Intel X3100 or nVidia 8400M GS?

I'm looking at getting a semi-small laptop for college, and the price, looks, and quality of the Dell Vostro 1400 have really caught my eye. One thing I can't decide on, though, is the video card. Some things to keep in mind:

My friends and I like to get together every now and then for mini-LAN parties. I don't need top-of-the-line performance, but would the 8400M GS suffice for games such as CS:S, F.E.A.R., and UT2004, etc. (also Starcraft )? I don't mind turning the settings way down as long as I can play some. It would definitely beat lugging my steel desktop case around, but if it can't play them, it isn't worth it.

My major is engineering. Should I be concerned with graphics performance? I'm assuming I'll be doing some CAD, maybe some 3D apps. I have no idea. Any input from people who have recently gone though / are currently in a college of engineering is appreciated.

I want battery life. My classes are far away from my dorm, so I'll be out for long periods of time, and I don't want to carry a power adapter with me if I can avoid it. I will definitely get the 9-cell battery, but just how much would the dedicated graphics card hurt my battery life? (I will of course plug it in for gaming.)

I also plan on getting 2gb of memory, so the fact that the X3100 would steal some of that doesn't bother me.

Thank you in advance!

 

For all the uses you've stated, an 8400M-GS will suit your needs much better than an x3100. College CAD work should be fine with the 8400M-GS, for undergrad work basically any modern dedicated card will do.

Battery life will suffer on the 8400M-GS, but most likely not by more than 10% or so. That means if the integrated card got 5 hours on the 9 cell, your dedicated card would get 4.5hrs (those numbers are just made up for illustrative purposes, I don't know what laptop you're looking at so I don't know exactly what you're battery life would be)

 

Thanks, I appreciate the quick answer. Now to convince my parents that I don't just want the dedicated card for gaming. This could be tricky.

 

Use one of the e-value codes that includes the 8400 in the base config for $599. I posted a deal for this in the notebook deals forum, check it out.

Also I would reccomend getting a 6 cell and a 9 cell battery. For shorter trips or times when you will only need the laptop for 2 hours, the 6 cell is a lot more convenient to use.

 

tell ur parents that ur major requires the need for a dedicated GPU (which it does) because CAD and 3d rendering can be very graphic intensive (in advanced stages) -- so to bettter future proof for your college experience, that is absolutely what u need

 

Yes, that's true. You can easily say that a dedicated graphics card is required for your major, because in reality it is. You could probably get by on an x3100, especially when the drivers mature, but your parents don't need to know that

 

Whoa, that is a better deal. 40 more gigs on the hard drive, double the RAM (though I'm going to get 2x1GB sticks of $40 ram anyway, so that's a moot point). Thanks for the link.

I'll probably heed this advice too. It's just an extra $20 to get a bonus 9-cell instead of just a 9-cell.

Yeah, that's my plan of attack. Know of any good websites that reinforce that recommendation? My parents REALLY don't want me to play any games on this thing, and unfortunately I've taught them enough about computers that they know when I'm getting more hardware than I might need .

 

What program are you entering? Often the program's website will tell you what software they use, and sometimes even recommend what hardware you need.

 

I'll be going into Electrical and Computer Engineering at UTK. The College of Engineering sent out a general "minimum" specs sheet, and boy were they minimal. I've looked and can't seem to find anything specifically for ECE (or anything that appears to be from this millennium for that matter). That coupon that Ocellaris posted makes a system with the 8400M GS less expensive than one without, and since there is minimal hit on battery life, I see no reason not to get it. That is, of course, assuming I can convince my parents of it before the coupon expires. I couldn't find an expiration date.

 

That e-value code expires in 7 days.

 

ehh maybe look at mayan's or autocad's requirements .. they prolly recommend a high end GPU

 

EECS eh? most likely you would never use CAD

 

Depends on what you specialize in. There are plenty of classes you can take that are pretty much exclusively AutoCAD or Maya, and then there are people who graduate and maybe only used the program once.

 

Well, I configured a system earlier for $887 that includes the 8400M GS, the 1.6GHz C2D, Vista Business, 2GB of RAM, 80GB HDD, 802.11n, BT 2.0, webcam, and 9-cell battery (I guess it'll be $907 or so after I change that to 6-cell + 9-cell), I did that before ocellaris' advice. I really don't think I'll be able to beat that price-to-performance ratio, especially not for a 14.1" laptop. Better safe (/gameworthy ) than sorry.