Broke down and ordered a new laptop

-- Inspiron 1420N --
-- Intel® Core蒂 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)
-- [223-1345]
-----------------------
-- System Color --
-- Jet Black
-- [320-5524]
-----------------------
-- Memory --
-- 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
-- [311-7253]
-----------------------
-- LCD Panel --
-- High Resolution, glossy widescreen 14.1 inch display (1440x900)
-- [320-5521]
-----------------------
-- Video Card --
-- 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8400M GS
-- [320-5496]
-----------------------
-- Hard Drive --
-- Speed: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
-- [341-4866]
-----------------------
-- Operation System --
-- Ubuntu Linux version 7.10 with DVD Playback
-- [420-7901]
-----------------------
-- Integrated NIC and Modem --
-- Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
-- [430-0493]
-----------------------
-- Optical Drive --
-- 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
-- [313-5277]
-----------------------
-- Sound Card --
-- Integrated High Definition Audio
-- [313-4783]
-----------------------
-- Wireless Networking Cards --
-- Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card
-- [430-2334]
-----------------------
-- Camera --
-- No Camera
-- [320-5523]
-----------------------
-- Primary Battery --
-- 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
-- [312-0540]
-----------------------
-- Warranty & Service --
-- 2Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support


Set this all up with a $400 off coupon from a friend and with shipping and tax it was just over $1000. But I needed a new laptop since my Latitude 100L died a couple weeks ago. but I was outgrowing that laptop, the single core P4 2.8 was just not able to keep up with my multitasking. So tell me what you guys think of what I have setup here. I plan on ordering 4Gb of memory for it on Newegg so before everyone says that more memory will help in my multitasking. I also plan on only running Linux on the laptop and will probably be running XP in a VM session.

Looks nice. Unless you needed to put the cost up to get the $400 off, I would have bought the hard drive separately somewhere else and used the one that it came with in an enclosure.
I hope you're intending to buy more ram elsewhere? With the price of ram nowadays, i'd boost that baby to 4GB.

The laptop will scream

You won't even believe how slow your P4 was before. Battery life on these Inspirons are amazing too! Mine with the 8600M GT still easily does 4hours surfing. A good 90minutes playing Portal LOL!

Yeah, I didn't think about upgrading the hard drive from elsewhere and just upgrading the warranty to get up to a price where I could use the coupon. But I do fully plan on upgrading this to 4gb of ram. and with it being dual core i am going to dedicate one core to a VM session for Windows XP and 1Gb of memory.

yeah nice other than the ram, but its better / cheaper to do it afterwards.

Finally got my new laptop on Monday and the 4Gb memory upgrade on Tuesday. I absolutely love this new system. I did have one issue though and I think it may have been bad ram, but initially when running on the original ram I would lock up on occasion but Haven't had that problem since I put the New Ram in. But I can run XP in VirtualBox with 1Gb of ram dedicated to it and do my work related stuff in it along with everything else in Linux and barely even make the system strain.

synthetic_fenix said:

Finally got my new laptop on Monday and the 4Gb memory upgrade on Tuesday. I absolutely love this new system. I did have one issue though and I think it may have been bad ram, but initially when running on the original ram I would lock up on occasion but Haven't had that problem since I put the New Ram in. But I can run XP in VirtualBox with 1Gb of ram dedicated to it and do my work related stuff in it along with everything else in Linux and barely even make the system strain.

Click to expand...

Awesome!!!

Dell has really impressed me recently after such bad press in the past. These new laptops are built well and the performance is great.