Jonathan Bones
Sep 24th, 2009, 12:24 AM
My wife needs a multimedia laptop to serve as her primary computer. She's settled on a 14"-16", and favours Dell. (Though we'll certainly consider other manufacturers.) She'd like to do what I'd consider light gaming--Sims 3 is the most intense program she'll be running, and its system requirements are 2.0-2.4GHz P4-equivalent CPU, 1-1.5GB RAM, and a 128MB video card. We'd like to spend under $1,000, but I realize it's difficult to get decent mobile video performance for this price.
She originally wanted an Inspiron 15, but their video cards top out with the Radeon 4330, and according to notebookcheck.net, it would only be reliable for running Sims 3 at low settings. The Studio 15, on the other hand, can run the 4570, which should be acceptable at higher settings.
Question #1: Is there anywhere in Richmond Hill that she can walk into a store and look at a Studio 15? We're planning to buy it online unless we find a better deal, but she'd love a chance to see the body in person and all we've seen at FS/BB and Staples is the Inspiron, I believe. (Studio wasn't on our map before today, but it's not listed on FS/BB/Staples' sites.)
Question #2: Price-wise, can we do any better for this calibre of machine? (Studio will probably wind up a hair over $1,000.)
Specific customization questions:
a) Processor - Options start with Pentium Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache), but we'll upgrade to Core 2 Duo T6500 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache) for $70 more. For another $50 on top of that, they have the P7350 (2.0GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache). Is it at all worth it?
b) Display - Default is 720p. 900p is $60 more, 1080p is $90 more. Higher resolution is obviously better, so I'm tempted to upgrade to at least 900p. What about 1080p, though--can you even get that on a 15.6"? Or is it some kind of output-only resolution?
c) RAM - How much is enough? To go from 3GB to 4GB is $50. Not a bad deal, but unless it's going to tremendously benefit performance, I don't see the point.
d) Video Card - Double the video memory to 512MB for $100. Considering that the thing is mediocre at best for gaming anyway, is there any point? I figure the bottleneck won't be video RAM.
Thanks so much!
She originally wanted an Inspiron 15, but their video cards top out with the Radeon 4330, and according to notebookcheck.net, it would only be reliable for running Sims 3 at low settings. The Studio 15, on the other hand, can run the 4570, which should be acceptable at higher settings.
Question #1: Is there anywhere in Richmond Hill that she can walk into a store and look at a Studio 15? We're planning to buy it online unless we find a better deal, but she'd love a chance to see the body in person and all we've seen at FS/BB and Staples is the Inspiron, I believe. (Studio wasn't on our map before today, but it's not listed on FS/BB/Staples' sites.)
Question #2: Price-wise, can we do any better for this calibre of machine? (Studio will probably wind up a hair over $1,000.)
Specific customization questions:
a) Processor - Options start with Pentium Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache), but we'll upgrade to Core 2 Duo T6500 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache) for $70 more. For another $50 on top of that, they have the P7350 (2.0GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache). Is it at all worth it?
b) Display - Default is 720p. 900p is $60 more, 1080p is $90 more. Higher resolution is obviously better, so I'm tempted to upgrade to at least 900p. What about 1080p, though--can you even get that on a 15.6"? Or is it some kind of output-only resolution?
c) RAM - How much is enough? To go from 3GB to 4GB is $50. Not a bad deal, but unless it's going to tremendously benefit performance, I don't see the point.
d) Video Card - Double the video memory to 512MB for $100. Considering that the thing is mediocre at best for gaming anyway, is there any point? I figure the bottleneck won't be video RAM.
Thanks so much!