Dell Inspiron vs. Dell Studio?

Princess Fiona

Hey everyone, just looking for your opinions on this one.... Basically I'm purchasing a new laptop. Have had 2 Dells already, an Inspiron 1100 (purchased 2004) and an Inspiron 510M (purchased 2005). Both are now seriously out of date, slow and lacking in memory (20GB and 40GB respectively). Have always been pleased with Dell so would like to purchase from them again, however I'm not sure whether to go for the Inspiron (again) or the Studio....

The basic studio is about E70 dearer than the Inspiron but I'm not sure if it's really worth the extra. I'll be using the laptop for college (a lot of internet usage involved as I'm doing an online course), photos, music, word processing, etc... Basically all the usual stuff. No gaming or films really... Am considering upgrading processor, memory and hard drive, but again, not sure if it's worth the extra money, as even a basic laptop will surely seem so much faster than what I'm using at the moment, which has a 1.30GHz processor, 256MB RAM and 40GB hard drive.

I was considering upgrading from a T4200 to a T6400 processor, from 160GB to 250GB or even 320GB, (have a large music and photo collection) and from 2048MB to 3072MB RAM. Are these upgrades likely to make a substantial difference to how fast the machine runs? I'm keen to be able to run several programs at once (i.e. Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Word, etc)....

Thanks in advance!

partyatmygaff

Princess Fiona wrote: »

Hey everyone, just looking for your opinions on this one.... Basically I'm purchasing a new laptop. Have had 2 Dells already, an Inspiron 1100 (purchased 2004) and an Inspiron 510M (purchased 2005). Both are now seriously out of date, slow and lacking in memory (20GB and 40GB respectively). Have always been pleased with Dell so would like to purchase from them again, however I'm not sure whether to go for the Inspiron (again) or the Studio....

The basic studio is about E70 dearer than the Inspiron but I'm not sure if it's really worth the extra. I'll be using the laptop for college (a lot of internet usage involved as I'm doing an online course), photos, music, word processing, etc... Basically all the usual stuff. No gaming or films really... Am considering upgrading processor, memory and hard drive, but again, not sure if it's worth the extra money, as even a basic laptop will surely seem so much faster than what I'm using at the moment, which has a 1.30GHz processor, 256MB RAM and 40GB hard drive.

I was considering upgrading from a T4200 to a T6400 processor, from 160GB to 250GB or even 320GB, (have a large music and photo collection) and from 2048MB to 3072MB RAM. Are these upgrades likely to make a substantial difference to how fast the machine runs? I'm keen to be able to run several programs at once (i.e. Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Word, etc)....

Thanks in advance!

Just to clarify things and to help you out in the future.
The HDD was 20GB and 40GB not the memory.
The ram aka memory was 2048mb etc etc aka 2gb

Anyways enough of that

The only major difference between a studio and an inspiron is the studio is more of the trendy stylish type of laptop.
If style is not a major factor consider buying one of their vostro laptops, they are much cheaper and you will get a better specced laptop.


But if I was buying a laptop(Sorry if im going on a bit)
I would buy something other than dell like maybe...
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/asp/versions.asp?rewrite=Sony_VAIO_NS20ZS_Laptop_VGNNS20ZS&pagetype=version&page=

A Sony VAIO much better than both models your talking about
It has a T6400, 4GB ram, 320GB and a proper albeit a bit low end graphics card well capable of HD Video and most games though.
Something to consider

Princess Fiona

Thanks for that, like the look of the Sony, good value too, I have a max. budget of E700 and this would be less than that.
Re. the Vostro, are these on the Dell site? Haven't come across them.

partyatmygaff

Princess Fiona wrote: »

Thanks for that, like the look of the Sony, good value too, I have a max. budget of E700 and this would be less than that.
Re. the Vostro, are these on the Dell site? Haven't come across them.

The vostro are in the small business section just choose for business instead of for home but thats only if you want dell who do agreeably make good laptops but cost a bit more than competitors(Sometimes)

Just another alternative is an acer aspire 6930g
Much better spec imo.
P7350 (Penryn core, newest mobile cpu runs better and at lower temperatures and is a good bit faster than a T6400)
3GB Ram (4GB ram is no good unless you have a 64-Bit version of vista and if you dont know what a 64bit version of vista is then you probably don't need it)
250GB HDD

and the icing on the cake
NVIDIA 9600M GS - Best mid range card you can get in a laptop imo.


Sorry if im getting a bit too techy

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/asp/versions.asp?rewrite=Acer_Aspire_6930G_Laptop_LX.AVB0X.001&pagetype=version&page=

leninbenjamin

partyatmygaff wrote: »

The vostro are in the small business section just choose for business instead of for home but thats only if you want dell who do agreeably make good laptops but cost a bit more than competitors(Sometimes)

Just another alternative is an acer aspire 6930g
Much better spec imo.
P7350 (Penryn core, newest mobile cpu runs better and at lower temperatures and is a good bit faster than a T6400)
3GB Ram (4GB ram is no good unless you have a 64-Bit version of vista and if you dont know what a 64bit version of vista is then you probably don't need it)
250GB HDD

and the icing on the cake
NVIDIA 9600M GS - Best mid range card you can get in a laptop imo.


Sorry if im getting a bit too techy

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/asp/versions.asp?rewrite=Acer_Aspire_6930G_Laptop_LX.AVB0X.001&pagetype=version&page=

bear in mind, that model listed is over 3.5KG. that's fairly heavy for a laptop. is portability an issue? will you be taking it with you to college every day?

also, don't buy from laptopsdirect.ie. see here for reasons why: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055365923

Voodu Child

I was considering upgrading from a T4200 to a T6400 processor, from 160GB to 250GB or even 320GB, (have a large music and photo collection) and from 2048MB to 3072MB RAM

You're not doing the kind of stuff where you'll notice a processor increase much, and the T4200 and T6400 are pretty close anyway.

Going from 2Gb to 3Gb won't be hugely noticeable to you either. Ram is cheap as crap these days, so I wouldn't base the decision to much on 2Gb vs 3Gb.

Your HDD will be pretty important to you from the sounds of it, so obviously go for a big one if you need storage space. Go for a fast one too if you can (7200rpm) as it will have a decent effect on day to day 'responsiveness' of the system.

For your needs I would probably just save the money and get a Lenovo N500 or similar. That's a good spec and very good value for money.

Princess Fiona

voodoo_child wrote: »

You're not doing the kind of stuff where you'll notice a processor increase much, and the T4200 and T6400 are pretty close anyway.

Going from 2Gb to 3Gb won't be hugely noticeable to you either. .

Thanks for your replies - the above comment pretty much sums it up for me - this is what I was wondeirng, whether the processor and RAM upgrades would make any noticeable difference when it comes to day to day running. Seems like they won't.

Dell have quoted me E707 for a Studio 15 with T4200 proccessor, 3GB RAM and 250GB HD. It's pink, so it looks cute (sad I know but what can I say, I'm a girly girl). Just wondering, is this crazy over-priced? Also, are the Studios very bulky? I won't be bringing it around much but have 2 tanks of laptops at home already, don't really want a 3rd!