Did I get a good deal on this laptop?

[johnstac]

I have never bought any computing stuff on ebay but I found this laptop and couldn't pass it up. I paid $1400. Tell me what you think:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160190116129&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

 

[Maziar]

M1710 is a very good laptop but i nvery buy used items

 

[lostandwandering]

Considering a new M1710 will cost you around 3K, I think you did all right. My only complaint would be the older Core Duo CPU, but it's a faster one so it should be good.

edit: Just noticed this, they have the CPU listed a 2.4ghz and no Core Duo has that speed at stock. Ask the seller for clarification on that.

 

[johnstac]

edit: Just noticed this, they have the CPU listed a 2.4ghz and no Core Duo has that speed at stock. Ask the seller for clarification on that.

I saw that also. I asked the seller early on and he said that when entering the information on ebay. it only gave him the option to enter either a 2400 or 2000 mb processor so he selected the 2400. The other thing that bugged me was that the hard drive is only 75gb. I don't see a 75gb being offered for that model. When asked about it he said that in fact, when he bought in 1/2007, there as an option for that smaller drive. That is one of the first things I will be swapping out.

I'm just very nervous about buying used. Like Maziar mentioned, I never ever have bought used either. I build all of my own pc's to my specs and am very picky about the components I use. I don't know if many people build laptops. I have always stuck with Sony Vaio and have been happy in the past. But my current laptop is 5 years or older now. By they way, can anyone tell me what kind of performance boost I might get from my current laptop to the new one? Here are the stats:

Old Laptop:

Sony Vaio PCG-GRT
Mobile Intel P4 3.06 with HT
512 MB RAM
GeForce FX Go5600 With 64 MB Ram


New Laptop:

Dell M1710
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.33 with 4M L2 Cache 667 Mhz FSB
2GB Dual Channel 667 Mhz DDR2 Memory
GeForce Go7900 GS with 256 MB Ram

Would love to know as a percentage increase what I could expect to gain.

 

[lostandwandering]

The new one will kick the crap out of your old Sony. BTW, the seller also had the 1710 listed with a Go7950GTX, not the 7900GS. The 7950GTX is an amazing card for laptops and as of right now, has yet to be beaten by the new 8600 and 8700mGT's.

 

[johnstac]

The new one will kick the crap out of your old Sony. BTW, the seller also had the 1710 listed with a Go7950GTX, not the 7900GS. The 7950GTX is an amazing card for laptops and as of right now, has yet to be beaten by the new 8600 and 8700mGT's.

Thanks for pointing out the video card. I had assumed it was the cheaper 7900. Good to see that he did actually list the 7900GTX in the description.

 

[johnstac]

I received the laptop a couple of days ago. I was checking out the video card tonight when I realized that it has a 7900 GS card and not the 7950 GTX that was indicated in the description.

Anyone have suggestions on how to go about dealing with this? What are the odds that the seller is going to make it right? Will ebay or paypal do anything for me?

John

 

[theworminator]

Try talking to the seller, and get him to refund your money for false advertisement. It clearly says in the title description that it's supposed to be a 7950 GTX. If he refuses, bring it up with Ebay.

Ebay Dispute Help: http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/questions/dispute-resolution.html

Item not as described: http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/inr-snad-process.html

Read the second one closely, if the seller doesn't give you a refund. It'll show you how to escalate things. Hopefully that helps and you can get your money back!

Edit: URL error.

 

[johnstac]

Thanks. I filed it today. Learned a lot also. Seems that if you purchase an item from a seller who has a feedback score of less then 50, paypal limits the claim amount to $200. If the score is over 50, the claim can be as high at $2000. Information that is good to know when dealing on ebay. I always thought that the only feedback score that mattered was that of the buyer. Sellers feedback score is important as well. Worse case scenario is if this guy doesn't communicate with me or ebay, then paypal will give me $200. That won't even pay for half the cost of upgrading the video card from a 7900 GS to a 7950 GTX. He also didn't send any information about the 3 year warranty that he said he bought from Dell. Can anyone think of a way that I can get the warranty put in my name. I wonder if contacting Dell would help. Oh well. I will share more as the saga continues.

 

[tomdrum]

if you can find its serial number they might be able to check theior records for warrenty.

Its a shame that this happened, as we all fear this sort of thing when buying off ebay