Dell Inspiron 6400 vs Acer TravelMate 8204

I need a new laptop/notebook; my budget, including tax and extended
warrenty is CDN$3000.

I think I have it down to two contenders:

Dell Inspiron 6400

Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2500 (2MB Cache/2GHz/667MHz FSB)
15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
100GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

By the time you work in tax and 3 year extended warranty it come's to
about CDN$2900.

Acer TravelMate 8204

Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2MB L2 cache, 2.0GHz, 667MHz FSB)
2GB (1/1) DDR2 533 SDRAM
120GB SATA hard drive, 5400RPM
modular Super-Multi (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) drive
5-in-1 card reader
15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) TFT display
ATI® MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1600 graphics, 256MB DDR
802.11a/b/g WLAN
Bluetooth™
gigabit LAN
V.92 modem
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

The BlueTooth VoIP phone and built in web cam are a bonus (although I
understand some sort of XP bug at the moment causes the web cam to
drain battery even when not in use... fix... ???). I also have read
there can be display issues with this model and multiple returns may be

needed to get a good one (no light leak, spots, bright display, etc...)


By the time you work in tax and 3 year extended warranty it come's to
about CDN$3000.

I want to use it as a desktop replacment development machine (XP Pro,
MS SQL, IIS, VB, .NET, HTML, ASP, etc...) but also be able to play my
MP3s and DVDs (on a plane, etc... I have a home DVD player!).

I am not at all into gaming... so the super high end graphics (X1600)
doesn't concern me all THAT much as long as I can get a decent hi res
for coding and the occasional DVD play mentioned above. However, I am
warry of the shared memory of the Dell onboard graphics (you can't seen

to upgrade this model!).

Also, what is the Acer extended warranty like? Does anyone know or have

any past experience? Is the DELL 24 hour on site all that it is cracked

up to be??

Cheers,
G-Mo

Dont' get memory from Dell, you will be totally ripped off. Get them
to install the least amount possible, then get memory locally. You can
get it at memoryexpress for $115/GB