I’ve been without a laptop for a few months now and I’m missing it. I know that Penryn came out fairly recently, so I don’t think we’ll see anything CPU-related from Intel for a bit. Are there any other major tech milestones in the near future for laptops?
I’m thinking about getting a fairly nice Inspiron, but I don’t want to sink money into something that’s going to be obsolete by the end of summer.
Thanks!
Not sure how many laptops dell has slapped penryn in yet. What’s your price range?
$1500-1700. I’m looking for a decent traveling desktop replacement.
I bought a 17" Sony VAIO VGN-AR730 Centrino Core 2 Duo (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8718257&st=sony+vaio&type=product&id=1200702543178) before Christmas, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. I use it as my main web development machine: Java, Office, Photoshop, etc. I don’t use it as a gaming platform, though.
HP had a coupon code last week for $500 a $1400 or more purchase. With the code you could snag something along the lines of:
17" WXGA+
Penryn 2.5 Ghz 6 MB L2 Cache
3 GB RAM
250 GB HDD
nVidia 8600M
For around $1000.
Unfortunately the code’s dead, but it’s not unlikely they’ll run another similar discount sometime during April.
I think Dell’s end of quarter insanity will be in April, too, so I’m thinking about a month from now is a good time to look.
Everyone still in love with the M1330?
I just configured a Dell Vostro 1700 with some amazing specs:
All for $1,572, after a $500 coupon. Hard drive, OS, warranty all upgradeable. Here’s the link without the upgrades.
A 15" alternative would cost $200 less.
If you want a 17" with Blu-Ray and a bigger drive, you could go for their Inspiron 1720 using their 30% of $1299+ coupon (LG4SRSV8S2KCV0). Total cost came out to $1,647.
<cultofjobs>Macbook Pro!</cultofjobs>
We need more folks like this gettin’ out there and spendin’ and making America great agin!
It’s worth noting that those dell 17" machines are HUGE and HEAVY. My brother has an inspiron 1720 (which is the same as the vostro only not black).
He said 1500 bucks. Not 2500.
He said $1500-1700. My macbook pro only cost $1800CAD, and I bought one of the new ones with the Penryn processors.
edit: I should mention that was after the education discount, and I’m not even a student (anymore).
Man, you seriously might want to consider cancelling and ordering with the current HP deal:
$500 off a $1399+ order. Also free shipping.
I just configured an exactly $1399 PC as follows:
T9300 2.5 Ghz 6MB Cache
2 GB RAM
Vista Home Premium 64-bit
17" 1440X1050
Geforce 8600M 512MB
Wireless-N and Bluetooth
8x DVD-RW
250 GB HD
8-cell battery
After coupon 899.00. HP has a 3% cashback deal with fatwallet, so if you have a free account through them you can stack that as well to save another ~$30 or so.
Coupon code is limited use - it just posted up today, but probably will be used up in the next day or two.
Wow!
12% discount with Dell or $500 off HP…
You can find MacBook Pro’s on Amazon for $1500 after rebate right now.
You might want to check out this Gateway:
http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529667881.php
It was recently reviewed at Anandtech. CPU and harddrives are easily replaced and it comes with a GO 8800 GTS (~9600GT for desktops). With a base unit down around $1400, it’s pretty good value.
Yeah, the viao with the blu-ray is big and heavy, and has a crappy keyboard, but is pretty much the ultimate multimedia machine with the worlds easiest dual mon support. I pop in my hdmi cable to make my TV the second mon, and hit play on the blu-ray edition of blade runner and enjoy. The microphone went crazy after a while though…
Pulled the trigger on the Dell XPS 1530. It amounted to a 33% discount. Free shipping too.