Thinking about ordering an E1705

I am thinking about getting the E1705 for playing World of Warcraft exclusively. I have a few questions before taking the plunge though.

1. How much of a performance difference will I get with 4MB L2 cache on the processor over the 2MB L2 cache?

2. What screen resolution do I get with just the XGA? I prefer a matte screen so that's what I was leaning towards.

3. There are 3 hard drives I can select from. Does anyone know the cache sizes on those?

4. I hear this system can get hot. Do you recommend it for long gaming sessions (6 hours a day minimum)?

Here is what I have selected thus far:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
FREE Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with 1GB of memory
17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive

Sub-total: $1,745.92

If you think I can do better for less, let me know! Thanks!

 

I definietly think you can do better for less, check out the HP dv9000t for a 17" WXGA with several options, or perhaps a dv6000t with a 15.4" screen with the matte option. They are configurable with the same specs but slightly less powerful GPUs for a lot less.

 

1. im not sure about this since i havent used a 4mb l2 cache, but for me l2 cache is pretty fast, and in laptop performance mainly depends on the hdd if everything else is fast.

2. i would recommend a WUXGA to have 1900 x 1200 instead of XGA which only supports upto 1400 x 900 if you want to experience the graphics.

3. the cache (aka. buffer) size is usually 8mb or 16mb, of course the bigger the better. theres no way to tell which one has how much cache until you own it and google for the name of the hdd from device manager. but as said in 1, in laptop the speed depends on the rotation of the hdd A LOT, which then depends on how many rpm (round/minute) that hdd can spin. i would say you would definitely get the 7200rpm (although the standard for laptop now is 5400rpm) and remember, laptop is never a means for storage, you can always store on external hdd (which is much cheaper and faster). all you want is performance.

4. yes, this system does get hot when you use the cpu and graphic cpu extensively (i hope dell need to improve the fans for them for this line, i think they still use the e1405 or e1505 fans for an e1705 which is a powerhouse). however you can get a cooling pad (im using one from antec) and my lappy is as cold as ice (j/k, meaning that i dont feel the heat! and i have the same specs with yours but with 7200rpm and 2gb memory of 667mhz)

moreover, its not a good idea to buy ram from dell. they overprice it too much and your ram is only 533mhz. you can reduce this to a 512mb and newegg for 2gb at 667mhz for about $180-190. but if you have the money and dont want to replace your memory, thats ok to have it from dell cuz it is in dell waranty (which is pretty good imho)

hope this helps
-caten

 

1. Difference between 2MB and 4MB right now is not much. Take a look at this article : L2 Cache: 4MB or 2MB?. As you can see, average gain is only 3.5%. however if you compare T5500 and T7200 then the performance difference will be bigger (around 10 ~ 15%) Why? Not because of the cache difference; because of the clock speed difference. None of the Core 2 Duo processors will hold you back in any of the current games; all of them are quite fast, the bottle neck for notebook gaming is usually the graphics card.

2. Higher resolution = better and smoother graphics in games. But you might find text and other Windows GUI elements bit too small if you go with an extremely high resolution

3. Disk RPM plays a bigger role than the amount of disk cache when it comes to hard dive performance. Most new large HDDs come with 8MB cache, which is quite enough. If you are looking for performance then get a 7200RPM disk.

4. For cooling use a cooling pad as catennacio suggested.

I hope you have used a 17” notebook in person, I mean they are huge; good as desktop replacements. If you are worried about portability then better get something smaller like a 15.4 with a decent VGA card like Go 7600 or X1600 etc.

 

For the HDD cache, click the 'help' or 'details' link when selecting the HDD on Dell's site, it will have a window with all kinds of specific info including the cache size. I know for a fact the 80GB 5400 is only 2mb, but the 120GB 5400 is 8mb (the reason I upgraded to it).

As far as getting an HP or something else as a previous poster mentioned--I would not settle for less than the GeForce 7900 but that's just me. I've bought my fair share of laptops in the past and I've always regretted not getting one of the strongest video cards available--it was the one thing that seemed to get outdated the quickest. So go with the most you can get, I say.

For screen resolution you get either 1440x900 or 1920x1200. I picked the 1440x900 because my external 19" monitors use it so I don't have to change anything when I use them, and because I think 1920x1200 would be too small on a 17" display but maybe it's not for some people. Also, games will perform better on the native resolution since it's lower. Don't worry though, 1440x900 looks excellent on a 19" screen and even smoother on the smaller 17" screen of the laptop.

 

hey just to let you know if u choose the inspiron 9400 you can save almost 400 dollars for the same specs, just go to dell small business

 

Not quite true. If playing at native resolution on both the XGA+ and UXGA, it will run smoother on the lower resolution, since the GPU doesn't need to calculate as many pixels. That said, you can always bump down the resolution you're playing at. This does require interpolation? which can look bad, but I can't comment on how it would look on this screen, since I haven't tried it. But if you stick at native (which looks best), I seem to remember reading that the higher resolution UXGA preforms about 30% slower than the XGA, again, each at native resolution.

I seem to remember also reading that with a higher HD cache, the HD doesn't need to spin up as often, saving battery life. Also, I don't know which, if any HD from dell have it, but there is a feature called NCQ. Might want to look into it. I'm not completely sure what it does.

 

the $1,745.92 is more than likely without the 20% coupon code. the difference between getting the home 1705 or business 9400 without coupons or discounts is only $60. how are you getting $400?

 

Ok, maybe I wasn't clear on what I meant by smoother graphics. I didnt mean higher frame rate , I meant better looking graphics, less jagged edges (blocky images) etc , that kind of smooth. Of course higher resolution taxes the GPU more. But if you get a high resolution screen you can always select a lower resolution when you want,but not the other way around.

Speaking of HDDs, yes cache is important, but as I said before most new HDDs have 8MB cache therefore it doesn't matter anymore. Take a look at these benchmarks, there is a 16MB 5400 disk there, but you can see that it is always slower than all the other 8MB 7200 disks.

 

I have this model,got it a week ago

default cept for the 2.00 ghz processor,2 gigs of the slower RAM, 7900 GS,and the 80 (whatever units) battery

so far I love it,but reading some posts here is making me a lil concerned about heating issues? is that a big problem with the E1705?

oh,and I also have the lower resolution matte screen,just wanted to save money (hehe,my laptop costed me $1670 total,because I used my McDonalds Gold card), and I took the DVD burner out for the combo drive. I basically just wanted a gaming machine, but I can also do work on it too. If I need more HDD space,I'll just stick another HDD in my desktop and setup a FTP...

I dont think its a bad model,but yeah...look into smaller ones first. I wonder why they cant fit better gfx cards into smaller laptops,arent they all roughtly the same size?I know I would trade my 17 inch in for a 15 with the same specs otherwise

 

Is the 9400 and e1705 the same machine?

 

I was looking at 15" laptops, but I insisted on getting the preformance of the 7900GS, but from what I found, that gpu can't be put in 15" laptops because of the heat it generates.

 

Yes, they are the same thing.

 

I thought the business editions of the laptops used a metal alloy versus a plastic for the consumer?