Vostro 1500: A Decent Pick for a Student?

Recently the Vostro 1500 has caught my eye as a reasonably priced, nice looking laptop. My question is whether the Vostro 1500, configured as below, would be a viable option for someone whos looking for a long lasting computer that can handle DX10 Games with ease.

• PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
• OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business
• LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
• MEMORY 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
• HARD DRIVE 160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability
• VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT
• WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini-card
• BLUETOOTH WIRELESS Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
• WEBCAM Integrated 2.0 mega pixel Web Camera
• SOUND OPTION High Definition Audio 2.0

Thanks!

 

yea definitely...and the t7500 upgrade isnt even necessary, the 2.0Ghz is aparently the sweetspot in the santa rosa processor lineup. Although Dell may not be offering the T7300 anymore..

 

I suggest dropping the processor to a T7300 and dropping the ram to 1gb and upgrade yourself to 3gb. You will be saving alot of money.

 

oh yea woah! dont buy 3gb from Dell...unless you want to sell your house that is

3gb probably isnt necessary for most users too, 2gb probably fine however I have no idea what youll be doing on it.

 

can 3GB of memory do dual channel?

do 1.5 GB memory modules exist?

(you need two identical sticks to do dual channel memory)--which allows double memory path bandwidth

 

A lot of people are getting the 2.ghz processor so if time is a factor, you might prefer the 2.2ghz my laptop is on track to arive more than a whole week ahead of the estimated ship and I think it is because I got the 2.2ghz.

 

Is it easy enough for me to upgrade the Dell to 3 Gigs? Will the 2.2 GHz processor take a lot more memory/run hotter? Finally, will the 160 GB, 5400 RPM hard drive be about as efficent as a 100 GB 7200 RPM?

I've also been wondering about weight and battery life for the Vostro.

All in all though, this configuration would hold up pretty well?

 

there are no laptop in the world yet that can handle DX10 with ease. Lets not forget 8600M GT is a weaker(pretty significantly actually. desktop 8600GT are usually clocked at 600 core and 1600 memory) than the mid-range desktop 8600GT. Even the highest end desktop video cards now have trouble with DX10 games.

some of my advice
1) stick with the cheapest wifi, your school will not have N, your apartment's net connect will be far too slow to benefit from N standard.
2) T7500 will not be any better for gaming than T7300, T7100 or T5470.

and most importantly
3) don't plan to buy a computer thinking it'll last you a long time. Its much more cost efficient and you'll get better performance if you purchase computers with 2 year span in mind.

 

Would I be better suited using a Vostro or a Inspiron with roughly the same specs? I know with an Inspiron I can get a 7200 RPM Hard Drive, but will I lose general build quality?

 

i think vostro and the new inspirons are the same, except the color.
For me at least, a Vostro was considerably cheaper than the equivalent Inspiron.

 

hlcc,you mention in your sig selling included software, do you mean vista?
if so, how do you go about selling it?
i have my own copy of Vista Business that I plan on using instead of Vista Home Basic that came with my Inspiron 1540.