thinking of which Dell Laptop to buy...

I'm sort of newb at this so forgive me for asking some newb questions. Anyways, I'm a retired Marine ready to go to school and was looking for an all around laptop with a little more focus on gaming. My picks grinded down to 3 different Dells and was wondering which I should go with.

Dell Vostro 1500
1.6Ghz T5470 Core 2 Duo
80GB 5.4k HDD
2GB DDR2 (2 sticks)
1440x900 15.4" WXGA+ lcd (LG Phillips brand, no dead pixels)
256MB Nvidia 8600M GT
DVD+/-RW Dual Layer optical drive
Dell 1390 Wifi
all of the other standard stuff, including the box and accessories

Dell Inspiron E1505/6400
2.0Ghz T7200 Core 2 Duo
160 GB 5.4kHDD
1 GB DDR2 Ram 667Mhz
15.4" WXGA (1280x800) Notebook Screen
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon x1400 Hypermemory (128mb onboard)
8x DVD±RW with double-layer capability reads and burns DVDs and CDs
Dell 1390 Wifi
All of other standard stuff

Dell Latitude D820
Intel Core Duo T2500 Yonah 2.0GHZ processor
Samsung 15.4" WSXGA screen
Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Sony DVD +/- RW Drive
Intel 3945 802.11a/g Wireless Mini Card
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M 512MB TurboCache
2 X 1GB Sticks of RAM


Which would be the best for gaming? Which would last me the longest? Which would YOU pick if your primary focus was mediocre gaming and reliability? Also would any of these be able to handle the upcoming games with ease?

Thank you for your help.

 

I think the Vostro is the best one for gaming.

For the E1505, I think the x1400 is outdated already. Plus, it only has 128MB dedicated [as opposed to 8600M GT's 256MB dedicated]

As for the D820, the Quadro NVS 120M [which is GeForce Go 7400 equivalent] is lower than 8600M GT. The Quadro equivalent of 8600M GT would be the Quadro FX 570M, if I remember correctly.

 

Are these the only choices? Does it have to be Dell?
Anyways, out of the 3, i would chose the Vostro. Even though the Latitude comes with the Quadro NVS 120M (which by the way is a powerful GPU), it is really geared towards CAD, rendering and business apps. Also, the Vostro should be a decent build notebooks since it is a "business" class machine. You might want to consider getting a better CPU e.g. 2 ghz C2D and a larger hard drive.

 

I'd not even bother with the 6400 unless price is a concern.

I'm with the Vostro, or if you are a rough(er) user, the 820 might be a better bet. A vostro is just a black Inspiron.

Are you buying a 2nd hand or ex-eval unit? (I assume since these are previous gen units) If so, go for the Latitude as most have default 3 years factory warranty - some of which may still be valid. Hard drive is a bit smallish, but they are simple and cheap to upgrade anyway.

 

SEMPER FI brother... The Vostro's are nice. We use them where I work for field computers and they hold up well. But I really love my M1710!

 

Yeah, price is the primary concern. I've got killer deals on all 3 laptops and was wondering which one would suit me best.

Semper Fi to you too bulldog..

Anyways, my price range is ~800-1k.. Looking for a gaming/reliable laptop. If not these 3 laptops, which would be best?

Thank you in advance.

 

Looking at the specs, I would definitely say Vostro.