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OK... Buying a 9300... a little help...

post #1 of 20
3/9/05 at 10:18am
Thread Starter 
I have decided on the 9300. I understand that I need to make this purchase today? I am new to the forum and new to buying Dell online.

Should I go through Home or Small Business?

Are extras worth buying? Which ones?

Software loaded or aftermarket?

Should I order a small HD and RAM, and upgrade after I have the machine? Where to get these?

Discount coupons?

Other insights and direction?

I can spend up to 3K if I need to. Give a newbie a hand.
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post #2 of 20
3/9/05 at 11:01am
What specs do you want? i.e. how much ram, how fast a HD, DVD Burner, screen, etc...
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post #3 of 20
3/9/05 at 11:35am
If you can spend up to 3k, why aren't you going for the XPS 2?
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post #4 of 20
3/9/05 at 2:02pm
You haven't given any information on what you want to use the notebook for. Do you just want to get the most laptop for you money up to $3000? There are specials going on all the time, some are for Home, some are for Small Bidness. There's one that ends to day for 35% off in Small Bizness. Generally I upgrade my own memory, but in the case of 35% off, it may be cheaper to get 1 gig of memory on line, however the 2 gig option is still cheaper if bought elsewhere. You should browse the coupon section (the end, the most recent coupon posts), and browse some of other people's posts about options they've chosen and go onto both Dell sites and configure systems and then come back with more specific questions.
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post #5 of 20
3/9/05 at 3:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelPastor
I have decided on the 9300. I understand that I need to make this purchase today? I am new to the forum and new to buying Dell online.

Should I go through Home or Small Business?

Are extras worth buying? Which ones?

Software loaded or aftermarket?

Should I order a small HD and RAM, and upgrade after I have the machine? Where to get these?

Discount coupons?

Other insights and direction?

I can spend up to 3K if I need to. Give a newbie a hand.
Whether to go with home or small bus depends on the offers currently available. Another thing to consider is the state you live in and whether you'll pay tax. Since I live in Florida, I pay sales tax no matter where I buy, however because I wanted Complete Care, I had to buy from Small Business since it's not available to Florida residents for Home purchases. Don't overlook EPP discounts if they are available to you either.

As to how to configure, I would go with 1gb ram and the 60gb 7200rpm drive and buy from Dell. I went with the 2.0ghz processor, but if you want to save $160, the 1.83ghz should be fine. I also got the DVD burner, but that's another place you can save some significant $$$ if you don't need one. If you want longer battery life, consider getting a spare 9 cell battery for ~$100, which is only $20 more than upgrading the included 6 cell to a 9.

Good luck
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post #6 of 20
3/9/05 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 

I am looking for horsepower

DVD burner, 2GB RAM, 100 MB 7200 drive (or whatever is the largest high speed drive), long life battery, I want idiot-proof in-home support/ run-it-over-with-a-bus kind of a thing, I am thinking the WUXGA screen.

I will be using for decktop publishing (Word/MS Office, Powerpoint, etc.), photo editing, video editing, Adobe PageMaker, and of course GAMES!

I live in California.

When is the 35% coupon good 'til? 3/9? Time of day? Midnight? Pacific? Eastern?
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post #7 of 20
3/9/05 at 5:19pm
You have two options:

Dell Home: $750 off $1999 ... Keep your config close to $1999 so you get the maximum discount.. after that if your price goes higher.. the discount stays same.

Dell Small Business: 35% off your entire order. Use this if you're going to get a decked out system since the discount gets higher as the price of your config gets higher. i.e. 35% off $2500 = $875, 35% off $3000 = $1050. This expires tonight at 10pm Pacific time.
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post #8 of 20
3/9/05 at 5:21pm
I'm pretty sure the coupon expires at 1am Eastern/12pm Central/10pm Pacific tonight. As for the specs I suggest the following:

1.86GHz (Price break, next upgrade is $200)
1Gb of RAM (Once again, the next upgrade is very expensive, however if you really want to get 2GB i suggest you get 256Mb and upgrade it yourself, you'll save about $300-$500)
NVIDIA 6800 Go (Since you said gaming, it's about 4-6x faster then the x300)
100Gb 5400RPM (Although the info says it's a 4200rpm I'm fairly certain if you check the specs on the order summary page it's a 5400RPM and 7200RPM 100Gb notebook hard drives won't be out for a while. Also a 5400RPM 100Gb system will be very close to the speed of a 60Gb 7200RPM, because the 100Gb has a much higher density)
8x DVD±RW Drive
WUXGA+True Life screen
Extra 9 cell Battery (Instead of upgrading the 6 cell to a 9 cell, just get an extra 9 cell, it's only $30 more (before discount) and you get an extra 6 cell)

As for the warranty, I'm pretty sure that you can't get accident protection in Small Business, but the '3 Years On-site Business Premium Plan' has similar coverage.
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post #9 of 20
3/10/05 at 2:33am
Thread Starter 
Doing the deal NOW... any other thoughts?
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post #10 of 20
3/10/05 at 2:45am
Yea, hurry up and do it before the coupon expires....
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post #11 of 20
3/10/05 at 2:49am
Use the 750 off coupon from Dell Home and configure the computer with 256MB RAM or whatever its cheapest. Then buy 2 1GB sticks from www.memory4less.com for $195 each. That way you get the fastest setup plus save some money.
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post #12 of 20
3/10/05 at 2:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by operaman
Yea, hurry up and do it before the coupon expires....
hahah, good $hit
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post #13 of 20
3/10/05 at 2:50am
Here is the link for the memory:

http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_itemd...temid=27071903
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post #14 of 20
3/10/05 at 2:54am
Thread Starter 
Done!
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post #15 of 20
3/10/05 at 2:56am
Any details on the order? Price? SB or Home? If you ordered through SB, you might wanna configure the same system via Home, configure with the least amount of RAM and add the 750 off coupon and then add the extra 400 bux for 2 1GB sticks. It might come out cheaper.
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post #16 of 20
3/10/05 at 3:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelPastor
Done!
Well??? Give us your friggin' setup man!!! You can't be holding out on us Oh, and welcome to the 9300 club
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post #17 of 20
3/10/05 at 3:43am
Thread Starter 
Order Details
Order detail - order placed 2005-03-09 23:48:30

Inspiron 9300
Intel® Pentium® M 760 Processor (2GHz/533MHz FSB), Microsoft®

Windows® XP Professional Qty: 1

Unit Price: $3,504.00

Inspiron 9300 Intel® Pentium® M 760 Processor (2GHz/533MHz FSB) SM2HM

LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™ 17UXGAS

Memory 256MB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 1 Dimm 256MB1D

Video Card 256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800 256NV

Hard Drive 100GB Hard Drive 100GB

Power Adapter Spare AC adapter (Power Cord) - 90w 65WS

Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional WPXP

Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem INTNIC

Combo/DVD+RW Drives 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability 8XDVDRW

Wireless Networking Cards FREE! Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps) IP2915P

Primary Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr) 6BAT

Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 3 Years On-site Business

Premium Plan ($140 Mail in Rebate) BSP3Y2S

LCD/Color Kits Cherrywood QuickSnap™ Cover CHERRY

Wireless Personal Networking Card Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate) TM350I

Additional Batteries 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery (80 WHr) 9BATAD


35% off Select Inspiron NB''s $1399 and up
Expires on 2005-03-09 23:59:59 -$1,226.40



Sub-Total $2,277.60
Shipping $0.00

Estimated Tax $184.51
State Environment Fee $8.00

Total $2,462.11
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post #18 of 20
3/10/05 at 3:46am
Looks like you played 'beat the clock' to get that one!
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post #19 of 20
3/10/05 at 3:47am
Thread Starter 
Man this feels GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
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post #20 of 20
3/10/05 at 4:23am
this thread inspired me to hit the submit order button on a i9300
I guess that makes me the newest member of the
"I have an xps2 and a i9300 on order which one do I cancel" club
lol
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