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    Help buying a vostro 1500

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by xenobiotic, Apr 13, 2008.

  1. xenobiotic

    xenobiotic Notebook Enthusiast

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    Heres what I have so far:

    Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB
    15.4 in UltraSharp™ Wide Scrn XGA+LCD Display w/TrueLife™
    3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
    256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT
    250GB 5400RPM SA160 Hard Drive
    XP home


    I have a couple questions:
    1)I only really plan on playing source games, would the 8400 be good enough?
    2)Should I get the faster HD?
    3)Am I missing much by not getting vista?
    4)Are the dell batteries as bad as they seem? The ratings for both are terrible on the dell site (1.5/5 and 2/5 I think). Everyone says that they are great at first and then loose charge within a year... I'd prefer to get the 6 cell battery just because it's smaller.
    5)Is there much difference in the wireless cards?

    Thanks.
     
    xenobiotic, Apr 13, 2008
    #1
  2. SmoothTofu

    SmoothTofu Inspiron 1420 Owner

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    1. Yes, the 8400M GS is enough for source games.
    2. Unless the 7200RPM drive is 200GB+ and at most $50 more, stick with that drive.
    4. My 9-cell battery has been giving me 5 hours for the last 8 months, but only time will tell how if it worsens quickly.
     
    SmoothTofu, Apr 13, 2008
    #2
  3. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    Dell does not make their batteries for one. They are the same batteries everyone else uses. They all wear over time/use. As a reference, linux tells me that my battery has 80w/hrs out of the origional 85w/hrs capacity left. This is after 7-8 months of 1-2 battery drains/charges a day.
     
    nizzy1115, Apr 13, 2008
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  4. xenobiotic

    xenobiotic Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the replies. The battery bit relieves me.

    Anyone else have any thoughts on my build, or answers to my questions?

    Will I be missing much by not getting vista?
     
    xenobiotic, Apr 13, 2008
    #4
  5. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    For vista, i think you are missing something. Its only a 1 year old operating system where as xp is 7 years old. Technology changes a lot dring those times. Just imagine a year after xp came out buying a brand new pc with not xp on it but windows 95 on it. :rolleyes:

    Some people like xp, however, so at least you wont have anything new to learn.
     
    nizzy1115, Apr 13, 2008
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  6. clrntsqueak

    clrntsqueak Notebook Guru

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    Get Vista.. so much better than xp. I hate having to use xp now.
     
    clrntsqueak, Apr 13, 2008
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  7. xenobiotic

    xenobiotic Notebook Enthusiast

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    What does vista add? The only real difference I noticed was that it looked prettier, which I didn't think was worth the performance hit...
     
    xenobiotic, Apr 13, 2008
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  8. clrntsqueak

    clrntsqueak Notebook Guru

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    What is this performance hit you're speaking of?

    With those specs, Vista will fly.
     
    clrntsqueak, Apr 13, 2008
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  9. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

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    Get Vista. Keep the 8600. That is all I have to say about that.
     
    Kevin, Apr 13, 2008
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