D820 with 512 MB nVidia Quadro

Does anybody have a Latitude D820 with the 512 MB nVidia Quadro vid card? With 512 MB of RAM on the card, it should be able to handle any game on max settings, right? Just want some feedback and opinions.
Thanks

EDIT: Does anybody know what the difference is between XP professional w/ media and XP professional w/ no media? What is the "media"?

 

The media is the installation disc for the operating system, incase you want to reinstall windows.

BTW, the 512mb Quadro card only has 256mb; but it can borrow another 256mb. l think it's based on the nvidia 7400 so it's so-so for gaming.

 

The 512 Quadro is more of a workstation card. Great for 3D work. And heavy video editing effects. It should run games quite nicely. Not all on the highest settings. Games like FEAR for example might not be able to run on quite the highest settings.

 

Well actually the amount of memory on a videocard is (within reason) secondary to the type of graphics processor on the card. The Quadro NVS 120M is based on the Geforce 7400, which is what i would call lower mid-end card. The 512mb on the card are not all dedicated, it is only the 256mb with an additional 256mb borrowed from the system thorugh something called turbocache. It doesn't really matter anyway since the 120M can barely use the dedicated 256mb. From what i have read it has similar performance to ATi's X1400, which will give you medium detail level at 1024*768 with playable framerates in most games, so if you're going to use this laptop maily for gaming, then I would suggest that you find another one.

 

I'm not gonna be using this for mainly gaming, but for some light gaming from time to time. The other computers I was looking at had the ATI x1400, which I am fine with, so the fact that the two are comparable does not really disappoint me. Overall, I think the D820 should be a good computer, and everyone who has one seems to agree.
Anything else i should know about this?

 

Well if thats what you're going to be using it for then I would recommend it. I haven't had personal experience with it, but it seems to be a really good laptop from what I have read around the web. actually thinking of getting one myself

 

The only drawback i can find on the D820 is that it only has a matte LCD, no glossy options. I'm not sure how big a deal this is, but I would appreciate some input on the topic.

 

Glossy screens have higher contrast (usually by maybe 10%) and have sharper colors but in my experience the have a limited viewing angle and reflect everything.

They are also dust & fingerprint magnets.

 

thats interesting because some people were saying that the D820 LCD has good horizontal viewing angles, but not-so-great vertical viewing angles. Is that 10% difference in contrast really that huge, say when watching a DVD?

 

It depends. If you're really into the details, you'll for sure notice the difference, however, if you don't really care too much, you probably will notice little to nothing.

 

etccu1987,
Pull up a seat here and let me share a little story with you that may help you in deciding the right hardware options for you. We're going to travel back in time to the days of Microsoft Windows 3.11 for workgroups and the old "486" computers. A 486 with Windows 3.11 was the way to go back in the day, life was good, the sun use to shine, the birds use to chirp and children could play safely in the streets.

Along came Microsoft Windows NT4.0 and we all quickly learned that our beloved 486's were going to choke and die trying to run it so alot of 486's ended up in the bottom of lakes all over the world and were replaced by the newer, better, faster, had to have them Pentium 133's. Life returned to it's normal state of calm and remained that way for several years. The lesson learned was the importance of more processing power during these times.

As time passed by slowly all had migrated their NT4.0 Systems to upgraded and newer Pentum II's which ran at an amazing 400MHz and NT4 rocked on these systems. No one worried about more memory, faster larger hard drives, and most people likely didn't even know their computer had something in it known as a graphics card, let alone pay any attention to it. The age of constantly building better faster processors was upon us and hasn't stopped since.

Then Microsoft Windows 2000 came along and just ruined everyones day. It was no longer safe to let your kids play in the street, baby ducks were getting seperated from their mothers and the sounds of chirping birds were being replaced with late night dog barking.

Our Pentium II 400MHz processors ran Windows 2000 just fine, but we quickly learned the importance of more system Memory. 32Mb of RAM just wasn't going to cut it anymore. A few lucky people had as much as 64Mb of RAM, but even they were enslaved by the hour glass on their screen waiting to open even the most basic program. 128Mb of RAM was a required minimum standard, 256Mb of RAM was a much desired luxory to have and want, 512Mb was an option but seemed to be a waste of money paying top dollar for more RAM than anyone could ever use. Larger Capacity Hard Drives also soon became a needed item. It use to be you'd hear about the new 1Gig drives coming out and you'd think, why would anyone ever need that much drive space? Certainly not for storage, that's what the floppy drive is for. It some how kept the price of gas under $3.00 a gallon and more system memory kept the world in balance once again despite owners of Hard Drives under 1Gig finding out how fast just installing Windows 2000 alone would fill that drive up.

Video cards were still not on many peoples minds. When a new system builder was putting together parts he'd often splurge on new stuff like processors larger cap drives and more RAM, but when it came to his video cards he'd often go to one of the local used PC parts stores to pick one up for about $5.00.

Skys began to darken, ice caps began melting and polar bears started dropping dead like flies and local law enforcement agencies were now being viewd as thugs rather than peace officers. Just when you thought you had a fire hot system ready for anything Microsoft could throw at it along came Windows XP. Everything on your older system was fine but that long overlooked device on the business end of that little video plug on the back of your box. $5.00 Generic Video Cards no longer cut it, and while I can't proove this, I still speculate, the need for a higher end graphics card just to be able to decently run XP caused a small tribe of indigenous people in a remote portion of a south american jungle to go extinct.

We all learned the importance of having a better graphics card just for common computing tasks like starting Windows up and then began to become enslaved to a market for this neccessity that's tightly controlled by NVIDIA and ATI who's pride of their products is obviously directly reflected in their price (and in most cases unfortuneatly stops there).

The real problem as of late, is as you suddenly need that one better device making up your system just to run the latest version of Windows when it gets released, is that you can't just replace that one part with a newer better one. Instead your forced to replace everything just so that one needed new part will work in the system with the new Operating System.

With aftermarket video cards now costing in many cases over the $1000 mark just to play some new game your going to be bored with playing after 6 months tops it just isn't worth it. Not to mention these new high end high priced video cards alone have to dissapate more heat than an entire Cray XT3 Supercomputer does with the heat from all it's components combined. Heat is a bad thing for both your systems life and performance.

I went with the 512 MB nVidia Quadro option myself not because I planned to play games on it, but just because I wanted to be ready for what Microsoft tosses at us with the next release of their newest Operating System. While not being concerned about playing games, I do at least hope this graphics card will help my favorite midget porn and jap scat web sites I like visiting load pages faster and offer me better views of the action as it unfolds in small downloaded free video clips they offer. The fluid proof keyboard of the D820 should help as well.

I'd suggest choosing your other options as carefully as your focusing on this one part of the system. There are other choices you can make when selecting your parts that will not only reflect on your final cost, but your final performance. For example, if your trying to stay within a certain price range, go for the better graphics set and skimp for now on the cheapest RAM option. Your going to want to end up eventually with at least 2Gig of RAM on this system, but if all your running is XP for now the cheapest RAM option would be plenty. RAM can easily be added later by anyone (and shopping around you'll also find cheaper prices for it. It's just a matter of opening the compartment cover on the bottom of the laptop and plugging in the little RAM card. Boot the system back up and it will detect and take care of your new RAM on it's own, nothing more needs to be done. If you can plug a light into a wall outlet installing new RAM would be an easier task for anyone to accomplish.

Cutting back on additional items, even if just a $10 upgrade here and there, will add up to an overall savings, or the same money better spent on other more important upgrades. Things like the built in wireless card is going to be an option most people should go with, but no need to spend more for a wireless card that handles 802.11a/b/g, I doubt very many people will ever have a need for the extra expense of having the 802.11a capabilies since thats a technology being or already phased out of existance. The 802.11b/g or just "g" card is all you need, the g card will handle b as well even if it doesn't say so.

Also the Modular Optical Drive, by going with the basic CD Burner/DVD player you can save over $50 by not choosing the DVD Burner right away. Since it's a modular device, if you really want to burn DVD's buy the DVD burner module later, unplug the one you ordered with your system and just plug the new one in later.

That $50 savings could be better spent on more important upgrade options like going from a 5400 RPM to a 7200 RPM Hard Drive option, the type of thing which can be upgraded later, but certainly not just a matter of unplugging the old drive and plugging in the new one, you'd have to reinstall everything and transfer all your old data over, defineatly anything but a 5 minute ordeal and that's if you don't run into any problems, which most people do. A 7200 RPM drive, with the better graphics capabilites, and the fastest processor option you can afford should be the three primary options you put your most consideration and money into, leave everything else as secondary or as the types of things you can easily and cheaply change later when you again have more money to spend on such things.

 

All hail the great story teller, esoterica

Now comes the part where i run through the story and comment on whatever I fancy.

I actually saw regular for $3.09 today. I immediately went to the local bicycle shop to purchase a replacement for my car.

hehe...i can see the headlines now "Microsoft, nVidia convicted of genocide"

LOLOLOL...brb i need new underwear.
You'll have to tell me if this card is able to play the latest cutting edge midget porn, as it is a very large concern of mine. As I always say, "Why buy a computer if it can't play midget porn?" A fluid proof keyboard is also a wonderful feature.

Now for the actual comments. My budget for this computer is relatively large - around $2,000. I'm gonna use the computer for college, so i figured that i'd splurge and get something more durable than the e1505 (the $1000 my grandparents are donating to the cause also helps ) The specs i'm looking at are as follows:
-Windows XP Pro w/ media
-Core Duo T2500 2.0 GHz (see note below)
-15.4" Wide Screen WSXGA+ LCD Panel
-512MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache
-100GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM
-8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio Digital Media and Cyberlink Power DVD
-Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Dual-Band Mini Card w/ Dell 350 Bluetooth
-9 Cell Primary Battery
(As I'm not buying this until July, the Core Duo prices will drop, and I may upgrade to the T2600 2.16 Ghz for the same price or jus tstick with the t2500 2.0 GHz, I haven't decided yet.)

As far as RAM goes, I would like 2 GB. I've installed RAM on my desktop, and it wasn't so easy (mainly because the slot is behind the fan, so I had to hire a small Chinese contortionist to help me get it in there). I figure since notebooks are built with a compartment for RAM, this should be much easier. My only question is - is it as easy to remove notebook RAM as it is to add it (I know for a desktop it is)? If it is, then I'll save $300 on the system and go with the 512 MB and get 2 GB on newegg for $140. If not, I'll get the 1 GB, 1 DIMM installed and just buy another gig and pop it in.

Thanks for all your help with this, and keep up the good story telling

EDIT: Also, I'm kinda new when it comes to notebooks, so if somebody could give me a link to the RAM i would need from newegg, i would appreciate it. It's 1GB (1 DIMM) DDR2 667Mhz. Thanks!

 

Glad you enjoyed that story, it's all true by the way, every last detail of it, only certain names were changed to protect the innocent. I was thinking it would make for a great movie, but too much paper work involved in seeing that dream through so I just dumped the story in here instead.

I think you made good choices in your decisions, you went up on a couple small options from the same system I just ordered and mine ran, delivered to the door with tax and everything just about exactly at $2000 almost even. (I think it was like $2034 total).

Finding the RAM you need at Newegg is easy, better than just giving you a link, I'll show you how to look it up yourself. That way if the link changes between now and July (which it will) you'll still know how to find what your looking for.

Go to www.newegg.com

on your left you'll see many links, put your mouse over "Computer Hardware", then a new list will pop out at you. Move your mouse over to "Memory and Flash Memory" and click.

You'll see a list at the top in your new window, your after the link named "Memory - Notebooks / Laptops", click that one.

Now go down to the new list where it says "Speed" and find in that list the right memory for the D820 Laptop, several options you can choose for that will work but, in this case what your after the fastest you can buy (price is neglagble so why not?) You want the "DDR2 667" options.

One think to note about buying aftermarket memory like this, you'll notice at times huge price flexuations amongst the same memory but under different brands, as well as some being refered to as tested and untested (or what we often refer to as floor sweepings). If your on a mission critical system, you'll likely want to go with the best you can buy (often reflected accordingly within the price), otherwise and for most people the "generic", or "untested" or "floor sweepings" memory usualy works just fine. I've used the good stuff and the cheap stuff at different times and never had any problems when I've used the cheap stuff, though some people have (no big deal, system just won't boot if memory is bad). I have had the more expensive tested memory go bad on me before (warranteed though).

To answer your other question, changing memory on a laptop is much easier than changing it on a desktop, which is pretty easy, but stuff like drives, wires, fans often get in the way of just being able to easily do it on a desktop. On a laptop the only thing in your way is the little cover you remove, then just pop it in (while the system is powered off, memory is not hot swapable).

 

Great! Yea, I just googled 'd820 ram' to find out what i needed. I'm going with the 1GB (1DIMM) DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) and i'll just get two of them. Most of them are priced around $89, so in the end I'll save $140 over the Dell RAM. Also, I talked to my mom, and she told me that she changed memory on her old VAIO laptop - apparently there are these strange books called "manuals" that will guide you through the process. HA, sony is such a weird company
I have also noticed taht after the 5% small business coupon this order comes to like $1,993 - which is in my budget lol
Definitely tell me what you think of yours. I'm getting kinda antsy to get mine, but july is SO FAR AWAY! It's ok, i know i'll regret it if i get it now instead of later.

Thanks for everything!

 

Don't worry, as soon as I get it the first thing I plan to do is open it up, check everything over, then surf right to this web site to post an initial response I have of it and the Dell experience of buying it (as bonus material). It's the least I can do for the web site community that helped me so much in making my own decision.

And by July, there may even be better options available for the same model and at possibly cheaper prices or a better sale or coupon upgrades etc..

Though, in this industry you never can really be sure, by July the price may have gone up and the available options may have gotten worse.

You'll be fine, July isn't that far away, I know I don't want to look at what options are available and prices for the same model in July myself once mine comes in. I'm affraid I'll see better options and cheaper prices than I got and paid for, though I doubt it, I'm pretty happy with the price and options I got, still wish RAID 0 was available for laptops though.

 

lol yea...i tend to have a little less than great luck, but i'm hoping that all changes.

what exactly is RAID 0?

I look forward to reading your Dell bonus material. Perhaps you could write about your experiences with Dell support Actually, im waiting to speak to a service rep right now, and this message is reassuring
"You are number (6) in queue. Estimated wait time is 51 minutes 36 seconds "
Honestly, it's 11:45, lets all flood Dell support center with stupid questions!

EDIT: If you have the 7200rpm HD in your D820, I'd like to know about the heat it generates

 

Hehe, you'd have a heart attack if you filled your gas guzzling american SUV up in the UK then since petrol is quite a bit more than twice that price .

Check out the wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#RAID_0
Basically it joins 2 or more disks together to make 1 big one. This allows data to be written/read faster, the downside being that due to the way the data is distributed (in stripes) on the disks if one disk goes so does all the data.

 

Esoterica, I have a question. I ordered a D820 with a 24X cd in the modular bay. I wanted a DVD writer. My plan is to send the machine back and get one configured w/ the DVD writer (This is only b/c I thought it was a non removable item). It sounds like (from the post above), I can actually benefit from this configuration by buying the drive cheaper later? Please confirm.

 

check www.newegg.com for prices and see which option is cheaper

 

Hi Redneck,

You want to fit the face plate of your CD ROM, then purchase LG DVD burner at Newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827136070

I order mine with 24x CD as well, then I figured out Dell is using LG brand. Thus, I ordered that DVD burner from Newegg. It fits the factory face plate perfectly, and it's a great burner. Rather paying Dell $139 for a dvd burner, you can save about $50 if you buy a LG burner.

I also ordered my system with 512MB of RAM. Then, I purchased 2GB Transcend DDR 2 667Mhz from Newegg. They are working well, and I don't have any problem with Transcend RAM. It costs about $80 for each 1GB. Hope this will help you.

 

Thanks for the info on the DVD and the RAM. I think I'll order. The DVD writer looks like its up to about $80.

 

I just looked at that burner....it lists itself as a Dual Layer burner. Do you have DL capability? I read some things that made me think that it was the D820 that didn't have the capability. Maybe its just the drive they use.

 

Yes, it has DL capability. I don't know what DVD burner Dell is using, but LG burnner supports DL as I tested it.

 

Hey, I'm in the same boat as you, I just bought a precision m65 (same as an 820), went for the minimum memory planning to upgrade from newegg or Fry's. Just a heads up, after looking at the online manual at dell, it's not quite so easy to get to ( still doesnt look that bad though ). You can get to one of the slots from the bottom but to get to the other you need to pop off the panel above the keyboard and remove the keyboard ( 3 screws ). Just so you know.

 

Interesting....I thought it would be easier than that. I think my old Latitude 620C or whatever it was had 2 easily accessible slots on the rear.

BTW....I got my 820 today and love it so far.

One thing to note though. The gigabit ethernet adapter comes by default disabled when running on batt.

 

I think actually if you look in the Dell QuickSet program, if the NIC is not in use when the unit goes on battery then it will be turned off to save power. If it's in use when you switch to battery (or I would assume if it is connected when you boot up disconnected from power) then it should not be disabled. This is able to be changed in the program to be always on when on battery if you wish.

 

Hurricane, Gotcha.

I'll tell you what. The Latitude support is worth the extra money!!!!

 

You made me go look and your right, what a strange way to do it.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latd820/en/sm/memory.htm#wp1084976

Fortuneatly though DIMM A is the one under the keyboard, which means thats the one that will have the memory installed in it from the factory if you only ordered a single DIMM.

DIMM B is the one under it with the easy access door that will be empty and waiting for you to install your own second upgrade stick of RAM.

 

Just wanted everyone to know I tried Age of Empires III. Works great!

 

Lots of dell notebooks have a RAM slot under the keyboard. It's not too unusual and isn't as hard to access as it may seem. 5-10 minutes is all it takes.

 

Okay, I purchased this DVD burner which was recommended earlier in this thread, but I don't think it fits the D820. Can someone confirm? What DO I acutally need? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827136070