How to Buy a Notebook Computer

Everyone is always looking for advice on what notebook to buy. The real question is not what to buy, but what do you need. For example, a business person will need some different from a gamer. Here is an easy way to determine what you need to get.

1. Establish your budget.
This does not mean what you are wiling to pay if it has feature x. This means find out what it is the max you want to spend on a system. For some this is less then $600, for most less than $1500, and for a lucky few, this step doesn't really matter.
Tip: This is for the whole system, software, carrying case, and anything else you need.

2. Determine what your Needs and Wants are.
This is the real tricky part. You have to decide, do you really need 4 gigs of ram, or do you just want it. A need is something the you have to have on the system or it will not work for you. A want is something that would be nice, but not vital.

3. Do some research.
I think 3rd party product reviews give you a lot of insight into exactly what to expect from a system. Remember we are not looking at price quite yet, just looking based off of our needs and wants.

4. Now is when you can start comparing prices.
Look at comparable products that have all of your NEEDS and compare price for price. Don't include wants just yet as those are going to be a tie-breaker. Remember, we are trying to get a notebook that has everything we need at the absolute best price possible.

5. More research.
Now that we have our list narrowed down to computers that have what we need and are in our price range we are going to start looking for discounts. A great place to find dell deals, or than here of course, is Dell's Smart Values. Also check for the same notebook on the business side.

6. By now you should have a great idea of what system is going to be the best deal for you and meet all of you needs. There is only one thing left to do, make sure a better deal is not around the corner. Check places like Froogle and ebay to see if the system can be bought for less, or if it has at one point sold for less, a good indicator it will go back on sale. Once you have completed this step you can be certain you are getting the best deal possible.


While following these 6 steps will ensure you get the best deal possible, you may find you only need to do a few of them before you are willing to get the computer. Remember though, and this holds true at Dell, you could be charged several hundred dollars more for the same computer, or even less, just because you didn't know about the other deals!

E1501 on Sale

Dell has placed the e1501 in the business section on sale again. This is the fabled $499 notebook computer that has a dual core processor. Here is the Link.

A quick run down of the stats:

AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™(glossy)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
60GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)

This is a great deal on a notebook, so good in fact you should buy 2 of them and then send the extra one to me! Hey one can dream right?

Dell's Weekly Parade Deals

Every week dell sends out their weekly ads all across the country. Some come as direct mailers, some in flyer's, others are advertised online. By far the most consistent place to find the best deals that Dell is offering is to look at the back of the Parade Magazine that comes in the newspaper. These newspaper ads always have cost-leader deals, and while they might not be the perfect systems for you, are a great place to start and normally have discounted deals on upgrades as well. By looking at the Parade deals, you can also better leverage your position with the sales rep. If you have already found the best deal then you can do a little haggling and get a price reduction, or a great deal on an upgrade.

As a parting gift, some notebook deals for you

InspironTM E1705

$691 Off Instantly

6V620-DNDWGA3

More Laptop Computer Deals

Dell has put up some great deals on their laptops, specifically the E1505. This laptop is a great deal, providing a great balance of performance and mobility. In fact I would argue that it is Dell's best selling notebook in the Home sections. This particular deal is ideal for a new college student as it has a lower price point, coming in at $799, but is still packed with what you need. Dual core processors, Windows Vista, 2gb of memory, a 160g hard drive, and a graphics card for playing games.


The link to the notebook computer deal

Code to get the Discount:T6K2Z6P7LBRR32

Hurry it expires soon!

Smart Values

If you are not using any kind of a coupon at Dell, or even if you are for that matter, make sure to check out the Smart values section of Dell's site. This section can be found by hovering over either the desktop or notebook menu options and is listed close to the bottom of the pop-up menu. In this section you can find some advertised systems and most of the time the tend to have slightly better deals. Dell will always offer several different deals to target certain segments of their customers. The mainstream deals are always the homepage deals, and these are almost always the deals with the least value. Next are the as advertised deals and smart values. These take some digging but are targeted to the customer that is price shopping, as they add the little extra memory or other feature to try and tip the scale in Dell's favor. Last are the coupons and 3rd party deals. These are not advertised on Dell's site at all and have to be found through 3rd parties, like parade magazine, and are targeted towards EPS, extreme price shoppers. These are going to be the best deals possible, like a $499 loaded notebook.

Buying from SMB vs DHS

Both the home side and the small business side offer the same systems, although they go by slightly different model numbers. If you talk to anyone one the DHS (home) side they will swear to you that there is no benefit to purchasing from SMB (small business), but that is not always the case. In fact some of the best deals can be had by purchasing from SMB, but there are some draw backs. For starters, as a business customer you will not get the the chance to use your Dell Preferred Account, you will either have to purchase using a credit card or try and get qualified for the Business Account. Other than that though the experience should stay fairly close to a home purchase. You can still gain Dell Dollars from the purchase and will still get the same service options. In fact you will have even more options for the levels of service to chose from. I always recommend doing a comparison of the DHS and SMB systems, especially if you find a coupon in SMB, they are notorious for providing the biggest discounts.

Dells Pricing Structure

What is going on with dells pricing? They continue to say that they are simplifying the way that they are pricing to help eliminate confusion and garner in additional profit. Thats a great plan, your are in the business of making money, but you have yet to do any thing along those lines. In fact Dell seems to be continually bleeding money from it consumer product lines. Did you know that for the exact same computer you could receive 5 different price quotes? Thats before you start using coupons also. Dell needs to address this issue ASAP, as it is very frustrating to find out you just paid $250 more for the same thing as someone else.

The Deal with Dell's Weekly Deals

Dell typical only slightly alters the weekly specials that they offer each week. They standard format is pretty simple, one week dollar off specials and the next is a percentage off discount. These specials will almost always come out to a similar price. Now there are some exceptions to this, like if your planing on purchasing a system that will go over the $1500 mark. If that is the type of system your looking at you will want to purchase during a percent of week or using a percentage off coupon. The other exception are the lose leaders that Dell offers. These are going to almost always be offered as dollar off promotions. These are still going to be in the sub $1300 price range, but this is where you will find discounts over the $400 dollar mark.

I hope this helps you decide when to purchase your system.

Dell Dollars and How to Get Them

What are Dell Dollars?

Dell dollars are basically just that, free money you can use for any purchase at Dell. There are some stipulations though, first you have to spend at least the listed amount. So if you had on coupon of Dell dollars for 75 bucks (a common denomination) then you would have to spend at least $75.01. Secondly, they do expire after 120 days. Other then that, you can use them on what ever you want. But on to the important part.

How to get them

Dell Preffered Acount

There are several ways to get Dell dollars, the easiest is to get the Dell preffered acount. Now the thing is, Dell doesn't want to give you Dell dollars, and in fact they hate it when you use coupons also. So, to make them give you the Dell dollars you have to ask for Dell dollars.I know, it's dumb that you have to ask for the promotion but if you don't, they will not give them to you. Oh, I forgot to mention, you can only get them by calling in. Anyway, they have them avalible with the Dell acount as a credit card conversion tool. They give you $75 bucks to not use your credit card. The sales person will tell you all kinds of stuff, but unless they tell you that they are lying.

Warranty Plans

The next best option for getting dell dollars are to check what warranty you are getting. Most of the time if you are going to be getting the 4 year warranty, they also have dell dollars attached to them. These are out there to help the sales person sell the 4 year over the 1,2, or 3 year. The amounts on these vary, typicaly $50 or $75 dollars, but I have seen some that are higher. Remember though, you can only get these if you are going to get the warranty.

Just be an Ass

Unfortanaly this is the best way to get anything from a large company, as they would rather pay off the bad rep you would give them. Now you can only take this one so far, but all of the phone sales reps have a closing tool, or as they call it A Refuse to Lose, open to them. They have been getting stricter on this, but you can typically get some Dell dollars thrown in to seal the deal, or even have money skimmed right off the top. Be careful though as the Dell reps are sneaky and will try to throw in the coupons you are already entitled to in a last ditch effort to prevent you from geting any thing more. Sample; Dell Rep:" Okay, I talked to my manager and he said that just because you are using the Dell Preffered Acount, I can give you $75 bucks in Dell Dollars." Yeah they really are that full of B.S.

I hope that this helps you get all the discounts you are entitled to from Dell, cause I know that they still owe me money, so I want to help you take them for every cent they have.