This post sponsored by Ovaltine!

OK, so I made a move that was 50% necessary and 50% pampering. The laptop I've been using for years is starting to show its age, and it's just a matter of time before the thing kicks out its last poof of smoke. So in being proactive I ordered myself up a new Dell laptop last week, and the confirmation email says it should be here soon!

Right now I feel like Ralphie from "Christmas Story" checking the mailbox every day, hoping my Little Orphan Annie decoder ring has arrived!

For those of you who don't know, and may be in the market for a Dell laptop, be aware that there exists a site that will give you the latest "coupon" codes from Dell to maximize your purchase power. Not even with Dell's recent "10 Days of Deals from Dell" did I come close to finding as good a deal as I did with their $750 off any Inspiron over $1999. That coupon (and others) seems to exist on a weekly basis and comes out every Thursday, and can be found by doing a simple Google search on "dell laptop coupons."

The hardest part for me was picking which model to try and configure up to $1999. As a typical man and tech-geek I always want the "biggest, best, most bells-n-whistles, coolest, etc." model, but I couldn't have one those because 1.) they're insanely expensive, and 2.) Dell doesn't put out coupons that apply to the XPS models. So I looked into the e1705, which looked like a solid model that I could configure pretty nicely for the $1999 range. However, when I dropped down a model (e1505 - basically the same as e1705 just a smaller screen), I found that I was able to increase the processor and RAM and still hit the $1999 mark. Finally, I concluded that in application I would be using this laptop on, well, my lap quite often, and did I really want a huge, bulky laptop to battle with?

So there it was...the e1505....configured with a lot of goodies for just over $2000, at a final cost of $1275. I couldn't find a unit anywhere else (even in the Dell Outlet where all the refurbs and such are) that came close to as good a deal as that. And all I know now is, when I get that bad boy out of the box and fire it up, I sure as heck better not see a screen that says, "Remember to drink your Ovaltine!"