Dell, Alienware, value for money etc.

Shryke

Budget: I'll spend over a grand, up to two if I have to.

Intended Use: Plenty of word processing, browsing, multimedia use, some gaming but nothing too intensive. An all purpose machine really, it would want to be fairly high end. Wifi is a must. A camera with video capture would be nice.

Mobility: Nothing small enough so as I feel uncomfortable typing, but nothing huge. A 17 inch screen sounds pretty huge to me.

Sooooo, I was ready to order an XPS M1330 a good while ago but ended up spending a large wad of cash on something else entirely. But, my bank account is once again replenished. I'm worried the 13 inch screen would be too small so I would like to hear opinions on that. More recently I was thinking of going all out and getting an Alienware, partly because there is no XPS with a 15 inch screen. They go from tiny to huge. This though:
http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_detail_pages/Area-51_m5550/area-51m_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-EU-LT-A51M5550&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

With upgrades added it comes to between 1600 and 1900 depending on if I want to take 2 or 4 gigs of RAM. I think 4's a bit of a fantasy so lets say with 2 it comes to 1650 euro excluding delivery. Here are the basic specs. Seems pretty expensive to me, but worth it?

Vista Home Premium
Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
Geforce Go 7600
2 or 4 gigs of RAM
100 Gig HD

Peoples thoughts and recs welcome.

dulpit

It's been said before, and it's getting pretty boring at this stage, but look at the Vostro range of laptops from Dell (check their small business site)

You can get a vostro 1500 (which has a 15" screen) for a lot less.
This configured with a 1 year warranty comes in at €845.79 including delivery.

That includes Vista Business, 2gb of RAM, 256mb nVidia GeForce 8600M Gt gfx card, 160gb hard drive, integrated web cam.

Also, you should be aware that 4gb of ram is kinda wasted on normal windows (32bit) cos it can only see 3.2gb of it (or something like that) if you want to be able to use more, you'd need 64bit vista...

AlmightyCushion

Do not go with that alienware. Go with the one dulpit has linked to, it's a great laptop for the money. If you want to get 4GBs of ram don't go near dell. They'll rip you off . It costs nearly €500 to go from 2GBs to 4GBs and the ram they give you is most likely crap. shop4memory.ie have great deals on ram. They have 4GBs for €220 and I'm pretty sure it's good ram.

djkeogh

That looks like a pretty sweet deal. Would that Graphics card be capable of running the most recent PC games on that spec machine?

dulpit

Well I'm able to play F.E.A.R. at practically full specs, runs great... That's the only graphics intensive game i've played on it (i'm currently consuming my life with football manager 2008)

There was a thread about this before, someone posted screens of various games running on a vostro...

Shryke

Alright, I'll avoid the Alienware. Thanks for the advice.

Shryke

Update!
Alrighty, I've decided on an Inspiron 1520, Vostros look great price wise, but I'm happy with what I've put together and there is an offer on at the mo. The specs if anyones curious:
2 GHz, Vista premium, 2 gigs of RAM, 200GB HD (7200rpm), Geforce Go 8600M GT, 9-cell battery.

Now, the problem: No credit/debit card. The moneys sitting in my account and I haven't done this sort of thing before but I assume I can set up a transfer of some kind? Could anyone fill me in on the procedure? I'll be ringing a sales rep tomorrow and I'd like to know what information I'll need and what will be said.
Much obliged!

Mr. Presentable

Isn't Alienware Dell? I'm sure it is.

Shryke

Dell bought them, I think. Don't be pedantic!

TerrorFirmer

djkeogh wrote: »

That looks like a pretty sweet deal. Would that Graphics card be capable of running the most recent PC games on that spec machine?

It's good. I can run the likes of Call of Duty 2/FEAR/ CS Source at max settings, newest titles like Call of Duty 4, Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 at medium settings. With laptops, the cost of performance is vastly more expensive then desktop counterparts and you pay heavily for gaming orientated video, so the 8600GT in the Vostro line is an exceptionally good bargain. Often in a laptop two machines with identical specs, save for the video card, means a difference in several hundred euro. When you compare the Vosto price wise to other machines, you are almost getting the 8600GT for free.

The Alienware is a ripoff, and you're paying that much for old technology too. The Go7600 is the predecssor to the 8600Gt and much weaker.

delos

Sandor wrote: »

Now, the problem: No credit/debit card. The moneys sitting in my account and I haven't done this sort of thing before but I assume I can set up a transfer of some kind?

My brother in-law bought from Dell recently and he sent them a banker's draft. The only effect was that they order wasn't processed until it was received - the desktop arrived early but I suspect there may be a bit of a wait on the Laptops due to demand.

Shryke

The site says five weeks! I'm happy to wait a bit though. I've gone this long without one.

Nehpets

The Vostro has an 8600GTm. It's ddr2 not ddr3

Shryke

Seriously, I get it. The Vostro is fan-frickin-tastic. I appreciate it, but I'm a shallow man, and the Inspiron suits my aesthetic needs, and meets my requirements.

Shryke

Sorry for dragging up this thread again! I've set up my order with Dell and they're just waiting on the money from me so it can be processed but I'm a bit annoyed at the moment. The guy on the phone pressed me into getting the highest screen resolution; the ultrasharp. I'm reading online that it's actually terrible? Everything is very small and if you set it to a lower resolution that it comes out pixelated? Any truth to this? I'll damn well be cancelling the current order if there is. And then all the trouble of making a new one. :mad:
Still, if I'm making a new one I can spring for the 2.2 GHz processor as well.
It's not possible to change my order at this stage, I don't think. Should I expect much hassle?

AlmightyCushion

Well because it has more pixels than a standard laptop screen of that size then yes everything will appear smaller. And running a lcd at anything other than native resolution makes it look cack. Personally I would love to have a higher resolution.

Shryke

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Well because it has more pixels than a standard laptop screen of that size then yes everything will appear smaller. And running a lcd at anything other than native resolution makes it look cack. Personally I would love to have a higher resolution.

That's fair enough, but if everything is too small? I'm really itching about this. I didn't really want the screen in the first place but the guy was so persistant!

subway

the higher the resolution the better.
if the text is too small you can change the size within windows.

no lcd looks good on a non native resolution

Shryke

You guys really think I should keep the resolution? It's 1680x1050 on a 15.4 inch screen, is that a bit much? Also as far as gaming goes, the resolution would have to change, right? Would the game not then look poorer with the higher resolution?
Edit: To avoid any possible confusion, what I mean to say is if a game is running at 1024x7...whatever, will the visual quality be poorer?

Ghost Train

have the 1680x1050 15" screen on my inspiron and really love it. Some website are formatted with very small text that won't resize well in some browsers so sometimes thats annoying... but only a minor issue. As for games, they will look a bit softer if you lower the resolution, but for me anyway it not an issue, it's different for the desktop and web browsing where the softness recks your eyes. Only game i've tried recently on my laptop is hl2 and that plays fine at 1680x1050
heres a desktop screen shotcapture_10112007_112719.jpg
the browser is set to 175% zoom, so looks a bit wierd

Shryke

Good to hear you like it, everything does look very scaled down. Please tell me your not using the zoom because text is too small!
I'm thinking of keeping it now, this is a laptop I'm going to be keeping for the long-term. I don't want to piss away money on it and then never use it because I'm so disgusted by the unpracticality of it. Microsoft Word, Firefox, Media Player, would you say these things are affected for better or worse? I wouldn't mind a slight softening with games.
I won't be primarily using it as a gaming machine anywho, but may have to revisit HL2, Monkey Islands, Lego Star Wars, etc. Word though, I may be doing a lot of typing. Would it be alright with the resized text? I don't want to put you to any bother but a few more pix would be fantastic! I'm trying to google for screenshots half the morning and I'm having no luck. With all the complaints people were making you think a few of them would have uploaded pics! Lastly, how's the screen outside in the sunshine or even indoors? Is it just a bit of glare but still very much usable or would you say it's more the Eye of Sauron/fire of God?
Any reply at all welcome, I'm on a knifes edge about the whole thing at the mo!

subway

go to pcworld, all the machines have the spec listed, including the resolution.
find a 15" with wuxga resolution and see for yourself...

Ghost Train

on the glossy screens, really personal thing, i've no problem with either, good thread here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=49330

it's the inspiron 6400 that i have btw

like i say webpages can be a problem, text smaller than comfortable, because most are designed for low rez screens, i don't use ie or firefox so can't really say how much of a problem it would be. maxthon with a zoom plugin (locks zoom) works well for me, so not much of an issue

word has zoom settings and is comfortable to use, windows has the desktop dpi settings which means most programs are fine to use menu wise

heres more screens,
100pc browsingboards.jpg

firefoxstandard settings.jpg

mediaplayer.jpg

word100pc.jpg

word fit to width.jpg


where are you reading complaints btw.... and is it just about stuff like text size or is it hardware issues just with the 1520 screens?

Shryke

Thanks eolhc! Much appreciated. I'll stick with what I've ordered. I'm sure I'll get over the few minor issues I'm bound to have.
The complaints are coming up in google searches. I've tried a few different combinations, the nature of the complaints have pretty much all been about the text size. The reflective glare also, though that's to do with the glossy screen rather than the resolution.

ednwireland

ive noticed on some laptops that setting the text to cleartype (or not cant remember which way round it is) makes a significant difference to text clarity
the setting is found if you right click on the desktop and do properties then appearance then the effects button set the use the following method to smooth screen fonts and set to cleartype. seen this make a big difference on some screens.