$729 for a nicely decked out Dell E1505

[Vallybally]

The basic starting point for this deal starts here E1505 Dual Core nicely upgraded at $729. There are a couple of ways to get a usually stackable $30 or $45 off coupon too.

I've been researching and waiting for a nice deal on and off for months. I realize that the Meroms are just weeks away, but honestly I highly doubt Dell is going to sell them anytime soon for $600... more like $1000+ is my guess. Nor do I think these current Core Duo Yonahs will stick around forever where Dell will offer them for $350 lol.

Ya'll think this was a hot purchase for my 1st laptop? (not smoking hot, but at least hot considering the quality upgrades thrown in by default). I think in times past, the upgrade to the Ultrasharp (higher res) screen alone was anywhere from +$50-150 if I'm not mistaken...


T2300E 2x1.66 GHz processor with 2x1Mb L2 cache (Core Duo "Yonah")
15.4" UltraSharp widescreen XGA display with TrueLife
1 Gb shared dual channel DDR2 RAM @ 533 mh/z
128 Mb ATI Mobility Radeon X1300
120 Gb 5400 rpm SATA hard drive (higher capacity/density drives = faster I heard)
8x DVD burner with double layer capability
Intel PRO/3945 wireless
53 WHr battery

$1,207 - $478 discount - $45 coupon - $13.68 DPA discount - $20.52 FC = $649 + tax.

 

[mb]

Looks good :thumbsup:

Now get another gig of ram from newegg and you're set

 

[darkavenger626]

wow good deal. very hot with the 1 gb mem/ nice vid card/ and 120gb hdd

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Nice.

 

[poncherelli2]

Does anyone have experience with any of these video cards (x1300, x1400, 7300) and have any recommendations as to which ones would be worth purchasing. I believe Vista wants 128mb and the x1300 is only 64, but I don't know to what extent Vista needs the extra memory. Also, as I'm not terrible familiar with dual cores, how big of a performance difference is there between the 1.66 and 1.83 processors (and how big of performance leap will there be to the Core 2 Duo)?

 

[Vallybally]

The leap to Core 2 Duo Merom will be significant. However keep in mind a few things which I am speculating here but I hope intelligently. (and is the reason I pulled the trigger now rather than later...)

1) When the Meroms will be widely available, it is highly unlikely Dell (or anyone) will simply plug in this new CPU in similarly or better equipped laptops and sell them for $700ish still. I suspect $1000 plus (+300) just for the Core 2 Duo Meroms. Give it a year or so and then maybe these Meroms will creep down to $700ish.

2) Likewise, I highly doubt there would be any reason for Dell to offer this Yonah Core Duo processor for anything less than $500 in the coming months because why would they. Rumors are they don't have millions of Intel CPUs in stock, they just have trailers on their property where they pay as they order/need them (ie come thru their doors). Also the $400-500 range is the territory of their cheap bottom of the barrel B130 series.

3) There are rumors (again) that Dell will be slowing down these frequent large coupon and 35% off type deals.

4) These Core Duos are really quality CPUs themselves, built upon the quality Pentium M solo cores. Unless you are a hardcore gamer and/or want a heavy desktop replacement laptop (17" model with Nvidia 7900 Go), all your productivity/business/casual needs can be perfectly handled by this laptop and most laptops (with at least 512mb RAM).

5) The best price point is the included X1300 IMO. From my research, the X1400 is just a slight tweaked upgrade (which can share more system RAM as needed), and believe it or not the more expensive Nvidia 7300 I heard may be on par or even worse than the ATI X1300). Bottom line is these 3 dedicated graphics cards are low-mid level performers, able to likely run most games decently, but not the newest most demanding FPSes or such. Again, head over to the heavier 17" desktop replacements with the 7800/7900 if you need a gaming laptop.

 

[poncherelli2]

I wouldn't need them for gaming. I was simply wondering because it says "Vista Capable" and I figured with the 128mb for the x1400, it might be a worthwhile upgrade over the x1300. If there is no notable difference between the 3, I'll just stick with the x1300 to save money I guess. (Is there a comparison of the notebook gpu performances out there?)

Another questions is whether or not its worth it to upgrade to a 7200rpm drive from the 5400? I dont have experience with notebooks and am not sure of the relative speed differenec in the HDDs.

 

[Slaimus]

I really don't know why Dell likes to mismatch RAM and FSB. The Insprion 6000 I bought last year has 533 FSB but DDR2-400 RAM.

This new one has 667 FSB, but use sDDR2-533 RAM.

I guess they need to cut costs somewhere.

 

[jjmIII]

Another questions is whether or not its worth it to upgrade to a 7200rpm drive from the 5400? I dont have experience with notebooks and am not sure of the relative speed differenec in the HDDs.

The difference between 5400 and 7200 isn't that bad. Now, 4200......thats another story!

 

[Vallybally]

If mismatched FSB/RAM megahertz means I get a laptop for $700 when most everyone else charges 50-100% more, I'm cool with that! Not like it will be buggy or anything, it's probably just slight bottleneck of 2% lol.

As for as 7200 vs. 5400, again.. I highly doubt it's a wise choice of $100 to "upgrade" a 5400 120GB HD to a 7200 100GB HD. I've even heard that higher density/capacity drives are naturally faster than lower density/capacity drives. (ie a 5400 100GB HD may be basically as fast as a 7200 60GB HD).

 

[ivol07]

I got in on this deal on Saturday with a few coupons. If I'm not mistaken the X1300 Video Card has 128MB memory.

128MB ATI MOBILITY? RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory?

Or is it 64mb onboard and 64mb shared? I don't play games on PCs so I'm not up to date on video cards.

I also added the OS Backup CD for $10 because I've read that otherwise Dell will use like 10GB for an OS Backup on the hard drive. Just an FYI if it's true.

 

[poncherelli2]

I believe its 64 onboard and 64 shared

 

[postmortemIA]

Well one yr warranty IMO is not too smart buy.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
Well one yr warranty IMO is not too smart buy.

1 year warranty is unfortunately par for the course, not the exception, so this isn't a big deal. If you want a better warranty you always extend it.

This is a nice deal if you just want a decent laptop for normal tasks and want it to look nice (1680x1050 resolution on 15.4" glossy screen). It wouldn't be bad at all for most nearly anything except gaming and higher end processing where you'd probably spend about as much on just the CPU or GPU alone as you would on this entire laptop.

The only difference between the X1300 and X1400 is that the former has 64MB dedicated and the latter has 128 (both of which can be doubled through the Hypermemory if you have enough system memory). I can't really think of a program where the extra memory would be worthwhile since gaming performance from any of the 3 options is going to be very poor. If you want to play some lighter games (maybe some older ones like Diablo 2, etc.) then it will sufficen. The only reason you might possibly want to go with the 7300 is if you're going to use Purevideo as it should be able to assist decoding 1080p content, whereas the other two are limited to 720p with AVIVO. Not really a whorthwhile investment if you ask me, as the 1400 should offer slightly better gaming performance since it has a 128-bit memory bus compared to the 7300's 64-bit.

If you want a better warranty, I recommend going with the basic one now, as Dell will probably contact you after you've purchased and offer a reduced price for an extended warranty. CompleteCare might be worth it though.

Still you'd be hard pressed to beat this deal as you get a decent dual core CPU (and hopefully will be able to upgrade to Merom based chips in the future), 1GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, 8X DVD burner, and a very nice screen (for a laptop) for less than $750. Its unfortunate that Dell doesn't really allow mid-range GPUs in their mid-range laptop though, as it would make it a decent performer for things like CS:Source and Titan Quest.

I'm guessing Dell has a bunch of these components that they want to offload and so have bundled them to get them sold.

 

[Devistater]

Dell often offers you better deals to extend the rebate if you wait until after you purchase. A few months before it expires they will start mailing you letters and calling you

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: Vallybally
As for as 7200 vs. 5400, again.. I highly doubt it's a wise choice of $100 to "upgrade" a 5400 120GB HD to a 7200 100GB HD. I've even heard that higher density/capacity drives are naturally faster than lower density/capacity drives. (ie a 5400 100GB HD may be basically as fast as a 7200 60GB HD).

This only applies when you're talking "higher capacity" as in 300GB - 750GB. No chance that a 5400rpm drive comes close to a 7200rpm drive when you're talking about capacities lower than 100gigs.

Considering that so many tasks are bottlenecked by hard drive speed, I would never use a computer or laptop with < 7200rpm drive. Honestly, I'd rather have an old P4/PM with a 7200 drive than a Dual Core Conroe with a 5400rpm drive.

It's still a good deal, but I think you skimped on the most important component for everyday performance.

CK

 

[Bender316]

I can't get the same disount, still >$1000 for same lappy... How'd you do it?

 

[darkavenger626]

Originally posted by: Bender316
I can't get the same disount, still >$1000 for same lappy... How'd you do it?

I believe it is dead

 

[SurgicalShark]

You got a good vid card.

 

[Bender316]

gah... oh well.

7300 is a nice card BTW, really good value. Will play most games OK at 1024x768 (dont expect FEAR to be great though...). Beats the X1300 solidly in most reviews I've read.

Anyways, $760 for that lappy is very nice. Well done.

 

[Tangman]

Pay with Discover Card and you can take another 3% off that! (Discover offers 5% cashback, vs the 2% for DPA).

 

[Vallybally]

As someone mentioned, it seems this current offer has expired. But fear not, Dell has a history of offering deals/discounts/coupons almost daily if you look around...couple of times a month they are hot...

 

[996GT2]

Great laptop for great price...hopefully I can do just as well when I order my Merom lappy from Dell in about 1.5 years...

 

[pkypkypky]

Can you use any DDR2-667 sodimm for this laptop?

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: pkypkypky
Can you use any DDR2-667 sodimm for this laptop?

Yes. You can use any 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM ranging from DDR2-400 (PC2 3200) to DDR2-667 (PC2 5300 & PC2 5400) and any higher speeds that may come in the future.