Pricecheck: Dell Laptop

[DeludedGuy]

Hi, my Girlfriend wants me to build her a computer, shes hoping her Dell Laptop will pay for most of the costs.

So I was wondering how much her Laptop is worth.

Its a Dell.
256 RAM
40GB Hard Drive
15" Screen
1.8ghz processor

I will try to get the model number later.

Any estimates?

[pands@scan]

Need model number really to check for sure

[DeludedGuy]

Got it, here are the specs:

Dell Inspiron 5160

Intel Mobile Pentium 4 CPU w/HT (2.80GHz, 533MHz FSB)
DDR SDRAM - 333 MHz - PC2700
8x DVD-ROM
15" Active matrix
1024 x 768
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 - AGP 4x
3 Hour Battery Life



There seems to be two versions, one with 3.2ghz and 512RAM and another version with a 2.8ghz processor and 256RAM. She has the 2,8ghz version.

[DeludedGuy]

Forgot to mention, Its in Good Condition too.

[DeludedGuy]

Anyone? Please?

[Waka]

I've seen the higher spec. of the two models on fleabay for £400 - if I *had* to buy yours I would think around £250.
I expect you'll think that's a bit low - but you can get brand new Dells of a silmilar spec. delivered for around £350.
I think your g/f might be better off upgrading the ram to (at least) 512mb and getting an 80gb hard disk (or eve a 300gb external for similar money) depending on what her needs for a computer are.

HTH :-)
W.

[taqies]

Yerp, dell is not quite good of holding their values. Go get a Sony.

[jackvdbuk]

yea... sony, paying for the brand name more than the actual notebook costs

[nichomach]

DG, what does she want the new computer to do, would be my first question. If what she wants is general office stuff (i.e. not gaming) then she'd be far better advised to spend money on upgrading that machine. A 2.8GHz P4 is still quite a potent performer, and the 5160 will support up to 1GB easily (the specs say 2GB, but the max supported module size is 512MB, and it's got two slots...go figure...). Bumping it from 256 to 1GB would take a couple of PC2700 SODIMMS, £66 total, and would probably make the machine fly by comparison to 256MB. Bump the hard disk to 100GB for £82 for a Toshiba hard disk and you're away.

[loki]

I concur with nicomach. That the laptop with some extra ram would be just as good as any other computer for office tasks. The other advantage is that it is smaller than a computer and you could put on a larger screen via the monitor out if that is what she wanted.

[dave87]

Though I agree with nichomach, if your after increasing the speed of it go for a 7200rpm 80gb hard disk over the 100

[nichomach]

I'd agree but for the 16MB cache on the drive as opposed to most 7200rpm drives which only seem to have 8; the additional cache ought to offset the spindle speed a fair amount.