Dell Outlet Laptop arrived!

atocp

atocp

atocp

Associate
Joined
16 Dec 2007
Posts
76
So here it is. I said I would come back on to give a brief look at what you get for yor dosh from the Dell outlet site. So here it is:

The laptop cost £416, with £18 delivery excl. VAT.
This came to around £511.

Upon inspection, the box was the standard dell box, with usual packing and accessories.

1811673731a12661904245o.jpg


Top level for accessories:
1811673731a12661904256o.jpg


Usual dell standard of packing:
1811673731a12661904267o.jpg


The camera lights up the chainlink design. It's not as noticable as this when lit normally. It is black, with dark grey pattern:
1811673731a12661904278o.jpg


Like this:
1811673731a12661904351o.jpg


1811673731a12661904290o.jpg


1811673731a12661904339o.jpg


The only bit of damage i could find!!
1811673731a12661904324o.jpg


1811673731a12661904332o.jpg


I would like to put things in perspective for this laptop. The base model for this Studio 1558 is around £780. The only damage i could find on this laptop is the little scratch on the plastic speaker grill, and a rattle noise. The rattle, i suspect, is a little clip that snapped when they put this thing back together, and i imagine it will be taken out easily. The scratches...well...i had to use a macro lens on my nikon to get in close enough to be able to photograph them. That's how small and insignificant they appear.
Whereas it is a total gamble going for a refurbished laptop, I can say, in this case, it was sooo totally worth the gamble!

Here's the spec anyways:

Dell Studio 1558 15.6" HD (not full)
Intel i7 720-QM (1.6ghz)
4gb RAM
320gb HDD
windows 7 home premium
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
Hitachi DVD +/- RW
2.0mp webcam
full keyboard (with proper shaped return key!!)
touchpad (no trackball)
Realtek gigabit ethernet
Dell wireless 1397 WLAN mini-card (b/g)
ATI high def audio

3xUSB
1xHDMI
1xPOWER
1xSD CARD READER
1xCARD EXPANSION SLOT
1xETHERNET
1xFIREWIRE
MIC, AUDIO IN, HEADPHONES

Also to note, the eject button for the cd is on the keyboard.


This is not a review of the laptop, this is simply my experience of buying from the dell outlet, and the savings you can have with a gamble. I didn't get a chance to see the laptop before i bought it. I had the chance to go to a shop and look, but couldn't go for a week, so I bit the bullet and bought it.
The only thing I can say about getting a laptop and maybe not enjoying the outcome is that you should still be covered under the distance selling regulations for 7 days after the date of delivery. So if you don't like the result, you should still be able to send it back.

The only other thing worth noting about this was the terrible delivery. I had two failed delivery attempts and ended up collecting it myself. The delivery driver didn't even try to deliver it, just gave up twice (and i live on a main road and the house is 21 years old, so gps isn't an issue!), but i will be speaking to dell about this issue. For 21 quid delivery, this shouldn't happen. A minor thing on an otherwise happy purchase.

Im buying a lottery ticket on friday and saturday, just in case. And im also going to need to change my sig.


cheers,
atocp
 
very nice..sorry to hear about your dead asus... with that said my gaming laptop is dying as well but its 8 years old so what do ya expect
 
I got the same model from Outlet not so long ago, mine was in excellent nick bar a little mark on the lid, on the edge of satin design so not noticeable in normal conditions. These i7s do run hot though, could you post some temperatures on here if you can?

As in regards to delivery I was pleasantly surprised since I live in an awkward block of flats where most couriers give up but got this on first attempt. I provided my mobile phone number when ordering from Dell and delivery chap just rang me up when he was outside.
 
What screen did it come with? All the ones I saw didn't specify which one it was.

[edit] Ahh... Just spotted about 5 secs after hitting post [/edit]
 
i'll pop up some tests, passmark scores and temps when i load some stuff onto it. I know these things runny a little warm, but i was looking at getting, or making, a laptop cooler for underneath it. Once i've figured out fan location, direction and read a pile of reviews. but decent one's start at £15, so it should be ok.
first thing i did was set the power options and settings, so hopefully it doesn't cook itself like the asus did.

atocp
 
I got myself Enermax Aelolus for mine, fits just right and drops temps around 10C across the board and makes the bottom of it much cooler too.
 
i got a dell acknowledgment on 13/07, an order confirmation on 14/07 and a planned delivery date in an email on 16/07. so literally, took dell 1 day to get it sorted, as dates were:

13 July 2010 23:25:01
14 July 2010 05:43:09
16 July 2010 12:58:18

something also i just noticed: it's a 6-cell lith ion battery, not the 9-cell. and also, comes with the 95W power adapter. some people have issues with this adapter when the laptop is under load. supposedly, contacting dell and getting them to send you a 130w one instead is the solution.
 
i ordered mine from them last thursday, but there where some issues with my bank so only got confirmed on monday but has yet to be posted :(
 
that probably means the guys in the brightly coloured dungarees and hard hats in the dell factory are too busy singing "lollipop, lollipop". it's all good.
 
The outlet ones are finished and ready to ship hence the speedy delivery. They are supposed to be ones that have either been ordered and cancelled, returned, or maybe slightly marked and the customer returns it due to not being mint.
 
something else i just noticed. it's not 3xUSB. it's 2xUSB and 1xeSATA.

you can tell i didn't exactly research this before hand!

atocp
 
Grats.
A few ppl have had good luck so far with the outlet.

As for cooling pads, been doing some tests with it just raised off the flat table or sat on the pads.
my conclusion is that for my studio17, there is no difference from the pad to just raising the unit up.

The difference affects CPU more then GPU, but we are talking ~65°c as opposed to 80°c+

So far the pizza riser (metal frame thing) is just as good as the Enermax Aeolus.
 
atocp said:
something else i just noticed. it's not 3xUSB. it's 2xUSB and 1xeSATA.

you can tell i didn't exactly research this before hand!

atocp
Click to expand...

The eSata still works like a USB if you don't need the sata bit.

As in regards to coolers my Dell has a 9 cell battery which also acts as footstand and lifts it off the table anyway. Having a cooler underneath is makes a further difference so might want to watch those sweeping statements ;)
 
neoboy said:
........................

As in regards to coolers my Dell has a 9 cell battery which also acts as footstand and lifts it off the table anyway. Having a cooler underneath is makes a further difference so might want to watch those sweeping statements ;)
Click to expand...

if this is aimed at me, I never made any sweeping statement, its specific to my laptop(as noted) and my thoughts(as noted) :rolleyes:
 
Given that I am looking for something like this to replace a toasted M1710 I am interested in anything that can help reduce the temps. Does the air get sucked up through the base of this, or does it come in via some other route?

I don't think my wife would be quite so understanding if the second laptop died from the same problem!
 
I skim read and seemed like you just raised it and then stated that it's as good as having it on a cooler, if you tried that and having it on cooling pads too and that gave the same cooling performance then I misunderstood. There really is no need to go rolly eyes though on a rather innocent comment particularly in hardware section where we all strive to be a friendly community, could've corrected me in a better way there.

As in regards to air flow the vent on the back is located on the left side (as you looking at it) so you'll find that this side gets quite a bit hotter than the right. Also the WiFi module is located pretty much under the touchpad and it can get very hot under prolonged use and is also very close to the hard drive which doesn't help temperatures there. If you're not planning on being connected to the net then it's a good idea to turn it off (only need to press 1 button), that will reduce the surface temp and help the HD temp out a bit too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom