Need to choose: Inspiron 13 or 1420??

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Soapy5

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
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Ok, after a bit of researching, ive come up with two configurations:

Inspiron 13:

1280x800 res.
core 2 duo T8300 (2.4GHz, 800Mhz fsb/3mb cache)
intergrated intel media accelerator x3100
4 gb ram (from newegg)
320gb 7200 rpm hdd (from newegg)

from reviews:
~4 hr battery life with max screen brightness
noisy slot load dvd drive
~4 lb

total cost
$1080

Inspiron 1420:

1440x900 res
core 2 duo T8300 (2.4GHz, 800Mhz fsb/3mb cache)
dedicated nvidia 128mb geforce 8400M GS
4 gb ram (from newegg)
320gb 7200 rpm hdd (from newegg)

from reviews:
~2 hr battery life with medium screen brightness
(~3.8 hr batt life with a 9-cell, but i'm not interested)
~5.4 lb

total cost
$1077

so here is my dillema. I'd easily go for the Inspiron 13, but the fact that there was no option for a dedicated graphics card is a HUGE drawback for me. However, the battery life and portability (and looks) is whats keeping me interested. the 1420 imo trades portability and batt life for the oh-so important dedicated videocard. although i'll have my laptop connected to the wall most of the time, but whats going to get me is when i use it outdoors or in a car; esp when i slap on that 7200 rpm drive....

so my main question is, how good (or bad) is the dedicated card? I do plan on gaming on it every now and then, plus i would like to be able to use some graphic-intensive software such as solidworks, catia, etc for school and work.

so, how does the integrated card and dedicated card compare to:
a)gaming
b)graphics software
c)general stuff such as flash on the internet

reviews im basing my info off of:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4566
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3881
 
I bought a 1318 from BB yesterday... Mine has the 2.0ghz C2D, 3gb, 250gb, 9-cell battery for 699.00 +tax. Seems to be just fine for flash and general internet. I loaded up City of Heroes today, and it plays "OK". Not great, but playable with graphics setting in the mid range.

On the other hand, it's nice and small.
 
X3100 is not a great chip for gaming. While it might work at low res. I do not recommend it for gaming or intense graphic design work. It is similar to mbp vs mb. after using motherboards with intergated graphics I will say that they seem to get slower overtime...it might seem fast, but that CPU gets bogged down with graphics sound and everything else. I do not recommend it.
Over all, its 1.4lbs, and 1" bigger. You get a nicer screen size, and if you really want more unplugged time, buy the upgrade battery down the road.
 
Just a suggestion, but to save battery you could always consider getting a 5400rpm hard drive instead, but one of the newer WD 320gb ones, they're pretty similar performance-wise to the 7200rpm ones.

With all that said, I would probably go for the 14" because of the higher resolution, 1280x800 is pretty small IMO, dedicated video, and if you wanted... 9-cell.
 
Have you checked out the Lenovo T400?:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4569

9 hour battery life and the ability to switch between dedicated and integrated graphics whenever you want. Only problem is that it uses expensive DDR3 RAM.

A) The 8400GS is way better.
B) What graphics software are you talking about?
C) Both will provide the same experience
 
alright, I went ahead and bought the 1420; but holy crap, that T400 is looking really nice... (in a specs sort of way, cause damn, that's one ugly laptop...)

by graphics software i mean stuff like solid works, pro engineer, photoshop, and maybe even matlab (although i'd think it would be more of a cpu intensive program)

EDIT: any big advantage to DDR3 that would warrant such a high price? (obviously its faster, but is it worth it?)
also: hell, if i find some coupons for the T400 to bring it down to around $1100 with the same specs, id seriously consider canceling my dell....
 
Soapy5 said:
alright, I went ahead and bought the 1420; but holy crap, that T400 is looking really nice... (in a specs sort of way, cause damn, that's one ugly laptop...)

by graphics software i mean stuff like solid works, pro engineer, photoshop, and maybe even matlab (although i'd think it would be more of a cpu intensive program)

EDIT: any big advantage to DDR3 that would warrant such a high price? (obviously its faster, but is it worth it?)
also: hell, if i find some coupons for the T400 to bring it down to around $1100 with the same specs, id seriously consider canceling my dell....
Click to expand...

Try this:
www.Lenovo.com/cpp
enter
704919

I haven't tried this but its really temping.
 
holy crap, you just sealed the deal for me. Im canceling my dell tomorrow!!!
 
Soapy5 said:
holy crap, you just sealed the deal for me. Im canceling my dell tomorrow!!!
Click to expand...

It worked?

oh and DDR3 does use less energy than DDR2 RAM but not that much less (1.5V for DDR3 VS 1.8V for DDR2). Not really worth it.
 
--i missed that discount code by 12 minutes...

but about the thinkpad, I would've gone through with it, but my order from newegg just happed to ship, and if i had gone with the thinkpad i would have needed to return the ram for a pair of ddr3 sticks and thats too much trouble....
 
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