Help Me Configure Dell Inspiron 9300

I am pretty sure that I am going to purchase a Dell Inspiron 9300 for my son to replace his 2 year old VPR Matrix (which has serious overheating problems). He uses it mostly for gaming (Sims 2 and Black and White) are his favorites. He also wants one that will work good with Black and White 2 when it is released. I want to spend around 1500 (after the Dell coupon). The way I have it configured is like this:

Intel Pentium M Processor 730 (1.60 Ghz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSb)
Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005 with Remote
17 inch UltraSharp Wide Screen UXGA with TrueLife
512MB Dual Channel 2 Dimm SDRAM
256 NVIDA GeForce Go 6800
80 GB Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD combo
Intel Pro/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless
6 cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
2 year Ltd Warranty
Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Internal

His current computer is a VPR matrix Pentium 4 1.8
ATI Radeon 7500 graphics
Video Memory- 32 SDRAM
Windows sound system-compatible 3D surround: multipurpose bay supports subwoofer
512 RAM
15 inch screen
It has been in for repairs 3 times and now only runs games if it is on a cooling pad with another fan positioned outside the vent or else it shuts down. It is time for a new one because of these problems but I am wondering how much better is the new system going to be then the specs on his old one. Do you think it will be a noticable improvement for him?

I don't know much about notebooks at all so I would appreciate any advice you experts can offer. I also would like your opinion on buying the 2 year warranty. I am really not sure what upgrades would help and what aren't as important. He will have it plugged in most of the time and won't be carrying it around that often so weight and battery aren't as important to me.

I am concerned that this will be a good gaming machine. My son wants to upgrade and I don't want it to be outdated soon for the new games. I also am wondering how important updating the sound card is. Does getting a better sound card help if he won't be attaching external speakers? Is it really a noticable difference to upgrade? I am not good with computers and won't be able to install anything after I get it.

Thanks so much in advance for any advice you may have!

 

If you want a good upgrade, you could get 1 GB ram in stead of 512 mb.
Or if you do get 512 mb ram, make sure you get 1 dimm instead of two. That way it will be possible to just add another 512 in to your computer.

The graphics card is a good choice. The other options on the i9300 (the ATI radeon x300) don't run too well on games.

If you want good loading times, and wouldn't mind loosing some hard disk space, you could go with the 60 GB 7200 rpm hard drive. All this will really do though is make loading times faster. So if you don't mind waiting, you might as well go with the bigger hard drive.

If he's not going to have it at his desk or whatever all the time, you might want to upgrade to the 9 cell battery. This will give you more battery life. However, if hes not going to be moving it and will have it plugged in all the time, there is no need to do this.

 

I agree with squidman. 1 GB of RAM would be a nice upgrade. If you cannot afford it now, then get a single 512 stick and upgrade later.

 

you might want to stick to the 256mb ram and buy new ram for cheap from the internet. that's what i did, since i dont think you can get 1 stick of 512mb ram from dell. 2 512mb ram online costs $150 for me, whereas it's like $500 from dell. obviously mine arent top notch, but they're good enough for me and WoW.

i've heard there are problems with the 2200 network card, but i hope not since that was what i got.

i would recommend getting only the 40gb hd or 60gb 7200rpm hd, since you can always expand the amount of space via usb external storage, or even burning it onto cd.


<these are just my opinions on what i did with mine>

 

Thank you for your replies. We went looking today at Best Buy and Circuit City. It didn't seem like they had anything close to the 9300 features for the same price. Thank you again for all your recommendations!

 

I've got the 9300 and it runs games great but you will need the memory....512Mb will cause massive slowdowns. Like was posted above, don't buy it from Dell, they are too expensive. Buy it with 256Mb and then buy a 1Gb stick of DDR2-SODIMM, PC2-4200. I bought the Transcend from NewEgg...works great. It really is dead simple to install it yourself.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-208-024&depa=0

 

Nobody, sorry for double posting, but forgot to mention your setup.

I like it,except you are paying for windows media center edition, just get Windows XP Pro! In my opinion, media center is not worth the upgrade even though it sounds cool.

Also, I think 512 MB Ram is fine.

Think about getting the regular XGA screen instead of the very expensive UXGA screen... People will think im crazy but think of it this way, when Black and White 2 comes out, it will demand a VERY high computer requirement, and the since fast laptops are basically as fast as mid-range desktops, you will more than likely NOT be able to play Black and white 2 at a high resolution.

Your son will probably only be able to play the games at 1280x800 at the most to get a desirable and smooth framerate. This is also still a very high and beautiful setting for video games.

Also there is then the problem with LCD's liking their native resolution better. Since he will be playing most games in 1280x800, wouldn't it be better if his LCD native resolution screen was the same as that? From a techinical standpoint, the LCD with a native of 1280x800 will look BETTER than an LCD with a native of 1800x1200 bumped down to 1280x800.

That way you would have more money to spend on extra parts!!

Here's my favorite setup.
Pentium M 730
17 Ultrasharp XGA
512 Dual Channel 2 Dimm SDRAM (Yes, 512 is perfectly fine, especially since it only costs 50 bucks, that way if he needs more you can just buy two 512 mb sticks from somewhere cheap)
Any 7200 Hard Drive (7200 will greately increase load times on games)
Cheapest DVD player (Is he honestly ever going to use a burner on a laptop? If so, he can probably buy one cheaper at newegg.com)
Intel Pro wireless 2200 (nice)
NO WARRANTY (you can save buku bucks here!, especially if your kid knows how to work with comptuers)9 cell or 12 cell lithium battery (High capacity batter is a must for this rig)
NO BLUETOOTH (only get bluetooth if he absolutely uses it)


This setup is something easily upgradeable and somethign that is powerful, but trimmed out of needless expensive parts.

Good Luck!

 

Oh god, please don't buy from Circuit City or Best Buy. I used to work at C City, and their computers are complete crap. Every know and then they can have a good sale, but you really got to be careful when asking for advice from the "computer specialists", every now and then you can get a specialist who is REALLY helpful! But most of the time its just some guy who knows nothing and is trying to take your money.

Oh and if you DO decide to buy from C City, do NOT buy the extended warranty that the store offers, it is useless. Your laptop will already come with a manufacturers warranty, and the C City warranty will do the same, and cover the same exact years, for an extrorbant amount of money.

They will really try to push you to get the warranty (city advantage) because that is considered 100% profit by upper management.

 

These posts are very helpful...thanks.

I have a question on configuration!

I am looking to purchase a 9300 to use as a Portable Desktop. I rarely play games...if I do..I play on my desktop.

What I do is stock trading and am wanting as much screen realestate as I can get. I am wondering if the standard WXGA with a Radeon X300 with 128Mb might work fine for what I am doing..which is putting stock charts up on the screen. I doubt if they need the high powered video card that games would need...but I am not sure...that is why I am curious about what some of you think. I am thinking 1Gb of ram with the 1.73 Ghz processor with the above video setup running 1440 x 900 would give me all the space I would need.

Can anyone think of anything I am missing....or is anyone using the 9300 for trading?

Thanks for any help........Rando

 

Rando, you probably want to get the highest possible resolution screen you can get (WUXGA), because the higher the resolution, the more stuff you can throw on the screen.


the X300 is plenty of enough video power for even a gamer, the 6800 would be over kill for you.

just get 512 mb ram, you dont need 1gb

processor wise, go for the 730, since you don't need anythign super fast.

im a gamer and i got a laptop with the x300, because it will play most any game on the market , especially stuff that is a few years old.

however, it sounds to me like you are going to spend alot of money,so if you want all those extra options go ahead, it will just make your laptop more valuable and resellable.

 

I have to laugh about the Circuit City advice. It is so true. Last night, I asked the clerk about the difference between a 128 and a 256 gaming card. He shrugged and said "I guess the 256 is twice as good." I was hoping for a little more guidance. Its funny how I got so much better advice on this board than from actually going into the store and trying to ask questions in person.

Thank you for the advice about Windows XP Pro. I will probably do get that instead of just the Home Media Option. Also, I am still unsure about the screen. The notebooks at the stores had a real pretty gloss over them--almost like glass. Is this what the True Life screen is like or is it just a better resolution? I liked the way the screens looked with the aquarium screen savers (although my son wasn't nearly as excitied by this as me!).

Those were some very good points about Black and White 2 only playing at the lower resolution. There is so much to consider when configuring these things. That's why I am very appreciative of you taking the time to post your tips. Thanks again!

 

nobody, no problem, we are all here to make sure everyone is an informed shopper [ ]

About the glossy screen, I believe that none of the screens on the 9300 have it. So far as I know, all of the screens (WXGA, WSGA, and WUGA) are all identical, except that the more expensive screen you can achieve a higher resolution. So just because you get the WUXGA instead of the cheaper version, won't necessarily mean the screen will look better. Ive even read on posts that the WXGA is actually brighter than the other screens.

Common Pro's to higher resolution : Can fit more stuff on desktop, more room for viewing internet or word documents
Common Con's to higher resolution: Since the laptop has an LCD screen, its native resolution is set to that extremely high setting...If you don't like it that high, you have the option to lower the setting, but it will not look as good as an LCD with a native setting of that lower setting i.e. 1280x800

Some people love it, some people absolutely hate it (it can be hard to read) its sort of a personal preference. But coming from a gaming point of view, your son will almost always be playing at 1280x800


EDIT::: As far as the 256 MB video card being twice as good as the 128 MB video card, that is so astronomically false it makes me want to laugh. You picked out a stupid C City employee immediately.

To put it this way, games use lots of ram, especially dedicated video ram. However, this does not mean that the more ram you have, the better it will be. To put it plainly, a game will only utilize so much memory, and right now 128 is a heck of a lot of video memory, and 256 will never make a "twice" of a difference. If at most it could increase a games speed by 10-15%, depending on what game he is playing.

That still doesn't mean that you should never get 256MB though, always consider it an option! Just look at the price of the card with 256 and the price with 128. If it doesn't cost much to upgrade , say under 80 bucks, go for it! If its a 100-200 dollar upgrade, its probably not worth it, because by the time the 128 mb card is outdated or slow, the extra 128MB of video memory won't make a difference.

 

MoZirry.....thanks for your input to my question about which video card and display would be the best for my Stock trading application.

My only concern is that I am wondering about the Native resolution that people have talked about. I am wondering if the very high resolution will make the figures so tiny that they will be difficult to see....and I am thinking the WXGA monitor might work out the best....which one do you have MoZirry??

Thanks

Rando

 

I purchased the 9300 with the WUXGA+ display without researching it first. What I got was a really detailed, beautiful display with TINY fonts and icons due to its very high native resolution. My eyesight is pretty good (just starting to show some age), and I had a HELL of a time getting used to it. I tweaked and tweaked for at least a week or so, and finally settled on slightly lower resolution, larger fonts, etc. Although not as clean & crisp as the native resolution, it does the trick for me. And, I didn't notice any difference when playing movies or games. I'm not a big movie watcher or gamer, so my primary concern was being able to READ.

Anyone who is spending a lot of time reading on this one might want to consider saving the money and getting the WXGA instead.

Also --- no one referenced the question about sound. In my opinion, the 9300 has an awesome sound system... the best I've ever heard on a laptop (although I've only used a few). You won't need to hook it up to external speakers. My 17-year-old son thought it was great when we played games and downloaded some music onto it. I went with Windows XP Professional for my work applications and was advised to stay away from the Media Center. The media applications that automatically came with the 9300 are just fine for my needs. I have NO COMPLAINTS with it. I'm not recording music or anything, so if all you do is view, play, and game, you will be more than satisfied with the standard applications.

Also - there are no heat issues here. I don't know about extreme gaming causing heat. But general usage (like running Office, surfing the web, a little light game, playing a movie, etc.) generates NO HEAT. I had this thing on my lap for 2 hours the other day, and it wasn't even warm.

Enjoy!


** Inspiron 9300, Pentium M 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Go, 17" LPL WUXGA+ TrueLife display, 60GB HD, CD-+RW/DVD-+RW, Dell Wireless, etc. **

 

Thanks Inthesticks...this is great to know about the WUXGA. I keep going back and forth as to which display to get. I would like to be able to get a lot of information on the screen...but I would like to be able to read it also. I am not a spring chicken any longer and don't want to have to look down through my bifocals to be able to read the screen because of the tiny fonts.

It would save me a heck of a lot of money getting the xga display and the Radeon 300 128Mb video card instead of the UXGA and the Nvidea 9800, and would still be a nice system (I think).

Thanks again for your help everyone.



"They call us civilized because we are easy to sneak up on!"
Chief Dan George in The Outlaw Josey Whales

Rando

 

Thanks Mo....

Hate to try and save $150 on a video card and then end up regretting it.

I usually don't play games on my laptop....but of course right now I do not have a laptop that I can play anything but PONG on....hehe!

I would probably be smart to drop the $150 on the 9800...and then I won't have to beat myself up in the future for not getting it.


Rando

 

InTheSticks....I forgot to ask you...are you glad you got the 9800 video card...or do you think the Radeon 300 128Mb would do the trick??



"They call us civilized because we are easy to sneak up on!"
Chief Dan George in The Outlaw Josey Whales

Rando

 

That's absolutely correct. Had I known, I would've selected the WXGA instead. I thought WUXGA would be better for my anticipated CAD needs, but I've since learned that I was wrong. Graphics and web site designers like this computer for its screen real estate. I think the WXGA will still give you room.

Let us know what you think when you get yours. Everyone likes to keep up with each other on this forum. It's a great learning tool, as you've witnessed. (Not that everyone here knows everything about laptops, but they are certainly willing to share what they DO know or their opinions.) Stick around!

[9300 with Pentium M 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 256MB NVIDIA 6800 GeForce Go graphics, 17" LPL WUXGA+ TrueLife display, 60GB HD, CD-+RW/DVD-+RW, Windows XP Professional, etc.]

 

i've heard that the x300 "can" play games like far cry and half life 2, but thos are probably the highest level you can play (if you get the 128mb version)

the 9800 should be able to do those games and much more.


just to put it in perspective for you.

 

I was advised to get the best graphics card possible, even though I play very few games and watch very few movies on my laptop. I don't regret going for the 6800. I am not sure what my little games and occasional movie might be like without it; but it sure is nice WITH it. If you don't really watch movies or play games, save a little money. If there's a chance you will -- or someone else may use your laptop to do this -- I'd get the best graphics card.

I had IT professionals (who DO game and use graphics programs) advise me on this. I also do a little web site work, so that was probably one of the driving reasons for the 6800 nVIDIA card choice.



[9300 with Pentium M 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 256MB NVIDIA 6800 GeForce Go graphics, 17" LPL WUXGA+ TrueLife display, 60GB HD, CD-+RW/DVD-+RW, Windows XP Professional, etc.]

 

think of it like buying a truck.

All you need to use it for is the bed and no offroading...
but do you get the truck with 2x4 or 4x4 just in case???

 

Hi, I am about to purchase a 9300 and want to upgrade my RAM cheaply. I plan on gaming with my notebook so I need at least 1GB. I am planning on purchasing Transcend 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Notebook Memory from Newegg and getting the 256mb that comes stock from Dell. Will this memory work with the memory dell includes in the system and will it be able to work in Dual Channel. And do you know if this ram is good for gaming?

Thank you, Pjmyankees

 

Is there a different type of Memory that you would recommend besides the Transcend that is affordable and good for gaming?