Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

IMHO the premium for the T9800 over the T9550 is WAY too much. $200 more for just 10% more CPU performance ???
10% more CPU power will not make your system more "future proof" trust me.
Personally, I would save that $200, wait till next year, and upgrade with a good SSD, which WILL make the system significantly faster.
Upgrading ram yourself is also a good idea.

BTW, why arent you choosing RGBLED ?

PS: If you wait till next year before buying, Nehalem CPUs will be out whch will be asignificant architectural jump. also USB 3.0 with much faster speeds. So right now is a bad time to get a "long -term" laptop

 

3DMark Vantage scored: P1729
CPU Score: 10061
Graphics Score: 1355


These score are horrible! Anyone else care to share their score?

 

You really think there will be mobile Nehalem CPUs? The Core i7s produce way too much heat to be used in notebooks from what I can tell, and what a bunch of people here said when I asked about a month ago. Do they have a launch date, if they're actually planned?

Also the reason I'm not opting for the RGB-LED is because it's much more expensive for next to no benefit (the backlight is nicer? Where am I using my notebook, a cave?), whereas 10% added CPU strength is significant.

 

At stock clock I got P1824 (GPU - 1428, CPU - 10808) in Vantage, and 4812 (SM2.0 - 1941, HDR/SM3 - 1809, CPU - 2264) in 06.

I reran 3DMark06 and got 5385 later that day.

 

Actually; a cave is probably the most ideal place -- it's nice and cool, so the machine'll be running cooler, and there's no other light source like sunlight for the backlight to compete with.

the RGBLED, from what I read and saw produce more saturated colors, and more accurate tints to boot. If this isn't too much of an issue to you, I'd say the 2CCFL is just as good.

 

What are you using your CPU for? Unless you are doing mathematical calculations or doing heavy encoding, you will not even notice a difference in speed. If you are comfortable with upgrading yourself, I would compare the difference in cost in upgrading your memory and hard drive. How much do you save if you lower your memory to the minimum 1GB and hard drive to 80GB 5400RPM? 4GB DDR2-800 kits can be had for $40-60, and 320GB 7200 RPM drive as $60-80.

 

Yeah, what are trusted sellers / brands to find those upgrades within the price ranges you mention.. especially 4GB DDR2 @800MHz in 2 DIMMS. I just copped an M4400 yesterday and I'm looking for parts to self-install once the machine arrives next week:

- Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
- 15.4 inch 1400X900 WXGA+ LED Laptop Screen
- T9600, 2.80GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB
- 160 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200RPM)
- 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)
- 512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M
- Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
- Back-lit Keyboard
- 6 Cell Primary Battery
- Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
- Integrated Webcam with Digital Microphone

 

Core i7 are desktop processors. The wikipedia article says mobile Nehalem will be out in 2010:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalem_(microarchitecture)
Last year it was rumored to be coming out late 2009; so I expect it to be out early 2010.

As sgogeta4 said, you wont be using a CPU to full power unless you are doing encoding or math simulations. Even a T7550 is overkill for normal usage. Heck even a 2.0 Ghz Core 2 duo is overkill.
Even if you do do encoding or math simulations, a 10% decrease in CPU wont make you system obsolete at any point in future. Its not like you will throw away your $2000 laptop just cuz it does work in 66 seconds instead of 60 seconds; and that extra 6 seconds makes your life intolerable

The RGBLED is nicer becuase AFAIK the color reproduction and contrast ratios are better

 

Doesn't the RGBLED vs CCFL only refer to the backlight, not the actual screen's brightness or colors?

 

RGBLED produces 100% of the Adobe Color Gamut and 300 nits (brightness)
WUXGA produces 75% of the Adobe Color Gamut and 350 nits
WXGA and + produces 45% of the Adobe Color Gamut and 300 nits