Questions about the D620

I'm thinking of getting a D620 this September but would like to know more about it before I buy. Here's a couple of things I'm most curious about:

1) Screen brightness. Though the 1280x800 screen is rated at 180 nits, is there a noticeable difference in brightness between it and the 1440x900 (220 nits)?

2) Speed of the Quadro NVS 110M (7300 Go for the home/home office market). Would it be able to play Sims 2 and Vampire Bloodlines at 1440x900 max detail? If not, at what resolutions can I set it to max?

3) 5400RPM vs. 7200RPM battery drain. Would the 7200RPM take significantly more power?

4) Quality of the mono speaker. Even if it's essentially only one speaker, quality of sound varies from model to model. I used to own a Gateway MX7000 series laptop and its mono speaker provided superior sound than stereo laptop speakers I've seen (or "heard" lol..). How does the D620 compare to that?

Thanks in advance.

 

All I can tell you is that the 7200RPM drive will drain the battery by a little bit. It will take off around 10 minutes vs the 5400RPM drive. it does run faster, but hotter. I think the mono on the D620 is really quite bad. Stick to headphones, external speakers etc.

 

1) I didn't have WXGA but I compared it to an XPS 14 inch and the brightness was similar or higher since I set it that way.
2) I don't play sims. I play Tiger Woods at full settings but I haven't checked FPS.
3) Maybe but I only had the 7200 in both the current and old D620 (I sent it back for the NVIDIA). It is noticeably faster than the old laptop with 4200 but many factors are exponentially increased on the current rig. I will say that data transfer is FAST from an external hard drive between this rig and other PCs (however, parameters differ).
4) Monospeakers are more than adequate for movies and games. Music sounds alright but not a Bose or Harmon Kardon. The DV1000 Harmon Kardon's were the best I ever heard. It is nowhere near that level. Some songs (ie RAP/HIPHOP which I don't listen to but somehow it played on my notebook from www.launch.com because I pushed the wrong link to a song sounded like crap; lots of distortion). General pop music sounds ok.

 

on the sims 2, my sister has played it on the d620 and she said there are obvious glitches. The player disapears sometimes and it flickers. The speakers are alright, not great but they work. Go with the 7200rpm, you will be happy when games are loading!

 

No, it would not take any more power. 7200RPM drives have the same power specification as 5400RPM drives. The only reason you loose a few minutes of battery life is because the spin-up time to operating RPM when the system is turned on is longer. Also, a 7200RPM drive will not run hotter by any noticable amount. That is a myth. More information can be found in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=59053

 

Sounds like a driver problem to me. Other possible reason is that the GPU is defective, which I somehow doubt is the case.

Oh, and thanks everyone for replying to my questions. Thanks to all of you who replied to my post, I think now I have a general idea of what I should get. Specs are:

Latitude D620:
Intel® Core™ Duo T2400 (1.83GHz) 667Mhz Dual Core D6218DC [222-1159] 1


Operating Systems:
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media, English XPHSP2 [420-4802] 11


LCDs:
14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Panel 14WXG [320-4573] 2


Internal Keyboard:
Internal English Keyboard ENG [310-7270] 4


Memory:
1.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 1 DIMM 1G1D6 [311-5686] 3


Hard Drives:
80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM 80D72 [341-2980] 8


Touchpad Options:
Touchpad with UPEK® Fingerprint Reader FRTPAD [310-7269] 9


Module Bay Devices:
8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio Digital Media™ and Cyberlink Power DVD™ 8XDVRW [313-3883] 16


Graphics:
256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache™ NVS110M [320-4574] 6


Batteries:
9 Cell Primary Battery 9C [312-0379] 27


AC Adapter:
90W A/C Adapter 90AC [310-7284] 15


Productivity Software:
FREE Microsoft® Office Basic Edition 2003 - $149 Value FLBASIC [463-2023] 22


File System:
NTFS File System for all Operating Systems NTFS [420-3699] 37


Bluetooth:
Dell Wireless® 350 Bluetooth Module BT350 [430-1487] 13


Wireless Network Card Options:
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps) IPW3945 [430-1481] 19


Floppy Drive:
No Floppy Drive NFD [340-8854] 10


Hardware Support Services:
3 Years Next Business Day Onsite WI3OS [007-1195][900-1150][900-1152][983-2207] 29


$2028 plus tax. Don't think the modular bay battery is that useful to me at the moment so I think I'd get it later when the need comes.

Wow, I've got to say; thing isn't cheap. For the price of this machine, I can easily get Toshiba's Satellite A100-SK9 at Future Shop and get their 3-year extended warranty for virtually the same price. This is at the cost of portability of course, but you get what I mean. Even a portable gaming machine like the ASUS W3j can be had for the same price without the extended warranty.

 

Looks like a nice configuration.

You may want to read about the fingerprint recognition on this site and www.notebookforums.com .

I didn't want my mousepads smaller than they are.

 

nice specs. I would ditch the fingerprint reader, just a cheap gimic, IMO. On the flickering, ive tried a few different drivers, and BF2, along with other games works just fine.

 

You've got a point there. The fingerprint reader's useless. Besides, what does a college student have that's so private that nobody else should access them?

That's weird. I assume this is with drivers designed for the Quadro? Ever tried nVIDIA's Forceware drivers? Does it even work?

edit: Oh, just need to ask one more thing. What are the advantages of WinXP Pro over WinXP Home? Does the Pro edition have extra battery saving features that the Home edition does not have? Sorry, I know this have possibly been asked to death already, but... please?

 

FYI: D620 Screen Problem

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=latit_video&message.id=21944

 

There really aren't very many advantages/disadvantages to either. The main difference between XP Pro and Home is that Pro has the ability to log on to domain networks - which most users will never use. The core of the two systems are the same for the most part, so you probably will not even notice a difference between the two. I've used both and can't tell any significant differences to a regular home user.