9300 ??? long

I am thinking of getting this notebook have read just about everything on this thread about it, but I have some questions.
If i dont get the 7200rpm hd what speeds are their other drives 4200rpm or 5400rpm?
and what real diff. would i notice if i got the 5400 compared to the 7200.

I know installs would be quicker and anything that accessed the drive would be quicker but would it make a diff while playing games? I have heard yes it will and also heard for gaming it wont matter.
If anyone could clear this up I would appreciate it. only reason i ask is the 7200rpm will hold up my ship date and i dont know if $120 is worth the wait or price[?]

also I heard that there are two diff. displays one is LG (Bad) the other is Samsung (Good)i think, if wrong please correct me. So how do you know which your getting or how do you request a specific one[?]
Which one has the sparkle effect everyone hates? The WXGA or WUXGA-with true life?
O.K. last ??
To the ppl. that already have this notebook do you like it are you pleased with your purchase or are you kicking your self[?]

Sorry for all the questions, I have been looking for a while and now that Im hurt I realy need to get my ass in gear. I would love some feedback about this before i purchase hopefully before the discounts expire.

thanks in advance

 

7200rpm is obviously faster than 5400 and definitely 4200. However you DO experience the effect of diminished return as you move from 4200 to 7200. In other words, the performance of 7200 will be quite a bit better than 4200, but only marginally better than 5400. This has been confirmed by tests already. I'm sure the ppl who has the 7200 will swear that it "feels" faster, but does it "feel" $120 faster? I highly doubt it -- at least not by the numbers. I have the 4200 100GB drive right now -- soon will be changing it to the 100gb 5400 drive. Right now even with the 4200 drive, the wait time is minimal. I mean, it's not like I have to be constantly rebooting the machine every 5 minutes. If you are talking about video encoding/encrypting -- the application in almost all cases is going to be CPU/RAM-bound, and not HD bound. 7200rpm will make random-access seem faster -- because the head can jump around the tracks faster if the platter has faster spin speed, but if you optimize your drive and write a LARGE chunk of *sequential* file -- a faster platter spin speed offers diminished return. Does that kinda makes sense? [ ] In other words, don't buy into the hype. While 7200rpm drives are by definitely faster, I don't think their price justifies the meager improvement in performance (over a 5400rpm drive) -- you'll get a much nicer boost by upgrading to a faster CPU or buy more memory with the money!

As to games -- yes a faster HD will help with loading times, but what game do you play that have to "load" constantly? Usually, it loads up, and you are set. I really don't see how the speed of HD is an issue in gaming performance, as it only really affects load-time. Use the money to upgrade to a faster graphics card or more RAM, you'll see a much drastic improvement! If the game has to swap to the HD constantly in the first place -- you bottleneck is NOT the HD speed but rather you need more RAM. lol I play WoW, and it is a pretty memory-intensive game. The game runs perfectly on my laptop with a 4200rpm drive and 1GB of ram, but hiccups on my desktop with 512mb of ram and a 7200rpm drive. Yes the laptop loads the stages a few seconds slower, but the ACTUAL game plays much smoother with more ram than with a faster HD.

cheers,

yass

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Gargoyle

 

1. Dell only guarantees someone getting the 4200rpm drives but many have been getting the 5400rpm (with the exception i think all the 100gig harddrives have been 4200rpm, but dont quote me on it)
2. in gaming having the 7200rpm will make a difference. I will make more of a difference with someone who has 512mb ram then someone with 1 gig because the hard drive would have to be accessesed more depending on the game.
3. The WUXGA with truelife is the one that everyone is complaining about when refering to the sparkles. The LG model i wouldn't really call "bad" because even though its the one people have been complaining about, their are still many others who prefer it(its colors are more vibrant than the Samsung model) but the samsung model doesn't have as much of a problem with the sparkles).
I would say to wait until you get the computer before you judge the screen, some people prefer the lg and some people the samsung.

Just ordered: Dell 9300
Pentium® M 730 Processor (1.60GHz/533MHz FSB)
17 inch UXGA Display with Truelife
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 at 533MHz
256MB NVIDA® GeForce Go 6800
60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless
9-cell Lithium Ion Battery

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Horseflyofdoom