1520 Help!

Okay, my chosen color is Espresso Brown (not really important, but now you know!).

Anyway, I've decided these specs:

T7100 (1.8GHz C2D)
8600M GT 256MB
2GB DDR2-667
9-Cell Battery

The other stuff is really pointless to tell IMO at this point. There are a couple things I'm wondering about.

Should I go for the 1680x1050 resolution? I've read that the 1440x900 screen is brighter and has higher contrast. Is this true? What are the downsides to the larger resolution? I will be using this for college, but it will also be for games. I'm majoring in Comp Sci and we will be using CAD programs and Solid Edge along with other things. I'll also be using this to play games as I've sold my desktop. I mainly play CS:S and WoW and Starcraft, so I'm not concerned about that at all, other than if the GPU can play those games at the highest resolution of 1680x1050. I do not intend to play any "newer" games heavily, as I'm getting a new desktop next summer, so I don't think it will kill me to wait a year for any "must have" games.

Also, I get a free upgrade to the 160GB HDD (I also have an external 500GB HDD at home already, so space is not an issue at all). The only question here is if I should spring for the 7200rpm drive for $50 more? It will no doubt load things quicker, but will it also affect battery life a lot?

Other than that, I really don't have any more questions. Thanks for the help

EDIT: I'm posting a picture of my currently configured specs below. The price is $1190 + Taxes (thanks to $300 coupon and free shipping).

 

After getting my laptop with 1680x1050, I'm so glad I didn't settle for the 1440. The blacks on my WSXGA+ are still excellent and I thought the screen was kinda dim at first, until I plugged it in and realized it was previously at 45% brightness. =\

You would easily be able to play CS:S and WoW at max resolution with almost highest setting (no 16AA ).

Also, the difference in battery life drain for the two speeds of hard drives are almost negligible. The 7200 doesn't take up a significant amount more of power.

 

Thanks for the quick response, and you've pretty much just made up my mind. And I'm really not worried about anything more than 4xAA, maybe even 2xAA since the resolution is so high. Thanks for making my decision clear. Overall, it's coming out to $1300, seem pretty good?

EDIT: One more question, I have a wireless b router in my house, the default wifi card says just wireless g, will it still work?

 

Almost 100% sure that's a yes, because g-bands came after a/b bands so I have no idea why a company would make a g card that's not a/b/g. You can google the card to be sure. Or if you want to be certain, I'm using the Intel card instead of the dell and it's picking up b just fine.

And yes, the WSXGA+ is amazing. I can't imagine having less desktop space than this.

 

Once again, thanks for the quick reply =)

Hopefully I'll be the happy owner of a 1520 in a few weeks. Good lord, the waiting is going to be the hardest part.

 

Of course, glad I could help. And yes, waiting is bad but to be fair Dell usually beats the est'd ship date by a longshot. I ordered 2x i1520s on 7/6 with est'd ship date 7/25. They both shipped 7/13, only one week later and delivery was next day even though it was quoted as 3-5 day.

 

My estimated ship date is Aug 2, bummer. Maybe it'll come quicker =)

Just another question, what's your battery life like? Over 4 hours?

 

I havent depleted the battery yet as I have it on charger while installing all my applications/games. I can tell you though that the quoted battery life out of the box on power saving mode was 4hr 1 min at 81% battery life (mousing-over the battery icon).

 

I will go ahead and give you a guarantee on the G card working with your B network. N/G/B are all compatible downline and in that order, for sure, Up I know B will work on G, unsure as to the full details if it will work on a N router, but definitely a G card will work on your B router.