Dell, Centrino 2, and lack of decent Gfx Card

Well, I decided a while ago to wait on getting a laptop until year end.

The time is here, and it seems Dell, according to some, has lost it with the cutting edge laptops. Looking at the current offerings, if you were to argue this case in court, it seems the pundits were correct based on the current facts.

Things can change tomorrow, but Dell supporters have said that since Centrino 2 was released :/

The word on the street (I've not combed these boards, just asked with a few people who buy from major suppliers) is that Alienware is hurting, and Dell has decided to push any higher-end laptop buyers their way.

So no one knows for sure if an XPS Centrino 2 laptop will come out or if they are just merging it into the Studio line and anything greater = Alienware.

I don't have issues with the Studio line since I think it is a good value, but the lack of even a 9600M type graphics card is the killer.

Soooooooooo...................

I won't ever touch Alienware (unless I get warped back into time, am 13 years old, and have a rich dad ) so I've decided to buy either an HP DV5T (or possibly an HDX16T) or a Dell if I can get Centrino 2 and at least a 9600M.

HP has a couple offerings in this area, Dell none. Or am I missing something.

So though I'd check before I buy a couple laptops, one for me and one for my wife.

I've been super busy but tried to scour these boards as well as ask the people who do some laptop ordering to make sure I'm not missing anything.

THANKS!

 

You could have a look at the m4400.
Is about as pretty as the dv5t (ie not very)
And the gpu is comparable to the 9600gt plus it has montevina capability.

Though I'd imagine you'd only really look at it if you were a die hard dell fan.

As regards dell bringing out anything decent in the near future - There's a rumours thread about it in the studio forum. According to them there'll be nothing happening till jan/feb so I were you, I'd be looking at the competition's offerings instead.

 

Yeah, I mean I'm really happy with what the HDX16T looks like - harder to find good coupons, etc. for HP and although most like the stylish finish, I hate the fingerprints as a result! REALLY hate it.

But the components and build are supposed to be very good on both models, and most people I know who have bought HP are really happy.

The only concern is their support is supposed to be much worse than Dell, which is a scary though since I didn't think that is possible.

I read a nice thread here where a guy basically sued them in small claims before they responded, and offerred him a full refund.

Anyway, thanks and yeah I figured if they had (or were) going to continue the XPS line, the refresh would have happened.

From a business standpoint, it makes complete sense to eliminate higher end offerings for entertainment laptops and drive people to Alientware, otherwise why did they buy that company?

Having a nice studio line of good value for the $$$ is where their profits will be, not on the 5% of us who want higher end rigs and don't mind what we spend.

 

There is not that much profit on the bread and butter models. (Inspiron, Studio). I think the XPS, Latitude is more profitable for Dell.

Inspirons don't bring in the big bucks since they are the bread and butter models where competition is very stiff.

 

i can see what you mean about the centrino 2, if they werent gonna have a revised line ready yet they should have at least made that an option in the current XPS laptops, but theres barely a performance boost from the DDR3 version of the 8600 GT to the 9600 which is usually DDR2 aside from a few select computers, and there dont seem to be as many problems with the 8600 in newer laptops.

 

rumor is that laptops with graphics performance(maybe 9600 and up) in Dell are given to the alienware line, while lower to mid-range cards(9400, 9600) are given to XPS/studio....

 

M4400 has the Quadro 770M, beats the 9600M =/. If that's "decent" for you.

Also, quad-core, 8GB RAM, SSD, RGB LED, Linux/XP/Vista - all these options if you want to take that route.