Laptop Questions

Lindsay Lohan

Ok - I posted this in G&T with no responses but really wanted a little feedback - hopefully it will fair better here. Basically, time to put my desktop to pasture and a laptop is a far better option for me at this point. I'm NOT looking to do heavy gaming, just to be able to play my current games the same or better than right now. Mostly I web browse, use Photoshop, play sandbox games like Sims2/Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 stuff.

As a baseline - my current setup is:
Athlon 1800 (NOT 64bit or anything, just an Athlon)
1 GB of PC133 (IIRC) Ram
30 GB Harddrive x 2 (total of 60GB, old IDE drives)
GeForce FX 5700LE (AGP)
On board sound
WinXP

Here's what I'm looking at
Dell Inspiron 1521
Vista Home Premium
AMD Turion 64 X2 (1.8 Ghz)
2 GB Ram
160 GB Sata HD (5400 RPM)
ATI RADEON Xpress1270 HyperMemory (Integrated up to 256megs of RAM from system ram)
Depending on what's instock it may have webcam/bluetooth built in
Paying between 700 - 750


So here are the basic questions:
Will this be a visible upgrade for me?
Will this rig run the fancier Vista interface well?
Is the AMD processor a reasonable tradeoff to keep the price of the machine low?
Is the price reasonable?
Any other options for about the same price I should consider?
EDIT: How vital is 2gb ram?

embrik

It's a pretty good system, and with Vista, yes, 2GB or more is definitely recommended. If you want to do any kind of gaming, though, I would still recommend looking at a card without shared memory. Yes, that price is reasonable based on the specs.

Oh, and welcome to H&A

saltiness

Are you planning on using it as a laptop or as a desktop replacement? I ask because a 15" book is pretty cumbersome if you plan on carrying it around with you a lot.

Lindsay Lohan

It will be replacing my desktop. The reason for a laptop is that the one place in the house where I can fit a computer desk is right next to the door to my son's bedroom which wakes him up if I have sound on or even do a ton of typing. This way I can have the computer in the living room with me and not have to worry. We're already set up for wifi for the Wii & the wife's laptop so it just made sense.

The wife's laptop is 15" and I don't mind the size too much. I wish I could afford a 14", but it would be a tradeoff - I'd probably only be able to afford a machine with 1GB of ram, or an older model machine. My limit is right around the $800 range.

I realize the shared memory is far from ideal but I can't really find any alternatives that aren't shared - it's either Turions with ATI built in or Intel w/ the Intel chipset.

Cycophant

I have an Inspiron 1501 with a very similar integrated video card, and can tell you that it runs games like Sims 2 well enough, so if that's really what your gaming is limited to, it shouldn't be much of a handicap really. The card also runs Vista without any graphical hangups whatsoever, if you were worried about that too.

DrFrylock

Any chance you can upgrade that 5400RPM disk to a 7200? It'll make a performance difference.

Lindsay Lohan

Well, I don't see any upgrades available for the harddrive speed. However, I have found that for about $760 I also have the option to go to the Dell 1420. Basically:
14" screen
1.5Ghz Core 2 Duo
2 GB ram
160 gig HD (5400)
Intel integrated video (x3100)

So - Intel processor instead of AMD - smaller form factor. Any opinions? Would this be about the same power as the AMD setup? I've heard the Core 2 Duo would have better battery life - is that true?