Dell Inspiron 6000 vs HP dv4000 vs other similar

I am going to be a college freshman, and need a good notebook. Price not a huge deal, but I dont want to spend too much over 2000. I want portability, but also ability to play decent games and a nice sized screen. I think the 15.4 is perfect, and I have arrived at two options (as mentioned in post title ). Configurations...

dv4000 - $1947

XP Pro
1.86 pent 750 M
Integrated 900M graphics (128)
256 ram
1 GB ram
80 gb 5200 rpm HD
x8Lightscribe DVDRW
2 year warranty w/ accidental care (doubled to 4 years with card)
two 12 cell batts
integrated wireless w/bluetooth
All in one printer
Quickplay
15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)

Dell Inspiron 6000 - $1810 (w/ 750 coupon)

Xp home
1.6 pent 730 m
2 GB ram (upgraded via crucial.com so not dell original)
128 x300 ati graphics card
60 gb 7200 rpm HD
integrated Wireless + bluetooth
x8 dvd burner (not lightscribe)
2 year accidental care (again, upgraded to 4)
all in one printer
6 cell + 9 cell
15.4 inch UltraSharp WUXGA LCD Panel (1920x1200)


Overall, had a few questions, and would really appreciate any answers.

1) How much better is the Dell's graphics card?
2) Would paying $250 be worth it to upgrade to 1.86 on dell, or even $350 to upgrade to 2.0
3) How much is the 2gb vs 1 gb ram
4) Does upgrading outside ram hurt warranty or comp?
5) Which computer should I get, and when should I buy it ? Games arent a huge deal, but Id like to do some. Also, is 64 bit gonna kill me in 2 years. Is XP pro a big deal?

Thanks, REALLY appreciate it

 

The dv4000's Intel shared memory GPU is horrible for games. ATI's Radeon 200M is the only remotely tolerable shared memory GPU for gaming (HP L2000 Special Edition, to be launched Wednesday).

If you can spend a few dollars more, the best all-around 15.4" widescreen notebook you can buy is the Acer Ferarri 4000:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=265225&ps=st3

Radeon X700 GPU, 1680x1050 res widescreen (which is what my HP zv5000z has), Bluetooth, 802.11g, 100GB 5400RPM HD, AMD Turion ML37 CPU (fastest of the Turion 64-bit chips), WinXP Pro, and it just looks cool. Carbon fiber case. About 6.5 pounds. Figure at least 3 hours of battery life in normal use, limited by the large screen and powerful GPU more than the CPU (AMD's power management is excellent).

OTOH, that L2000 is a pound lighter, smaller (14" widescreen), and a lot cheaper. There's a lot to be said for a small notebook hooked up to a big external monitor when you're at home, especially if you had the good sense to configure Bluetooth so you can have a separate keyboard and mouse without dinking with cables.

Being 64-bit capable will at least help preserve your notebook's resale value. OEMs have been disturbingly slow in providing WinXP x64 support but that will eventually change. I'm going to be very surprised if Microsoft really does bother with a 32-bit version of Longhorn.

 

so whats your recommendation? go with acer ferrari or L2000? also how does dv4000 compare to inspiron, and any chance on the other questions?

thanks for the help though

 

If you have the cash, get the Ferarri. No contest. If not, consider the L2000 even though it has a smaller screen since lighter weight is always nice. Between the dv4000 and Dell... the Dell looks a lot better on paper, its X300 GPU is going to be slightly better than the Radeon 200M in the L2000 (the 200M uses a X300 derivative) and a LOT better than the dv4000's GPU. I'm extremely distrustful of Dell though. In either case you're awfully close to the cost of the much nicer Ferarri and you can have one in your hands overnight if you wish. The Ferarri's X700 will let you play pretty much anything. It's several times more powerful than the X300.

1GB vs. 2GB... with rare exceptions 1GB is about right, 2GB won't be noticible. If you don't know what you need, you need 1GB. If you do need more memory later it's easy to upgrade.

 

really hmm. im checking out ferrari, the style is awesome. 64 bit is reassuring too. cost isnt a huge deal, although do they ever have specials?

 

ive seen for 2100, so that might be good. ebay up to 2600

 

well thats just an ass. how much is it to get 2 1 gig sticks you think?

 

btw, eventually, will you be able to customize them online, via either a store or acer.com?

 

The price might come down a bit in a few weeks, given that the 4000 *just* came out, but I expect it'll be a very hot item, especially since it's so difficult to find a competently configured AMD notebooks in America (it's less of a problem in Europe where Intel marketing isn't as intimidating). Newegg has them in stock for $50 more, mwave.com hasn't received theirs yet... so far, $2150 is the best price I've seen.

 

Acer do not custom build, all their laptops are pre-configured and are sold through retail channels.

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Compaq Presario R3340US AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB, 80GB 5400rpm 15.4" Brightview WXGA.

Acer Aspire 3003WLCi AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+, 512MB, 80gb 4200rpm 15.4" CrystalBrite WXGA
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Depends on what type of RAM you get....but I would put it around $230
I would recommend getting RAM from either Kingston, Crucial or Corsair.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=523%3A7858&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&description=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=381&Submit=Property

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Compaq Presario R3340US AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB, 80GB 5400rpm 15.4" Brightview WXGA.

Acer Aspire 3003WLCi AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+, 512MB, 80gb 4200rpm 15.4" CrystalBrite WXGA
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crucial costs 270 for 2 gigs, a lot better than the 750 dell charged!

 

Unless price is an issue, I wouldn't bother getting anything with the x200m graphics system in it.

The Ferrari has got decent specs, I never find their case to be attractive thou -- way too much "bling" heh. As a previous Acer 8104 owner I'd say their workmanship isn't the highest either.

True, Dell has their share of complaints. But keep in mind, that Dell sells over 140,000 PCs *every* day -- a figure HP/Acer/whoever can only dream of. With respect to that, doesn't seem so bad, non? Another thing -- HP is build by Quantas, Dell is also build by Quantas. For all we know they are rolling off the assembly lines next to each other. Difference in quality? I'm sure there are variances on occasions. Noticable? Probably not.

How much do you value portability? Because if it's not that big of a deal, for roughly $2200 you can get a fully configured Inspiron 9300. -- at least that's how much I paid for mine. Nothing will touch its performance at that price level.

cheers,

yass

 

HP is built by Compal, at least mine was. Build quality was very good. I'd be unsurprised if they use multiple assemblers.

I think the Ferarri series gets a bit more attention than the average Acer. They've cut back the bling factor quite a bit on the 4000. It's still distinctive though. Mostly they let the black carbon fiber case do the talking. I'd be tempted to switch but I already have a 1680x1050 res screen and I really don't need an excuse to play games more (sigh). It would be kinda nice to have a machine that's 2 pounds lighter though.

 

yah im thinking about getting the ferrari. i need portability. i am not a huge fan of the red ferrari, although its nice. but the black is sorta a mix of the two; stands out in a quiet way. still the red has a certain quality...

 

You could also consider the Asus Z71V...

------------------------
Compaq Presario R3340US AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB, 80GB 5400rpm 15.4" Brightview WXGA.

Acer Aspire 3003WLCi AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+, 512MB, 80gb 4200rpm 15.4" CrystalBrite WXGA
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