Bought a Dell Laptop. Need advice

[Rookie_80 10+ year member]

Bought from BestBuy. Is it any good? (I can still return it).

My main concern is video card. It says:

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 integrated graphics with up to 256MB as allocated by Windows Vista; high-definition 2.0 audio; S-video output. how bad is it?

I bouhght coz it was on $499 deal+plus i applied $100 gift card that i had no use for.

any better deals out there for brand new Dual core, 2gb ram laptops?

any input is appreciated.

here are some specs?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8760879&productCategoryId=abcat0502001&type=product&tab=2&id=1202650401237#productdetail

Click to read more...

 

[Rookie_80 10+ year member]

Anybody?

 

[crunktimes.com 5,000+ posts]

It's a cheap $500 there is not really much to say should be fine for browing the net, email and maybe a few older games if that is all you are looking for.

Best thing you could do for it is do a fresh OS install without all the extra shit Dell installs which is probably using a lot of your memory.

 

[DaGh0st 5,000+ posts]

meh it was a $500 dell what do you thimk...i have a 500 HP its prety nice no compliants other then it will never be a hardcore gameing machine.

 

[CRXBMPN 5,000+ posts]

basically your RAM is going to be used "up to 256mb" for your video card, since you do not have a dedicated video card on your motherboard (its built in)

IDK if it will hurt or not but hey I bet it is faster than the laptop I'm on right now //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif (dell inspiron 9300)

 

[Rookie_80 10+ year member]

I guess you guys are right and after all its a laptop for my gf

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

Looks fine to me, although obviously the integrated graphics is useless for HD video and any 3D applications like games.

The first thing I would do is start uninstalling all the junk Dell loads on, use the Vista tweak guide on blackviper's site, swap McAfee out for Kaspersky or NOD32, and bump up the memory to 4 GB.

 

[Rookie_80 10+ year member]

Looks fine to me, although obviously the integrated graphics is useless for HD video and any 3D applications like games.
The first thing I would do is start uninstalling all the junk Dell loads on, use the Vista tweak guide on blackviper's site, swap McAfee out for Kaspersky or NOD32, and bump up the memory to 4 GB.

I'll let her use it for a while as it is.

Weird thing-never done it myself: where do i get MS office: do i have to buy it or is there another way?

 

[tee 10+ year member]

Any kind of graphics made my Intel sucks.

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

I'll let her use it for a while as it is.Weird thing-never done it myself: where do i get MS office: do i have to buy it or is there another way?

There's always another way ... it's just not legal ...
Arrr, matey !

 

[tommyk90 5,000+ posts]

Seems pretty darn good for $500.

Dual core, 2 gigs of ram, vista home premium, dvd burner. What else could you really need?

I'd do what everyone else said, get rid of all the crap that dell puts on there. My laptop (pretty much the same as that one, just an older model) has McAfee and it's a pain in the ***. Luckily I only really use it when travelling or for the termlab.

 

[Terranova 10+ year member]

not a bad laptop, but integrated graphics and vista do not mix. you cant put vista on integrated graphics and be able to use it without problems. vista is a resource hog just get rid of a lot of the shit dell has put on there and try to force 256mb for the video memory at all times or you will have some issues like slow/hang/unresponsive type situations with it. put another gig of ram in there just to be on the safe side. you cant use 4 gigs unless it has the 64-bit edition of home premium (which i HIGHLY doubt it does) so you can only really use 3 gigs. there are kernel hacks and what not to support 4 gigs but its a pain in the *** //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Rookie_80 10+ year member]

not a bad laptop, but integrated graphics and vista do not mix. you cant put vista on integrated graphics and be able to use it without problems. vista is a resource hog just get rid of a lot of the shit dell has put on there and try to force 256mb for the video memory at all times or you will have some issues like slow/hang/unresponsive type situations with it. put another gig of ram in there just to be on the safe side. you cant use 4 gigs unless it has the 64-bit edition of home premium (which i HIGHLY doubt it does) so you can only really use 3 gigs. there are kernel hacks and what not to support 4 gigs but its a pain in the *** //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

yeah i didn wanna go with vista but they told me i'd lose my warranty immidiately if try to unistall Vista and install XP.

overall i looked for coupla weeks but coudnt find a btteer deal as Tommyk stated.

dual core, 2gb of ram, 160 and its still going for lil 750-800 on Dell's site after you customize to my settings.

and i got it for $649 (initial price) - $150 (bestbuy sale) - 100 (giftcard) + 42 (tax) = $441

so i went ahead and opened it today.

 

[Terranova 10+ year member]

well its looks to be a good deal //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif what you could do is reinstall xp but leave the recovery partition on the computer so if something happens to it just have it revert back to the original factory installation/settings.

 

[Rookie_80 10+ year member]

well its looks to be a good deal //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif what you could do is reinstall xp but leave the recovery partition on the computer so if something happens to it just have it revert back to the original factory installation/settings.

well that's what im thinking of doing.