New Notebook Computer Question

I need to buy a notebook before I head off to grad school. I have been looking at the Dell e1505, T2400 CPU (dual core), 2GB RAM, ATI X1400 2560 hypermemory (shared at some level). The config will cost me around $1000.

I might have the option to pick up a Dell M70 (mobile workstation) with Pentium M(1.86 2MB Cache), 2GB DD2 RAM, and a NVIDIA Quadro FX Go1400 256MB for around $500.

Based purely on price, the M70 is a way better deal (it has additional HDD and battery), but I my biggest question is... which will play games better. The e1505 graphics are not dedicated, whereas the M70 has 256mb dedicated (but is an openGL card).

Any experts out there?

~Cap

By "shared" they probably mean (this is an educated guess) that a part of that video memory is just a chunk of that 2GB system memory, which would still be more than enough for Guild Wars.

The Dell M70 will play Guild Wars about as well as a guy choking on a stick in the center of a swamp. Expect the CPU to bog down game performance and just randomly freeze at times. If you can upgrade the processor though, the thing would probably work fine. Centrinos are meant to run MS Word and save your battery life, so they don't exactly perform well when stressed.

Pentium M 1.86 2MB L2 cache is the proc on the M70... not sure if that makes a difference.

Should run the game fine. GW isn't that demanding. But it's definitely not the fastest gaming video around (will rock for pro 3D apps tho).

The question is, which one would be better for gaming

The e1505 will run games very well and has a slight bit better graphics card options (the go 7300 for a bit more bucks), unless you're going with the intel GPU, you won't need be concerned with shared memory. Each GPU has access to grab system ram as needed up to 128 MB, but the 1400 has a dedicated 128MB. The M70 will run games well, despite the slower processor, but non-3d funtions will take a hit (m class). M70's have been plagued with problems in the past, even being called fragile machines. I think overall you're going to be much happier with the e1505 over the M70. Also (with open-gl acceleration) means it supports open-gl for linux based folks, the direct-x core is the same as any other 1400 supporting 9.0c and up.

Just a little note from my own personal experience with Dell.

I do NOT recommend buying anything from Dell. Of the 3 PC's I have purchased from Dell in the past, 2 of them were shipped to me with bad RAM, and it took them nearly 2 months to send me replacement parts. On top of that, their tech support is a freaking joke - if you don't specifically pay for their "warrantee" package, they refer your call to an automated "payment tech support" line, where you have to pay $40 to talk to one of their tech guys, who 90% of the time have NO clue what they're talking about.

Though their systems may be cheap for what you get, you do get what you pay for, and more often than not (in my experience) you get a big pain in the ass.

If cost isn't an issue I'd recommend going with a Sony or HP notebook, I've never had any problems with them, and they usually make it very easy to contact their tech support should you have a question or problem.

I just picked up one of Dell's XPS M1710 gaming laptops, and I'm very happy with it. However, I do agree with the last post... Dell makes you go through 30 minutes of phone menu's, and when you finally get to talk to a support person, he/she doesn't always have the answer available and transfers you to yet another 30+ minute phone wait.

I also own a number of HP products, and getting through to a human tech is much easier. Unfortunately, HP doesn't make anything close to a gaming laptop with my high-end requirements. Hence I went ahead with the Dell purchase.

If you want a solid high-end gaming laptop, get an Alienware. If you don't want to declare bankruptcy at the same time, just get a mini-ATX desktop. They will be far cheeper and probably still perform better.

i need to have this available for use during class. Strangely enough, I have worked for HP and Sony, going as far as building the first units of the current models (for sony). I'll take my chances with dell, I have never had a problem with them in the past.

I see. You basically need a machine right in between the two you listed, hardware-wise. Any chance of that happening?

I've worked at computer store for 2 years. A sh*tload of dell laptops always coming in with all sorts of problems. Personally I wouldn't buy a laptop for games but I'd take M70. 600 MHz are not worth $500. Also shared video memory doesn't impress me much. I would say both of these laptops would probably handle the games the same way. Maybe 10-20% difference. 10-20% difference is not worth 500 bucks imho.

Btw so that I don't make you worry about dells... most of the problems are because people dont know anything. Some requests are as stoopid as find out where my shortcut went (and it turns out to be in recycle bin). The worst thing so far that happened to dell laptop was loose power connector and dead cd-roms.

Actual "tech support" conversation I had with on of my not-so-tech-savy friends:

Friend: My computer won't turn on.
Me: Is it plugged into an electrical outlet?
Friend: Oh. Nevermind, bye. (Abrupt hanging up click)

In personal experience, the people i know have had nothing but bad experiences with dell. Spent 5+ hours this week trying various fixes, backing up files, and eventually reinstalling windows (from an outside disk) because the one that came with the dell decided to self destruct (deleted all references to disk drives ANYWHERE on the system One of my old buddies had his dell laptop for 2 weeks when the ac adapter broke off of the mobo; These and a couple others i can't remember going through what is quite easily the worst tech support on the face of the planet.

P.S. Convo with GF's sister about her computer:
Her: My speakers wont work..
Me: Are they plugged in?
Her: Oh $hit, no... oops.