Well, I'm going to be getting a new laptop for next semester, and I was looking at the XPS M1210 because I dont want something huge and that weighs a ton. So, is there anything I should know that would stop me from purchasing it? The system configuration I'll be going with is:

Intel Core2 Duo T7200 - (2.00GHz w/ 4mb L2 Cache and 667MHz Front-Side Bus)
Vista Home Premium
2GB DDR2 RAM
80GB SATA HD (7200RPM)
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go7400 TurboCache
9-cell Lithium Ion Battery
Standard Built-In 802.11a/g Wireless

- $2,179.00

Is this a good buy, or is there another manufacturer I should be looking at?

 

What are your main uses for the computer. To me the XPS was to much and I went with the 5210, I think that is the model.

Core Duo
120 Gig
2 Mb ddr
DVD burner
wireless
standard video card (don't remember but know that is was their reg. card)
15in lcd
refurbished price $690 shipped
Still get new warranty and this thing is fast
I wanted refurbed because I needed XP to run my company programs and wanted to save money at the same time.

 

i would say look at Mac, but i have a feeling that you're a PC person. if you dont do gaming or heavy video opperations then i would suggest a HP or even the Dell Inspiron's.

 

Well, I mostly chose the XPS because of its size, I dont need a huge 17" flatpanel 10lb laptop but i still want the performance that goes along with those laptops. There is a small Inspiron that i configured, but once I upgraded to the specs I wanted it was only $200 less then the XPS and it didnt have the graphics that I would like. I'm really into PC gaming, but I do most of that with my desktop...I just want a laptop with enough all-around power and speed that it will still be faily nice a few years from now (i know, not likely, but i still want it to be "descent" lol).

As for Macs, I love them, I had them when I was a kid in the 90's but I havent owned any of the new ones or had a chance to use one all that often (I use my friends Mac Books over coffee, but nothing long term). I still have my desktop and would still like an easy transfer of data (Word documents, e-mails, pictures, videos, power point, publisher documents, etc...), and I'm not really familiar with how smoothly PC's and Mac's talk to each other...ten years ago they couldnt do much together, i know they are much more "compatable" these days, I just dont know how compatable since I dont have any experience and I dont know if I want to make "the jump". I know it wouldnt take me long to get used to the OS interface, I just have no idea how all the Mac software works....

 

I would say no to an XPS laptop.....only because they have some heat issues and they're over-priced.

Dell Latitude D620

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 667Mhz Dual Core


Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media[/align][/align]
14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel[/align][/align]
2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS[/align][/align]
100GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM[/align][/align]
8X DVD+/-RW w/ Roxio Creator Dell Edition Digital Media for Vista Ultimate[/align][/align]
256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache™[/align][/align]
Dell Wirelessâ„¢ 1390 802.11g Mini Card[/align][/align][/align][/align][/align]
Standard Touchpad[/align][/align][/align][/align][/align][/align][/align]My Accessories

6 Cell Primary Battery[/align][/align][/align][/align][/align][/align][/align]
65W A/C Adapter[/align][/align]I tweaked it a little bit, but the D620's were just replaced by the D630's in April I believe.....but I've had tons of personal experience with them, and they are quite good, on par with an XPS in my opinion. In fact, one of my Battlefield 2142 friends games on his D620 with no issues.[/align][/align][/align]

*Edit*

This rang up at about $1500...

 

I have one just like you are looking at and pretty similarly equipped. I do kind of agree with the heat issue, but it's not anything to really get your panties in a knot. I have always run my laptops on a portable cooling fan unit. I brought mine to my past 2 month deployment to Guatemala and had no problems heat related. I made movies, documents and edited pictures without the computer heat being a problem even in the middle of the day.

The 9 cell battery gives you between 3 - 7 hours of run time depending on what you are using. The built in wireless G is nice. If you're in an area that there is no signal you can just turn it off on the side so it no longer searches for a signal. The size takes a little getting used to, at least for me, but now I look at those freaking huge things people tote around and laugh. I would recomend using an external mouse because I have never been a fan of the touch pad mice. I also opted for a small hard drive because I generally live off my portable external hard drive.

Any other specific question about the computer drop me a line and I'll do my best.

 

I made the mistake of buying the XPS laptop. It's not bad, but I hurt myself thinking that the Intel 128MB video card was good enough. I can't play half of my games anymore and I paid about 1800 for mine. I'm talking older games too, and I haven't bought any new games because they don't say that card exactly.

I was thinking about replacing it, but since it's a laptop, the card is integrated and I'd have to actually buy the whole motherboard.

Goodluck.

 

Thanks for all the input guys, look likes I may stay away from the XPS laptop and look at some of the other options available since I dont exactly have tons of money just laying around.

 

The two things I'll tell you to look at with any laptop is this.....get the best video card you can get & get the most in-system memory you can. Most laptops are using fairly similar processors as far as speed, so focus on things that you may have to look at down the road.

Video cards cant be upgraded, and youmay as well start out with as much system memory as you can get.

This may sound crazy, and I'm not one to suggest Gateway's, but my brother's wife got a really good deal on a pretty good loaded Gateway from Best Buy. Just shop around and see what you can turn up. Most places these days offer some kind of in-store credit card or financing options......so look into that as well.

 

Memory and video card were my main concerns as well, which is why I initally looked at the XPS laptop (assuming that the all-powerful "XPS" would have the best video cards and most memory...I was wrong). I'm not really concerned with processor speed, but I couldnt let myself buy a processor with 2mb of L2 when there was an option for 4mb of L2 for the same laptop for not much more cost.

HD size isnt a concern at all, but I wont settle for a 5400RPM even if its 120GB+. An 80GB hardrive at 7200RPM is plenty of space for me since I'll still have my dsesktop holding my movies, music, and other media...My budget is right around $2k, but obviously, if I can spend less its always better.

My parents bought a 17" Gateway laptop from Besbuy a few months ago, and it has been horrible. Within the first two months the internal wireless card had failed, and another month later the entire system crashed. So I would rather stay away from them, no matter how cheap they are. It had a Pentium Core2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, on-board graphics, 120GB HD, and some other features all for $800...