2011 Dell Laptop and Video Options

[memphisdave]

Howdy,

Fixing to buy a new laptop. Thinking Dell. One of their low to mid range Inspirons or similar with an Intel I3 or I5 chip, no Celeron or AMD. Most of these utilize the Intel on-board graphics chipset/package claiming up to 1.6g shared, etc. An upgrade video card, if even avlble on these models, is extra. NVidia seems to be their primary provider, etc., for the laptops. Found a few 512mb dual Radeons. Have seen various forum comments time to time about driver problems w/some NVidia product in the past years. Wonder if that seems to have been corrected by now. And, on this question, does anyone have anything against the current Dell crop of laptops for Hoster. Had real good luck/service out of the two Dell cpu's I have been using for last 6 yrs. An l/t and a desktop.

Only real problem I ever had:
Been using an older Dell l/t aprox 6+ years old. Bought a couple upgrades over several years and jumped from v3.316 to the 4.... versions. Could never correct the random, momentary hang of lyrics and music, and then a 'jump' fwd to catch up I acquired in several of the 4.0 versions, so stayed with the old 3.316. The problem occurred especially while importing from a singers disc during a song performance. (Note: never a problem with 3.316 importing while a singer was singing... started after 4.0.. upgrades) Did all the tweaks and changes perquisites. Actually chkd'em several times to make sure I'd not missed any. So.... short story, finally decided my old single processor 1.73ghz along with my on-board Intel 128mb shared graphics/video just didn't have the juice to handle the newer Hoster versions adequately. When using the Windows Task Mgr to monitor processes, performance and etc., it shows my cpu is being utilized at 100% when playing and importing a singer's disc song.

Anyway... old cpu's and time to upgrade, and use the old ones for the kids or email, etc.

Now, on the new 5.0+ version of Hoster: Have been running the demo 5 or 6 times and the hangs in lyrics/music problems haven't surfaced. Same old l/t and d/t cpu's. However, the time to import while also playing a song/singing is twice what it was on the 3.316 version.... but, no glitches have shown up so far, yeah! The Task Mgr. still indicates 100% cpu usage. As said, I'm gonna buy a new laptop as it is way past time, etc.

Any thoughts on RAM and video or anything pertinent to better performance in a new laptop buy is very appreciated. Figure to be using Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OS on the new l/t.

Thanks to all y'all for your posts, assistance, knowledge, and the time you take to share with all of us and each other. Def, a very good forum we have here... for all the products!

Dave

Dell XPS M140 1.73ghz single processor. 2GB RAM. Intel on-board shared graphics.
Win XP SP3
Hoster
MicroStudio
KHPro
VoGone

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by memphisdave

Howdy,

Fixing to buy a new laptop. Thinking Dell. One of their low to mid range Inspirons or similar with an Intel I3 or I5 chip, no Celeron or AMD. Most of these utilize the Intel on-board graphics chipset/package claiming up to 1.6g shared, etc. An upgrade video card, if even avlble on these models, is extra. NVidia seems to be their primary provider, etc., for the laptops. Found a few 512mb dual Radeons. Have seen various forum comments time to time about driver problems w/some NVidia product in the past years. Wonder if that seems to have been corrected by now. And, on this question, does anyone have anything against the current Dell crop of laptops for Hoster. Had real good luck/service out of the two Dell cpu's I have been using for last 6 yrs. An l/t and a desktop.

Only real problem I ever had:
Been using an older Dell l/t aprox 6+ years old. Bought a couple upgrades over several years and jumped from v3.316 to the 4.... versions. Could never correct the random, momentary hang of lyrics and music, and then a 'jump' fwd to catch up I acquired in several of the 4.0 versions, so stayed with the old 3.316. The problem occurred especially while importing from a singers disc during a song performance. (Note: never a problem with 3.316 importing while a singer was singing... started after 4.0.. upgrades) Did all the tweaks and changes perquisites. Actually chkd'em several times to make sure I'd not missed any. So.... short story, finally decided my old single processor 1.73ghz along with my on-board Intel 128mb shared graphics/video just didn't have the juice to handle the newer Hoster versions adequately. When using the Windows Task Mgr to monitor processes, performance and etc., it shows my cpu is being utilized at 100% when playing and importing a singer's disc song.

Anyway... old cpu's and time to upgrade, and use the old ones for the kids or email, etc.

Now, on the new 5.0+ version of Hoster: Have been running the demo 5 or 6 times and the hangs in lyrics/music problems haven't surfaced. Same old l/t and d/t cpu's. However, the time to import while also playing a song/singing is twice what it was on the 3.316 version.... but, no glitches have shown up so far, yeah! The Task Mgr. still indicates 100% cpu usage. As said, I'm gonna buy a new laptop as it is way past time, etc.

Any thoughts on RAM and video or anything pertinent to better performance in a new laptop buy is very appreciated. Figure to be using Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OS on the new l/t.

Thanks to all y'all for your posts, assistance, knowledge, and the time you take to share with all of us and each other. Def, a very good forum we have here... for all the products!

Dave

Dell XPS M140 1.73ghz single processor. 2GB RAM. Intel on-board shared graphics.
Win XP SP3
Hoster
MicroStudio
KHPro
VoGone

The Nvidia video cards problems have not been resolved. The main problem is their drivers. That said, the Intel on-board graphics seems to be working quite well on my new laptop that I got from MTU. Haven't run into any problems with it.
One thing i would recommend is to max out the Ram.
With the 64 bit system you will most likely have to upgrade all your programs to at least versions that support 64 bit. All the programs have been updated to work with this.
Personally I would go for at least the mid-range models rather than the low range as they will be a bit more powerful and less likely to have problems.

[memphisdave]

Hey, Dale!

Thanks, man. Good thoughts and advice. Roger on the max out RAM alposs that they'll add on, as I'd like 8gb, but 6 may have to do for now. That kinda relegates me into the $6-$700 range and then add RAM. And, I sure do like a lighted keyboard for these older eyes and low light situations.

Appreciate you, man. Thanks!

Dave

[admin]

A LOT of the problems we have to deal with at MTU are caused by Microsoft Windows Upgrades. It's a real bummer!

Other problems relate to the new CDR/DVD drives being faster, and loading a LOT more data in the same given time period, causing the Song Display to be starved during importing.

Thus, we had to add "wait states" into the Singers Disc importing code so it didn't slow down the Song Display the singer is watching.

However, we haven't heard of this "doubling the time to import" as you say, but I would expect 5%-15%. Maybe on your older system it may take more.

Be sure to put in WRITING ith Dell that: "I have the right to return a new laptop if its DVD optical drive doesn't correctly import and burn Karaoke CDG format discs." However, good luck in finding some place yoiu can add such a note. I expect their "sales agreement" may disallow any such "qualifier".

[memphisdave]

Admin, and DD... A correction first, and then a mea culpa on a forum faux pas.

Oops...! The total time frame of slightly over a minute to import a singer's disc song isn't excessive by any means and not the issue for me... except as to how it seems to always precipitate the momentary glitch/hang up in lyrics and slight hiccup in music problems I've encountered since upgrading to the 4-4.32 versions. That hanging is the problem that's kept me in v3.316 despite the super new capabilities of the latest Hoster versions.

The new v5 demo? I have made test runs on both 'old' machines, the 1.73 l/t and a 2.79 d/t of similar resources, 5 or 6 different times using multiple brand and generic discs each time and I can't get it to glitch at all. Normal performance song alone, or performance song while singer disc song importing, neither has shown any inclination to glitch in any manner. I am mighty excited about that, far out! Will continue testing while I have to wait a couple more weeks to upgrade to v5...

So... my bad for not differentiating initially, but didn't realize until I read Admin's comments on the newer cd/dvd writers that I needed to clarify. The import part of the function/operation itself is very quick.... as are the normal import to database of regular cdg karaoke disc files or .zip mp3+g files. Very nice! It is/was the 'writing kma file' action that is much slower for me in v4.0...4.32 than the same actions are and always have been in v3.316 that I have used for years.

Admin... I will be on top of the or any issue/s with that other company unit. It seems that it should be a crime for something able to do so much to not be able to do so basic an op as import/burn karaoke, etc. I am forewarned, and will advise as needed.

Secondly... I stand self admonished for having committed a forum faux pas by using the name of a possible competitor. It was most definitely unintentional. In my defense, I can only claim the combination of my mostly blondishness and my increasing seniority on the age scale of the human race... and those factors as they apply to my case, so as not to peeve off two other groups, etc., etc. While doing my due diligence, it just flat never occurred to me, and I've been around the forum and a user of four of the MTU products for over 10 years. I should've caught that, and can only assume that I was overcome within my exuberance of finally being able to upgrade my cpu/s. I look forward to a continuing and lasting relationship with MTU and all you forum folks!

Just recently the company I retired from merged with another. One of the perks for retirees was a Very exceptional employee discount, and 100% financing for 6 months interest free on a certain company's products. As a semi-retiree, I just can't pass the deal up and not take advantage.


Dave