Is there any laptop better than the XPS for cost/performance?

I've had an m1530 with the 8600GT and 3g RAM for about a year, and love it. My brother is currently looking for a laptop, and was considering getting an m1530 too, but we'd like to know if there's anything out there that's better now. Considering gaming potential, premium quality for a reasonable cost, and just general sexiness that the XPS has. Any maker, not just Dell. Thanks.

 

this is base on my experience.....

i already try Sony Vaio SZ450, ASUS G1s, and now XPS1530

1. XPS 1530
2. ASUS G1S
.
.
.
10. Sony "Bloatware" Vaio SZ450


you will not go wrong if you choose XPS1530

 

How much did that m1530 cost?(sorry i am not familiar with dells laptops) Here are some good gaming laptops(that i know of) that arent very expensive:

1) asus m51sn-x2 (t8300, 9500m gs $1199)
2) gateway p-6860fx (8800 gts $1349)
3) asus f8sn series b1,c1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=asus+f8sn&x=0&y=0

 

Well I haven't been able to find one. Maybe wait for the XPS refresh if he isn't in a rush. All I want to find out is how much better the graphics card is going to be!

 

Hmm what do you mean by XPS refresh? Is the lineup changing soon?

 

Centrino 2 was just officially released (14th July I think), and most manufacturers (the big ones) have started taking pre-orders and some even shipping the new laptops with the next range of GPU's from Nvidia.

Dell haven't announced anything yet. If you can't get a good deal on an XPS laptop at the moment you should wait...but if you see a good deal then grab it quick, the price may go up with the new hardware. You won't necessarily get a PC as fast for the same money if you wait.

 

For a 15.4" laptop, I'd say during Dell's better deals you can't beat it. If you move to 17" laptops you will find that Gateway's FX 17" entry level gaming laptop (with a mighty 8800GTS) to be a better deal for gaming. But for portability and gaming in one machine for a good price you can't beat the XPS M1530. I would however wait till they update it with the new CPUs (P8300?) and probably new graphics chips (9600M GT?) too. The performance difference isn't huge, but it's probably worth waiting for as I don't think Dell will wait to much longer to update their line.

 

Another option, though, is to wait for the current lineup to hit the outlet store! Heck, go check the outlet store now... there may be some that are cancelled orders or even refurbs you can get full warranties on b/c Dell checks them pretty well.

I'm a big Asus fan, too, though... they are solid, innovative, and pretty sexy. Also run quite cool... Price markup isn't nearly as excessive as Dell. Also check out the Sager/Clevo forum or go to xoticpc.com and configure a couple models to match the XPS price... you might be very pleasantly surprised. They do skins and paint work, too, if you want it being super customized. Then again, I saw a user (rambo...something-new here, so I don't know everyone's handles) post about a site that made skins for $35 that turned out really nice looking, so customizing can definitely be done later, too.

(edit: powernotebooks.com is another store to check out the sager line at, along with asus models and also a compal build that might suit you depending on what you decide you want!)

 

I have been very happy with everything the 1530 has to offer. You won't find any better right now. I did just update my video driver to version 175.97 and the performance noticeably increased. You might want to give that a try as well.

 

I would definitely suggest the Dell XPS M1530 above all else. With Asus as second. Love their Lamborghini notebooks... especially the Yellow one.