Impressed with 9200? - Page 2

For that type of work, the 9200 should be a great choice. Frankly, aside from the misnaming, the only letdown with the 9200 is that it doesn't have the Mobility 9800 (which was never going to happen anyway). That's only an issue for gamers.

The next generation of Centrino won't give you a huge boost for your current applications. The only advantage would be potential future upgradeability of the 533MHz bus P-M and PCI-E graphics card, which again wouldn't make much of an impact on your current software. The 2.0 Dothan should handle anything you throw at it.

Thanks for that. I just wonder when it will be available here in Australia and what price we'll be looking at.

I dunno, the PCI-E sort of gets me. Mostly because I have worked with an Inspiron 8200 for a few years now as a graphic artist. It has been a trooper, and I might have been able to extend the life more if I had the option of installing a new graphics card.

Then again, the hope that all these new PCI-E laptops will even allow upgradable graphics is wishful thinking. It is sort of like the XPS. If I buy a PCI-E notbook, the question is; who is going to make the upgrade graphics?

I dream of a day where motherboards, CPUs, and graphics are all standardized inside a laptop and can be bought at CompUSA to keep a laptop going and going. Then we really start seeing the mods. Water-cooled options to pick up, etc...

all the other machines that i list have been out for a couple months - true, but they are supposed to be the top of the line uncompromising power notebooks that cut no corner. heck, alienware has just come out with the 9700 after endless amounts of begging from its customers, and some of the previous gen of the "user upgradable notebook" still cannot upgrade to the 9700. also, do any of those notebooks start at the price of the 9200? and keep in mind that these prices are the prices after being out for so long and this is the 9200's introductory price. the 9200 is not even marketed as dell's number one notebook. now don't get me wrong, im not some sort of dell advocating troll, and personally i would not buy the 9200, but it is not the top of the line. when the new chipsets are released i am sure that dell will then release a top of the line no holds barred p-m machine - just the 9200 isn't it. compare the now defunt 500m, 600m, and 8600. 600m was a balanced not to shabby centrino machine. the 500m was the budget version with the intel integrated graphics. the 8600 was the performace centrino with the snazzy video card and the like. all on the same platform but different levels. it just seems to me that if you can get the same hardware as the other manufacturer's top machines and pay half the price for it - go for it =0). remember - when the 600m came out until this day still is only packing a radeon 9000 yet people are still buying them. i realize that it is a smaller package, but when it came out, the radeon 9000 was already old news. the 8500 that had been packing a far superior 4200 geforce4 - same principle.

i can assure you already that i know what the first dell pentium m/pci express combination that is going to be out - it is not the high end notebook but rather a budget notebook. the numbering scheme is going to change - it is a 5160 refresh and it is going to be strikingly familiar to one of the notebooks that are out now spec wise only with the inclusion of pci express. it is not mxm/axiom format so it will not be upgradable. it will be released in Q1FY06 probably in january.

since the 9200 has the 9700 in it do you think it might be possible that the 9700 is the exact same form factor as the one in our 9100's and xps's. if they are it would be sweet if you could put the 9800 in it.

unfortunately i dont think so. i'm basing the decision off the fact that the form factor is obviously different. on the 9100/xps, the s-video, dvi, and vga ports are all next to each other on the video card. on the 9200, notice how the dvi and vga ports are next to each other but the s-vide port is on the opposite side of the computer. not a good sign

Nah, there is no way they are the same form factor. As MNguyen281 has mentioned you can see the port difference.... and just the size and design of the chassis itself would suggest otherwise as well.

Stu

I like it... it's got somewhat some portability (the Pentium-M, but not the 17"), it's got lots of gaming potential (the Radeon 9700), and it's got 4 USB ports!

The big screen comes in handy when you're using your laptop all the time... I bet it looks gorgeous at the WUXGA resolution.

this system is NICE with a capital N. awesome screen. specs of the system in front of me

17" WUXGA
PM 755 2.0ghz
1024MB PC2700
60GB 7200rpm
TM 300 BT
TM 1450 802.11a/b/g
ati mobility radeon 9700
very very nice solid well put together system

2 thumbs way up!!

ok just got through a 3 hours session with the beast and i can say that i am very impressed - especially with what you get for that price. the system was as quick and responsive as you would expect it to be, but it is much much lighter than it looks - much lighter than the xps. the 17" wuxga screen is just amazing and the size doesn't really hit you until you're looking at it. everything is very easy to get to and replace. the keyboard is very stiff with no flex and the touchpad buttons are great - they don't depress as much as the earlier versions. the touchpad also now includes those scroll bars that other manufacturers have been using for a while. as a sub $2000 system i must say go with it since it will handle everything you can throw at it, does not get hot, very light considering the size, and movies are just breathtaking. the integrated subwoofer and speakers actually sound better than the ones on the xps. i had zero dead pixels on mine and zero light leakage. anyway, back to playing with the new toy =0) cheers!

While the 9200 is lacking for my current needs, let's not forget it should be as fast for gaming as the lauded Sager 3790 and its ilk, as fast a P4 3.2 and with a very good screen, if not one as good as the big Sony.

It'd be nice if below the 9200 there was an 8600 replacement with a 15.4 WSXGA Xbrite-style screen, similar cosmetics to the 700M/9200 and the ATI 9700 at least.

Any hints guys?

Steve

here's an interesting thought.

if not for the XPS and the 9100, wouldn't you/we be considering 9200 one of the best gamer platforms?

Follow me here: 17" wide screen, so great visuals. ati mr9700 which gives it all the gaming power of every other laptop out there (remember, this is if no xps existed). Comparing it to the DTRs of others, the CPU has performance on par with them (and for gaming, the gpu is more important than the cpu), but the moblilty usage, with a 4 hour battery and the lighter wieght etc., would be greater.

So, if not for my trusty ole 9100 if I were comparing this to the sager or AW et al, would I really stress over having a desktop cpu if i could get similar gaming performance in a package with a 4 hour battery and for less $$? Have to admit, once I look objectively, this would be a very interesting laptop if I needed a laptop and wanting to do light gaming.

because, without the XPS in existance, NONE of the laptops out today are serious gamer rigs as none support the 9800. If not for knowing Dell was going to have that 9800 coming out, I wouldn't have bought this 9100 for my work AND personal use, as it wouldn't have been an effective gaming platform. But as it stands now, the mr9800 is as good if not better than the 9800 I have in my desktop, and this 3.2 is much faster than my old xp2100+.

so, I think I have to be willing to admit I actually like the 9200 for what it is, which is NOT an extreme gamers laptop, it's simply a very nice media platform that can game as well as all the other company's laptops but with better battery life

this Dell is great. usually i hate dell because they are big and bulky but this one is great.

btw. according to its 3dmark03 scores i have to say that this baby doesnt have the usual thin and light 9700. it has the DTR version. its scores are about 400 more than other systems with those specs.

Where have you seen 3dmark03 scores posted for a machine that hasn't been publicly released yet?

Any of you guys that are in the loop...are there any high quality shots of the 9200 available from Dell? You know the ones they normally put in some Press section of their site.

9200 review

the benchmark scores

Ok, I just realized what's nagging me about the 9200...

Arima W810 17" Alviso/MXM Geforce 6600 Go benchmarks

Hopefully, the 9200 will have a refresh in Q1 or we'll see a new competitive Dell model along those lines.

If "lots" refer to older games, then you are correct. MR9700 is going to struggle with current and upcoming games, unless you scale the graphics down. If it came with MR9800, then I would consider buying it.

For a non-gamer though, I think it looks pretty good.

Its called the sager 9860.