Ok, so I am looking for a computer for a friend on Dell’s website. I usually tell people to use them because they have the best warranty out there and if they are getting a laptop or taking a desktop to a dorm, you want the best damn warranty you can get. Usually, the three year complete care warranty is the best. You break it, or some asshat spills their guava-mango margarita on your keyboard you can get it replaced/fixed for free. Take it up to your local Dell shop, and they do the fancy fingerwork (on a keyboard, sicko) that will get your parts usually within a couple days. Sometimes, if you are lucky, or you slip the guy $10 he will even install the parts for you, ahh commerce.

Back to the subject at hand…I am building a computer online. I decided to start with what looked like their Home and Home Office base model (inpiron 1501), and then opened a new tab for each of the starting price ranges for that model. $499, $599, and $699. Dell has started putting a crazy warranty offer at the beginning of the process of building the machines. SKIP THAT. You don’t need it and you will have the option of ordering those things later, without getting all the extra crap you will never use. Then I proceeded to build an exact copy of the same laptop starting at the different price ranges. On the first one, I chose the bigger screen, the lowest RAM (1GB) and the middle HD (80GB). On the second two, I chose the lowest of everything. On all three, I chose the aforementioned3-year complete care warranty, and the required matching Service Parts and Labor Warranty.

The $499 computer became $903

The $599 computer become $908

The $699 computer became $1008

What was the difference between these computers?

Lowest:

PROCESSOR Mobile AMD Sempron™ 3500+ (1.8GHz/512KB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
MEMORY FREE! 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
HARD DRIVE 80GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
OPTICAL DRIVE 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
VIDEO CARD ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Audio
BATTERY OPTIONS 29 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)

Middle:

PROCESSOR AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-53
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
MEMORY FREE! 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
HARD DRIVE 80GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
OPTICAL DRIVE 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
VIDEO CARD ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Audio
BATTERY OPTIONS 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)

Highest:

PROCESSOR AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-53
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
MEMORY 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
HARD DRIVE Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
OPTICAL DRIVE 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
VIDEO CARD ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Audio
BATTERY OPTIONS 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)

So, from the above you can see that the cost difference from Lowest -> Middle is $5, what can you get for $5!? A better battery:

53Wh vs. 29Wh

and a better processor:

Mobile AMD Sempron™ 3500+ (1.8GHz/512KB) vs. AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-53.

From Middle to Highest?

More RAM:

1GB vs. 2GB

More HD space:

80GB vs 120GB

And a better (??) wireless card:

Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps) vs. Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)

What have we learned here today? Don’t trust Dell! Yes, and No. What I would say is that you should definitely shop around, and consider what is important to you. If processing speed and storage are important and that last $100 isnt going to kill your pocket book, I would say go for the last one, wear the thing out, and get your parts replaced every 2 months (earn that $300 warranty). Actually, no matter what you get from them, get that warranty and don’t worry about protecting the lappy like its an egg…treat it like a toughbook. Use the thing to level out your dining room table, instead of putting your car on blocks, put it on laptop. Got a frisbee, don’t need one, Dude, you got a Dell, Flip it here. Use it as a cutting board, drink holder, sit on it when the seat is dirty, and don’t worry about the guy in the dark alley. Use your Dell Laptop to protect you, it probably weighs 8 lbs anyways, and 8 lbs of plastic and metal upside your head will hurt pretty bad.

Moral1: Dell buys/manufactures all their parts for as little as possible. If you don’t get the warranty you might as well take your wallet out and burn it right now. You will be replacing parts, if you don’t why did you get a laptop, it never leaves your desk.

Moral2: Shop around the site, what you think is expensive may be a ruse to make you go for the cheap one, which turns out to be REALLY expensive.

For my next trick, I set them all three up with everything and see the difference.

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