Buying a notebook, need some advice...

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RabidMammalWax

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Okay, I'm going off to college and I want to buy a reasonably priced notebook to do all sorts of crap. Gaming is one. But I also need it for things like Excel, MS Word, Photoshop--school and multimedia things (because I run a website and so forth). I've been using the PC I'm on now for five years now I think, it's got 512 MB of RAM and it's been brutal--massive slowdown when running MS Word, Firefox, and Photoshop simultaneously (or running JUST Psychonauts, which made me cry for hours--the slowdown, not the game, the game was absurdly awesome...once I played it on an XBOX). I want 2 GB of RAM as a gift from me to me. So anyway, I was looking at Dells because...I don't know, seemed natural enough, and here's where I found a problem:

Inspiron Notebooks vs. XPS Notebooks

I opened two simultaneous tabs, one customizing an Inspiron and one customizing an XPS. Here were their stats:

Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2GHz/667MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Microsoft Office Basic - Includes Word, Excel, and Outlook email

The only difference between the two is that the Inspiron has a 256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 7800 while the XPS has a 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS, which wasn't available on the Inspiron.


With these stats, the prices came down to:
Inspiron: $2,652
XPS: $3,289

That's a difference of almost $600. Can anyone explain for what? Is the XPS more durable, more upgradeable...?

If both are kind of not the way to go, then is there a better brand of notebook PC out there, a better value with a similar set of stats?
 
The XPS line is just more expensive imo. I'd go with the Inspiron over the XPS with a price difference that big.
Also, before buying through Dell I'd check Alienware and see if they can't build you a laptop for the same amount of money. Their laptops are way better for gaming and customer support is much better than Dell's.
 
Go for HP Pavilion DV 5140 Notebook. It has 2 GB RAM. A good graphics card which will take care of your gaming requirements and its only for 1500 USD.

DV 5140
 
My mom's looking at it from her Dell dell account, she's getting the best warranties and virus protection programs, at a total $2,373

Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2GHz/667MHz FSB)
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
100GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Internal(2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 7800
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

The hardware alone is $2,057 --somehow she got a MUCH better deal than I did.

Her total is $2,405.70, which included a 4-port USB surge protector.
 
With the money you've got to spend you could probably build or buy a killer desktop pc but if you need a laptop i would go with the inspiron although neither can be upgraded except for the ram.
 
The XPS comes with its only personnel tech support. All the cool fans and the cool looking outside. Nothing too fancy, I would just go with the inspirion but if you have the money spring for the XPS you wont be sorry :)
 
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