Questions before I buy this laptop...

jedi knight · Post by **jedi knight** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:00 pm

It's a Dell Inspiron 1501

Questions before I buy
1. Is this good for the money?
2. Is it good enough for Vista? (I can't buy it with XP)
3. Would it be okay for running some games (eg. CS:S, Warcraft 3, Guild Wars) or will Vista make them terribly slow?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:22 pm

First off, 15" are really big. Not as big as 17", but they're high on the scale of portable to aircraft carrier.

AMD Turion X2 is powerful, but sucks battery life like no tomorrow. Don't expect more than 2.5 hours.

Personally, for $700, I'd get a nice Thinkpad or Lifebook.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:52 pm

15" is big for a "laptop" laptop (ie one that will be portable, not a desktop replacement). I like 13" regular-screen models myself, they're the right balance of portability and screen real estate.

Of course it's good enough for Vista. They wouldn't sell it with Vista if it wasn't.

Games? Source games should work, since my HP Pavilion has comparable hardware and runs HL2, Gmod 9, and Portal fine. (But I do need to upgrade the drivers because it crashes to the point of restarting at the end of level 8.)

My laptop is similar, and Kurt is right. Turion X2 processors are power-hungry little buggers; you won't get very good battery life out of it. I'm lucky to get 3 hours off a full charge. Don't get me wrong, I like my HP, it's just the size of an ocean liner and drains its battery really quickly.

If you really need battery life, look into a laptop that supports more than one battery. Even my old Toshiba Tecra laptop can support 2 batteries. Back in its prime it went about 10 hours without plugging in. Sometime I want to LED mode the screen, pack the batteries with new cells, and swap the hard drive for flash memory.

You could look into used laptops if you don't need anything spectacular. Thinkpads hold up really well (which is more than can be said for most late-model Dell laptops I've seen). Just re-pack the batteries, load a fresh copy of XP, and it should be good to go.

jedi knight · Post by **jedi knight** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:03 pm

Yeah I know that thing is gigantic and I kinda figured that I wouldn't get the greatest battery life, but it is still better than my old laptop (1 hour of battery life on a full charge!) This laptop was mostly going to be used as a "desktop replacement" so the size issue isn't that big of a deal. So the source games should run okay? I think I might as well get this one.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:48 pm

Why not get a 1520? You can get them with XP on them...

EDIT: Sorry, for some reason I thought the other one was $1200, and your link expired so I couldn't see it.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:09 pm

Thing about thinkpads is they might not run source games (or any new ones). the GMA950 in my R61 wont run it (random crashes. no solution from steam/google works)

Too bad, they are way better than Dells.

jedi knight · Post by **jedi knight** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:09 pm

vskid wrote:Why not get a 1520? You can get them with XP on them...

EDIT: Sorry, for some reason I thought the other one was $1200, and your link expired so I couldn't see it.

Yeah, it seems that the laptop that I posted the link to has disappeared. The only laptop on there now is the 1520, and to get decent specs on it will cost $1000+. Why does crap like this always happen?

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:43 pm

jedi knight wrote:
vskid wrote:Why not get a 1520? You can get them with XP on them...

EDIT: Sorry, for some reason I thought the other one was $1200, and your link expired so I couldn't see it.
Yeah, it seems that the laptop that I posted the link to has disappeared. The only laptop on there now is the 1520, and to get decent specs on it will cost $1000+. Why does crap like this always happen?

You could just buy it from Tigerdirect or Newegg... I've used both (along with thousands of others), they're good. Tigerdirect seems to have better deals on the low end, and they are pretty similar for mid to high end stuff.

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:06 pm

Read some reviews first.

jedi knight · Post by **jedi knight** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:23 pm

vskid wrote:
jedi knight wrote:
vskid wrote:Why not get a 1520? You can get them with XP on them...

EDIT: Sorry, for some reason I thought the other one was $1200, and your link expired so I couldn't see it.
Yeah, it seems that the laptop that I posted the link to has disappeared. The only laptop on there now is the 1520, and to get decent specs on it will cost $1000+. Why does crap like this always happen?
You could just buy it from Tigerdirect or Newegg... I've used both (along with thousands of others), they're good. Tigerdirect seems to have better deals on the low end, and they are pretty similar for mid to high end stuff.

I guess I could always buy it from another source. I might find a better alternative in the process.