It's too bad this thing expires tomorrow morning. I'd have to move money around to toss this on a card (which would take a few days), and it looks as though while they don't charge your card until the unit ships (Nov.5 in my case), they do obtain immediate authorization. As I'd be using a Visa tied to my checking account in this case (swore off of true plastic years ago), that presents a problem.
So looks like I'm out of the running, but I'll have to watch for future deals like this. Now to call the place that has my current laptop, and scream about it being gone for 6 weeks, and no progress whatsoever towards a repair, or replacement funds from USAA.
gbearbuck said:
Thanks, I also asked around the office and to a person everybody said to go with the Pentium M because it allows for a longer battery life.
What speed chip should one be looking at? Are there min. levels for certain programs?
Also I don't have wireless at home, is this something I should consider? And what products do you suggest for it?
If I do pull the trigger, I def. want to use this for digital photo's (log in digital pictures from the digital camera)... I am buying my wife a digital camera for X-mas, so I will need this stuff anyway... what suggestions do you all have...??
Also, what how big of a hard drive would one need? I would thingk 60GB would be enough... any thoughts...?
Oh, and memory... 512 enough or 1GB (a lot more $$ though)...??
As most of you know, I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff... I have some friends that are in the biz, and they advise me when it is time for this stuff... unfortunately they cannot be reached at this time...
Please help... Thanks...
I'm definitely going with the Pentium 4 processor when I'm able to buy, but that's only because 99% of the time I'm using the laptop, it will be plugged in. So battery life and weight just aren't all that serious a concern, I'd rather have the extra power. 3.4 GHz with HT, vs. 1.5-2.0GHz without. Were I going to be a mobile user at all, I would almost certainly go with the Pentium M myself. I can't speak to the speed of the M line however.
I highly recommend NetGear wireless products. Specifically their 108 Mbps wireless line. I think (had to check this for my mom yesterday) the PC card for your laptop is $34.99, and the router itself is $49.99 (after rebate, $99.99 before) from CircuitCity.com. I've had huge problems with Dell wireless networking products in the past, and would avoid those like the plague. Linksys isn't bad, but from my personal experience, NetGear blows the rest away in the common price range. I think the PC card is the WG511T, and the router is the WGT634, or something similar.
60GB HDD is fine, upgrading to the 7200rpm model might be worth it.
Personally, I wouldn't go under 1GB in RAM, but I use things like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, which can be memory hogs. I spec'd out 2GB for the box I was going to buy, but this (like much else) is a matter of how you're going to use it. I recommend 1GB (I think there's a free upgrade on some models), but you're going to be able to run just about anything with a reasonable degree of happiness at 512MB. This too comes down to whether it's worth it to you to spend the $ to upgrade, and it may very well not be.
If you do get 512MB, it would be nice if it's a single chip, as opposed to (2) 256MB chips. This would allow you to just pop in a like 512MB chip later to upgrade to 1GB.
