Which laptop would be better?

[tarubei]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

well for those that had positive input I appreciate it, I didnt mean this thread to get into a "mines better than yours" kinda thread. I'd thought I would reply to this with the results of my research and final purchase. I spent some time doing more research after I posted here. www.notebookforums.com (very useful site with alot of resources). I eneded up getting the Dell XPSM170 because there was a deal that I absolutely couldn't pass. They had a coupon that started the M170 price at $1399.00!! With a minor upgrades here and there my total came out to a little over $1600 shipped which is a great deal imo. Again I thank the people that helped me out with their input. Heres the final specs of my new lapto.


1 XPS M170, Pentium M 770 (2.13GHz/533MHz FSB)
1 17in True Life Wide Screen UXGA
1 2GB,DDR2,533MHz 2 Dimm
1 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX ,for XPS M170
1 60GB Ultra ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
1 Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English

I'll be wipping the XP home with XP MCE once I get it. Also went on new egg and ordered a cooler and Arctic Silver AS5. With the same set up and a lil OC on the vid card people are running 6-7k range on 3DMark05 and 4-5k range on 3DMark06. The ETA for the laptop is 4/27/06 so I will keep you guys updated as soon as I get it!

[Reize]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

The XPS M170 will do you fine, easily playing FFXI on max settings.

If your interest in notebooks continues, I'd say you should visit www.notebookreview.com

I believe they're much nicer and much more organized than Notebook Forums. Also more intelligent generally, I'm basing that on the trolling/idiot rate on either forum.

[kuu]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

well for those that had positive input I appreciate it, I didnt mean this thread to get into a "mines better than yours" kinda thread. I'd thought I would reply to this with the results of my research and final purchase. I spent some time doing more research after I posted here. www.notebookforums.com (very useful site with alot of resources). I eneded up getting the Dell XPSM170 because there was a deal that I absolutely couldn't pass. They had a coupon that started the M170 price at $1399.00!! With a minor upgrades here and there my total came out to a little over $1600 shipped which is a great deal imo. Again I thank the people that helped me out with their input. Heres the final specs of my new lapto.


1 XPS M170, Pentium M 770 (2.13GHz/533MHz FSB)
1 17in True Life Wide Screen UXGA
1 2GB,DDR2,533MHz 2 Dimm
1 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX ,for XPS M170
1 60GB Ultra ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
1 Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English

I'll be wipping the XP home with XP MCE once I get it. Also went on new egg and ordered a cooler and Arctic Silver AS5. With the same set up and a lil OC on the vid card people are running 6-7k range on 3DMark05 and 4-5k range on 3DMark06. The ETA for the laptop is 4/27/06 so I will keep you guys updated as soon as I get it!

Doesn't look too bad for its price. Not my cup of tea though, you're trading a lot of stuff for cpu power there. It's going to run mightly sluggishly after a few programs in like antivirus.

I would have rather gotten a core duo, but the wallet speaks loudest in the end.

As I stated earily on, anything With an M should be shot on to death on sight.

Still though it'll do pretty decenty for ffxi...and I'm not sure how you're going to OC a labtop or even want to. Heck not even sure you can add termal compound to it, as most notebook chips are embedded. Never try to push a labtop, they are engineered very sensitively, and more often then not going to blow up in your face...

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

well for those that had positive input I appreciate it, I didnt mean this thread to get into a "mines better than yours" kinda thread. I'd thought I would reply to this with the results of my research and final purchase. I spent some time doing more research after I posted here. www.notebookforums.com (very useful site with alot of resources). I eneded up getting the Dell XPSM170 because there was a deal that I absolutely couldn't pass. They had a coupon that started the M170 price at $1399.00!! With a minor upgrades here and there my total came out to a little over $1600 shipped which is a great deal imo. Again I thank the people that helped me out with their input. Heres the final specs of my new lapto.


1 XPS M170, Pentium M 770 (2.13GHz/533MHz FSB)
1 17in True Life Wide Screen UXGA
1 2GB,DDR2,533MHz 2 Dimm
1 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX ,for XPS M170
1 60GB Ultra ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
1 Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English

I'll be wipping the XP home with XP MCE once I get it. Also went on new egg and ordered a cooler and Arctic Silver AS5. With the same set up and a lil OC on the vid card people are running 6-7k range on 3DMark05 and 4-5k range on 3DMark06. The ETA for the laptop is 4/27/06 so I will keep you guys updated as soon as I get it!

Glad to see you have decided! I hope you enjoy your laptop as much as I do mine! It sounds leaps and bounds better than your previous pick!

As for customer service from Dell, talk to our own fc. He has a Dell LCD that he had an issue with. He called Dell, they sent him a brand new one, and AFTER he got it, they let him send back his old one. He never had to be without a monitor and they did it in a timely manner with no hassles. Sounds like shoddy customer service there!!

[Rostum]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

and they did it in a timely manner with no hassles. Sounds like shoddy customer service there!!

Yay! Let's just judge a huge company on one customer support they delt with!

[fastcart]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Too be fair, the CSR I talked with had a THICK accent and was hard to understand. What's worse is that I have a hearing impediment which gives me trouble understanding regular/non accents anyway. We talked like 20 minutes. No hold time before the coversation, but several during.

Another tidbit was I had to return the old monitor within ten days or I'd get charged $600 for the new monitor. Dell was paying for shipping, but DHL would only pick it up if it was ready to ship. I didn't have any kind of tape to reseal the box. So, I trucked the monitor on my cart to the DHL facility (technically it was UPS), got copies of the packing slip, and was on my way. They were supposed to charge me for the copies and sealing, but just let me go since it was less than a buck.

Good experience I'd say, unless they lose the monitor... I don't have a spare $600 lying around.

YMMV

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Yay! Let's just judge a huge company on one customer support they delt with!

And as I stated earlier, I've talked to numerous Dell customers and haven't had one complain to me yet. Fc is just another to add to the list.

[Hearshot]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

They had a coupon that started the M170 price at $1399.00!! With a minor upgrades here and there my total came out to a little over $1600 shipped which is a great deal imo.

dude, thats a sick deal wheretf is this coupon ; ;

[tarubei]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

dude, thats a sick deal wheretf is this coupon ; ;

Coupon expired the day I ordered mine =( They were trying to get rid of most of their M170's since the new M1710 came out. I still can't believe i got it for the price I paid. It shipped on the 21st so I should get it sometime next week. After a clean install of xp and get ff11 up and running i'll post updates

Double Post Edited:

Doesn't look too bad for its price. Not my cup of tea though, you're trading a lot of stuff for cpu power there. It's going to run mightly sluggishly after a few programs in like antivirus.

I would have rather gotten a core duo, but the wallet speaks loudest in the end.

As I stated earily on, anything With an M should be shot on to death on sight.

Still though it'll do pretty decenty for ffxi...and I'm not sure how you're going to OC a labtop or even want to. Heck not even sure you can add termal compound to it, as most notebook chips are embedded. Never try to push a labtop, they are engineered very sensitively, and more often then not going to blow up in your face...

OCing the vid card on the M170 has been done plenty of times with perfect stability. If you try the sight i posted theres plenty of threads in regards to this as well as the thermal compound.

[tarubei]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Got my laptop today. Ran 3dmark05 out of the box and it scored 6799 and FF11 benchmark ran 7010. This is with all the dell junkware still installed. game looks absolutely beautiful compared to my old pc. I can run everything on max settings + regedit resolution and it still runs great. lower jeuno i get around 18-21 fps and any where else it caps out at 30.

[Lacion]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

i got a sony vaio VGN A-517S and its just plaing great, the game plays a lil slower in very populated ares(jeuno ah) but the rest is great play like my desktop pc, P43gz and a nvidia fx5900, so i`n very happy with it

[Kadenmire]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

I repair and put together custom jobs (PC work) and I can tell you this if you are looking for a hardcore gameing box laptops aren't the way to go. This is why

# 1 laptops are fragile verry fragile.

# 2 anything on a laptop that needs to be fixed or replaced will cost you 2 and some times 3 times what you would pay for the same hardware and labor for a desktop.

# 3 Every thing on even the newest and hotest laptop is is at best one gen behind the current hardware for a desktop.

Just so you know that I'm not just bashing laptops I have 2 of them and like them. But laptops are made for portability to get this you have to give something up.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

I repair and put together custom jobs (PC work) and I can tell you this if you are looking for a hardcore gameing box laptops aren't the way to go. This is why

# 1 laptops are fragile verry fragile.

# 2 anything on a laptop that needs to be fixed or replaced will cost you 2 and some times 3 times what you would pay for the same hardware and labor for a desktop.

# 3 Every thing on even the newest and hotest laptop is is at best one gen behind the current hardware for a desktop.

I think that people who buy high end gaming laptops know this already. They are usually technofiles and your points really aren't an issue with them. I personally am enjoying the hell out of mine and my son keeps thinking I'll get tired of it and give it to him! LOL 1) yes thats why I use mine primarily as desktop computer and another reason is its FREAKIN HEAVY! LOL 2) Yep thats why I invested in an extended warranty for it. 3) I also have the desktop I built that is no slouch. Must...have...backup....crack.... LOL

[fastcart]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

I didn't actually. My 1st pc was a Thinkpad. Bought it for portability, but it was my main/only pc for years. If i had to do it over again, I'd gotten a desktop. Maybe. >.>

No, I'm not rich. I came into some money and blew it on a laptop. d:

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Which laptop would be better?

Your rich fc, you are rich in heart!

My first laptop was for portability too but it was so limiting. I went mainly to desktop pc's after that with a laptop here and there. Then I splurged on my first high end laptop only to have my cat spill a full glass of lemonade on it. LOL Very expensive cat!