As you probably know that blue screen error happens for various reasons and many of them are unknown to normal users who don’t get too deep in this computer thing.

If you just open your computer and work for few hours (minutes) regarding typing, managing data sheets, content management or even just enjoy your time on the web, there is no way you’d come across the reasons behind a blue-screen error.

The screen would just turn blue, show you that ‘the system has experienced some problems and needs to shut down’ and would dump some garbage data, which would just pass over your head leaving you utterly annoyed and confused as to what just happened.

Hard Disk May Also Cause Blue-Screen Error

Right now, I’ll be talking about blue-screen error that is caused by a new hard-disk in new laptops and for this article; I’ll be specific with Dell Inspiron 15r N5010 because I have recently fixed blue-screen error that was being caused by Western Digital hard disk in this laptop.

Now, the big question is, how to fix a blue screen error without calling a technician? It’s super easy, just follow the link.

Installation

This game’s installation procedure is one of the most troublesome installation procedures I have faced to date. Nevertheless, that is just my opinion. The processor, Core i3 350M and 3GB DDR3 RAM do a really good job in keeping a significantly less installation time than my desktop computer, i.e. Pentium D and 2GB DDR2 RAM.

Therefore, even if we have to deal with two DVD’s, a release date check, and a serial key check, the whole process takes less than half an hour. I watched Ben 10 Alien Force while I was installing the game. Therefore, I did not feel that half an hour have passed and I did not get bore either. When I was finally done with all the checks and approval processes. I installed all the official patches to improve the infamous performance of GTA IV for PC.

I could not find 1.0.5.0 and 1.0.6.0 patches online, but I installed all others as well as 1.0.7.0, which was released to remove the necessity of Rockstar Social Club application. This patch uninstalled the application and embedded a sign-up/sign-in window that pops up when you click on GTA IV icon to play the game.

Whole procedure took 45-minutes of my day, but in the end I was satisfied that now I’d be able to check my new laptop’s gaming performance or tolerance, whatever it may be.

CPU Usage and Temperature

Pentium D (my old friend for last 5 years) used to feel a load of 100% whenever I clicked to play this game. Not any more sir, this new laptop with Core i3 350, man it’s really something. The load or CPU usage hangs like a pendulum from 27% to 35% depending on the environment of the game (I know you got me).

The fan is a little disappointment to me because it is little! Yeah! That is the only reason for my hatred for the fan. Because of the size and vent position, I feel hot air (not warm!!) blowing out on  my left thigh when I keep this friend while I am sitting on a chair or something like that. It can get really hot and I like it sometimes, when I forget to increase the temperature of AC and things start to get pretty cold around me.

Anyway, back to our Processor; it really keeps its promise as a mainstream processor as well as gaming. You know that this processor is based on Quad architecture, it performs really nice than other CPU’s for the same range. The processor can take the complete load of every configuration that GTA IV has to offer and remains as cool and silent as it must be.

Apart from GTA IV, the system works like a charm and every application opens, runs and closes like a snap. It is a completely different experience for a person who never laid his/her hands on a processor from ‘Core I’ family.

As for the temperature, I think it is normal in comparison to few of my friend’s laptops and personally, my old mate, Lenovo Y410. You may not want to put this laptop on your lap while playing some intense game like GTA IV or running a powerful application like Maya or Protein Intensifier. However, for other jobs, like checking mails, working on MS word and application like these, the laptop really keeps itself cool and you can put it on your lap to justify its meaning and work at your ease.

Graphics Performance

I am very much impressed with ATI Mobility 5470 1 GB in this laptop. I did not compromise for a 512 MB version and I have a very good reason for that. In GTA IV we can see the resource usage as we adjust the graphical settings like texture, shadows, reflection, resolution, vehicle density, view distance, etc.

Therefore, even when I kept everything at medium, the resource usage ate up 466 MB of my graphical memory and that’s close 512 MB. So, I am just glad that I have a 1 GB version. I didn’t want to buy 512 MB version because I wanted to keep VRAM free for OS and some other applications. That’s an understandable thing, isn’t it?

The graphical performance is pretty nice at medium settings. This card is for mainstream users with a little gaming-heart, not for hardcore gamers. Still, it can handle all games to date and will support many others to come in future.

Average FPS (frames per second) are, 19 FPS as per the in-game benchmarking tool and it is a playable score. I do not feel any problems while playing this game, again at medium settings. When I lower the settings (I cannot increase them because the games stutters a bit when I increase the settings), the game looks a little odd but on the other hand is much more playable than before. However, for the pleasure of my eyes, I do not do this.

I mean, I like this game because of the lovely environment, how can I lower it further, it might look like some old dumb game!

However, I do have few words on this one. The shadows look choppy and the edges look like somebody just sliced every corner of the game. This could be because of medium settings but even when I dared to increase the settings, the shadows still looked horrible and edges looked like someone sliced every corner with a Katana rather than with a Saw.

I will update the drivers after a few days, but until then, I’ll have to deal with these graphical nightmares. Even with all of these problems, the game is still a lot of fun and I can loosen myself after a tiring day. Rather than taking a nap, I love to shoot people around and jacking sports car, something that I would never do in real life.

Conclusion

Dell Inspiron 15R N5010 deals with GTA IV quite fairly and I am not even a bit worried about the mainstream capabilities of ATI Mobility 5470 1 GB graphics card. I love my new system and I love the way it deals with every application quickly.
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I am going to compare two of the most hyped laptops from Dell and see which one is better. However, I must tell you that it’s up to you to decide which one to buy in the end because I am here to give my own personal opinion like I gave to my friends.

Dell™ Inspiron 15R Laptop (T540611IN8)

Dell(TM) Studio 15 Laptop (S541036IN8)

I am talking particularly about these two laptops from the whole range of Inspiron 15R and Studio 15. This gives me the opportunity to compare two mid range laptops which are enough for a normal student who wants to work and play at the same time.

The chart below shows the hardware comparison between Inspiron 15R (above version) and Studio 15 (above version) respectively:

Dell Inspiron 15R and Studio 15 Specifications

It clearly shows you the main differences between both laptops in the first glance. There is slight change in processor’s model, RAM, Wireless Network Card and Optical Drive. Rest is same for both the laptops. Processor and RAM are defiantly the main components of a computer and can’t be ignored but you must look at what your needs are and will the processor and RAM suffice your daily work needs or not?

When I said that both of the laptops are great for mid range computing and normal student, I was talking about a student who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree (like my friend is doing B.E. and other one is pursuing B.D.S.), hence the use of laptop is still a lousy one for them.

They have to work on C++, Oracle, Java, .Net, Ajax, presentations, word processing, mastering Excel and much more. But none of these works are powerful enough to put the laptop at heavy load. As far as fun and entertainment is concerned. One would watch movies, video songs, listen to audio songs, play games, etc. So apart from games, none of these entertainment activities are powerful (again) enough to let your processor or RAM choke or hang.

My take on this is, that Intel has innovated Core I series keeping in mind that the applications should run the processor and not the processor should run applications. That’s what happening now, if your application wants some real power then it can tell the processor to turn on Turbo to use all of its available cores (I hope this makes sense). And RAM is something that speeds up your work and lets you enjoy what you do.

I am still running 1 GB of DDR2 RAM on my laptop (it’s really old, but I still like it) and everything is just fine as long as I stick to typing articles, blogging, making presentation, podcasts, video reviews and all that, my laptop helps me at every corner and never turns me down.

Now compare this with a laptop which has 3GB of DDR 3 RAM (like Inspiron 15R) or has 4GB of DDR 3 RAM (Studio 15). I hope you get the picture here, your work isn’t gonna stop just like that. Everything would run smooth and you’ll enjoy what you do, even if it’s just playing games.

However, I always wondered on how many people don’t know a thing about how these hardware configurations facilitates the laptop as a whole, but they still keep going on and on about asking about them. For example, they ask about the graphics card and if the seller says proudly that it contains a graphics card that has 1GB memory, then it happens to be the last thing they want to know about the graphics card. Not too bright, isn’t it?

So, let me talk about the graphics card which is present in these laptops, since it is same for only these two models of Inspiron 15R and Studio 15, I would only give a quick sneak peek on what you can do with this card in your hand.

It is ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 with 1GB of graphical memory. This means that no matter what your game is, it won’t turn your card down just because it has less memory. Trust me; 1GB is a lot for nearly every game. And I am not talking about lousy games; I am talking about Crysis Warhead, Batman, GTA IV, Stalker: Call of Pripyat, Prototype, Dirt 2, etc. The list can go on and on, the point is that you can play nearly every game on any of these laptops.

I have added ‘nearly’ because I don’t want to arise your hopes too high. Games are getting better and better every year and sooner or later a new game would come and slow your laptop down or crash. When that time comes, don’t blame your laptop for not being powerful enough. In spite of that, blame yourself, for not buying a computer build especially for games.

Well, I hope you already know about ATI 5XXX series of mobile graphics card. They are just insane and can blow every game out of the way (not nearly). This card in particular, features Eyefinity (up to 4 monitors), Avivo HD (UVD2), Full Bitstream Audio (8-ch HD Audio over HDMI), DX 11 and everything that you can hope for.

You should definitely check this link from Notebookcheck.net which demonstrates the power and features of this really fine graphics card : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470.

Also, if you want to watch this card in action, then you shouldn’t read furthur before clicking this link: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Capabilities.

By this time, you might be wondering and getting confused on which one of these must be in your ‘list of things to buy for graduation’. I do have something to say for this:

1GB of extra RAM (Studio 15) and slightly better processor (Core i3-370) can get you slightly better performance. But ask from yourself, is it that sane to invest Rs.5500/- for that little improvement. Your best bet would be to invest that sum of money to get 3-years of Warranty period, just to make sure that your laptop can be made anew if something ever goes wrong.

Currently Dell™ Inspiron 15R Laptop (T540611IN8) is available for Rs.38,900/- and Dell(TM) Studio 15 Laptop (S541036IN8) is available for Rs.44,400/-.

So there you have it, you can go for any of these laptops if it suits your budget, but even if you get Inspiron 15R, you will not regret it. After all, things have changed too much in just 1 year (just 2009 was enough to rule out other Intel Core processors). So when you pass your graduation and wonder why the hell did you buy a core i3 laptop when core i10 (or something) is ruling the market, then would be a nice time to blame me.

But right now, I can recommend you Inspiron 15R (above version) as much as Studio 15 (above version).

Update: I just submitted Dell Inspiron 15r to Dell’s shopping cart. Here’s the complete cost after tax. Click here.
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It is true that $500 is a great difference, but you will not regret the purchase.

The Brand Name
Are you sure, that you will never buy an Acer laptop or a Compaq one or never touch a laptop with Dell label on it? Think it twice. This fact is not just the brand name only. It is the technology they prefer. The hardware may be the same, like you want to have 2gb ram, 250 GB hard disk, 15.4/14.1′ screen, a processor of Intel core2 or AMD one etc., but the arrangement inside that very laptop varies quite considerably, a single shift of processor and fan can change the heat effect inside your laptop and the simple bit of heat effect can change the overall performance of your laptop.

You will have to agree with me that not every laptop of different brand and with same specs has the same performance. Hence the brand name does matters, just because they use the latest suitable arrangement of hardware in your precious laptop for the maximum performance.

Here is the quick list of top ten preferable brands:
1. Sony Vaio
2. Apple Mac
3. HP Pavilion
4. Toshiba
5. Lenovo
6. Dell
7. Compaq
8. Acer

Choose the Processor carefully!!
It is well known that many of us have a little aura of the hardware we want in our laptop. But we always confuse ourselves when selecting them. Is AMD better than Intel? What is the performance difference between them? Why there is too much price difference between them? And many more. Here is a quick comparison between them for your ease.

Intel
Weight: particularly less in comparison, laptop fitted with Intel’s processor is appreciably lighter by 0.245gm, approx.

Heat: Intel’s processors are very well known for this quality. There is little to no heat generation in these processors. Specifically Core 2 Duo processors are best if you work day and night and are afraid of overheating of laptop.

Performance : In this case AMD beats Intel to some extent and to consider that you’ll not buy a laptop with Intel Core Quadra (like Intel core 2 extreme) in it, which is appreciably faster than any of AMD’s in class processors, I must say that AMD’s output for lesser price is nice in comparison to Intel.

Talking specifically, Intel Core2 Duo T5800 2.0 GHz performs slower than AMD R70 2.0 GHz processor. Data transfer of a 1gb file is 12mb/s for AMD and 6-9mb/s for Intel. So here AMD is faster than Intel.
But friends, don’t get your head bald with scratching, AMD stands no chance against Intel’s new ‘Phenom’ i.e. Core I7 family. But they are not for laptops yet

Price: This is a sensitive one, isn’t it? You will never want to go for a higher budget just for a processor and a few MB of transfer rate. And since I told you about the two processors listed above, then I must tell you the price as well. Here we have Rs.4000/- or $80 approx. difference between these two processors.

The story tells itself clearly.
If you get an Intel processor, you’ll have: less weight, less heat production, slightly less performance than AMD (not too significant that you consider it heavily), but more price.

AMD
Weight: heavier than Intel, like +25% of Intel’s weight.

Heat: AMD processors generate too much heat and sometimes the heat is too much to bear. Once my friend said to me, “what a laptop is which can’t be on top of the lap!” This quote suited well for AMD because HP Pavilion 1002 AU fitted with AMD Turion X2 R70 2.0 GHz used to produce a lot of heat, but as said above it performed faster than a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop fitted with Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2.0 GHz.

Performance: In one line – In league of cheaper processors, AMD performs faster than Intel. But if you go for more expensive processor, then Intel Core 2 Extreme beats the hell out of AMD’s processor.

RAM
RAM is an important factor, because it carries your operations to processor and motherboard and helps you work faster. The most important thing is that, you should choose your Ram type and speed according to your necessity.

Currently DDR3 is the latest ram available in the market with the bus speed of 1333 MHz and 1600 MHz, but make this clear. You will have to change the old motherboard which supports DDR2 Ram, with X58 technology based motherboard, which costs quite a much, e.g. Gigabyte X58 motherboard ranges from Rs.12000/- to Rs.19,000/- i.e. $250 to $395. And this range varies from brand to brand.

But should you consider buying a Ram which is not even needed for you. If you are not a gamer, animator, game designer, or never use any demanding software then DDR3 Ram will be just waste of money.

You should still go for DDR2 Ram for simple work, like documents, Photoshop, even Maya and demanding 3ds Max, and you must know this fact that apart from Games like gears of war 2, gta iv, crysis and few more, no program can ever utilize a memory bandwidth more than 1gb. That means, you can go for just Transcend or Kingston, 2 GB, 1066 MHz ram and still see very fine results and great performance.

These DDR3 Ram cost great, OCZ gold ram, 2 GB, ddr3, 1333 MHz can cost between, Rs.6000/- onwards i.e. $125 and more, Corsair brand which is the topmost Ram developer, cost even more.

But if you consider them with DDR2 then the budget is suitable for many of us, Transcend 2 GB, 1066 MHz Ram costs just Rs.2850/- i.e. $60. Now, isn’t it worth spending, of course it is. The speed and performance will satisfy you to its extent.

Why? Because, DDR3 made for X58 motherboard. This is then made for Core i7, which is then made for great stunning games, and memory eating software. So unless, you are looking for a perfect gaming pc or laptop, you should go for DDR2 Ram.

It all links together and then, it becomes a bugging situation with a lot of confusion of what to get and what not, and nobody want to raise their budget to that great amount and it is just obvious because when you don’t need the thing, then why buy it?

So, be cool configure your work and environment needs and choose the suitable ram type for you.

Motherboard
As I always say, it is also another useful hardware for the pc or laptop. As a matter of fact, motherboard is the key to access anything in your computer. Because after all, everything listed above connects to motherboard via ports and sockets.

But there is a bit of relief because you don’t really have to worry about the motherboards, because choosing the right motherboard is easier than processor, ram, graphics card etc.

We have to keep in mind about the need and every other thing will go smoothly, but it is not the same with other things. But, well we are talking about the motherboard here, so let’s not track a different route.

Your motherboard must be latest, but according to the processor. Why? Because every DDR2 ram supports each and every developed motherboard till now (except X58) and graphics cards are just universal. They are given PCI-E X16 slot and all of them support the slot completely, even the latest Nvidia GTX 295 and ATI Radeon 4870 X2 can be fitted in the older motherboard (older than X58). So you need not to worry about them.

Worry about the processors only! The motherboard should be quick enough to respond the processor’s mechanism and work load. It should support the heat effect and try to minimize it (the fans do a lot of help here but motherboard’s architecture can be a good hand too) and it should be compatible with the voltage requirement of processor.

In case of motherboards, you don’t have to worry about the prices because prices of motherboards are dropping quite appreciably and even X58 isn’t quite a big deal. For a low end rider, who wants to run the latest games and do graphical work and wants to buy Core I7 with 2gb DDR3 Ram clocked at 1333MHz, the motherboard will cost just Rs.11000/- or $230 and you bet, you’ll get that thing for even lesser price.

Motherboard aren’t big deal because they all are great in every sense, Intel, AMD and Nvidia, so here, go and get whatever impresses you. You’ll get great performance with any of them.

There are other important things too, like graphics card, SMPS (or PSU – power supply unit), disk drives etc. But there is no need to worry about them because the three most important things are listed above and all that rests is just common knowledge.

Like if you want to get Nvidia 9800 GTX then 550 Watt PSU of any company (prefer Corsair) is best, 9800 GTX+ demands 650 Watt and likewise. If you want to go for SLI or Crossfire then a 1000 Watt PSU will be just what you need.

I wrote this article, not just for telling you about the hardware and types and something like that. I know that I have missed several parts and features. Because I wanted to convey just one thing.

Panicky decision of yours will take you to regrets which you’ll never forget. If you are darn rich then no problem, but if you saved a lot to buy just one pc or laptop for yourself or someone special, then you should be calm and choose what you want to choose.

Because still, if you want to enjoy GTA IV in great FPS then Nvidia GTX 9800 GTX and ATI Radeon 4870 holds good and worthy for many of us. Because not everyone enjoys the silver spoon in his mouth.

So choose wisely and you’ll never regret your first purchase.

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