Laptop for first year university student

[Coke]

Is the dell still good for gaming? I understand the HP is better but if the Dell comes with a bluray player, better display, backlit keyboard and is still decent for gaming I think I'll go with it. Unless the HP is way better for gaming?

I'm not an avid pc gamer right now but when I get to college I probably will do quite a bit with wow or starcraft 2. Will a Dell XPS be able to handle these?

Starcraft 2 you can play medium at around 59FPS, High on 40.
But the HP will Be able to play it high at at least 55 FPS.
You can probably almost (if not totally) max WOW on the XPS. Definitely max it on the HP.

I didn't think of it before, but having optimus on the dell is a big plus for when you aren't gaming. Optimus squeezes out at least 45 minutes of extra battery life. AMD has a similar thing(bacon), but I don't think it's on the HP, and even if it is, it's not as good as saving battery life as optimus. Even though bacon is obviously an epic name for technology.
Optimus aside though, you should be able to squeak out a few more minutes of gaming on the XPS, it takes up 25WATTs vs the HP's roughly 30WATTS.

Sources:
Dell XPS's card with technical details and gaming performance, compliments of notebookcheck.

HP's card with technical details and gaming performance, compliments of notebookcheck.

[junior21]

So is Dell still quite capable of playing games? If I need to could I update the video card or should I just go with the HP?

[Coke]

So is Dell still quite capable of playing games? If I need to could I update the video card or should I just go with the HP?

Pardon me if I ramble, it's getting late. I just feel like all this info is slightly relevant in some way xD
The graphics card IS the weakest thing on there, would be the first thing to go if you wanna keep it up to date. But upgrade now? Nah, especially if you're only playing starcraft 2 and WOW and similar games.

Both, I'm pretty sure, have 2 dimms that max out at 4GB+4GB, and memory is easiest to upgrade anyways.
The Processors are gonna be at the very least average 5 years from now. They're sweet.
HDD space isn't really an issue, these days external HDDs or even upgrades are so low priced its not an issue.


Also, about the upgrade thing, I'm not sure the XPS (or any laptop really) is GPU-upgrade friendly. Physical space is sort of a big issue, so you'd need something very similar or smaller. To clarify, I have 0 experience upgrading laptop GPUs. You'll wanna head over to the modifying board if you want to get into that.

[ElBlufer]

You won't be able to upgrade the GPU on any machine that isn't specifically built for gaming. The Sagers and some Alienware machines are all I know of that are upgradeable in the future. Upgrade now.

[Karamazovmm]

you forgot workstation class, and indeed those are the only ones that you can be sure to upgrade something latter

[BeaverRat]

XPS:

Pros

-Better Display
-Better Speakers

Cons

-Worse GPU
-Worse price (HP has some crazy coupons)
-Bulky looking

DV6T QE

Pro

-Much better GPU
-1080P Screen is fabulous, just not quite as good as XPS
-Slimmer
-Runs pretty cool
-Nicer looking
-Better bang for the buck

Cons

-Screen (see above)
-Speakers are not as good as XPS (but they are well above average)

I was in the exact same boat as you... I chose the DV6. It plays SC2 with a mix of High/Ultra at 1080P with ~ 50 FPS. Both can get bluray drives, both have same hard drive options, and both have same cpu and ram options...

[Altered Phoenix]

Dell Home Coupon
Extra $100 off Dell XPS Laptops
Coupon Code: 932N$0ZCCHWZB9
expires 06/30/2011

or scratch it and buy a XPS 17
Extra $350 off XPS 17 Laptops $1600+
Coupon Code: 8GHR80Q1PLLCF7
06/30/2011

stacked with
Extra $150 off Dell XPS 17 Laptops
Coupon Code: 7WR1C2?HTTQQ11
06/30/2011
You can get a mroe powerful XPS with 2720QM and stuff for about $1100

Oh and I think there is a 3% student discount.

[Altered Phoenix]

This is a sample. Sorry, tables don't translate well.

PROCESSOR 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® Home Premium, 64-Bit, English edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook edit
SERVICE PLAN 2 Year Premium Hardware Service edit
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SERVICE 2 Year Accidental Damage Service edit
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus edit
MEMORY 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
HARD DRIVE 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2 edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 15-Months edit
HD DISPLAY 17.3" HD+ (900p) LED Display with 2.0MP HD Webcam edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) edit
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0 edit
SOUND OPTIONS JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3 + Creative SoundBlaster X-FI MB 1.2 edit
My Software & Accessories
COLORS Elemental Silver Aluminum edit
MOBILE BROADBAND No Mobile Broad Band Selected edit
OS RECOVERY MEDIA Recovery DVD for Windows® 7 Home Premium OS, 64bit, English edit
My Accessories
ONLINE DATA BACKUP DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
XPS 17 XPS 17
KEYBOARD Backlit Keyboard - English
Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader

Total price: $1654.99
With both coupons: -$500
New Total: $1154.99
Student Discount: -3%

Final Total: $1120.34

[junior21]

This is a sample. Sorry, tables don't translate well.

PROCESSOR 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® Home Premium, 64-Bit, English edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook edit
SERVICE PLAN 2 Year Premium Hardware Service edit
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SERVICE 2 Year Accidental Damage Service edit
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus edit
MEMORY 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
HARD DRIVE 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2 edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 15-Months edit
HD DISPLAY 17.3" HD+ (900p) LED Display with 2.0MP HD Webcam edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) edit
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0 edit
SOUND OPTIONS JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3 + Creative SoundBlaster X-FI MB 1.2 edit
My Software & Accessories
COLORS Elemental Silver Aluminum edit
MOBILE BROADBAND No Mobile Broad Band Selected edit
OS RECOVERY MEDIA Recovery DVD for Windows® 7 Home Premium OS, 64bit, English edit
My Accessories
ONLINE DATA BACKUP DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
XPS 17 XPS 17
KEYBOARD Backlit Keyboard - English
Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader

Total price: $1654.99
With both coupons: -$500
New Total: $1154.99
Student Discount: -3%

Final Total: $1120.34

I need this laptop for school and thats just way too big.

[ElBlufer]

And it doesn't have the 1080p screen.