just GREAT dell, GREAT

[beeblebobble]

I am crestfallen. Literally. My back to school notebook I've been shopping for for several weeks I had finally configured in the form of a dell E1705. The specs went a little something like this:

Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2400 (1.83GHz)
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
Windows XP Home
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year At-Home Service plus Nights &Weekend

all for $1310. Free shipping.

For me, this was perfect. Great, clear screen, nice graphics horsepower, and a good warranty to last through college.

WEEEELL it looks like as of 6:00 AM CST this frickin morning, the coupon is dead and the price for that same system as I configured it is up to the tune of $1580. Oh, but they threw in a FREE PRINTER to cover the difference after revoking the offer.

They had been offering the 750 of 1999+ systems coupon since back in June. My question is, does anybody know what the chances are of the coupon coming back? When dell coupons die, have they ever been resurrected in the past? Or am I completely f*cked in the @$$ and stuck paying nearly $300 more now (and I already pleaded with two different Dell reps, who both told me "offers are subject to change without prior notice", i.e., "tough luck mothaf*cka".

And, on a side note, can anyone point me in the direction of a similar system (with a similar pricetag of ~$1300) to the one I had configured? What really got me about the e1705 was that I was getting a nice 17" screen and a Geforce 7900 generation mobile gpu AND a 3 year warranty all for just over 1300, which was a TRUE deal, unlike this new "20% off all inspiron 999 and up" piece of SH!T deals they just put out today.

Any help/advice/condolences I thank you for in advance.

I hate Dell.

 

[AkitoBob]

Not to be crass, but this is entirely your fault unless the coupon expired earlier than it states (which, like most dell deals, doesn't say when itll expire).

That said, don't worry. Dell deals are insane and frequent. My sister bought her e1505 back in the beginning of Q2 with a 750 off deal. However, since that was their "back to school" deal, it might be a while before you see 750.

Now, something as nice as you specced ... that I have not seen. Then again, I pondered long and hard over ordering the e1705 with the GS and everything when it was on sell and decided not to. My own personal reason was the belief that heat issues would arise. I would instead look at KillerNotebook, sager, acer, and asus.
MAKE SURE YOU READ UP ON EACH MODEL.
After doing research into buying my own laptop (which i have yet to buy since I'm waiting for Core 2 Duo to hit) I've realized that each brand can be hit or miss with particular models.

I would check out places such as http/www.notebookforums.com/ in order for you to know what possible problems you might run into when you buy a specific notebook.

 

[beeblebobble]

Well, I might just bite the bullet and pay for the damn thing anyway. I looked at the brands you mentioned, AkitoBob, and the best I could find were upwards of $1500 with x1600's and 15.4" screens. I have to admit that even with Dell's ungodly price hike, the e1705 is the only 17" core duo notebook with a 7900 GS that I can find under 2000, let alone under 1600.

But I'm certainly not buying ANYTHING right this minute. I'm gonna sit back and wait a couple weeks just in case something new comes along (if Dell marketing reps realize what a$$holes they are and stop upping prices to appease their expensive coke habits). I'm not gonna order till 2 weeks before leaving for college probably (doesnt dell have some 12 calendar day delivery guarantee?), around August 25, just to leave every inch of possibility at paying a more reasonable price.

Thanks anyway

and P.S. what was the specific nature, AkitoBob, of the heat issues that steered you away from the e1705? Was it worry about the laptop being physically hot and uncomfortable like resting in your lap, or was it worrying that the gpu would lock up and/or system hardware would weaken/fail over time?

 

[AkitoBob]

Not really issues so much as fear. The inspiron series were designed primarily for integrated graphics with the ablity to add gfx cards. Now... the x13,14, and 1600 dont really generate all that much heat. But a 7900GS? Even though it is the low wattage, low thermal high end card, I would be afraid that a case design for low low low end cards was put to work for a 7900GS.

Now, I've heard good things about the XPS's which never freaking go on sale. Then again, they were designed for high end graphics and temps, not the Inspirons. I personally have not found anybody to say that it was a problem, then again I've only found 2 reviews with the e1705 and one of them had the low end card in it and the other admitted to heat issues (not dramatic, just more than s/he expected).

edit: wow, way not to answer your question. I'm afraid of the latter; BSOD and such.

 

[ap90033]

I have the E1705 with 7900GS
Heat hasnt been an issue. I run the Dell fan utility IK8FanGUI and set the fans to kick full in if the GPU gets above 60C rather than have the bios do it at something like 78C. Easy to do. I am going to a LAN Party the 18th of this month and it is an all nighter but I expect no issues. 8)

 

[beeblebobble]

Thanks for the heads up on the fan utility, I'm somewhat new to the forums and have been wondering what people use to monitor + control their cpu/gpu temps. The faq on the IK8FanGUI website mostly talks about cpu control, but it sounds like it works on the gpu too? And with the full-on at 60C setup the original fans are sufficient, so no external cooling solutions necessary?

I went ahead and bought the machine for 1576, basically the same one as described in my first post except went with a 1.73 GHz cause I eventually want to upgrade to Core 2 (does that void dell's warranty btw?). But I was still somewhat worried about the heat problems so thank you for filling me in on a solution.

 

[ap90033]

I payed Call of Duty 2 at native res 1900x1200 last night max settings (Except running dx7) for several hours and temps for video were 65C at the highest. Temps to me seem fine.

As far as the warranty on the cpu I dont know to be honest.