Here are two identically-priced Dells and I don't know which one to pick...

#1: Inspiron 1501
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL56
2GB 533MHz RAM
ATi Xpress 1150 256Mb HyperMemory
160GB SATA HD

#2: Inspiron 1521
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL56
1GB 667Mhz RAM
Ati Xpress 1270 HyperMemory
120GB SATA HD

I need a laptop mainly for 3D modelling, Photoshop, Sony Vegas and possibly the odd bit of LFS/OutRun 2006/GP4.

So, will a laptop with more RAM and a slightly lower-end graphics card out-perform a laptop with less (but faster) RAM and a slightly better graphics card?

Uhhhh... how much do you plan on spending?

I got an Inspiron E1705

Vista
Dual core 2.0 GHz core 2 duo
Ati Mobility Radion X1400 (894MB [1GB])
2GB 667MHz RAM

All laptops and computers come with SATA hard drives now.

You really need a lot of ram, a good graphics card, and a fast processor, you can't have just one of those and expect to do 3D work.
I'm not an AMD fan, so I'm not sure how well compared the core 2 duo and that AMD card are, but a quick search in google shows they are comparable, so that is good.

This isn't really a give and take situation if you really think you're going to do stuff in 3D, 3D is an ALL give, you don't give, you won't get, when I get the money I'm going to upgrade my ATi card to the Nvidia 7600 GS thing, which has almost twice the power of this ATi card, and at times this ATi card is quite sluggish.

Also, I will tell you, both of those inspirons are 15 inches (can tell by name incase you didn't notice), I can tell you that you might not be pleased with 15 inches if you're serious about 3D work, because everyone that works with 3D knows that bigger.. IS better, and I've seen a 15" latitude next to mine, and I can't imagine how I would have worked on one if I did get it.

The laptops are both £539, which is the absolute limit of my spending. The Inspiron E1705 seems to be at least £1300.

Right now I have a Celeron 1.6, Intel GMA 915 and 512MB RAM and Vegas is OK (even if render time is long, which doesn't bother me), 3DSMax is OK with LFS cars (again, long render times) but I'll need something more soon. I don't need a 'gaming' laptop, just one that is noticeably better than what I have now.

As for the screen size, 15.4" wide is enough as it has to be portable.

I'm leaning towards the Inspiron 1501 as it has more RAM and the graphics card is in the same class as the Inspiron 1521.

You realize you can modify them right?

I got my E1705 for only $1056, which is £519.

Quote from XCNuse :

You realize you can modify them right?

No, i don't, unless you count MMX as modifying them, where only OEM's carry the cards and they want to charge £250 for the card and £100 for installation.

It's nowhere near as simple as ripping it out and stuffing a new one in, on 95% of laptops it's impossible, and on the 5% it's utterly impractical.

Nuse, you should know things are more expensive in the UK - you got yours in a sale, with rebate etc, we just don't get those good deals - PS3 in the US is what... $600 atm? thats £250-odd. The UK? £450

I mean modify as in.. make your own at Dell.com

You can modify them at home yes, is it easy? no, definitely not, but it's still possible, I'm just saying is that he's putting up the offers dell has, but you can change them to whatever you please.

Those ones are customized- the best I can afford of the limited options Dell offer on them.

Sooo... Should I choose the 1501 with more RAM and a lower-end but same class of graphics chip instead of less RAM and a slightly better gfx chip?

i have got an idea why don't XCnuse buy the 1705 from here since it's a lot cheaper than U.K and ship it to you and you pay him 519 pounds plus shipping that way everybody is happy

Keep in mind its the computer core that is doing all of processing during rendering.
Also keep in mind you need a good graphics card to be able to see what you're doing in 3d while working on it, a bad graphics card will make it jumpy and slow and you deffinitely dont want that.
Thirdly, ram helps, and if your laptop is going to have Vista on it, 2GB or more is seriously a MUST.

Just had a look at the Dell.uk website, even the US one has completely changed, I just say, look around google for some coupons, you can really save a lot of money if you find good dell coupons, I saved 500$ on this laptop by looking for coupons.

And I tell you what, I'm glad I got this laptop when I did, because those new dells are... they look like cheap plastic toys, they're too round and just.. gaudy.

Quote :

f your laptop is going to have Vista on it, 2GB or more is seriously a MUST.

Agreed. I'm running Vista Ultimate on my current laptop and it's slow as anything at times with 512MB RAM and no Aero.

I'm going to go for the 1501 I think, I don't want the 1521- the 1521's webcam and slight improvement in graphics doesn't seem worth losing 1GB of RAM.

Thanks guys

EDIT: The ATI 1150 and 1270 actually use the same graphics chip, so I'm definitely choosing the Inspiron 1501.

Also you could get bit faster gfx version and later upgrade more ram into it when you get more cash again, much easier than upgrading gfx

The 1150 and 1270 offer comparable performance- the 1270 only has a small advantage in DX9 stuff, which I don't plan to use.

And another GB of RAM for a laptop costs £110.

Quote from TiJay :

The 1150 and 1270 offer comparable performance- the 1270 only has a small advantage in DX9 stuff, which I don't plan to use.

And another GB of RAM for a laptop costs £110.

That sounds rather expensive, you sure that is Kingston price and not Dell price?

TiJay, look on dell outlet, and also shops like this for refurbished items. You can save a LOT of money and I've never seen any more/less problems with them than new items.

edit: specifically this one

1 Year RTB Warranty

Dell Latitude D620 Laptop.

Specification:

Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0ghz CPU
2048 Mb RAM
80Gb Hard disk
14" Wide XGA Screen (1280 by 800)
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M Video
DVD-RW Drive
Wireless Network (Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG)

£495 ex. vat tbf, and only 14", but good CPU, ram and video for 3D applications.

I wouldn't trust refurbished laptops, because of the main rule of thumb when it is refurbished; you don't know how long it has been used.

That is like what dell does, selling refurbished batteries (wtf?) those aren't worth buying at all, and trust me, no point in having more than one battery unless you switch them back and forth, mainly because a battery only has a specific life time, and over time even if you do put them in the fridge etc. and don't use them, they will lose capacity, even when stored at 40%.

I have a feeling the shell of my laptop is refurbished, because it has this quite large cut right below where my left wrist is, it isn't pretty.

When it comes to technology, refurbished is not a highly suggested way, unless its a peice of machinery that goes through strict standards to ensure it is as capable as a new machine, and when I mean machine, I mean you should only buy refurbished things which cost over 10,000$, anything cheaper you get into a danger zone of just plain used.

Bollocks.

Dells are unlikely to be trashed in their lifetime. Sure maybe the battery has lost some charge, but I get the impression you dont move your 17" about much anyway, and even if you do its unlikely you'll need to use hte full battery charge.

Standard Dell bios's dont allow for overclocking for example, so buying a refurbished Dell is hardly a worry. I imagine most Dell's just sit in offices humming away all day long.

We have a Dell outlet PC in our house, Core 2 Duo bought not long after they were released, so you know for a FACT it isn't very old. Not a scratch on it. No issues at all. Oh and we saved around £300 on it.

Actually you're wrong, the XPS 1710 has a factor installed overclock capability if you have it plugged into the wall, all you have to do is reboot, and hold F2, and go into the BIOS and choose overclock, and you can change .. well anything you want really.

As I'm sitting at home, no I haven't had to move it around, I move it around all the time up in our mountain house, but no need to move it here at home, since I have nowhere to go with it except maybe downstairs. As far as battery use, I use it like I'm supposed to, charge, discharge, rinse repeate to keep maximum battery life, or atleast it has worked on my phone the last three years, and I have the longest battery life in my family, as it still lasts well over a week without a recharge.

@Tijay, I forgot to mention this in my last post, but you should have a look at the dell small business offers, in small business, incase you're worried about the problems of vista, you can choose in small business to use XP has the OS, meaning you won't need a massive HD to store all of vista's .. stuff, and sometimes in small business you can get better deals etc.

I know that but for the sake of this conversation I didn't feel it necessary to mention the XPS as TiJay isn't buying one. Its not relevant.

It's also worth nothing that small business has different, and better IIRC customer service, so another plus for that.

Well, I'm just suggesting it since you can get XP if you aren't ready for Vista yet.

True about XPS, but I'm sure some people have done it before.
I just wouldn't want to buy a worn and torn computer, because for all you know the hard drive could be done for, who knows.. there's so many possibilities, but you never know, you may be a lucky one.

Quote from XCNuse :

When it comes to technology, refurbished is not a highly suggested way

...i bought my Dell Axim x51v for £210, £140 under what it should be. I thought i'd got lucky because when i got it it was just like the retail, so much so i thought they'd sent me one! The only way i could tell was the "refurb" sticker inside the battery compartment.

Of course, the PDA sucks, but it sucks just as much as the new one, and sucks for £140 less :P

Quote from XCNuse :

Actually you're wrong, the XPS 1710 has a factor installed overclock capability if you have it plugged into the wall, all you have to do is reboot, and hold F2, and go into the BIOS and choose overclock, and you can change .. well anything you want really.

You can't change the FSB and the vCore from a few settings iirc, and Dell won't cover an overclocked laptop under warranty. But then Dell "specialize" in overclocked CPU's (*cough* recent n00by balls up when they suddenly learned different chips overclock different amounts *cough*), so of course they lock the options out of the desktops, and if you run a software OC'er like Clockgen the BIOS reboots the computer

</random bitch at Dell>

Quote :

And another GB of RAM for a laptop costs £110.

You're joking aren't you? I bought 1gb RAM for my laptop a month back and paid £35 for it brand new, there was lots available and it was the going rate everywhere i looked

If battery is refurbished there is new cells installed, now cells are battery packaging can't make it rubbish, so how refurbished battery could be rubbish? Just same way as new one can be

New or refurbished there is not lot of difference, but in some cases some wear can be seen in refurbished laptop, that is risk one must accept, also I don't know how warranty is in your contry, but here refurbished don't have as good warranty usually and you like from long warranty, 3 years is good, best to replace laptop when warranty is running out.

Thanks, those refurb ones look great! Only thing is, the prices don't include VAT...

I'll also have another look at small business laptops.

And yes, the RAM was at Dell prices.