Dell's Gaming Monster

Carpoolio writes "TechTV has a good first look at the new Dell Inspiron XPS -- the company's first foray into portable gaming systems. The notebook -- a beast at 9 pounds -- puts the company squarely against the likes of Alienware. The price tag is steep, too, at $3,350. Are you buying?"

Comments

LCDs are fine for gaming

[ikewillis]

Check out the Dell 2001FP. With a 16ms response, it's more than adequate for gaming.

Re:I'm not buying...

[hobbesmaster]

I have a friend that plays exclusively on his Sager 4080. Hes far better at using a touchpad in FPS's than a mouse, and is one of the better gamers I know. Just because you can't beat Half Life on hardest difficulty in the back of your physics class doesn't mean that everyone can't.

There is a market out there for these notebooks, but I would rather have a clevo of some sort (sagers appear to be the best), but I guess some people would want to pay more for Dell...

PS. LCDs are pretty good for gaming these days, the LCD gaming problems were with the older ones.

it's under 3 grand

[cubyrop]

i can't seem to find where poster got the 3,300 price tag. From dell.com:

New Inspiron XPS Starting at $2599 After $250 Mail-in Rebate
Pentium(R)4 w/HT Technology 3.4GHz,15.4 WUXGA
512MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
60GB 7200 rpm Ultra ATA Hard Drive
4X CD/DVD burner(DVD+RW/+R) including Sonic RecordNow and MyDVD LE
$2,849

2600 bucks is actually fairly well inline, and a huge difference from 3,300 in the makes-the-eyeballs-bulge dep't.

Re:it's under 3 grand

[stratjakt]

The system tested in the TechTV article was 3350, it had 1 gig of RAM and the optional battery/subwoofer addon, and some other bells and whistles.

Also, after note the "after $250 mail-in rebate", which I dont think TechTV included - they reported the actual out-of-pocket cost.

Sorry, dude

[slobber]

I recently purchased the following system:

Athlon64 3200+
1G RAM
200G Maxtor HD
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
DVD ROM, 1 Gigabit Ethernet

The total was $1,280 (including shipping)
So why would I want to pay almost 3x to get a 9 pound monster? The 2K+ premium for (semi)portability is simply too high...

Notebooks are not your only choice.

[openSoar]

If you want raw power as well as luggability, big hulking laptops like this aren't your only choice. The current generation of ultra small form factor pcs from Shuttle et al can fit this much power into a tiny case that comes with a cool carry bag. Add in a really nice 17" 12x10 lightweight lcd monitor and you're set with a lot more dosh left in your pocket - you can even splash on a dell 2001fp 16x12 lcd for $750 and still be way under budget. You pay a large premium to pack it all into a "portable" space and then it's difficult to upgrade.

Re:It's the power consumption that'll kill ya...

[Dr. Mojura]

From the imdb trivia on Back to the Future:

In the films script the word "gigawatt" is spelt "jigowatt". Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis had been to a science seminar and the speaker had pronounced it "jigowatt".

Re:It's the power consumption that'll kill ya...

[Dr. Mojura]

Also from imdb...

The prefix "giga" was formerly more commonly pronounced as jiga, just as Doc Brown pronounces it.

and from mirriam-webster:

Main Entry: gigawatt Pronunciation: 'ji-g&-"wat, 'gi- Function: noun : a unit of power equal to one billion watts

So, I think either way's ok.

Re:Alienware

[Nazmun]

Yeah... I'm a gamer and I laugh when i see people with alienware laptops. Knowing that alienware's best laptops are just rebadged sagers for a higher cost.

Ouch indeed

[rsborg]

Not to mention, there are many other respectable gaming class laptops available, for much LE$$.

Besides for that much, I'd go for something with better ruggedness, like a thinkpad, or a powerbook.

Re:Not for the Price

[NotAnotherReboot]

...or you get something that's nearly identical to an Alienware for far less...
check out Sager notebooks, a good site for them is Pc Torque. This particular company even allows you to order it without an operating system.

You'll notice that the cases are completely identical (Sager and Alienware). A lot of them seem to buy the base components from one company. If you remember Liebermann Computers (a lot of people thought they might be a hoax with some of their products), even their laptops look the same.

You'll get the same specs, and probably practically the same system for far cheaper. Bottom line: Alienware is not a good price/performance ratio, especially for notebooks.

Re:No, it's too much

[Rude Turnip]

You can upgrade the graphics chipset on Dell laptops.

Re:No, it's too much

[RugbyHoe]

All valid points but the article indicates that they are at least trying to address the laptop vid card issue. "Dell also takes the step, for the first time in its notebook line, of offering upgradeable graphics for people who need the latest and greatest." My job forces me to spend way too much time in airplanes and hotel rooms - I would love to have the option of replacing the Radeon 7500 I have in my current laptop.

Re:Emachines????

[IndependentVik]

You obviously haven't used an emachines product lately. They've been under new management for awhile now, and the last few models of their laptops have been reviewed as good machines from most of the usual suspects. Check out epinions, for one.

I just bought the M6807 about a month back, and I was very impressed with the raw speed and quality of the display for the price.

They've completely fixed up their support, too. I called once about a minor issue (turned out to be a weird power management setting) and the hold time was about 5 seconds--I was extremely impressed. I heard they just got bought by Gateway, though, so who knows how long the good times will last :(