Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

I searched and these seemed good from what I've read but I just wanted to double check so any help is appreciated.

I'm pretty much just going to use it for playing poker, writing essays and surfing the internet. I also want to watch movies/tv shows that I've downloaded on it, but I'm happy to have a massive external HD to hold all of them on.

So, the specs:

- Intel ®Pentium ®M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
- Microsoft® Windows® XP Home SP2 (I have XP pro on my desktop, do I need it on a laptop too?)
- 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
- 60GB (7.200rpm) IDE Hard Drive
- 17" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Display with TrueLife™
- Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with Software
- 64MB DDR ATI®MOBILITY™ RADEON®X300 graphics card, PCI-Express x16
- 9300 second 9-cell , 80 Whr Li-Ion primary battery (optional) (How useful will this be? I'm mainly going to be using it while it's plugged in, except in classes, and it would be nice to be able to use it for a while on a train/plane.)

Any help is appreciated. And just assume that it costs 4 times whatever is reasonable because I'm buying it in the UK.

EDIT: Btw should this go in Computer Technical Help now? I thought that was more of a troubleshooting forum but if any of the mods think it should go in that forum, please move it. Thanks.

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

I know the absolute costs are much different, but I'll assume the marginal costs between options are similar to what we pay in the US.

You can very likely save a substantial amount of money by buying ram via a 3rd party rather than from Dell. I got mine a few weeks ago and ordered a 1 gig stick of ram and put it in alongside the 256 mg base ram. It was incredibly easy, took less than 10 minutes, and gave me more ram for far less money.

I also got the additional 9 cell battery and am very satisfied with the purchase. It lasts much longer than the 6 cell, and allows me to do things like watch dvds while on long trips.

The premium graphics card rocks, and for me was definately worth the upgrade price, but if you plan on never playing video games, its probably not worth it for you. But even if you occasionally play, its probably worth taking the money you put into the second tier processor and put it in the graphics card.

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

That's the same setup I have except I have the 128MB graphics card. The cost to upgrade is marginal, $50 I think, probably worth it.

I have the 9 cell as my primary battery. Lifetime is good for poker, probably around 4 hours though I never let it go dead so I'm not quite sure. For watching DVD's, I imagine it would be a bit less. The extra batteries are expensive and you can probably get one cheaper on the net or Ebay so you might want to try it out before deciding if you need one.

Lost Wages

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

Have you considered having someone from the USA buy it with a coupon. You give them 2x what it costs instead of 4x?

I'd be willing to do this provided you send the $ first.

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

[ QUOTE ]

- 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
- 17" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Display with TrueLife™

[/ QUOTE ]

yup, thats what you need.

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

Dont buy ram from them. Get more ram at Newegg or some place like that. Dell rips ppl off on ram. You can get 1gb of ram from new egg for 100 and 1gb at dell is like 250.

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

my processor is 1.86 GHz. I think this is the only place I really could've/should've splurged a little because CPU power really is important when you have 6 tables + PT + a HUD open.

I have the standard WinXP. don't see any reason to upgrade that

get RAM off newegg. someone linked me when I made this kind of post for mine. I had no idea what I was doing but it saved me like $200 so I figured it was worth a shot. it took like 5 minutes to install

7200 rpm HDD good choice

DVD burner your choice

extended battery good idea. well worth it

altogether mine was ~$1500. it's basically yours but 1.86

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Have you considered having someone from the USA buy it with a coupon. You give them 2x what it costs instead of 4x?

I'd be willing to do this provided you send the $ first.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, I thought about this but decided I don't want to do it for various reasons (one of which was that 4 times that cost was quite a large exaggeration).

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

Thanks for the responses everyone, especially the ones about buying RAM and possibly the second battery from places other than dell.

It seems like it's easy to upgrade RAM in laptops, is it basically impossible to upgrade a processor at some point in the future? I realise I'd have to buy a new motherboard (right?) but assuming I'm competent enough to put in new RAM, would I be able to put in a new motherboard or is it not really feasible that I'd be able to do that myself? If not, would a local computer shop be able to do it for a reasonable price or would I have to send it back to dell?

Thanks again for the help everyone.

Re: Buying an Inspiron 9300 - are these specs ok?
 

good advice.

although for the stated purposes in the original post, I think he could get away with a cheaper system entirely.