Xps15 or inspiron 15R

R

RushadMM

Disciple
I want to buy a dell inspiron. but on the website no where do they mention if it has optimus or not. For the xps make they specify that it has optimus. Also the show room did not have a model to show me.

I dont want to end up spending so much money on a laptop only to learn that its gpu is always on. it will reduce battery life and over heat.
thanks
the specs will be as follows-
i5 2410m
4GB
500GB
1 GB Nvidia GT 525m

Any advice?

Hi,

I was looking at a dell xps laptop. It has 2nd gen i3-2310M 2.1GHz, 2GB Nvidia 540M with optimus, 4GB ram, and a 500 GB 7200 rpm hard disk.

It costs me Rs 3600 to upgrade to the i5 2410 (2.3 turbo boost to 2.9)

Is it worth the upgrade? I will mainly used my laptop for student work and playing games.....

What is your advice?

PLease reply fast as I am going to leave to study abroad in about 15 days!

I am not so concerned with battery life, as I will always have access to a power plug, but will a 9 cell battery keep my laptop cooler and hence increase the life of my machine?

The 9 cell battery seems to increase air flow by proping up the back of the laptop......

Also, will the 9 cell battery be a pain to fit in the bag/sleeve?

I know what to do, but I cannot get my hands on the laptop. Do you have any idea? Does nvidia put optimus in all their cards or what?? Even it is has switchable graphics, it's fine. The problems with the nvidia card being the only adapter is the heat and the battery.... Would you also know the same for toshiba satellite L750-x5316??

I forgot to do it for the toshiba!

the dell model is an inspiron 15R, the evalue code is U540509IN8

you can find it at the dell india website..... Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate it. I'm a student and will be leaving for the uk in like 20 days, so I need to make up my mind so that i can order my laptop so that it comes!!!!
 
Re: 6 cell or 9 cell battery

i am using a 9 cell battery on dell xps, so far i did not have problem carrying it in a sleeve/samsonite backpack. it really a matter of personal choice, some find it

inconvenient and to some its not an issue.
 
Re: do all nvidia graphic cards have optimus?

If you are able to get your hands on the laptop, check whether it shows both the display adapters, Intel HD and the nVIDIA GPU in the device manager...

Dell Community
 
Re: do all nvidia graphic cards have optimus?

RushadMM said:
I know what to do, but I cannot get my hands on the laptop. Do you have any idea? Does nvidia put optimus in all their cards or what?? Even it is has switchable graphics, it's fine. The problems with the nvidia card being the only adapter is the heat and the battery.... Would you also know the same for toshiba satellite L750-x5316??
Click to expand...

Can you give the model no for the dell? also if you had gone to check out the X5316, you could have checked in the display adapter(s) in device manager...
 
Re: 2nd geni3 or 2nd gen i5 good enough for gaming?

Yes, the 2nd gen i3 is good enough for gaming and will not bottleneck the 540m GPU. If you need more details about choosing gaming laptops, you can refer to the gaming laptop guide below in my siggy.
 
Re: 2nd geni3 or 2nd gen i5 good enough for gaming?

But will the 2.1 GHz processor be good enough? Would you advice upgrading the 1GB 525 to the 2Gb 540 OR the i3 to i5............. I can only do any one..... Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.....
 
Re: do all nvidia graphic cards have optimus?

thanks a million! You are 100% sure that in india the inspiron comes with optimus, right? Because they did have inspiron 14R with the ATI card, and when I went to display adapters there was only the ATI card, not the intel HD.... Since the laptop had an "i"something processor, shouldn't it have come with the intel HD graphics??

Also, would you reccomend, an inspiron with i5 and the 525m OR the xps with i3 and 2GB 540..... the costs are 46 and 49 K respectively.....
 
Re: do all nvidia graphic cards have optimus?

optimus is only with nvidia, ati has switchable gpu support, but have not seen it. also please check it before buying it, ask the dell guys for a demo or something.

As far as the choice of laptops, no idea...
 
Xps upgrades

Hi,

I was looking at a dell xps laptop. It has 2nd gen i3-2310M 2.1GHz, 1GB Nvidia 525M with optimus, 4GB ram, and a 500 GB 7200 rpm hard disk.

It costs me Rs 2500 to upgrade the GPU to a 2Gb nvidia 540M.

It costs me Rs 3600 to upgrade to the 2nd gen i5.

I can only afford one. What do you suggest??

Is it worth the upgrade? I will mainly used my laptop for student work and playing games.....

What is your advice?

PLease reply fast as I am going to leave to study abroad in about 15 days!
 
Xps or inspiron

The specs of both are as follows-

XPS- 49k

2nd i3-2310M ( 2.1 GHz )
4GB RAM
500 GB 7200rpm hard disk
2 GB Nvidia GT540M with optimus
INSPIRON- 46k
2nd Gen i5-2410M (2.3 to 2.9 GHz)
4 GB RAM
500 GB 5400rpm hard disk
1 GB nvidia GT 525m [ it does not specify if it has optimus or not, what do you think? ]

Please advise.
 
Re: 6 cell or 9 cell battery

Dude why did you have to create so many threads for asking your doubts ????????? You could have covered all of these in 1 thread. Mods please merge all his threads
 
Re: Xps upgrades

Get the CPU upgrade the GPU upgrade is pointless IMO since the 540 is an overclocked 525 with additional 1gb ram that it can't really take advantage off.
 
Re: 2nd geni3 or 2nd gen i5 good enough for gaming?

RushadMM said:
But will the 2.1 GHz processor be good enough? Would you advice upgrading the 1GB 525 to the 2Gb 540 OR the i3 to i5............. I can only do any one..... Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.....
Click to expand...

Upgrade from Nvidia GT525M to GT540M, i3 is good enough for your usage.
 
Mostly all Nvidia+Intel combo supports Optimus. So it should be one.

What are your needs?

The Inspiron has a better CPU and a weaker GPU and a overall inferior build.

The XPS has a inferior CPU but a better GPU, HDD and a much better metallic build and excellent sub woofers.

So choose based on what is more important to you.
 
Re: Xps upgrades

the processor upgrade makes sense,both the GPU's are more or less the same. if you are going abroad the chances are that the same configuration might be cheaper there..
 
Re: 2nd geni3 or 2nd gen i5 good enough for gaming?

Review Intel Sandy Bridge Processors Gaming Performance - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Verdict

After all the tests were done, we were able to draw two conclusions. One, Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture is so powerful that even the entry-level model, the Core i3-2310M, is without a doubt fit for gaming. Two, mid-range graphics cards reach their gaming limits so quickly that the choice of processor hardly has any influence over the refresh rate. In three of the four games tested, the CPUs produced results within one fps of each other. Only in Call of Duty: Black Ops did the difference between the least and most expensive CPUs rise to a still not-very-significant 4 fps.

Occasional gamers, therefore, don't need to dish out for a more powerful CPU when choosing a mid-range graphic card. To go along with the Nvidia GeForce GT 540M we'd recommend the Core i5-2410M, which unlike the Core i3 models sports the automatic overclocking feature Turbo Boost and offers the best price-to-performance ratio. Quad-core CPUs or dual-core processors with high clock rates will only start to make a difference when combined with real gaming notebooks or high-end laptops equipped with graphics cards on par with or better than the GeForce GTX 460M or Radeon HD 5870 .
Click to expand...

Check this article. Very informative. According to the charts you will hardly lose couple of FPS. So shelling out ~3.6k is not adding much value IMO.

The GPU upgrade will give you a much higher FPS bump than from i3 to i5.
 
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