Need help deciding laptop for college

Need help deciding laptop for collegeFollow

#1 Apr 24 2006 at 8:08 PM Rating: Decent

Scholar

809 posts

Maybe some of you can help me decide. I'm going to dragging this to class, playing FFXI and some other games, and just general computer use.

Alienware Area-51 m5700:
IntelÂ® PentiumÂ® M 730 1.6GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB
AlienwareÂ® m5700 17" WideXGA 1280 x 800 LCD - Xeno Grey
AlienwareÂ® IntelÂ® 915PM + ICH6 Chipset
IntelÂ® PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g Wireless Card
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
60GB 5400 RPM SATA with NCQ
256MB NVidiaÂ® GeForceâ„¢ Go 6800
IntelÂ® High-Definition Audio
24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD Combo w/Software MPEG2 Decoder

Dell Inspiron E1705:
IntelÂ® Coreâ„¢ Duo Processor T2400 (1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
256MB ATI MOBILITYâ„¢ RADEONÂ® X1400 HyperMemory

I'm leaning toward the Dell to be honest, but I've heard good things about Alienware notebooks. Also I'm kinda curious about the video card differences, but I've heard ATI works better with FFXI.

Any suggestions?

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#2 Apr 25 2006 at 1:10 PM Rating: Good

__DEL__1591781235269

Sage

3,771 posts

FFXI has a ceiling where it won't get any faster or any better looking. Both those systems are well beyond that ceiling and I expect you would see the same quality and performance from both. I wouldn't say that ATI cards are better for ffxi, just that most of the people who have serious problems with their video cards happen to own nvidia 5200-5700 series.

That ATI is a few generations newer GPU though, so for other games you will probably get more from the Dell. Also the Dell's processor is dual core, so it should be capable of twice the nongraphical workload.

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