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Which Dell Laptop Would you Recommend?

Knuckles

Knuckles

Active member
Moderator
I would go for the 9300 here,

Plus:
17" screen (compared to 15.4" for the 9100)
Radeon X300 64/128Mb or G6800Go 256MB(instead of Radeon 9700 for the 9100)
It uses a Centrino processor, great for laptops , even if clocked lower and no HT
Great Power management as you said
Integretated 802.11b/g wireless
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
I wouldn't reccomend a Dell personally. The main reason being, they don't let you choose your processor. They refuse to deal with AMD at all which makes their computers pricey. Add to that, they boost their prices and your just paying for the name. Your best bet is to go to (insert favorite retail store here) and see what they have on the shelf and compare.
 
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smegforbrain

smegforbrain

New member
I'm not sure I'd recommend a Dell either, to be honest.

My wife has a Dell laptop, and for the money, it's not bad, but when it won't run half the cd's I burn off for her (general files, mp3s, etc), it gets old in a hurry.

As for the AMD thing, yeah, I was disappointed in reading that - I'm wondering how much Intel offered Dell to remain Intel-only. :p
 
OP
C

Curious

New member
Thank you all for taking the time to get back I really appreciate all your advice.
The main problem I have is I wish to change my existing Desktop for a multimedia laptop, capable of playing games like Half Life 2 with ease. But also a laptop which has good power management as I will be also using it for work. What spec would you recommend for these needs. I am also uncertain whether to go for the latest Radeon or Geforce 6800 graphics card.

I am also a little wary about going for a laptop, but work demands have me pointed in that direction.

The only reason I was thinking about Dell was because of the 9300, I don't see a similar laptop which is geared to multimedia and gaming.

I am a little bit out of the loop, I am assuming that the 64 Bit AMD processor is the best one at the moment?

Thanks once more for all positive feedback.

C.
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
AMD 64 is great, it breaks the 32 bit processor trend that we have been in forever. In simple terms, they have 64 spaces on the processor to hold information by which to process with instead of 32 making them faster right where it counts the most.

Upside: SPEED!, better capabilities, etc. etc.

Downside: Linux is currently the only OS that support the full capability of the 64 bit processor. Windows can use it because the architecture (like all CPU architectures in the past) is backward compatible, but it will mostly still be running in 32 bit mode.

If you really want to take advantage of the new 64bit technology, you would be best advised to hold off as long as you can to buy a computer at all. Windows XP 64 Edition is slated to be released later this year (no date yet so I can't guaruntee that). If you can hold off till then, you will surely be able to get it bundled with all 64 bit proccessor notebooks. Otherwise you would have to buy a new OS after buying the notebook to take full advantage of it.
 
OP
C

Curious

New member
Thanks for the advice Eagle,

I wasn't planning to get a new system until Oct of this year. So I'll keep my eye out for developments with 64bit technology.

C.
 
Clements

Clements

Active member
Moderator
You could wait for the AMD Turion 64 processor, AMDs answer to the Pentium M in terms of power requirements, but has SSE3 and x86-64 unlike Dothan and will probably be all around faster. Sounds like a winner to me.
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
Clements said:
You could wait for the AMD Turion 64 processor, AMDs answer to the Pentium M in terms of power requirements, but has SSE3 and x86-64 unlike Dothan and will probably be all around faster. Sounds like a winner to me.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm holding out for the Turion and XP64 before I buy my laptop. As much as I would love to use JUST Gentoo, its not possible at the moment so I figure I'll wait for Windows. Here is a good question for everyone. Does anyone know of a company that makes laptops with a restore disk that won't wipe out my linux partition if Windows craps out and needs a reinstall.
 
smcd

smcd

Active member
Eagle said:
Here is a good question for everyone. Does anyone know of a company that makes laptops with a restore disk that won't wipe out my linux partition if Windows craps out and needs a reinstall.
Click to expand...
This is why I hate OEM "restore CDs" - I much prefer to install everything manually, even if it does mean paying more, though you can perhaps ask the company to not load an OS onto the laptop so you don't pay for it twice?
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
sethmcdoogle said:
This is why I hate OEM "restore CDs" - I much prefer to install everything manually, even if it does mean paying more, though you can perhaps ask the company to not load an OS onto the laptop so you don't pay for it twice?
Click to expand...


I have yet to find a company that does that. You are pretty much always required to buy Winblows.
 
smcd

smcd

Active member
In california i think it is you can request the OEM vendor to not install the OS - or just get it from something like cyberpowerinc.
 
Flash

Flash

Technomage
Eagle said:
I could do that, if I wanted an all aroudn inferior machine.
Click to expand...
Not exactly - Connectix VGS is absolutely flawless on my antique PowerBook (G4-500/512Mb) while there's still some hickups on waaaaaaay more powerful x86 machine (like my desktop machine or even faster)
:D And OS X just can't be compared with that Windozzze crap.
 
OP
C

Curious

New member
Clements said:
You could wait for the AMD Turion 64 processor, AMDs answer to the Pentium M in terms of power requirements, but has SSE3 and x86-64 unlike Dothan and will probably be all around faster. Sounds like a winner to me.
Click to expand...

I have been doing a little research on the AMD Anthlon Processor, and I believe the Pentium M (2MB L2 Cache) to have the beating of it. I have been looking at other laptops for my twin purposes of work and for the latest games (HL2 for instance) and the best spec at the moment seems to be the Dell Inspiron 9300. It has 533 MHZ dual channel DDR2 SDRAM, 6 x USB 2.0 connections, you can include a 256MB NVIDIA Geforce 6800 go Graphics card, PCI Express x 16 and you have a FSB of 533 MHZ. Please note I am based in Europe so am unable to take advantage of any USA offers :down: Does anyone know of a comparable non Dell Laptop system?

In saying all this I do not intend to replace my existing desktop with a laptop until beginning of October 05. Also I am really reluctant to buy a Dell, two of my friends have had nitemares with their Dell pcs.

Clements, I hear the AMD Turion 64 processor is AMD's answer to Intel's Centrino, however I heard that most Turion CPU's will feature only 1MB cache, whereas The Dell 9300 spec has 2MB L2 Cache. How much difference does 1MB make? Alos do you have an indication of when Turion 64 will be available on Laptop PCs.

Thanks for all your help,

C.
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
This is the principle of diminishing returns. In other words, the higher you get the less difference it makes. L2 Cache is important, it makes a big difference. This is why the Celeron processor sucks balls. However the Celeron has something like 512k L2 Cache which is extremely low. 1MB is average, 2MB is good but is it worth the cost for the little speed it offers? Personally I don't think so.
 
Clements

Clements

Active member
Moderator
AMD processors do not need a ton of cache to get good performance. Semprons have half the cache of AthlonXPs but the performance hit is very low indeed.

Intel doubled the cache to the Proscott with the new 6xx line but it made no significant difference, in some cases they were slower than 5xx since the cache has higher latency. Desktop AMD processors with 1MB cache wiped the floor with their Intel equivalents with twice the cache. I suspect that the new Turion will destroy the Pentium M since the P-M is based on a much older core.

I've heard that a 1.6GHz Turion can overclock to 2.0GHz at 1.056V and fits in the Socket 754, so this looks like Mobile Barton all over again.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21613
 
OP
C

Curious

New member
Clements said:
AMD processors do not need a ton of cache to get good performance. Semprons have half the cache of AthlonXPs but the performance hit is very low indeed.

Intel doubled the cache to the Proscott with the new 6xx line but it made no significant difference, in some cases they were slower than 5xx since the cache has higher latency. Desktop AMD processors with 1MB cache wiped the floor with their Intel equivalents with twice the cache. I suspect that the new Turion will destroy the Pentium M since the P-M is based on a much older core.

I've heard that a 1.6GHz Turion can overclock to 2.0GHz at 1.056V and fits in the Socket 754, so this looks like Mobile Barton all over again.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21613
Click to expand...

I believe both Eagle and Clements have hit the nail on the head for me. AMD 64, particularly Turion in my case as I need a laptop, is the future and the way to go.

However, in the present market, at least in Europe where I am based, I am having great difficulty locating a laptop with AMD 64 processor which also has a 256MB graphics card, in fact I can not find an AMD 64 based laptop that comes close to matching Dell's Inspirion 9300 spec.

Being a little out of the loop here I wonder if I could pose you a few questions, as so far you have been crucial in helping me shape what laptop to look for in the next six months.

Could you give me an indication of what a spec for an AMD Athlon 64 equivalent of the Dell 9300 might look like?

Also do you have any indication of when the turion powered laptops will be available - as the power management issue with AMD 64 powered laptops is relatively bad in comparison with Pentiium M Centrino.

Thanks for letting me pick your brains and for all the great advice you have already given me.

C. :cheers:
 
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