Got my 1530 2 days ago

Well I got my XPS 1530 2 days ago, and all I have to say is wow. I put Ubuntu on it over windows and I am loving it, although it was a little hard to set up it is much faster and I love how thousands of programs are available to download with a few clicks of a button, and everything just seems to work the way it should, I definately won't be going back to windows.

I got the 1440x900 screen, and it just looks amazing. It is so crisp and clear with such great detail, I can't believe I almost didn't upgrade from the 1280x800, it is just simply amazing. I have a nice tropical beach sunset as my background and the detail is just amazing, I can see the different shades of color in the sand and every small detail of the clouds...I would definitely recommend getting a nature background as they just look terrific.

This thing is very quiet. Every once in a while after running it for a few hours straight the fan will go on, but it is not loud at all and when the fan isn't on, you can't hear a thing, even in the middle of the night when I was going to bed and my house was completely silent I couldn't hear it running. Although when you put a disc in you can hear the noise, but it is not louder than any other computer out there.

Physically this is just great too. I got the crimson red and wasn't really sure what the micro-satin finish was, but I love it. It is definatly the sleekest looking that I have seen, I even like it better then my friends Black Macbook, although they are close. It is thin for a 15" and significantly lighter and thinner than my brothers Latitude D610 which is a 14". I also love the slot-loading DVD drive, and the touch screen eject, volume, and media controls are so cool, they light up with a light blue rounded square around them when you touch them, which looks great.

Battery life on a 6 cell is also great, I can easily get 2 and a half house of time with the screen dimmed only 10%, which is not bad at all. It's no Macbook, but I will have it plugged in most of the time so 2 and a half hours is plenty for me.

I also have the 8400M GS graphics card, which is more than enough for me. Counter Strike Source runs great on the highest settings in 1440x900. All of the nice 3D and special effects of Ubuntu looks amazing too, especially the 3D cube screen switcher and the 3D window switcher are great.

All around this is just an amazing computer. I got a great deal on a great computer, and couldn't be happier. Also I replaced my 1GB of ram with 4GB that I got for $62 and it took under 5 minutes. Don't listen to everyones complaints on this forum, they are only a small percent of the buyers. Sure there is a chance you will get a defective one, but once you get it fixed you will absolutely LOVE it.

 

You made me want a M1530.. LOL You make them sounds so nice..

Congrats bro sounds like you got a solid system

And yes Ubuntu and great. I got a few live CD's for it.

 

Yeah man they are really nice, and Ubuntu is great too

 

I was considering putting Ubuntu on mine once I get it. My only concern is getting everything to work properly driver wise.. how'd that go for you? And what drivers did you use?

 

It wasn't hard at all, just took a little googling. But if you can search on google, you can do it. You don't need to download anything from any website, you only use the Terminal and Synaptic Package Manager and the Add/Remove Programs Application. I will admit it is not for a beginner but chances are if you are on this forum you can do it. I absolutely love it, since it was created by a bunch of computer nerds you can customize every single thing about it which is great, but since it has evolved so much nothing needs to be changed and it pretty much works out of the box. It automatically detected my wireless network, bluetooth only took one line in the Terminal, but I will admit I am having trouble getting my printer to work wirelessly, although if I plug it into the USB it detects it right away without installing anything like I would of had to on my old desktop with XP. But I absolutely love Ubuntu, it looks even better than Vista and in my opinion OS X. I will NEVER go back to windows because of security issues and the general company pisses me off, and I will probably never get a mac because they are still and always will be overpriced. A MBP with the same exact specs as my 1530 would of cost about $700 more, and I think the 1530 looks better. I researched for the past couple months every day information on what laptop and OS to get, and I finally decided on the XPS 1530 with Ubuntu, and I am loving it! Cheap yet amazing quality!

 

what is Ubuntu?

 

Ubuntu is a Linux based operating system, the most popular one. It is as secure as OS X if not more secure, and is open source so it is completely free (instead of paying $200+ for Vista), and all of the programs for it are free also. Visit it's home site at www.ubuntu.com. I would check it out, many people are using it instead of Vista. Here are some reviews:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,120520-page,1/article.html

http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/10/ubuntu_gutsy

 

So do you like the laptop, I cannot tell?

 

i struggle to make 2hrs with my 6cell (balanced power setting), do you get cpu whine? I noticed it after a few days

 

Congrats on the laptop! If I hadn't gotten the 1520 when I did, I would have definitely gotten a 1530. However, I am completely satisfied with what I have.

 

But popular games are not available on linux... right? Windows only.

I might consider dual boot... or VMWare? But which way... Vista with VM running Ubuntu, or Ubuntu with VM running Vista?
Anyone out there doing this?

 

Does VM even work in Vista? I've been thinking every which way as to what OS I should do on mine. I don't particularly care for Vista but who likes change anyways? Use my old dieing laptop for Ubuntu? Completely reformat the M1530, install XP? Keep Vista, dual boot with XP? Straight XP with Vista VM?

 

I'd say dual boot with XP and Ubuntu if you don't mind having to reboot every time if you want to use the other OS. Otherwise, use VM over the OS you use the most.

 

Regarding your printer wireless setup. If you are using any antivirus . this will be one reason it's not working. check the antivirus setup and firewall "sometimes file and prin sharing come as OFF by defualt".
if not then I don't know...

 

I am using Ubuntu, so I don't have a firewall or anti virus. And no popular games aren't available for linux but you can run windows programs in Wine, which is a windows emulator. I use it to play games on Steam and it works great!

 

I have had mine M1530 for 4 days now and I as well simply love it. The look, the feel and the performance is awesome.

I am running Vista and It runs very smoothly, especially after tweaking it.