Please Review My Build

I am bouncing between the Latitude 630 and the Thinkpad T61. I would like to wait for the E6400, but since nobody seems to know when it will be released, I might be waiting too long and probably paying more for awhile because it is a new product (thoughts?)

I will be returning to grad school (technical program), but not gaming. I like the build quality of the Latitude and the THinkpad much more than what I have read about the XPS.

Please review my build and let me know if I am overshooting by ordering this considering my needs. The price is in my budget.

Also, I know that I can upgrade the RAM cheaper than Dell, but I do not have the time to do it and want it installed upon arrival.

Thanks!

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Latitude D630
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.20GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800MHz Dual Core, Genuine Windows Vista® Business, with media


$1,714.00 (Price after discounts)



Latitude D630 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.20GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800MHz Dual Core D63T75 [222-7948]
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Business, with media VB3E [420-6605]
LCDs 14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel 14WX [320-5288]
Memory 4.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS 4G2D6 [311-5689]
Internal Keyboard Internal English Keyboard ENG [310-8768]
Graphics Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 GMA [320-5298]
Hard Drives 160GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM (Free Fall Sensor) 160D72 [341-6441]
Touchpad Options Touchpad with UPEK® Fingerprint Reader FRTPAD [310-8793]
Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive NFD [340-8854]
AC Adapter 90W A/C Adapter 90AC [310-7284]
Media Bay Devices 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™ 8XDVRVB [313-5044]
Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® 4965 802.11a/g/n Dual-Band Mini Card IPW4965 [430-2375]
System Documentation Resource CD and DVD contains Diagnostics and Drivers for XP and Vista RCD [310-9096][313-5028]
Batteries 9 Cell Primary Battery 9C [312-0485]
Hardware Support Services 3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD Onsite Service U3P [983-7562][984-3970][985-4702][985-9980][989-2987][989-2988][989-3449]
CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service 3 Year CompleteCare Accidental Damage Protection CCADS3 [985-5082][988-7689]
Ship Group US - System Documentation, Power Cord SHIP [310-9094]
OS Labels Vista Premium Label VPRN [310-8758]

 

For your purposes, you might want to consider a resolution higher than WXGA simply because you will have more viewing room to have more windows open so you can view more information. Something like WXGA+ or WSXGA would be great. WXGA seriously doesn't give you a lot of viewing room. Even though you may think its sufficient, you will love WXGA+ a lot more in the long run.

Hard drive wise, unless you will be doing a lot of video encoding, go with the 5400RPM to save some money if you'd like and upgrade your processor to one that is in the T8000's simply because you will save more battery life if you do so. (Your Current T7500 isn't penryn and will drain more battery life as opposed to my recommendation.)

 

Dell is charging you an arm and leg to upgrade to that 4GB of RAM. If I were you, I would buy the 2GB of RAM (1 DIMM) and then upgrade yourself later. You will pay much less than $140 for a 2GB stick from a retailer. You could probably even get away with buying a 1GB stick for like $30-40 and that would do fine.

You may also want to upgrade that video card just because integrated is not very good, and this way, if you ever need dedicated graphics for anything, you've got it. Though I am not sure about the performance of the quadro nvs 135 since I have never heard of it until now, I can imagine its performance lies somewhere between the nvs 120 and the 140 (which I do know) and that would still be about 2x as powerful as the Intel integrated graphics.

Anyway, I think that for $1700 you could get something better than that though. Take at look at the Lenovo T61P if you are concerned about the build quality of other Dell models. For $1700, you could get a T61P that could outperform that D630 by quite a margin.

 

Because of the fact you don't game, the integrated will definitely be more than enough for your purposes. I have a 12.1 inch tablet pc with integrated X3100 and it operates flawlessly, though gaming could be better of course.

RAMwise, manual upgrade is very simple simply involving unscrewing one cover on the bottom, and inserting your RAM in. Its not as much trouble as you might think (if youve never upgraded RAM before). So, to save money, go with 2GB.

 

Gaming isn't the only thing that requires a decent video card. Personally I wouldn't even attempt playing a game on either the X3100 or the NVS 135. I just figured since he is in a vaguely titled "technical program" he could enter a situation in which a dedicated card is appreciated, however since I don't know what program he is in, I just threw that option out there for him to think about.

Also, I would keep your hard drive choice as 160GB 7200 RPM since the biggest 5400 RPM hard drive they offer is only 120GB.

 

Thanks for the input. Not knowing what programs I will need or how much of a computer I should buy makes this somewhat of a guessing game. I don't want to overbuy, but I am not ina position to buy another in 6 months if it is not enough.

 

X3100 is capable of handling games such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Command and Conquer 3, etc. It has shaders and all, its not really a bad card coming from me who actually owns a laptop with Intel GMA X3100, so all the programs that you use are perfectly fine to use with the X3100. You most definitely won't be overbuying with the X3100.

If you are a mechanical engineer or something who uses CADD software to do a lot of 3D rendering, then you might want to consider the 8600GT, but for most who don't like computer engineers, EE, etc, the integrated is fine.

 

The graphics card you will most likely want a standalone card for what your going to be doing.......also the HD might be a bit small but that's all up to you. Also I would get the 5400 RPM version of whatever HD you buy as the difference isn't that large for performance as it is for price.

 

Good specs. Integrated GPU will do you just fine.