R42 New Tech - Dell XPS1730 aka "The Beast" - Part 1 "Procuring"
For over 6 months I've been wanting to purchase a personal home computer. My home interests include video editing, and I gave my last laptop to Em (my 18 yr old) for Christmas, before she headed to Uni. So I've been computer-less. Not entirely of course, working for MS, I have a couple of work laptops. But I can't use either of these for personal video editing or gaming - not only from an ethical/policy perspective, but just pure power.
I have been asked why a laptop, considering video is all about processing power, and I could get a lot more bang for my buck with a desktop. The first reason is that I'd like to be able to edit "on-site," and the second is that you can't salary sacrifice a desktop.
So the research began, and it quickly became obvious that there were few contenders. Some rules of thumb with video work:
- Get the fastest drives possible - most laptops are stuck with 5400 RPM drives, which operate at the lower limits of the speed needed to render video effects
- Get the most space available - most laptops provide only one HDD. Currently this maxes out to about 360GB, which believe me, does not take long to fill.
- Fastest processor you can afford - ok, I balked at the "Extreme" processor - $900 for an extra .4 GHz didn't seem justifiable, especially when:
- Biggest graphics subsystem you can get - I put the investment into the GPU. Most laptops have integrated graphics, with shared memory, this is not good for any video rendering.
- Screen real-estate - well you are going to have a timeline/storyboard, preview, effects, and will want to see everything at once. So 17" is the minimum.
- Screen resolution - It doesn't help anyone if your screen is downsizing video all the time. There are just too many artefacts you could be missing. Especially with HD, you'll want to be able to render the video at full size. This means a minimum resolution of 1920 x 1200 (video 1920 x 1080)
The contenders included the 17" models from Apple, Sony, and Dell. Although I also looked at Acer, Asus, IBM, and HP. My previous machine was the HP.
The Sony Vaio is a nice range, but I struggled to find the relevant model for my purposes. Eventually I sorted by price, found a nice machine, with most (but not all) of the specs, way out of the ballpark price wise.
Second up, and very serious contender for a long time was the 17" MacBook Pro. Advantages of this machine included the weight (super light for such a large computer), its design aesthetic, and the ability to run both Mac and Vista. All of my investment is in tools which run on the Windows platform, and being able to run both on the one machine makes sense.
But once I specced it up and compared, the Apple came out more expensive, with some glaring misses in spec - only 1 x fast 200GB drive, no Blu-Ray burner available, and I still had to get 2GB of RAM after-market (the Apple price was just too dear).
So I settled for the Dell XPS 1730. A machine designed by gamers for gamers. I.e. it had everything I needed and more. This is the 3rd iteration of the AlienWare line that Dell acquired some time ago.
There are sacrifices in buying the XPS: The first is weight. This machine is definitely more of a sit down type of portability, at close on 6kgs (without the power pack) you're unlikely to be wanting to fly with this.
The second is power. The battery reports 90 mins, and I think with all the LED's and Wireless options switched off, screen turned down, it may just get there. But if you're rendering video, you'll be plugging in the 230W power pack. Awesome dude.
The third is size. Everyone exclaims about the size. I mean everyone. It's what they notice first, and what they comment on most. No-one has started a conversation about the XPS without first taking a breath, and saying something like "wow, that's huge, sexy, but really big...." I've had to find an old Pilot case to transport it to work in, it simply doesn't fit in my TechEd07 Speaker Bag.
Pretty much I put in everything I could apart from the top of the line processor. So in terms of specs, this means:
- 2 x 200GB 7200RPM HDD's
- Dual NVidia GeForce 8800 graphics with 512MB RAM
- 4GB DDR2 RAM
- 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo Processor
- AGEIA PhysX controller
- Blu-Ray Burner
It also comes with a multiple format memory card reader, DVI out (and DVI to HDMI cable as std), 4 x USB, 1 x FireWire, Backlit keyboard, 2 x headphone ports, mic input, integrated 2MPx webcam, PC Express slot, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11bgn, and GB Ethernet. Simply put, you can't connect to more devices, faster, on any other laptop.
The Dell website estimates 3 weeks to deliver, and after our near miss with the little girls' Christmas presents, I wasn't holding my breath. As it was, the machine was delivered in 5 business days, just on a week.
In all, I applied far more than the 44 days to consider this purchase, and was delighted in the Dell purchase experience.
Unpacking and build experience next.
R42
