Within the next month, I'll be in the market for a new laptop.
I've gotta decide between a Dell, or an HP. Now, I've heard both of them are pretty bad when it comes to customer service, but I'd rather go the build-your-own route then buying a pre-built laptop from the store. Also, I've got some coupon codes that are $400 off on a laptop $1199+, so basically I'm looking at a $1200 machine for $800, which isn't too bad at all. With each machine, I'm leaving the ram at stock, because I'd rather buy ram from somewhere then overpay for ram from the companies- I'll most likely go with 4 gigs for whichever system I get.
Here's what I put together at Dell:
It's an Inspiron 1520..
SYSTEM COLOR Jet Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition edit
DISPLAY High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440x900) edit
VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS edit
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz edit
HARD DRIVE Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive) edit
WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card edit
BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR) edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM No Webcam Option edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell) edit
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0 edit
Here's HP:
It's the dv6500z series:
Operating system Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) edit
Processor AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-64 (2.2 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache ) edit
Display 15.4" WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800) edit
Memory 1GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) edit
Graphics Card 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS edit
Personalization HP Imprint Finish (Radiance) + Microphone edit
Networking Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth edit
Hard Drive 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
Primary CD/DVD Drive LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support edit
TV & Entertainment Experience No TV Tuner w/remote control edit
Primary Battery High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery edit
Productivity Software Microsoft® Works 8.0 edit
Your additional options:
Click edit to modify. NOTE: These items are in stock and will ship immediately.
HP extended service plans 2-year HP Accidental Damage Protection with Pick Up and Return edit
The Dell has a higher resolution display, and although I don't know much about laptop processors, it seems as though the Intel is a better bet then the Athlon in the HP- and I've heard the Intel T7500 that's in the Dell is an awesome processor. The HP has a larger HDD (120 vs 160), has Lightscribe (which isn't that big of a deal to me), and the 2 year accidental warranty. Both have Bluetooth, which I'd like, and the HP has an a/b/g/n wireless card, while the Dell doesn't have N (but I don't have an N-router anyway, so...). Both systems would be a little over $800 after the discounts are applied.
Any opinions? I'm open to other systems...
