Laptop Help

I'm trying to buy a laptop unfortunately nowadays you get the onboard Intel graphics nonsense.

I've seen this Sony Vaio for £798 probably being able to get it for around £650

It has a 8400M GT, I've been looking at laptops with an 8600 but they are simply out of my price range. I'm basically looking at it to run Guild Wars (and 2 when it comes out) and WOW, but I may want to play more games in the future and thats the problem plus the CPU only has 2mb cache.

Crux is I've also found a Dell for £729 (DELIVERY CHARGE FUCKING £60) which does have the 8600M GT but I want quality which is why I'm not sure of Dell.

DELL:

Spoiler:

Components
BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2-cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return edit
COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish without camera edit
LCD 15.4" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife™ edit
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr

SONY

Spoiler:

Accessories Included AC Adapter, Battery & Power Cord
Audio Features Yes
Bluetooth No
Box Contents PC & Accessories
Brand Sony
Built-in Webcam Yes
Card Reader Yes
Firewire No
Graphics NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GT
Hard Drive 120GB (hybrid 5400)
Hard Drive Size 160Gb
Laptop Colour Silver
Memory Size 2Gb
Memory Type 2x 1Gb
Number of USB Ports 3
Operating System Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Optical Drive DVD Dual Layer Rewriter
Output VGA
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo (T7250)
Processor Bus 800
Processor Cache 2048 Advanced Smart Cache
Processor Model Number T7250 Mobile Intel PM965 Express Chipset
Processor Speed 2GHz
Product Depth 25.4 cm
Product Height 3.45 cm
Product Range Computing Hardware
Product Sub Category Laptops
Product Weight 2.8Kg
Product Width 35.6 cm
Remote Control Included No
Screen Size 15.4"
Screen Type X-black LCD
Software Load VAIO Music Box, Windows Media Player 11, SonicStage Mastering Studio 2.4, Adobe Premiere Elements 3, VAIO Content Importer / Exporter, WinDVD BD 8.0 for VAIO, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5, Google Picasa, Easy Media creator 9, Click to DVD 2.6, Adobe® Reader® 8.1, Adobe Standard 8, Microsoft® Works 8.5, Microsoft® Office Trial 2007 (60 days Try & Buy), Norton 360 (with 60days free virus updates), VAIO Recovery Utility - HDD recovery (hidden partition), Skype, Google software package
TV Tuner No
Wi-Fi Yes

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Which one should I choose; the Sony is almost £100 cheaper but the Dell has better specs (T7500 4mb and 8600GT), am I stood to gain alot by choosing the custom Dell? ( Its bigger and I'm not sure about quality)

I don't game much I just want it to be able to run Guild Wars 2 when it comes out.

I'd love to hear from someone who has the newer Dell 1520 inspiron laptops.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Problem is if I'm spending so much money I would rather get the laptop with the better specs but as you so point out I'm not sure of the quality of Dell, it would be nice of you could actually point out what problems you had with them.

The Dell costs £729 the equivalent Sony would cost £1,100 in terms of specs but each has its pros and cons. Heres a link to that SONY The Dell is the inspiron 1520.

DELL

Pros: Cheap, Better specs 8600M GT, screen has better resolution, processor has 4MB of cache which is better than 2MB on the sony)

Cons: more expensive by £100, heavy, does not look as nice, not sure of quality, 8600GT only has DDR2 and not DDR3 memory.

SONY

Pros: Light, beautifully crafted, the screen is amazing, cheaper than the Dell.

Cons: HDMI is useless without a Bluray drive, processor only has 2mb cache, 8400M GT, repairs cost a bomb.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Deciding go for the Dell found out the sony's 8400m GT only has 64mb memory dedicated for it.

Instead of inspiron I've seen an XPS 1530 beautiful, slim and the same price and specs as the inspiron. (If i buy from small business section)




Only 1 problem it has a resolution of 1200 x 800 with no option of higher resolution, (but it is superbly clear). Can someone tell me will that be totally shite or shall i go for the inspiron which has 1440 x 900 on a 15.4" screen.

So does 1280 x 800 really look that bad compared to 1440 x 900 on a 15.4" screen. This goes out to the general population of GFF.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Unfortunately you can't buy the Dell in the shops, only online from Dell.

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Sadly yes in the UK you can only get a Dell online.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well on building up my XPS M1530 its about £829 (£100 off if you order before the 19th)

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System


For both the Asus and the PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK if you want to game the 8600m GT is only clocked to 400mhz and has only DDR2 memory.

Whereas for example of the XPS it is clocked to 700mhz and has DDR3 memory even though it only has 256mb dedicated it is a better choice. On the other hand if you don't care the Asus is great value however I've heard alot of problems with it plus it has a huge fan sticking out the back which is noisy. The only thing I'm mulling over is the resolution I still have 3 days to decide.

FELIPE NO

Problem is it will cost you alot to buy the gpu wouldn't you rather just get the DDR3 version when you buy the laptop? I want a laptop pre customised; not buy it then spend another £250 upgrading it thats £1000.

My main gripe is that noisy ass fan vent that sticks an inch out of the back because it has cooling issues.

Also if you do a search on that site you will find one C90s user who after 4 months has bits falling off his c90s a few also said the same; alot of people have had various problems so thats why I'm gonna pass. The same thing put me off the Dell inspiron 1520.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

From what I've read you can only go up to 3GB of RAM otherwise the C90s doesn't turn on with a battery and that it will only currently accept dual core.

What budget are you on because if you buy it and replace the parts the price goes up big time. You could buy a barebone but the problem then is to find suppliers for all the parts and then even more so those pesky drivers.

Being £80 cheaper with WXGA+ it is tempting though.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hopefully order it tonight.

I don't believe that, from what I've been told it gets hot and noisy. Check out some sites to see if they have modded it, I'm sure somebody has so its smaller and quieter, looks easy enough to.

Check out the 4 fans which stick out an inch from the back: i.techrepublic.com.com/gallery/170358-500-344.jpg



EDIT: If you order over the phone you get the 1440x900 screen and the guy gave me another £50 off after I pleaded with him I'm a student, THATS £859 DELIVERED. W0000000000000000000000000000T!. Est time of delivery before 15th January.

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