Any original vostro owners still around?

Yup same here! Seen other machines around me fail so touch wood that this thing still strong as hell! Like you, upgraded to Win 7 x64, 4gb RAM and I personally upgraded to a 320gb 5200rpm a long while back.

 

You know I even forgot to mention that we have a vostro 1500 from the original release here at the office. We got it back in june or july 2007 and its still going strong. In fact it is what made me get my 1700!

 

i was very close to buying the refreshed version, the 1710, but decided against it due to it having the notorious nvidia graphics

(and its lucky i didnt, the dell website listed it as having the 8600GT, but it later turned out to be an error, it actually had the 8600GS)

 

Im on a Vostro 1510. I maxed it out to the 4GB and when time come around Ill upgrade the HDD as well.


Windows 7 reports the battery is in bad health so the battery will have to be replaced as well.

 

My vostro 1700 has the 8600mGT and has been overclocked pretty much 100% of its life and still no failure. But remembering back on the whole nvidia fiasco I don't blame you. I just got lucky I guess.

 

I have a 1500 and the longer I have it, the more I realize what a sweet machine it is. I think that by the time I bought my Dell, the NVIDIA fiasco had been resolved.

My unit has T5470 duo core processors (1.6 ghz factory - o/c to 1.8 ghz), 2 GB Ram and a NVIDIA 8600M GT card (Win XP 64 bit, dox optomized driver 185.68). I have had it overclocked for a couple of years and it keeps on ticking. I have been able to play most games on it at low settings. Fully overclocked, it runs COD4 at 50-60 frames and posts 3DMark06 scores in the low 4,000 range.

I just ordered a new AC adapter and will probably need a battery. Other than that, it has been great. My notebook is going to our bookeeper as soon as I pick its replacement.

I am looking for a smaller, lighter notebook (13" thin and light) and would buy another Vostro if they made something as advanced as this notebook was in its day. What Dell needs to produce is a Vostro 13" or smaller, less than 1" thick, with a duo core or duo core 2 processor running in excess of 2.5 ghz with a NVIDIA 9600M GT or better dedicated graphics card. The use of Intel 4500 chips in the small Vostros has turned me off to Dell Notebooks. The studio 13" is too big and bulky. To get my office's laptop business back, Dell need to produce a Vostro that outperforms the LG P310 and fits into a smaller package. I won't hold my breath.

 

thats because you're asking for super-specs in a cheap package lol. and the 1500 wasnt "advanced" in its day, it was a decent mid-range offering

 

The nvidia fiasco did include some 9XXX series so like me I think you got lucky.

As for the use of mine, I already have a replacement for my vostro and that is my thinkpad t400. I use the 1700 as a home server and even tried going back to wow (thankfully I plyed 1 hour and realized I still hate the game). As of now I have it sitting on my NZXT cryo cooler as it does its job perfectly as a file and pritn server (haven't setup mysql quite yet). I have been thinking of helping extend the life cycle of the vostro by picking up a t9300 and a faster larger hard drive (as well as a second HDD for the media server I want it to be) and then it will be at its maximum hardware level as I already have the fastest ram I can put in it. But that is something Ill have to wait on for now as it still does great with the current hardware in it.

 

It had one of the better graphics offerings in a 14" package and a core 2 duo. All for a great price. The vostro was spot on for its time. A 9600M GT is far from state of the art now. T7200 core2duo machines exist in 13" form for under $800. Dell just hasn't kept pace with that configuration.

Massed produced, I should be able to buy a 13.3" x 1" with a 9600M GT and T7200 processor for $650 or $700. Dell offers nothing close.

My small business bought all of its equipment from Dell at one time. They are loosing me as a customer to the likes of Asus.

Bronsky

 

goodbye and good luck lol. do you know how much the "mass produced" LG is? 2000+ usd.. yea...not to mention its not 1" thick. oh, and let us know when you get your 13.3 1" 9600gt T7200 unit from asus.



p.s....and uh...the 1500 was not a 14" notebook. in your previous post you claimed to have the 1500