Powerful Notebook

[Magister Lajciak]

My sister is currently in the U.S. for one trimester and her laptop has suffered a catastrophic malfunction, so she will be getting a new one, which needs to be powerful - she likes gaming, multitasking, music, films, etcetera. I am supposed to make sure it is of such nature and will remain good for this for as long as possible.

 

Based on previous advice on this site, I have turned to Dell. The Inspiron 1720 with pretty much maxed out specs seems pretty amazing and should do the trick for her, but it is still best to ask:

 

The laptop has two SATA 320GB hard drives for a total of 640GB of space. This is almost unimaginable to me on a laptop, so I smell a trick - perhaps one of the hard discs is external?

 

Is 5400rpm for the hard drives a good speed? I don't know what the standard speeds are.

 

Is the graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB RAM) a good graphics card for notebooks?

 

If she gets also the Blu-Ray Drive (I presume it is also a burner)... are these reliable? The technology is still new... Also, can a Blu-Ray burner burn dual layer (and multi layer, when they come) Blu-ray discs?

 

There are three options for sound, from cheapest to most expensive:

 

High Definition Audio 2.0

Integrated Sound Blaster

[Kaftan Barlast]

I can give you two of the answers

 

 

1. 5400RPM is standard for laptop hardrives, you can go with 7200 but they will wear out fast, within 1-2 years.

 

2. You should get a card with 512mb of RAM since modern games really need the space

[Fionavar]

If you are going with a Dell - look at the 1730, fwiiw.

 

DO NOT get the creative software.

 

Which OS? Kaftan is right more RAM the better. I would put in no less than 2GB (if Vista 4GB). RPM HDD - again Kaftan is right - the 7200 is what you want.

 

I currently have a 1710 - brilliant investment!

 

Hope this helps.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Go with the Vostro line -I would go with the 1700 0r 1500-, it's the same build but much cheaper. Also, you can slave extra RAM to the 8600 and increase the size of the VRAM - I'm running over a gig of it at the moment.

[mkreku]

The 8600M is a pretty decent GPU, but it's not especially future proof (not that any GPU's really are..). If she has a lot of money to spend, I could recommend the ROCK brand of laptops. The ROCK Xtreme 770 (ignore the cheesy name) with the 8800M GTX 512 MB is a safer bet for at least a few years to come.

 

http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php...me=XTREME%20770

 

That's like a $3000-$4000 laptop though..

[Magister Lajciak]

I can give you two of the answers

 

 

1. 5400RPM is standard for laptop hardrives, you can go with 7200 but they will wear out fast, within 1-2 years.

 

I did not realize that the faster drives wear out so fast. This is very important for me to know, since the laptop is supposed to last her a long time. 5400RPM HDDs it is than, despite the fact that they are slower. Thanks!

 

2. You should get a card with 512mb of RAM since modern games really need the space

 

Hmm, I just checked and the option for that amount of RAM for the graphics card does not seem to be available.

[Magister Lajciak]

If you are going with a Dell - look at the 1730, fwiiw.

 

I cannot find it. It does not seem to be on the Dell website.

 

DO NOT get the creative software.

 

Agreed - I hate software bloat.

 

Which OS?

 

The only available options are Windows Vista. This is probably not so great, because Vista supposedly still has serious stability issues and is not great at backward compatibility with many games.

 

Kaftan is right more RAM the better. I would put in no less than 2GB (if Vista 4GB).

 

Kaftan was talking about the RAM of a graphics card. As for normal RAM, the laptop has 4GB.

 

RPM HDD - again Kaftan is right - the 7200 is what you want.

 

In this case, durability matters more. The laptop needs to last a while.

 

I currently have a 1710 - brilliant investment!

 

Good to know - I have heard good things about Dell, but this will be the first time anybody I know personally will actually get a notebook from Dell.

 

Thanks!

[Magister Lajciak]

Go with the Vostro line -I would go with the 1700 0r 1500-, it's the same build but much cheaper. Also, you can slave extra RAM to the 8600 and increase the size of the VRAM - I'm running over a gig of it at the moment.

 

The Vostro line is nice, but it does not offer some of the things she finds desirable (such as Blu-Ray, HD Screen...).

 

The 8600M is a pretty decent GPU, but it's not especially future proof (not that any GPU's really are..). If she has a lot of money to spend, I could recommend the ROCK brand of laptops. The ROCK Xtreme 770 (ignore the cheesy name) with the 8800M GTX 512 MB is a safer bet for at least a few years to come.

 

http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php...me=XTREME%20770

 

That's like a $3000-$4000 laptop though..

 

$3000-$4000 is too much. The price for her laptop should probably be in the vicinity of $2000, perhaps $2500 if $2000 proves insufficient.

 

P.S. Any idea on the hard drives - are they both internal?

[Deadly_Nightshade]

You could get an Alienware notebook for that price - you might want to consider that.

Linky

Edited April 2, 2008 by Deadly_Nightshade

[taks]

vista is pretty stable for me and i push its limits. i don't run any games on my laptop, however (only 12.1").

 

7200 vs. 5400: it's a mechanical wear and tear issue. laptop drives are smaller than desktops so a higher spindle speed makes it harder to get the same durability (plus, the 7200 will run hotter). the difference in speed shouldn't be noticeable (you're probably limited by the SATA or whatever interface more than the spindle speed of the drive).

 

taks

[mkreku]

the difference in speed shouldn't be noticeable (you're probably limited by the SATA or whatever interface more than the spindle speed of the drive).

There is actually a noticeable difference in speed between 5400 and 7200 on a laptop. Around 25% difference in fact (naturally depending on brand, application used, etc.) . Just that.. it doesn't really matter to most people since if a game takes 20 seconds to load on a 7200, it takes 25 seconds on a 5400 (worst case scenario).. Not a big deal for most people. The biggest difference between a 5400 and a 7200 is power consumption and heat dissipation.

 

I have never heard that a laptop 7200 hard drive wear out quicker than a 5400 argument before so I'll not comment on that part.

[taks]

simple mechanical issue on wear and tear. desktop HDDs are bigger and more durable, and most people chuck them and upgrade before the mechanical issues become apparent (the 7200s probably wear out faster on desktops, too, it's just not a big deal if the 7200 wears out in 4 years instead of 5 for the 5400, for example). i'm on my first laptop and i think it has a 5400 so i probably won't be able to make any judgments based on experience alone. as i recall, the 10000 rpm SCSI desktop drives did wear out noticeably quicker, but it's been a looong while since i read about them.

 

Just that.. it doesn't really matter to most people since if a game takes 20 seconds to load on a 7200, it takes 25 seconds on a 5400 (worst case scenario).. Not a big deal for most people.

that's really what i was getting at... that and the whole application dependent thing. when you're using word or something you won't see any difference. i am surprised that there would be much of a difference at all, however, if you assume the same interface (i.e. 1.5 Gb/s SATA).

 

taks

[walkerguy]

 

Sorry, had to add

Edited April 2, 2008 by walkerguy

[Magister Lajciak]

vista is pretty stable for me and i push its limits.

 

This is important to know - I was worried that there might still be stability issues with Vista.

 

i don't run any games on my laptop, however (only 12.1").

 

Yeah, she does plan to use the laptop for gaming, so backwards compatibility with older games does matter.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I've had more problems with newer drivers on both XP and Vista, than with Vista itself when it came to compatibility.

[Magister Lajciak]

I will bear that in mind about the drivers. On the other hand, few computers these days are offered with Windows XP anyway, so it's not as if she has choice in the matter...