I'm sure there's been many threads with the same title, but I honestly cannot make a decision between the two. It pretty much boils down to sacrificing performance for mobility or just accepting a larger notebook. My first choice: Dell XPS M1530: -Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache) -High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1440x900) & 2MP Camera -3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms) -160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor -256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT -Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card Price: $1,574 The second choice: HP Pavillion dv9700t: -Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50GHz) -17.0" diagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050) -3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) -240GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (120GB x 2) -512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS -Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection Price: $1,559.98
What's the performance difference between the two? I don't see it. The 512mb 8600M GS might actually perform worse then a 256m 8600M GT. The 17inch looks like it just has better storage and more screen space. I would go for the 15inch.
depends on what you are going for 17" latops are BIG and can be heavyi have an 8600m GT in my 17 with higer resolution, it runs well enough for most Source engine games.
I like HP notebook. But HP Pavillion dv9700t price too much for it. Maybe getting Mac notebook. Not that bad. I remember my friend got 17inch mac pro notebook.
i'd get the m1530. 17" notebooks suck. i don't think you'd really be sacrificing any performance, an 8600gt running 1440 is going to get better framerates than a gs running 1680. also, 3gb of ram is stupid, and iirc can't actually run in dual channel. get 2gb single dimm, or 4gb. and then wipe the hard drive and install a 64-bit OS to get rid of the crap that dell installs.
It can run in dual-channel, current Intel mobile chipsets(and possibly desktop ones) can run things in Asymmetric dual-channel, so when Dell advertises the 3GB as dual-channel they aren't lying. Agreed on the 15" notebook, its smaller and has a better graphics card. If you need more drive space you can upgrade that down the road, you can't do that with the graphics card.
I don't know about their laptops, but HP desktop beats teh world record for the most crap they put on your machine. No wonder people complain on how Vista is slow... If you with HP, I suggest to ask a friend for Vista (64-bit edition by preference (any editions will do, they are all the same disk. It is your product key that decides which edition to install) disk to re-install your system.
whilst i'm not convinced about your second point, you are right in saying that HP cram junk into their machines. imo if you want a desktop replacement workstation, get the 17" model. if you want frequebt portability and working in coffee shops and libraries, get the 15".
Argh, that's tricky... The performance on the Dell will be much better, but you get extra screen real-estate with the HP, and a bigger HD, although the graphics will be pretty meh.
If my HP printer was released AFTER Vista was released, and HP PROMISED Vista 32 and 64-bit drivers, and a couple of months after I purchased it, they cancel Vista support, and release a new printer with IDENTICAL specs, including identical CPU and system and compressed and encrypted their driver setup, where only the printer with the correct model can decrypt it (so that I don't use the Vista printer drivers of the other printer).... Who knows, maybe your laptop won't be Windows 7 compatible as HP would do everything they can so that you can't install them and buy a new laptop. I say no to HP. Beside it's all plastiky cheap, form my eyes it's the kind of things were the screen hinges will brake after a year. In other word, just get Dell
a 17" screen seems attractive but as others have already said maybe a little unuseful and large if you have to bring it out e.g. to customer presentation. I'd choose the Dell as I made good experiences with them.
While I agree about the software side of things, you cannot argue with HP's hardware, they are well designed in terms of looks and ergonomics. My brother has had a HP laptop for 2 years and it hasn't skipped a beat, the only thing that has broken is the cable on the power supply, but that is because he wraps it too tight and its split the cable. If HP put less crud on the system then they would be pretty unstoppable . Though my system has literally everything disabled or removed that it doesn't need, the only HP related things that are on there are the touch pad button drivers (not the mouse one, the ones above the keyboard), which I need to change the volume and use media keys, but even if I removed this, Vista would add it itself, at least it did of my GF's laptop. When I moved her to vista it really was the day of vista greatness for me, I didn't have to install a single driver, it just grabbed them all for me, and by the time I had put on office, AV, the sims 2 (every expansion/stuff pack ) it had drivered me up. Anyway cant be bothered to get back on topic as this thread clearly doesn't need reviving any more.
I don't have any experience with these laptops but I just happened to find some reviews on Dell XPS M1530 which could be useful to you.
