Experiences with Dell Laptops?

[particleman]

I'm pretty close to buying a Dell Inspiron 1100 and I was wondering if anyone has some Inspiron 1100 or general Dell laptop experiences they'd like to share.

I found a deal for $250 off so the price is right, but it only comes with a Celeron- Pentiums aren't part of the deal.

Here are the main specs: Celeron @ 2 GHz, 20 GB drive, 256 MB, 15" display, 24X CDRW/DVD combo, XP Home, 1 yr warranty/1 yr mail-in, no floppy. Final price will be $725.

thoughts?

pm

[Rick_E]

We've had fives Dells and an Inspiron since 1998. All have run flawlessly.

Recommendations:

Buy the largest HD you can comfortably afford. Eventually the HD fills up and they're not easily or cheaply replaced.

Windows XP really likes 512 RAM, however you can easily add RAM later.

[bdoc]

I've worked with pretty much every Dell notebook series they've had recently (employed with a notebook refurbishing company, namely: http://www.auctionnotebooks.com) and from my experience Dell notebooks are my personal favorite.

The Inspiron 1100 can be a great computer for someone - but keep in mind that you get what you pay for. The 1100 is the low-end affordable series notebook. It sports SHARED memory (Max of 512MB) and is limited to an integrated Intel video card. Basically, don't plan on playing new computer games on it. It's also in their "Desktop Replacement" category, meaning that it will be a little heavier than others - which may not matter to you.

My recommendations: If you really don't need or care to play alot of newer games this would be perfect for you. I would, however, recommend spending the money to buy the high end battery.

[particleman]

Exactly. Gaming and video flexibilty are not very important to me. I need basic Office functionality, email, internet, and enough power to run a few apps at once (Dreamweaver, Winamp, IE, Outlook, WS FTP, etc.) I can accept the weight penalty- it more than makes up for it with cost.

Buying more RAM is on the agenda, though apparently I had my stats wrong with the HD. It's actually 30 GB, so I think i should be ok for a while.

thanks,
pm

[tbonekkt]

I own a Latitude LS. I'm extremely satisfied with it.

My only concern with your specs is the Celeron processor. It may be worth the extra money to get a P4.

Just my $.02 though.

[bdoc]

Now that I think about it, you might want to wait for a while - Dell's been doing their $699 notebook promo on and off all summer, but that's no garuntee that it'll be back.

I held off on promo's too long when I bought my Axim.... lost out on saving $20!