Dell Studio 14z?

Is this laptop model any good?

If you found a used laptop of this model and it was in good condition, would it be a good choice?

It has a Nvidia chipst, NVIDIA MCP79MX . I have no info or knowledge about this chipset as I usually look for the Intel chipset laptops.

I'm just curious.

Also, it has a Dell Wireless 1515 card. I believe it's an Atheros chip, maybe AR5009? Is that correct? Anyone have any info on it?

I was going to dual boot Linux and Windows 7. Is there drivers for this card?

I read on some sites of people saying the Dell wireless 1515 drivers in Windows is crap so they were using an Atheros driver. Is this possible/recommended?

I also read that the card/driver itself was pretty poor when it came to reception. Atheros is good in Linux so if the card/drivers were okay, it would be good to use. If there's any problems, can you swap wifi cards with an Intel 5300? If so, how would you install drivers? Go to the Dell site and install the Intel driver (for e.g., for another laptop)?

Lastly, back to the Nvidia chipset topic. Does this laptop run hot at all with a Nvidia chipset.

The laptop I'm looking at is someone selling it used but I would probably have to drive there. I wouldn't pay more than $700 (is that too high?) Cdn and the seller is asking $750. It might even be gone at some point, too.

I was considering the Dell Studio 15 but was curious about the 14z.

Thanks for any answers.

 

The NVIDIA chipset is similar to the one used on entry-level Macbooks and it's also standard on the Dell Studio XPS 1340. It has an onboard (integrated) graphics card that performs as well as most entry-level dedicated graphics cards. It's often referred to as the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G, if that helps.