Dell Studio 17 Laptop

[Yabsley]

Hi

Was wondering if anyone has a Dell Studio 17 Laptop and how they like it? I've been looking at getting one myself, specifically:

- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English
- 3Yr In-Home Warranty Support, including evenings and Saturdays
- Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish
- 17 Widescreen WXGA+ CCFL (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife™
- 4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
- 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera - CCFL
- 500GB (5.400rpm) Serial ATA Dual Hard Drive (2x 250GB)
- 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650
- Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
- Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
- Internal UK English Qwerty Keyboard

Price inc. VAT and Delivery: £759.02

It seems ideal for what I want. Does anyone have any advice, comments or suggestions? Does anyone know what the 256 ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650 is like? Will it handle fairly new games OK? Is it a lot worse than the NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB which comes with the XPS 1530s?

Cheers for looking.

 

[Yabsley]

A comparable spec XPS 1530 would cost me £949.01 delivered:

- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English
- 1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support
- 2.0 mega pixel Camera & Tuxedo Black for CCFL Display
- 15.4" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife™
- Biometric Fingerprint Reader with BLACK accent
- 4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
- 500GB Serial ATA (5400RPM) Hard Drive
- NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB dedicated graphic memory
- Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load drive, including SW
- Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

So for an extra 200 quid all I get is a slightly better graphics card, and a biometric fingerpring reader? Is that right cause it doesn't really seem worth it to me. I won't just be gaming but I want to be able to play games on it occaisionally. Will the Studio not handle games like CounterStrike:Source? It does have a dedicated video card after all. Is the RADEON 3650 really that bad?

If I were to get the XPS with the equivalent price tag to the studio (£750) I would get a lower resolution screen (1280 x 800), a smaller hard drive (320gb) and a slower processor (T8100 - 2.10 GHz).

 

[Yabsley]

I decided to go for a very similar spec Studio 17. Have not received it yet but found from the web that the 3650 is very similar in performance to the 8600M.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Studio-17-Notebook.10802.0.html

It will only handle recent games at lower resolutions and detail levels though. This is not an issue for me as I use a high end Desktop for most of my gaming, but plan on running older and less demanding games such as Civ 4 on the Studio.

Cheers

Cheers for the link to that review, just read through it and it was quite helpful. Those benchmark values it gave were quite interesting too. I reckon you could easily play a lot of recent games if you tweaked the settings right. It might not be able to play everything at high resolution and full settings but should be able to at least play some stuff.

When are you expecting it by the way?

 

[Yabsley]

I've had a Studio 17 for about a month now. T8100, 3gb, 320gb, HD3650 etc

Really like the design, bit of keyboard flex on the number pad, i've not had any probs with the touch sensitive buttons but others have. Plays TF2 no probs, the HD3650 has very similar performance to the 8600m GT

Cool, have you tried playing any other games on it at all? I'm fairly sure it's what I'm going to go for now. It seems to have the best value for the specifications.

 

[Yabsley]

Picked it up yesterday. Have not had much chance to try it out but have had a brief look at Civ 4 BTS and Civ 4 COlonization with FRAPS and it appears to be running at around 30 to 45 ish FPS at the native resolution 1440x900 in both at Medium - High detail levels with no AA.

I think it should handle the older Source games pretty well at the right settings.

Cheers for the info

Does anyone know of any voucher codes at the moment that'll get 10% off?

 

[Yabsley]

I've just ordered mine:

- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache)
- 4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
- 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650
- 500GB (5.400rpm) Serial ATA Dual Hard Drive (2x 250GB)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English
- Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
- Dell Wireless 1510 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
- 1Yr Limited Warranty - Collect & Return
- PLUS Protection: 3Yr In-Home Warranty + Norton Antivirus - English
- Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
- Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
- 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera - CCFL
- Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish
- Wireless Label (Dell Wireless Cards)- Core 2 Duo
- 17 Widescreen WXGA+ CCFL (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife™
- Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English - (Does not include Microsoft® Word)

The cost came to £711.92 in the end as I found a 5% off voucher at the last minute. It also came with a free Logitech V220 Cordless Mouse Red - 'Designed for Dell' and the 3Yr In-Home Warranty + Norton Antivirus actually reduced the price by roughly £10. I won't use Norton but I'll take the 10 quid off.

I think I've heard of people declining the vista license that comes with Dells and then claiming the money back. Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[Yabsley]

Just got a studio 17 for my other half's dad, T8300 2.4ghz, 4gb ram, HD3650, 1920x1200 screen etc etc, brand new from a canceled order clearance company, £525 inc vat and postage, not bad at all I prefer my XPS m1530 in some ways but the Studio isnt half bad.

Sounds like the same spec as mine but £200 cheaper. That's a steal if you ask me.