Budget Mobile Gaming without the XPS Price

The Dell Inspiron 9400/E1705 offers a potent mix of power and performance in a nicely-wrapped well-priced package.

Dell Inspiron 9400
At a Glance


Processor = 5.0
The Core 2 Duo is currently the best processor on the market. Its power and flexibility not only makes it crunch data fast but conserve battery life.
Reliability = 4.0
So far, the 9400 has been stable, though some unhappy programs will cause BSOD errors.
Gaming/Multimedia = 4.0
The GeForce 7900 GS makes this a capable gamer, though the sound bundle is lacking.
Support = 3.0
Typical Dell love/hate affair.
Benchmark Results = 4.0
3800 3DMark 06 score right out of the box, 4250 with slight overclock.
Portability = 2.0
This is a brick.

XPS or Not?

AMD has relinquished the processor supremacy to Intel. Since my trusty old HP DV6000 laptop has an AMD 64 3500 processor in it, the HP has finally showed its age and has started to crumble under the might of today's more advanced games. With "old faithful" on the selling block on Ebay, it was time for me to find a replacement.

I never was a fan of Dell, but recently the company has made strides to improve on their build quality. Their acquisition of Alienware is proof of that. However, with my meager budget, I didn't want to splurge $2000 on a cumbersome XPS laptop. Instead, I've been reading on various forums that the Inspiron 9400 can offer performance levels similar to a base model XPS with some tweaking.

Since I'm a kind of guy that never leaves his toys in stock configuration, I decided to save the extra $700 and mod the Inspiron 9400.


Specifications


I bought my 9400 on Ebay. Through fortuitous sniping of a local seller who sold at wholesale prices and accepted local pickups, I managed to buy mine for $1260 with the following specs:

Core 2 Duo T5600 @ 1.8 GHz
1024 MB Hynix DDR2-533 SDRAM
256 MB NVidia GeForce 7900GS Go
17" WXSGA LCD @ 1920x1200
120 Gig 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Sound Blaster Audigy HD
8x DVD RW CDRW Drive
Intel Pro Set Wireless N Transceiver
6 USB2 Ports, 1 1394 port, 5-in-1 media slot
Windows XP Pro

A similarly configured PC straight from Dell would have cost $1800, with the 20% discount offer knocking that to about $1500.

Aesthetics and Mobility

Dells these days are looking sleeker and sleeker. Most of us are familiar with the edgy corporate boxes that used to be the norm for Dell. The 9400 actually looks high-tech and attractive.

The 17" widescreen LCD is of the reflective type. Colors are bright and crisp, but you get no privacy because the viewable angle is quite wide. Ghosting is still rather prevalent in games, which is why I still use a flat-CRT for that purpose and most games STILL do not support widescreen formats. However, for productivity and DVD, this screen is quite a treat to look at. Just don't do anything incriminating with others around you.

Mobility-wise, this thing is a brick. It is cumbersome and the materials actually feel a little cheap. One thing's for certain is that it chips fairly easily. The white plastic that surrounds the shell is not very tough. When using programs that strain the graphics card, the laptop becomes extremely hot to the touch. Even the right side keyboard keys become hot. Speaking of the keyboard, I find it cramped considering there is nearly 2 inches of unused real estate on each side of the keys. I'm sure a keypad could've been added there just like HP did with the DV9000. The touchpad is small yet functional. It has sensors on the right and bottom side for scrolling big windows, which is a plus.

This laptop is a beast to lug around, but then again, this is a desktop replacement, so there's no surprise there.


Testing and Feedback

The primary purpose of this laptop is for gaming and 2D/3D animation work. As soon as I opened it, I fired up 3DMark 06 and ran the benchmark. In stock form, I was able to get 3800. Not bad, but the GPU temperature only peaked at 63 degrees during that test, so the GPU definitely can use some overclocking.

I downloaded a coolbits patch that overrides the software that prevents you from overclocking the computer and a BIOS patch allows you to set voltage, core, and memory clock speeds. After hours of finding a balance between performance and reliability, I found a setting (v1.24, 550 clock, 1100 memory) that netted me a 4250 3DMark 06 score. Temperatures peaked at 70 degrees. This is my sweet spot and I'm quite happy with it. I can run Neverwinter Nights 2 at full settings and 1280x800 resolution while maintaining 20-40 frames per second.

Link to 3DMark Score: http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=7656633

The highest I benched with this computer was 4900, but the computer ran way too close to the red for comfort.


Issues and Concerns


My only issues with this laptop are the occasional Blue Screen of Death that pop up while doing mundane tasks (browsing, Photoshop work, etc.) This "memory parity" error would pop up after six hours continuous mundane use. Strangely enough, I would sometimes play Neverwinter for 8 hours straight and not get a single crash or BSOD error. Hmmm...

Also, some games are not compatible thanks to Dell's timeliness in certifying NVidia drivers. Such games (i.e. Need for Speed Carbon) would leave you with a black screen and a forced restart. I've only encountered this issue with most EA games, and others have come upon it as well.

I dismiss the sound capabilities of laptops since most of them use a RealTek or light Creative codec that doesn't reproduce sound as well as a dedicated PC card. Also, with your palms in the way, getting good sound out of this laptop is virtually impossible. Speakers all the way.

Finally, I'm not a big fan of Dell tech support. I had wireless issues at first because the proprietary Intel software could not find any hotspots. I call tech support to see if there's anything wrong with the actual transceiver. After bouncing me around for 30 minutes and forcing me to do a "static discharge procedure," they never were able to give me a working answer. Instead, I uninstalled the Intel software completely and used the Windows one instead. It worked. Duh.


Looking Forward


The memory parity errors are quite annoying and I believe it has something to do with the stock memory chips. I ordered a pair of 1 Gigabyte Kingstons online to replace the existing chips. Installation was a breeze. Dell conveniently placed all ports underneath the laptop, so I don't have to pry off the keyboard or lift any bezels like previous laptops I've had. After easily switching out the chips, I never encountered a memory parity error again and general computing performance became faster. I suggest people do NOT buy their memory from Dell. Just go with the cheapest RAM and swap them out on your own. It is an easy upgrade.

The next unit that has to go is the hard drive. 5400 RPM's just isn't fast enough for my tastes. Many times, you will find yourself waiting an extra 5 seconds because of slow access times. The hard drive is also easily accessible to the underside port, so this should be another fairly easy upgrade to perform.


Conclusions


Indeed you can get XPS-type performance with the 9400. All it takes is some moderate tweaking and reflashing, and you got yourself a machine that's as capable as its bigger cousin. Of course, you're not going to get 80 frames per second at full resolution and max settings on Flight Simulator 2006, but it's a good compromise nonetheless.

For the productivity folks, this particular model is overkill. At 1 hour and 30 minutes battery life, this unit will leave you stranded in no time. I suggest the X1400-equipped model, which my brother in-law has. His unit can achieve nearly 3 hours using the same type of battery while still being able to do some very light gaming. For even more battery life, the Intel GMA-equipped model can provide an extra hour of juice at the cost of gaming capability.

All in all, this is one fine unit for someone who wants a good balance of cost and performance. With Vista just around the corner, this machine will easily usher you on to the next generation and hopefully for the next two years.