A few laptop questions.

Mutant_Fruit

Laptop specs:
Pentium M 735 (1.70Ghz, 2MB L2 cache, 400 Mhz FSB)
15.0" XGA
Windows XP Pro
512Mb 333MHz DDR RAM
6 Cell 53WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery
40GB HD (5400rpm)
8XDVD / 24XCD-RW
Intel ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini-PCI card

I have a few questions about this laptop (the D505 from Dell).

I've been wandering around the net, but i can't seem to find any info on how good the "Integrated Intel® 855GM" graphics chipset would be. I assume that its going to be fairly ****e, considaring most on-chip solutions are quite bad. What kind of card could i buy to put into this laptop, and for how much. Money isn't really an issue cos the laptop is costing a mere 500 (i just had to gloat ). And what kind of impact would this have on battery life?

Secondly, battery life. What kind of hours would i get on average from the battery, i can't seem to see any info regarding normal battery life on dell's site. And is there anywhere i can get a cheaper second battery than from dell?

Thirdly, is the built in wireless good, or will it be dropping connections a lot and having crap range? Would i need to be getting a proper card to get a good stable connection?

Placebo

i cant answer the first one for you, but

i have an advent 7039 and battery is quite crap, i think i would get around 2 hours if i was just to use programs like MS word or doing some programming.
>1 hour if i play music.
<1 hour if i play cds+games.

as for inbuilt wireless, you have a B standard, B's range isnt good, i got an inbuilt G , but it was still ****, didnt work properly for me, i bought a PCMCIA wifi card, way better.

P.s : dells battery might be a bit better because i heard a rumour that advent use PC motherboard/chips or something, which drain battery.

The_Conductor

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Laptop specs:
Pentium M 735 (1.70Ghz, 2MB L2 cache, 400 Mhz FSB)
15.0" XGA
Windows XP Pro
512Mb 333MHz DDR RAM
6 Cell 53WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery
40GB HD (5400rpm)
8XDVD / 24XCD-RW
Intel ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini-PCI card

I have a few questions about this laptop (the D505 from Dell).

I've been wandering around the net, but i can't seem to find any info on how good the "Integrated Intel® 855GM" graphics chipset would be. I assume that its going to be fairly ****e, considaring most on-chip solutions are quite bad. What kind of card could i buy to put into this laptop, and for how much. Money isn't really an issue cos the laptop is costing a mere 500 (i just had to gloat ). And what kind of impact would this have on battery life?

Secondly, battery life. What kind of hours would i get on average from the battery, i can't seem to see any info regarding normal battery life on dell's site. And is there anywhere i can get a cheaper second battery than from dell?

Thirdly, is the built in wireless good, or will it be dropping connections a lot and having crap range? Would i need to be getting a proper card to get a good stable connection?

Its highly unlikely you will be able to upgrade the graphics card.
As onboard graphics go- the 855 chipset isn't too bad at all (its not going to compete with an AGP 8X Radeon 9800 Pro- but then you weren't expecting it to?) For the vast majority of the applications you'll come across it will more than satisfy your needs.

Re: Memory- if you're running XP Pro GET MORE RAM!!!!!

Processor is nice- it will help prolong battery life.

The wireless is a dual b/g 54mbps card- which is fine (personally I prefer PCMCIA cards, because you tend to have better signal strength from the external aerials).

Its a nice laptop- and for Euro 500 you are absolutely laughing. If I were offered it at that price I'd throw a party.

Go for it.

S.

PhoenixRising

I got a Dell about two weeks ago with almost identical specs and yes, the on-board graphics is pretty weak, but more than adequate for most applications. If you intend on using your laptop for a lot of gaming then you should definitely consider getting a dedicated graphics card.

Regarding battery life, I get between 2-3hrs depending on what I'm using it for and what power scheme I am running.

That wireless card is fine. It is part of the Intel Centrino technology, and it does support both B and G. I have the very same card and have never had a dropped connection. Speed and stability are very good.

Mutant_Fruit

I won't be doing too much gaming on it, but i presume it would be well able to handle 640x480 or 800x600 resolutions with the quality settings down. I wouldn't be pushed about getting 1280x1024 full AA etc etc.

Considaring its a dell, do i have to get special ram for it? I heard rumors before that dell had special ram so if you wanted to upgrade, you'd have to pay through the nose to get it from them. Is this the same for the battery? Or can anyone recommend another place to get compatible batteries for cheaper than dell?

A friend of mine has a laptop (acer i think) and he's always complaining about the wireless connection being unstable, its nice to know that the card i've been provided with has some reliability.

Even if i changed my mind in a years time, and didn't want the laptop, i tihnk i could easily resell it for more than 500. If you were to go to dells website and configure that laptop, it costs 1700! This is an amazing offer, theres no way i'd turn it down.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Yes, the wireless connection is perfectly stable, this going by the centrino laptop the sister has.

The graphics are good enough for the likes of hl at 640 * 480 (this going by the 32 meg shared intel graphics on above laptop.)

512 megs of ram is more then enough for XP Pro, unless your doing friggin CAD on it or something, in which case 512 isnt exactly ideal but it would get by.

Jammer

why would u need more then 512mb with xp pro??

RicardoSmith

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

I won't be doing too much gaming on it, but i presume it would be well able to handle 640x480 or 800x600 resolutions with the quality settings down. I wouldn't be pushed about getting 1280x1024 full AA etc etc.

Considaring its a dell, do i have to get special ram for it? I heard rumors before that dell had special ram so if you wanted to upgrade, you'd have to pay through the nose to get it from them. Is this the same for the battery? Or can anyone recommend another place to get compatible batteries for cheaper than dell?.....

The onboard graphics will not be supported by a lot of 3D games. 2D games will probably be fine.

They take standard ram.

Battery is probably best getting from Dell.

If you want more specific info checkout the Dell Talk forums.

I've installed a few of these where I'm working at the moment. Battery life seems to be about 3 hours depending on what you are doing.

seanos

I have same wireless card [on p3 thinkpad - not supported by thinkpad -- offically].
Card is great -- for me windows drivers won't work [laptop halts constantly], however ipw2200 is the linux driver [currenty 0.11] and is v. stable/excellent connections from it.
Reception I get on it is excellent - compared to people with external aerials/pcmcia cards.
Problem I'm having with windows is just me, card in general is excellent - if linux user good support/mailing list also.

Rew

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Laptop specs:
Pentium M 735 (1.70Ghz, 2MB L2 cache, 400 Mhz FSB)
15.0" XGA
Windows XP Pro
512Mb 333MHz DDR RAM
6 Cell 53WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery
40GB HD (5400rpm)
8XDVD / 24XCD-RW
Intel ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini-PCI card

I have a few questions about this laptop (the D505 from Dell).

I've been wandering around the net, but i can't seem to find any info on how good the "Integrated Intel® 855GM" graphics chipset would be. I assume that its going to be fairly ****e, considaring most on-chip solutions are quite bad. What kind of card could i buy to put into this laptop, and for how much. Money isn't really an issue cos the laptop is costing a mere 500 (i just had to gloat ). And what kind of impact would this have on battery life?

Secondly, battery life. What kind of hours would i get on average from the battery, i can't seem to see any info regarding normal battery life on dell's site. And is there anywhere i can get a cheaper second battery than from dell?

Thirdly, is the built in wireless good, or will it be dropping connections a lot and having crap range? Would i need to be getting a proper card to get a good stable connection?

1) The graphics will be fine for anything bar 2D. 3D will be rubish

2) A Pentium M is amazinf when it comes to battery life so expext 3-4 hours. Dell site should say.

3) The Intel crds are great, use the Intel config software if you can its much better the the windows one.

512mb is enough for Win XP but only just, its a complete memmory whore.

The Pentium M is a great chip kicks the shít out of the Mobile P4.

RicardoSmith

Have to say I haven't noticed much diference between 512 and 1gb of ram in my own laptop which I upgraded not long after I got it.

seanos

Disable swap partition/page file.
Less HD usage - longer battery life.
If linux -- google for "laptop-mode" huge improvements.

RicardoSmith

SeanOS wrote:

Disable swap partition/page file.
Less HD usage - longer battery life.
If linux -- google for "laptop-mode" huge improvements.

Disable swap partition/page file. - does that not hurt performance? What if you have a lot of ram. 1gb for example.