New Laptop for the Div: HELP!!!

[Divinus Arma]

Okay, first of all I am certainly buying a Dell Notebook. I cannot get the value that I desie with any other brand. I just get more for my money especially since a relative of mine can get me a 10% discount off the top.

I am pretty solid on the Inspiron E1505 with the followng minimum Specs:

Processor: Core 2 Duo T7200 4MB Cache/2.0 GHz
Video Card: 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 Hyper memory
RAM: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ
Hard Drive: 120GB 5400 RPM

I am also looking at the XPS M1210 which has the following incrases;
Video Card: 256MB Nvidia GeForce GO 7400 Turbo Cache
RAM: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz

I just can't see why these increases will cost me an extra $600 or so.

Is the 256MB Radeon x1400 a decent enough card? should be good for M2TW and RTW modding, right? And is the increase in MHz worthwhile for the RAM?

[Papewaio]

Is the video card dedicated memory or partially shared with the system?

[Divinus Arma]

Is the video card dedicated memory or partially shared with the system?

I dunno. How do I find that out?

[Papewaio]

Looking at their website (the aus version) it seems that video cards are not easy to upgrade on a laptop and they are cagey about the details.

Essentially if you can avoid intergrated graphics.

The other option is go for a cheap laptop and put the rest aside for a PC... PCs you get twice the bang for your buck... but you do lose mobility, and if you are always on the move/away from home for long periods then a laptop is the way to go.

[Sigurd]

I am pretty sure the graphic card has dedicated memory...
I have a DELL Precision M65 with a nVidia Quadro FX card and it has dedicated memory (256MB) in addition it 'lends' 256 more from the system memory gaining a total of 512MB.

I definitly bought mine a few months early and didn't get the Core 2 Duo
My machine can run BF2 on full settings though and that is all that counts.

Oh.. try to get a 7200 rpm disc... my previous laptop (Latitude D600) had a 5400 rpm and it was the bottleneck in that machine.

[Lemur]

For what it's worth, I found a two-part guide to laptop graphics for ya, Div. It's a little old (2005), but a lot of the info is still useful.

Part 1 (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2526)
Part 2 (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2529)

[edit]

In more current reviews, I found a fairly up-to-date forum with laptop video card rankings:

The Mobile Graphics Card Info Page (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568)

And here's a neat graphic (http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4283&d=1162640218) that ranks the cards, although I'm sure one could quibble with the choices. Still useful.

[caravel]

Hyper Memory is not solely for laptop use but it does indicate shared memory. This type of graphics chip uses the main system ram.

[Divinus Arma]

I went with the 1505 Inspiron with the Radeon x1400 and to make up for it (since you could nt get a better card without jumping over $2,000), I went with 2GB of RAM and a 100GB 7200rpmmhz whatever hard drive. I also upgraded my screen to the best I could get.

Here is a summary:

Inspiron E1505 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB)

LCD Panel 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™

Memory 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM

Video Card 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™

Hard Drive 100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive


Does anyone see any problems I might have in running RTW at its highest settings? And do you think I should be able to play M2TW on reasonably high settings?


I appreciate all the advice guys. Thanks!