Prep before ordering

Hi guys!

Since the XF5870s seem to be coming soon (go away pessimists !), and the waiting is slowly eating the remains of my soul, I decided to make up my mind on what specs I'll buy so when it shows up I can just call straight away. And I need to ask a few things about them:

PROCESSOR - Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 820QM
SERVICES AND SUPPORT - 3 years Next Business Day + Accidental Damage
GRAPHICS CARD Dual 1GB ATI® RADEON™ HD 5870 Graphics Card (haha, see what I did there?)
MEMORY - 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
HARD DRIVE - 500GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
LCD - 17in Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED
OPTICAL DRIVE - 8X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
BLUETOOTH - Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - Europe edit
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY - Intel® Wireless LAN 6300 3x3 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)

My main questions are:

1. The famous discussion about the processors. Basically I want I system that will pwn every game and I don't do any serious video encoding stuff. However I will probably be using this system for 3-4 years and quads are likely to be used more efficiently by programs by that time. i720 is very close to i620 so I don't know if its worth the money, and I am not into benchmarks so i980 seems to be a waste of money in my case. i820 therefore I think is a sensible option. What would you say?

2. Hard drive. I am a complete noob in ssds, but my understanding is that Dellienwares ssds are crap and intel makes better ones with TRIM. I googled TRIM and I understand that this is prolongs the life span of the disk and prevents its speeds from falling? My plan is to buy ssd separately and instal it myself, which I understand is not hard at all. Does anyone now a good place to buy these in UK?

3. Warranty. In UK this system will cost me 3000 pounds, which is a lot. I could get it fairly cheaper from the USA, basically a friend would buy it and ship it to me. The question is, if I choose premium warranty will they require me to send the laptop all the way to America every time or can repair be made in Europe?

Those are my main questions. I did some research on this but when spending that amount of money I kinda want to be reassured that everything is the way I want it to be. Thank you for your time, and have a nice waiting game!

 

1. At a £410 premium over the 720qm its bloody well not lol. Bearing in mind if you configure a clevo over at kobalt the difference is £144 or £490 for the top of the range 920.

2. Scan/Novatech/Ebuyer

3. Not a clue

 

Not sure about stuff in the UK, but from the benchmarks I've seen there's doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the 820 and 720. Most of the benchmarks ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ore-i7-720qm-vs-core-i7-820qm-benchmarks.html) if you're curious, I can't find the other ones for games put the difference between the two CPUs at maybe a frame or two per second more for the 820. Probably not worth it.

Dell SSD discussion can be found here, it's up to you if you think it's worth it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/482428-samsung-dell-oem-ssds-really-bad.html

 

From what I hear the 820 isn't worth the $ over the 720 in real world use. Can't really help you with the rest i'm not really sure.

 

Thanks for the quick answers! I'll definitely look at that benchmarking thread.

Do you guys think the the games and software will make better use of quads in the future? Cause if i820 and i720 are almost the same and i720 + i620 likewise, the decision is even harder . So far my key argument for quads was looking into the future.

 

If all things are the same, a quad core adds a lot to any potential resale value. $0.02.

 

The new quads (i7-740QM , 840QM and 940XM) are coming soon, so I'd go with the cheapest processor and upgrade when they are out.
Currently, 820 costs 450$ extra. Instead, you could get the 520M, buy a 840 for around 600$ and sell the 520M for under 200$. Or even get a second hand 920XM for 600-700$ and still win

 

The new quads are the same with 133MHz more clock speed, though, aren't they?
In any case, if you want to keep the system for a few years, it will be cheaper to upgrade the CPU only when the i5-520M proves to be inadequate.

 

You got that leaked HP service manual

 

haha "Coming soon TM" game is killing me. I don't want to wait any longer and I doubt that I will upgrade my processor in 3 years. From my experience, processors tend to be able to play everything you need for 3 years easily.

I'm leaning towards the i720 now, its not overpriced so much and quads just sound so much better than duals .

 

Fair enough, though you might want to take a look at these benchmarks for the i7-620M.

In laptops, the gap between dual-cores and quad-cores is much less than it is in desktops because of limitations in power and heat.

 

I glanced at that thread and it has some interesting info, but I'll check that tomorrow cause I'm falling asleep here

 

Well on the SSD front I'll probably end up buying the 256GB one from DELL, since it now has TRIM enabled and the performance difference does not seem to be so huge, while the price is lower than let's say OCZ. Also, the more expensive the system, the bigger the discount I can get so I guess its worth it.

As for the processor, after reading various threads I'm still leaning towards the 820m.

So no one has any info about the USA warranty in Europe? I know that some of you living outside the US ordered from there.

 

Hey there Impressive,

If you take Next Businessday Waranty you should be fine...
Have a look at the website of Dell...

Quick quote:


The Dell International Services Program offers the security of knowing you can receive service and support when you travel with your Dell laptop outside your home country. To qualify for international service, you must purchase the Next Business Day On-site Response Service.

There are three methods for engaging technical support when travelling internationally:

Call the call center of the country in which you're travelling
Call the call center of your home region while abroad
Call the International Queue at 512-728-7424 (toll call).
If in the US or Canada, call 800-285-1653 (toll free)
The call center that you contact will perform a problem diagnosis. If repair is needed, the phone technician will arrange for service by contacting the Dell call center in the country where the customer is located. A dispatcher will contact the customer and arrange for service.

So yeah, they repair your laptop in the country where you are, not required to send it to the US.

Hope that helps

Cheerz,

PS: link from dell waranty :
Dell International Services Program | Dell


edit : I remember a post here on notebookreview . Something in the lines of "advice on ordering for non native US"
Search the thread , they might have some other advice there aswell

 

Thanks for the clarification! I'll rep you later, exceeded my limit for today.