Be Excellent To Each Other

I've been looking for a new lappy and I'm eyeing up a Dell Studio 15 that's €665 (~590 of the Queen's Moonbeams) and full of this:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache)
15.6in Widescreen High Definition (1366x768) WLED with TrueLife
4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
500GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Fixed Internal DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive

Bearing in mind I don't know what some of those numbers mean, can any of you lovely helpful people tell me if there's anything nasty lurking in those specs? My original budget was €800 (~£700) so I'm willing to spend a bit more to fiddle with the components or, y'know, buy a completely different laptop. Cheers!

What do you want the laptop for gaming or non-gaming

This thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4593 might help

That is a nice machine, but I managed to get a 15" Dell Inspiron for £349. The only difference between our two laptops are that you've got a 250GB HDD and mine is 160GB. I'm not sure that 90GB is worth an extra £240.

-fake edit- actually, your processor might be slightly better spec than mine, but it's still a Core 2 Duo.

myp is yours a LCD or an LED screen?

LED refers to the backlight. The choice is EL or LED, the screen is always LCD.

@myp, he's saying 500GB HDD though.

Honestly you two.

I don't know why I wrote any of that sentence, as my HDD is actually 250GB, not 160.

I still think he could probably get a better deal than that.

Gaming isn't a priority; if it can run Team Fortress 2, I'm happy.

Thanks myp. The Dell website claims it's down from €1,113 for a week, which had me both excited and suspicious.

Something that would run TF2? So a gaming laptop, then?

It's outside of the realms of my expertise now, really. Wait for John Coffey to tell you which Alienware lappy to buy.

Thanks Mr Kalmar, I never new the difference, just though the LCD had been replaced with LEDS... cool

It just has to run TF2, it doesn't have make it all wham-bam-pow!

You're in Ireland, aren't you?

Indeed I am.

This is the bit where Chinny or myself say get a Macbook.

Yikes! I've just had a look at the prices on http://ireland.dell.com. The one you've got your eye on seems a very good deal of a sudden.

TRU. They have LED lit screens as well.

That'll be the fabulous shamrock tax!

It's probably got an Intel graphics, which are only just good enough to run the fancypants Windows 7 Aero UI, never mind games.

Entertaining fact: they've rewritten the card games to use DirectX. If I blow Solitaire up to 1920x1080, card movements stutter on my 2.5GB, 1.66GHz dual core laptop. Fucking Solitaire.

Defo get Dual Core.

To be sure, to be sure.

It's got a 512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570, with no option to change it.

That card will run TF2.

That's not a bad card. Probably.

I'm sure JC will be along to disagree shortly.

Cheers Nemmie! And BikNorton and everyone else (except Zardoz).

I was going to suggest that.

What's the advantage of buying a Macbook? Apart from faster run speed, improved floatation and increased danger from crosswinds, thanks to a significantly lighter wallet?

A slightly warmer neck from the polo shirt, and not having to sleep due to spending all your life in a coffee house.