Hi all. Bought a Dell inspiron 7500 over 4 yrs ago and am now looking to buy a new laptop. question is which one?
I would like "some" battery life but still be high end (not worried about cost).
I've read alot the posts here - and am debating between a dell 8600 1.7 centrino vs. a 8790 Sager or D870P Mirage eurocom. -- possibly I am misreading the spec's as am new to all this.. I mean, is there that much of a difference between centrino 1.7MHz vs a PIV 3.4 or PIV 3.4 extreme? (would you notice it on gaming?) what would you suggest as the best solution for some battery life yet fast enough to last for gaming over the next 3 yrs or so?
Also - what limits the the computer most - is it video card, processor, hard drive speed..? - possibly I am looking at the wrong options with these configurations.
Finally, is there any news of better battery life on the high end models in the next couple months?

thanks,

Dean.

Here what I m getting in 2 1/2 weeks but there waiting for the Chip. P4 3.4ee L3 2 megs cache. Now what I researched and understood was It had a 3 hour battery Life for the 12 cell Batterys. Two batterys 6 Hours. The 8 cells Came with a TV card or sub wooferspeaker. But it only had 1.5 Hour battery life.

Now let me get you the website I got it from. http://www.xtremenotebooks.com. Now I check with the Manufacture Pro Star. And made sure the comapany is ok. For I found Pro Star had a higher price. And xtremenopebook If you live in a differnt State then Navada No tax. Now what Taking so long for MY notebook is this message from xtremenopebook and Pro Star. Intel® Pentium® 4 Extreme Edition w/2,048k L3 On-die Cache (3.2GHz) Available Soon! So I have to wait.



But here the spec.

ProStar 8794 Accelerator
17.0" WideXGA+ (1440 x 900) LCD
ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9700 8X AGP 3D with 256MB Integrated DDR
3.4GHz Intel P-4 (Extreme Edition-2MB Cache)
1024MB PC 3200/400 DDR (up to 2048MB)
80GB ATA/100 HDD 5400 RPM
Secondary onboard 80GB ATA100 HDD (5400)
DVD-+R/RW Combo Drive (Dual Format) 8X2X16X10X24X
USB 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive - Standard
7 in 1 Flash Card Reader - Standard
2 12 Cell Smart Li-Ion Battery Run time 3 Hours Each
Creative Labs External Audigy NX2 - 7.1 SRS
USB 2.0 Port Replicator with Ethernet
Laptop Cooler TDD-3000
Wireless - Netgear MR814 802.11b Router

Cost was around $4600

But I wanted 4 main things. Fast CPU, 2 Hard Large Hard disk, And Large screen. And 2 Hour battery Life.

I am far from an expert, but I just purchased a Dell 8600 (it should arrive this Friday). I think what you'll find is that the 8600 is a decent gaming platform currently, but I'm not sure that it will really last much more than a year or so if you're doing any sort of high-end gaming. Those high end P4 chips should give you a fair bit more performance and lasting power. But, of course, those chips will kill your battery. I think if you're looking for a compromise of battery life vs. performance, the centrino can't really be beat. But if you're really interested in performance, those p4 extreme chips are the way to go. Maybe you can find some of the reviews on thg and elsewhere and compare framerates in the benchmarks to get a better idea about how much difference there is likely to be..
-Brandiles

Not really, the 1.7GHz Pentium-M performs on a par with the 2.8GHz P4 - but in things like Web Page rendering (and other repetitive operations), the 1.7 P-M can take on a 3.4GHz P4 (it takes the Extreme Edition P4 to surpass it (larger Data Cache)). So, no in terms of games, there is a difference, but not 'very' noticable - but what you gain is about 50-100% more battery life (and more prospects of upgradability).

Hard Drive, without a doubt - the HDD speed is the primary cause for bottleneck on a notebook computer, make sure you get a 7200rpm HDD (At ALL costs!), as this will bring you performance much the same as a 5400rpm desktop Drive. Otherwise, no all else is pretty much even.

Not really, nothing ground breaking.

Go for the Inspiron over the Sager- better Support, build/LCD quality, upgradability and in the end, experience. But if you want my advice, take a look at the Inspiron 9100 or the Inspiron XPS. It only uses P4 CPUs, but it has a large battery, and a modular bay for a second battery, and it has fully Dell Supported upgrades - i.e. when a new graphics array is deployed, you can fone dell, and they will upgrade your notebook for you (not for free of course), in your house! Coupled with that, you get the [more] reliable service, top end performance and a beautiful display. That's what I would get were I in your position.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?