Dell Inspiron 8600 (Thinking About It)

To anyone that can help(people with i8600s):

Hey, this notebook looks really nice, but it looks kind of big. I guess that's okay if you are only going to use it around the house. Anyways, if I pick the WSXGA+ w/ the 64MB NVIDIA® GeForceTM FX Go5200 Go graphics card, how will Half Life: Counter-strike and Need For Speed: Underground look on it? Also, are the words too small to read? Is the 40gig HD option 5400rpm? Do you know if you can call in to customize a laptop without all of the software that they like to include? Last question is, are you happy with yours and is it comfortable?

I plan on posting a mini review of my i8600 soon, I've had it for about 2 weeks and I love it, i'll post more info and pics so check back :D

Cool, how is it so far? Can you answer any of the questions? I got 2 more days to decide not including today because thats when the 15% off coupon expires.

Oh too days?

Well if you end up getting it after Dec. 8th, you can get the new ATi 9600M video card option. Counter Strike will run fine on the 5200, but I cant make any promises with NFS Underground under high settings. The 5650 is much better than the 5200, and the ATi 9600m is much better than both!

The M10 and the 5650 is not in my pricerange, so I don't think I really need to worry about those. I've thought it over, and if I decide to buy this, I think that the 5200 is enough. I just need some answers to my previous questions. Hopefully someone on this forum can answer.

if I pick the WSXGA+ w/ the 64MB NVIDIA® GeForceTM FX Go5200 Go graphics card, how will Half Life: Counter-strike and Need For Speed: Underground look on it?

I haven't installed half-life on my laptop, but rest-assure it will play perfectly with it. I haven't tried any games or benchmarks with this laptop yet, but soon I will and i'll play around with the resolutions to see how things go with keeping correct ratios such as 1024x768, 1280x1024, instead of widescreen resolutions that would distort the image if stretched out.

Also, are the words too small to read?

No, I feel the 1680x1050 is pretty well suited for the screen, it's small but I love having all the space available with not much overlapping of open windows. Dell shipped it by default with the DPI set higher (120 DPI) so the text was bigger initially, but I set it back to windows default (96) so it would be smaller.

Is the 40gig HD option 5400rpm?

Good question, i'm thinking it's 4200rpm, but i'll confirm that when I benchmark/review it.

Do you know if you can call in to customize a laptop without all of the software that they like to include?

I'm guessing not on this one. It shipped with WinXP Home, and some dell stuff, but truthfully it wasn't awefully overloaded with junk. I ended up formatting it and putting my own personal copy of WinXP Prof. SP1a on it and started fresh.


Last question is, are you happy with yours and is it comfortable?

I'm very happy with this laptop, it's been very nice to have it where ever I go, and using the wireless internet is a blessing.

I think i have some free time tomorrow afternoon, i'll post some size pics and more detailed information.

Thanks dude, now I will decide if I should go for it. I was manily concerned about the LCD and not really of the graphics card. Hopefully I can get some info about the HD.