Well, I've been at this for a few years now, and just happen to be looking at buying another computer this week. I've been looking hard and serious at that very Dell XPS M1530, but you won't be able to get it for the budget you are on.
I've also been looking very hard at the new Macbook Pro, which adds another $500 to the price over the Dell XPS. The reason that I've been researching the Macbook Pro is because of the rave reviews it has been getting, including (believe it or not) from the editors of Maximum PC mag - an elitist magazine for the extreme high-end PC users (driven by the most demanding games applications).
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Here are some pros and cons to your issue:
1) Getting a laptop, instead of a desk top, is going to almost double the price of your machine.
2) Getting a laptop, drives certain decisions. For example, in the Windows market on a desktop, you can find excellent sound cards that fit into slots on the motherboard. This is a huge performance boost and gives better throughput than going through a much slower USB 2.0 cable, or even a Firewire 800 (which is almost twice as fast as USB 2.0)
So, because you are getting a Windows laptop, it is doubtful, almost guaranteed, that you won't be using the built-in sound card for professional recording. Not totally impossible, but unlikely. Especially if you are going to run any MIDI applications. MIDI and recording more than 1 audio track at the same time will force you to get a pro sound unit (with MIDI on it, probably).
You can run a single audio-in into your sound card on a laptop, but that is not typically considered professional/serious recording.
3) Back to the laptop port issue: Apparently Firewire made by Texas Instruments (only available on a Macbook Pro, and from a GOOGLE search, the following: "Belkin, ADS, and be a few Siig's. ADS is one of the Best FW Card makers out, top Choice for DV Systems... ADS Pyro 1394DV.")
The MAC users are usually a pretty learned bunch, and they say that Firewire was developed for video (the most demanding application ever) which means that the throughput of video and sound was what the engineers had in mind when they developed the technology - to allow video/sound througput without hiccuping (glitches).
USB 2.0, on the other hand, has fast rates and all, but does have bottleneck issues at times due to some buffer or traffic issue at the heart of the design. Again, according to some MAC people, which I don't think are wrong.
If you use a firewire port, they say "make absolutely certain it is a Texas Instrument chipset, because the others, i.e. Ricoh, are dogs and problematic."
Lastly, there are bunches of Windows Laptop users, using USB 2.0 devices that say they have little or no problems at all. <shrug>
4.) Dell is going to charge you a "rape" fee, an outrageous $200 extra to change your hard drive from the 250GB 5400 rpm model to a smaller capacity but faster 200GB 7200 rpm hard drive. I say $%#@(^$ to Dell when I see that. 'Makes my blood curtle.
5) Windows machines are all coming with Vista SP1 now, which might be a good overall OS for business and surfing the net, but is not a performance OS such as XP with SP2. Worse, it takes twice as much RAM and a faster chip, to achieve the same performance as XP. Vista is a resource hog, so therefore, make sure you spend for the upgrade of 4 GB RAM. Two GB will NOT do for music recording with Vista.
6) If you want XP, you'll have to buy it on Ebay or some other software e-commerce store online, and that will run you another $100. Then, be sure to make a slip-stream install disk so that XP has all the right drivers and support for SATA drives, which XP original (i.e. no SP2) did not support, and will be a bit of a nightmare trying to get it up to snuff.
7) If you just want to get your feet wet with audio recording and have a good laptop to take to St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera Bread) and get on the net and IM your girlfriends in China, then you don't really need to take too seriously all these comments of mine. Just about any laptop computer today can do most things we want to do, even record music. Just be most certain to have 4 GB RAM. Most hard drives are in excess of 160 GB which is truly plenty of space for getting up and started. You can always save your completed projects to another computer or burn to CD (which all computers can do nowadays). Even the 7200 rpm hard drive has been debated on this site. Some people have documented that the faster hard drive did not prove faster in real life applications. It should, though. Go figure.
8)*By all means, spend for the T9300 Penryn chip at 2.5 Ghtz. I would not skimp here, of all places. Fast CPU is the one place you should never conserve! It's faster and cooler, built on the 45nm die cast. Totally smart buy. Add $125
The Dell XPS I configured last night on their site, came to $2,000 with tax. Options' Decisions being driven by music recording needs! I always max 'em out, though. I figure why buy a lackluster machine that I won't be happy with for the next 5 years? I always spend the most, and then a little extra so that I am happy and don't worry about shit for a long time.
Options for the XPS:
*LED screen rather than flourescent lighting screen. Add $100
*Red, or Blue, instead of black. Add $25 Stupid shit, isn't it???
*Faster Hard Drive. Add $200 minimum
*Upgrade the battery from 56w to 85w, Add $169!!!! What the crap is that??????????!!!!!! True.
*Double the memory on the graphics card to 256 MB. Add $100 I think?
*Upgrade to Intel Next-Gen Wireless N card. Add $50 (Smart thing to do)
*Cases, Blue Tooth, Wireless Mouse, External Speakers (so you're not forced to use headphones which can be a drag after an hour!), and a budget for a backup external USB 2.0 or eSATA hard drive. Your backup Ghost image will be placed on this drive. Add $100
*Once you get your system perfect, Norton Ghost it for backup disaster recovery (another $70 for Ghost).
Lastly, and equally important - Which DAW (sound software) do you plan to use? There are a few really excellent choices!
Windows:
* Sonar
* Ableton Live
* Reaper (I know nothing about this, but people on here say it is fantastic, and free)
Mac
*Apple Logic Studio (a #1 choice and rave reviews by Keyboard Magazine)
*ProTools
*Garageband (free, i think, since it comes with the Mac OX 10.5 leopard Operating System)
There are others. In any case, budget approximately $500. Academic discount may save you 50%.
