E1405 Purchase Help

Can anyone tell me if this configuration is good? I like price with the $750 off coupon. I am going to use it for email/internet (watching videos)/watching DVDs/adobe photoshop and the intergrated Intel 950 graphics worries me. Anyone else have the Dell E1405? I read the review here but would like to get more opinions.

Thanks,

 

Though i haven't got my laptop yet (it's shipped, the e1505), according to my experience at various forums, i'd suggest the following:

With 2.0ghz of core duo processor to boot, your machine will be faster than anything you might've seen or worked on. they'll all do just fine. however, if you do some heavy photo editing, 945 chipset might take its toll, in other words, go for e1505 with a mid range ATI x1400 gp if you plan to do more than surfing/dvds. for e.g heavy games/editing/simulation softwares etc.

I'd be difficult for you to think about e1505/6400 after the discount you're getting, but the macine you ordered will do everything just fine, if, of course, you plan to do just what you mentioned.

 

The adobe will be very light, just cropping and resizing images from a digital camera to FTP. I'm actually sitting on the checkout screen on the dell site. LOL Portability is really important. I had a E1705 that died on my so I returned and now looking at the E1405.

Thanks for your recommendation.

 

Hi,
looks loike good specs. I wouldnt worry about the 950 graphics if your not going to be playing games on it. For what your using it the 950 will be more than adequate.
Although you could allways wait untill core 2 duo ships, and see if the e1405 has a core 2 duo inside it. Then it would be even faster!

Gethin

 

the gma 950 is fine for everything aside from 3d graphics, if your not going to be using any 3d apps, the 950 will do just fine and will run cooler and give you more battery life

 

For $1,291, that is an unbeatable configuration for the money.

Another notebook you should consider is the HP dv2000t.

 

Ok, I have been sitting on the Dell check out screen for the last few days unable to deciede on either the 1405 or the 1505. I asked the dell sales rep via chat if the Intel GMA 950 can run all features of Windows Vista including Aero. The answer was no, it cannot run every feature of Vista.

I have read that it will run only if you have 1gig of ram. Has anyone already done it on an E1405 without any hiccups?

 

I installed the beta version of Windows Vista on my E1405 not too long ago & was able to use the Aero interface without any problems (after switching to the intel lakeport driver). Being that it is still in the Beta stages, there were of course some compatibility and stability issues. The bootup time was also considerably longer than that of Windows XP.

It might also help to point out that I have 2GB of RAM installed on my E1405 & there would probably a siginificant difference in performance if you were to have anything less than 1GB.

 

Ahh, thank you! I configured my system with 2 gigs of ram too. Do you think the longer boot up time has anything to do with the GMA 950 or because it's still in beta and unstable? What screen resolution are you able to run in vista? Someone here said that the 60hz GMA 950 was hurting their eyes and that they could not change it. Have you experienced any problems regarding that? Are you happy with your e1405?

Thank,

 

Although I think the boot up time may improve slightly with the final release of Vista, I'm not too hopeful. There's a reason that system requirements on Vista have changed from the requirements on XP. It'll require more processing power & resources, thus the increased time to boot-up.

Just to give you an idea of the difference: With a fresh installation of XP I have about 20 items in the task manager. With a fresh installation of Vista I get double that, approximately 40-50. This is before installing anything or disabling any uneeded services.

On Vista, I was able to run the highest resolution that my E1405 was about to support: 1440x990. 60hz is the same refresh rate that I'm running on both XP & Vista & I haven't had any problems with either.

I'm very happy with my E1405. At the price I bought it for, I wasn't expecting too much. For anybody with light leakage concerns, I've noticed that the amount of leakage I have now is actually less than what I was getting when I first received the laptop.

 

if you want integrated gfx check out the d620 from the laditude series (although the cupon may not work on it) its 14" screen and very good battery life.