Dell Vostro 1500

GuruJockStrap said:
If the 1500 can play Bioshock at 1280x800 with everything on high, it would have absolutely no problem with BF2 and WoW. Only thing you might experience is slightly longer load times due to the 5400RPM HD's.
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Thanks for the fast reply, i think ill order one soon. :D
 
No idea on that one I'm afraid.

The 7200 RPM HD's will spin faster and require more power, resulting in increased heat. Vista also likes to use the HD a lot more than XP.

If your going to game on the laptop, you'll also have the CPU at full load and the GPU. This would then cause the HD to heat up even more.

I'd try the 5400 RPM HD to start with and see how it feels. If its too slow, just purchase one elsewhere. Will be cheaper than getting it through Dell anyway.

I've been using a 5400RPM HD in my laptop for the last year and came from a 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD with 16MB Cache. The only time it feels slow is when you're transferring large files.
 
I've already got a spare 7200 drive from a failed repair. Gaming will be done when plugged in I think so power isn't an issue. I'll probably install XP on the new drive (better performance).

I just don't want to cook any components, I know airflow isn't that great on laptops.

@ic1male: is the Next Day repair cover included in the 1st year (free) warranty?
 
Sorry I think you misunderstood my Bioshock post earlier, I never mentioned what res I was playing in. It runs smoothly in 1024x?. In 1280x800 the frame rate drops a bit and its not as smooth. Its playable but I think most would prefer to play it in a lower res :)
 
Ripper said:
Sorry I think you misunderstood my Bioshock post earlier, I never mentioned what res I was playing in. It runs smoothly in 1024x?. In 1280x800 the frame rate drops a bit and its not as smooth. Its playable but I think most would prefer to play it in a lower res :)
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Thanks for clearing that up.:)

Even so, I'd imagine there's a few little graphical settings you could alter that wouldn't drastically degrade the visuals but would increase performance. Still, thats still impressive from a £550 laptop. At that price point with other manufacturers you'd be looking at integrated Intel graphics. :eek:

Roll on tomorrow morning!
 
GuruJockStrap said:
Vista disk came with the laptop mate.

Reinstalling Vista now. :D
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Cool, so they seem to be sending out original discs now as normal. They used to just have a nobby recovery partition.

Are you going to share some benches when you have a crisp and fresh install GuruJockStrap?

Edit:
Me=pillock, just read your last post, no games. OK, a cheeky 3DM06? :p
 
9-Cell Battery Sticking Out

i am thinking of purchasing the Dell Vostro 1700 and have read on here about the 9 cell battery sticking out on the Vostro 1500, can anyone tell me if i were to buy the 9 cell battery with the Vostro 1700 would it still stick out or fit flush to the chasis? :confused:
 
Hurrah,

gf's 1500 arrived today and I'm pretty impressed. She is loving the webcam as it means she can be seen my her Ma for the first time in 6 months.

Am also toying with the idea of doing a fresh vista install, if you have done this how long did it take roughly? Did you have any issues with the driver installation? Finally, did you see much of an increase in speed after taking the dell junk off?

Cheers

Min
 
I'd recommend a re-install of Vista. From 70+ running processes with the Dell install, I'm down to around 35-40 with a fresh install and nearly all of my apps installed.

Installation of drivers was fine. If your going the re-install route, here are the drivers you'll need:

1. Lastest chipset drivers from Intels website
2. 8600M GT - I used a modified set based on the recent 163.44 from here. If you don't fancy that, just use the ones from Dells website
3. Sigmatel Soundcard drivers from the Dell website - Run the .exe
4. Broadcom NIC - Download from the Dell website and update driver via device manager
5. Modem Driver - Download from the Dell website and update driver via device manager
6. Intel Wireless Adapter - rather than use the latest from Intel, I used the version from Dells website only because it says in the readme that it fixes an issue when using the wireless device and bluetooth. Download from the Dell website and update driver via device manager. I let Vista handle my wireless connections and don't want the Intel software installed (another 3 startup programs)
7. Webcam - Just used Vista own drivers
8. SD card reader - Download from Dell website - Run the .exe. If you don't, you'll see 3 unknown devices in device manger.
9. I installed the Synaptics touchpad driver as it allows you to disable the touchpad when a USB mouse is present and also allows use of the scrolling feature.

You can't use the Wi-Fi catcher button if you go the above route. Although I find that feature a bit useless. Nothing that clicking in the system tray doesn't fix.

Doing it via the above method will ensure full functionality of all the hardware while minimising any possible bloat and additional startup apps.:)
 
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Ripper said:
Wern't all the drivers on the drivers disk?
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They are, but I downloaded them a few days ago and stuck them on a USB pen drive in preparation.

Good point though, so no need to go to the Dell website at all.

My last laptop from Dell never came with a driver CD hence me downloading and sticking them on a pen drive.
 
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