Dell LatitudeD600-Gaming?

cr1spy

My college course requires a laptop, and they have a deal with Dell for cheaper laptops.

The best one available has:

Pentium M 1.3 Processor
512mb RAM
ATI Radeon 9000 4xAGP, 32mb DDR Video SDRAM
40gb hard drive

My question is will this play the next generation games such as Deus Ex 2, HL2, Doom 3?

Is it worth 2000 euro?

jesus_thats_gre

You would be better of going to the P4 Dell's, they would suit gaming far more.

Also, get a 64mb graphics card as a minimum.

astrofool

the pentium-m 1.4 is competitive with the p4 2.4 performance wise.

I would say it could be pushing it to run hl2 and doom3, considering the graphics card is a 9000, they will run though.

Dr Bolouswki

you'll get better performance graphics wise from a inspiron...

cr1spy

Thanks but that really is the best one they offer.Of the other two, one has a Celeron processor, and the other has Intel graphics.

jesus_thats_gre

the pentium-m 1.4 is competitive with the p4 2.4 performance wise.

Benchmarks have shown that this is the case in some applications. One of the primary benefits is the power saving features of the processor it seems.

If the laptop is used primarily on the move, then get the Centrino. Otherwise get a P4 laptop, purely for cost versus performance reasons.

I personally have a 3.06 P4 laptop from Advent. It has a 64mb Radeon 9000 graphics card and has been able to manage anything I have thrown at it. It only cost 1800 euro, which is far cheaper than what Dell will offer for an equivelent spec. Also, dont buy a Dell over a lesser brand on the basis that you will be get an equally better product.

Shamo

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
Benchmarks have shown that this is the case in some applications. One of the primary benefits is the power saving features of the processor it seems.

If the laptop is used primarily on the move, then get the Centrino. Otherwise get a P4 laptop, purely for cost versus performance reasons.

I personally have a 3.06 P4 laptop from Advent. It has a 64mb Radeon 9000 graphics card and has been able to manage anything I have thrown at it. It only cost 1800 euro, which is far cheaper than what Dell will offer for an equivelent spec. Also, dont buy a Dell over a lesser brand on the basis that you will be get an equally better product.

Was it €1800 in the Dublin PCWorld or somewhere in UK?

conZ

cr1spy.

If you're looking for a laptop, go here www.ajp.co.uk

http://www.ajp.co.uk/prices.html for the price list. A P4 3.06ghz, 17'' widescreen tft, 80gb hdd and radeon 9000 should work out at about €2000.

jesus_thats_gre

Got it for 1800 euro in PC World in Sprucefield, near Lisburn. Just south of Belfast.

Duffman

I was about to post the exact same question...

The advantage of the Centrino is that we're going to be using the UCD wireless network and P4s eat battery power afaik.. and the D600 has a metallic case.

Apart from the processor, the D600 looks like a powerful machine but I want to check out the Inspirons before I pay..


I'm not familiar with benchmarks etc and have been using a pIII 700 desktop with nothing to compare it to... Just to get an idea.. Even though the pentium M is a power-saving mobile chip, I assume the 1.3ghz will kick the PIII's ass performance-wise?

Oh and is 256 -> 512 megs of ram for €72 worth it?

Dr_Teeth

I'd get the extra memory for sure, 512 is a minimum these days I reckon - plus it may help your battery life as the disk will be swapping less.

As for gaming, I think any of the machines mentioned will play current and past games just fine. Future games like HL2/Doom3 will be playable only with all the settings turned down imho.

Teeth.