DescentBB

I'm looking at buying a Dell Inspiron w/ XP for surfing and multitasking. Lots of utilities running but no gaming, video editing and the like.

The first processor is standard. Should I bump it up a bit.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4600 (2MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,800 FSB) [Included in Price]
============================================= Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E8200 (6MB L2 Cache,2.66GHz,1333FSB) [add $50 or $1/month1]
=============================================
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB) [add $100 or $3/month1]
Dell Recommends
==============================================
Intel® Core™2 Q9300 Quad-Core (6MB L2 cache,2.5GHz,1333FSB) [add $200 or $6/month1]

Also going for 2GB of RAM. Is that enough?

And last but not least how about the video card.

Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 [Included in Price]
================================================
nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB [add $60 or $2/month1]
=================================================
ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 128MB [add $60 or $2/month1]
Dell Recommended (includes Blu-ray support)
==================================================
Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB [add $150 or $4/month1]

If you’re going to do any kind of graphics work, I would suggest a video upgrade.

Either one of these?

nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB [add $60 or $2/month1]
=================================================
ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 128MB [add $60 or $2/month1]
Dell Recommended (includes Blu-ray support)

Nice rig, are you gonna install Linux on it since it will only run utilities?

I prefer nVidia…but that’s just me. Also I’m not up on what’s available right now. Let some others advise you.

Na, just XP at this point.

I'll end up giving this to my wife when Windows 7 or something comes out in the futeure.

My comp is getting outdated but have been waiting for Vista but....I'm going to wait and buy another machine when the next good os comes out from MS.

Is that an oxymoron?

Good OSs from MS seem to skip every other generation…

Well whats your price range? and the screen size you want?

I do tech support for dell, a huge amount of people i work with buy systems from the outlet.

Ive seen alot the business systems to be the better deal then the Inspiron systems.

Well Mr Twinkie, my price range is around $700 and I don't need a monitor.

Don't see any units that I'm looking for. But that's good info.

I have a friend who's looking for a laptop for his daughter so I'll have him look there also. Thanks.

Well when i ment screen size i ment lcd screen size, not external, a co-worker of mine just got a vostro 1400 for about $500 with some pretty decent specs.

Get the E8200 CPU, it can be easily upgraded later if required, and dual core should be more than sufficient for most uses.

Also if \"graphics\" work means \"photoshop\" than just get the cheap nvidia card, if required later you can swap it for a much better card.

Although upgrading stuff later might require replacing the PSU if you were to do it since dell usually puts in the cheapest and smallest unit possible that can still operate the system.

ya the vostro 1400 has a 8400 in it, which isnt top of the line, but it get the job on some older games and photoshop.

it's on the way, thanks.

What model did you end up ordering?

Inspiron 530,Intel Core2 Duo processor E8200 (2.66GHz,1333FSB) w/Dual Core Technology and 6MB cache
3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8300GS
500GB Serial ATA II Hard Drive(7200RPM)

Everything else stock. No monitor.