My Rig
I just got a new Dell Inspiron 9400 about a month ago. It is a sweet machine. Those who know me might be aware that I have been somewhat critical of Dell for loading up their computers with Windows and a truckload of memory-hogging applications before shipping them out to consumers. I wonder if they include that same software bundle that was using 480MB of RAM when I first booted my Dell, in the Dimension XPS gaming machines they send to PCGamer and other reviewers...?
Anyway, I got a Dell in this case because they were first to market in Canada with Duo Core processors and 1920x1200 17" widescreen laptops. This is not a blazing fast machine and was never intended to be. I use my computer a lot, every day, usually for 3 or 4 hours a night after work (I know, I have no life), and I wanted something comfortable to work with. I also wanted mobility, so I can digitally record y Band, Twefth Replica, and so I can hang out at my co-producer's house so we can work on our animated film. I also wanted mobility so I can attend LAN battles at my boss' house a couple of times a year. It will also come in handy if another teaching gig comes up.
Now for the machine itself. For $2700 CDN including taxes and shippinng I got a 17" WUXGA (that's 1920x1200 folks!) screen with a nice coating, an Intel Core Duo 1.83ghz (times that by 2), 1GB of 533mhz DDR2 RAM, a dual layer DVD burner, wifi, an ATI X1400 256MB video, a laptop case, power supply and XP Home license.
The first thing I noticed about this machine was that it was extremely bogged down out of the box. The software bundle and Windows install as configured were using 480MB of memory. After a half hour of uninstalling and restarting I got that down to 155MB. That's not as good as my desktop tower PC that runs at a nice smooth 97MB on boot, but it gets me in the ballpark.
Right away I was blown away by the screen. I had forgotten that the screen on this thing was the reason I gravitated towards Dell in the first place. The picture is rich and vibrant, there is no "ghosting" in any games, and the amount of screen real estate that 1920x1200 prvides is enough even for me, and I'm a guy who has had as many as three monitors on my home desktop at once! (Currently I have four screens at my workstation at work).
The next thing I noticed was the second day I had my Dell Inspoiron 9400 was that the ATI X1400 graphics card was more than I had expected. I am a guy who used to rave about ATI when I had a P3 800mhz with an ATI All-In-Wonder Rage 128 with 32MB of memory. But then I "fell into" a Radeon 7000 series card and I did a complete 180. The Radeon cards were terrible when they arrived, with buggy drivers and huge memory problems, including a tendancy to overtax the CPU when gaming. When I got rid of my radeon I went to GeForce MX 64MB of some kind and it slaughtered the Radeon in every way. Since then I have had a few GeForce cards and all of them have served me well without a hitch. I also find that GeForce cards are more "upgrade friendly", meaning they are usually compatible with future generations of games long after an equivalent generation ATI card becomes extinct. The ATI X1400 in my Dell Inspiron is NOT a great gaming card. It can't even be called a gaming card. It's just a low-end (albeit "next gen") graphics card for laptops and was never expected to perform well in gaming. Back to my story, the night after I got my Dell I was at my friend's house watching the Chronicles of Narnia with his family and I dowloaded the Narnia game demo from NZone and started it up while the movie was still playing. Needless to say I was blown away by the graphic quality and the smooth playback. I immediately ran out and bought Morrowind Oblivion and two weeks flew by before I knew it. I have just added Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and all my friends are freaking out because it won't even run on their machines. I would have been disappointed if it didn't work on mine, but I would not have been surprised. So I installed GR3 and it plays great. can't run ot at 1920x1200 with full screen antialiasing, buty by keeping the resolution medium-low I can play with full graphics effects and get pretty smooth gameplay. It's a sweet game, by the way.
Pros: WUXGA screen is gorgeous. ATI X1400 surpasses expectations. (A coworker5 has the 7800 Geforce version in his single core Inspiron 9400 and it is slightly better than mine for gaming).
Cons: Loaded with crap from Dell. Delete and uninstall is time consuming. Heavy to carry.
Anyway, I got a Dell in this case because they were first to market in Canada with Duo Core processors and 1920x1200 17" widescreen laptops. This is not a blazing fast machine and was never intended to be. I use my computer a lot, every day, usually for 3 or 4 hours a night after work (I know, I have no life), and I wanted something comfortable to work with. I also wanted mobility, so I can digitally record y Band, Twefth Replica, and so I can hang out at my co-producer's house so we can work on our animated film. I also wanted mobility so I can attend LAN battles at my boss' house a couple of times a year. It will also come in handy if another teaching gig comes up.
Now for the machine itself. For $2700 CDN including taxes and shippinng I got a 17" WUXGA (that's 1920x1200 folks!) screen with a nice coating, an Intel Core Duo 1.83ghz (times that by 2), 1GB of 533mhz DDR2 RAM, a dual layer DVD burner, wifi, an ATI X1400 256MB video, a laptop case, power supply and XP Home license.
The first thing I noticed about this machine was that it was extremely bogged down out of the box. The software bundle and Windows install as configured were using 480MB of memory. After a half hour of uninstalling and restarting I got that down to 155MB. That's not as good as my desktop tower PC that runs at a nice smooth 97MB on boot, but it gets me in the ballpark.
Right away I was blown away by the screen. I had forgotten that the screen on this thing was the reason I gravitated towards Dell in the first place. The picture is rich and vibrant, there is no "ghosting" in any games, and the amount of screen real estate that 1920x1200 prvides is enough even for me, and I'm a guy who has had as many as three monitors on my home desktop at once! (Currently I have four screens at my workstation at work).
The next thing I noticed was the second day I had my Dell Inspoiron 9400 was that the ATI X1400 graphics card was more than I had expected. I am a guy who used to rave about ATI when I had a P3 800mhz with an ATI All-In-Wonder Rage 128 with 32MB of memory. But then I "fell into" a Radeon 7000 series card and I did a complete 180. The Radeon cards were terrible when they arrived, with buggy drivers and huge memory problems, including a tendancy to overtax the CPU when gaming. When I got rid of my radeon I went to GeForce MX 64MB of some kind and it slaughtered the Radeon in every way. Since then I have had a few GeForce cards and all of them have served me well without a hitch. I also find that GeForce cards are more "upgrade friendly", meaning they are usually compatible with future generations of games long after an equivalent generation ATI card becomes extinct. The ATI X1400 in my Dell Inspiron is NOT a great gaming card. It can't even be called a gaming card. It's just a low-end (albeit "next gen") graphics card for laptops and was never expected to perform well in gaming. Back to my story, the night after I got my Dell I was at my friend's house watching the Chronicles of Narnia with his family and I dowloaded the Narnia game demo from NZone and started it up while the movie was still playing. Needless to say I was blown away by the graphic quality and the smooth playback. I immediately ran out and bought Morrowind Oblivion and two weeks flew by before I knew it. I have just added Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and all my friends are freaking out because it won't even run on their machines. I would have been disappointed if it didn't work on mine, but I would not have been surprised. So I installed GR3 and it plays great. can't run ot at 1920x1200 with full screen antialiasing, buty by keeping the resolution medium-low I can play with full graphics effects and get pretty smooth gameplay. It's a sweet game, by the way.
Pros: WUXGA screen is gorgeous. ATI X1400 surpasses expectations. (A coworker5 has the 7800 Geforce version in his single core Inspiron 9400 and it is slightly better than mine for gaming).
Cons: Loaded with crap from Dell. Delete and uninstall is time consuming. Heavy to carry.
posted by Andrewstopheles at 9:29 AM
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