Just ordered a 9300, quick question

After about 5-6 days of 6 hr lurking sessions in this forum and others, I finally decided to register and post. YAY!

I bought this laptop to take to college, so it had to be somewhat portable. Also, I'm REALLY serious when it comes to playing counter-strike and counter-strike: source (even if I hate source). Those are the only two games I play so I had to basically cater a system around being able to play those two. Originally, I wanted a XPS for the gaming capabilities, then a 6000 for the portability and low price, then I stumbled upon the 9300 which had the best of both ^_^.

Inspiron 9300
- Pentium M 740 (1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
- 17 inch True Life Wide Screen UXGA
- 256MB DDR2 from Dell + 1GB of Transcend from Newegg = 1,256MB of DDR2
- 256MB NVIDIA 6800
- 80GB Ultra ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
- 8X DVD+/-RW Drive for Inspiron
- 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery
- Carbon Fiber QuickSnap Cover

I couldn't find any hard FPS numbers for HL2 and/or CS 1.6 for a system like this. Actually I stumbled upon one and it put it around 50 or 70 (don't remember which was for hl2 and which was for Doom3). Regardless, I play at 800x600. So, the question is, this should be able to get me 100+ fps just fine with max settings at 800x600 right? Also, is it really that much a hassle to take this laptop around to class or to the library? 10lbs is nothing (esp. after carrying Bio/Physics/Calc books all the time) to me, so I'm just wondering.

 

Welcome to our forums...

I can't answer the FPS question, but as far the portability issue, the best solution is to find a good laptop bag. Coming from experience, I would not use a backpack because when you put it in there with all of the other weight, it will feel heavy. Plus your books will be banging against your laptop. I had an accounting and calc book that each weighted 5 pounds plus the laptop in there, and it didn't work out too well.

Here is the bag I use, Tekstyl's Tekmod XL. It does fit the 9300, very snug and tight, so it will give your laptop good protection. If you get a good bag, then you won't have any problem at all carrying it around campus. With this bag, I love to take my laptop anywhere I go now.

Hope this helps,
SG

 

You will have NO problem hitting over 100fps at 800x600. The 6800 rocks...and overclocks extremely well.

You may want to reconfigure your memory though. When you run mis-matched pairs...you will no longer be taking advantage of the dual channel performance benefits. 2 sticks of 512 would likely perform better than a 1gb + 256. (Or, even better, pick up another identical 1gb and make it 2gb)

 

agreed, try to find matched memory pairs, i dont know about transcend tho seems like a no name. Iwould go for kingston or crucial memory if i were you.

 

transcend works well in the 9300..and they are realllly cheap on newegg.com

 

Anyone know if PC-5300 RAM works with the 9300? Or is it the PC-4200 and lower only?

 

Yeah, I realized that last night. I ordered another stick from newegg today. 2GB on RAM now ^__^.

it's sad... my laptop runs laps around my desktop (AMD XP 1600+, 512 PC2700, ATi 9700 Pro). Oh well.