a related discussion I saw earlier at "gaming" board:

 

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@Lindy_Castro wrote:
I have to stay away from the XPS systems because this potential new laptop if for the "wife". With LAN party side trips.

Which is better for FPS gaming:

Inspiron 6000
1.86Ghz Pentium M 750
1Gb Ram
128Mb ATI Radeon X300

Vs.

Inspiron E1505
1.83Ghz Duo-Core T2400
1Gb Ram
Intel Graphics Accelerator 950


I'm tending to go with the Inspiron 6000 due to the video card but I don't know if the Duo core will boost performance enough to make up for what I perceive as a shorfall of the Intel 950 video card. I don't even know how got the Intel 950 is, just preconceived notions since it's not ATI or Nvdia.

I'm very interested in battery life and know I will get ~5 hours on the 9cell in the Inspiron 6000 while I hear the Duo core is more of power hog. Any ideas on what a 9 cell would give for unplugged time?

I'm tweaked about the SATA drived on the E1505 but wish it had an upgrade on the video card.

For reference, I've (my wife) currently got an Inspiron 8200, P4M 1.9Ghz, 256Mb ram Geforce 2Go 440. Went Ultrasharp on the display and I'll never go back. Only problem is, it's mobo is going haywire like every other Inspiron I know of, of that time period. Right after my 3 year warranty, guess I'm going for a 4 year next time. Hope they've made them more robust. No abuse either...

Lots of words, thanks for hanging in there!

Lindy

Message Edited by Lindy_Castro on 02-28-2006 10:53 PM

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http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=game-gen&message.id=34510

You can run either system either way - one DIMM or two - but the 6000 may not be very configurable at this point, as the systems available are likely already built, as production has ended.

With either system, you have two sockets and should run a matched pair of soDIMMs for best performance.

You can order with a single DIMM, but the system will not perform optimally, and there is no guarantee you'll be able to buy a matching DIMM later on.

Both systems run the RAM the same speed.

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@ejn63 wrote:
There are two memory sockets in each system. Both perform optimally with a pair of matched DIMMs - if you buy a single DIMM now, and upgrade to another later, it's likely you won't be able to find the same exact part number, so you will lose a few points in performance by doing that.

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so is it like

for 6000, both sockets are filled, 256Mx2

and for e1505, only one socket filled with 512Mx1?

if that's the case and I wanna save later when upgrade the memory, I'd go with e1505, right?

then for e1505, I only need to buy a piece of generic 512M RAM,

but for 6000, I'll have to buy 2 pieces of 512RAM together because the original ones can't be used?

 

THanks

Thanks! What about the Memory upgrade later on?

is the 2 DIMMS of 6000 means there're two slots and all filled up already?

or is 2 DIMMS of 6000 something better/worse than the 1 DIMM of e1505?

I plan to buy another 512MB RAM later on. Should this difference be a consideration?

Thanks again!

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@ejn63 wrote:
You can run either system either way - one DIMM or two - but the 6000 may not be very configurable at this point, as the systems available are likely already built, as production has ended.

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Thanks!

But after looking at the configurations again, I seem to be confused :smileysad:

Here they are:

 

for e1505:

• 512MB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 DIMM [add $50]
• 512MB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ, 1 DIMM [Included in Price] 

for 6000:

• 512MB Shared DDR2 SDRAM 2 Dimms [Included in Price] 
• 512MB Shared DDR2 SDRAM 1 Dimm [add $50]

----------------------------------------------

I wanna buy a fast speed/better performance memory to start with. Should it be Single Channel or Dual Channel?

Then,

I'd like to be able to upgrade it later by buying just ONE another 512M and put in. Should I go with 2 DIMMS or 1 DIMM?

BTW, why doesn't the ones for 6000 mention the speed?

Thanks!

As long as you're not going to use it for gaming, dual core trumps the ATI X300 video card - and since it looks like Dell isn't releasing any cards for the E1505/6400, the X300 will be the end of the line for the 6000, upgrade-wise anyway.

Whatever you buy, get a 3-year warranty minimum - and if you plan to use it in the dorms, etc., seriously consider getting Complete Care as well.

There are two memory sockets in each system. Both perform optimally with a pair of matched DIMMs - if you buy a single DIMM now, and upgrade to another later, it's likely you won't be able to find the same exact part number, so you will lose a few points in performance by doing that.

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@ejn63 wrote:
With either system, you have two sockets and should run a matched pair of soDIMMs for best performance.

You can order with a single DIMM, but the system will not perform optimally, and there is no guarantee you'll be able to buy a matching DIMM later on.

Both systems run the RAM the same speed.

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Thanks!

One more, does anyone have an idea how energy-consuming the Core™ Duo processor of e1505 is (comparing to Pentium® M Processor of 6000)? I heard it's not trivial.

Just wanna get a rough idea, say if the battery running on 6000 can last 5 hours, how much shorter it will be if running on e1505? Approxmiately.

Thanks again!

I don't think you'd ever see five hours from a 6000 in any sort of normal usage. You might see 3-3.5 with everything turned down - brightness, CPU speed on minimum, low-demand applications, hard drive set to spin down every couple of minutes.

I haven't seen any real-world tests of the Dual-core but suspect it probably doesn't do as well as that, and with the same chassis, probably uses the same battery.