Gaming with a Dell

My father is getting me a new laptop for Christmas, and he has told me he would like to buy it from Dell. I've read these boards for a few days and have been doing a little research of my own, but I am still not very computer savy. Outside of work for school, I'll be using it mostly for gaming. I'm not looking for a monster, I just want to be able to play games like Oblivion and Total War capably. I'm trying to keep it as close to 1k as possible. Here is what I came up with:

Dell E1505 Dual Core
15.4"
Intel Core Duo T2050 (1.60Ghz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB)
2GB DDR2 SDRam at 533MHz 2DIMM
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 Hypermemory
80GB Hard Drive

As it stands it costs $1,046.

A few questions:

I went with the T2050 because I read that using memory that runs at the same clock speed as the front side bus can improve overall system performance. How true is this and am I making the right decision here? It also costs less to go with the T2050 and cost is a factor.

Chaz's sticky on GPU's caused me a little concern. From what it sounds like, the X1400, while being a middle of the road GPU, actually only has the capacity of a 128MB GPU. I do not want to get ripped off on the GPU since it is the most important piece of hardware when it comes to gaming. Should I steer clear of the X1400 or is this not really that big of a deal?

One last thing: Are the screen and battery upgrades really worth it, and, in general, is this a pretty good gaming computer for the price?

 

Well, the screen is worth it, if you like higher-res of couse, though dont count on Oblivion on native res. RTW will work great, and M2: TW will work alright without shadows, though Oblivion I guess wont go further than a Low/Medium. I would recommend the Asus s96j over the e1505. The S96j is more powerful and will handle oblivion a lot better than the e1505 can. good luck on your search!

 

If you are restricted to Dell and a budget of about $1000, then you have one option: the Inspiron e1505. But if you can consider other brands and perhaps a slightly higher budget--there are other systems that would outperform the Dell. That's not to say the e1505 is worthless...it does well for what it was intended to do.

The resolution is a personal choice. It's up to you if you want a higher resolution. Go down to your local PC store and you will see a lot of 15.4" WXGA displays. I'd probably go for either WXGA+ or WSXGA+ myself.

Dell charges a lot of RAM upgrades, so you may want to stick with the minimum 1 GB and upgrade later when you feel you need it to save money. I would spend the $65 for the T5500, but it's not necessary. It just gives you more flexibility in the future with 64-bit applications. If you think you will be spending a lot of time away from AC power, it's probably worth the $42 to get the 9-cell batery.

And don't forget the Dell Coupons (tab at the top of our forum)--that may get you an extra upgrade or two.

Good luck.

 

the x1400 is a decent card its not a proformance monster and its not the best on the market but its also not the worst as long as you dont expect to much out of it i think you will be supprised with how powerful it is... i know i sure was with my 7400 go in my laptop (cod2)

 

i'm not sure dell would be able to ship it to by the 25th

i think your best bet to get the most out of your $1000, is to check the Dell outlet for a week or 2 looking for the best deal

actually there's some sweet deals right now, and since the systems there are pre built it'll ship in 1-2 days (usually the day of the order)


System Price : $819.00

Operating System
Genuine Windows XP Media Center 2005
Memory
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive
80 GB EIDE Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Video
256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 HyperMemory
Scratch & Dent
Hardware Upgrade
Nylon Carrying Case
Base
Inspiron 6400/E1505 Notebook: Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5600 (2MB Cache/1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
Media Bay
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Software Upgrade
Norton Internet Security 15 Month Subscription
NoteBook Screen
15.4 inch WXGA Notebook Screen
Network Interface Card
1500 Wireless Card



that right there is a pretty good deal, try to find something similar


i also saw an e1705 for $989 that came with a core duo and a 7900gs

so keep your eyes alert and be sure you know what you're looking for as you have 10 minutes before the items goes out of your cart and back in the pool for anyone to purchase

 

The Dell you have there will play Oblivion at 1280x800, Medium settings, at around 30fps. Though you have to turn the water effects down to get that.

I use my 6400 (identical to the e1505) and it is very capable for a budget laptop. It blitzes Rome: Total War, not sure about Medieval 2 though, as I have not played it. Doom 3 high settings nets a solid 55 frames per second, and FEAR will play at 1024x786 at medium settings. The only game I have played that absolutely kills this card is Armed Assault.

I would probably go with 1GB of ram for starters. Just the 1x 1GB stick of 533MHz, because the second gig is pretty expensive from Dell and wont make a great difference off the bat. Use the money saved to get one of the Core 2 Duo processors, so you get 64 bit and little extra power. Then, if you save up a little bit of money, you can buy that second 1GB of ram from somewhere like NewEgg, and save yourself a bit of money, and have a more powerful computer.

Hope I've helped. I love my 6400. For the price I got it, it was just unbeatable, and I am very happy with the performance.

 

I also just bought a new 6400 Laptop from Dell. It is overall a pretty good machine. I have only loaded a few games on it so far. Dont expect to set your game settings to high. However, I loaded BF2 and that runs really good. All in all, it seems to be a pretty good machine. I do wish they offered a better graphics card than the x1400.

If I upgrade my RAM in the future to 2GB, do you think I will see a few FPS more?

 

Thanks for all the helpful replies. It's good to hear from some posters who are pleased with their Dells, and the X1400 doesn't sound too bad after all. I think I'll take your advice and just go with the 1GB of RAM to save some money. I'm about to check the Dell Outlet, it sounds like there are some really good deals there.

 

I have a Dell E1505 with 2GHZ processor,1 gig of ram, and 256MB Ati mobility X1400 and I am playing RTW on full. I can also play BF2 Mid-High settings,also my gpu isn't overclocked. You will run Oblivion fine, and if you want it to run better, you can always overclock your gpu. I have played many graphic demanding games and I will tell you the X1400 doesn't get alot of respect and is underestimated. You shouldn't have too many problems unless your looking for the max graphics and details in gameplay.

 

I went ahead and bought the e1705 with the 7900 for 1k from the Dell outlet store. I have to give an assist to Rickster for pointing that one out. Thanks for all the help everybody, I am really psyched about getting this computer.

 

7900 for 1k id be super psyched. t2400 , 7900gs, 1gb ram, 60gb 7200rpm for $959 wowzorz.

 

where????????????

 

actually as of late dell doesn't charge too much to upgrade from 1 gig to 2 gigs (533mhz), i think they charge as much as newegg if not lower

you're welcome, I hope you enjoy your machine

l2read

www.dell.com/outlet

 

ow...no more laptop w/ 7900

 

Just keep an eye on it. The offerings are constantly changing there.

 

just a thought..r outlets for US only??or is it also available for Canadians??

 

I wish the Aussie outlet had deals like those. Dell doesn't knock much off over here. Maybe $100 for the outlet.

 

Congrats giftbox, you just went from a v6 to a v10 . The 7900 will serve you well.

 

Wow,that's a hell of a deal. Happy computing

 

ROTFL , I clicked on your link and this popped up at work;

Your organization's Internet use policy restricts access to this web page at this time.
Reason:
The Websense category "Malicious Web Sites" is filtered.

Web Nazis strike again!

 

US only i believe.