Dell M70 or Inspiron 9300???

Go w/ the M70. I run FarCry perfectly, Half-Life 2 without a bump, and it renders like no ones business. Basically the Go 1400 is a underclocked 6800.

Definitely go with the M70. The Quadro card offers built in OpenGL optimizations for most professional 3D applications. If you're really concerned about gaming you can always overclock the card. I've overclocked mine from the stock 275/590 up to 375/780 using coolbits with no problems other than a little more heat under the laptop. The only possible downside of the M70 is that the screen is 15.4" instead of 17". Personally I prefer this size because it increases mobility and battery life, but some people find higher resolutions on the smaller screen somewhat difficult to read. Anyway, hope this helps.

I second M70 as well. Are you a student or already a design engineer?

I concur with the other supporters of the M70. However you are asking for performance for two not identical needs: (1) games (2) CAD etc. The M70's gpu is specifically optimized for CAD work, so it is hands-down the one to get for that. On the other hand, it is no mean gamer, too.
But it's gpu is around 10% slower on 3Dmark 2001 compared to the 6800 option on the i9300. To put that in perspective, an Nvidia QuadroFX Go 1400's 3Dmark 2001 score is around 17,000 (at least prior to any overclocking) compared to the 6800's 19,000. For most of us, that is not going to materially affect our gaming experience. Anyway, the true game-focussed user is not going to look at either the M70 or the i9300 but rather the Inspiron XPS Gen 2, with its 6800 Ultra. The brief here is both CAD and games, and the M70 serves the two masters really well (though aimed squarely at CAD).

The observation already mentioned, the matter of size difference, is substantial, both positive and negative. The i9300 (and the XPS Gen 2) has a much bigger screen, and that is very nice...until you have to lug it around. The M70 is quite heavy enough: and for me, big enough.

which one?

the 9300 offers a larger screen, a subwoofer, more usb ports and a better graphics card in a sturdy frame.

the m70 costs more , the graphics card is good though not quite as good as the 9300's card and the frame is a bit sturdier

they both weigh the same.

I am not an engineer nor do I use CAD, so it was a no brainer for me,,
If you use cad I would probly go with the M70, though for the price difference I would also research whether or not the 9300's 256 meg nvidia card would meet your needs if price is a concern.

The M70 was specifically designed for cad applications needing open gl.

>
- Does Mobile Workstation graphics card ( nvidia Quadro Fx go 1400) support games ok?

Two data points.

I've played City of Heroes and Guild Wars with my M70 and both behaved better than my desktop (w. ATI 9800 NP).

The main thing going for the M70 is size. The 15.4" is about as big as I would care to carry around. Any bigger and things like airplanes etc become difficult

According to the Dell site, the i9300, with the 6-cell battery option, weighs 7.85 lbs, the M70, with a 9-cell battery standard, weighs 6.69 lbs. The M70 has 4 usb ports, 2 at the back, 2 on the right side. The i9300 has 4 usb ports at the back, and 2 on the left side. The M70, like the D810 has extra security features like a spill-proof keyboard, additional HD impact-protection, a smartcard slot (for security protection cards), and 10/100/1000 ethernet. On the other hand the i9300 screen is much bigger, and from reports it runs cooler than the M70. It has firewire, an SD card slot, probably better sound, DVI, and 10/100 ethernet. Cutters has a i9300, and I have a M70. They both seem very good machines with slightly different emphasis: basically the M70 for office, the i9300 for home - but obviously the boundaries are fluid! The most striking and probably decisive difference is in size of the screen which is both good and bad in each case. In the end most of us see specific price also as a determining factor.

I have an M70 and a friend of mine has a 9300.
The 9300 is definitely considerably heavier and larger to pick up and move around with,it also runs a lot cooler than my m70 although his 9300 only has the 128mb X300 card.
Build quality is incomparable IMHO with the 9300 looking like the cheap plastic consumer model it is,even though, it seems fairly solid with no creaks or anything when opened or moved around.
The 9300 definitely is more bang for your buck though having probably a better selection of ports depending on what you want it for,and in my case cost nearly half as much as what I paid for my M70,configuring the go6800 doesn't add much to the price either.


I use Solidworks 2005 on my rig,and it works flawlessly,the same can't be said for previous laptops I have had with MR9600xt and MR9000 video in them,I guess its a risk you take if you use a gaming optimised card for mcad,its a risk I will never take again.

Gaming wise the M70 performs excellently,I've played both doom3's,far cry,half life 2,riddick butcher bay,chaos theory,and a few others,3dmark2003 of around 6500-6700,I would be suprised if the 6800 would make a vastly different gaming experience,although the 9300 owners will probably set me straight on that one!

I see on the US Dell website that you can get an XPS2 for less than an M70 depending on what deals are available,if gaming was more important to me thats what I would be getting,that 6800 ultra is in a league of its own

I'd say go with the M70. It is better suited for people who do engineering work. The video card is designed for that kind of work, while the 9300's video card is designed for gaming.

I will throw my hat in the ring for the m70 as well. I have it and love it, and it is a very quiet, while a bit warm running (bottom center...intel card?) machine. It runs games great as well as my Softimage XSI. I got mine with the docking station that has more usb, dvi, and some more extras...although sadly still no firewire. That's really the only thing missing, and if I ever needed it I would get a pcmcia card for it.

Tellerve

I'm also an engineering student and will be working alot on solidworks 2005. The m70 looks like a nice machine but it's so damn expensive! No way a student can afford the m70. Dont you guys think that i9300 (nvidia) is already overkill for solidworks? Before reading this thread my eyes were set on a 6000d. Thought that would be enough.

Yes the M70 is expensive I agree,what about the M20,smaller as well,probably a lot better battery life,I wouldn't think you would notice a huge difference with swx05 unless you muck around with huge assy's,at least you know it has a driver set that will WORK with swx,the same can't be said for I6000 x300.
Solidworks will work correctly with integrated graphics,you just have to check the 'USE SOFTWARE OPENGL' box under tools,options,performance which disables hardware graphics acceleration,just don;t expect anything to happen quickly and smoothly.
Can't have your cake and eat it too.

It's worth looking at Dell outlet for M70s, that is where I got mine from and it was £1215 inc VAT and delivery while the list price for the same spec was (at the time) around £2100. The prices on the outlet seem pretty random with
some older models appearing at very high prices while others seem to be very good bargains. This was all on Dell UK but I suspect prices are much less on Dell US.

The Dell outlet may offer a good deal on an M70 especially if there are any outlet coupons out there.
If price is a concern, you might want to examine whether or not the 9300 can meet your needs.
The build of the D810 and M70 is completely of magnesium alloy while the 9300 only has mag alloy in the base and on the LCD lid, having said this, there is no flex or creaking in my 9300 and it is very solid. The smart card feature of the business line is nice but there are security features available for the inspirons aside from this, though I would have liked a smartcard feature on my 9300.
Perhaps you could check some review sights to see just what you need to run solidworks, maya, cad/cam etc.

i would go with it too as i just ordered one . WHy its not as ugly as the other dells and its very quiet and very fast.

both have nvidia cards , both have open gl capabilities, they should both work well

i was using the 9300 for 3d work before getting an m70 and quite frankly i do not see any difference in performance, maya was running perfectly in the 9300, so i would say either one you get should be fine.

3dcomp

honestly i was lookiing at benchmarks and they all have the same preformance. It is just a littel undercloked just get get better battery and less fan noise thats all. I dont see how it is optmized more