teh e1705 owneth?

I'm in the process of buying an e1705, it's the best fit for my wants.

I have a few important questions I think you're more qualified at answering than me, since I've been away for 6 months on deployment (I'm in the navy and just returned from sea).

1. should I wait for the duo 2 core processor to be released?

2. if so, will it be really expensive? like the top of the line current duo?

3. while not at sea I'll game mostly with World of Warcraft (which caused massive heating problems for my old dell 5100) and underway I'll play prolly some FPS like COD2, maybe Oblivion. so, can the 7900GS pump out, without overheating after hours of play?

4. cheapest route? using those dell coupons?

5. if I opt not for the duo 2, is the 1.83ghz duo just fine?


thanks a ton for your help, I'm trying to quickly research this stuff now that I'm back on land and can purchase it.

 

1 and 2: if you can wait, then wait. i doubt the new processors will be that much more expensive; just think back what the price jump was from Ms to the core duos; i.e., not much

3. it's up to you to keep things cool. follow the normal tips; don't use it on a blanket or something that blocks the vents and/or traps heat. there's always a cooling pad option.

4. coupons are the way to go. not sure what's up with dell as there has been press that they are modifying their sales strategies. your best bet is to just monitor the prices for a while and then jump and don't look back. REMEMBER: whatever you get will be cheaper the next day, week, month so once you take the plunge, just commit and be happy.

5. for gaming, you really only care about the GPU. i personally don't think the $ difference is worth the jump in speed especially since nobody ever taxes their systems that much and they all usually run at half speed anyways (jumping up incrementally when necessary).

 

thanks for the informative reply it's good to have folks here to turn to with these questions.

It sucks, cuz I'm dying to get my hands on it, and it takes a while for dell to make the laptop too.. then ship.

hopefully dell shoves this core 2 sucker into the laptop soon.

quick question, if you had to recommend a laptop cooling pad, which one?

 

re: cooling pad. i really don't know since i don't use one.

i actually went to home depot and got some really thin particle board (about 3mm) and cut it to fit my notebook perfectly. it's just flat surface, but it's so i can use my notebook on my bed.

you may want to ask about a cooling pad in the Accessories thread. you'll probably get some good help there.

 

The core Duo 2 is supposedly not going to cost any more than the current ones (thats what I have heard, don't hold me to that). The 1.83ghz is more than enough (anything more and you don't get as good of a buy). The 7900gs is going to put out less heat than any other card with its power (and there are few that have as much of a punch as it does). In fact it puts out less power and uses less power than many of the lesser models (ie. the 7800go). Your going to love the killer frame rates your going to get with that machine, best of luck to ya.

 

I was sort of in the same situation as you. I need a laptop for school on the 24th and I put off buying all summer to wait for Merom. As it got closer, I was getting nervous about the ship date since I wouldn't want to be without a computer. Then I saw some Merom benchmarks at anandtech and really wasn't impressed enough to wait. The core duo is a good enough chip, plus it can always be upgraded.

So after a lot of comparing prices and the possibility that Dell won't have massive coupons anymore, I decided that ebay was my best bet. I don't know what other people think about ebay for new dells but I got a 2ghz, 2gb ram, 7900gs, and uxga 1705 for $1600. Same one on dells site was about 2300.

So if you feel like waiting, wait. But if you don't, I don't think you're going to lose out on much with a core 1. And if the coupon situation doesn't look good, I'd say check ebay.

 

The C2D will have the same pricing from Intel in batches of 1000 as the CD, but what the consumer will end up being charged is unknown. Given how the C2D for the desktop is overpriced by many stores, I'd imagine the price will be marginally higher, but it is hard to predict.

If you want the laptop now, don't hesitate to get it. I doubt you will notice a difference between the two CPUs unless you do heavy rendering/encoding/mathematical apps.

Merom won't ship until early September at the earliest. You could be waiting until October the way things look now.