Performance of DELL 1420

Hi everyone,

i finally decided to buy 1420 after reading articles and reviews send by you all members in our site.i still need some help from you members to clarify my some doubts.

1) Is core2duo t5250 have enough power to handle light 3d work in maya and 3dsmax when equipped with 2 GB ram and geforce 8400.which desktop processor can be compared as equivalent to t5250

2) how much time is taken to boot windows vista ultimate in the
hardware specified above.

3) what is the maximum life of 6 cell battery when i turn off wifi and bluetooth with LCD brightness in medium and doing word processing or ebook reading?

maximum life of 6 cell battery when processor is in 100% most of the time?

should i need 9 cell for 3.5 hour backup for reading only ebook without any background app such as music?

4) Is it worth to go for 7200 RPM hard drive,if so how much is the difference?

5)if i don't need high graphic processing can i disable nvidia card through bios and enable gma X3100 ? will that save battery? how much?

6) For reading e-books (indoors),Is res 1280X800 is ok? which type of screen is good for continous reading of upto 3 hrs.Is GLOSSY screen causes very eye strain in case of reading?

7) How much time is taken to charge 6 cell battery with 90 W adapter?do
i need to buy UPS for protecting it from power surge?

8) Can i play all directx 9 games with medium details using geforce 8400 in 1280X800 res?can i play 1080p HD video smoothly?

 

1. C2D T5250 should be ok to run any program without problems. However, you're asking the wrong question if you are inquiring about 3d performance. In any computer that uses 3d graphics, it is often the graphics card that limits performance. In your case, I'd suggest getting a dedicated graphics card - maybe a nvidea 8400m or higher.

2. XP is significantly faster than Vista. Boot time varies depending on what startup programs you have. From experience, Vista takes 2-3 times longer to boot and shut down.

3. Not sure. But it will depend on what programs you are running.

4. Again, it depends. a 160gb 5400rpm HDD will have similar performance to a 100gb 7200rpm due to the higher density capacity in the 160gb. Having a faster HDD simply decreases loading times when you open any programs.

5. Not sure if Dell can do that, but I know Sony's SZ series can do that.

6. This will depend on what environment you are in. For outdoors or areas with bright fluorescent light, stick with matte (non-glossy) screens. If you'll be indoors most of the time, glossy screens will look nicer (in my opinion). However, I find eye strain from reading on a computer comes mainly from the screen brightness (which you can change in any computer) and font size.

 

thanks emporiumboutique.

 

please help me members to clarify my doubts. i have to order it within 2 days.this is my first laptop.please help me.

 

1. It's hard to compare mobile processors to desktop processors since they are such different breeds of animals.

2. With my Notebook plugged in:my boot time from a cold start to login screen was exactly 47 seconds. exactly 23 seconds from login til my bluetooth mouse was recognized and the pointer's hourglass went away.
When my Notebook is asleep, 2 seconds after I hit the powerbutton, I can start typing in the start menu. My bluetooth mouse still takes about 23-30 seconds to be recognized though.....

I have Vista Ultimate and yes, it was a clean reformat from when I first received the Laptop a few months ago.

3. I'd expect 2 - 2.5 hours with your processor running at 100% load the whole time. Keep in mind, there is no way wordprocessing, internet and downloading, and ebook reading will keep your processor at 100% load for even half the time. I have gotten 5 hours use out of my 9 cell during class.

4. the improvement from 5400 to 7200 rpms is not noticable without benchmarks and IMO not worth the $$.

5. I believe the 1420 with discrete graphics don't come with integrated graphics so you are out of luck there.

6. the resolution is fine for E book reading. Eye strains comes from the screen being too bright or not bright enough. It can also come from the fonts being too small, all easily adjustable.

7. Less than an hour to fully charge my 9 cell while it's asleep. While it's in use and using the performace power plan, it takes a good two to three hours to charge from 5% to 100%. If I use the power saving plan, it will take 1-2 hours with normal use.

8. Depends on what games. Company of heros? you have to play on low settings. Rainbow Six Vegas? easily medium settings.

 

thanks surfasb,that was very detailed answers to my questions

 

if anyone could come up with accurate battery life of 6 cell will be a great help for me as im stuck with decision whether to opt for 6 or 9 cell

 

It's a 50 dollar difference. If you need to go more than 3 hours on a charge, i'd go with the 9 cell.