New computer (part 2)

I was going to post the specs about my new computer in that last post, but I got distracted by pics of the cat. lol I've had a few people ask me though, so here's what I got:

Inspiron 1520
Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
System Color: Midnight Blue
Memory: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
LCD Panel: High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440x900)
Video Card: 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS
Hard Drive: Size: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition
Network Card and Modem: Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Combo or DVD+RW Drive: CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)
Sound Card: High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Networking Cards: Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card
Camera: Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
Battery Options: 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
Bluetooth and Wireless USB: Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)

I had no problems buying from Dell. I like how they let you customize your computer, but they have so many choices it's not easy to choose. lol I tried to go for the middle of the line on some things to balance cost and need. I spend a lot of time on the computer, and even if I'm not actively doing something on the computer I have it turned on. I use my computer for email/im, the Web, music and photo editing/storage. Sometimes I do a little video editing (nothing fancy) or play games. That's pretty much it. I had a hard time choosing the processor - how on earth am I supposed to know how much/how fast I really need? I used my usual method of choosing when I have no idea what to choose - I pick something that's not the cheapest/lowest or the most expensive/highest. That usually works pretty well. lol

I was a little nervous about going with Vista, but I haven't had any issues with it. I'm kind of wondering what people were complaining about. I haven't had any problems plugging stuff in to it (camera, mp3 player, printer) but then again I usually don't bother installing all the software that comes with these things (all that unnecessary software just seems to screw things up and make things harder to use. :P). I haven't had any problems installing software either.

The only thing that I'm not sure I like is the screen. I chose a higher resolution screen (1440 x 900). I love how it makes pictures big and crisp and I do like having that extra screen space (I'm so used to having two 17" monitors at work that the one dinky little screen isn't enough for me anymore lol). But it makes all the text so small! They always bug me at work about having tiny text on my monitors (they've all got to get out their reading glasses to read anything on my screen lol) but the text on this laptop is super tiny. I've been able to make it bigger on a lot of things, but not all websites will let you do that. I'm getting used to it though.

There's one little thing I love that I haven't even thought about before - the touchpad has these little scroll bars on it. That's the worst part of using a laptop without a mouse - scrolling. But I can scroll just by moving my finger up/down on the touchpad. I can even flick it and have it keep scrolling until i tap the pad again. I've never seen something like this on a laptop (although I haven't used too many recent laptops lol maybe this is a standard thing now). Sometimes I don't even use my mouse anymore, that's how much I love this feature. (Although I'm constantly trying to do it on my work laptop - a basic black work-issued ThinkPad T61 - which doesn't have this feature (or at least I haven't found it yet!). And of course they don't understand why I want a wireless mouse to go with my laptop so they won't buy me one. :P)

I got the matching blue wireless mouse to go with the laptop. It's the only wireless mouse I've seen where the USB thing snaps into the mouse when you're not using it. This means I won't loose the little USB thing and make the mouse useless. Yay! Plus when you slide the USB part into the mouse it turns the mouse off so the battery will last a super long time.

and just in case you didn't already know this - I'm one big giant dork. This laptop has made my life complete. I can now spend every Saturday night snuggled up in bed with Spike reading Pirates of the Caribbean fan fiction on the Internet and eating ice cream. My snugglebug (Spike), flannel pj's, my computer, cookies 'n cream and Captain Jack. What more could I ask for? (hmmm... don't answer that. ;))