How are vostros for multimedia?

Im in the market for a new laptop, and I was looking at the vostros as they seem to offer a lot for the price. Gaming is absolutely not a priority, but I will be playing WoW or Counterstrike on whatever laptop I get, neither of which are demanding games. I will also want to watch dvd's, or listen to mp3's, so I was wondering if anyone could tell me how vostros fare in those departments. I would be perfectly fine with lowest settings for all games btw.

 

my vostro is amazing so far and it has all the qualities of a multimedia beast:
-fast load times
-quick overall processing
-quick hard drive (even though its 5400rpm, still great!)
-nice screen (widescreen XGA 1200x800)
I havent tried games but the ones you said will fly on this machine...youd probably be able to get away with the 8400 GS card and save money if you wanted.

 

Try the Sony Vaio FZ. It has HDMI but only a 8400GT

 

i have a 1400 with 8400gs and its fast in my opinion. i donno how well it will do on other games, but frozen throne was a piece of cake for it. i was playing frozen throne with aim, msn messenger, qq messenger, and music running on the background with no lag at all. the ram usage was about 56% (i have 2 gigs).

 

any new laptop on the market can easily handle DVDs, mp3s, even the cheapest Celeron or Semprons.

 

The vostro's come with Media Direct don't they? How do you find that program? I've heard diddle squat about it in news and reviews, which is strange, expecially considering Dell devote an entire button to it on the face of the notebook!

 

The Vostros are just rebranded Inspirons, so for multimedia they'll be the same as their Inspiron counterparts. Check the spec sheets, but most or all of them have webcam options, glossy screen options, media card readers, graphics card options, s-video out, and multimedia buttons... all the major multimedia features except HDMI.