dell xps m1330

ok, ive asked a couple times on other ppls threads, and waited a full day and no one ever answers me.
so, i thought this would give it more attention and hopefully someone will help me.
im was planning on buying the dell xps m1330 and thought the 8400M GS 128MB dedicated was good enough, but i read on ngemu.com forums that the hundreth digit is most important. something like 7600 would outperform the 8400. but anyway, im planning on playing a few PC games (blizzard and some counterstrike) and ps2 games on pcsx2 emu (nippon ichi games and FFX and FFX-2). the thing is, im not so sure about the xps m1330 anympre, since it can only go up to 8400M GS, or is the 8400M GS good enough with C2D 2.2GHz.
i also thought of overclocking, but heard that overclocking notebooks even justa bit, would kill them.
help?

 

The 128mb 8400M-GS should be absolutely fine for Blizzard games and Counterstrike. For the pcsx2, I don't have any experience on it, however based on the official recommended requirements (nVidia 6600-6800), the 8400M-GS should be able to handle it with acceptable levels of performance. A nice Core 2 Duo will definitely help.

As for overclocking, it's perfectly possible in laptops and will not kill them, as long as you're reasonably responsible and watch your temperatures.

 

thnx.
now, about overclocking.
i didnt exactly know what they meant by "killing" the notebook.
what kind of problems occur?
if there is a guide already on how to overclock and watch temperatures and stuff, could someone link me to that?
or just explain it to me here?
=].

 

Type in "Overclocking Guides" in google, and you'll find a million to be honest.

Generally with overclocking you are dealing with one specific part, in this case the GPU. In this case as well you would likely be using Rivatuner to OC, as the nTune may not be working, and generally isn't the greatest OC tool.

While OCing you go up bit by bit, checking stability and tempertures. This is by no means a guide, just giving you the basics of what you do.

 

thnx.
i was just trying to get a trustfull source on how to OC.
btw, can i over clock two things?
as in the GPU and processor speed at once?

 

Processor OC'ing, while possible, is generally not worth it on laptops, and is particularly difficult on Dell laptops.

 

thats why you rely on some sort of benchmark like 3dmark to gauge the performance. the 8400gs on the m1330 should obtain around 3400 3dmark05 with stock drivers

 

what does that mean? lol.
and everyone keeps talking about benchmarks.
is that what the people here test to see how well it performs?

i guess i dont need to over clock the m1330, since its a C2D 2.2GHz.

 

The only way you can overclock the processor on a laptop (with very few exceptions) is by doing it through software like Clockgen - it is risky and can lead to crashes/problems.
With a Core 2 Duo running at 2.2GHz you won't have any problems though, so there are no worries.

Not just here - just about everybody uses it. 3DMark is software that puts your GPU and CPU through a series of tests and then scores it, and you then can use that score to compare to other computers. However 3DMark should never be taken for gospel truth because the scores don't correlate into real-world gaming performance numbers.

 

the 3DMark scores, are they computers in general or can you test out your specific laptop/desktop?

 

Chaz is quite right - while it does not necessarily translate to gaming performance, it helps individuals understand anchor points on how their graphics card will perform when compared to another -

@Hjh5990. 3dmark only tests your graphics hardware performance only