WTB Dell Studio 15, please review specs

[dimo]

Im literally hovering over the buy button for the £529 Studio 15 with a screen and keyboard upgrade. Looks like an amazing deal, plus a discount code which brings the laptop to around £590. Closest match to this is towards ~£1000.

I also noticed the GPU upgrade, did a comparison earlier though 4570 (http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4570.13885.0.html) vs. 5470 (http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5470.23698.0.html) ... looks like the 4570 came out on top in some of the tests; not worth a £70 upgrade imo, I'd spend it on the CPU if anything, but I'm not spending it at all. £100 worth of upgrades is good enough for me.. just deciding, shall I, shall I not.

I read the entire thread, sounds like theres a lot of good things about it, and this responsivity test has me SOLD! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mElqI3lUTTc&feature=related (its by one of the forum members)...

Edit: I must also add that im not too interested in gaming, which is also why the GPU upgrade is so unappealing to me... it might actually be good; so, i'm biased.

 

[dimo]

Just curious to know, is the i5-520m worth the £50 upgrade from the i5-430m? Can't find many reviews and side-by-side comparisons of these two models. (Notebookcheck.com was pretty rubbish as providing any great info for this)..

Edit: Also, is it a big deal to not have the Intel Integrated wireless option instead of the dell mini wireless card. Would people advise against the Dell wireless card for any reason, or is this just a silly thing to do over a matter of £10. Im not trying to save the cash, just wondered if its really that big of a deal to not have integrated wifi but to instead have a card. Both of my last 2 laptops have had integrated wifi; never had a card solution.. so I don't really know the difference and inconveniences that come with a card..

Edit2: Just noticed its an Intel card that's a/b/g/n enabled. Don't need N yet, so I'll stick with the standard one for noowww

Thanks.. anyone? Anything?

 

[dimo]

Anyone know the dif in performance between 430m and 520m

 

[Totality]

studio 17 has a tasty 1GB 5730, 400 stream processors!

DON'T order the Studio 17 if you expect a 5730! My mate ordered one and it arrived with a 5650 in it and the specs on Dell's site have changed. His order stated a 5730 but it was all a lie!

 

[dimo]

DON'T order the Studio 17 if you expect a 5730! My mate ordered one and it arrived with a 5650 in it and the specs on Dell's site have changed. His order stated a 5730 but it was all a lie!

Outch. Well that sucks. Do we still have an all clear for the Studio 15 though?

 

[dimo]

Better go out and buy myself a blueray disk and keep fingerscrossed

Was it blu-ray in the end btw?

 

[racerboy59]

Just curious to know, is the i5-520m worth the £50 upgrade from the i5-430m? Can't find many reviews and side-by-side comparisons of these two models. (Notebookcheck.com was pretty rubbish as providing any great info for this)..

Edit: Also, is it a big deal to not have the Intel Integrated wireless option instead of the dell mini wireless card. Would people advise against the Dell wireless card for any reason, or is this just a silly thing to do over a matter of £10. Im not trying to save the cash, just wondered if its really that big of a deal to not have integrated wifi but to instead have a card. Both of my last 2 laptops have had integrated wifi; never had a card solution.. so I don't really know the difference and inconveniences that come with a card..

Edit2: Just noticed its an Intel card that's a/b/g/n enabled. Don't need N yet, so I'll stick with the standard one for noowww

Thanks.. anyone? Anything?

I'll try and help you out.

I went for the 430m and from my experiences the hard drive and graphics card are the major bottlenecks in system slowdown, however in general use that rarely happens. Only when gaming its obvious that the ati 4570 can't provide enough performance to run any new games with nice textures.

However my opinion is always to get the best you can afford, especially when it comes to CPU in a laptop. not something that will be easy to replace later on. Don't get me wrong I am extremely happy with the 430m compared to my desktop E6750. It outperforms it by a fair amount and runs fairly cool. Don't know why but the fan is getting loud and is turns on intermittently at less than 40 degrees C just browsing the internet now

For wireless i went for the dell b/g/n 1/2 card iirc and its no different to any other integrated wireless i've used before. Maybe though this could be that I am not using any wireless N routers to benefit from the new technology. time will tell.

 

[matthew_o50]

How long does it normally take from ordering from Dell to receiving the laptop? I ordered a studio 15 for £479 on Sunday and it said estimated date for delivery was 29/3/10. I emailed Dell to tell them I would have to cancel as I need the laptop way sooner (I'm on teaching practice at the min and working on a netbook is no good). If it would take that long to arrive then my placement would be over and I wouldn't have much use for it afterwards. I've not heard anything from Dell however and after sending a further cancellation email yesterday my status has since changed to 'in production' and I've not heard anything from them yet!

Also gutted I never ordered one with the backlit keyboard. I never noticed this option when ordering!

 

[dimo]

I'll try and help you out.

I went for the 430m and from my experiences the hard drive and graphics card are the major bottlenecks in system slowdown, however in general use that rarely happens. Only when gaming its obvious that the ati 4570 can't provide enough performance to run any new games with nice textures.

However my opinion is always to get the best you can afford, especially when it comes to CPU in a laptop. not something that will be easy to replace later on. Don't get me wrong I am extremely happy with the 430m compared to my desktop E6750. It outperforms it by a fair amount and runs fairly cool. Don't know why but the fan is getting loud and is turns on intermittently at less than 40 degrees C just browsing the internet now

For wireless i went for the dell b/g/n 1/2 card iirc and its no different to any other integrated wireless i've used before. Maybe though this could be that I am not using any wireless N routers to benefit from the new technology. time will tell.

Thanks for the reply. I went on the Dell site earlier and noticed they changed the specs of a lot of their laptops; they do it weekly ive noticed. Anyway, the i5-430m which i was hoping to gget is no longer available for the awesome price i wanted it for. However... for £140 more than i was going to spend I can get a faster HD (7.2k instead of 5.4k), 1gb GPU instead of 512mb, an i7-720QM instead of the i5-430m, and the same specs for everything else (1080p screen, backlit keyboard, 4gb ram. Comes in at £750. Worth it? It's a desktop replacement and its pretty powerful (and futureproof?).

 

[RJC]

Thanks for the reply. I went on the Dell site earlier and noticed they changed the specs of a lot of their laptops; they do it weekly ive noticed.

Dell update there deals every Thursday, I'm looking for a new laptop and not sure on what version to go for.

 

[dimo]

Dell update there deals every Thursday, I'm looking for a new laptop and not sure on what version to go for.

Oh I see. What do you think of the deal I posted above? What you in search for? Im doing some searching now and wouldnt mind keeping an eye out for anything you might want also..

 

[racerboy59]

Thanks for the reply. I went on the Dell site earlier and noticed they changed the specs of a lot of their laptops; they do it weekly ive noticed. Anyway, the i5-430m which i was hoping to gget is no longer available for the awesome price i wanted it for. However... for £140 more than i was going to spend I can get a faster HD (7.2k instead of 5.4k), 1gb GPU instead of 512mb, an i7-720QM instead of the i5-430m, and the same specs for everything else (1080p screen, backlit keyboard, 4gb ram. Comes in at £750. Worth it? It's a desktop replacement and its pretty powerful (and futureproof?).

Looks like very good value for money. Most other laptops would be around £1000 for that sort of spec.

 

[racerboy59]

How long does it normally take from ordering from Dell to receiving the laptop? I ordered a studio 15 for £479 on Sunday and it said estimated date for delivery was 29/3/10. I emailed Dell to tell them I would have to cancel as I need the laptop way sooner (I'm on teaching practice at the min and working on a netbook is no good). If it would take that long to arrive then my placement would be over and I wouldn't have much use for it afterwards. I've not heard anything from Dell however and after sending a further cancellation email yesterday my status has since changed to 'in production' and I've not heard anything from them yet!

Also gutted I never ordered one with the backlit keyboard. I never noticed this option when ordering!

My order was estimated just over 3 weeks to delivery but it arrived in less than 1 week. I think they give such large estimated times to cover themselves in case they can't find the parts you requested.

I've been told you can buy backlit keyboard replacement off popular auction sites but no idea if its a simple drop in replacement or not.

 

[matthew_o50]

My order was estimated just over 3 weeks to delivery but it arrived in less than 1 week. I think they give such large estimated times to cover themselves in case they can't find the parts you requested.

I've been told you can buy backlit keyboard replacement off popular auction sites but no idea if its a simple drop in replacement or not.

Got an email from Dell today to say that due to demand they are running out of parts and won't be able to deliver until the end of March. Apparently it is too late for me to cancel my order despite this and the fact that I had emailed when it was still at a status to cancel. So my only option is to pay for it, wait on it coming and then send it back if I don't want it which seems like a lot of hassle for something that isn't even made yet! Just hope it comes much sooner

 

[dimo]

Im upset. I went to buy my i7 system and its no longer offered. Dell removed it from their site. They don't even offer a studio with an i7-720qm anymore! The guy on the phone said if i wanted it i'd have to pay £700 extra, taking the total to £1470. They were offering the same laptop for £750 just a few days ago.

I hate dells indian outsourcing setup, very frustrating! I havent even ordered anything yet and im already put off by their customer service.. emailed them today and got an out of office reply with the managers email in it, so i emailed him and he too had an out of office reply. Arrgh...

Im gonna wait till thursday and hope an i7-720qm comes up with a nice spec/price.

 

[Armitage Shanks]

Im upset. I went to buy my i7 system and its no longer offered. Dell removed it from their site. They don't even offer a studio with an i7-720qm anymore! The guy on the phone said if i wanted it i'd have to pay £700 extra, taking the total to £1470. They were offering the same laptop for £750 just a few days ago.

I had my eye on one of these laptops too. I'm glad I didnt get one, quite a few threads like this one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=432243&page=8 indicating there was some serious heat issues with the i7 laptops and also the power adaptor runs extremely hot and may not be up to the job. I expect dell pulled the i7 range it due to the number of returns because of heat/throttling issues. If they re-release their i7 laptops i'm going to wait until I can confirm they have re-designed/adequate cooling as theres no point buying an i7 and not being able to fully use it because it overheats.

 

[PaulB]

Im upset. I went to buy my i7 system and its no longer offered. Dell removed it from their site. They don't even offer a studio with an i7-720qm anymore! The guy on the phone said if i wanted it i'd have to pay £700 extra, taking the total to £1470. They were offering the same laptop for £750 just a few days ago.

I hate dells indian outsourcing setup, very frustrating! I havent even ordered anything yet and im already put off by their customer service.. emailed them today and got an out of office reply with the managers email in it, so i emailed him and he too had an out of office reply. Arrgh...

Im gonna wait till thursday and hope an i7-720qm comes up with a nice spec/price.

I find the Dell site frustrating - you can visit the same site several times a day and find different offers/specs for the same laptops.

I can still find a Studio 15 offered with an i7 - try the link below, but choose the option on the far right hand side where it says "Choose from this starter package". Adding the i7 takes it up to £729.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-studio-1555?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&ref=lthp

 

[DavidQ]

I ordered mine this morning:

i5-540m 2.53ghz
6gb of ram
1gb ati hd 5470
x-fi sound card
500gb hdd
backlit keyboard
1080p screen upgrade
windows 7 professional
bluetooth

I also got a 500GB western digital passport drive to carry around with me, all in all cost me £920 incl VAT.

 

[Dogoid]

i have a pentium dual core t4200 in my inspiron and they're fast. i would say very equivalent to a amd athlon x2 5000+

 

[dimo]

I ordered mine this morning:

i5-540m 2.53ghz
6gb of ram
1gb ati hd 5470
x-fi sound card
500gb hdd
backlit keyboard
1080p screen upgrade
windows 7 professional
bluetooth

I also got a 500GB western digital passport drive to carry around with me, all in all cost me £920 incl VAT.

how much was the laptop itself, minus the WD passport?