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710m first laptop for a student? help!

post #1 of 50
12/7/05 at 3:38pm
Thread Starter 
hey guys, i'm about to purchase my first lap top and im planning to take it to college with me, so i was wondering if it will work for the basic purposes. u know, like word, excel and stuff for homework, msnger services for team work, burn cd's, sync with ipods, maybe some unigraphics work and why not? enjoying a game every now and then... the specs would be:
Pentium M 1.7ghz
40gb hd
512mb
extended battery

i just need a small lappy cuz ill be going from school to work every day so the size is pretty good, price is fine, but i would like a recomendation from an expertise in case i need to upgrade the ram or the processor or even suggesting another laptop!! thnx a lot, help would be really appreciated!!
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post #2 of 50
12/7/05 at 3:40pm
Thread Starter 
it's also going to be used a lot for wireless internet working on several websites at the same time!!
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post #3 of 50
12/7/05 at 3:52pm
The specifications look fine & I'm using a 700m with similar specs for school as well & I do quite a bit of programming like Cobol, Java, etc. I'm also using it for Word, Excel & surfing the Internet too. You will have to be aware though that with the Intel Extreme 2 graphics chip, you are not going to be able to play a lot of latest games at high resolutions but some of the lastest ones which do not require too much video memory at low/medium resolution is fine. I play some games once in a while like Madden 2005 but it's on the lowest video settings but I'm fine with it (this is personal preference). It is a great system in terms of portability & price but if you're getting the mentioned specs, remember to swap out one 256MB RAM & replace it with a 1GB RAM, which you can buy it from Newegg & it will be a pretty great ultra portable. But... you may want to check out some other Dell models or other brands too... Good luck.
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post #4 of 50
12/7/05 at 4:06pm
Thread Starter 
thnx!! what about watching some dvd's?? so, music, word, excel, surfing the internet, photo editing... that should work pretty fast (that's the priority, fast) and better if i upgrade to 1Gb, in this 12" lappy which i think is a good deal (talkin about $$$), but if i'm looking to play some games i should look to another one? cuz gaming is really not a big deal for me, i would prefer watching a lot of dvds!!
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post #5 of 50
12/7/05 at 5:29pm
The 710m will be great for all that. Just make sure you get lots of RAM. I would suggest 1Gb.

My 710m comes today (specs in sig) so I will post some thoughts.
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post #6 of 50
12/7/05 at 5:31pm
The display on the 700m is one of the best around. Watching DVDs is like portable HDTV or better, it's that good. The tradeoff is the sorry speakers. It's fine using headphones but you just can't get enough volume without them.
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post #7 of 50
12/7/05 at 6:03pm
Thread Starter 
i guess i will have to go with the earbuds... ok, so i think im almost ready to pull the trigger on the 710m, but i just got notified i will recieve an extrabonus at job for around $150... should i upgrade the processor 1.7 ghz to 2.0 ghz, the ram to 1gb, or the DVDRW? what's the difference between 512MB 1DIMM and 512Mb 2DIMM? and i would appreciate further coments on your new purchase!!!
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post #8 of 50
12/8/05 at 4:34am
Uhm for the uses you listed, any laptop on the market these days will be fine - and they'll definitely be fast enough (computers are overpowered for general applications these days). I do all those and more with my X1, and the processor is quite a bit slower than the one found on the 710m, so I'm sure you'll be fine! With integrated graphics, 3D games suffer. If you like 2D ones like RTS, it should be fine as well.

I would personally upgrade RAM over the processor speed. Unless you're doing special rendering or other CPU intensive tasks, you won't really notice a day to day difference by increasing the clock speed by .3ghz. When multitasking and photo editing, more RAM is good. The 710m has 2 RAM slots, so if you get 2 DIMM they will both be full (e.g. with 512mb, you'll have 2 256mb sticks). With one dimm you'll have an empty slot for upgrading. If you get 1gb, it doesnt matter if you use one or two sticks (most people don't need more than 1gb). If you're going to get 512, I would suggest one stick so you've got room to upgrade if you decide you want 1gb later (just add a 2nd 512 stick then).
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post #9 of 50
12/8/05 at 5:24am
If you are gong to upgrade something than do the CPU because the ram and harddrive are very easy to do yourself.. In fact buy the cheapest ram dell has (thats what i did) and swipe it out with 1 gig. Literally it will take you less than 5 minutes if its underneath the keyboard, or less that 1 minute if its underneath the laptop (two screws and thats it). Anyway my 2 cents.
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post #10 of 50
12/8/05 at 5:28am
I think the 710m is really cool for school! Small, light, not much for gaming....
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post #11 of 50
12/8/05 at 2:47pm
stick with the 1.7 chip. there is really no point to get above 2.0 unless you are going to be encoding a lot. and the 710m isnt a gaming computer, so i wouldnt upgrade the chip for that either.

my i6000 1.6 handles vB and encoding very well.

you might actually save some dough and get the 1.7 chip. use the extra money to invest in a 7200rpm HD. itll do wonders ive heard!

skimp on the ram, and get a 1gb stick from newegg for like 60$!!! then add it, and keep one of your 256 in there, then youll have 1256 of RAM!!! 1.7 will be very nice for you.
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post #12 of 50
12/8/05 at 5:28pm

WHERE are you getting the 710m?!

I only see the 700m on their website....
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post #13 of 50
12/8/05 at 5:30pm
Its not available on the US site yet that I know of. The Canadian site (dell.ca) lists the 710m but have already removed the 700m.
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post #14 of 50
12/8/05 at 6:20pm
Got my 710m last night and so far its awesome



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post #15 of 50
12/8/05 at 6:24pm
Wow!!! This is awesome, it sure makes me regret a bit on my purchase of the 700m even though I like the white trim & black/grey keyboard of my 700m but the color coordination of the 710m is something else!!! Congrats on your purchase too!!!
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post #16 of 50
12/8/05 at 6:30pm
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post #17 of 50
12/8/05 at 6:41pm
Oh man!!! "drools" I just wish I would have waited a bit longer... By the way, what is your screen manufacturer/model number???
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post #18 of 50
12/8/05 at 11:48pm
I like that they took out the white trim. Does the keyboard look white in person, or the gray I see in the pictures?
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post #19 of 50
12/9/05 at 1:05am
Its does look quite white, but moreso in the pictures.
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post #20 of 50
12/9/05 at 1:39am
710's KB looks more like light grey than white. It would have been nice if the KB was lighted. Dell should have made the 710 thinner. They should have removed the "stands" on the bottom of the laptop.
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