Inspiron 1200-Bus speed?

Thanks for the bus info.

I never buy extended warranties. Should I take your note as a heads up that a failing mainboard is common or just possible?

This is my first laptop. I had seriously been considering purchasing a used laptop weighing the unknown remaining hardware life vs price.

The memory is dual-data rate - that is, runs twice the bus speed. 2X133 is 266 MHz, or PC2100.

The CPU bus is four times the system bus - 4X100 = 400.

Make sure you bought a 3-year warranty on this system - if you took only a 1-year, you may be sorely disappointed in a few months when you find out that the mainboard in your $600 notebook costs $500 to replace.

Extended warranties are usually a waste of money, but notebook computers are an exception. According to readers of Consumer Reports, 33% of all notebooks need a major repair at least once during their useful lifetimes. For all intents and purposes, any notebook under $1000 at purchase is a throwaway in case of major failure (mainboard, $500+; screen, $500+) after warranty - the parts are very often single-source (Dell-only) and very expensive.

If you can afford to self-insure a $500-700 repair, or just replace the notebook if it fails after the warranty expires, and/or you don't use the notebook for critical work, you are free to take your chances. From what I've been seeing of the quality of all low-end notebooks, regardless of manufacturer, the $150-300 an extended warranty costs is money well spent.

Also note that your support from Dell ends with the warranty - after that, it's pay as you go (unlike a year or so ago when the support carried with the machine even after warranty).