Dell Laptop Advice

SolidSqual

Guys,

My fiance's mother needs a cheap laptop ASAP for school. (I know there is better, but I'm limited on time) She will be using a dual screen function that mirrors her desktop on a projector for the class. Her primary programs will be Word, PowerPoint and FireFox. The computer I've listed below has Windows 7, but only 3 gigs of RAM. Is that enough to run all these programs at once and the OS?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=1218150607301&type=product

Regards,

Mike

Kex

IMO, yes totally (and it's a good choice too IMO, even if BAF is going to disagree in a minute). Both my kids have Compaq computers similar to the Inspiron you're looking at running W7 and only 2GB of RAM. My conclusion: W7 is certainly the best Microsoft O.S. since W2K, and it's much faster than any of the previous, during startup especially (less than 60 seconds, IIRC).

It's also more secure IMO, especially because of the requirement for a password to run administrative tasks. The two Compaq units above have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, and it doesn't slow them down. It's a free download and seems to work well. IMO, it's a better option than any of the paid or free options available for normal computing use.

I honestly don't see how you could go wrong with that choice. If you decide, after six months or so, that extra RAM would be better, it will much cheaper to swap out one of the RAM modules then, rather than try to pay for 4GB new now. Finding them on amazon.com is a breeze too.

Best of luck!

http://www.microsoft.com/security/products/mse.aspx

PerfectCreature

You can find better for around the same price, but I wouldn't stress on it.
The specs of the laptop are fairly good. It's not your gaming laptop but it will be just fine what she needs.
I'd go ahead and buy you will not be disappointed most of the reviews are students and they seem to have dealt just fine.
The processor speed could be a little better but as I said for what she needs I wouldn't stress on it.
You can always buy the protection plan so that if it does malfunction (one example said the mouse pad cracks up sometimes) It will be completely covered.

+1 for the laptop.

John30_30

SolidSqual wrote: »

Guys,

My fiance's mother needs a cheap laptop ASAP for school. (I know there is better, but I'm limited on time) She will be using a dual screen function that mirrors her desktop on a projector for the class. Her primary programs will be Word, PowerPoint and FireFox. The computer I've listed below has Windows 7, but only 3 gigs of RAM. Is that enough to run all these programs at once and the OS?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=1218150607301&type=product

Regards,

Mike

Those are not high-process apps, Mike, unless you count leaving Firefox with 8 tabs open for a few days(memory hog).
The big breakdown problems Dell, HP, and Apple laptops (and everyone else) had over the past few years were due to inferior Nvidia integrated graphics processors running hot. Even though it was Nvidia's bad, the OEM's took and are still taking the heat.
To their credit, Apple manned up and did a recall/fix, which the other OEM's have not done, that I know of.
Myself, I've got a 2 1/2-year old Dell D630 with Nvidia, but I made sure I got the dedicated GPU, and I haven't seen any heat issues.

A quick look at yours indicates it has integrated Intel GPU on an all-Intel board, so that clears that particular issue.
If you're ordering it online, I'd check with SquareTrade about an extended warranty.

Also, unless Dell bend you over for it, I'd go the extra gig of RAM, although she really shouldn't be hurting without it. 3 gigs for that combo sounds plenty capable.

If you have time to hunt, Fry's and Buy.com have some killer laptop deals, but more shlepping for deals may just get you confused. It does me, and I love shopping for computers.
Just about every laptop out there has the VGA external port for things like video-out to another screen, so she should be good there. Hopefully she can get a good deal or free Office through her school for Word and Powerpoint- if not, that laptop has a pretty decent price on that, or she can try OpenOffice (it's freeware), which has equivalent of both Word & Powerpoint.

SolidSqual

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the advice. I purchased the laptop a few hours ago and already have it running Office Professional 2010 and my fiance's mothers' teaching software. It's all moving pretty quickly, especially compared to the old Lenovo she previously owned. Everyone is a happy camper.

Thanks again,

Mike

Kex

Good for you! Like I said earlier: I fail to see how you could possibly go far wrong with that ... and you can always add RAM later, but I don't think you'll really need it for those tasks. I always add it anyway, eventually (for added peace of mind mostly), when it becomes cheap enough not to matter.

The main difference I noticed between older Microsoft O.S. and W7 is that the others would all be quite fast at first, but gradually get slower and slower until it took several minutes to boot up, especially once all the security software was added. This has not been true of W7 ... I really think it's a good O.S., and I've never really liked Windows before.