Hesitation in Buying - Page 2

diagonal.
(I like the Alienware Area 51m Sentia out of these two choices)

no, you cant swap the video cards, they are soldered onto the motherboards and are not upgradeable. but get the least ram that the notebook is sold with and buy your ram from newegg.com or another vendor, save a lot of money that way

The Sentia

Of the computers listed I would go with the Sentia (I did anyway)I just cringe when computer manufacturers go with propriatary parts. Ever since the days of the IBM PS1 series and of course Packard Bell (I am showing my age) I have always purposely avoided makers that did this.
To me though your two computers seem to be quite different, If you are willing to purchase a notebook as large as the Dell then there are many other choices to look at. If you are looking for a really nice thin and light computer that is solidly built and a pleasure to use, then the Sentia is a nice unit.
I am not a computer expert by any means but recent articles that I have read show that the Sonoma platform (533mhz FSB) offer little benefit over the 400mhz fsb. Besides who else has the cool alien head?

Gunner

very true...the 533mhz bus has little benifit over the 400mhz. the dell 6000 is an okay machine but its no AW, and i think they are really in different classes. when you start looking into the 15.4 inch screens you can definately do better than a i6000. try looking at offerings from acer and toshiba before looking at the i6000 for a 15.4 model. in terms of a 12 inch thin and light, i dont thinkk i would get anything other than the alienware.

how about a commadore 64

Its amazing how far computers have come in a short period of time. I am crawling towards the dreaded four zero. (Hey maybe I can have a midlife crisis and buy a Harley? Oh wait, I did that already. Maybe a Hummer? )
Seriously though I remember when the Commadore 64 was a big deal, hooked up to the tv set. My first computer was an apple IIe black and white screen, 5.25 floppy and something like 64k memory. (man I was about twelve).
Back on topic though, I really would advise anyone who wants a thin and light to go with the Sentia, end of story. The dell that was described in this thread weighs almost as much as two sentias . And sorry to say has the appeal of a Dell I don't want anyone mad at me, But Dell seems to be the "Generic" computer. Functional but not much appeal.
The XPS may be an exception, they seem to offer some substance and appeal to an otherwise dull manufacturer.

Gunner

I'm just curious as to why you want to stick with 1 DIMM? I know the Dell (maybe the AW) is dual channel, so you'll save money and get more performance out of getting 2 DIMMs..

If you think you'll need to upgrade later, I say go ahead and max out while you're already spending the big bucks

Another thing I noticed about the screens, it looks like the AW screen is glossy, and the Dell is not.

Okay, I'm just going to go through one at a time here and comment. (I'll but a nifty 'R' by all my comments, so you know it's me doing the commenting.)

I = Dell Inspiration 6000
S = Sentia
R. Why'd you put the Dell before the Alienware? Huh? Tsk Tsk.

Price
I - $2,664; currently $2,414 w/ rebate
S - $2,765; currently $2,165 w/ rebate
R. Okay, so the Alienware is two hundred odd dollars cheaper with a full rebate...any Dellers taking notes?

Processor
I - Pentium M 2.0GHz w/ 533MHz FSB
S - " " w/ 400MHz FSB
R. The Sonoma platform offers almost no significant gains in performance, and even falls back in some areas...I, for one, plan to wait a while before I even consider buying one...give 'em time to work the bugs out.

Q: How much differance does the speed in the front side bus make?
R. See above comment on your processors.

RAM
I - 1GB DDR2 400 to 533 MHz - 1 SDRAM Dimm
S - 1GB DDR PC-2700 at 333MHz - 1 SO-Dimm
R. Theoretically, the higher RAM speed would mean about double the performance, but when you're not a gamer, the frequency speed becomes moot after 256 Megs. And I wouldn't Trust Dell Ram to run Police Quest I.

Q: I'm fuzzy on memory specs, but I DO know that the Inspiration's memory is propriatary to Dell. Would that make a differance since AW claims to use only high quality brands? even though the frequency on the Dell is higher?
R. See RAM comment, in the future, I won't state such things, rather letting you go ahead and look up for unanswered questions.

Warrenty
I - NONE. AT ALL. It's not worth it w/ Dell.
S - 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service Bundle with AlienAutopsy and Respawn
R. The Dell Warranty-the one where they'll fix it if you drop it, or spill water on it or whatever, could very well be worth it...after all, you're bound to get really angry with it every once in a while, and while they're running you around with the tech department, you can 'accidentally' drop it and invoke that warranty...AW warranty, I beleive is more than worth the cost.

Display
I - 15.4" UltraSharp WUXGA LCD Panel
S - 12.1" Wide-XGA 1280x800 LCD Display w/ ClearView
R. Having seen both computers, I must say the the Clearview tech on the Sentia looks much, much better. In my opinion, that is...

Q: Given that I'm looking for a spacesaver, I'm leaning towards the Sentia. But aside from size, that's the real difference between the screens?

Hard Drive
I - 60GB 7200rpm (unknown manufacter; most likely proprietary)
S - Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm
R. I beleive the Dell Brand uses more power than the Hitachi, and I know for a fact that it is much, much louder.

Q: Again with the propriatary stuff... is it worth the risk?

Burner w/ software
I - 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability w/ Sonic RecordNow!, Sonic MyDVD and Cyberlink PowerDVD
S - Lite-On " " w/ Nero 6
R. Okay...and Nero 6 is worth how much more than all the rest put together?

Video Card
I - 128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics
S - Intergrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2 Technology
R. The Dell Side does have better video card...double the Megs, in fact, but for College-level video editiing(Or so I am told) 64 is plenty...and the ATI will use quite a lot of power, so if you plan on doing a lot of your work unplugged...

Q: Any chance I could simply buy a video card and swap it out in the Sentia since it's interface is AGP 4x?
R. No.

Battery
I - 9-cell Li-ION
S - 6-cell Li-ION
R. They have more cells, yes, but also a dedicated graphics card, and a larger screen, therefore, when my buddy and I were testing them out(He had a slower processor, however) mine had higher battery life, both just standing there doing nothing, and playing DVDs.

Wireless Card
Identical

Included (cheapest mandatory) Software
I - 6 month subscription to dial-up service, Corel WordPerfect word processor (I'll be buying the Academic Microsoft Office at Staples), trial security software, Dell Media Experience, Dell Jukebox, Photo Album™ SE Basic, Acrobat Reader 6.0, and the trial version of QuickBooks
S - Instant-ON Media Playback featuring PowerCinema, & AlienGUIse
R. Okay...so with the Dell you'll get all sorts of junk...oh, and have you ever run viruscan on a new Dell? (Last time I did, I got two viruses, Four counts of Adware, and three of Spyware) so if you're going to buy the Dell, be sure to Reformat first thing, I wouldn't even boot into the Desktop.

Sound Card
I - Integrated stereo sound w/ "media controls" on the front
S - Sound Blaster Pro Compatible 5.1 Digital Audio
R. Stereo vs 5.1 Digital....hmmmm...

HxWxD & Weight
I - 1.52" x 14.02" x 10.45" & starting at 6.65 lbs.
S - 1.75" x 11.5" x 9" & starting at 3.8 lbs.

Q: How the hell do you have a 15.4" screen when the Dell is only 14.02" in width? ..sorta the same coin with the Sentia claiming 12.1" when it's 11.5" in width.
R. They measure the screen corner to corner, which is nice, once you get used to it.

I/O ports are pretty much the same, but I can't seem to find out what kind of motherboard the Dell has... hrm.. that doesn't boad well.
R. It has a Dell Motherboard. I wouldn't trust it myself...but that's just me.

Ah well. Any suggestions from anyone?
R. Get the Sentia. Not the Dell. If not the Sentia, get a Lifebook, or a Sager, or a Voodoo...not a Dell.

Unfourtunately, yes, not many girls come here, and when they do, they don't stay for long...I'm beginning to think that we chase them away or something.

I mean, really, you'd think more girls would fall for the Sheer Cuteness of the laptop(Well, my girlfriend says it's cute at least...) and would write here...

Such a pity, such a pity...

oh no!!!

Oh no a chick, Here??? Well I guess that it was gonna happen sooner or later

When looking for ram, I have just about always found the best deals at
www.newegg.com. When I bought the sentia I didn't think about getting the memory from another vendor. When I looked around I could of saved about $70.00 buying ram from newegg.

Back to the first note, This isn't a good old boys club by any means. I am glad to see a lady around here


Gunner

oh. your a girrrrrl dragon. (shrek)

WE definitely seem to be in the minority. There is occaisionally an over abundance of porn-lovin' talk and the odd references to crisco, but the boys are quite helpful when you have a question.

yeh i noticed there weren't many of us... then again most of the girls i know wudnt know the difference between ram and hard drive.

in repsonse to what spec and model is your new laptop i once got: "dunno but its silver and has blue lights and a really wide screen" - yeh that narrows it down

its that kinda quote that gives girls a bad reputation on the technological side of things.