Few clarifications on Inspiron 1420

Hi,

I am pretty much decided about purchasing this below configured model.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition
Anti-glare, widescreen 14.1 inch display (1280x800)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card
Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
Integrated 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
High Definition Audio 2.0
S-video out

1) Can you tell me how much battery life can I expect from normal operation (lets say only watching a movie?)
2)If I dont order the webcam does the machine come with a built-in microphone?
(having a built-in microphone is absolutely necessary for me)
3)As it is configured it doesnt have a dedicated video card, and has only the intel graphics card. Does it affect performance in any ways. ( I dont do any kind of video rendering, or gaming) But certainly watch movies, use Photoshop very rarely. Mostly I run applications that doesnt involve videos much. So will it have any problems for my usual work?
4)What would be the weight of this machine?
5)Will the 6 cell battery stick out?

Your advises would be appreciated.

 

Posted in the other topic but okay

Don't bother getting 3 GB of RAM from Dell, a waste, 2 GB is okay though. Why get the 2.2 ghz when the 2.0 ghz saves you money considerably compared to the 2.2 ghz when you're not getting much performance. Heck, you could bring it down to the 1.6 ghz on it if you wanted to save money.

Microphone comes without webcam. As long as you're not watching HD video...that graphics card will do fine I suppose.

 

If you dont use any games you shouldnt get more than 2 gb ram , its not worth the money.
I also suggest you to get the 9 cell battery and the 5400rpm hard disk since this will lead to a longer battery life ( u wont recognice the difference of the hd speed)

And the notebook wont have a microphone if u dont get the webcam ( thats just my guess though).

 

Yeah the 7200RPM drive is great and all but...you're not gaming, you probably will notice a few seconds here and there for loading up Vista. If that's worth it, then go ahead.

6-cell does not stick out. Gets about....3:30+ without wireless?

 

HI, THanks for the advise. However, I have a few doubts in mind. Forgive my ignorance.

If there is no much speed/performance difference between a 5400 rpm HDD and 7200rmp HDD then why there is so much differnce in price?

Similarly if there is no big speed/performance advantege between a 1.6 GHz and 2.2 Ghz processor why there is so much price difference?

What is it that add to the speed of a machine? I mean the most contributing factor?

Its true that I would never game on my laptop. Neither do I do any kind of Video editing (may be a rare DVD ripping).

But I run a bunch of programs almost simultaneously every day.
These are programs like

Firefox 2,
MS Word 2003,
MS Excell 2003,
Power Point 2003,
Endnote 11 (bibliography manager software)
Stata 10 (a statistical software)
Acrobat pro 7
Media monkey 2.5 (to listen my music)

These programs are always opened along with NOD32 and a couple of other programs.

To do this do you think a 2.2 GHz vs 1.6 GHz processor will not add much?
And a 7.2K HDD Vs 5.4K HDD wont add much?


All these programs are opened almost all the time on my machine.

Having a mic and an s-video out in my machine is very necessary for me since I use VoIP and watch movies in TVs connecting my laptop.

Now you may be able to better judge my needs.

 

The 1420 does come with the digital array microphone without the webcam.