Need help choosing.

I am 99% certain I am getting an SXPS16 but I need help choosing some options because my funds are limited. The two options in question are the CPU and the battery. I am set on 4gb of ram and the 1gb GPU. I am having a hard time deciding on the T8700 (2.53GHz 3mb cache) and the T9550 (2.6GHz 6mb cache). How much of a performance jump is the T9550 from the T8700? Is it worth the extra $94? I am into gaming and would like to run things like NFS Shift and GTR Evo at 60fps+ with the highest possible settings (My M1530, 2.4CPU, 256mb GPU, struggles with GTR Evo at max 30fps +/- 5fps. For racing that is slow). The next thing is the battery, 6 cell vs 9 cell. From experience with my M1530's 6 cell it runs out of battery super fast. I can only assume the SXPS16 is even worse. With the 1gb GPU and 2.53 or 2.6 CPU I will probably only get about 1.5 hours on a single charge. How much would the 9 cell give me? The next thing is I only have the money to choose between upgrading the CPU or the battery. But even the battery at $180 is a stretch. I was hoping that maybe I could call Dell and ask them just for the 9 cell and have them keep the 6 so that they could reduce the price. Does this sound possible. Thanks for the support.

Oh also BTW the M1530 had many issues that the average consumer (me) could not have know about. I kicked myself after I bought my M1530 when I found out there was the over heating issue and all the other small things. What are the known problems on the SXPS16? And when I mean problem I mean anything that would make it not perfect. Anything.

 

I am personally having lot of issues with SXPS 1640.

If I play NFS Undercover for 35 minutes, it gets damn hot! You will hardly be able to touch the touchpad to move the cursor.

 

That is not an issue for me because I have a great cooling pad and rarely use the latops given mouse. This would be a "desktop replacement" that is also portable. I would also be using it to take notes in college but as long as it fits in my bag that is all that matters.

 

Then its ok

 

What about things like build quality and fit and finish? How is the mouse? Speakers? Keyboard? How is the 180p FHD WLED LCD screen compare to the RGB one?

 

from what i've found the performance bump from p8700 to T9550 is pretty negligible especially for the price. we're talking mere seconds difference in video rendering as an example. also the t-series consumes considerably more power and will obviously cause core temps to run hotter than the 8700. gaming performance more determined by the gpu, 1gb 4670 being the obvious choice.

 

ok well thats nice to know. If it sucks a lot of power I may want to stay away. A lot of games I am looking at seem to require as much or more than 2.53GHz but only require 512mb for the GPU. So would 1gb be enough to compensate for maybe a small lacking in CPU power?

 

Forum is pretty quite today...

 

well honestly if you want a dedicated gaming notebook i'd look to either msi or sager. but all said and done, this is a very competent little rig for gaming, especially when you look at the whole picture of what you're getting for price. and yes the gpu should def be sufficient.

 

I have heard good stuff about MSi and Sager but I have this rig priced at about $1,200. Thats hard to beat, especially for a big name brand. Neither offers a rig at this level for that price.

 

Lol with a $10 cooling pad off eBay I can play NFS Undercover indefinitely on 720p all settings maxed with no noticeable heat increase.

 

Build quality is awesome. I don't really like how Dell made the battery the entire thickness of the laptop at the back, since when you use a cooling pad it props the laptop up with the battery and I'm afraid it might cause some unbearable stress there (or I am just paranoid).

180p screen would suck since I wouldn't see anything, however I can say the 1080p screen is just awesome. Can't compare to the normal one since I don't have it, however compared to my Acer, the 1080p RGBLED is much brighter (even on the lowest setting) and boy, 1920x1080 is THE way to go for a university student since it allows me to see homework and what I am writing, etc. all at once.

Mouse is normal ... Dunno what you wanted here.

Keyboard is awesome. Not bilingual so no weird layout or gay French icons, and it's backlit! Simple and useful, I love it.

Speakers are 2 small ones on the side and an internal "subwoofer", which boosts lower frequencies. Quite loud, however not as loud as a new MacBook Pro.

I have a video review on this laptop and its gaming capabilities, along with overall comments. Link is in my sig.

 

To be honest, 35 W isn't that bad. I have a 35 W T9800 (2.93 GHz) and with a $10 cooling the heat isn't noticeable. You get better performance with the T series since they are clocked higher and have more L2 cache.

In terms of GPU, more than just VRAM matter. If it needs 512 MB and you have 1 GB, the other 512 MB will just sit there unused. It will still bottleneck at your CPU. It's like saying can I have a super slow processor but make up for it with 8 GB of RAM? No.

 

What is your budget right now? Dell is having 25% off sxps 16 right now with 2 year warranty.

 

Where is this deal? Is it a coupon?

 

Ok. My question is really this, I love racing games and they must be running at 60fps. With games like NFS Shift would I be able to get 60 fps at max or at least close to max settings with the P8700 (+ the the 1gb GPU)? Or would the extra boost the the T9550 be necessary? If its over kill for games like that I really do not need it. I do not want to play crazy games like Crysis just games like COD MW2 and such at a high-medium level.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

 

Sorry for the double post but I called Dell and they said that the difference between the P8700 and the T9550 is negligible and that you need to go to the T9700 to see a significant difference. They also said since I am a student they will give me a $100 discount on top of the 25% off deal so I can basically get the 9 cell battery for $80.

So I will be able to get all this for $1445 including tax.

-Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish
-Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (3MB cache/2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
-Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
-2 yr In-home Service after remote diagnosis + Complete Care
-Edge-to-Edge FHD Widescreen 15.6 inch WLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP
-4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)
-500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
-8X DVD+/- RW(DVD/CD read/write) Slot Load Drive
-ATI Mobility RADEON™ HD 4670 – 1GB
-Intel® 5100 WLAN Wireless-N (1x2) Half Mini Card
-9 Cell battery
-High Definition Audio 2.0
-Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.1+EDR)

Looks pretty good to me.