hi all looking to get a laptop, 15.6" screen, good enough for light gaming, plus the usual internet surfing etc I can pick up an Core i3-380M Dell XPS 15 4GB RAM for £609 delivered from Dell Small - mediium business Or I can get a Core i5-560M Processor Dell XPS 15 4GB RAM for £719, which is a bit steeper - also Dell Anyone have any other ideas + where to buy from? Thanks, EDIT: found a slightly better deal on Dell Small/Medium, specs are - Core™ i5-480M (2.66hz, 4Threads, 3MB cache) Memory 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM Video Card 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420M Graphics Card (good enough for med settings @ around 30fps on starcraft 2) + including windows 7, photoshop elements (its for the missus she loves that stuff) and some other crap price : £669 delivered The question is can this deal be beaten? over to you chaps, thanks EDIT: I fancy buying the i3-2310M spec XPS mentioned a couple of posts further down tonight. It would be awesome to get some positive affirmation tonight from you esteemed BTers before I do! Thanks! My main worry is - the SB chipset - should I be worried ?
As for the Dell, I have the XPS 15 with a i5 460M. I assume you have the 768p screen, it will play starcraft 2 on pretty much max at atleast 25fps. (the fps could be far higher, I don't know exact numbers as I haven't looked at what fps it plays, but it's playable and it hasn't lagged for me) Other then that, I really like the Dell, the only (minor) issue I've had is with the Optimus technology, games (GTA IV) see the intergrated only and will adjust settings to that. I wouldn't waste money on the 560M, I find it too big of a difference for the money. IF you do go for the Dell, consider getting the larger battery, even though it looks pretty clumbsy, it really makes a difference (getting 5-6 hours internet browsing on a full charge)
Funny my friend bought this today for 669. He came round with it to showboat and I must say I was very impressed. He put the new Rift MMO game on and had it nearly on max settings without AA and shadows i think. looked great and not much noise or heat that i could tell. good buy
Sandy Bridge i3-2310M for £709 delivered. 4GB RAM 250GB HDD + the 9 cell battery and photoshop included Is Sandy Bridge worth the 20 day lead time they're asking for?
I have bought lots of stuff off Dell 'Business'. They take your cash and then give yo ua delivery date they are never able to stick to. Worst example was Core i7 lappy purchased in late Nov, which was supposed to be delivered mid Dec///bad enough over 2 weeks delivery. They put it back to....wait for it....early March. I managed to get it delivered late Dec after a ball aching truckload of bother hassling them. If you can buy the machine you want from a store, instead of from Dell, do it. Otherwise expect customer service that can only be described as absolutely shite.
sorry to hear your experience with that mate, certainly food for thought i recently bought the monitor in my sig from dell small/medium and they delivered pretty quickly, they told me to expect delivery in 2 weeks, i got it in 3 days, so that was pretty pleasing. ill bear what you say in mind though, cheers
I got two monitor off them quickly too. Only when one was delivered DOA it took them 6 weeks to deliver another...Also have had stuff within 5 days. But it is a lottery, they do take the piss with some stuff..I spose large business doesn't care. Just...if you can...buy them a Dell agent...Tesco do Dell, not sure how high up the range they go.
Yeah good point mate, its swings and roundabouts, which really shouldn't be the case if your forking of hundreds of pounds to them would you say its juts with small/medium business, or dell in general that you have a distaste for?
Dell laptops are pretty solid, and the plus side is the parts are available once the warranty is up, even rare stuff, ebay is packed full of them. Dell in general, very poor customer service. You have to understand, obviously not all the stuff they deliver comes late or DOA. If it did, of course they would have gone out of business. But some does, and a disproportionately high amount. Small business are better than personal. If you are buying with an actual business name. You should be able to find what you want at a retailer though. Even stuff like Precision range.
assuming you're talking about This link: I think the Sandy Bridge is worth to wait judging by the power comsumption of desktop Sandy Bridge. Also, you get a newer gen graphics card (525M) with it. I would however, go for the i5 as the i3 doesn't have Turbo Boost (Just found a slightly better deal: This is the same spec, just with 3gb of RAM + 320gb hard drive instead of the 2gb RAM + 250gb hard drive on the link posted above.) Wow I just keep editing: this already has the i5 in it, with 4gb RAM and 320gb hard drive, saves another like £30?
Thanks for that Bartaggio - leaning strongly towards Sandy Bridge now. Presumably the chipset issues have been ironed out now ? Or was that not an issue with laptops - I must admit i didn't follow this story too closely... i5 + photoshop + 9-cell battery pushes it outside of my price range, i3-2310 should be good enough for most stuff, shouldn't it?
Okay so if anyone's interested (probably not, but whatever!) I just bought - Sandy Bridge i5-2410M 3GB RAM NVidia 525M 1GB 320GB HDD + Adobe Photoshop 8 + 9-cell battery £670 delivered (reduced from £863) seems like a decent deal 20 day lead time, though. Hope its delivered and works okay! Thanks for your help guys
I think the lead time has something to do with the new motherboards. great deal though hope you enjoy it
I just ordered an Inspiron i3 for my son. They advertised it as 'delivered in 2 days'. So after they took my cash...they send me an estimated delivery date of 24th April. Can't believe I fell for their BS again....
