The Laptop Guide - Post here for questions, deals, etc.

[mootsfox]

Well I'm glad you said it runs Half Life 2 pretty well because I've been looking around at the card and everyone has said its kinda bad for that. I'm guessing since HL2 does fine so will CSS. I also got the 2.5 so I think that will make a big difference.

It will make a huge difference in FFXI. I'm sure you could get like 9,000 in the benchmark with that CPU.

People like to put down things they don't own, or can't afford to own. The 8600M GT is not that great of a card (neither is the 8600GT for desktop) but it will run any game, and you can turn the settings up pretty high for some games.

[Khamsin]

Some more questions:

Will there be any issues with a setup like:

Windows Vista Home 64-bit
Windows XP Home 32-bit (dual boot)
nVidia 8800GT
Intel T9300 2.5GHz
A couple RAID 0 HDs
4 GB RAM

Will XP have issues when I've booted up under that OS? Aside from only recognizing 3 GB instead of all 4, will it complain or not fully take advantage of anything?

And if I just go 32-bit all around, maybe 32-bit Vista Ultimate and 32-bit XP Home or something, and 3 GB memory, will I be missing out on anything?

Or even just Home vs Ultimate, for that matter.

[Cephius]

Some more questions:

Will there be any issues with a setup like:

Windows Vista Home 64-bit
Windows XP Home 32-bit (dual boot)
nVidia 8800GT
Intel T9300 2.5GHz
A couple RAID 0 HDs
4 GB RAM

Will XP have issues when I've booted up under that OS? Aside from only recognizing 3 GB instead of all 4, will it complain or not fully take advantage of anything?

And if I just go 32-bit all around, maybe 32-bit Vista Ultimate and 32-bit XP Home or something, and 3 GB memory, will I be missing out on anything?

Or even just Home vs Ultimate, for that matter.

XP shouldn't have any issues... though I'm always a bit wary of dual booting. In theory though there should be no issues. Just so you know Vista x64 has a problem when booting up with 4GB. If you're building this system, install the OS with 2GB, download all the hotfixes through windows update, then once everything's done install the other 2GB. Otherwise a lot of people complain of blue screens or vista installation not completing at all.

You won't be missing out on much by going 32-bit all around. If you're a hardcore PC gamer x64 is the way to go, and it seems to be a bit more stable and a tad quicker in general use. I'm sure you know you'll come across the odd driver issue in x64, as well as not being able to run older applications. Most things these days have 64 bit driver support or run perfectly fine under x64, so it's not as big an issue as it used to be.

I don't like that processor, I'd recommend the q6600 quad or the E8400 duo, both are proven good processors.

Personally Ultimate seems like a waste of money, Home Premium has all the features anyone would need, Ultimate just has the extras which are mostly pointless to me. I wouldn't use their data backup system as I have my own software, and everything else are just silly add-ons. My advice is to save some cash and go with Home Premium.

Finally, x32 deducts your GPU memory from your RAM total... so it's 3GB - 512MB from the 8800gt = 2.5GB available memory.

[mootsfox]

Some more questions:

Will there be any issues with a setup like:

Windows Vista Home 64-bit
Windows XP Home 32-bit (dual boot)
nVidia 8800GT
Intel T9300 2.5GHz
A couple RAID 0 HDs
4 GB RAM

Will XP have issues when I've booted up under that OS? Aside from only recognizing 3 GB instead of all 4, will it complain or not fully take advantage of anything?

And if I just go 32-bit all around, maybe 32-bit Vista Ultimate and 32-bit XP Home or something, and 3 GB memory, will I be missing out on anything?

Or even just Home vs Ultimate, for that matter.

XP shouldn't have any issues... though I'm always a bit wary of dual booting. In theory though there should be no issues. Just so you know Vista x64 has a problem when booting up with 4GB. If you're building this system, install the OS with 2GB, download all the hotfixes through windows update, then once everything's done install the other 2GB. Otherwise a lot of people complain of blue screens or vista installation not completing at all.

You won't be missing out on much by going 32-bit all around. If you're a hardcore PC gamer x64 is the way to go, and it seems to be a bit more stable and a tad quicker in general use. I'm sure you know you'll come across the odd driver issue in x64, as well as not being able to run older applications. Most things these days have 64 bit driver support or run perfectly fine under x64, so it's not as big an issue as it used to be.

I don't like that processor, I'd recommend the q6600 quad or the E8400 duo, both are proven good processors.

Personally Ultimate seems like a waste of money, Home Premium has all the features anyone would need, Ultimate just has the extras which are mostly pointless to me. I wouldn't use their data backup system as I have my own software, and everything else are just silly add-ons. My advice is to save some cash and go with Home Premium.

Finally, x32 deducts your GPU memory from your RAM total... so it's 3GB - 512MB from the 8800gt = 2.5GB available memory.

This is for a laptop remember, the Q6600 is not a choice (although it made it's way into laptops) and the T9300 is basically a E8400 at 2.5GHz instead of 3.0GHz.

[Cephius]

Ah yeah.. I guess when I see RAIDs it's hard for me to imagine it in a laptop... lol

[Shuemue]

Khamsin, source XP Pro 32bit over XP Home, I've found it a noticeable amount more stable.

[Stellar]

Would the Vostro $800-1000 play FFXI considerably better than the AMD/ATI 2400 toshiba I have, or just newer games? If it's that much better I might return this one and get a Vostro... Thanks..

[mootsfox]

Would the Vostro $800-1000 play FFXI considerably better than the AMD/ATI 2400 toshiba I have, or just newer games? If it's that much better I might return this one and get a Vostro... Thanks..

It would play it considerably better. I would guess that the Vostro would score about 9,000 on L for the benchmark about around 7,000 on H.

[Khamsin]

I decided to get the Dell XPS M1730, only with 400GB (7200rpm) RAID and 4 GB (there was no option for just 3).

Only, I ordered it with Vista. My plan is to just stick XP on there (it's cheaper, and I can order it with discount) myself if it turns out I need to.

I have the OEM XP disc and microsoft certificate thingy for my old computer which is getting trashed, pretty much. So morally, I could put that same XP on the new computer on dual boot... but would it complain when I try to authenticate it, since it's been authenticated before? Or will there be no problems? If I can do that, I won't even bother ordering a new XP.

Bright side, I got Office 2007 Enterprise for $20... legally. It's a "Home Use" employee benefit. I also get free home use of Sophos antivirus.

[mootsfox]

I decided to get the Dell XPS M1730, only with 400GB (7200rpm) RAID and 4 GB (there was no option for just 3).

Only, I ordered it with Vista. My plan is to just stick XP on there (it's cheaper, and I can order it with discount) myself if it turns out I need to.

I have the OEM XP disc and microsoft certificate thingy for my old computer which is getting trashed, pretty much. So morally, I could put that same XP on the new computer on dual boot... but would it complain when I try to authenticate it, since it's been authenticated before? Or will there be no problems? If I can do that, I won't even bother ordering a new XP.

Bright side, I got Office 2007 Enterprise for $20... legally. It's a "Home Use" employee benefit.

OEM copies are for one computer. If it came with a desktop, it's tied in a sense to that computer, and there is no way to untie it.

Not like Windows has ever been hard to pirate though...

When you get your laptop, be sure to post pictures and/or a small review

[Khamsin]

I decided to get the Dell XPS M1730, only with 400GB (7200rpm) RAID and 4 GB (there was no option for just 3).

Only, I ordered it with Vista. My plan is to just stick XP on there (it's cheaper, and I can order it with discount) myself if it turns out I need to.

I have the OEM XP disc and microsoft certificate thingy for my old computer which is getting trashed, pretty much. So morally, I could put that same XP on the new computer on dual boot... but would it complain when I try to authenticate it, since it's been authenticated before? Or will there be no problems? If I can do that, I won't even bother ordering a new XP.

Bright side, I got Office 2007 Enterprise for $20... legally. It's a "Home Use" employee benefit.

OEM copies are for one computer. If it came with a desktop, it's tied in a sense to that computer, and there is no way to untie it.

Not like Windows has ever been hard to pirate though...

When you get your laptop, be sure to post pictures and/or a small review

Looks like a regular XP CD, though. My old computer (actually a desktop) isn't traditionally branded, either. I wouldn't be surprised if they just put a normal copy of XP on it, and sent me the disc and certificate for it. Is there a way to tell whether it's tied to that computer or not?

I built my computer before last myself, but my last one I just said screw it and ordered it from an off-brand place that puts together semi-custom computers ("custom" in that they made it, and it uses normal parts that anyone could get with no propietary software or hardware, but I ordered a pre-configured one since it had exactly what I would have put in it). I never had any problems with it, except for when the power supply went dead. I took it out and sent it in for replacement, and they sent me back a higher wattage one for free. The other nice thing about it is they don't void your warranty for working on your own computer. The only catch is, if you fuck it up because of something you did, it's not covered.

As for pics, here's a review of a slightly different configuration, and preliminary pics of the model: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4085

[Cephius]

OEM copies are tied to the motherboard that it's installed. Usually if you install it on a computer that has a different motherboard.. it won't work.

I've found exceptions to this though. The first is when I moved a copy of Vista from my laptop to my Dell desktop. It installed fine, and when I went to activate it all the Microsoft rep on the phone asked me was how many computers its installed on. I said one, he gave me the code, and it was all good.

You can do a similiar thing by installing XP on your new laptop, calling up Microsoft and claiming you suffered a hard drive crash and need to reinstall. This will get you a activation code like 90% of the time. If you don't.... hang up and call again. I bet you anything eventually you'll get someone who will give you a activation number. Is it legal? Yes. Is it moral... who's to say. Are you willing to take advantage of Microsoft reps breaking their own rules? thats up to you.

[Khamsin]

OEM copies are tied to the motherboard that it's installed. Usually if you install it on a computer that has a different motherboard.. it won't work.

I've found exceptions to this though. The first is when I moved a copy of Vista from my laptop to my Dell desktop. It installed fine, and when I went to activate it all the Microsoft rep on the phone asked me was how many computers its installed on. I said one, he gave me the code, and it was all good.

You can do a similiar thing by installing XP on your new laptop, calling up Microsoft and claiming you suffered a hard drive crash and need to reinstall. This will get you a activation code like 90% of the time. If you don't.... hang up and call again. I bet you anything eventually you'll get someone who will give you a activation number. Is it legal? Yes. Is it moral... who's to say. Are you willing to take advantage of Microsoft reps breaking their own rules? thats up to you.

Well, OEM might have been the wrong word. It's been a while. Is there a way to tell if it is OEM, or just a regular XP CD? Like I said, it seems equally likely either way, as it's not a Dell or HP or anything. It's just a place that puts together computers with normal parts and ships them to you.

[Isiolia]

Usually it'll say on the license agreement/sticker if you have that.

Technically speaking, whether it's a Dell branded only-installs-on-Dells or an OEM copy you bought from Newegg, the license only allows it to be installed on one computer. Ever.

There have been exceptions made I guess, but the whole reason that the copy is less expensive in the first place is due to that. It won't activate on another machine, even if the old one is gone. MS can override it I guess, but there are also cases (even on MS's support forums) where people point out that they generally don't. It's meant to be a copy of Windows sold with a particular computer for use on that computer only.

[Khamsin]

Usually it'll say on the license agreement/sticker if you have that.

Technically speaking, whether it's a Dell branded only-installs-on-Dells or an OEM copy you bought from Newegg, the license only allows it to be installed on one computer. Ever.

There have been exceptions made I guess, but the whole reason that the copy is less expensive in the first place is due to that. It won't activate on another machine, even if the old one is gone. MS can override it I guess, but there are also cases (even on MS's support forums) where people point out that they generally don't. It's meant to be a copy of Windows sold with a particular computer for use on that computer only.

Well, I'll check the CD/envelope-brochure thingy, and certificate and see if either says anything about it. Otherwise I'll have to just buy another copy. Although the product available for XP Pro through the employee purchase program is "Version Upgrade", so I may have to get XP Pro in a store, or settle for XP Home for $64. Or try calling MS for a new code. Can I do that before actually installing it to see if it'll work, and use the code they give me later when I do install it? lol

[mootsfox]

That XPS uses the same casing as the Vostro 1700 Good thing it's solid and sleek. Plus you get the LEDs (which I am going to mod into my 1500 one day).

You could try your copy of Windows. It may work. OEMs from someone like HP won't work on another computer since it's actually tied to the hardware.

[Stellar]

Sorry, couple more quick nub questions.. What exactly is the difference in SXGA and XGA? Does it look better or is it just an anti-reflection type thing?

Also, since these laptops come with XP, will that avoid the Nvidia driver nightmare that so many people seem to have?

And Finally.. What does Hard Drive speed do? What advantage is 7200 over 5400? Just general application speed?

Thanks again...

(Also, I'm thinking about going T8100 processor to try and get it as cheap as possible, bit with the 8600 GT card... Would you highly recommend otherwise, or is that a decent option?)

[Royal]

Woot my laptop came in, going to go pick it up now, and buy a headset/fan thing for it also. Will write a review on it after I use it for about a day or two.

[Royal]

Not really a review but, THIS LAPTOP IS AMAZING. Runs everything highest graphics amazingly. 180 counterstrike and what not. I love it. Thank you for suggesting this moots!

[mootsfox]

Not really a review but, THIS LAPTOP IS AMAZING. Runs everything highest graphics amazingly. 180 counterstrike and what not. I love it. Thank you for suggesting this moots!

Glad you like it :D