Official Vostro Owner's Lounge

I had a samsung screen and tech support guarenteed me a LG replacement and true to there word thats what I got.

Shame its just as poor. I have never seen so much light bleed on a notebook. I am scarred for life from ever buying another dell laptop.

 

the only 100% good vostro1500 screens are 1650x1050 from LG (I've got one, so I know!)

All other types, 1280x800, 1440x900 and matt, either from samsung, LG, AU, SEG or Phillips are just a gamble... maybe a 1 in 10 chance of gettting a reasonable one...

 

I'm one of the lucky ones then. My screen (1280x800) is absolutely beautiful.

 

Hi to all, I love forums, the people on forums are usally so helpful and want to share their advice, thoughts and opinions. Hope to get some good advice here thanks in advance.

I'm planning on buying my first laptop the Dell Vostro 1500 Here are the spec and upgrads I plan on making.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7100 1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB ($75. upgrade from 1.4GHz), 2 meg ram, 200g 7200 hard drive($55. upgrade from 160mb 5400rpm), Web cam ($30), XP Home Edition

I'm no computer guru and I have a few questions on some things.


The video card is a Intel integrated graphics media accelerator x3100. I will be using this laptop for internet, watching down loaded video clips, pictures storage and editing, burning CD/DVD and such. No gaming at all. Would this Intel integrated graphics media accelerator x3100 be fine for what I'm doing or should I upgrade to a 128mb NVIDIA GeForce 8400m GS for $100.?

I upgraded the hard drive capacity and speed and processor speed already and I would like to keep the cost down and not get anything I wouldn't realy benifit from.

Is it possible or would is be or is it hard to add this upgraded video card later?

I have a Westel Versa link model327w from Verizon, I have read that there might be some problems with the wireless dell wireless card 1390 802.11g. Should I change this card?

Should I stay with the XGA LCD or upgrade to the truelife or XGA+? What is the difference?

Any thoughts or advice would be helpful.

Thanks

 

T7100 isn't 1.6GHz, the T5470 is 1.6Ghz, you meant T5470 right? Also, I hope you mean 2GB ram

For what you described, the Integrated Intel X3100 will be just fine. The nVidia would be good for games and other 3D related tasks. You mentioned that you wouldn't be doing either.

No, so plan ahead!

If you are really trying to keep cost down, I would really consider downgrading back to a 5400RPM drive. While the 7200RPM drive will definitely be faster, IMO, the speed difference might not be worth the extra $$$,. Also, the 7200 will use more power, albeit marginally depending on what tasks you are doing. Also, the CPU upgrade may not be worth it either judging by the tasks you mentioned.

WXGA+ has a higher resolution than the WXGA, 1440x900 vs 1280x800 respectively, so the WXGA+ can display more, i.e. more real estate. But since they're physically the same size screen (15.4"), the WXGA+ will have smaller pixels, thus making everything look smaller. If you have good eyesight and want to be able to display more stuff on desktop, go for WXGA+, otherwise WXGA. EDIT: Truelife = Glossy display. Some people like it, some people hate it. Glossy can make colors look more rich and vibrant, but suffer from glare/reflection. Non-truelife will have much less glare, but colors can look duller. It's a matter or personal preference.

 

Tell me is their really problem with the dell wireless card 1390 802.11g. I haven't heard about it?

 

Nice explaination.

Thanks for all the input, very helpful.

 

Has anyone purchased the Vostro 1000 with the TruLife screen? I'm itching to buy one, but I wanted to know how bad the bleed is on this display compared to the default screen.

 

Hmmm... I don't want to start getting too philosophical here, but the fact that you have one which is good hardly constitutes 'knowledge' of all of them, now does it?
:GEEK:
Seriously, though, how sure are we that no-one has had problems with that particular type of screen?

 

Well, I just got my Vostro 1400 this afternoon, and I'm impressed.

I love the laptop, though I appear to have become the latest victim in the AUO WXGA+ screens

I'll likely contact dell in the coming days to see if they can send me a replacement display I can change myself, otherwise I might just learn to live with it, I sort of need my laptop for school and stuff.