Question:
Dell 1710 How Should I Configure One For My Use?
1) What is your budget?
Around $1000-$2000
2) What size notebook would you prefer?
d. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen
17" as I draw/sketch. Example: Mc Escher, Geometric line drawings, Optical Illusions. Need lots of room. Also am nearsighted and love my new 19" Lcd monitor
17"widescreen looks closest to it.
3) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?
internet surfing, movie watching all of that kind of stuff. Using Auto Sketch, Art Dabbler, Adobe Illustrator etc.
4) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?
will be on my desk 90% of the time.
5) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?
Play games like Myst, Zork Grand Inqusitor
Half life 1-2, Syberia, Neverhood. Play Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and -DUH- HALO!! on the Xbox as examples
of the type of games I play.
6) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
I've owwned 2 Micron desktops, my dad swears by Dell. I want reliability!!. My all time electronics brand is Hitachi... don't know if they or their siblings
make notebooks.
7) How many hours of battery life do you need?
enough to sit outside on a nice day and be able to work on drawings.
8) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?
not at all
9) Please select your country's flag as a post icon and tell us what country are you buying this in?
US
Screen Specifics
10) Would you prefer standard or widescreen?
Widescreen! I like the idea of extra room to run a couple of my drawing programs and actually have windows open that I can see and use.
11) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?
Standard
a. XGA -1024x768 - Large and easy to read text + graphics icons, but you fit less stuff on the screen.
b. SXGA - 1400x1050 - Compromise resolution between XGA and UXGA.
c. UXGA - 1600x1200 - Very small text and graphics icons, you can fit lots of stuff on the screen.
Widescreen
d. WXGA or WXGA+ - 1280x768/800 or 1440x900; Wider viewing version of XGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
e. WSXGA+ - 1680x1050; Wider viewing version of SXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
f. WUXGA - 1920x1200; Wider viewing version of UXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
WSXGA+ I guess. My monitors native resolution is 1280 x 1024 and seems OK so far.
12) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
is one better for what I do?
Build Quality and Design
13) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
Isn't that why stickers were invented? ;-) Answer: No
14) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?
in the next few weeks but I can wait a week or two if there is a reason, i would like it to last for 3-5 years
Notebook Components
15) How much hard drive space do you want; 40GB to 160GB?
80 at least
16) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD-ROM, DVD-CD/RW or DVD-RW drive?
DVD-CD/RW as I have backups on CD-R & RW unless you recommend other.
thanks guys
Answer:
Re: Dell 1710 How Should I Configure One For My Use?
Well first off let me say that I hate Dell, couple friends of mine and my father all have Dells, they are alright but I swear by HP. I would suggest that you compare your Dell 1710 to the HP dv9000t from hpshopping.com (I do suggest the glossy (BrightView) screen well thats what HP calls it anyways. It's much better for picture quality basically connecting the pixels for a sharper and more vivid image. Anyways if you go for Dell I just hope ur battery doesn't blow up on yah :p Good Luck
-Aaron
Answer:
Re: Dell 1710 How Should I Configure One For My Use?
unless you need the most powerful graphics card on the market, you may wanto check out some of the powerful 15.4 and 14.1 inch notebooks from asus and compal. you can see many of these on powernotebooks.com they include x1600s and go 7600s which are enough graphics power to play any games out there on decent settings, will be more portable, better built (the xps line is barely better constructed then the inspiron line, which is pretty bad). compal and asus on the other hand are very reliable manufacturers and if you buy through a reliable reseller you will get far better service then trhough dell. if you wonder about theri quality, i hear asus motherboards are in about 3/4s of all the worlds desktops, makes notebooks for sony, apple and several other companies. and compal is the 2nd largest notebook manufacturer in the world, making many of dell's notebooks, although the ones they make under their own name are usually built much more sturdy
Answer:
Re: Dell 1710 How Should I Configure One For My Use?
I agree, if you don't care for the HP certainly check out Asus or Compal they are nice :cool:
Answer:
Re: Dell 1710 How Should I Configure One For My Use?
I keep seeing Asus. So which is the model I should I look into. Which features would be a must have for me??
Answer:
Re: Dell 1710 How Should I Configure One For My Use?
i say you go with the 17'' dell e1705, a 2.0 core duo, at least a gig of ram, good sized hard drive and X1600 video card i belive but correct me if i'm wrong
Answer:
Re: Dell 1710 How Should I Configure One For My Use?
The Dell XPS M1710 is going to run more than $2000 by quite a long shot.
The e1705 would fit within budget, but I would actually recommend the SAGER NP5750 for your needs. It has the powerful go 7800 GTX GPU as an available option and you can get it under $2000. Being nearsighted, you may not have a problem with the WXGA LCD that it comes with (I personally feel that WXGA is too low-resolution for a 17" screen though). Not to mention you will benefit from Sager's quality and the service from a good reseller.
If you are willing to spend the money an XPS M1710 costs, I would then recommend the SAGER NP5760 which is available with the WSXGA+ resolution.