in games, personally I don't think that would have much of a difference speed-wise. I'd say get as much 'stuff' put into that laptop internally as you can, as carrying aroune external HD's and the like can be a little annoying. :0) I got my XPS (3.4ghz, 512, 80g, DVD+RW, MR9700) for 1936 US before tax, so you should be able to get *quite* the machine and any accessories you want for the amount of money you have. :0)

Here is a quick set up I just did on the dell site. This maybe the config I would go with; having that budget. Personally I like the look of the XPS which is what I have been planning to buy...but, the more I build and price, the more I'm willing to deal with the blue highlights on the i9100. You can just get so much more for your money with them.


System
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Inspiron 9100 Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.20GHz with HT Tech, 15.4-in WUXGA
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Memory 1GB DDR 400MHz 2 DIMMs
Video Card 256MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9800 AGP 8X Graphics
Hard Drive 60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Document Management Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R) with double-layer write capability 8XDVDRW
Wireless Networking Cards Dell® Wireless 1450 Internal Wireless (802.11a/b/g, 54Mbps)
Productivity Software Productivity Pack including WordPerfect® ICORELM
Security Software Norton Internet Security 90-day introductory offer Digital Music Dell Jukebox - easy-to-use music player and CD burning software Primary Battery 96 WHr 12-cell Primary Battery with Subwoofer 12BAT
Limited Warranty, Services and Support 3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year At-Home Service plus Nights and Weekend
CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service Add CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service to 3Yr Lim Warranty
Digital Imaging or Digital Photography Paint Shop™ Pro® Trial plus Photo Album™ Starter Edition
Color Kits Venice Blue QuickSnap™ Cover
Personal Finance Software Microsoft® Money 2004 Standard
Dell Media Experience Dell™ Media Experience DMX [412-0706] 115

ACCESSORIES

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Mobile Edge Backpack Qty 1
Unit Price $80.00
Dell W1700 LCD TV w/1 Yr Svc Qty 1
Unit Price $699.00
TOTAL: $3,509.20

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TOTAL: $3,509.20

Sorry this post is so long. Hope I didn't misunderstand the original intention of this topic.

This IS probably the set up I am going with btw. Minus the 17 inch lcd tv that is My budget's not as forgiving as SurfJungle's tho

Here's the config I just put together and ordered. Beside each spec is why I chose them:

3.2 ghz Prescott w/ HT (Will need the extra cpu power for fragging people & video editing)
Mobility Radeon 9800 256mb (My current desktop is 9700pro and I wanted something better. Will need the extra graphics power for next gen games)
7200rpm 60gb hdd (Because 4200 and 5400rpm drives are slow)
1 Gb PC3200 Ram (Will give that extra boost during games)
Bluetooth Adapter (I may be getting a bluetooth PDA and mouse sometime soon)
1350 Wireless (Didn't need the 802.11a spec for my wireless)
8X DVD burner (A little better than the 4X burner. Dual-Layer capable)
Extra 138Whr Primary battery (Combined with my other battery gives me 4+ hour battery life)
15.4" WUXGA (I'm used to high resolutions)
3 year warranty with complete care (In case I accidentally damage it)

I like that setup turtle, sounds nice
heck, sounds like mine once I get the 9800 this week

I have been told that 802.11a/b/g is better for warchalking than b/g alone; Dell offers both. Also for gaming a bluetooth mouse is too laggy (better than previous wireless rodents, but still will get you killed), although it is very handy for PDA/phone syncing. Finally unless you really need disk capacity I'd go with the 7200 RPM; I've used the new 80GB Toshiba drive and its higher density makes up somewhat for slower rotational speed but I still prefer the quick response and low latency of the Hitachi product.

ive been really debating which drive to go with and am having a lot of trouble...i really want speed but i use a lot o hdd space...i have a uh..ahem..coughwarezcough drive thats a little over 60gigs and i plan on using the i9100 as my main and maybe only rig...so right now its speed vs the unlazy task of backing everything up to dvd or cd...iono wth to do...heh

SkEp

Tough call in your situation... Maybe the thing to do is buy the cheapest drive now and wait for a 7200 80 or 100 gigabyte to be released & upgrade? Or use the "media/battery" bay for a second HD?

Decisions, decisions...

Ah...good call...for some reason I never thought about a second hd. To tell you the truth I didn't realize the battery bay could be used for a 2nd one on the iXPS/9100. That sounds like a good solution. Thanks mang.

SkEp

Or get a fast HDD in an external FireWire/USB2 enclosure.

OMG, don't buy 2 gigs from dell...unless there is no place in your country that sells ram for cheap.

buy it elsewhere

drop the 2gigs, buy the 3 or 4 year onsite warranty with complete care, and make sure you're investment is protected.

if you really want 2g so bad, order 256 and buy 2gig for about $500 online

keep in mind, anything laptop related will be like cl3 or 2.5 at best. nothing at 2gig will be say 2.5-3-3-5 or something like that.

if you are taking chances on the warranty because of price, don't. just buy the 2g elsewhere and use the savings. if you're ok with spending this much anyway, you can get the same setup and cover the unit and still save probably $100-$200

on pricewatch, found this

Infineon 1GB PC3200 for Dell Powerbook G4 and other brands DDR SODIMM. 2GB Kit (2X1GB) available.

it's $339 each. so that's $680 before shipping, versus $1275. That's a $600 diff. the 4 yr onsite with CC after $100 rebate is $315, so you'd still be saving $280 or so and you could have 4 yr onsite coverage. not bad I'd say