vostro 1400/inspiron 1420: 8400m gs performance question

So I am looking at buying a new laptop as my 4yr old desktop is starting to have issuses. I dont want to put money into an aging relic. This desktop took me through 4yrs of college and I am tired with not having the portability of a laptop. I play World of Warcraft and would like a laptop that can handle it well so I won't need to use my desktop anymore. Planning on getting vostro 1400/inspiron 1420, c2d 7300, 2 gigs, 8400m gs, 160gb 7200rpm. Will the 8400m gs be able to run WoW smoothly at 1280x800 (raiding, bgs, arena etc)?

Also, what is this I hear about the screen graininess, the antiglares dont have it while the true life do, or has this been fixed?

On a side note, how would the vostro 1400/insprion 1420 (using config above) play WoW compared to my aging desktop (athlon 3200+. 512 mb, x800xl 256, 80gb 7200rpm)?

 

the 800XL will be faster then the 8400 (about 35% based on 3d mark scores)

Also, order RAM separate. Much cheaper that way - same with the 160GB hard drive. $116 from Dell separately instead of a 225 upgrade. Sell the 80GB for about $35-40 on eBay, total out of pocket is only $80 or so instead of 225

 

Thanks for the info caveman017.

Ok so it looks to be a little down grade in the graphics department, but that does not answer my question on if it will run WoW at 1280x800 smoothly. I figure the 2gigs of ram would be a big improvement over my 512mb so that should help out a little. Any one with some personal experience playing WoW?

 

Bump... anyone?

 

i can play most games like quake, half life 2, etc on high settings with that card. i dont play wow though but im assuming it would play just fine

 

Well, since it runs CoH with Medium/High settings at 1440x900 I don't see why it would have any problems w/ WoW. Blizzard games even run okay off integrated cards.

 

It should run at 1280x800 at medium settings fine at around 25-35fps.

My x700 which is a few generations old and comparable to the 8400GS(though slower IIRC) runs at 1400x1050 with medium settings fine at 25-30fps.

Eg: This is back in October when 40 man raids were default, BC might of boosted some minimum requirements though.

 

Ok cool, just back from my little vacation and will get one ordered soon. Thanks for the info.

If anyone says this is not a smart decision say so now though I have a feeling I will be content with my purchase... now to find a good deal..