Get 20% back from MSN at DELL ***** Thread #2 *****

[Texsstar]

Ross the passport express button is there upon check out its top left the 3rd button over, and says passport express check out on the check out button.

 

[Braxus]

The I5Ke and I8K lappies seem to have a longer build time. Apparently, 15 inch LCDs are a lot less common than your smaller 14.1 inch LCDs.

Mine is scheduled to ship on 12/11

 

[RossMAN]

RVN - I ordered an i4000 on 11/28 the last day they were offering Free 8x DVD and Free Shipping along with the $100 off.

Ordered 11/28
Shipped 11/30

The original shipping date was 12/5 so I was kind of bummed but then changed to 11/30, mine shipped from TN and is in IL now.

 

[crystalgun]

Braxus and Rossman,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00002EQD0/

Can this one and my internal modem substiture for "Internal 56K Capable V.90 + 10/100 Mini-PCI Combo" ? Does that work?


Thanks

 

[Insomniac]

texxstar: I was looking around Dell's site today, and it appears they yanked the Win98 SE option. I really wanted Win2k, but they didn't offer that either.

Gonad, bigmouth: Did the 4000 come with another insert besides the free one you chose? The picture always shows a grayish insert on top and four others below it (and they only let you pick from four colors). Inspiron 4000

crystalgun: That is an external NIC that will plug into your PCMCIA slot rather than having one built into the notebook.

 

[Dx-treme]

Dude,
trust me, if possible go with the build in internal modem/NIC. DONGLES ARE A BIG GIGANTIC PAIN IN THE @ss !!!!!!!!!! i know as my main computer is an ibm thinkpad and was stupid enough not to get the internal modem/nic option !!! On my I 8000 i am sure to dish out the extra $30 for internal modem/nic !!!!!

 

[John]

You have to go at least small business to get Win 2K

 

[Texsstar]

Braxus I know I thought about it but after reading your post that was the tiny push I needed thanks added it.

RVN I just ordered it now and the site said on final step they would e-mail and call in a couple days to confirm order, give shipping date and make any changes if wanted. You know I can't wait to get to get now but also have not to good feeling about spending the money.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Insomniac, my 4000 came with black inserts (installed) as well as the grey ones I picked as the extra option (packaged seperately). Haven't bothered trying to install them yet, the black ones look good and the only reason I got the others was because it was a free option. Sort of like that setup video and year subscription to AOL.

bigmouth, I haven't noticed any noise at all that seems to be related to using the mouse pad. I'm sliding the pointer all around right now with the volume maxed and I'm getting nothing except when the hard drive starts thrashing. I'd give support a call and see what they have to say about it.

BTW, since I am new to laptops, I was wondering if the extreme heat coming off the bottom of this thing is normal. I looked in the BIOS for an option to keep that external fan on 24/7 but didn't see one.

 

[rdgr8]

Gonad and the rest of the peeps thinking abt upgrading their warranty...You can upgrade to the 3 year warranty within the 30 day period fm the date your notebook was shipped.
After that who knows...they'll probably charge you more than the $149 upgrade fee...
The warranty guy I talked to at Dell when I had my first Inspiron notebook told me that they don't allow warranty upgrade after the 30 day grace period.:frown:...so think...are you better off with the 1 year warranty or the 3 year?????

 

[Texsstar]

Luv2chill Thanks for posting link to older Dell thread, I like your sig .

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Thanks for the info on that moks78. Do you think getting the 3 year warranty would not be a good idea? From what I've read here a lot of people think it is and I'm inclined to agree. I rather pay $150 now than God knows how much down the road to get something fixed. If it were a desktop I wouldn't worry with it, but most laptop hardware seems to be right expensive. My big worry is the display messing up, but as hot as this thing is getting I have serious doubts as to the internal components lasting 3 years. Right now I'm thinking I'm probably going to keep this about 2 years, so my real choice is paying for a year of coverage I won't need or taking a chance and going 1 year w/o being covered. But with the latter at least whomever ends up with this after me won't be SOL if something goes out either. You think maybe if I call to return this for an 8000 they'd offer to hook me up with the extra warranty for the 4000 as an incentive not to? After the extra $150 for the 3 year on the 4000, the total won't be much less than a simarlarly configured 8000 which includes the 3 year warranty anyway. After realizing that, that was really my biggest regret about going with the 8000in the first place.

 

[ninensei]

Man, didn't anyone besides me order a 3800? All I hear about is I4K and above! Now I am really starting to get depressed
I've been bouncing back and forth, back and forth, trying to decide whether or not to cancel my order. It is such a good price, but will it do what I want it to....hmmmm. I guess I'll find out once it gets here.

FWIW...
I3800
600C
14TFT
64MB
10GB
DVD(as if anyone didn't get this free option)

Now, I just hope and pray that Dell will start confiming our rebates!

 

[chuckieland]

totally agree

 

[MadMark]

Ninensei, don't worry. I got that one too. Looked into the 4000 but can't afford it. I am sure the 3800 are fine as long as you bought some form of warranty. Btw, how did you manage to get the 14" display? I didn't see it and had to get the 12.1 when I ordered last week.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Well, ninensei, I looked at the 3800 initially, but what really turned me off was the 4 meg video card. I was looking for something that could handle some graphics work as well as some games. If that's not an issue for you then I wouldn't really worry about it. But what you might want to check is if the extra options you got on the 3800 brought the price up to a similarly configured 4000. I noticed after going back and playing around with configurations that some upgrades cost as much as 3X as much adding them to the lower end models than adding them to the higher ones. I don't remember the exact config, but I was actually able to get a 5000 to cost a couple of hundred dollars MORE than a similarly configured 8000.

 

[rdgr8]

Ok, Dell has the 30 day Satisfaction Guarantee...

ninensei, you can return your 3800 within that period and tell the CSR that you're not satisfied with it and would like to upgrade to a higher model...the only question is shipping. Will Dell shoulder the return or you would have to put up with the shipping charge?

 

[K-squared]

Has anyone received Dell's December 2000 catalog yet? Curious as to whether they've changed any of the available options and/or had any further price reductions....

 

[MadMark]

"what really turned me off was the 4 meg video card."

Gonad, where did you find that spec? I was looking thru the Dell page and it seems like the 3800 comes with a 64 bit 8MB ATi card. Can you give me some pointers? Thanks.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Well going back and looking now it does indeed say it's an 8 meg card. I could have sworn it said a 4 meg card when I was initially checking it out.

 

[Insomniac]

I went with the 4000 over the 3800 (my initial choice) because of the weight/size and the internal modem + nic. A little less than 9 hours until I go home from work and get to play with the new laptop. I also have to call and extend my warranty as well. Good idea on trying to get a better warranty Gonad. Tell me if it works. Does anyone know if Dell still offers the 3 year warrany on parts/labor with only thefirst year on-site? Would that be a good choice if it is $50 cheaper?

 

[Insomniac]

One other question, not really related to the laptop. I chose not to get the 1 Year of AOL because I already have broadband. But I was thinking, I would like to get a screen name. Someone already registered the name for AIM so I couldn't get it. I know the AIM Screen names can't be duplicated with AOL screen names. If I signed up for the AOL with that screen name, would they take it away from the AIM user and give it to the paying AOL customer? If so, I want AOL! Does anyone know?

 

[CFW]

The 3800 has a 8 meg card, but it is a 64 bit data path card compared to the 128 bit data path on the 5000e and 8000, not sure what the 4000 has. The 3800 has the ATI Rage Mobility M1, The 5000e has the ATI Rage mobility 128 M3 and allows an upgrade to 16 meg. The 8000 has the ATI mobility M4 which boasts 4x AGP and can be upgraded to 32 meg. I originally ordered the 3800, then changed it to the 5000e. This is the configuration I ended up with
Inspirion 5000e
PIII 700
14.1" SXGA +TFT
64 meg (got another 128 coming from Crucial)
10 gig
16 meg ATI rage mobility 128 M3 2x AGP
56k V.90 int modem
8x DVD
Office 2000 Small office
Standard 3 year waranty (3800's only have 1 year standard cost $150 to upgrade to 3)

Total $1936.00
with tax and shipping $2083.20
Then my 20% check back in a few months.

Had a hard time deciding betwwen this and the 8000, but decided the tried and true mobileBX chipset was the way to go, It looks like the 8000 takes about a 25% hit on battery life, but the 5000e takes a little hit on performance.

 

[Insomniac]

Here is detailed video card information for all of the Inspiron notebooks.

http://www.dell.com/html/us/compt/inspn/vcard.htm

The 5000e and 4000 have the same chip, with the difference being that you can get an additional 8 MB on the 5000. The speed and bus width remain unchanged.

 

[ninensei]

Well I did a lot of comparison shopping between the 3800, 4000, 5000e, and 8000. I was inclined to go with the 8000 because it was basically a 4000 + better display to me. But I was turned off of the 8000 because all the stuff I found indicated that you had to go with a P3 to get a 100Mhz FSB on the 8000 whereas the 3800,4000 and 5000e all ran with a 100Mhz FSB no matter what processor was intalled. That being said, if I had gone with the 8000, then I would have gotten it with a P3. Therefore, that up'ed the price.

So, looking at the 4000 (I really wanted that built-in NIC), I started to compare it to the 3800. Sans the NIC, the main differences between the 4000 and the 3800 that I could see was that the 4000 had a 128-bit data path on the video card and was a little lighter. But the price difference was $150. Considering that $150 was more than 10% of the price of the 3800, I figured that increase in video speed wasn't justified. So, I crossed my fingers and ordered the 3800.

So, what do I hope the 3800 can do? Well, its main function will be to play movies (supporting reason for lowest cost). Its second main function will be to develop software (supporting reason for the 14 in screen).

These were my calculations...
3800(600C,14TFT,64M,10G,DVD,53Whr) $1398
4000(3800 above + 128bit video) $1548
4000+(4000 above + internal NIC) $1598
8000(4000+ above + 600P3 + m3 video + 14" UXGA) $1740 approx

Ninensei

BTW- The way I got the 14.1 TFT on the 3800 was that I picked a high-end configuration (ecost code) and then downgraded it to the
configuration I wanted. I couldn't select the 14.1 TFT by starting with the cheapest ecost code configuration.