"Better graphics card" and "larger hard drive" can certainly warrant a $350 difference. How much better/larger are we talking? Going from onboard video to a decent graphics card alone would be like $200.
ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 256MB on the XPS, nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB on the Inspiron. Hard drive is 320 on the XPS, 250 on the Inspiron.
In addition to that, the Inspiron Slim I made had the ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 256MB on it and was exactly the same as the Inspiron in every other respect, but was $140 cheaper.
Never mind the Inspiron Slim thing; the regular Inspiron I made has a substantially better processor. Still doesn't explain the XPS vs. Inspiron thing; I'll probably go with the Inspiron in the end.
About the only time "upgradability" comes into question most of the time tends to be if you're playing the latest PC games coming out all the time. For other issues you can usually make do without until the computer itself is like 5+ years old at which point it's easy/better to get a new comp again.
I'm using a comp that was bargain bin the day I bought it at around 500 dollars. I bought extra things since then such as ram, external burners, controllers, etc, but the comp itself is still plugging away with it's original 40gig harddrive. (Got the comp in oct of 2004, and it's been turned on 24/7 almost non-stop since then.)
Of course, I don't play PC games so this is more than enough to browse the web, watch videos, play music, and play normal flash games that aren't nearly as intensive as commercial games.
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In addition to that, the Inspiron Slim I made had the ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 256MB on it and was exactly the same as the Inspiron in every other respect, but was $140 cheaper.
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I'm using a comp that was bargain bin the day I bought it at around 500 dollars. I bought extra things since then such as ram, external burners, controllers, etc, but the comp itself is still plugging away with it's original 40gig harddrive. (Got the comp in oct of 2004, and it's been turned on 24/7 almost non-stop since then.)
Of course, I don't play PC games so this is more than enough to browse the web, watch videos, play music, and play normal flash games that aren't nearly as intensive as commercial games.
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