Solved! Which Laptop is Better

[jbmerlin9920]

Good morning, I just have a quick question on a couple of laptops. I am looking to buy a laptop for just mobile use mostly music and movies, but also browsing the internet and mild gameplay. The game I will be playing the most is World of Warcraft. Below are the specs for the two laptops I am deciding on, I know both of them can play WoW and do everything I ask, but which is truly better?

* Includes notebook, six-cell lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, product manual, and setup diagram
* 2.4GHz Intel Core i3-370M processor
* 17.3" diagonal widescreen WLED HD+ display with 1600x900 resolution
* 6GB DDR3 SDRAM
* 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
* Blu-ray/DVD/CD combo drive
* Dell 2GB DataSafe online backup/storage for one year
* Intel 6200 802.11a/g/n wireless
* Bluetooth wireless technology
* 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5470 graphics
* Integrated stereo speakers
* SRS Premium sound with subwoofer
* 1.3 megapixel Web cam with facial-recognition technology
* Standard keyboard
* 10/100 ethernet
* 7-in-1 media card reader
* Three USB 2.0 ports
* HDMI, eSATA/USB combo, IEEE 1394, VGA, RJ-45 ports
* Line-in/-out, mic-in audio jacks
* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
* Microsoft Office Starter 2010
* 15 months of McAfee Security Center
* 1-year LoJack theft protection


or



# Includes notebook, six-cell lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, manual, and setup diagram
# 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-460M processor
# 15.6" diagonal widescreen WLED HD display with 1366x768 resolution, 720p signal support
# 6GB DDR3 SDRAM
# 640GB 7200 RPM hard drive
# 8X DVD+/RW drive with dual-layer support
# Dell 2GB DataSafe online backup/storage for one year
# Dell 1501 802.11b/g/n wireless
# Bluetooth wireless technology
# ATI Radeon Mobility HD 550v graphics
# Integrated stereo speakers
# SRS Premium sound
# 1.3 megapixel Web cam with facial-recognition technology
# Standard keyboard
# 10/100 ethernet
# 7-in-1 media card reader
# Three USB 2.0 ports
# HDMI, eSATA/USB combo, VGA, RJ-45 ports
# Headphone/microphone jacks
# Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
# Microsoft Office Starter 2010
# 15 months of McAfee Security Center
# 1-year LoJack theft protection



They are practiaclly the same computer with the exception of the display size. Is the upgrade in processor and video on the 15.6 worth sacrificing the blu-ray and the 17.3 inch screen? I also know that the 550v ATI does test better than the 5470 but will it make that much difference for what I want it for?

Any advice would be most appreciated!

 

[WR2]

Hello jbmerlin9920;
Not that much real difference between the two.

* 2.4GHz Intel Core i3-370M processor
* 17.3" diagonal widescreen WLED HD+ display with 1600x900 resolution
* 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5470 graphics
* 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
* Blu-ray
vs
# 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-460M processor
# 15.6" diagonal widescreen WLED HD display with 1366x768 resolution, 720p signal support
# ATI Radeon Mobility HD 550v graphics
# 640GB 7200 RPM hard drive
# 8X DVD+/RW drive


Passmark GPU 3D benchmark scores:
Mobility Radeon HD 5650 613
Mobility Radeon HD 550v 484
Mobility Radeon HD 5470 310
Because the HD 5470 will be driving more pixels (1600x900) than the HD 550v (1366x768) it's gaming performance will seem quite a bit less in WoW & other games than the HD 550v & 1366x768 LCD. That HD 550v is just not quite what you'd want for a gaming GPU though. It will do 'OK' for current and past WoW versions though.

Both will do equally well with being mobile (edge to the smaller/lighter laptop) and music & video should be near equal.
Both will do well with general purpose computing - browsing the 'Net, email, social networking and office & productivity apps. Slight edge to the Core i5-460M but not so much as you'd probably notice it under most conditions.

Blu-Ray vs DVD burner. Since you don't have a 1080 LCD screen you'd be watching Blu-Ray scaled to 720 on the 1600x900 LCD screen.
IMO you'd not be able to notice any movie/video quality difference between Blu-Ray movies and standard HD movies on either laptop.

1600x900 vs 1366x768 LCDs. I'm not too happy with the 'short' 768pixel LCDs. For productivity tasks it means extra scrolling work to move around and get stuff done. For me, this is the biggest and most notable difference in 'overall performance' between the two laptops. Since I'm just a very casual gamer I'd opt for the higher cost and lower gaming performance just to get a better productivity option like the 1600x900 screen. It does have that size & weight penalty though.
If you're a highly mobile person, as opposed to an occasionally mobile person, the 15.6" laptop would probably be the better choice.

 

[jbmerlin9920]

Yes, I am leaning towards the 17.3" one myself. I like the extra room it provides not only for doing standard tasks, but just for movies as well.

I do understand I will not notice much difference even with a Blu-ray player, but it is always nice to have that option.


I like the 5470 even if it is a little underpowered, right now I am using a laptop with an integrated intel HD graphics card, so just getting a 5470 or 550v is an upgrade to the integrated one. Right now I can actually play WoW with a mixed setting of low to medium settings, and have very little chop or skip.

I was going to throw out the standard dell memory eventually anyway and upgrade it to 8g. I play mostly on my desktop so there is no need to push a high-end laptop, I just want something for mobility and at least mild gaming performance.

I am a pretty big guy so the extra weight and length is not bad. My current one weighs about 6.5 pounds and I would assume this would push into the 7.5 pound range so not that bad.

 

[WR2]

My current one weighs about 6.5 pounds and I would assume this would push into the 7.5 pound range so not that bad.

The weight should be just about the same based on 6.7lbs for the Inspiron 17R.
And you'll get the integrated sub-woofer on the 17" model.

I don't favor the RAM upgrade you're mentioning. I just don't think you'll get enough of a performance boost going from 6GB to 8GB to justify the cost even if you do replace the standard DDR3 1333MHz with faster DDR3 1600/1866 RAM. Calculate what you'd spend on that RAM upgrade and use to upgrade the CPU now. You'll get a much better performance boost that way.

 

[jbmerlin9920]

You do make an interesting point. The extra 2g of RAM might not show through as much as I am thinking. The money would be better spent upgrading the processor.

On the Dell 17r what is the max upgrade you can do, meaning can i just upgrade to an i5 or if I have the extra cash can I upgrade all the way to an i7 or would that be not possible?

 

[WR2]

You're on your own figuring out how that new Dell websites lets you do configurations. For example I didnt see any option for a 7200RPM HDD like you once found on the old website.

For WoW a faster dual core CPU (i5-460M) should do better than a slower quad core (i7-720QM).
In terms of performance improvements I'd put better CPU, faster HDD, upgraded GPU in front of any RAM upgrade. (and that includes going from 4GB to 6GB).