A Tale of Two Dell Laptops...

[jdogg707]

Ok, well, maybe not a tale, but I do need some help choosing. I am looking for something that will be nice and fast, have fair battery life (2.5 hours+), do a little gaming, Wi-Fi, and then just basic office tasks. I am looking at these two laptops here and really don't want to spend anymore money than these cost, so if you could give me an idea of which you would choose I would appreciate it...

Dell Inspiron 9100:

Intel® Pentium® 4 3.2GHz
15.4-in. WSXGA+
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
512MB DDR 400MHz - 2 DIMMs
128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow
60GB Ultra ATA 7200rpm Hard Drive
98 WHr 12-cell Primary Battery with Subwoofer
Dell?TrueMobile? 1300 WLAN 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card
Graphite Swirl QuickSnap Cover
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year Mail-In Service

Total: 2,371.58 After Taxes
_________________________________________________

Dell Inspiron 8600:

Pentium®M Processor 1.7GHz
15.4 in UltraSharp? Wide Screen SXGA
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
512MB,DDR 333MHz - 2 Dimms
128MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PRO Turbo
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow
60GB - 7200rpm Ultra ATA Hard Drive
72 WHr Primary Battery
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 WLAN (802.11b, 11Mbps) miniPCI Card
Graphite Swirl QuickSnap? Cover
AC adapter - 65w, 19.5v
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year Mail-In Service

Total: 2,382.47 After Taxes

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[KevinH]

Depends on how often you plan to use battery power. If battery power is a premium, get the 8600...if not get the 9100. That said, seriously consider what you mean by a "little" gaming. If you just play some dx7 games, or a couple of sports titles here and there...both systems are overkill. If you plan on playing the latest and greatest, then they should both be sufficient with the 9100 doing about 10-20% better in graphics intensive games.

 

[rainypickles]

personally, i lean toward the P-M rather than the P4. the 9100 is probably slightly (just guessing) more powerful than the 8500. i think the main reason i would get theh 8600 instead is the increased battery life. heat is probably much greater in the P4, so dont want to scorch anything down there. you might want to consider weight too.

 

[jdogg707]

I would like to be able to stick CC Generals, Call of Duty, and Warcraft 3 on there and be able to go to town without too much trouble at all. I am not worried about weight as this will mostly be carried around my house and possibly to school every once in a while, but not often enough for me to want to sacrifice performance for less weight. As I stated, I really don't need anymore than 3 hours of battery life, and any gaming I woulde be doing would be while hooked up to an AC Adapter. I like the 9100, because of the better graphics adapter, but how does the Pentium M 1.7GHZ compare to the 3.2GHZ P4 in performance?

 

[Abhi]

Hi .... i have an inspiron 8500....

Full specs in sig...

The battery life is approx 3 hrs...

As for the 9100, it will certainly perform better for gaming...

A huge difference between the two is ...

9100 .... Starting at 8.92 lbs
Height: 2.0 inches

8600.... 7.2lbs
Height: 1.52 inches

Be sure to consider this before u buy....

 

[BroadbandGamer]

I would never buy the 9100 because I think it's ugly with the built in legs. However, if I had no choice I would of course get the 9100 because it's using the latest Mobility 9700.