Buying i8600: need help!

Im thinking of buying another laptop for college [the first one is practically anchored to my house], and I've got my eye set on the i8600. It seems pretty affordable [at around 1600$ after shipping/tax] and has the graphics card im looking for[mobility 9600 128mb][i cant seem to function without a 128mb graphic card so it was the first thing i look for] and has a centrino build which is also what im looking for.

I'm buying it for video/image editing and probably some gaming.
Please give me an opinion on below:

So far it looks like this:
1. Intel® Pentium®M Processor 745 (1.80GHz/400MHz FSB) 15.4 WSXGA+
2. 256MB DDR SDRAM 1 Dimm
3. 128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY® RADEON™ 9600 PROTURBO
4. Free 40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
5. FREE 24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow Upgrade!
6. Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
Total price: under 1600$ after rebates and shipping and tax


I really need help on deciding which upgrades that i should get:

1. 1.8 or 1.6 ghz processor?
Mathematically, the 1.8 ghz is 81$ [87$ with tax] more than the 1.6 ghz. Is there really a big deal between 200 mhz? I dont want to end up buying the 1.8 and realizing that its overkill.

2. Concerning WSXGA+ [1440*900 i think]and WXGA for 45$ less [1200X800 i think] How small exactly is the font? Ive seen posts that say WSXGA+ is too small to read, while the review at zdnet says WXGA is awkward. I want enough room to have 2 windows open at the same time and I dont care about dvd quaity.

3. Im getting the 256mb pc2700 ram that comes for free, although getting another 256mb costs 36$[before tax]... I don't know wether to 1) get the 256, then buy a 512 separately, or 2)get 2*256s. The 256mb seems like a bargain at 36$. Again, i dont want to overkill...

4. Im having some trouble finding the right hard drive. Theres 4 possible options:
1. get the 40 gig [btw, how much rpm is this?]
2. get the 60 gig [btw, how much rpm is this?] [36$ more]
3. get the 60 gig 7200 rpm [108$ more]

Getting the 7200 rpm 60gig for 108$ more sounds like a good deal, but after factoring in the price of the 40 gig, i dont think its that great. I watch a ton of anime, so im definitly buying an usb external hard drive, that way i wont need a big laptop hard drive. Given that im getting an external hard drive [not from dell], would it be wise to get the 40 or 60.. or is there some reason to get the 60/7200?

Thx in advance for any help!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>
1. 1.8 or 1.6 ghz processor?
Mathematically, the 1.8 ghz is 81$ [87$ with tax] more than the 1.6 ghz. Is there really a big deal between 200 mhz? I dont want to end up buying the 1.8 and realizing that its overkill.

2. Concerning WSXGA+ [1440*900 i think]and WXGA for 45$ less [1200X800 i think] How small exactly is the font? Ive seen posts that say WSXGA+ is too small to read, while the review at zdnet says WXGA is awkward. I want enough room to have 2 windows open at the same time and I dont care about dvd quaity.

3. Im getting the 256mb pc2700 ram that comes for free, although getting another 256mb costs 36$[before tax]... I don't know wether to 1) get the 256, then buy a 512 separately, or 2)get 2*256s. The 256mb seems like a bargain at 36$. Again, i dont want to overkill...

4. Im having some trouble finding the right hard drive. Theres 4 possible options:
1. get the 40 gig [btw, how much rpm is this?]
2. get the 60 gig [btw, how much rpm is this?] [36$ more]
3. get the 60 gig 7200 rpm [108$ more]
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

1. Almost noone notices the difference between the 1.8 and the 1.6 processer. There is very little to be gained. Save your cash.

2. If you wish to have two windows open and do alot of multi-tasking then WSXGA is definaly the way to go. Icon sizes can be increased in Windows, font sizes can be increased in your browser. Personally, I could never use anything less than SXGA after seeing how nice it is, yet there are a few who are quite content with WXGA. You could always order the WSXGA and sent it back under the 21 day return policy and reorder the XGA if its a problem. Inconvenient perhaps.

3. I would personaly order the laptop with only 1 stick of ram. I went to BestBuy and bought a stick of 512 for $99 out the door, this gave me 768 for cheap and occupied my other dimm slot. Dell has an incredibly huge mark up on ram.

4. A 7200 RPM hard drive is certainly the way to go if you can afford it. A laptop is really bottlenecked with a slower drive. I myself was flabbergasted at the performance increase of my laptop when I got a 7200 drive. Alot of people are ordering the Hitachi 7200 after they get their laptop and replacing thieselves. Why? This gives you 2 drives a good one and a backup. (or sell the old one on ebay).

My opinions are based on both personal experience and information I read in forums. As always, subject to debate and or correction.

 

thx for the information.

i was looking at the newspaper ads with the random centrinos that are around 1000$ with 1.5 ghz, and very basic options. Now that i think about it, as long as i get a 715 or higher centrino, and a 128 mb graphics card, ill be happy.

At 1600$, the laptop build i chose seems to have only 2 good things, namely the 9600 graphics card, and the 1.8 ghz processor. If i should downgrade to a 1.6, theres really no point of spending 1600$ on a basic laptop for just its graphics card right?
With the 600 dollar difference, i could prolly buy one hell of a graphics card and put it in myself... is there a site that lists which cards can be put into which laptops, and lists much they cost?
Or is there a centrino laptop that comes with 128 mb graphics card and is relatively cheap?


besides that thought, if i go down to a 1.6ghz , i can upgrade to the 7200 rpm 60 gig hard drive for the same cost as the 1.8ghz + free hard drive. Ill probably do this if the above doesnt work out.

 

Adding and upgrading video cards on a Dell laptop is not nearly as flexible as it is in some other notebooks and especially desktops. You cant just go to Nvidia or ATI and buy a card to pop in. They offer very little options, and sometimes getting stuff from their spare parts division can be very difficult. Even at that, the cost often outweights the worth. If you find a laptop that is around $1000 it will more than likely have built in intel video, or the existing card would not have an upgraded choice.


Your really better off getting what you want now. If you get a lesser (cheaper) notebook, you will be paying for it in other areas. There are other things to keep in mind as well, weight is one. Battery life is another. This dont sound like much now but it can really suck later when you are sorry you made your choice.

 

I calculated the final costs of the 3 builds im considering:

1. 1.8 ghz + 7200rpm/60gig Total: 1735.55$
2. 1.8 ghz + 40 gig [free] Total: 1601.15$
3. 1.6 ghz + 7200rpm/60gig Total: 1524.82$

Thats with 256 ram, 1 year warranty, Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps) [do i really need this? i have my own wireless card i got with my wireless router]


I'm leaning towards option 3, since it is the cheapest after all. I still feel like i'm paying 500$ for a good graphics card though.


also, i read on a post that changing the resolution makes it look bad since the lcd screen is good only with the preset one... any evidence of this?

 

WAIT AND IF UR GOIN WID A DELL, YES U DO NEED THAT intel 2200 or wateva its called wireless card. that or the 2100. WITHOUT THAT THE WHOLE CENTRINO IDEA WONT WORK (getting on the internet anywhere etc.)
DONT GO 4 NONE OR The DELl 1350 or 1450 GET THE INTEL PRO WIRELESS 2100 or 2200

 

wait i have something u mite wanna look at...i found this really cool computer site n im tryin 2 tell as much ppl as i can cuz its so good. u can get the same configurations u made except 60 gb 7200, 128 ATi Radeon 9700, and xp pro 4 about 1700 bucks (relly like 1708 or 1716 sumtin like dat) WID A 15.4 inch widescreen n all that other crap dell i8600 has. and by the way the other dell rpms 4 the harddrives are all 4200 rpm besides the 7200 rpm 1, even the 100 gig. u can find that out by clicking that learn more or whatever it sais right on top of the component listing in the configuration screen.

 

im answerin ur questions as im readin on, and to the question about the 60/7200 hard drive, its noticably faster than the 40 gb drive, the disk inside the harddrive spins faster, like the wheels in a car rpm kinda, hence u can do alot more alot faster. Most p4 desktops have 7200 rpm harddrives.

 

OMG LOL i told u good comp config and didnt give u the site, www.cyberpowerinc.com[ ]

 

Ironically, i was reading your other post and i was looking at the website you mentioned right when u posted ure message. I think the notebooks there are decent, but a bit overpriced on the centrinos [but they give a ton of ram which offsets it]

Also, I think you are referring to the 1729$ Gamer Xplorer X5-6000, which is a p4, and im looking for a centrino =(.

The site has 2 centrino laptops /w 128 mb graphics cards, but one is a banias [s4-2200, which i dont need], and the other one [s4-3200]
which resembles the 1.6 gig i8600 which im starting to like:

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 735 @ 1.7GHz 2MB CACHE ~ CNB933
Intel® 855GM CHIPSET MB W/ Centrino™ TECHNOLOGY
256 MB PC2700 333MHz DDR MEMORY
60GB 7200RPM ULTRA ATA 100 HARD DRIVE
MOBILE ATI RADEON 9700 PRO 128MB VIDEO
8X DVD & 24/16/24 CDRW COMBO DRIVE
15.0" SXGA TFT LCD DISPLAY 1400X1050
BUILT-IN AC 97 SOUND

Price: $1615.00

The price is about 200$ above the i8600 equivilent though.. so that ati9700 must be much much much better than the ati9600 or something. Battery life is a plus tho, but i think the 8600 would be cheaper.

 

Well in the end I bought the 1.8 gig with the 60 gig 7200rpm... er my dad made me do it actually. [my 150k a year earning dad] I guess the 173$ was spare change to him. [which kinda sucks since it was my money and that aint change to me[|)] ]

The one i got:
Dell i8600
Intel® Pentium®M Processor 745 (1.80GHz/400MHz FSB)
15.4 WSXGA+, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
256MB DDR SDRAM 1 Dimm
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY® RADEON™ 9600 PROTURBO
60GB-7200rpm Ultra ATA Hard Drive
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow Upgrade
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps
1 year warrantee.
Final cost 1700$


The one i didnt get [the obvious choice] [same thing cept for 1.6 ghz processor and 173$ less]
Dell i8600
Intel® Pentium®M Processor 725 (1.60GHz/400MHz FSB)
15.4 WSXGA+, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
256MB DDR SDRAM 1 Dimm
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY® RADEON™ 9600 PROTURBO
60GB-7200rpm Ultra ATA Hard Drive
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow Upgrade
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps
1 year warrantee.
Final cost 1525$


It says it'll ship by 8/17, which means ill get it around the 22?

 

You have a very nice machine, now its time to go stir crazy waiting for it.

 

I was looking over the laptop specifications for the one i ordered, and i noticed i was getting a i8500 battery:

72Watt Primary Battery Inspiron 8500

The i8600 is an upgrade of the i8500, so they use the same battery?

 

you dip****s, your heads are filled with **** you know.

1.5ghz (715) pentium mobile
512mb pc2700 (AT LEAST)
9600 pro 128Mb
intel pro 2200 b/g chip
7200rpm hard drive for better performance
=========================================
this is the best option
=========================================

doesn't matter how fast your cpu/gpu/hd is if you run outta main memory which we call RAM these days, you will be stuck.
winxp it self uses 200mb average on idle. if you want to do video editing or gaming, think whats gonna happen when you have only 50mb rab left over. yes, winxp will start using your HD as a virtual memory and imagine how slow its gonna get.

==besides go with 4200/5400 HD if u want longer battery life==

due to larger L2 cache, pentium mobile chips perform way better than regular chips. with low voltage.

PERFORMANCE WISE:
pentium m 1.7ghz = pentium 4 mobile 2.8ghz

so the moral of the story is, get at least a 512mb pc2700.(for video editing you need 1024mb RAM and faster hard drive)

 

^^^^^um...right. Too bad only a moron would buy extra RAM through dell. I think this guy knows that he needs to upgrade it and will do so afterwards, for a considerable discount. As for the Intel wireless card...that's laughable! It doesn't matter what kind of wireless card you get, it all does the same stuff. "Centrino" is worth less than nothing, since it is meaningless (read: marketing). Anyhow, definitely consider a faster hard drive (hitachi 5k4 or 7k6) and make sure you buy some RAM when there is a deal.

 

Maybe I'm a moron, then, but I upgraded from 1 stick of 256mb RAM (the minimum included with the system) to 2 sticks of 512mb through dell for $250. Where can I get it significantly cheaper than that???

 

$250 for 512mb? heehee...well if you go to Outpost, you can get 1gb (that's twice what you got) for about $150. If you're looking for name-brand, then there's a 512mb single stick from PNY for about $80 if you look around...basically for $250 you can get a REALLY nice 1gb stick, while for half that amount you can probably get a generic 1gb stick, if you have the patience. If you're satisfied with 512mb, I do believe that you can that amount from dell for a decent price, but if you're looking to upgrade past that, it becomes a waste of money since one or both of the sticks that dell gives you will have to go.

 

Ok thanks, but I think you misread my post. I paid $250 for 2 512mb sticks (1gb total).

And I wouldn't buy any RAM that only has a 1 year warrantee (which is what the $150/1Gb deal is on outpost). Still, I see what you mean that I can save money. I can get decent 512 sticks there for $99, so two of those would run $189 + $5 shipping, so I would end up saving about $50.

But by getting it from Dell I don't have to wait and I don't have to install it. Not exactly what I would call a moronic decision.

 

That's a pretty good price, other places wont be tremendously less expensive for that quality.

* Inspiron 8600c * 1.8ghz Pentium M * 128 MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo * 2x512 MB DDR2700 SDRAM * 60GB 7200RPM HDD *

 

huh? didnt notice this thread was still going...anyways, right now i have 2 sticks of pc2700 512 ram for 88$ each shipped and taxed from amamax.com... and i can say that i am very satisfied. also bought a 20 gig dell jukebox to store as a secondary hard drive and music player. i wasnt obviously going to keep the 256 stock ram that came with the laptop...


--Inspiron 8600, 1.8 ghz, wsxga+, 60 gb 7200 rpm, 256+512mb pc2700, 128 mb radeon 9600--