New Laptop for the Div: HELP!!!

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?

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

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

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I dunno. How do I find that out?

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.

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.

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
Part 2

[edit]

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

The Mobile Graphics Card Info Page

And here's a neat graphic that ranks the cards, although I'm sure one could quibble with the choices. Still useful.

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

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!