m1330 vs. d830

Question

I'm having difficulty deciding between Dell's XPS m1330 or their Latitude d830. I'm a college student who's absolute highest priority is battery life. I have heard that the d830 can run two batteries at once to have very long battery life. I'm wondering if anyone knows if it would be any longer than the m1330 running a 9 cell battery. No matter which laptop I get, I plan on upgrading the harddrive to one that's 7200rpms. What kind of battery life should I expect from either/both of these two options (assuming that the Latitude d830 has it's two best batteries running and that the m1330 has the 9 cell battery running)? Also, assuming that the d830 has the best battery life with the two best batteries, what kind of performance should I expect from the Quadro NVS 140M videocard? Will I at least be able to run Halo on the lowest graphical settings and lowest resolution and get a playable framerate? I dont want a gaming laptop, I just want the games to be playable.

ejn63 · Answer

You're looking at 3-4 hours max from any single notebook battery - less, if you're gaming on battery and/or reduce the power saving settings.

The D830 will outrun the 1330 because of the second battery.

Either should be capable of moderate gaming.

The other major difference, of course, is size and weight - the 1330 is a compact car; the 830 is an SUV. The larger size and weight of the 830 net you a much larger screen and more of a desktop replacement.

The other thing to consider is timing - the 1330 just barely started shipping and lead times are long - you may be waiting a month or more for one.

cApNhOwDy · Answer

I'm bumping this incase anyone else convinces me that one choice is better than the other. If the d830 has longer battery life with two batteries, I'm going with it. How hard would it be to reinstall the media drive if I needed to install something from a CD or DVD?

Also, on this page http://www.dell.com/content/topics/reftopic.aspx/pub/products/latit_kat?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&~section=d830 I have the option of a regular d830 or one that has Energy Star. Would the Energy Star option help conserve battery life?

Also, the LCD screen options include WXGA, WSXGA+, or WUXGA. Which one would conserve battery life the most (I'm assuming WXGA). Or would someone strongly recommend I choose one of the more expensive options for any certain reason?

And how difficult would it be for me to upgrade the RAM and harddrive by myself?

Message Edited by cApNhOwDy on 08-07-2007 11:45 PM

channelv · Answer

For what you describe, go with the D830. The graphics card is weak (NVS 140m) but can play those games at lower resolutions with playable framerates.

cApNhOwDy · Answer

I ended up going with the d830, three months ago, lol.  But thanks for the input anyways, even if it's 3 months late.

channelv · Answer

Hahha  : )    I knew it was a late response but I figured I'd post anyways just in case. How are you liking your laptop? I love mine, except for the graphics card...wish it were a bit more powerful. If you need help upgrading or what not, let me know since I've upgraded just about everything I could have on mine. Cheers!

cApNhOwDy · Answer

I'm liking it alot.  I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and the harddrive to a 7200RPM 200GB one and I love it.  Runs the few games that I want to play on-the-go at a playable framerate.  Normally I'd say that it's 'nothing special' but the battery life is exceptional.  I'm very happy with my purchase.  Makes a good replacement to my desktop when I travel and want to do some casual gaming or watch some movies on the go, I'm entertained the entire time.  I'm glad that I didnt go with a gaming notebook.

channelv · Answer

I also upgraded my hard drive to the Hitachi 200gb 7200rpm drive with 16mb cache and NCQ, probably the same one you have. I've upgraded my RAM to 4gb. I haven't tried playing games yet as I just got the laptop fairly recently, but do plan on playing a few older games, nothing too drastic. On another note, I do overclock my GPU using nTune (from the nvidia.com website).

Here's an interesting note: A friend of mine has a Precision M65, which is pretty much the same laptop, just not a Santa Rosa i965. His has a Quadro FX 350m 512mb, and the default clocks on that laptop for GPU/video memory are 450mhz/450mhz. Mine, with the Quadro FX 360m is 400/400. I find that strange since they are both similar cores using the same nanometer process, and use the same memory (I actually looked at our memory chips by removing the keyboard - the video memory is located next to the GPU. We had different brands of memory but they were the same rated speed. He overclocks his FX 350m to 475/475 without any problem. I actually "overclock" mine to 450/450 without a problem and minimal heat increase (using nTune monitor) since these are the default clocks for the 350m, I don't see why the same process/voltage 360m cannot do that. I say "overclock" because I think this is more of what the default clock SHOULD have been. However...I haven't really dared to go much further at least on a long term basis (I've tried 475/475 for 10 minutes or so without problem) since the default clocks on our laptops was only 400/400.

Anyways, just food for thought. So I think honestly that the 360m may be a slower GPU than the old Precision M65's 350m if you leave it at stock speed/clocks. Weird huh...

Message Edited by channelv on 11-15-2007 06:30 PM

cApNhOwDy · Answer

I think I understand what you mean.  However I think that you're a little bit better at understanding that sorta thing than I am, so I wouldnt know the specifics.  I know more about desktop computers and their hardware than I do laptops, so just recently have I been dipping my feet into the water of portable computing.

channelv · Answer

Don't worry, I was the same way until about 2 years ago when I got my first laptop. It's pretty much all the same, just that laptop hardware is all proprietary mostly cuz its smaller (except for things like hard drive, memory, and mini PCI/PCIE cards). The main gripe I have about laptops is how their GPUs are weak compared to desktops. However in just about every other aspect (if you don't count insanity like quad core CPUs, huge RAID arrays etc), I really do think they match up to desktop counterparts.   Anyways have fun with your laptop and your foray into mobile computing! If you have any questions, shoot me a message or what not.

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m1330 vs. d830

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