Dell XPS L501x, or something different?

[daishi5]

I am looking to buy a new laptop for the wife. The main use is for WoW, with a microphone so she can talk to her family while they game together. I will probably use the laptop myself when we travel for a little light gaming, things like dwarf fortress would be the most taxing game.

From what I can see, the XPS L501x review made it seem like the perfect choice for her. I can't seem to find a way to select the 1080p screen though. I checked the 17 inch, and same thing, all 900p screens. Without the nicer screen I am thinking that I might want to get something other than the XPS L501x. I really like the full keyboard on the 17 inch XPS for DF, but it is not a big decision maker. My wife thinks she wants to be able to haul the laptop around the house and be able to play anywhere, but I am fairly certain the laptop will spend most of its life hooked up to a monitor and keyboard/mouse at her desk.

Does anyone have the XPS machines that could comment on their WoW performance? (Gaming on it for me would be nice, but it must be able to play her game.)
Are there other laptops out there that would be just as good in same price range?
Is the 720p or 900p screen on the 15 and 17 comparable to the screen that got such rave reviews on anandtech?

Is there anything I should know that I forgot or overlooked?

 

[Numenorean]

I just ordered one.

Some of the configurations are hard coded to the 720p screen. So pick a different one. You have to start at the higher end.

I got a quad-core, 6GB, backlit keyboard, 650GB HD, with the blu-ray reader.

Can't wait for it to get here. I want to maybe put one of those hybrid hard drives in it at some point but not sure.

 

[Lanyap]

You might want to checkout Dell outlet. They have a 20% off coupon good until 1/28 or 10,000 uses and they usually have 40-50 in stock. You'll have to look for the 1080p screen since most of them I've seen are 720p.
Laptops - BP6SM900JMH74L - 20% off

 

[Bignate603]

Thanks for the coupon code... I was considering ordering next month but now I think I'll pull the trigger now.

None of the laptops in the outlet have the option for the 1080p screen and I'm debating getting the the 435m graphics card rather than the 420m. While it's faster you lose optimus which would give longer battery life. 95% of the time I'm plugged in to the wall on my current laptop so I think I'm just going to go with the faster card.

Update:
Just bit the bullet, got a i740 quadcore, the 435m and the 720p screen. The only thing I wish I could have gotten differently was the screen. Oh well, I'm going to be ordering a monitor that it will be hooked to at my desk anyways.

 

[Cheesetogo]

I'd be interested to see how well the 435M performs. WoW has becoming an incredibly demanding game (at maximum settings).

 

[Bignate603]

I'd be interested to see how well the 435M performs. WoW has becoming an incredibly demanding game (at maximum settings).

I don't game as much as I used to but I can safely bet it will do better than what I've got in my 6 year old Inspiron 9300.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

How up to date are these laptops? I'm looking at this one....also for WoW but I play TF2 and some others as well.


XPS 17

* XPS L701X
* Processor: Intel Core i5-560M Dual Core (2.66GHz 3MB for M6500)
* Genuine Windows 7 Professional
* 640 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
* 6 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHZ
* Blu-ray Disc Combo (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
* NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M 1GB graphics with Optimus

Comes to 800 something after coupon code.


I run WoW on my current 3 or 4 year old HP DV7. Run with everything turned all the way down except view distance and still get really low frames sometimes (10-15).

This should be much better right? I'm looking for something around 1k or less but I need 17in. screen.

 

[Lanyap]

These new XPS models just came out a couple of months ago.

You might want to search the Video and Graphics section for 435M to get more info on this video card.

 

[Bignate603]

Just got mine, haven't had a chance to do anything using the video card yet. With the quad-core and 6 gb of ram the machine is blisteringly fast. The only complaint I have is that the hard drive activity light is BEHIND the screen. You'd have to turn the computer around and look at the back side or close the screen to see the hard drive activity LED.