So I haz a dilemma: I'm debating whether or not to invest in a brand-new Dell laptop, which is listed as about 550$ for the base unit. It has the option of adding components and memory and such, and it also has a rather convenient payment plan option. (Even though I know they're going to rape me on interest--min interest is 9.99%).This is lovely affordable for me and my piddly income, and the 14$ a month sounds really easy to do, except that it's for the next four years. T_T I don't know if there's any early-payment penalty, and haven't found evidence stating otherwise. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with Dell, their laptops, or really anything that could help me out.
Shoulda put this in the Red Room. But seriously, I've got a Dell. I haven't had any trouble with it at all. Kirk's got a Dell as well but he had some problems with it using Firefox. He had a thread about it a while back and you might be able to dig it up or just ask him.
I don't see why this should go in the Red Room. It's a Tech Question, essentially. >_> Anywho, here's the specs with all the additions I wanted, and the total is still only 589$ (or 15$ a month! XD) Intel® Celeron® 540 (1MB cache/1.86GHz/533Mhz FSB) English Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Edition Blossom Pattern Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800) NO WEBCAM OPTION 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive) Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini-Card Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate) 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell) High Definition Audio 2.0 Microsoft Works 9. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD 1 Year Return to Depot Service and Technical Support Trend Micro Internet Security 30-day trial No ISP requested DataSafe Online Backup 3GB (included with price)Integrated Modem Integrated 10/100 Network Card Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
And the Financing Jargon: Addendum: Turns out there's no penalty for early payments, ie paying more than the minimum per month. Lucky. ^_^
True dat, but I figured that I would put it on the installment plan, and try to get it paid off in about 6 months instead of 48. Also, this is assuming that I get the minimum interest rate. (Don't see why I wouldn't though...) And also, the total paid in interest on the minimum interest rate is most definitely LESS than the cost of the 'puter itself. Not really sure how the interest works though...the payment increases per annum, right? Calculated the tax and whatnot on it, and the total, with tax and shipping is $665.57 (lawlz..so close to the lovely magickal number), which equals out to about 17$ a month. not so bad, eh?
All I intend to do with the computer is download and play music, talk on MSN, surf t3h internet, and use it for school projects and such. I'm not going to be putting too much stress on the system IMO, and I have yet to kill a computer due to sheer stupid. (Magnetism and random causeless explody excluded.) I'd really like office, but it's nothing I can't get a Korean clone of off the web or a friend. And Nick...what? O__o Your explanation was confusing. It's payment + interest (increased per annum) = Total cost , is it not?
Well, is that after 48 months with a 9.99% interest rate? I'm probably going to be putting, on average, 50-100$ per month towards it. I fully intend to work one week per month for my lappy. ^_^ And THAT should negate a lot of the interest.
Get more RAM and possibly a better processor (depending on what kind of Celeron it is, it could either suck badly, or suck horribly - I'm guessing badly based on the speed), and Vista Home Premium if it's not too much more expensive. But definitely get the extra RAM.
Yeah on the RAM. Get as much as you can afford and the system will take. Vista's a real hog. Memory is relatively cheap for the bang you get out of it. The processor options are harder to choose from. They can get really expensive. You have to balance what you want the laptop for with how long you expect to keep it. If it's going to be a while then put money into it. If you're likely to want something state-of-the-art in a few years, then save the cash now. If you can really pay it off in that short a time then you should probably tough it out for a while and then buy it outright. You could get a really, really bad deal with some of those interest rates.
A: Unless you need it now, save your dollars for the next six months and buy it. They're going to murder you on the interest, no matter how quickly you pay it off. B: Go over to Dell's Small Business store and take a gander at this: Dell Vostro 2 gigs of ram and a Core 2 Duo processor for only $30 more? The only "downgrade" is that you get XP Home, but that really isn't bad at all. Might look at paying a little more for Vista Home Premium.
That's a surprisingly good-looking laptop... reminds me of the old PowerBook G3 "Pismo", on of the greatest laptops ever made. *nostalgic sigh*. On a more technical note, I had no idea Intel made a C2D that slow.
Vista makes better use of the hardware capabilities, and will ultimately age better with the machine. XP will work, but with Vista, it ensures that it is unlikely she would ever have to upgrade the laptop to run a certain application (within reason, this thing ain't running real games, no matter what OS its running) before the laptop became wholly out of date anyway.
Well, I'm probably not going to get the lowest rate, since my credit is nil. Saving up for it is probably the best idea, though. (I'm just REALLY impatient.) I'm definately not going to be playing any games on there, and I'll guarantee you now that the only programs I'm probably ever going to use are Word (and maybe powerpoint, both of which are easily accessible to me on disk) iTunes, MSN, and Firefox. Probably not much else at all. I'd probably put XP on it, because Vista takes up a retarded amount of space, but if you think that vista is a better deal, then I'll take your word for it. That Vostro is nice enough, but not only does it not come in purple (which is a huge selling feature for me) but I can't see any difference, really. Per'aps you could esplain?
Disagree. Buy the RAM yourself elsewhere and put it in. Never buy RAM from an OEM unless you can't upgrade it yourself.
XP's fine. I just recommend Vista for new computers because it keeps things reasonably up to date. But with what you're using it for, you'll be just fine. 1. It's got a real processor. Celerons are pretty terrible, and a C2D is going to give you better performance. 2. Double the RAM. For $30, it's worth it for the RAM alone - you're not going to get a better deal for RAM than that. Additionally, doing the upgrade thing, on Dells especially, is rough, because you often have to replace all the system RAM, as they use more sticks of lesser amounts most of the time. Can't do anything about the purple, though.
Actually, Powa may be right about that... MicroCenter's got a deal on RAM right now... $18/GB for laptop memory.
Well, in that case, it does have a bit more appeal...again though, I'm pretty sure that between replacing Vista with XP, and not using it for anything particularly overtaxing, I would be willing to sacrifice the extra power for something that's pretteh. It's a girl thing.
