Dell Inspiron 8500? Good or Bad?

[Ghosthunter]

Inspiron 8500: FREE WSXGA+ Display Upgrade! Mobile Pentium® 4,2.0GHz,15.4 WSXGA+ LD20NHP [462-0364]
Memory: 512MB,DDR,266MHz 2 Dimms 512MB2D [311-2149]
Video Card: 64MB DDR NVIDIA® GeForce™ 4 4200 Go AGP 4X Graphics NV2864 [320-0637]
Hard Drives: 30GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive 30GB [340-7277]
Operating Systems: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional¹², WPXP [313-1423] [412-0311] [420-2578]
Integrated Nic And Modem: Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem INTNIC [430-0493]
Modular Internal CD/DVD Drives: FREE 24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive Upgrade! (from DVD) 24COMBH [462-0156] [313-1370]
Wireless Networking Cards: No Wireless LAN Card NOWIRLS [430-0490]
Productivity Software: WordPerfect®Productivity Pack with Quicken New User Edition ICOREL [412-0303]
Security Software: Dell SecurityCenter by McAfee, 90-day introductory offer MCAFE90 [412-0328]
Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH MMBASE [412-0298]
Primary Battery: 72 WHr Primary Battery ADDBATT [312-0066]
Limited Warranty, Services and Support: 1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year Mail-In Service ST111RR [950-9057] [950-3830] [950-3337] [412-0361]
Dial-Up Internet Access: 6 Months of America Online Membership Included AOLDHS [412-0371] [412-0365]
Digital Imaging Software: Dell Picture Studio Image Expert Standard DPS [412-0277] [412-0275]
Multi-Media Players: RealOne™ Player, with 14 day SuperPass trial REALBAS [412-0380]
High Speed Internet Access: Find a high speed Internet service provider in your area HISPEED [462-0984]
Special Offer: $200 Special Offer CP200 [461-6887]


Total Price $1,827


Looking to use this for gaming

I was looking at a Sony, but decided to go with Dell instead.

What do you think?

[Blisster]

looks like a decent machine, but maybe just a little steep. for that price you might get an alienware laptop that's made for gaming and has a faster proc/GPU....

just a thought

[Ghosthunter]

i looked for same machine it was $2699 at alienware


dell sems cheaper to me no?

[Blisster]

ahhhh-

maybe i was thinking in the desktop range...

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally posted by CAG

dell sems cheaper to me no?

There are lots of brands that are cheaper than others. Realize there's a difference in quality across the brands and their respective price differences.

I'm not knocking Dell, they make some good laptops in their higher end business models, but you get what you pay for.

You wish to game, Alienware makes some laptops that you can actually game with.

[Ghosthunter]

Yeah but how much of a difference are we talking?

That is $900 more I rather not spend for maybe a few more fps, especially for a laptop technology that will be old in 6 months.


I know Alienware is very good, but I think they overcharge, and as long as the Dell can play high end games that are out right now, without any major performance issues I will be happy.


It has to be be better then my p3 866 dekstop ..lol


I was just curious if anyone had this model or simirlar and what thye thought overall? Like is battery life good? Is perofmance overall good?

[Ghosthunter]

well i found a reveiw and in benchamrks it did better then any other laptop out there (well probably not alienware, they did not test that)

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1027-405-20893611-3.html


I will probably go for it.

[BaLa]

-

[Ghosthunter]

No I am from NY

[JawZ]

I have the 8200.....the only difference between the 8500 and my 8200 is the wide display. I have the same vid card....I play RTCW, AvP2 and Q3 on it all the time with no hiccups whatsoever. I do ALL the SG video stuff on it as well. Sure....the Alienware rig is a better computer...but is it a better buy? For me and my budget...it wasn't a better buy.


Now I just configured the Alienware for
Total: $2,371.00

All I did was drop down on the CPU and got rid of the Targus Backpack...now that may give you reason to reconsider.

[Ghosthunter]

Take all of the back found a better laptop for 300 hundred more:

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1801&p=22


The Dell Latitude D800


Go fiugre it is for business users but runs much better and a bit longer battery life

[JawZ]

Originally posted by CAG
Take all of the back found a better laptop for 300 hundred more:

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1801&p=22


The Dell Latitude D800


Go fiugre it is for business users but runs much better and a bit longer battery life


How did you configure it and you do realize that you dropped down to a 1.6GHz CPU?

[Ghosthunter]

Yeah but if you read the article 1.6 actually beats the desktop 2.4 ghz
or comes close to it.


It is acutlaly faster then the 8500

and from some forums i read oat dell site the d800 is better for games

[Ghosthunter]

Well i finally ordered it here it is:

Latitude D800: Pentium® M Processor 1.60GHz 15.4 WUXGA Display D816U [221-2231]
Memory: 512MB,DDR SDRAM,2 DIMMS 512M [311-1874]
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce4 4200 Go™ 4XAGP graphics w/64MB DDR Video Memory 64VM [320-0649]
Hard Drive: 40GB,HD,9.5MM,5400RPM 40D [340-8243]
Floppy Drive Options: No Floppy Drive NFD [340-8854]
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Service Pack 1 XPPRO1 [420-1946]
Modem: Internal 56K Modem I56 [313-1535]
Modular Bay Devices: 8-24-10-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive 24XCMBO [313-1533]
Wireless Networking: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 WLAN (802.11b,11Mbps) miniPCI Card IPW21 [430-8200]
Bundle: Dell Latitude Notebook NOMSBE [461-8702]
Battery: 9 CELL PRIMARY BATTERY 9C [312-0093]
Hardware Support Services: 3Yr Mail-In Service T3YRR [950-8540] [950-8542]
File System: NTFS FILE SYSTEM NTFS [420-0153]

[Ghosthunter]

Well I cahnge my mind one more time hehe


went with Insiprion 600m, comes Centrino 1.3 M, 512 ram, and ATI 9000 Radeon w/64mb

Much cheaper, and I can always upgrade to a later cnetrino chip 1.8 when they come out with it at end of year supposedly. So I figure better to get 1.3 and save $500 since 1.6 is much more, and supposedly 1.3 = about P4 2.0 ghz



also smaller laptop and now that wide screen, I like that idea but I want something easier to carry with me and lighter