Dell Studio 14 vs Dell Inspiron 14

F

FiremanThul

New Member
Very hard decision here

Features Shared by Both computers
Intel Core i5-450 2.4ghz processor
4gb 1066mhz DDR (actually upon closer look, the inspiron does not specify if it is 1066mhz, perhaps it is not appropriate to assume that)
14" 720p LED display
64bit Win 7 Home Premium
8x DVD burner
HD Audio

Inspiron 14r
Mobile Radeon 5470 64bit 1gb DDR3 (slightly better than 5450 below)
Internal Bluetooth
500gb HDD @ 5400rpm
Listed at 5.25hrs battery life
$869.99

Studio 14
Mobile Radeon 5450 1gb (exactly as listed)
320gb SATA HDD @ 7200rpm
Listed at 8.25hrs battery life
$924.99

I have heard disabling the bluetooth might improve battery life on the Inspiron, but not by someone who actually owns one (based on his experience with other hardware). Right now I'm really digging the increase in battery life and the faster HDD of the Studio, I'm not really sure how much better the graphics card is on the Inpsiron.

I honestly cannot figure out if there are any other form factor differences between the Inspiron and the Studio, perhaps someone here might be able to add some insight..

Thanks :)
 
It should be mentioned that both laptops come with a 6-cell battery with no current options to upgrade on either machine..
 
Which one has more attack power?

Seriously though - do either of the video cards specify that they have dedicated RAM? Maybe it's in my head, but I feel like I've gotten better performance out of memory cards with dedicated RAM, then with ones that share the computer's RAM.
 
I think I've switched gears to the HP laptops, they have some with the Radeon 5650 card which is supposed to be the bawm..
 
eww, I'd stay away from HP laptops big time. I work home tech support and I see mostly HP pavilions. They are just cheaply made. They are #1 when it comes to the most returned laptop for warranty repairs. Dell is light years of a better choice.
 
I have owned several Inspirons and loved them. i currently own a latitude but do not play wow on it. dell has been great for me for the past 10+ years of laptops!
 
Agree @ Mirakle ... our work just switched to HPs from Dells for laptops and it's been a disaster. I'm lucky to have gotten one of the last Latitudes before they switched over. The one exception might be HP Envys ... I have a Firebird 802 as my home desktop and it is just beautifully designed so I'm a fan of VoodooDNA or whatever they call it ... but the new Envy 14 is a good step up in price from what you're talking about. Albeit it's still a better deal than it used to be.

I would go for the studio. A 5400 rpm HDD slows down load times on WoW noticeably, and startlingly you can't customize the HDD on that inspiron. You could swap it out yourself, I guess (I just ordered a Dell and I'm going to swap out the HDD for a SSD, which has me kinda antsy). The studio has a built-in webcam (maybe a gimmick, maybe not important to you, but still, it's increasingly a standard component). The studio 14 can get you a backlit keyboard for $25 ... which I find to be a useful feature for gaming. It's just a better designed piece of hardware. The one shortcoming vs. the Inspiron is the graphics card, but I doubt the difference will be noticeable in WoW *at all* ... and you could upgrade the graphics card for $85 when you order if that's affordable to you.

IMHO, buying laptops is very different than buying desktops. In general with desktops, it's very commoditized. The things you interface with (screen, keyboard, mouse) are all basically separate purchases. So you can reall just look for the best price/performance tradeoff for you ... those are the only two variables. Noise, thermals, and energy efficiency can matter to a buyer but generally you're looking at a specialized or high-end computer to address those ... a Dell vs. HP vs. "random box" tradeoff won't probably matter too much. With a laptop, however, design matters hugely. The screen, the keyboard, the way the ports are laid out, whether the air vents are efficient and well placed and so on ... it's not just ramming components in a shell. The studios put more into the design side than the inspirons. Makes them more expensive for the same components, but imo, it's worth it. On both, I'd say though, if you can get to a Best Buy and actually put your hands on the keyboard, I think you'd find it worthwhile before plunking down $1k.

You can find some other perspectives on the tradeoff here.
 
You mentioned I could upgrade the video card for $85, where did you see that option?

The HPs I'm looking at come with that 5650 radeon, what is the most comparable option through dell for that card?
 
Ah you were looking at the home side, the 5450 is available on either studio, but still less than the 5470, and from what I understand, well under the 5650 offered by the HP..

My quest for now is to find the BEST video card offered on a dell laptop without getting too big (like to stay in the 14-15" range)
 
Yeah 5650 definitely in a class above the other two gpus. But which hp are you looking at? The envy 14 is the only one with a 5650 that I saw. You give up some CPU power to keep it at around a grand but if that is what you are looking at, fine choice I think. Did not see a Dell with a 5650. Closest Dell less than 15 inches I saw with that much gpu power would be the alienware m11x ... Great machine but different animal altogether.
 
Lenovo is the old IBM think pads. Great machines but definitely better known for business apps than games.
 
The more I look at it, the Y460 can't be beat for the price.. The question is, is it "too hot". It apparently gets up to around 100 degrees on touchable surfaces during heavy game usage. Are there laptops out there that DONT get that hot, or is that a pretty standard temperature?
 
That is a pretty great deal, I'd agree. It's tough to say on the heat, I'd just google it and try to extract some sort of balanced perspective from what you see. At least it's designed to be an entertainment laptop, which in theory means it should be ok on heat. Taking a quick look at it, looks like 5 vents on the bottom, one on the (left) side, none on the right and back. Compare it to something like the Asus G73 or the Alienware M17x where almost the entire bottom panel is vented plus both sides plus the back, and you don't have as much thermal design on the lenovo ... but you're also talking a much smaller case than those 17" beasts and you gotta put plugs somewhere! Anyhow, so long as you're not a leftie (whereupon your mouse hand is likely to be convection-baked from that side vent), the Lenovo should be ok I would think. Although where possible I'd run it on a stand and/or cooling pad so that the bottom vents get enough airflow. It actually looks like a pretty nice machine.

Folks like Ewoks are vastly more knowledgeable on stuff like this than me, I'd love to see his input.
 
Special coupon now makes it $807 shipped.. I'm 90% sure I'm buying this when I get home from our labor day get together with our small group.
 
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