Looking to get a dell studio but need some help

Hello.

So I am looking about getting a dell studio and for £500 I can get this:

Now the question is what’s the 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450 like as a card. I have my desktop for Crysis and all my games development work. So I really want the laptop for college (that’s not uni for people in the USA) next year where I will be doing some video editing and that kind of stuff on it in the likes of premier. But I will also want to run 3D Max on it (which should not be a problem?) and even Unreal-ED (on low). As far as games go the most I would want to do is some low spec stuff the odd RTS or battlefield heroes when it out.

It’s really so I can have a PC to use around the house etc and bring to college with me. Should the 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450 do the job? As I don’t really want to spend over £500.

Many Thanks guys.

 

It's an awful card that's a step down from the 84 and 86 nvidia cards from last year. Why Dell went BACKWARDS by choosing this card is beyond me.

edit: Actually it's not, Dell just sucks, that's why.

 

so its not a bad card for what I need anyway?

 

it's fine for old games, i'm just not sure why anyone would pay a premium for it.

 

Thats good to know and should do video editing ok as well and that kind of thing?

 

probably yes, on the video editing. but for the same price you could get a better notebook and not actually have to worry about these details.

 

Really? where?

 

HP, Lenovo, Asus, LG, Toshiba -- I don't live in the UK, you'll have to do your own shopping.

eta: if you insist on buying from Dell you'd still do better buying an Inspiron

 

If anyone else has opinions. I would love to hear them too.

 

The inspiron has integrated graphics. The studio is the next step up and has a bit better graphics card. The XPS has the best gaming graphics cards. Only doesn't know what he is talking about. I think the studio will be a great machine.

 

why pay a premium of over £500, for a laptop with such a worthless video card like the Studio? he can configure the exact same Inspiron with the integrated card for almost £50 less and it'll preform just as well for what he wants, video editing and old games.

 

Listen, I can clearly see you hate the Studio.
For most people who don't game, a 3450 is good enough. My old laptop has only 64MB of ati who knows what model - it's old and shared memory and quite frankly a piece of **** but hey - it gets the job done well enough. I bet the 3450 would seem like heaven compared to this one.

And for the Studio 17, it has the ATI 3650 which is about equivalent to the Nvidia 8600M GT which is hmmm.... - What's in the XPS M1530!

I do agree with you that the upcoming DV series of notebooks by HP might be well worth looking at especially if they have the 9000 series Nvidia GPUs and LED screens, but I wouldn't go as far as calling the Studio notebooks crap...

 

put ur lily's away and stop slapping each other with them lol

 

I have been taking a look at some of the HP notebooks and did fine one that shipped with a better GPU but then lacked a bit in the RAM and CPU area. I am taking a good look around before I throw money down but as far as the UK goes Dell are one of the best to buy from.

So the 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450 is not I bad card really then for what I need? I dont really want to risk getting an integrated card.

EDIT:
Hmm for £30 more I can get the 1720 wth a nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT. Is this card much better, considering its now a 17" screen.

 

The big question is, do you need a 17" notebook? Its a big step up from the 15" in both size and weight! But, that extra room should allow you to have a better video card... I think the 8600M GT that is in the inspiron is the DDR2 model which is much slower than the DDR3 model in the XPS so it would probably not be that much better than the ATI in the studio...

 

Yea thats the thing. Can't find the 1720 i was looking at now and yea its the DDR2 model of the GPU.

A 15" studio might just be my best bet.

 

Just be patient, deals come along all the time from dell!

 

Yea true. It still says on the site 1720's start at £529 but when you click the cheepest one is £629.

 

Think I will order a Studio 15 tonight I am not too worried about playing games on a laptop so I don’t really think I need a better GPU as its going to cost a good bit more to get one that’s much better.

Anyone like to add anything else?

Thanks for the help as well.

 

Actually the Inspirons typically have an Nvidia 8400 GS which is better than than the ATI 3450, and is definitely not integrated.

 

omg stop blaspheming the Studio