What do you guys think of this build? Dell Inspiron 1720

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Lakitu

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
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Well, Dell has a $345 off on Inspiron 1720's, which is what I was planning to get for college. I figure today would be a good day to get it with that deal going on, so here is what I'm thinking, what do you guys think? It comes out to $1159, that's with a 2 year warranty.

Inspiron 1720 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)

Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1

MEMORY 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz

LCD Panel Glossy, high contrast, widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440 x 900)

Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT

Hard Drive Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Optical Drive CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)

Sound Card Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition

Wireless Networking Cards Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-Card

Camera Integrated 2.0 Megapixel Webcam

Battery Options 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)

Warranty & Service 2Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support

First off, a few questions:
Is there gonna be a big difference if I go with the t9300 2.5GHz/6MB cache over the t8300? It's only like $100 more, but I don't really wanna get it if it's overkill. Also, would you guys recommend a glossy or anti-glare screen?
I know I'll prolly want a better battery, cause this is basically a desktop replacement, portability isn't a huge issue for me. The one that dell sells through their website is pretty overpriced though, I'll get a better one somewhere else.

Thanks!
 
Lakitu said:
First off, a few questions:
Is there gonna be a big difference if I go with the t9300 2.5GHz/6MB cache over the t8300? It's only like $100 more, but I don't really wanna get it if it's overkill. Also, would you guys recommend a glossy or anti-glare screen?
I know I'll prolly want a better battery, cause this is basically a desktop replacement, portability isn't a huge issue for me. The one that dell sells through their website is pretty overpriced though, I'll get a better one somewhere else.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The T9300 won't make much of a difference in most applications, although for stuff like media encoding and other CPU-intensive tasks it would help. Depending on how often you do stuff like that, the extra $100 may or may not be worth it. If you plan on mostly doing web browsing, office-type things, and the occasional(or frequent) bout of gaming as most people do, I would say it's not worth it.

As for the screen, it depends on where you'll be using the laptop. If you'll be using it indoors most of the time, the glossy screen will look better. If you'll be taking it outside or to sunny areas, the matte screen will give you better visibility. I also suggest going with a higher-res display if you can afford it; it really makes a difference with large-display laptops.

About the battery, make sure you get an official Dell one. Off-brand high-capacity batteries are often unreliable and can result in damage to the laptop.

Overall it looks like a pretty nice build, so I say go for it :).
 
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