Buying a Laptop

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Olimarman

New Member
I'm looking to buy a laptop mainly to play World of Warcraft on. I really can't spend more than $1000, and somewhere around 800-900 is probably best. I plan to not play further than 30 feet away from my router wirelessly. The one I'm looking at now is the Dell Inspiron 1525 with the following:

Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
Intel Pentium Dual CoreT4200 (2.0 GHz/800 MHz FSB/1MB Cache)
3 GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 (2 Dimms) (3 GB of Ram really)
250 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (With this computer, this is unchangeable)
CD / DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW Drive) (I don't think this makes a difference but I'll post it anyway.)
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-Card
High Definition Audio 2.0
As well as a 9 cell battery.

I know that I greatly surpass the specs required to play, but I just want to make sure that I could effectively play World of Warcraft with minimal lag, as well as having other things open such as Skype, Vent, a web browser maybe, whatever. Without software, this would total to roughly 800, which would
be a great price.I don't need stellar graphics, I just want to know if I could run wow effectively with decent graphics and a playable FPS.

The link to the computer builder can be found here:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...n&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=features~laptops_great_deals

If theres anything I left out just post, and if for some reason I put this into the wrong forum I do apologize.

I'm open to suggestions too, so anything you need to say please do. Thanks!
 
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Olimarman said:
I'm looking to buy a laptop mainly to play World of Warcraft on. I really can't spend more than $1000, and somewhere around 800-900 is probably best. I plan to not play further than 30 feet away from my router wirelessly. The one I'm looking at now is the Dell Inspiron 1525 with the following:

Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
Intel Pentium Dual CoreT4200 (2.0 GHz/800 MHz FSB/1MB Cache)
3 GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 (2 Dimms) (3 GB of Ram really)
250 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (With this computer, this is unchangeable)
CD / DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW Drive) (I don't think this makes a difference but I'll post it anyway.)
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-Card
High Definition Audio 2.0
As well as a 9 cell battery.

I know that I greatly surpass the specs required to play, but I just want to make sure that I could effectively play World of Warcraft with minimal lag, as well as having other things open such as Skype, Vent, a web browser maybe, whatever. Without software, this would total to roughly 800, which would
be a great price.
The link to the computer builder can be found here:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...n&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=features~laptops_great_deals

If theres anything I left out just post, and if for some reason I put this into the wrong forum I do apologize.

I'm open to suggestions too, so anything you need to say please do. Thanks!
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152073

That's a good deal and beats the pants off the Dell.
 
wow sucks, also if your playing that clsoe to router you should just get an ethernet cable so you have a faster connection in arenas and such :P
 
Zerowing, he didn't ask for your opinion of the game did he? I believe it was about a laptop. Dell makes awsome laptops and but I am worried about your graphics card, Get a Dell Inspirion 13. This is what I configured it to for your price.
SYSTEM COLOR Pacific Blue edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty and Mail In Service
DISPLAY AND CAMERA Glossy, widescreen 13.3" LCD (1280x800) w/o Camera
VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
MEMORY 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 (2 Dimms)
HARD DRIVE Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)
WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini-Card BATTERY OPTIONS 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
894$. And the graphic card is far better.
 
What exactly will a new graphics card do? Will it actually make the game run smoother, or just have relatively better graphics?
 
It will do both. With the original set up you had with the intel x3100, with wow on it's lowest setting your going to lag (it's a bad graphics card for gamming at all). With the set up from the Dell Inspirion 13 the NVIDIA 8400m GS Will do far better in wow on the lowest graphic setting and you might be able to increase the graphics a little before you start to see lag.
 
DMGrier said:
Zerowing, he didn't ask for your opinion of the game did he? I believe it was about a laptop. Dell makes awsome laptops and but I am worried about your graphics card, Get a Dell Inspirion 13. This is what I configured it to for your price.
SYSTEM COLOR Pacific Blue edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty and Mail In Service
DISPLAY AND CAMERA Glossy, widescreen 13.3" LCD (1280x800) w/o Camera
VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
MEMORY 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 (2 Dimms)
HARD DRIVE Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)
WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini-Card BATTERY OPTIONS 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
894$. And the graphic card is far better.
Click to expand...

I checked this one out, seems pretty nice. Is 128 mb card good enough? And could I always buy a different card?
 
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Alright, I think I've decided on my buy.

Dell 13

SYSTEM COLOR Pacific Blue
PROCESSOR Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 (2.2Ghz/800 Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty and Mail In Service
DISPLAY AND CAMERA Glossy, widescreen 13.3" LCD (1280x800) w/ 2.0 pixel Camera
VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 (2 Dimms)
HARD DRIVE Size: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)
WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card
BATTERY OPTIONS 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
$1014

Few questions:
1. Should this run WoW at a playable and enjoyable FPS?
2. What is the difference between the listed wireless minicard and the Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card? (Only a $10 difference in the 2)
3. What does having blue tooth capability do? Could I still use a wireless usb mouse mouse?
4. What exactly is cache, and what would be the benefit of having like 2 mb instead of 1?
 
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Olimarman said:
Few questions:
1. Should this run WoW at a playable and enjoyable FPS?
2. What is the difference between the listed wireless minicard and the Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card? (Only a $10 difference in the 2)
3. What does having blue tooth capability do? Could I still use a wireless usb mouse mouse?
4. What exactly is cache, and what would be the benefit of having like 2 mb instead of 1?
Click to expand...


1. Don't know, sorry.
2. Don't know, sorry.
3. Blue tooth means you can connect stuff such as mobile phones. My mobile phone can be used as a remote for media players and powerpoint with a bluetooth laptop. This isn't limited to mobile phones though.
4. Cache is memory on the CPU (L1) and motherboard (L2). It is much quicker to access than RAM, so the most common instructions are stored in these. Therefore, a rough rule is the larger the cache, the more instructions are 'closer', and therefore it will be quicker. This is effected by several other things though.

Hope that helps, Doug.
 
dug987654 said:
1. Don't know, sorry.
2. Don't know, sorry.
3. Blue tooth means you can connect stuff such as mobile phones. My mobile phone can be used as a remote for media players and powerpoint with a bluetooth laptop. This isn't limited to mobile phones though.
4. Cache is memory on the CPU (L1) and motherboard (L2). It is much quicker to access than RAM, so the most common instructions are stored in these. Therefore, a rough rule is the larger the cache, the more instructions are 'closer', and therefore it will be quicker. This is effected by several other things though.

Hope that helps, Doug.
Click to expand...
Without bluetooth, could I still use a wireless mouse provided that I still plug the receiver in? Money aside, is there a reason to not get bluetooth?
 
if you dont know what blue tooth is then you dont need it lol, its bassically a thing you can connect other things to wierlessly
 
Alright, anyone for these?

1. Should this run WoW at a playable and enjoyable FPS? (specs at the top of this page)
2. What is the difference between the listed wireless minicard and the Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card? (Only a $10 difference in the 2)
 
It should run wow with no problem, if you look at my signature the Dell Inspiron 1501 I have listed can run wow and you have a better graphic's card.The wifi card thing is a rating, the two most common rating's you will see is G or N. They stand for your wifi card wireless strength. G being the lowest and N being the highest. These rating also apply to routers, So if you want real internet speed get the N rated card and buy a N rated router.
 
You could run WoW that gave you an enjoyable FPS and all that but you might have to make some sacrifices. Enabling all the shadows and things like that would probably slow you down. But hey, people have been playing without shadows for years in that game
 
DMGrier said:
It should run wow with no problem, if you look at my signature the Dell Inspiron 1501 I have listed can run wow and you have a better graphic's card.The wifi card thing is a rating, the two most common rating's you will see is G or N. They stand for your wifi card wireless strength. G being the lowest and N being the highest. These rating also apply to routers, So if you want real internet speed get the N rated card and buy a N rated router.
Click to expand...
Ok, I just checked and my router is a G. Could I still use an N card? And is there a specific difference between the two cards that I mentioned?

Also, I just looked up the specs for WoW, and it recommends this: Intel® Pentium® 4 processor. Does the processor I'm going to get exceed this?
 
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Your router will work with that card, and always get the fastest card you can from the manufacture when you plan on doing online gaming.
 
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