Dell XPS M1710 - Still Viable Option for Budget Gaming Laptop (SC2, WOW, L4D2)?????

[investinwaffles]

So my friend plays SC2, Left 4 Dead 2, and WOW pretty frequently (still considers himself a casual gamer though)
Anyway, his laptop is very very slow and "laggy", even after a clean W7 install.
--It is an HP DV9000
--Turion TL-56 (1.7ghz dual core, I think)
--3gb of ram
--Nvidia graphics (I think it is a "7600 Go", but I am not 100% positive)
--and 5400rpm drive
--Crappy 17" screen

Anyway, would a Dell M1710 be a worthwhile upgrade for him on a very tight college budget? He can snag it for $200, with a shot battery ($40), and the DC jack might be loose (probably also an easy fix to re-solder a new DC jack on myself).

--2.0 GHz Dual-Core T7200 Intel Processor
--17” Display, max resolution 1920 x 1200 (Widescreen)
--2 GB DDR2 RAM
--256MB Nvidia GeForce 7900GS Graphics Card
--120GB HDD 7200rpm

The ram can transfer over (3gb), and the hdd is faster (the DV9000 is ATA I think). The screen alone IMO is worth the upgrade, but he is worried that it wont be any faster during gaming.

What do you guys think? Worth it or not??

 

[xBanzai89]

Really for $200 you can't do much over all. Is your friend playing those games you mentioned on the old laptop? Regardless you will be coming out with a stronger processor and video card. The 7900 GS Go is about on paper is 2 to 2.5 times stronger then a 7600 Go. If your friend found games playable on that older laptop he will feel a difference on this XPS laptop. According to Notebookcheck.com its still in the class 2 ranking of video cards, so its at least still better then today's IGP. Go for it if that is all he can do at the moment.

 

[investinwaffles]

L4D2 is barely barely playable at mininimum settings, but wow runs fairly decently.

And desktop use with the Turion is pretty laggy too, minimizing and visual effects are laggy as shit.

Most importantly, Wil that T7200 + 7900gs be enough to comfortably play 1080p youtube/.mkv content?

I offered him 180 and he accepted it. Told me there was a minor overheating issue though, hopefully some fresh TIM and a good blowjob will fix that though. I'm probably going to buy it methinks

 

[xBanzai89]

L4D2 will be more playable on that computer even at minimum settings I would expect. You maybe able to bump it above minimum as the source engine is very forgiving even on old systems. Though I cannot comment on SC2 much. I know it is highly dependent on CPU more so then GPU, but you can give it a shot I guess. RTS is much more tolerable at lower FPS then shooters. Wow runs on almost any computer . Just do not go and crank the resolution up to 1920x1200 or that GPU will be crying.

That C2D will be much better then that turion at everything. You will have no problem playing any youtube or videos on that.

That sounds like a good deal. With dusting, new TIM, and a cooling pad under it I doubt you will have any issues crashing. Many high end laptops have that issue I know.