Dell Inspiron experiences, anyone?

I never thought I would do this, but I am actually seriously considering buying not only a new computer, but a Dell! (A notebook, of course; my desk keeps moving closer and closer to the window, so it would probably be easier to just eliminate the stationary aspect of it). Laptops seem quite diffent beasts than desktops. The completely off the shelf ones tend to be unnecessarily expensive. The ones that aren't are either married for life to Spiderman, or rather ugly / big.

The one that seems to give me the most even performance, while also being reasonably thin (compared to early 90s laptops, at any rate), is the Inspiron series -- particularly the 1520.

After getting past their convoluted customization system, which seems to choose whether I can have an anti-reflective screen based on how I click the "customize" button, and which will not let me not use their web servers for online backup, I think I found a reasonable system within my expectations that could replace the sluggish desktop I have now. (I also hate anything-in-1 card readers, since no matter how many formats they do, they will be obsolete within the year. Ah well...)
Before I pass my money over to Dell, I'd better seek out some opinions.



The graphics card sounds pleasing, and battery life definitely beats my desktop (4 seconds via a nice surge protector). I ended up going with the glossy screen, since the non-glare one apparently gives a fuzzier picture than I would have hoped. Chose the smaller resolution, too, since if I really want something fancy, I can use the DVI output and my slightly larger external display. Then again, high pixel density looks very pretty...

One spot I'm definitely a bit worried about is sound. Has anyone had dealings with that integrated sound card? Again, their customization process hates me; all their comparison sheets mention a nice, discrete sound card, but the only choice I have is the one integrated solution and a very unnecessary sounding software layer. Of course, to rub it in, their comparisons made the cards I can't choose due to my inexperience with their labrynth of a web site sound 50 times better than the one I am stuck with. I'm not a big sound person, but I do hope to play with sound a lot in the coming year, particularly via recording and processing input in real time.

Any thoughts / experiences welcome!
Thanks :)

According to my MacBook Pro, the 8600M GT is just slightly more powerful than my (badly aging) gaming rig's 256mb GF6800 GT.
(which is pretty damn good for a laptop imo)

I have had several Inspiron laptops, and have had zero problems with them. My co-worker had one that the screen went dead on, but Dell replaced it for him.

I have not used one of the newer models (Mine is approaching 4-5 years old now) but I have never run into a problem. Blitz stuff runs great on it. I've always kept to the models that had GeForce cards.

Take a look at the refurbished models too. Often you can get a brand new model and save a few $100. that is how I've bought mine the last few times. It just means you might have to wait a few days for the right model/features to come around.

Thanks for the suggestion, Pongo!
Unfortunately, it seems that refurbs only happen in the States :(

I got the Inspiron 1720 a few weeks ago and love it. 17" screen, 1920x1200, 8600GTM, 2Gb Ram absolutely stunning for £800. You can read a few posts about it on my blog.

Vista on the other hand.... blog post about that too ;)

For Dell refurbs in the UK follow the Dell Outlet link below. I got a fantastic deal on a Workstation from Outlet a few years ago. Stock is limited though as you'd expect, you need to check regularly and pounce when something good turns up.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=uk&cs=&l=en&s=dfo&~ck=betafrbsd&~ck=mn

They're lucky that I feel patient this week. The Dell web site is horrifying!
Accounts can only be logged in to from a single country, and to make matters worse, it can't seem to decide whether I want the Canada site or the US site. I keep losing configurations and being unable to do things (or tricked into thinking things are possible) because it inexplicably switches me over to the US, not informing me until it tells me that I must log in yet again.

I had an inspiron that kept on freezing no matter what. Support was terrible, took much effort to get a refund.

I have had 3 inspirons. All were the highest end systems they had at the time (including the XPS Gen 2) and I loved each and every one of them. They were solid performers and ran good benchmark times. Granted I did get the best of the best stuff in each of them, but I only had a problem with one (the XPS). I told them the motherboard was dead and I had to go through a few goofy tests that only proved what I had already told them. They had a guy out the next day to replace the motherboard, and unfortunately he didn't have the right stuff so it took a few more days. But he did get it fixed within a week or two (can't remember exactly).

In short... I'd recommend an inspiron.

I've got an Inspiron 6400. It's certainly no worse than any other laptop you'd buy, and probably better than most in the same price range.

So sure. For the money it costs, I'd recommend an Inspiron, if you haven't got the chips for a ThinkPad. Particularly if you don't mind waiting for a month or so for it to arrive.