Dell Inspirion 1720 Laptop Review - Page 3 of 3
This week, MMORPG.com Hardware Guy Jeremy Star takes a look at his newest machine, a laptop built for gaming. In his search to find the best MMORPG-playing laptop, he brings us this review of the model he settled on, the Dell Inspirion 1720 Laptop.
The Technology – Intel Inside, and I've got the stickers to prove it!
My Inspiron came with an Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU. Each of the cores runs at 2Ghz, and it uses and 800Mhz frontside bus (FSB). It also has 4MB of cache. The default processor for the 1720 model is a T5250, running at 1.56Ghz, with a 600Mhz FSB and 2MB of cache. The T7300 is a much faster processor for a small increase in price. (As of this writing, the T7300 is no longer a choice. The T7250 is offered at the same speed and FSB rating, but with half the cache (2MB), or the T7500 at 2.2Ghz with a 4MB cache.)
Having a dual-core processor is important for today's MMORPGs. A lot of games can take advantage of both cores now, and the ones that don't still benefit from the extra power for common applications such as Ventrillo or Teamspeak. I chose Intel over AMD simply because the Core 2 Duo chips have the gaming performance advantage right now. 2Ghz is the recommended speed for many newer games, and the more cache you can get for your CPU, the better off you are. Doubling the cache and increasing the frequency from 1.56Ghz to 2Ghz was a no brainer. The 800Mhz FSB sounds like a good thing, but all of the RAM choices for the 1720 use a 667Mhz rating, so it doesn't add much value.
Speaking of RAM, this Inspiron came with 2GB of DDR2 ram rated for 667Mhz, running in a dual-channel configuration. In fact, for the 1720 model, 2GB is the default amount of RAM, which is excellent. Running Windows Vista and playing MMORPGs makes 2GB the required amount for a smooth gaming experience. Dell also offers 3GB and 4GB RAM configurations for the Inspiron 1720, but I felt that the price vs performance comparison made the 2GB configuration the clear choice.
For graphics, we have an Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT card with 256MB of video RAM. Choosing a laptop with a discreet video solution vs an integrated one is absolutely critical to enjoying games on the go. An integrated video solution, such as the default choice for the Inspiron 1720 – an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 - shares system memory and resources with the CPU. That's great for office applications or just watching some YouTube videos, but you cannot make modern 3D games run well on it. Trust me, the upgrade to a discreet video solution is absolutely worth the money.
The upgrade options for the Inspiron 1720 were a 128MB 8400M GT, or the 256MB 8600M that I went with. The 8600M was double the price increase of the 8400M ($200 vs $100), but well worth it. The 8400 cards simply aren't fast enough to make gaming enjoyable at higher resolutions, and the Inspiron 1720 runs at a default 1440x900 resolution. Also, the amount of RAM is doubled on the 8600M. MMORPGs are the undisputed kings of hogging as much video RAM as they can, due to the high amount of unique textures on display at any given time. (Clothing, weapons, face at a minimum for each character on screen, plus buildings, terrain, sky, etc.) The more video RAM you have, the less video lag you feel when running around.
As a side note, when I was picking a laptop for this review, Dell was the only big name brand laptop company that had the GeForce 8 mobile series available for selection. This played a large part in my selection, as I felt it was important for a laptop to be as “future proof” as possible. MMORPGs using Direct X 10 (DX10) rendering are right down the road, and getting stuck with an expensive laptop that can only use DX9 rendering is not an option at this point. Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Acer, even Dell's own XPS line – none of these companies offered an 8 series card. All offered the GeForce 7 series, which cannot display DX10 effects.
The Inspiron 1720 comes with a 17” widescreen display, with a few choices based on taste. I chose the glossy, high contrast option at 1440x900. The default is also a resolution of 1440x900, but it is an anti-glare screen. (As of this writing, Glossy is now the default choice.) I chose the glossy screen because I have used laptops with both screens, and found the glossy to look better when viewing media or playing games. The anti-glare screen does cut down a bit on the reflections and glare, but both screens are basically useless outdoors without some sort of hood shielding the screen. Dell also has an HD screen option that raises the resolution to 1920x1200 (1080p support). Both 1440x900 options are included in the price (i.e. Pick either one, it still costs the same), but the HD option cost an extra $150 at the time I chose this laptop. Increasing the resolution would put more strain the 8600M video solution, so I left the resolution at the default. Also, I own a 24” Widescreen Dell monitor that I use on my desktop system, and 1920x1200 makes the text fairly small on it. I can't imagine trying to read something at 1920x1200 on a 17” screen.
The hard drive (HDD) is the default selection, a 160GB SATA drive running at 5200RPM. Dell does not offer a faster drive for its Inspiron 1720 series, and frankly 5200RPM is much faster than the 4200RPM drives that are the standard for a lot of laptops. Dell does offer many bigger drives, and even dual drive configurations, but for the money I think 160GB is plenty. It would be cheaper to purchase an external drive in the future if more space is needed for storage. The only reason I could think of for getting much more HDD space is if one was going to use this laptop for a desktop replacement.
The optical drive is a CDRW drive and a DVD player. When this selection was made, this was the default drive, and I felt it was sufficient. (Even though my old laptop had a DVDR drive...) At the time of this writing, a DVD+/-RW drive is the default choice. Pretty much your only other option is a Blu-ray combo drive (blu-ray read, DVD/CD write) or a Blu-ray writer. At the time I chose, only the reader was available for an extra $600, which would have increased the price of the laptop by about a third. Thanks, but no thanks. As of the time of this writing, the cost has been cut by half for the player, and the writer has been added for a cost of $510. Still not worth it, in my opinion, unless you really want that Blu-ray capability.
The Wi-Fi card default is a Dell 802.11 g mini-card, which I chose to upgrade to the Intel 3945 802.11 a/g mini-card simply due to taste. (And also, the Intel card completes the Centrino designation and nets you a Centrino sticker.) The cost to upgrade was and is still only $25.
The Inspiron 1720 comes with a 6 cell, 56Whr Lithium-Ion battery. For $50, I chose to upgrade to the 9 cell, 85Whr battery, due to the extra battery life. For gaming, being plugged in is the only way to go, but you never know when power is not going to be available. For those times, having as much battery life as possible is always nice.
There is one thing about the battery that Dell fails to mention, however: The 9 cell upgrade will stick out of the back of the laptop. It projects about an inch from the back, making it impossible to fit the laptop in to most 17” widescreen compatible laptop bags or cases with the battery installed. I have to remove the battery for transport. It's not a big deal, but it could be an issue for some people, although it is super easy to remove and reinstall.
Summing up the rest of the hardware: As with most laptops, the Ethernet port (10/100) is built in. Dell includes as SD media card reader at no extra charge. (Which they also fail to mention when configuring.) I elected not to add a webcam, Bluetooth, or mobile broadband to the laptop, as the limited uses for gaming with such were not worth the extra dough. I also elected to use the built in sound rather than pay for an express card X-Fi Extreme audio card.
Windows Vista Home Premium is Dell's default OS of choice, and the one that I chose to go with. I use Home Premium on my desktop system as well, so familiarity and future compatibility with DX10 made this an easy choice for me. I don't feel it's worth the hundreds of extra dollars to upgrade to a different version of Vista, and XP isn't offered as a choice and doesn't have DX10 compatibility anyway. (You can ask Dell for XP, but you will need to call rather than order online.)
