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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?"
No. For entertainment, give me a cube PC and a projector. Just as portable, ten times the fun and cheaper.
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For that much money, I don't really see how you could pass up an 17-inch Apple PowerBook G4. One of these babies could be optained for about 3000 USD. :-)
When pricing laptops, the executive types always pick the smallest size. You wouldn't believe the amount of thought that went into extra power vs. 8 extra OUNCES. The younger game-playing employees always price out the laptops with the most power, knowing that an extra few pounds means _nothing_ when you're rolling it down the concourse. To me, it's all about desktop replacement.
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
WUXGA+ screen, which is 1920x1200 pixels.
What I want to know is, why is it you can buy a laptop with that flat panel installed, but you can't buy an LCD monitor for your desktop PC that can do that?
-JDF
..and I'm very happy with it. P4 3.2GHz desktop proc, 1 GB PC 3200 RAM, 128 MB ATI 9600 Pro, 60 GB 7200RPM HDD, 16.1" XUGA TFT, XP Professional. I bought it because I like to GAME. Sure, powerbooks are great and are beasts in their own right, but very few current OL games are supported and that is the ONLY reason I didn't go Mac. Alienware is certainly expensive, but you get what you pay for. They really know how to engineer their systems for optimal cooling. Dell realizes Alienware's success (witness AW is on Forbes' list of the fastest growing businesses this year) and is entering the foray. Methinks that they'll do well initially, but the quality that gaming systems require may or may not be met through Dell's uber-assembly line format.
I remember reading a review for an IBM T41P the other day -- the reviewer's test machine retailed at something like $5500 CAD. Very few people can afford these monstrosities; most of us go for the $2500 "bare bones but still a Mercedes" IBM notebook instead.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
How is this offtopic?? I stated that I can play games on a Powerbook that costs half as much as the laptop in question, I think that's pretty on topic. And it's true, too.
This Dell can't compete with the Alienware laptops, I'm a gamer and if you look at both laptops the Alienware is way cooler. And, if you were a gamer that hangs out with other gamers they would laugh at you for owning a Dell. You wouldn't get laughed at for an Alienware. Just my to bits -Kimpak
Let's see, that's a non-mobile Pentium at 3.4GHz, and Dell says it's 9 pounds. So in real life we're looking at an 11 pound computer that you won't want on your lap, plus it'll have maybe 60-90 minutes of battery life?
Maybe one of the optional accessories will be a lead-acid car battery with adapter and carrying case!
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Here, take a walk down memory lane: http://www.firstibmclone.fsnet.co.uk/
[* The Rule of Hard: Any task that is or precieved to be too dificult will be avoided.]
But portable systems like these laptops are much better and with XP, the network is plug and play (usually) (Also, wireless networking is great). All you have to lug around is a backpack and setup is as simple as taking it out, plugging in the mouse and turning it on.
Performance wise, my only issue is that some games do not render quite right on my Area51m and an occasional few don't work at all. They work fine on my desktop so I would have to say that there is a difference between the PCI and the laptop version of a card. Fortuantely, they were odd games that I did not need to have portable.
I have 3 desktops and a laptop. One desktop I built, one I pulled out of the trash (its actually a fairly decent machine) and the laptop I bought refurbed for 400 dollars. Its a 366 pentium 2 that I'm typing this on ... outside, sitting next to the pond on 802.11b.
When I need power I'll sit at my desk with the athlon but sometimes its nice to sit outside and work.
I'd love one.
I'm an electrical engineer, and need to do some pretty resource intensive simulatons. I also work with 11x17 sized drawings.
Currently I have a laptop, but the performance is somewhat lacking. Even so, there's no way I'd give it up and switch to a desktop.
At the end of the day, I hit a button, pull a lever and take all my work home. This morning, I spent the first four hours working at home via the company's VPN.
With my laptop and a VPN connection, putting in a 60 hour week on a critical project no longer means that I have to spend 60 away from home.
I couldn't give a rats ass about the weight or battery life of my laptop. I use it on my desk at home and my desk at work.
If someone was willing to double the width and weight of my laptop in excange for twice the sceen area and processing power, I'd go for it in a heartbeat.
And as for price, it's not that big of a deal when you consider the cost of my time waiting for a simulation to finish or the price of the software that I actually run on the laptop.
When my laptop is obsolete, they can pass it on to someone in finance, shipping, or wherever.
Right now, I'm looking at an HP ZD7000 series "notebook." Sure they're huge, but that mean they actually have a decent sized keyboard, and a nice big display. As long as I can carry it with one hand, it's portable enough for me.
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Str8Dog
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"IMO, buying a laptop is the height of stupidity"
I am not a big fan of laptops but they do have their place.
In the field, measurements, data collection and so forth, where sometimes power outlets and mobility and small size can be an advantage. Example, between large industrial machines, where there is no room for a desktop system and hardware, or outdoors taking measurements and tests, where there is no power.
Also, using a serial port to configure a new Cisco device is a lot easier with a laptop in a computer room then using anything else.
In apartments and dorms: Space is limited, and my wife has thankfully let me have my computer desk with my desktop, and also she has let me put my Mandrake machine under one of the end tables with a monitor on top with a mouse and keyboard. Space is pretty limited here, and having a laptop to do what we want would be nice, I would really enjoy not having the mandrake machine under the end-table or having 1/3 of my living room being taken up with my computer desk.
But, I don't have money, I do have however is two tower computers that run..........
Anyhew,
Like I said, laptops have their (expensive) place.
I remember when they released the latest and greatest 8000-series of the Inspiron, and it was plagued with problems, such as power/battery issues, video card issues (GeForce2Go required a different/higher voltage than the ATi cards.) I personally had to deal with all of this junk, along with Dell claiming it wasn't their fault. Searching their forums, I could find at least 25 others having the same exact issues as me, with the same exact hardware (first release of the Inspiron 8xxx series, 8000.)
So in the future, I'm wary to buy any series/model from them that's "brand new", especially if it's a laptop. Seems like they iron out the kinks and them release a newer revision (8100, 8200, etc.) that works pretty darn well.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
I've got a Sager (they compete with Alienware in the "custom" power laptop market) with a 3.2ghz P4 and ATI Radeon 9600 Mobility. The thing is definitely a desktop replacement when it comes to games - it's the fastest machine I've ever owned.
But your question about battery life is a very important one. Maximum life doing minimal activities (firefox, ssh, e-mail) or a lightweight game (non-3d) it only lasts about 20-30 minutes on the battery.
Now... most of the time when I take my laptop with me, I'm not running on battery but someone else's plug so it's no big deal really.
"You can come as close as you want without bad things happening as long as you don't actually touch it. You could even be a pixel away."
Unfortunately, people in the real world have larger "personal spaces" than people in GTA3. Whoops.
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I agree. Not a good value for the money. I priced out the same config for their closest non-gaming laptop, the Inspiron 8600, and it's $2500 after mail in rebate. It has the same screen. The CPU is a Pentium M 1.7 instead of the P4 3.4 (only a little slower and much more practical for battery life). The video chip is a Radeon Mobility 9600 instead of the Radeon Mobility 9700. The Gig of RAM and 7200rpm hard drive are pricey options. You could save $500 by going to 512MB and 5400rpm. Still, if you had to have better gaming performance than the Pentium M 1.7 + Radeon 9600 and damn the battery life, the XPS is the only way to go from Dell. Not my money.
I'd love it if an OEM produced a standard form-factor laptop that could swap all (or most) of the components, even if it was bulkier/heavier. More people are using laptops as desktop replacements (or 2nd computer) and would like this (I've counted 10+ at our office who would buy something like this if it were available and somewhat reasonably priced).
but what do i know, i'm just a model.
Well since, the Inspiron 8100, GeForce2Go to a Geforce4 MX 440 64MB DDR.
plus if you spend enough time on ebay, you could actually upgrade the whole 8100 to a 8200 for less than $400, that includes 1GB RAM.
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