Overview
With World Of Warcraft (WOW) being the number one massive online multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG) to play at the moment it was only a matter of time before someone manufactured a laptop to go with the huge MMOPRG.
And it seems that Dell have been the ones to step up and produce a laptop for the fans to drools over, or is it one for the fans to fear?
Review
Style
Coming in two distinct styles, one is based on the Alliance faction in the game (the good guys) while the other is based for the Horde in game faction (the bad guys).
Now no non-wow player would be able to tell that this was meant to symbolise your devotion to what has become a WOW religion but it seems that Dell have taken care of that by pasting ‘World Of Warcraft’ onto the case as well, very clear Dell.
But don't worry if after reading this review you like the laptop but don't want it to come with the WOW covers as you can also get this laptop in other styles as well blue, red etc.
Other than the cosmetic design this laptop comes with a nice and big 17″ screen which is perfect for laptop gaming and the display incorporates HD technology and True-life as well so the image quality is clear and sharp.
Another styling feature they have incorporated into this laptop is illuminations, when switched on the laptop keyboard and touch pad light up, making night time gaming a blast. This light color that is given off can be customized so you could have a red styles case with a blue lighting effect for example.
Under the bonnet
Now what comes under the ‘hood’ on this machine? Well with this being a custom built laptop you can customise it in whatever way you want. Processor wise, the standard is an Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2.4GHz, which on its own is a good standard processor but Dell can make it up to a 2.8Ghz which is a killer in the laptop market, but expect the price to go up as well, they don't call it an Extreme processor for nothing.
RAM wise again the standard unit comes with 2GB which is not that good for Vista gaming but with it being totally customisable Dell can upgrade this laptop to a whopping 4GB but as before expect the price to go up accordingly.
Graphics card wise this laptop thankfully comes with an NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT which is just what you need for everyday gaming and with customising you can get up to a Dual GeForce 8800M GTX with 1GB6 GDDR3 Memory which will blow games out of the water.
Sound wise this comes with a nicely bundled card that should perform well and with the option of using noise isolating headphones this laptop should be good on a train or any other noisy environment.
As for storage, the standard unit comes with a 160GB which is not much laptop wise but these drives run at 7200RPM which is above the average for laptop computers and means that gaming loading time will be cut dramatically. You can even upgrade this to a 320GB version or even have 640GB but this lowers the RPM’s to the average 5400.
Otherwise you get a nice DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer DVD+R write capacity, 4 USB ports, Dual-link DVI-I that supports up to 30-inch displays, Firewire, 8-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard 54 mm slot and all the other options you can think of as standard.
As an added bonus this also comes with a 2.0 Megapixel camera integrated into the case which is above average for a laptop as well as Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini Card and Bluetooth as optional extras for those that need them.
The Gaj-It Verdict
Design 9/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 9/10
Value: 9/10
We Say
With it being a Dell this is totally customisable, so if there's something you can or can't do without then this is definitely a gaming laptop worth considering. With it being customisable this also means the price can vary greatly so play your cards right and you might get just the laptop you want for less than you thought possible fs you un-include all the optional extras.
Technical Specs
- Processor – Intel® Coreâ„¢ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache) – Intel® Coreâ„¢ 2 Duo Extreme X9000(2.8GHz/800Mhz FSB/6M L2 Cache)
- 2 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) – DDR2 SDRAM – 667 MHz ( 1 x 2 GB )
- 160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) – RAID Performance: 640GB (2x320GB) 5400RPM
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium – Ultimate
- 17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA
- CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
- NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT 256MB GDDR3 – NVIDIA SLI Dual GeForce 8700MGT 512MB GDDR3
- Bluetooth – Optional
- Notebook Camera – Integrated – 2.0 Megapixel
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