Help when purchasing 1530

I originally wanted an Alienware laptop specifically for gaming, but realised I couldn't afford it. So I have decided to go with the Dell 1530.

They offer different options when you choose to buy it however. I was wondering if people could tell me if a faster processor (2.4 instead of 2.1/2.0 for example) would make much difference?

I want to be able to play good, recent strategy games (World in Conflict, Age of Empires etc).

What do people recommend?

 

Then Go for T9300 , any 7200RPM HDD , GF 8600GT , 3GB RAM and Screen with minimum of 1400x900 Resolution

with this you should able to play most games in med-high settings

 

I upgraded from a T7250 to a T9300 (2.0 to 2.5ghz) and I saw relatively no performance increase. In benchmarks, I saw the gains but in gaming or in my applications, there was no difference for me.

You have to do what makes you happy. I would buy the lower end processor today and then upgrade the CPU later on when you need it. You'll save money, and the processor upgrade will actually make more of a difference later on.

If you like to save money and buy things at the right time, then go for the 2.0 but if you're going to get the 2.0 and everyday wish you would have gotten the 2.4 then it's not worth the aggravation

 

have you heard of 8600gt-s problems?

 

Would the 2.0 or 2.1 allow me to play games like Age of Empires on high settings?

No I have not heard of the problems. From the reviews of the 1530 I have read on these forums though, people seem happy enough with it.

 

Firstly - High settings in games means you're going to be taxing the gpu more not the cpu. Your graphics card as far as gaming goes is usually the limiting factor or 'bottleneck'.

I agree with the rest you'll see **** all of a difference between the cpu speeds (unless you're doing benchmarks or encoding video)

As far as I can remember age of empires isn't actually all that demanding so you should be able too run it easily. It'l probably be your dvd drive or hdd that will be slowing things up (if anything).

 

In your case, the CPU will not decide how much detail you can display in your games, it will be dependent on your graphics card.

Some people have reported issues with the 8600. I've made some modifications to mine to bring the temperatures down. Personally I love this laptop. It's thin, light, sleek and a powerhouse.