help with specs on Inspiron E1505

I am planning on buying an E1505 but I've got a case of cold feet after reading a less than stellar review on CNET ( http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_Inspiron_E1505_Windows_Vista/4505-3121_7-31963825.html?tag=prod.txt.2)

I haven't used Vista yet and I don't know enough about the hardware to know what I need. My two basic questions come down to:

1) Will I need anything greater than the 1.6 GHZ processor and 2GB 533MHZ RAM to flawlessly run Vista?

2) Here is where it gets kinda tricky. I want to be able to do some light duty 3D work with 3D Studio Max/Maya type programs. I have always been told that Nvidia works better than ATI with Maya but from previous posts it sounds like the Radeon X1400 is a superior card to the Nvidia 7300 Go. Anyone have any experience running Maya (or a similar program) with either one of these cards?

Thanks

 

1.) You will be able to run Vista fine with that processor/RAM setup.
2.) Sorry, I don't know about those programs very much but the go 7300 is weaker than the x1400 (see the gpu guide) You might want to look at a laptop with a workstation card if you will be doing much modeling or rendering.

 

I don't know anything about performance benchmarks and number-crunching jargon. But I have just bought an Inspiron 6400 (our equivalent of the E1505 here in Europe) replete with Vista Home Premium, and it runs like a DREAM. Fast, responsive, flexible, agile. I honestly couldn't be any happier with this laptop than I am right now. I love it. I use mine mainly for multimedia purposes. Internet-browsing, instant messaging, emailing, music, DVD's, light gaming, viewing photos, that kind of thing. I don't do video-editing or anything like it. For my basic multimedia needs, this laptop is the real deal. 5 stars!

 

Thanks Vespoli and Streets for your responses. Streets, what are specs (processor, memory, video card) on your machine? Thanks.

 

2Ghz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB DDR2 RAM and 256MB X1400 GPU. Same as was used in that review you linked to. And frankly, I'm not sure what they were talking about. For the programs I listed in my first post, this laptop performs great under Vista. No complaints from me.

 

Anyone tried running Vista on this machine with less than 2GHz? Thanks for the replies, they are greatly appreciated.

 

Most of their problems were probably due to driver issues and bugs. Vista is a brand new OS, there are tons of bugs to work out, also most drivers that are currently out for Vista leave a lot to be desired performance and stability wise. Once everything gets worked out performance and stability will no doubt be much better. Also, any Core 2 Duo processor should be able to handle Vista.