Questions on the 1520 from a potential buyer

Hi all, I'll try to cut to the chase with my points so that hopefully my questions can be answered and I can become yet another 1520 owner for my first laptop.

First off, in terms of the grainy screen on the 1520 in the higher resolutions, would I have to worry if I'm buying now as opposed to earlier when they first starting coming out?

Second, in terms of gaming, if I chose the lower screen resolution (1280x800) as opposed to the higher (1490x900), will I experience better gaming scores, as I have heard that games usually perform better at computers' native resolutions and it seems that the 8600GT in the 1520 may not do well in the higher res as it is a lower powered card per say. I've only just read this this past week and never understood it.

Third, it seems that a lot of people are overclocking their video cards in the laptop to gain better performance, I was just wondering if it interferes with any warranty support from Dell or anything. If not then I think I'll be a happy camper when looking to overclock it (I've overclocked my processor before in my pc so I know somewhat of how to do it).

Fourth, is the Creative Labs Express Sound Card worth the purchase or would it only help if I was to use the laptop at home and connect my 2.1 speakers to it? Does it have its own headphone jack port which could fix the problem that a lot of people seem to be having with it?

Fifth, will choosing the 7200RPM HDD and overclocking the GPU raise the temperature levels too high? Also, would the 7200 RPM significantly improve the speed or only ever so slightly?

Finally, what is the remote that everyone is talking about that they aren't getting with their Inspiron? Is it the tiny media card reader one or what? Just curious.

Sorry if this was a really long post to read through and hopefully answer to. It's just this is my first laptop and I want to get the most out of it as I can since I'll be using it for college and to do some decent/good gaming on it.

Thanks all!

 

1) You're likely to get a sub par display if you got with a higher resolution. Some people seem happy with them, some aren't. Lots of threads here to read if you have the stomach.

2) I ordered the lowest res screen with gaming in mind. Most people say that running games at lower resolutions on high res screens isn't a problem. Games should look fine.

3) There are a few threads about this as well. I doubt there's any way for dell to prove that you overclocked unless you actually burn out your CPU or GPU. You should be able to overclock safely before that happens... when things start glitching just back it off a bit.

4) I believe, not sure, it has it's own headphone jack and may be used to avoid the interference some people have with the native headphone jack.

5) It won't get too hot and it will improve performance... probably more than any other upgrade besides the GPU. Systems with 7200rpm HDDs are snappier.

6) The remote fits in the 54mm express card slot. You can probably find a pic with a search.

 

Woo! Thanks for the quick response. This should help a lot so far, curious still to see what others say.

 

If you're looking for a cheap gaming notebook just click on the Dell link in my sig, go for the vostro 1500 and add the 8600M graphics card. Dollar for dollar it's the best deal out there. Nothing comes close if you can live with how chubby the Inspiron/Vostro is.

 

I'll look into it, however I personally like the ability to choose some color for the notebook, not to mention I can get some good discounts using the student savings that Dell offers.

Plus my parents are pretty much paying for it as long as its cheaper than $2300, so its no big deal =D

 

$2300? Look in to a Clevo M570RU/Sager 5790 17". In a month it should come out with geforce 8800m... that looks like the hot ticket for a gaming notebook. It runs the same santa rosa 965 chipset as these dells. That's if you're looking for a gamer and don't mind carrying around a super fatty...

 

Yeah I mean I'm trying to compromise between the two. I'm gonna want to carry this thing around so I want to keep it to a 15" at least, and I'm a gamer but currently I'm playing a lot of older games (Battlefield 2142, Guild Wars, Rome Total War), so I'm not looking for the greatest of all fps' although I will want to play future games, but am willing to turn them down a bit, I'm used to it already on my current pc.

I've looked into ASUS notebooks like the G1S and the upcoming V1S but have heard heating up issues for the G1S and the previous generation V's having a mediocre battery life. I've had a pretty good experience with Dell in the past, it was just for my old mp3 player but when it broke, they helped me try to fix it, didn't work and they sent me a new one with no hassles.

 

The Dell is a good compromise for size and performance. Their service, for all the complaints I've heard, always seems to come out well if you still have a warranty. People seem to love the G1S- I have heard the heat issues but they're probably a bit overblown. Another option would be a thinkpad t61p with the top end quadro graphics- same chipset as 8600M but spendy. There's also the Gigabyte GX600 which is coming out soon, also with the 8600M. Or perhaps a smaller Asus 14" F8 with the same GPU. There's also some barebones laptops that you could build.. check out rjtech.com and rkcomputer.net for an intro.

My advice, buy the cheap Dell, take the rest of the money and speculate on the stock market. You'll get a far better education worrying about how your money performs than dinking around on any laptop.

 

Haha will do, I think with all the success people are having with it and that more people are happy than sad about the inspiron will give me enough incentive to get it.

 

Sorry about the double post, but does anyone else have answers to my questions?

 

I did want to tell you the soundblaster they include is just driver changes, no hardware. If you want the absolute best sound you would need to buy a SB X-Fi expresscard. But to be honest the stock sound is really good, I listen to techno 24/7 which has consistent ups and downs throughout the listening experience and I am quite happy with the stock drivers/ and built in speakers. The headphones that come with it are great too! I tried them out at school yesterday and in the hallway I heard nothing but my music. They really do block out external noise...

 

Alright cool! That'll save me some money for sure then haha.