Need configuration advice for M1210

Hello to everybody from Greece.
This is my first post in the forum .
I am following this forum for almost one year and now i need your advice for buying an XPS M1210 . I am between 2 configurations for this notebook .
1. T7200 , 2 Gb memory 533 mhz , nvidia 256 mb , 100 gb -7200
3 years on site ,price 1.100 pounds in uk .

2. T7600 , 2 Gb memory 533 mhz , nvidia 256mb , 160gb - 5400
3 years on site , price 1400 pounds in uk .

In particulary please see the HD AND THE CPU COMBINATION .
which one is faster ? I mean faster overall not particulary in something.
I am not practice in bechmarks .
Can someone from you guys tell me which configuration is better as a long term investment if i could say so meaning to be fast enough doing a little of everything and not thinking about changing laptop when santa rosa comes out with the improvement of FSB 800 .

P.S : It is not possibile to get 2 gb of 667 mhz of memory in these configurations .

BEST REGARDS
fritz40

 

Hello there Fritz, I would recommend the first configuration the T7200 processor is very fast and is the best bang for your buck in terms of performance. The T7600 will only shave off a couple seconds in benchmarks and will not make a huge difference in general.

The 667 MHZ memory isn't really worth upgrading to either. The higher latencies will make it basically just as fast as the 533 mhz noticibly, unless you are planning on running your computer with 50 windows of Photoshop you won't notice any difference.

The 7200RPM hard drive will be quick, and certainly help your performance more so than by getting 667MHz memory and probably would be on par with getting the T7600 processor because in terms of bottlenecking the hard drive will come before the processor.

I would only get minimal memory configured with your Dell as you can purchase it elsewhere for MUCH MUCH cheaper. Dell overcharges for their memory.

Keep in mind that you can always upgrade the hard drive at a later date as well.

 

I would go for the first option. The processor increase in speed is only 333MHz, but costs a lot more, and in actuality, the performance increase is negligible. It will be a little faster, but not _that_ much faster.

The increase of 60GB of space is nice, and outweighs the 7200rpm speed, but do you need all that space? I mean, you can't go wrong with more space, but for me anyway, 100GB of space suffices.

In terms of long term investment, the two systems do not vary too much, but one does cost 300 pounds more, and that's a lot of money (at least in Canada it is).

 

Thank you Airman for you quick reply . It is all clear.
I did not know that the difference between T7200 E T7600 are only e few seconds.
Thank you again
fritz40

 

To clarify alittle better to calculate 2 million digits in SuperPi it takes the T7600 56 seconds, and the T7200 62 seconds. Save yourself 400 pounds and go on a nice vacation....though you already are in Greece

No problem fritz, good luck

 

Thank you iPPi for your straight answer . Now i understood everything with your replies .
Best regards
fritz40

 

If you are going to buy a notebook now, you might as well wait for Santa Rosa. FSB 800 isn't important, but the NAND memory is nice to have.

 

Erh....Santa Rosa still won't be out for quite awhile and the updates to the chipset are less than thrilling.

 

If you can wait, it will be out in Q2

 

Yes i agree that NAND memory is great but if someone is waiting to buy the best notebook i think he will never buy one because tecnology is changing every day and to stay behind her you need a lot of money .
Regards
fritz40

 

Quite right, I wouldn't wait for Santa Rosa, the only real reason I'd see is if you were stuck with integrated graphics and wanted an Intel system with the x3000. Other than that, you might as well buy now.

 

If i understand right nvidia 7400 256 mb in m 1210 is better then the new x3000 ?
And what about direct x10?

fritz40

 

Yes, the 7400 (being a dedicated graphics card) is superior to the x3000. The x3000 is directx10 compatable, however since it's such a weak card compared to dedicated, I doubt it would be able to run very much of the directx10 eye candy anyway.

 

Gaming level DX10 cards are aways out, A list DX10 titles are even further out. If you need a machine now, dont even think about DX10, its a non issue, if you can wait another 6 months or so, it could be worth it to hold off if gaming is a high priority. Chances are when the first run of A list DX10 titles hit the shelves, the lower end mainstream cards will probably struggle quite abit in DX10, and you'll wind up running in DX9 anyway.

 

Iceman .thank you for your reply . What kind of configuration do you suggest for the m1210 i will buy soon ? Do you agree with the guys to go for the T7200 e
100 gb 7200 , or for the T7600 e 160 GB 5400 ? AND WHY ?
Regards
fritz40

 

Config #1 will be a bit zippier than config #2. The T7200 is more than enough CPU right now, the 7600 doesnt offer much performance for the price premium. The 7200 rpm drive will decrease load times alittle, but if space is a priority the 5400 rpm drives arent bad, gaming wise a faster hard drive will slightly decrease level load times, it wont have any effect on gameplay, if the game starts hitting the page file while your playing, its a 7200 rpm drive will chug the game just as much as 5400rpm drive.

Both configs are very nice machines, bang for the buck, I'd stick with the T7200, the hard drive is your call, its capacity vs a small speed up in load times, really just a second or two for the most part ,I personally go for capacity, I had a 60 GB 7200 rpm drive and I really dont notice much of a difference at all. You've already got the dedicated card and 2GB of ram, so your set there, basically, if you bought them both, you would have a hard time telling either apart, config 1 will load programs slightly faster, other than that they should perform pretty much the same.

 

Thank you again iceman. You made me understand that you agree with the other guyes not to spend more money as it deserve .I will go for the T7200 .
I forgott to tell you that the first config. comes with vista bussiness and the
second config. comes with vista premium . Does this change your opinion ?
Regards
fritz40

 

It all depends on your needs, what are you using it for? Buis lacks a lot of the multimedia/entertainment features but adds a few layers of security and improved networking options.

 

If it were up to me i would prefer xp pro. I really like the multimedia features but the premium package comes with the T7600 .That's bad.I am really confused now .And to be honest i don't know exactly yet what are the features of vista buisness.
For now my problem is to choose between this 2 configurations .
I will use a lot of multitasking and a lot of processes open.

 

I have a T5600 and it is way faster than enough, so a T7200 should be good.

Which harddrive to choose really depends on your own needs. For example if you are an anime fan like me, you probably need over 300G of hard drive space lol

 

I don't need much space i think 100 gb are enough . My only concern is speed.
I want al windows open fast and the programms load fast too.
All of us want this . But there is always a money limit for everyone . So all of us are searching the best solution .And the best solution comes out only from you guyes who have a lot of experience .
Thank you all for the replies even if i am still confused about the buying .