This is more of an opinion thing than anything else.

I can get a good price on a Dell notebook. I can configure one to my specs.

I've done all the research on all of the Dell models.... 15 and 17 series, XPS and Inspiron.
I haven't made up my mind on whether I'm going to go with a 15xx or a 17xx yet because I'm still trying to decide if I want to lug around a huge 17" with all the doo-dads. I'm going to be kind of "mobile" with it so the weight is a small deciding factor. The extra screen real estate would be nice for movies and games, but it's really not that much more than a 15.4" screen.

What I really can't decide on is whether an Inspiron that's built to the same specs as an XPS is what I want. Besides price of course. That's the only difference I can see so far.
I well aware of their lack of service and support so that doesn't even come into the picture. I know I'll be buying a Dell either way.
I can build an Inspiron for a little less than a comparable XPS, but will I be losing anything by not just paying the extra for the XPS badge?

Joe my new laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1505 and I love it, we also gave one to our daughter and her finace' for an early wedding gift as hers died on them while doing wedding list. It was about 4 years old anyway. So far I love the 1505, the screen is great for DVD's in the car etc.
Ive always gotten good service from Dell too. So far we've bought 9 total, 4 laptops and 5 PC's..
Get the 160gig HD and at least a gig of ram, those programs run so well with the big ram now. Mine is XP but daughters is Vista, so far she likes it.
my 2cents

mine is a new 1505 Inspiron, and my family, all 5 kids under 8 but only 3 big enuff to use it, and we LOVE it, bought a dimension desktop too.

Go with the 1705!!! I just bought one and am using it right now to type this message and I love it! I wanted an XPS as well but the 1705 is the same notebook minus the fancy cover and lights in the speakers and fans. I got the best 1705 you can build for about $2000 where as the bottom of the line XPS starts at about $2400 for a less powerful computer but more of a facier cover, lights etc.... I also got the 17" monitor and travel ALOT and its not that heavy but excellent for watching DVD's.

I cheated I guess, I buy reconditioned with same as new warranty, save about 30% :thumbsup: my 1505 was around $750

Alrighty then.... looks like the Inspiron is the winner. The XPS have great sound but I'll mostly be using headphones anyways.
Unfortunately I have no choice but to get Vista on it, but I can always FDISK it and throw XP on. I'll get the restore disk with it in case I ever need to go back.

Joe,

Vista isn't that bad however XP runs almost twice as fast on the same amount of memory. There are minor quirks with the new OS but nothing major that I have discovered in the past 7 weeks using it.

Kev