Dell Studio 1555

International shipping is surprisingly slow, even for geographically close locations. I recently shipped a small envelope to someone in southern Canada, and I live in northern Ohio, so it's not a whole lot of distance. He didn't get the package for nearly 2 weeks, though.

 

UPS is ok fast shipping I guess. It says '2 - 5 business days' (just saw on Dell site)

Something else:
In Belgium we did not have the option of a backlit keyboard (even not by ordering by phone because of the AZERTY). I would like to install one myself once I have my laptop. But after googling for one, I cannot seem to find one. Can anyone inform me on where to buy such keyboard (illuminated or backlit AZERTY Belgian Dutch for a Studio 1555)?

Thank you in advance.

 

If Dell doesn't have the Belgian AZERTY format illuminated keyboard, then third party retailers wouldn't have it either. If you want the backlit keyboard, you'll have to get the US/International or English QWERTY model.

What you can do, though, is get the QWERTY model, and physical pop off the keys and arrange them the way you want them, and use a key remapping program to make the keys function in the order that you want them.

 

I'm also from Belgium. But I wouldn't mind to have an qwerty. Can you give me the productnumber so that I can order one.
how much will it cost me approximately? And is it possible to buy it from an other source as dell?
Thanks

 

does anybody have this issue?
update: 8GB SDHC card works fine, the same goes for 2GB micro SD on SD adaptor

 

I guess the link provided is some patch for the original software. Even i am looking out for that sound solution. Can someone upload it?

 

Damn!! !! My order have been given to courier on 10th....
They says mine will be deliverd only on 17th!!!
They says "its now in cochin warehouse, the destination is 'Out Of Delivery Area' [they mean remote] [ ], & that is the reason for the delay".....

 

Mine was delivered in 14 working days, 20 if you count the weekends. Ordered on 22nd May, delivered on 11th June. Pretty much in line with Dell's 10-14 working days estimate at the time of ordering. As far I can tell it was shipped from somewhere in China (to New Zealand). The estimated delivery date was however 23rd of June - way too conservative.

 

Dell always overestimates their shipping dates. Better to err on the side of caution and surprise customers with an earlier delivery than to do the opposite, I suppose.

 

Ok in response to another thread, may I ask a favor of those with the Studio 1555?

Can you run both GPU-Z and Everest and screenshot the results please? That way, we can see if it's a 128bit version(as Dell claims it is) or if it is indeed a 64bit GPU. If someone has already posted these kinds of things I'd appreciate the link

Thank you in advance ^_^

 

I did gpu z a while ago.. 128bit

 

Yeah I recall someone posting a GPU-Z screenshot in the thread I'm talking about, but I'd like 2nd opinions hence why I was hoping for an Everest screen as well.

Performance wise it seems to me the HD4570 is a 128bit bus, because even with GDDR3, the 64bit would gimp its performance.

 

jesus why does photobucket make it so hard to get the url now

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/blueking/gpuz.jpg

 

Just discovered that on the French Dell website they have backlit AZERTY French. Dell salesman could have proposed this when I said that it was important to me to have the backlit keyboard, instead of saying there was no azerty available.
So I kind of have the same questions: anyone has the productnumber? Possible to buy from a third party retailer?

Thank you!

 

Thanks for that ^_^

Now I just need an Everest screen to confirm that one(just for security's sake) and we can put everyone's mind to rest lol

It's a bit iffy since Dell has made mistakes in the past on certain of their specs and ATI/AMD provides no clear cut answer to this.

 

actually...
bad news.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/blueking/gpuz2.jpg


awwww this makes me sad

 

Hmmm well this is a pickle lol

Well thanks a lot for taking the time to post those 2 I appreciate it ^_^

Well I'm quite surprised at the HD4570's performance fora 64bit GPU then. It can benchmark and run games like lower end 128bit class GPUs like the 8600M GT.

 

I'm sure the GDDR3 accounts for some of that.

 

Yes I'm sure it plays a role, but other GPUs had GDDR3 before. The leap in performance was never substantial to the point of compensating for bus width. For example, while a GDDR3 9600M GT performed noticeably better than a DDR2 one, it was never to the point of it being on another level of performance. They were for all intents and purposes the same GPU.

Only recently in the desktop world has a breakthrough been made where memory bandwidth compensates for bus width ina veyr significant manner i.e. the HD4770. And that's with GDDR5, not GDDR3. GDDR3 has been present for quite some time in the mobile world.

I think clocks also have to do with it. I checked and the HD4570 has similar clocks to the HD3670, but 50% less shaders.

 

The difference between an 8800GT 512MB DDR2 vs. GDDR3 is pretty significant.

 

I posted my GPUZ screenshot a couple of pages back - it says 128bit. I haven't tried Everest.

The only game I have tried to benchmark was Id's Doom 3. At Ultra Quality and 1280x1024 resolution, I get around 45 FPS. It's an old game but the performance of this machine surprises me.

 

Well regardless of what it is, it's a nice leap considering what the GPU is

 

Another good thing I noticed about the screen. The 1080P screen can do 1:1 scaling. It doesn't stretch the image when you are playing the game at non-native resolution. I am not sure if the scaling is now standard feature in all laptop screens as I haven't tried playing games on many laptops.

 

Does it scale properly even at resolutions of different aspect ratio?

I mean, my iMac at home has trouble properly scaling WC3 since the game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions.

 

With 1:1 scaling the image isn't stretched or distorted at all. The game just runs in a closed rectangle and the rest of the pixels are left black.

http://i39.tinypic.com/141mwsz.jpg

 

same here: Gpu-z says 128 bit, Everest says 64-bit. i get 3730 poits in 3D mark 06. I doesnt really matter.

 

Have anyone tried GTA IV ? I expect my 1555 tommorow

 

I have tried the game, and i got 38~45 FPS at 800x600. I could have notched up the resolution, but i didnt

Besides i was running the game on Win XP SP3 with modded 9.5 catalyst drivers.

 

I wonder how it will work on T6400, prices in Poland are very high, upgrade to T9550 cost about 500 USD...

 

after much consideration and shopping around i have decided this is the laptop for me. it seems good quality and lighter than the hp ones. however i have some questions:

1. does the t6400 have intel vt? i will be using virtual pc a lot for website testing in different browsers and it will be very useful if it can be speeded up by this feature. i read somewhere that they do but i want to confirm whether its sufficient or if i will need to upgrade it.

2. is the text on the 1080p very small? i can read text easily on my 17 inch 1280x1024 desktop. unfortunately i cant see the 1080p in person as im in the uk and they are not in shops. the 720p seems poor and the 900p isnt available here

3. how many hours maximum can you get with the 6 cell battery and the 512mb ati card with the t6400 and 1080p screen?

4. does it have all 3 wireless antennas? i know the old one did, can anyone confirm this in the 1555? i want to get a wifi link 5300 off ebay as dell is a ripoff

thanks for your help everyone!

 

Has anyone installed Windows 7 64bit on there 1555? I downloaded it an thinking about installing it. If someone did was there any problems? Or should I just do a clean reinstall of 64bit Vista?

 

The T6400 does not appear to support Intel Virtualization Technology:

http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLGJ4

The Intel 5300 card will work with only two antennae, and even if the 1555 doesn't come with all 3 (and it should), then you can easily install a third one yourself, or use one of the antennae from the WWAN slot if you're not using it.

 

The scheduled delivery for my 1555 is on 6/16 which was ordered on 6/4. I am going to format it as soon as i get it and install Win7 64-bit. I am currently using Win7 64-bit on my desktop and Win7 32-bit on my current laptop and they both run without a hitch. From everything I have read almost every computer will run faster on Win7 than Vista!

 

the text is rather small if you use the default 96dpi. 120dpi is musch more easy to read. And of course you can use a custom dpi in vista. I dont regret getting a 1080p screen.

 

i think it should come with the 3rd one then. if not then two should probably work ok.

yeah i could increase the dpi i guess. another point i forgot to to consider is that the laptop screen will be much closer of course . shouldnt be a problem then

does anyone have any info about the 6-cell battery life?

 

From what I have read the 6-cell will give you around 3 hours and the 9-cell will give you around 4 hours. Of course the actual time depends greatly on what you are doing on your lappy. I read one message from a user that had a 1555 with a 9-cell battery that said he gets aound 5-hrs of use on a full charge. I get mine on Tuesday and will let you all know how I like it and will do some benchmarks and will test the battery!

I got:

Studio 1555
Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0Ghz
ATI 4570 512MB
1080p Screen
4GB Ram
Bluray Combo Drive
Backlit Keyboard
9-cell battery
Vista 32-bit (Will be formated and install Win7 64-bit upon arrival!)

I decided not to upgrade the CPU further because the cost to upgrade is not worth the small increase in performance. The majority of the applications run on a laptop you will see little or no increase in speed from 2.0 to 2.2 or even 2.4 unless you are doing video rendering/modeling/encoding which shouldnt be done on a laptop anyway. I do a lot of encoding and video editing and a mobile CPU is just pointless to use for such things. Also I am a big enough computer nerd that if I want more speed in the future I will just upgrade the CPU myself to whatever the max turns out to be for cheap. The cost of upgrading to a 2.4 was $125 and 2.66 was around $500 which is rediculous. I know from a lot of experience that the increase from 2.0 to 2.4 is not worth $125 especially when the entire cost of the computer (including 2yrs complete care warranty) is $999.04. Thats a 12.5% increase in cost for barely any performance increase.

 

I just got my Studio 1555 yesterday (a warranty replacement for my defective Studio 1535). I ran 3DMark06 and it scored 4,292.

Primary specs are:
2.66GHz Intel T9550
15.6" 900p (1600x900) LED display
3GB RAM
250GB 5400rpm (Toshiba) hard drive
256mb ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570

Based on that performance, I think it's safe to say the 256mb ATI 4570 uses GDDR3, just like the 512mb version.

 

Wow, that's the first time I've heard of the 256MB version scoring that high; a couple of other benchmarks I saw put it around 3700.

Although, to be honest, you would think that the score difference between versions would be closer on a card which can't really take much advantage of 512MB anyway, even in a synthetic benchmark.

 

I got about the same score. The processor is definitely influencing the result.

 

Well my replacement for a Dell Inspiron 6400 is in the works.

Studio 15
900p Screen
256mb ATI HD4570
T6400 Processor
3gb Ram
9 cell battery
...


Should be fun when i get it! I tried to get the 1080p.... but they originally had me at the 720p... I'll be happy with the 900p. (coming from a WSXGA+)

Now to wait 10-15 days

 

The 900p (1600x900) lands in between the WXGA+ (1440x900) and WSXGA+ (1680x1050). I'm impressed with it (900p) so far. The 1535 that it replaces had a 15.4" WXGA+ (1440x900) LED-backlit display, so it was a small step-up.

I'm still not sold on the move to a 16:9 aspect ratio, 15.6" form factor. The width of the 1555 gives it a footprint more like a 17" desktop replacement than the 15.4" it replaces. The increase is overall width is only 0.6", but it seems greater. It did manage to lose a half-pound or so in weight, though...not all bad.

 

It depends on how you look at the 1555. I had it sitting next to an older 15.4in laptop, the smaller vertical height makes the 1555 seem alot smaller than it is.

 

Well once I get my Studio 15... (10-15 days..) I'll take some pictures comparing the two. It will be interesting.... I'll take some pictures using a fixed aperture so we can compare the brightness of the two screens too...(I don't think i've seen anyone do this...) I'm not really sold on the 16:9. I feel I may lose some portability...(to an extent) But I'm sure over time I'll figure out how to manage. Can't really complain on the replacement though.

 

The ambient temperature here is 20C but I am getting some really high temperatures on my 1555. The 90W charger also gets rather hot when charging.

I am thinking about calling Dell.

Idle:


Running Prime95 for 3 minutes on AC:

 

That 91 looks crazy... the other numbers don't seem.... tooo bad???? I've seen worse??? haha But can't really comment on that... I've never done any test like that on my computer.

I think most chargers tend to get pretty warm. I use mine during the winter to keep my toes warm

 

well said!! point taken

 

With the exception of that 91C reading, those temperatures are very normal and safe. I'm willing to bet that 91C is an error of some sort, considering none of the other temperatures have done that.

Does anyone know what those thermal sensors are linked to?

 

Ah OK, I will stop panicking now. I think I am just being paranoid. The 91C does seem like an error to me as well. The C2D chip will probably go into a thermal shutdown before that.

 

Guys,
I withdrawed for the second time...
The 720p monitor (SEC5441) is a crap!!

Blue sometimes is purple, the bottom is much brighter and an incredible wake effect (confirmed by the "cubes test" in Eizo Monitor Test) I could see watching a movie as well!! ...I don't want imagine playing games...

..........................

What about the 900p monitor (we can't buy right now in Europe)?
Could you please tell me your impressions and brand?


Thanks

 

There were posts earlier that it's a AUO screen, and it doesn't have those quality issues as the SEC.