Which laptop would be better?

[tarubei]

I'm getting a new laptop soon and shrinked it down to these two machines. If any one has any experience with any of these and can give me some insight, it would be greatly appreciated.



XPS M170 Intel® Pentium® M Processor 770 (2.13 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Professional
LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharpâ„¢ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLifeâ„¢
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX
Hard Drive 80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive



Inspiron E1505 Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2400 (2MB Cache/1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Professional
LCD Panel 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
Memory 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
Video Card 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™
Hard Drive 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Not a fan of an Intel proc in a laptop but if I had to choose between the 2 I would take the XPS. Even considered buying one recently but settled for:

Processor: AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 X2 4200+ with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Display: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD Clearview Display with Built-in Camera
Motherboard: VIA K8T890 + VT8237A Chipset
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Video/Graphics Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX
Hard Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 160GB (80GB x 2) 7200 RPM SATA
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Secondary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Primary Battery: Alienware® m7700 12-cell Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless 802.11b/g miniPCI Card

But whatever you get, enjoy it! Thats all that matters!

[tarubei]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Not a fan of an Intel proc in a laptop but if I had to choose between the 2 I would take the XPS. Even considered buying one recently but settled for:

Processor: AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 X2 4200+ with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Display: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD Clearview Display with Built-in Camera
Motherboard: VIA K8T890 + VT8237A Chipset
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Video/Graphics Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX
Hard Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 160GB (80GB x 2) 7200 RPM SATA
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Secondary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Primary Battery: Alienware® m7700 12-cell Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless 802.11b/g miniPCI Card

But whatever you get, enjoy it! Thats all that matters!

thank you for your input. by the way how does your laptop run ff11? how much was your system ? do you have ne in game screen shots and some benchmark results? sorry if this may be a hastle to you. its just been awhile since i last shopped for a pc and would like to make a decision where i will not regret any thing.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

My system was pricey. With shipping, it came to a little over $4600.00. As far as your other questions, I'll have to let you know in about 3-4 days, just got the email today that Alienware has shipped it and I should get it this week.

[Jarre]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

sounds very Hi-spec Grandmom, any chance of a link to teh site you got it from so i can have a look (being the techy I am) of course in the Uk we would end up paying twice more (as usual!!)

My next computer will still be a dual boot mac though, easier to run my cad software pn, the security of internet browsing on the macos partition and just use the windows partition for games, plus the more superior architecture and way it processes grahics more efficiently.

ahem sorry goign ona bit !

I await the screen shots

any way Tarubei, sounds like a good spec, I don't see any problems runnign FFXI with that spec, you ahve over 2GHZ clock speed, plenty of fast memory (2GB) a good sized HD and a very good graphics card, i expect this to be quite bulky, more a desktop than a laptop.

I suppose betweeen this and Grandmoms recomendation it'll all be down to the cost, but I beleive both will run FFXI just as well. (though grandmoms spec with the dual core chips would handle it slightly better than the pentium one)

[tarubei]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

My system was pricey. With shipping, it came to a little over $4600.00. As far as your other questions, I'll have to let you know in about 3-4 days, just got the email today that Alienware has shipped it and I should get it this week.

>.< wow that is pricey! my whole paycheck gone in one purchase lol. Grandmom I would greatly appreciate it if you can keep me updated. I'd def. like to see what the results are from a $4600 laptop

Double Post Edited:

sounds very Hi-spec Grandmom, any chance of a link to teh site you got it from so i can have a look (being the techy I am) of course in the Uk we would end up paying twice more (as usual!!)

My next computer will still be a dual boot mac though, easier to run my cad software pn, the security of internet browsing on the macos partition and just use the windows partition for games, plus the more superior architecture and way it processes grahics more efficiently.

ahem sorry goign ona bit !

I await the screen shots

any way Tarubei, sounds like a good spec, I don't see any problems runnign FFXI with that spec, you ahve over 2GHZ clock speed, plenty of fast memory (2GB) a good sized HD and a very good graphics card, i expect this to be quite bulky, more a desktop than a laptop.

I suppose betweeen this and Grandmoms recomendation it'll all be down to the cost, but I beleive both will run FFXI just as well. (though grandmoms spec with the dual core chips would handle it slightly better than the pentium one)

Thanks for the input. Much appreciated. i was thinking about dual booting mac as well but i'm not too much of a Mac fan and also read problems about driver issues for the mac(not sure if this was fixed or not). As for the bulkiness i believe the weight of this comes out to a little over 8lbs which isn't too bad(carrying around 15lbs of books and folders for school every day is nothing compare to 8lbs =P). The XPS system mentioned above comes out to a little over 2k.

I noticed you mentioned how the dual core would perform slightly better that the pentium. last i read ff11 doesn't support dual core yet right? or was i mis informed?

Double Post Edited:
Jarre,
The site where Grandmom got her comp from is www.alienware.com and the model is Auroraâ„¢ m7700. I just configured one right now and man that laptop is going to be a beast!

[Jarre]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

The dual core allows the background functions to be handled better, you can set FF to sue 1 part of the chip and windows and all its bits and pieces and virus/spyware scanners etc to the other so one part is just running FF. my friend does it with his tower version and he has Counterstrike running on one core with a ping of 15, with a film being converted using another at the same time (software dependant of course).

The dual core manages resources better than a single core.

[framerate]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

I just got an apple macbook pro and it plays FFXI like a dream!

[DrivenTooFar]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Hey TGM, I ordered an Alienware laptop but it's backordered because of the graphics card. Did you expierience the same thing or is it my bad luck? If it did happen to you, about how long did it take before it was shipped?

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Nope, as I said, its in the mail. I should be getting it in 2 days but I always say 3 just in case something comes up! I don't want to be disappointed!! But yes, I will be installing FFXI on it because it is going to be my office puter.......and we know how much work you can get done with FFXI on your work puter! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL So I'll take some screenies for you and let you know how it plays.

[tarubei]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

I just got an apple macbook pro and it plays FFXI like a dream!

was there any complications with the video card drivers? got any screenshots?

[kuu]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Don't get the Pentium M...they're...POS...only thing worse is CeleronM, which is a dirt below POS.

Anything with an M should die a slow death.

Get the Core duo, they're powerful little suckers for half the watt usage.

I wouldn't suggest TGM's AMD, they'll suck a lot of power.

Unless you're one of those, "I do everything plugged in" people, the battery life and cost of a full comp spec on a labtop will be more of a downfall then an advantage...not to mention the price...ick the price...

If you want core duo comparisons, there is a macbook pro thread, you can ask that user, for ffxi benchscores or something. They're using core duo's as well.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Don't get the Pentium M...they're...POS...only thing worse is CeleronM, which is a dirt below POS.

Anything with an M should die a slow death.

Get the Core duo, they're powerful little suckers for half the watt usage.

I wouldn't suggest TGM's AMD, they'll suck a lot of power.

Unless you're one of those, "I do everything plugged in" people, the battery life and cost of a full comp spec on a labtop will be more of a downfall then an advantage...not to mention the price...ick the price...

If you want core duo comparisons, there is a macbook pro thread, you can ask that user, for ffxi benchscores or something. They're using core duo's as well.

FYI, people are using laptops to replace desktops. Not everyone uses them for portability. And anyone with 1/2 a brain would realize that a tweaked out system is going to cost you $$ and not be very portable. I'd rather have something I'm going to use instead of a glorified wordpad.

For people who wanted benchmarks and pics, here you go. Just came this afternoon and I've been busy playing with it and installing stuff. I don't have FFXI fully installed yet but as you can tell by the bench's there will be absolutely no problem running it.











FFXI Benchmark on the low setting:





FFXI Benchmark on High....the end pic I took was blurry but it was almost 6300....not to shabby for a laptop!

[Mog]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

utterly....amazing

[bikkebakke]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Very nice TGM!