Quote:
Originally Posted by Guy Davidson
I'm moving out of the US for a few years in a couple of months, and I want to buy a laptop before I leave. I figure that makes for a good gift for myself, and something that is much cheaper here than it is where I'm moving to (Israel). I haven't bought a new computer in about two years, and I'm trying to figure out what's worth my money and what not. I will mainly be using this laptop for internet, music, and word processing, although I do plan to watch movies and game on it too (not talking about running Crysis with all the settings pumped up, but the occasional RTS or RPG with decent graphics and a good frame rate). Your advice would be very much appreciated with the following:
Is there any underlying difference between (for example) Dell's Inspiron and XPS series, other than the available configurations for each one?
I'm thinking about getting a 15.4" laptop, for a reasonable combination for portability and a nice sized screen. Is there any good reason to consider getting a different size?
Where do the diminishing returns on the processor start? Is it worth moving from a T5500 (2MB cache/1.83GHz/667Mhz FSB) to a T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache) or T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB, 3MB Cache)? Is it worth going even further, and upgrading to a T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache)? If not, out of the 8300 and 7500, which are the same price, which is superior in performance (I hear the 8300 is better, but I'm not sure)?
Is it worth going beyond 3GB of ram, to 4GB? Or would 3 be enough?
Is there a significant enough performance difference between a 7200rpm and a 5400rpm to justify moving up? Or would a 5400rpm hard drive be fast enough?
With dedicated graphics cards, where do they start showing a significant increase over performance over integrated? an NVIDIA 8400GS? 8400GT? 8600GT?
Is there a good reason to spend extra for a wireless card with 802.11n support?
Is it worth getting the bigger battery (for example, 9-cell over 6-cell)? Or would I be better off spending that same money buying a second battery, for example?
Anything else I didn't ask and should really know or think about? Is it worth spending to get Vista Ultimate over Home Premium? Any laptop brands you recommend or ones you suggest staying away from?
Thank you very much.
|
I got a Dell XPS M1530 in late January when my laptop died.
I got it with the T8300 2.4 ghz processor. 4 GB RAM, 200 GB 7200 RPM HD, 8600 GT graphics card, 1680x1050 WSXGA+ LCD, the draft N wireless card, and Vista Ultimate. It was ~$800 off at the time due to Dell rolling out the Penryn equipped XPS line.
I would get the 8300. The penryn (9000 series) doesn't offer much over the older merom processors from the benchmarks I've seen.
Anything in the 8400 series will be much better than an integrated chipset. The 8600 GT will blow the 8400 series out of the water. It's nearly the best card you can get in a 15.4" notebook and will play pretty much any game (albeit maybe not at super high settings).
I got the 6 cell primary and 9 cell secondary batteries. I take the 6 cell with me when I know I'm going to be on power mostly, or don't need a lot of battery, and want to travel light. The 9 cell weighs a noticeable amount more, and sticks out the back of the computer.
I love it, with one exception. The display is utter garbage. There's a bunch of discussion about it online. The odds of getting a WSXGA+ display that doesn't suck were almost zero when I received my laptop. It is very grainy, the whites look like white with sand on it, and it looks like there is a film of oil coating the screen. The viewing angles and brightness are also exceedingly poor.
Dell uses 3-4 LCD panel manufacturers, and in my resolution Samsung is the major supplier. Almost across the board the Samsung panels show the same problems, while the alternative LG panel is beautiful. The same problem exists with the 1440x900 resolution, except most machines ship with a different LG panel that also looks great.
Dell will claim that the graininess and poor viewing angles are inherent in the manufacturing process of any LCD, and not a defect, which is true to some extent, but not as badly as mine looks. After exchanging my system during their 21 day return period, I got the same model display. After about 10 hours on the phone with tech/customer support, I finally got them to agree to send me a LG panel and not another Samsung. The tech never called me back when I went to schedule an appointment, and I've still got to deal with trying to get them to send me another one.
In conclusion, if you can confirm online (not through Dell. They'll tell you there is no problem) that Dell has discontinued use of the bad screens, or if you order a resolution that isn't known to have any problems, I'd reccomend going with the XPS. It's a powerful machine, and I got mine at a good price. It's alo very stylish, thin, and light.
If not, I'd go with someone else. The other laptops I was looking into at the time were the ThinkPad T61 (they had a great sale going at the time-30% off), Macbook Pro (WAY too expensive. Nearly $1,000 more than the Dell), Asus V1S (Nearly got this. Almost the same specs/price as the Dell was), and the Sony FZ4000 (Really sleek, but not as good graphics as the rest)