Is this used laptop a good deal?

Is that a good deal? How much is this worth?

Dell Inspiron 5150 bought last september (September 30th 2004).
Pentium 4 Mobile 3.06Ghz 533 FSB
15 inches XGA LCD Panel
512Mb DDR333 SDRAM (2 dimms)
CD/DVD Combo (24X CD-R/RW)
64Mb NVidia GeForce FX Go 5200
60Gb 7200 HD
V.92 Modem
Internal Wireless Card 802.11b/g, 54mbps
External floppy drive
Optical USB mouse


I would pay $1500 CDN for it. No carrying case.
I must give my answer tomorrow ...

Thanks!

I would ask about the warranty and service plan (if purchased a year ago, should still have some left from Dell) and what sort of software is loaded onto it

Also I'd make the presumption that it will be a bit warm and go through battery power like a starving hippo.

Looking at Dell.ca (http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_notebook2?c=ca&cs=CADHS1&l=en&s=dhs)
the 5160 at similar options is a comparable price (I customized and it was $68 bucks more expensive with a 1 year warranty and XP Home as well as the "Productivity Pack" which is Wordperfect. (also there's a deal on for a free DVD burner and carrying case)
See if you can knock him down a bit, especially if there's no warranty left or it's just XP Home and no Office software.

I would ask about the warranty and service plan (if purchased a year ago, should still have some left from Dell) and what sort of software is loaded onto it

Also I'd make the presumption that it will be a bit warm and go through battery power like a starving hippo.

Looking at Dell.ca (http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_notebook2?c=ca&cs=CADHS1&l=en&s=dhs)
the 5160 at similar options is a comparable price. (also there's a deal on for a free DVD burner and carrying case)
See if you can knock him down a bit, especially if there's no warranty left or it's just XP Home and no Office software.

If it's Dell, it's likely a 1 year warranty unless the guy sprung for the 3 year plan (but that would mean more money). Still a good question to ask.

A "bit" warm? That thing'll kick out enough heat to make an oven seem cool.

Like KF said, you can get similarly priced laptops with similar options. Time to haggle! But haggle with info, do your research and do some window shopping first.

See if you can knock him down a bit, especially if there's no warranty left or it's just XP Home and no Office software.

I saw the same thing on the Dell website but I don't know if I should buy the new one (5160) for a little more or this one (5150) for a little. The warrenty has about 8 or 9 months left it's a 1 Yr Limited Warranty plus 1 Yr Return-to-Depot Service 24x7 Phone Support (don't really know what that means ... does the 1 Yr Return-to-Depot Service takes place afther the 1 Yr Limited Warranty plus is over?) He has Windows XP Home and won't go down lower he said he paid 2300$ for it three months ago.

If it's Dell, it's likely a 1 year warranty unless the guy sprung for the 3 year plan (but that would mean more money). Still a good question to ask.

A "bit" warm? That thing'll kick out enough heat to make an oven seem cool.

Like KF said, you can get similarly priced laptops with similar options. Time to haggle! But haggle with info, do your research and do some window shopping first.

That's what I did and now I'm confused! :innocent: :help:
The guy seems honest but he traveled with it for three months (with no carrying case) so maybe he banged it a little but it seems fine though. No scratches or cracks. But I'll never know what he did with it, so maybe I should pay a little more just to make sure I won't get trouble with it ...

A "bit" warm? That thing'll kick out enough heat to make an oven seem cool.

If it has to be unloaded in 24 hours it may be hot rather than warm. :joker:

My policy with used items is that I should never pay more than half of it's actual worth. That's about how much anything depreciates after the first week of purchase.

That's what I did and now I'm confused! :innocent: :help:
The guy seems honest but he traveled with it for three months (with no carrying case) so maybe he banged it a little but it seems fine though. No scratches or cracks. But I'll never know what he did with it, so maybe I should pay a little more just to make sure I won't get trouble with it ...

Travelled with it and no carrying case? I'd go with a new one if I were you. Just because there are no scratches or cracks doesn't mean he didn't drop it a couple times or bang it into a wall.

Since it's only a 1 year warranty, you now only have 8 or 9 months left on it. The 1 year limited warranty is concurrent with the 1 year return to depot. The RTD means that if it's warranted, they'll pay for the shipping to ship it back to them, fix it, and ship it back to you. The limited warranty just says what they'll be willing to fix for you.

To everyone complaining about heat:

Puhleeze. My laptop is an XP-m and runs 85C at full load. All it's ever caused was second-degree burns. Barely warmer than room temperature ;)