need congiuration tips on a 9300 to suit my needs (programming)

Hi, Im new here and I would appreciate any help to the following questions.

I will be getting the dell 9300. I want to use it for programming so I wanted the large 17" screen

Questions:
1)Should I get the true-life screen? Im thinking it may be too glossy for programming. I need it to read text, does the gloss get overwhelming if you look at it for a long period of time?

2)Does the true-life screen have better resolution than the non-true life

3)I dont plan on usining it for gaming, should I just get the 64MB Radeon, or is it better to upgrade the vid card a bit to maybe the 128mb

4)IS it worth it to upgrade to the 8 x DVD burner, it seems slow, maybe it better to get an external?

Ive never ordered from Dell before, Ive tried the coupons on this site but they dont work. Is this common?

I appreciate all comments and any tips you may have. Thanks to this board I know to only get 256mb Ram and just upgrade to a gig via newegg.

Thankyou

 

OK...

1) No, you won't want the WUXGA (truelife) screen; text will be way too small to read comfortably for extended periods of time, and the TrueLife is said to have a weird "sparkling" effect that could make it even harder to read.

2) Yes, if by "better" you mean "higher," but like I said that has the effect of much smaller text.

3) If you aren't planning on using it for gaming, there are probably better choices. Build and screen quality suffers on the I9300; if gaming is not a concern, try the Fujitsu 17" model (I forget what it's called) for a glorious screen or the Compaq x6000 for a better programming machine at a good price (the HT processor, although it runs hot, is better for compiling programs). The real reason for getting the I9300 is the GeForce Go6800; if you're not getting that, it's really not worth it.

4) Only if you burn DVDs...internal burners are slower but are a LOT cheaper (good external burners run well over $200).

5) The coupons right now may apply only to select configurations. There will be some universal coupons again soon, you'll just have to wait a week or two.

 

Like LowlyMarine said, I don't know if going truelife would be the best for you since you are going to be doing a lot of programming. If you haven't already, you might go to Best Buy or some other computer store and look at the glossy screens on the laptops there. Most users that like the glossy screens on other laptop like the truelife.

You might try this coupon ($750 off) : R0BT?B4?65SHF7
Once you add it to your cart, make sure your 9300 price is over $1899, and the coupon should work.

Good Luck,
SG

 

I programm for a living and I don't know what tools you use but I will tell you this, I am using the latest Whidbey and the screen can't be wide enough. With the truelife screen you can keep all of the toolbars pinned and still have enough text in the middle to be able to see the code as you work on it. I have not noticed that the text is too small nor have I had problems with reflections unless I create them on purpose. The Truelife screen seems to have about a 20% resolution edge over the non. 1900x1200 vs 1440x900. At this high resolution you can have the toolbar open and have the form in the designer at the same time plus the solution explorer open too.

I have been very happy with my 9300 so far, code generation is almost the only thing I use it for. My only real complaint is that I wear a large watch on my left hand and I place a chunk of a mouse pad there to save the case from scratches. I don;t really have any complaints about the keyboard though the case is so large it seems to me it could be fancier.

I thought I might have problems as my eyes are shot in my old age but I was even able to reduge the pitch to 96dpi from I think it was 120 as shipped. Somehow the contrast of the screen must be much higher than crt screens I don't think I could stand to look at this resolution on such a screen. Also I did run the TrueType optimizer some smart person here suggested to run. I think it probably helps.

 

Oh and another thing is the amount of memory you use. To run the MS development tools u need at least a gig. I would consider the amount of space burned by what ever tools you use and make sure you get enough space to have at least some left over.

 

ok so, Ive from the feedback Ive decided to not get the True-life

-thanks on the suggestion for the compaq. However, I have an older dell laptop right now and its been a workhorse. So I want to stick with dell.

about the coupons, Im completely new at this so I tried applying the coupons to "small business" instead of "home". It works fine now. Thankyou

Just a follow up Question:

Q)Should I get the 64mb or 128 Mb card. If I dont play games on may laptop will I notice any difference? I do use photoshop occasionally, will it make a difference there, or is strictly for 3d stuff.

Q2) if I get the true life screen and the resolution is too high can I adjust it down so its the same resolution as the non- true life screen?

Thanks

 

After reading Jims post, Im again unsure if I should go with tru-life or not.

I will also be developing on the lastest Visual Studio.

 

The only thing that interested me in Dell was a coupon and GF6800, otherwise I would never tried it. And even with the coupon it did not worth the time I spent trying it out. For programming especially I would defiantly get a much better screen and keyboard.

PS: For programming I am using Thinkpad with SXGA screen which has resolution a little bigger than Dell's non TrueLife offering and in the same time is a smaller format (15" instead of 17") and has a super keyboard. If you are not getting UXGA then I would strongly consider 15 inch offering from someone else for less money (Toshiba, HP have far more beautiful and easier to look at screens and much better keyboards).

 

From what I read it seems that the people who don't like the TrueLife don't like it because of reflections. This can be a problem but I solve this by adjusting the angle of the screen so there is no reflection.

For me it is so nice to be able to keep all of the toolbars pinned that at times I work on this computer rather than my desktop which is sitting along side of it in my office. I use the MS bluetooth mouse along with it it is very nice. I wish I had a screen similar to this on my work computer. On a 4x3 screen I have to set the toolbars unpinned so I can read the code.

For what it is worth I have found that I use the BlueTooth much more than I ever thought I would but it takes some experimentation to get it working well. It is handy to be able to use the mouse without one of those dongles on the back.

 

I'm a professional developer. I LOVE the truelife screen. By default the fonts are a bit small for me, but I just increased the font size a bit and it's all good. I don't know why ppl complain about the "sparkle" effect. Yes, this screen has a glassy look to it, it does reflect, but it looks incredibly sharp. I use my notebook everywhere from my office, my home office, kitchen table, basement, etc... it hasn't been an issue yet. The screen space is incredible. Everybody who I've shown this to wants one. Visual Studio is easy to work with, you have plenty of space for toolbars and code.

If you intend on running Longhorn, get the 128m card. Longhorn will require a beefy vid card to use the advanced features of the new interface.

 

""If you intend on running Longhorn, get the 128m card. Longhorn will require a beefy vid card to use the advanced features of the new interface.""

Why would I want to cripple my system by running OS that requires 128m card just to run properly, what about the game or two I would want to run on it, I would need an extra 128m for that too?

 

I think what is ment here is that this system will be able to make use of the resources of the video if you desire to utilize it not that you must have such a thing for it to even exist plus correct me if I am wrong but don't the games take the whole screen over meaning that it doesn't matter what other software is installed as they don't run at the same time anyway.