XPS M1330 vs XPS 13

Ok, this may be a little premature to ask since it looks like the first XPS 13s have yet to even ship. Anyway:

The video memory on my 2 year-old, out of warranty M1210 fried yesterday rendering it pretty much unusable unless I run it in VGA mode. I plan on repairing it at some point but in the meantime I'm going to go ahead and pick up an upgraded replacement.

That said, should I go with the older M1330 or wait and get the newer XPS 13? I plan to use it for work and casual gaming (mostly older or non-demanding games like most Source-powered games (L4D, HL2, TF2), UT3, etc); nothing quite as hardcore as Crysis). The M1330 has been around for a while now and is pretty mature (though I've read about it having some stability issues), whereas the XPS 13 is completely new and untested.

Side note on the M1330: It includes an Nvidia 8000-series video card, which I recall had major cooling issues not too long ago and was "fixed" in software by making the fan run more aggressively. Is this still the fix on newer machines, or have they actually fixed the problem in hardware?

 

for the 8400 problem.... they said its fixed, but do you trust them? and the m1330 has heat issues... which may exacerbate any problem....

i'd wait unless you really need a laptop now... or you can look at Lenovo's U330 or Macbook or Sony Z


you say you play non-demanding games like Source.... the intel IGP can play Source (medium settings, full res)...

 

The XPS 13 can have a 9500M Graphics card which is a lot better than the 8400 the m1330 has.

 

technically its a 9400+9200 hybrid = 9500M card, not a actual 9500M GS card... u'll definitely get better graphics performance...

 

buying newer is most often times the better option, other than price. the 1330 is lighter and thinner than the xps 13 based on specs. but the 13 has better features which make the difference worth it.