I got an Inspiron 9300 a few years ago, early 2006. It's a great laptop, and I still use it, runs just as well as it did when I got it, BUT...it's massive, the battery life sucks, and the video card is overkill for what i use my computer for now (used to play lots of games, but now...its more just for school, chat, webbrowsing, and not-top-of-the-line-games every now and then.

I went to BestBuy and checked out the 15inch laptops and they seem much more reasonable (it's just 2 inches smaller, but it makes a big difference). They didn't have an xps 1530, but they had the inspiron 15inch version of it, which I'd assume is pretty much the same as far as size is concerned.

I remember there being deals on the XPS M1530, but obviously they're dead now, and those deals were usually loaded XPS M1530's (i don't really need the loaded ones).

So...I decided to get on ebay so I can avoid paying taxes, as well as get 30% off with my secret 'connections'

I'm coming from an Inspiron 9300 with:
1.6Ghz Pentium M
17inch WXGA+ glossy lcd, 1440x900
3gb 533mhz ram
60gb 7200rpm harddrive
Intel 2200b/g wireless
256mb Geforce Go 6800
Bluetooth
9cell battery
It cost somewhere around $1500 after taxes and shipping at the time I got it, and that was after a 35% off coupon (and I remember it was considered an awesome deal at the time too, ha ha ha)

And the XPS M1530 I ordered has:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800MHz/2MB Cache)
15.4 inch Widescreen XGA LCD Display With Turelife Technology
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
250 GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
128MB Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS Video Card
Slot load 8X DVD+/-RW
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
High Definition Audio 2.0 Sound Card
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g (54Mbps) + Dell 355 Bluetooth
HDMI high definition video output
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
6-Cell Lithium Ion Battery
1 YEAR In-Home Service & 1 Year CompleteCare Protection from DELL (expires in the early of June, 2009)

All for $700, free shipping, and NO TAX.


What do you guys think? Pretty good deal for what it is? I realize the video card is probably going to be nowhere near as good as my current one...but again, I hardly play games nowadays, so the additional battery life I'll get outweighs that.

The only thing i'm kind of iffy about is the Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g (54Mbps). Anyone have experience with it, compared to the Intel cards?


edit:
Also, does anyone have experience with the 1280x800 screens? I'm coming from a 1440x900 on a 17in, so i figured that it wouldn't really be too bad for me since theres only a small difference between the two, and the fact that the xps has a smaller screen too.

nice....congrats

Would be very little difference in pixel pitch between 17" 1440x900 and 15.4 1280x800 I would have thought.

Haven't used any of Dell's wifi cards before,not because I've heard they're bad.......just because my systems have always had intel already configured,have had one bad intel 3945 though,that was replaced.