Questions before buying the XPS m1530

Hi!

Im thinking of buying a m1530 with these specs:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo-prosessor T7250 (2,00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-buffer) Windows Vista™ Home Premium - norsk
3072 MB 667 MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
250 GB (5400 rpm)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT
9-cells battery

I have only some questions:
Which colour would you suggest? Im thinking of black, but im not sure...

Should i go for the 2,0Ghz or the 2,2Hhz CPU?

Im not sure about choosing between the 1680* or the 1440* screen. Is the the XPS capable of playing Battlefield 2 at max with 1680* as resolution?

Thanks!!

 

It's whatever looks good to you.

Is the T9300 an option? If so, then get that. 45nm > 65nm

It should be able to handle it at that resolution. Heck, my wimpy 8400M GS can handle BF2 @ 1280x800 with most settings on medium and some on high.

Just make sure you configure it with the lowest amount of RAM. You can upgrade from an online retailer such as Newegg.com for cheap compared to Dell.

 

I guess i will go for black then

I live in Norway and we haven't got i yet, im just wondering if its worth the money. Will it give any effect in games (crysis, bf2)?

3 gigs of ram is included in the price so...

 

Ah, I see.

Stay with the memory configuration then.

As for the CPU, Crysis benfits more from your video card than anything else. BF2 I think is a mixture but a hefty CPU wouldn't hurt.

If the Penryn isn't available, then go for the T7500. A few more Mhz and more cache.

 

Ok. its just that the T7500 cost like (i think in $) 160$ more, is that worth it?

 

Hmm. That's a tuffy. I would say stick with the T7250 and when Penryn prices go down (or available in your area) then upgrade to that.

 

You can pretty much max out BF2 with the 1530.. Just make sure you download the nvidia drivers from laptopvideo2go.com. I can run it at a solid 60 fps no problems.

 

I would opt for the 1440* screen over the 1680* as there has been some problems with the former. Mine looks GREAT!

On the color, I got the black, found it a little too bland and painted it RED... Read my review on it and at the bottom there is a link to where I painted my lid red. If I had to order again... I'd go with red. This review shows EXACTLY what you get when it comes to your door:
http://corvettec3.com/dellXPSm1530review.htm

Hope this helps.

 

Yeah, personally I think Red looks the best. It contrasts with the black base, you can't see fingerprints and it just flat out looks sexiest.

 

Is anybody here happy about their 1680* screen?? Or i will just choose the 1440*

 

I'm not happy with my 1680 screen, but I need the screen for some remote work I do from home over my company VPN, and (unfortunately) couldn't get a comparable configuration anywhere else for the same money with corresponding discounts combined with a one-day special that was run in January. The saga of getting my Samsung 1680 with an LG 1680 is ongoing.

If I had a screen as good as my wife's little Inspiron 1501, I think my 1530 would be one of the sexiest laptops ever. As it is, it's only a cheap date.

(how's THAT for a ubergeek analogy?)

-sd

 

I sat with the same problem when I had to choose between the T7250 and T7500. When ordering from dell ireland, the cost diffs between the two is roughly $160. It's definately not worth it as the benchmarks diffs between the two is not at all that big. If you want the laptop now, stick with the 7250 or if you can wait, then wait for the penryn range. The diffs between 7000's vs 9000's should be more prominent and worth the extra money.

 

It doesn't look, at least not so far, that the jump from the T7500 to the Penryn is going to yield huge performance benefits either - some, but nothing you'll hang your head in shame over if you don't have it. As as matter of general rule, I like cache as much or more than a few hundred cycles per second, so I prefer the T7500 over the T7250. Had no need or incentive to add more $$ for more Mhz beyond that.

-sd

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

This link has the PCMark rating. Don't know how good it is. I was looking for the performance difference between T5450 and T7250; and found that the performance difference is very little compared to the additional 100$ Dell is asking for T7250 in India.



Beware the processor numbering, they doesn't have anything to do with the performance.....

 

Would anybody here suggest that i take the accidental damage support thing?