Dell Vostro 1500

cells said:
stable overclock at

675mhz core
480 mem

mem fails at 490 in atitools check, core could go higher but see no need specilly as temp is aprocing 70

nice overclock considering stock on the card is 475core(42% overclock) 400mem (20% overclock)

real shame is gpu is DDR2, truely criples the card, core overclocks like a dream but the dam ddr2 mem :mad:
Click to expand...

Any chance you could run a quick 3D Mark with the memory overclocked and the core at stock?

Will be interesting to see whether clocking the memory has the greatest impact or not.
 
Looks ok Adz.

The screen resolution is entirely up to you. I went for 1280x800 for 4 reasons:

1. At lot of people who received 1440 x 900 screens complained of graininess. This was mainly due to Dell using AUO panels. Dell have probably sourced different panels now but its something to keep in mind.

2. I've just had laser eye surgery so don't won't to be straining my eyes. I personally feel 1280x800 at 15.4" is perfect for my eyes. But this is all down to personal preference.

3. Gaming. The 8600MGT will prefer the lower resolution. 272000 fewer pixels to push on screen.

4. I'm not a massive multitasker and don't require a load of windows open on screen at the same time.

The Bluetooth is integrated internally, so you don't have to worry about any module sticking out of the USB port or expansion slot.

Vista or XP Pro: Been using XP for quite a few years now and decided to go with Vista. People moan about Vista being slow, bloated etc but I've personally not experienced any of that. The default Dell install does chug a bit so I did a fresh install straight away (Dell provide the original OEM Vista DVD). Installed the 3 performance hotfixes, a few tweaks here and there and its now running fine.
 
The Turbo memory is solid state RAM that Vista can use. Read up about it here with some benchmark results: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3009&p=1

I shall time my Vista boot up for you now.:D

Mine takes 38 seconds to get to the login screen. That's from a cold boot. After I've logged in, its another 4-8 seconds before the OS and all my startup apps are fully loaded.

Thats with my own fresh installation. Lords knows what it's like with the factory Dell install.
 
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GuruJockStrap said:
Looks ok Adz.

The screen resolution is entirely up to you. I went for 1280x800 for 4 reasons:

1. At lot of people who received 1440 x 900 screens complained of graininess. This was mainly due to Dell using AUO panels. Dell have probably sourced different panels now but its something to keep in mind.

2. I've just had laser eye surgery so don't won't to be straining my eyes. I personally feel 1280x800 at 15.4" is perfect for my eyes. But this is all down to personal preference.

3. Gaming. The 8600MGT will prefer the lower resolution. 272000 fewer pixels to push on screen.

4. I'm not a massive multitasker and don't require a load of windows open on screen at the same time.

The Bluetooth is integrated internally, so you don't have to worry about any module sticking out of the USB port or expansion slot.

Vista or XP Pro: Been using XP for quite a few years now and decided to go with Vista. People moan about Vista being slow, bloated etc but I've personally not experienced any of that. The default Dell install does chug a bit so I did a fresh install straight away (Dell provide the original OEM Vista DVD). Installed the 3 performance hotfixes, a few tweaks here and there and its now running fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot :)
 
Chrisss said:
To anyone with the annoying CPU whine, I have found a fix.

Download/install this program http://forum.rightmark.org/topic.cgi?id=6:1217

Go to CPU advanced settings -> platform #1 -> check the box that says Disable C4 mode

Apply settings and whine goes away.
Click to expand...

At first the CPU whine was tolerable, now I can't stand it! The more time I spend at my laptop the worse it gets.

What happens is when the CPU goes into a low power state, this annoying whine becomes clearly heard. It could be a faulty motherboard, CPU or Dell cutting costs and sticking in cheap components.

Anyway, I used the above software, checked the Disable C4 Mode and if by magic, the whine vanished.

I've got a Dell technical support person coming round to fix my other issue later today.

Remember I was telling you about the screen making a buzz/hum noise on every screen brightness setting other than max? Well, the inverter that steps up and down the voltage to power the backlight tubes needs replacing. Will be getting the whole panel replaced today.

I'm tempted to phone Dell back up on Monday and get this CPU Whine issue resolved as well.
 
It gets weird.

I've just set the Power Plan in Windows to Power Saver and the CpU whine has stopped.

If I select Balanced or High Power, the whine returns.

Does anyone else with a Vostro suffer with the CPU whine? If you do, could you try setting the power plan to Power Saver and see what happens.
 
No probs with whine for me GJS, i also have the 1440x900 screen and dont suffer from grainyness, I have also had laser eye surgery, but a few years ago now (i got a great deal, buy one eye get one free in the january sales :P )

The panel scales decently, but i would say 1280x800 would probably be a better fit for the screen for gaming, although it does handle most things okay natively for me.
 
Medal of Honour ran like a slug walking through a VAT of slug juice. Even on 800x600 with every detail on low it ran terribly, so im thinking it might be a vista issue more than a laptop issue, but ill install it on my media centre which has a 8600GTS to see (and windows media centre).
 
GuruJockStrap said:
The Turbo memory is solid state RAM that Vista can use. Read up about it here with some benchmark results: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3009&p=1

I shall time my Vista boot up for you now.:D

Mine takes 38 seconds to get to the login screen. That's from a cold boot. After I've logged in, its another 4-8 seconds before the OS and all my startup apps are fully loaded.

Thats with my own fresh installation. Lords knows what it's like with the factory Dell install.
Click to expand...

Wow, your system seems to boot really quickly. Mine gets to the login screen in about the same time but my desktop seems to load much slower, it loads about half of it, then waits about 20 seconds then the rest of it. What do you think is happening? :confused:
 
Thiras said:
Wow, your system seems to boot really quickly. Mine gets to the login screen in about the same time but my desktop seems to load much slower, it loads about half of it, then waits about 20 seconds then the rest of it. What do you think is happening? :confused:
Click to expand...
if its not a fresh install, its probably the rubbish which dell pre install.
 
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