Just bought a new Dell

Hey everyone,

I am new to this forum - so Hello!

I recently purchase a Dell Laptop and while I know a lot about computers, I know nothing about graphics, so I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the computer will be decent for playing games like WoW. It's the best I could afford, so I really don't have the option to upgrade, and I needed the computer badly. Also...if anyone knows...It said the screen was HD widescreen....does this mean I will be able to watch regular HDTV on my laptop or are there limitations with this? Your help is appreciated...

The Specs...

Inspiron 1520, Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, 2.0GHz, 800Mhz, 4M Cache
High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1680x1050)
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive

 

Well as it turns out, the best you could afford is pretty much close to the best 1520 configuration available anyway. It'll play WOW no problem.

As far as watching HDTV goes, you still need a HDTV tuner I think. Basically the screen's resolution is high enough (ie it has enough physical pixels) to show what is normally considered HD content).

 

As far as laptops go, that's close to a "high end" gaming machine. Yeah, it'll do WoW (LoL).

 

Thanks, a lot - appreciate the quick reply! Just out of curiousity how does the inspirion compare to the XPS? I was told by a Dell representative that the only reason they are priced so high is because they are extremely mobile computers, but an inspirion was the way to go for money vs performance.

I was originally looking into the XPS but the screen sizes are so small for the prices, it's crazy!



Edit: Almost forgot - In reference to being able to handle WoW. Will it be able to handle it at the highest resolution? Or did I waste my money on that upgrade...1680x1050

 

Should be able to run WoW at 1680x1050.

Inspirons are better for price vs performance than XPS systems. The m1330 is the current very mobile XPS. The screen is "small" on purpose - the whole point of the laptop is very powerful hardware in a very small package. The previous XPS m1210 had an even smaller screen - 12.1 inches.

The XPS m1710, however, is the desktop-replacement XPS. It has a 17 inch screen so its not extremely mobile, but at the time it was released, it was pretty much the best hardware you could possibly get in a laptop. The inspiron is still better for money vs performance because the inspiron E1705 at the time could reach around 70% of the XPS m1710 in benchmarks while costing half as much.

 

Awesome, thanks a lot for that information! Am even more excited about my laptop now...Hrmm think if I threw in an extra hundred bucks they would piece it together a week faster? lol

 

LOL.... you would think.... unfortunately Dell's manufacturing model doesn't allow this. :-(

 

Apparently if you complain enough about how they've screwed you over they might give you free next day shipping... but that's kinda lame if they haven't done anything wrong. I'm also kinda bored and making kinda useless posts. Like Lynus: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143846.