buying a new dell

well id like to get a new lap top within a month or so and was planning on getting the dell d830 with these upgrades
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.20GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800Mhz Dual Core edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows Vista™ Home Basic, with media edit
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen WSXGA+ LCD Panel edit
MEMORY 512MB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 1 DIMM edit
HARD DRIVE 80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™ edit
VIDEO CARD Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 edit
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Intel® 4965 802.11a/g/n Dual-Band Mini Card

i was just wondering if this is a pretty solid computer its going to be like $1355

also what does dell call santa rosa dual core 2 while ibm and others list it as centrino duo or pro?

and do you think dell will be putting a better graphics in anytime soon or is the one in there decent?

 

Same thing... core 2 duo is the processor name.
centrino duo/pro platform = core 2 duo + intel chipset + intel wireless card.

D830 will almost certainly get a graphics card at some point, probably in the next couple months but I can't say for sure. If you want dedicated graphics now, get the D820 instead (or look at Thinkpad or HP business notebooks).

If you don't need dedicated graphics, I think that's a great machine you've got configured, assuming you upgrade the ram.

 

honestly i dont know much about graphics cards i dont do much gaming should the intergrated one hold up fine?

and as for the RAM i am going to put 2gigs in it when i get it dell wants to much money to upgrade it.

 

This is probably a dumb question to ask... but doesn't that void your Dell warranty? (opening up the machine and doing an upgrade yourself...)

 

The Intel video chips are just barely sufficient to do much more than basic computer work. I just received a 820 with Nvidia video, but I have not tried any games. It will be better than Intel's, but it is nothing like my desktop with a X1950Pro. This is more of a business machine. I did play a DVD the other night and it played much smoother than a Dell D610 that I played the same movie on. That has a weak ATI X300 video chip, but that chip is still better than the older Intel video chip. The brand new X3100 (or whatever they call it) that comes with Santa Rosa machines is advertised as being much better, but I have heard different in other forums.

As far as warranty and upgrading memory goes, no you will not void your warranty, BUT do not sell your original hardware until the warranty expires. If there are any hardware problems to be diagnosed, you will want to reinstall your original memory for troubleshooting. If the notebook has to be sent in for repairs, you better change it back to original as there will be a good chance that it would not come back with your upgrades still installed. :wink:

 

My understanding is that the x3100 graphics chip in the D830 should be fine for watching movies and doing just about anything other than playing games. But... maybe someone who actually has one can confirm that.

Upgrading RAM won't void your warranty. You don't have to take the machine apart; there's a little panel you open up and you just put the ram in the slots.

 

yeah i think i will wait for a slightly better graphics card. i dont do much gaming but i would like to have the option to.