Help me buy a laptop :)

[dubs89]

Hey all, i am new to this forum and hope that it can be helpful

I am in need of purchaseing a laptop for school, here are my specs.
- I am going into game art and design for my schooling.
- A major program we use is maya
- I want a good priced laptop ( i dont need somthing that is best now but will drop like 500$ in 2 months)

I have been looking and so far this is the best deal i have found:
Dell XPS M1710

For the above computer what would be the best specs to choose?
-Is 4 gig's og RAM worth it?
-is the 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX really worth 400$ more than the 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS?
- Also what is the dif between 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive and a SATA Hard Drive [Included in Price]?

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[luckyedboy66]

Hey all, i am new to this forum and hope that it can be helpful

I am in need of purchaseing a laptop for school, here are my specs.
- I am going into game art and design for my schooling.
- A major program we use is maya
- I want a good priced laptop ( i dont need somthing that is best now but will drop like 500$ in 2 months)

I have been looking and so far this is the best deal i have found:
Dell XPS M1710

For the above computer what would be the best specs to choose?
-Is 4 gig's og RAM worth it?
-is the 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX really worth 400$ more than the 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS?
- Also what is the dif between 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive and a SATA Hard Drive [Included in Price]?

Thank you very much for your help.

that. is. an. awesome. laptop! (welcome to CF)

1. 4GB ram- maybe. for most people it is over kill, but if your budget allows it, and you want your programs to fly (and make your friends green with envy), go for it.
2. the 7950 GTX is the best card currently offered for laptops. the the 7900 GT is great, but the GTX is awesome. if you wanna put most desktop users to shame, buy it.
3. i am guessing the included HDD is 5400RPM, which means the optional 7200rpm HDD will be faster. once again, it all comes down to speed- if you want to get the highest performance possible, get it.

hope that helps!
LuckyEdBoy66

 

[dubs89]

Hey, thanks for the reply and welcome!

So dell isnt to bad of a rip off when it comes to their XPS laptops? Also do you know of any place that compairs the two graphics cards?

 

[andy faith]

not really, theyre pretty decent bits of kit. plus having a warranty is always good. I don't know of any sites but you could google it

 

[dubs89]

Well thats a bonus, i heard that dell was a rip off when searching previous forums. Now the question is:

Is the 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX worth $400.00 more than the 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS, OR will it just drop in price hugely when the new card comes out because it really isnt that much better?

Also would anyone suggest i get the 9-cell Primary Battery and 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery over the 80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery. This is for 90$.

 

[andy faith]

it is quite alot better actually, I wouldn't pay $400 for it personally but thats just me...and I don't have that much money. If you can afford it then go for it cuz theres a definate improvement. as for the battery, if you're going to be using it away from power for long lengths of time then get it, if not then don't bother

 

[Jabes]

Well thats a bonus, i heard that dell was a rip off when searching previous forums. Now the question is:

Is the 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX worth $400.00 more than the 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS, OR will it just drop in price hugely when the new card comes out because it really isnt that much better?

Also would anyone suggest i get the 9-cell Primary Battery and 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery over the 80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery. This is for 90$.

are you going to be using it mainly on battery cuz if u r then I would get that battery cuz you get my battery time out of it

 

[Geoff]

Is the 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX worth $400.00 more than the 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS, OR will it just drop in price hugely when the new card comes out because it really isnt that much better?

Unless your a die hard gamer, I wouldnt spent the extra money on a DX9 card.

As for the RAM, don't upgrade to 4GB from the Dell site. They charge $500 more then 1GB. You can buy 2x 2GB DDR2-667 RAM from Newegg for $198.

 

[dubs89]

Is it possable for me to install the RAM myself??
Also the computer only come with 1GB by defult should i at least upgrade to 2 GB?

 

[luckyedboy66]

Hey, thanks for the reply and welcome!

So dell isnt to bad of a rip off when it comes to their XPS laptops? Also do you know of any place that compairs the two graphics cards?

ya, here is an awesome site that i have found really helpful in the past for comparing GPUs. i see youre a bit apprehensive about the quality of dell. we have had alot of heated discussions about their quality here at CF. i personally dont like dell, but i think youll do well with the XPS line.

1. get the 9 cell battery!!
2. yes, its very easy to upgrade ram. i imagine youll need to get 2x sticks of 2gb.

 

[Geoff]

Is it possable for me to install the RAM myself??
Also the computer only come with 1GB by defult should i at least upgrade to 2 GB?

It's very easy, on almost all laptops there is a panel that can be removed on the bottom which will give you access to the RAM slots. I changed out the RAM in my Inspiron E1505 in about 5 minutes.

If you do plan to upgrade to 4GB and install it yourself, then theres really no point in wasting $125 tog et 2GB when you will need to remove it anyways.

 

[dubs89]

Ahh icic, So i should request the laptop to come with no ram at all? or should i request that it comes with only one sitck or the 2gb ram then buy the other stick myself?

How much more battery time are we talking with the 9cell?

 

[luckyedboy66]

Ahh icic, So i should request the laptop to come with no ram at all? or should i request that it comes with only one sitck or the 2gb ram then buy the other stick myself?

How much more battery time are we talking with the 9cell?

well, if you pimp it out like you have been talking of, i doubt it will last much more than an hour. but thats more than can be said for the stock battery. i have a 17" HP with the premium battery and it will last me about 90min when watching a movie.
also, let me warn you, a powerful lappy like that will get mighty hot on your lap...just thought you should know.

and i highly doubt you can get a lappy with 0 ram, but you could just get 2gb, and then send it to me .

 

[Geoff]

Ahh icic, So i should request the laptop to come with no ram at all? or should i request that it comes with only one sitck or the 2gb ram then buy the other stick myself?

How much more battery time are we talking with the 9cell?

They cant ship it without any RAM because then they couldnt install an OS on it.

Just have it come with the 1GB of RAM, and then sell it on eBay when you replace it with RAM from Newegg.

And I can't speak for your laptop since you have a higher powered video card, but my E1505 which was a 15.4" screen, ATI x1400, Core Duo, etc, I got an average of 3.5 hours with the 9-cell, but up to 6 hours with the brightness all the way down and WiFi disabled.

 

[dubs89]

Excellent info thanks!
I am probly not going to go with the GTX video card as it will drop majorly in price quickly anyways and just be like any other "older' video card. i will however go for the 9cell batery

Will the 4 GB of ram be needed with out that video card?

Can i replace the video card in a laptop myself ordoes it have to be braught into a shop?

 

[Jabes]

Excellent info thanks!
I am probly not going to go with the GTX video card as it will drop majorly in price quickly anyways and just be like any other "older' video card. i will however go for the 9cell batery

Will the 4 GB of ram be needed with out that video card?

Can i replace the video card in a laptop myself ordoes it have to be braught into a shop?

you might need that much ram if your going to be doing graphics arts but I wouldn't have dell install it either and idk about the video card if omega doesn't know I think the_other_one might know

 

[andy faith]

you cant normally replace graphics cards in laptops but saying that that is slowly changing so I'm not sure seen as this is one of the top range laptops

 

[dubs89]

Alright so this is what i got so far:
Im going with the 9cell battery
Getting the original 1Gb of RAM and upgrading to 4gig myself.

Now the last two question is the graphics card, who here thinks that it is worth it? and is the 7200prm sata hard drive worth it?

Also is there anything else i should upgrade/know?

 

[andy faith]

hard drive is worth it, as for the graphics card, I'm not sure how much power you need to run maya well but I think the 7900 should be powerful enough for it

 

[dubs89]

I thank you for your replys:

Do you know the average FPS you get with each cards? or perhaps a estimated % on how much beter the GTX is?

Should i go with the 80 gig and use a external or is it actuly that much beter to have a 100 - 120 gig harddrive?