Will this Laptop run games alright?

I just ordered this Laptop, mostly for college, but I would also like to use it for gaming. Can anyone tell me if it and what I will be able to play?

Inspiron 1520, Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2.0GHz, 800Mhz 2M L2 Cache
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCDTrueLife
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
320G 5400RPM SAMSUNG Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English, for Inspiron
24X COMBO CD-RW/DVD

Any info/input is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

That's a pretty good setup. Newer games will prolly play at medium settings and resolution, while any older games will play pretty much maxed out.

 

It all depends on what games you want to play. We can't answer without you giving us the names of the games? Also did you do a search for this in the forum? There are a lot of "will my laptop run games with 8600m GT graphics?" questions.

To generally answer your question it can play probably any game you throw at it at medium settings for intensive games. Other games released one or two years ago can run at the highest settings.

 

Adinu is right.

 

Is that a cd/dvd combo? like a cd writer/dvd reader? Now why would you do that? O_O
Get a full DVD writer,and also if you want performance, meaning less load time,opt for the 7200 RPM. It will get you less battery life but more satisfaction.
The 8600M GT has proven it has a lot of potential even in newer games so yea, it is a nice system .

 

You can run HL2 (and every derivative source game), Crysis, COD4, Bioshock, World in Conflict.

Settings will vary widely. You can max out HL2 based games, but crysis will require medium settings and resolution.

 

The 250GB SEAGATE 5400RPM is as fast as its 7200 brother, so I'd assume a 320GB will be fast enough

Yeah I agree, not getting a DVD writter (and a 24x CD writter lol)...

 

ive run half life 2 episode 2 on a slower machine than that and it works fine, so yes it will run games great at medium settings.

 

HL2 is also running an old engine. UT3 is well optimised so max at 1280x800 easily. WiC might see a Medium DX10 + some extras at that resolution and plays well (WiC takes a hard hit because of the DDR2 memory)

 

I never heard of a 5400 rpm HDD being as fast as a 7200rpm , but if you say so...

 

Thanks for the input guys... I am glad to hear that I will be playing some of the newer games. The desktop I'm using now is 5 years old, and it has a GeForce FX 5200 in it, and only 512mb's of RAM...leaving me with very few options for gaming.

I guess I didn't realize that the combo drive wouldn't write DVD's....I'm gonna have to fix that, thanks for pointing it out.

 

Huge number of threads around the forum on 7200 vs 5400 performance.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=190351

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/11/15/travelstar_7k200_and_5k250_beat_the_band/page9.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/11/15/travelstar_7k200_and_5k250_beat_the_band/page7.html

You will notice that larger 5400 HDDs can sometimes be faster than some 7200s in some areas.

 

Yes,but when talking head on high capacities, all 7200 rpm HDDs are faster than the 5400 rpm ones. The deal is simple...7200 rpm will spin faster and get to you information faster,depending on how fragmented is the drive,how many apps you`re running and so on.
But it is my belief and experience that 7200 rpm HDDs(used about 6 of them , from 80-200GB) will load apps in a snap whereas the 5400rpm(i`ve used 5 of them already 80-160GB) has a certain delay which is felt.
The Seagate Momentus is an exeptional HDD,but it only goes to show that overall the 7200rpm is faster. Albeit a bit hotter in some cases...

 

Yep, some drives, some areas.

You pay more for lesser space on a 7200 though, and there's the issue of heat/power. This however, has been improved in the newer models of 7200 drives.

And since this is a 320, the speed's likely to be even greater improved. It would be interesting to see the results of HDtune on it. Guinea Pig time?

 

Well...I will be more than happy to run whatever tests you guys find necessary, unfortunately Dell has delayed the ship date of my Laptop (again, this would be the third time) until the 12th of this month. I called them, but I couldn't understand a word the lady said.

Ohh, and the reason I only got the 24x CD Writer/DVD Reader was because the only other option they gave me was a Blue Ray drive that cost an additional $160, which would have put me over my budget. I could have dropped the RAM down, but I thought I would rather have the 2 gigs. If I were a rich man...or maybe if MS Office didn't cost so much.

The lack of options might have something to do with the fact that I was taking advantage of some type of special, so I got $345 off. They also wouldn't let me get anything smaller than the 320 gig HD.

At least the 8600M was an option...that is what I really needed for my 'College' Laptop.

 

Yea that's pretty good !!!

 

i hope you switched to a dvdwriter,right?
a 320 gb hdd will do nicely..just make sure you defrag it regularly

 

your good to play everything, but don't expect anything stellar out of Crysis. I did and was sorely disappointed.

 

As I said earlier, the only other option they are giving me for the CD/DVD is a Blue Ray drive that costs $160 more, which puts me over my budget. Not sure why I can't just change it to a CD/DVD writer...maybe something to do with the special I am getting? There were many options that I couldn't change.

 

What the? Blu ray for only 160 more? Isn't that a good deal. Haven't seen that low of an add on for blu ray.

 

It does seem like a pretty good deal, but I think I would rather have the extra gig of RAM....seems like 2gigs of RAM with a 24X CD writer would be better than 1gig with the Blue Ray. Maybe I am wrong...you guys know a lot more about this stuff than I do. I wish I could afford to have 4gigs of RAM and the Blue Ray....but alas, I am a poor man getting ready for College.

 

Open Office, a free software, is recommended on this site as something that can replace Microsoft Office. You can open MS Office documents, you can save them as MS Office documents for others with MS Office to read. Might save you some money.

Here is the thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=32000

Here is the direct link to Open Office: http://www.openoffice.org/

 

Addendum: Also, RAM is relatively cheap now. Watch the RAM specials thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=121363

 

hello.. my laptop is about the same specs as belgarath33 but mine is a
vostro 1500, Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2.0GHz, 800Mhz 2M L2 Cache
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCDTrueLife
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS ddr3
160Gb 7200RPM SAMSUNG Hard Drive
32bit vista business

what is ddr3 graphic cards, is it better? n can i play latest game using this specs?thanx

 

I called and pestered Dell until they shipped the Laptop, which I think means it is too late to change anything? That is unfortunate, I should have done more research before ordering.

 

Well, if you would like to get something else instead, I suppose you could always *not* open the box and re-ship it to them for a return. Although you may be charged a restocking fee...

What you got is pretty good anyways, and you won't need to upgrade the memory. If you don't need the DVD writer, you won't miss it.

 

Yes, DDR3 is better than DDR2 for the graphics card. A dedicated card is better than integrated graphics, but I think that dedicated card is more of an entry level one. (So, I think your card is not bad, but I don't think you will be able to play all the latest games optimally.)

The experts will come along and give you better information I'm sure, but in the meantime, if you type in that notebook model and/or those card specs in the search forum here, I bet you'll be able to get a lot of information.

 

thanx thxgirl. my friend said that almost all game need only 64mb of card..so there is no need for a high one,thats y i choose this card..but it seems that i cant play need for speed prostreet with high setting with my laptop

 

If you friend is talking about 64 MB of dedicated memory, then your friend is incorrect..... Could be why you cannot run Prostreet at high settings. I just checked: You can't run Prostreet at high settings because what you have are the minimum requirements: 128 MB of dedicated graphics memory.

Here's a thread that will explain more for you, in case you haven't already found it: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=193008