Studio 15

littledave

littledave

littledave

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25 Dec 2002
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626
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Brighton
Im very tempted to go for a Dell Studio 15, can any users offer any thoughts and advice.

Im unsure as to the actuall differences between the processor options in real life.

  1. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
  2. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P7450 (2.13Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
  3. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.8 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 Cache)
  4. Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T4300 (2.1GHz, 800MHz, 1MB cache)
  5. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.2GHz, 800MHz, 2MB)

I cant say the laptop would be used for any real intensive work but I want a snappy laptop running win 7 64bit.

Then theres the WiFi whats the difference if there all 802.11n
  1. Dell Wireless 1510 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
  2. Intel WiFi Link 5300 Half Mini Card (802.11 a/g/n) (Centrino)
  3. Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard

Finally the memory I realise its only DDR2 800Mhz but with 4gb, 6gb & 8gb variants. Will the 6gb actually get fully used im thinking 4gb will be more than adequate.
 
I had a studio 1555, it was a great mid range laptop. Some great features but a PITA to take apart to change cpu.

You wont see a great difference in real world use from the cpu, but you need to make your choice based on your use and price.
If it is just general use (surfing/movies/music/office/games) I would recommend the P7450, its snappy, low power and still performs well when gaming.

If you need VT, do a lot of encoding or heavy cpu work I would get the P8700, it still has the 25w tdp and the P8 and T9 range give access to VT.

I would recommend 4gb of ram at the mo as 6 and 8gb are so expensive. It is very easy to install yourself so you could save yourself a fortune and do it later
 
littledave said:
Im very tempted to go for a Dell Studio 15, can any users offer any thoughts and advice.

Im unsure as to the actuall differences between the processor options in real life.

  1. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
  2. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P7450 (2.13Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
  3. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.8 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 Cache)
  4. Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T4300 (2.1GHz, 800MHz, 1MB cache)
  5. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.2GHz, 800MHz, 2MB)

I cant say the laptop would be used for any real intensive work but I want a snappy laptop running win 7 64bit.

Then theres the WiFi whats the difference if there all 802.11n
  1. Dell Wireless 1510 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
  2. Intel WiFi Link 5300 Half Mini Card (802.11 a/g/n) (Centrino)
  3. Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard

Finally the memory I realise its only DDR2 800Mhz but with 4gb, 6gb & 8gb variants. Will the 6gb actually get fully used im thinking 4gb will be more than adequate.
Click to expand...

If you have budget, you could go for T9600 (Future proof). for the wifi card, it doesn't make any different. for the memory, DDR2 only support up to 4 GB (2x 2GB) only only DDR3 support more than 3 GB.
 
Bee's im not sure where you get your information but you totally wrong regarding the DDR, and also regarding the WiFi card too as there are some features supported by the intell 5300 chipset that i cannot find listed against the 5100

Btw whats VT?
 
Last edited:
I purchased a Studio 15 about 5 weeks ago.

I opted for the following spec ; Intel P7450, 500 GB HDD, 4 GB RAM, DVDRW, Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300 wifi card, Bluetooth Card and the backlit keyboard.

I opted to pay an additional £15 for the 5300 wifi card as I had read rather discouraging reports about the other offerings which can be supplied with the laptop. I also wanted Wireless-N support, so this was a no brainer.

I also spent additional cash on the bluetooth card so I can use my Bluetooth Mouse and Wireless Headphones, both of which work fine with the laptop.

Overall I'm very impressed. The Radeon 4570 Graphics card doesn't seem bad at all and has delivered consistantly good framerates with the games I've played.

The only negative thing I can think of is that the slot loading DVD drive could cause problems if it refused to eject a CD/DVD.

I also wish that I had spent a bit more money on the CPU so that I could enjoy the benefits of hardware assisted virtualisation when running VMWare. Not being able to run 64 bit virtual machines is a bit of a pain!

For people who don’t intend running Virtual Machines/Test labs on their laptops, this is of no concern or relevance.

Overall, for £650 (including a Bluetooth Mouse), I consider the laptop to have been an utter bargain and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone!
 
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