inspiron 8600 or 5150 - 3d app. usage

Hello,
I know there's been a thread regarding this already but I have other issues to discuss

I'm looking at the following:
inspiron 8600 >
Pentium(R) M Processor 1.4GHz (15.4" WSXGA+)
128MB DDR ATI(R) Mobility(TM) Radeon(TM) 9600 PRO TURBO

inspiron 5150 >
Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor w/HT 3.06GHz (15" UXGA)
64MB DDR nVidia(R) GeForce(TM) FX Go5200

other things are common.
I checked review for the gpus, didn't find anything on the go5200 but did find review for the mobility 9600 pro which was compared to a go5650. the 9600 performed better. I'm assuming that the Go5200 is an older model and would be pretty bad compared to the 9600. Any feedback on this?
Now for my quandary, I'm going to be using the laptop to primarily run a 3d application, minor uses include multimedia development. The thing is that when you're working in the 3d app. you need a fast gpu to work with a polygon-heavy scene, but when rendering you need a fast cpu. The laptop will mostly be used for creating 3d and not much for rendering.
I'm going to have the laptop plugged into the AC mains all the times as well.
I'd really appreciate it if anyone can give me a comparison if a centrino 1.4 to a mobile p4 3.02 w/HT.
I saw on Dells site that a 1.6 centrino is equivalent to a mobile p4 2.4. Does that mean a 1.4 centrino will approx. equal a 2.2 mobile p4. Finally how much of a difference would HT make? the 3d app in question can use multiple processors (I believe that win xp picks up processors with HT as dual processor).
I'm more or less stuck with a Dell cause they seem to be cheapest in Australia. I checked toshiba, hp/compaq, ibm, If anyone has any other brands in mind, please let me know. Also the 3d app. in question requires a minimum resolution of 1280x1024, that cuts out a lot of laptop (brands) from the race, specially at this price range.
Cheers.

 

I'm not positive about this, but I think you should consider 256MB or perhaps even more?

 

256 mb system ram ?
I'm going for 512mb system ram.
or do you mean a laptop card with 256 mb video ram??? I can definitely not afford that. did i mention i'm a student?

here are some of the common things:
512MB DDR
40GB HDD
cd-rw/dvd-r

 

My personal belief is that if you want good 3D applications use, either get the 5150 with HT, or max out the Pentium M processor to 1.7

The GF5200 is on par with ATI 9000. Obviously the ATI 9600 Turbo is currently the best card out there.

I do wish the 5150 would come with a 128 MB graphics card...that would solve your problem.

Here is a comparison that someone did from the Dell Community Web Site: see if this will help you decide-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just ran a PassMark Performance Test comparison betwixt two fresh Inspirons,

1> My brand-new Inspiron 8600, 1.7GHz P-M, 1GB RAM, 128MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo, 60GB 7200RPM 8MB hard disk - appears on the attached chart in Red.

2> A friend's brand-new Inspiron 5150, 3.06GHz P-4M, 512MB RAM, 32MB GeForce Go 5200, 40GB 5400RPM 2MB hard disk - appears on the attached chart in Blue.

Both systems were freshly loaded with WinXP Pro SP1a, and all the appropriate updates and drivers were applied. All unnecessary services were temporarily disabled on both systems. SpeedSwitchXP was used to lock both systems at their top CPU speed.

The I5150, with its speedy processor and 533FSB, walked all over the I8600 during the CPU Mark and Memory Mark tests suites.

The I8600's video card pulled far, far ahead on the Graphics Mark suites - approaching 400% druing the 3D tests. Given the relatively small textures used in the 3D Graphics Mark tests, I submit that the 32MB vs. 128MB video memory means less in this instance, than which GPU is used.

Oddly enough, the I8600's fast hard drive equated to less than a 1.5% performance advantage over the slower, but much less expensive, hard drive in the I5150. I know that the faster drive with the larger cache makes good sense, but you wouldn't know it from the Disk Mark tests.

Summary - need 3D performance in a Dell notebook? Buy the I8600. Need acceptable GUI performance, with blistering processing speed for programming or number crunching? I5150.

(Asides - the I5150 SXGA display is WAAY brighter than the I8600 UXGA display. And that frickin' I5150 130w power brick is a monstrosity!)

Now, as soon as I click the "Submit Post

 

Thanks for that, it's solved certain issues.
I wish!! the 5150 had the 128mb radeon, life would've been much easier.
I'm inclining towards the 5150 with the 64mb go5200. as against the 32mb version in the post above, only reason being I can't afford the centrino 1.7.
Now my only issue is regarding the sticky at the top of the dell thread, the one about flickering. As noted in my first post i'm going for the UXGA (with flicker problem). Does anyone know whether all the UXGA screens have this problem?


-edit change of heart.
The 3D performance of the 9600 seems much much better than the go5200 (just saw benchmarks), which also confirms what the guys in the post above discovered.
Also since I'm primarily going to be doing 3d content creation (modeling & animation) and not rendering, I think it would be wise to go for something with a good 3d card. the p-m 1.4 should be good enough to do occasional rendering.
Would you say a p-m 1.4 would equal to around a 2ghz mobile p4 ?

Cheers

 

Yes, the PM 1.4 will be roughly equal to a 2 - 2.2 ghz Mobile P4, maybe even higher. I think you will be allright with that.

And just in case you decide to go back to a 5150, not all UXGA are having this flickering problem but it seems to happen more with the UXGA than SXGA.

Good luck!