Gateway M505XL VS Dell Inspiron 8600

Gateway M505XL VS Inspiron 8600 -

Both have 1.5GHZ, 512MB DDR, DVDRW, 60GB.

$1800 VS $2000.

Dell pros: WSXGA+, 128MB pro turbo, 7200RPM HD.
Gateway pros: $200 less, subwoofer, extra USB (not important), SD reader (not important), might can get before Christmas (can anyone confirm this?)

What do you think? It'd be nice to save $200 and open it on Christmas, but the Dell is a better machine. Will I notice the difference between the VCs? If I could get a 15% off coupon for the Dell I'd definitely buy that, maybe with a 1.7GHZ if I could afford it.

I say go Dell, especially if you can afford the 1.7Ghz:) Plus it has a better screen and gfx card, not to mention HDD;)

Forgot to mention I get a $60 carrying case for free with the Dell. I wish it was a backpack. :(

I'm leaning towards the Dell. If the Gateway didn't have such a shitty screen I'd be more likely to buy it.

Edit: How come I can say **** in my post, but not in my sig :confused:

Edit: Ohhhh, I can say shitty ;)

I say Dell, neither company are too great IMO, but out of the 2 I'd take the Dell, it has better everything basically, and for only $200 more, plus the free carrying case:) Deffinetly go Dell. If ya want to IM me sometime, my AIM address is LogiApple boy. I am gona go to bed now, I'll see you tomorrow:)

Mine's WhackISP, I'll hitcha up sometime. :)

Dell pro: My username becomes Dell dude
Gateway pro: My username becomes Gateway geek

Wait a sec, are those pros? :confused:

I have an 8600 and absolutely love it!

Those aren't pro's;) I like your name now, more than both of those.

And how is the 8600's wide screen for gaming?

I think you can have it stretched or have black bars at the side, unless the game supports widescreen format. So if it was 1280*1024 res and you had the WSXGA+ screen, it'd take 200 pixels off each side unless you play stretched. I hear some people don't mind the stretching.

Edit: res

Ok, my CRT does that with CS(cuts some screen off) at really high res.

Realy? Is that at 1600*1200 or something. I think CS can only go to 1280*1024 and that may be the reason.

Alot of modern games have Widescreen res' without clipping or streching built in: http://www.tigerdave.com/custom_res.htm

No it's the second res you listed. My monitor can't do 1600x1200:( It was going at 1 fps when I set it to 1600x1200 lol!

btw, CS does 1600x1200.

I do it with my GF4MX on my laptop all the time.
Smooth as a baby's bottom.

That's weird, I've never heard of CRTs cutting some of the screen off.

Yeah, it's weird to me too. It is an older CRT though, I am not sure about my newer CRT as I haven't used it in like a month:( But it's not very different, you're too into the game to notice;)

I don't like the dell case... It's so big. It just the cover... Nothing that great. Now, a case that holds the laptop nice and tight and has feet in the bottom so you can put it down and not worry about hte case tilting.... Now that's a case. Brand 'Black Paw' makes cases like that.