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Opinions on Dell Inspiron E1705 for gaming

post #1 of 15
8/7/06 at 3:44pm
Thread Starter 
Hey everyone, I'm thinking about purchasing this computer for email and gaming. The $1780 price tag fits my budget but I wanted to hear your opinions about how this comp will hold up. I really want to get into WoW and Half Life two but I'm also hoping this computer will be able to handle the new games coming out in the next couple of years. So any opinions or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Dell Inspiron E1705
-Intel Core Duo Proc T2300E (1.66Ghz/667MHz/2X1 MB L2 Cache)
*For $179 I can upgrade to the Duo Proc T2400 which is 1.83 GHz.
-17inch Ultrasharp Wide Screen UXGA Display w/ TrueLife
-Memory-1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz
-Hard Drive-80 GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
-Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless
-Video Card-256 MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS
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post #2 of 15
8/7/06 at 3:48pm
Drop the amount of RAM to the lowest option, purchase 2GB of ram from newegg.com, that is my first suggestions.

If it is in your budget after dropping the RAM, I would get a slightly larger drive, because Dell puts all the backup info and applications, drivers and OS on an unusable partition that is about 10GB, so you will actually only have around 70GB available to you. Go for a 100 GB drive if you are looking for around 80GB usable storage.

Yes you will be able to amply play games with that rig no problems, I play HL2, WOW, Quake4 etc all fine on this laptop. You will game more from the extra ram in gaming and overall system performance.

I almost forgot if you are worried about the immediate future of your gaming on this, note you can install the 7900GTX video card from the XPS 1710 with very little trouble later on =)
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post #3 of 15
8/7/06 at 4:21pm
I feel sorry for you. A week ago you would have gotten that for 300-400 dollars less.
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post #4 of 15
8/7/06 at 4:24pm
Nam,

that looks like a fantastic rig. The only question I'd have is what's the resolution? that's a very powerful graphics unit, but if you're running one of those 1900x(whatever), it'll get slapped around hard in new games like Oblivion (and less so in) Half Life 2, FEAR.. etc..

I wouldn't get the processor upgrade, should be able to drop a Merom (core 2 duo) in at some point. don't get the best of the out going technology, get the intermediate and save your bucks for later

wish I had that though
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post #5 of 15
8/8/06 at 3:32am
So my new e1705 just arrived a few days ago and I absolutely love it, it blows my old comp out of the water. Today I finally broke myself away from playing with it, long enough to reinstall a fresh copy of windows. Anyway, now that I've got everything up and running, I want to get a new game to really give it a workout. I was hoping that you all could reccommend a few very strenuous games to try out. I've heard that Oblivion is good, but I really just want to know what current game has the best graphics. Thanks.
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post #6 of 15
8/8/06 at 5:37am
Oblivion has the best graphics.
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post #7 of 15
8/8/06 at 11:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mdubz
Oblivion has the best graphics.


I would not say best, as much as I would say complex. For me the best actually has to be able to be run on todays hardware. I think many would have said the same thing about Everquest2 having the best graphics when it came out, but really it is nice graphics with complex features that too at that time would not run very well even on high end equipment. (still is hard on graphics cards today)

Nothing really plays oblivion with all its glory at a suitable constant frame rate, and that completely takes away from its rating in my book. The fact is, we probably will not be able to play it as it was meant for at least another year and a half or so when hopefully technology can catch up with the programming. =) right now only sli setups can even come close to playing it where it is reasonable.
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post #8 of 15
8/8/06 at 3:14pm
You wanna see the sweet deal I got? If you know what you're doing to stay safe from scammers and are patient, after a month and a half I got this off eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

About $150 for 2G DDR2 677MHz ram off NewEgg and this thing is a monster. I'll be upgrading the HD to a 7200 soon and the video card too (either free from Dell by complaining or buying a GTX or something).

Goodluck and happy hunting .

-Mac
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post #9 of 15
8/8/06 at 11:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by eclypse3demons
I would not say best, as much as I would say complex. For me the best actually has to be able to be run on todays hardware. I think many would have said the same thing about Everquest2 having the best graphics when it came out, but really it is nice graphics with complex features that too at that time would not run very well even on high end equipment. (still is hard on graphics cards today)

Nothing really plays oblivion with all its glory at a suitable constant frame rate, and that completely takes away from its rating in my book. The fact is, we probably will not be able to play it as it was meant for at least another year and a half or so when hopefully technology can catch up with the programming. =) right now only sli setups can even come close to playing it where it is reasonable.

He's right. Oblivion has the best graphics. As a game, it may not be the best out there for whatever reasons (as you mentioned non-playability with mainstream video cards & I found it a bit complex for newcomers to RPG), but when it comes to just graphics, Oblivion is unbeatable.
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post #10 of 15
8/8/06 at 11:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maconi
You wanna see the sweet deal I got? If you know what you're doing to stay safe from scammers and are patient, after a month and a half I got this off eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

About $150 for 2G DDR2 677MHz ram off NewEgg and this thing is a monster. I'll be upgrading the HD to a 7200 soon and the video card too (either free from Dell by complaining or buying a GTX or something).

Goodluck and happy hunting .


-Mac

Sooo, I guess you are full of sh*t then? Complaining to Dell to get a free video card is pretty low, especially since you found a good deal on ebay. I hope your laptop comes in 1,058 pieces when you open up the box
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post #11 of 15
8/9/06 at 12:19am
I too have an e1705 with the 7900 gs and 2 gigs of ram. I went with the smallest amount of ram from dell and upgraded via newegg for $160 for 2 gigs of 667 mhz corsair memory. I play Battle Field2, Half Life2 and episode one, world of warcraft and now FEAR. All them played at native resolution (1920 x 1200) except for BF2, all at high settings with no problems. Havent tried Oblivion but like others have mentioned, that game taxes most computers. Get the 1705 with the 7900 GS and you will be fine.
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post #12 of 15
8/9/06 at 2:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sleey0
Sooo, I guess you are full of sh*t then? Complaining to Dell to get a free video card is pretty low, especially since you found a good deal on ebay. I hope your laptop comes in 1,058 pieces when you open up the box

Actually I've had it for a while now and in 100% complete working condition, but good try anyway .

And who said I was going to intentionally go to Dell to get a freebie first? Everyone knows the cards overheat and have problems. I simply implied that I might get one from Dell but if not I plan to upgrade anyway. Thanks for the hospitality though buddy

-Mac
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post #13 of 15
8/9/06 at 2:36am
I guess your evil twin wrote this about getting a new video card:

"free from Dell by complaining"

No prob on the hospitality part, though......
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post #14 of 15
8/9/06 at 2:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sleey0
I guess your evil twin wrote this about getting a new video card:

"free from Dell by complaining"

No prob on the hospitality part, though......

Would it not be free if it kept messing up on me and Dell replaced it? (which I know is rare and I'd prob run out of patience and buy one instead of fooling with them anyway)... but sorry for the misunderstanding bro.

-Mac
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post #15 of 15
8/9/06 at 2:49am
You should have said so in the first place, then I would have never flamed ya
And, NO you should not run out and buy a card just cuz you don't want to mess with Dell. That is what a warranty is for and you have every right to a properly working video card (as long as your still under warranty, of course) provided by Dell!
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