Inspiron M501r (AMD)

Just acquired.

Swapped in a Phenom II x920 Black Edition quad-core, 8GB RAM, and a 500GB 7200rpm HDD.

Machine runs nice, albeit a little hotter than normal, but to be expected with the x920.

Considering the outlet price, and 15% off coupon, when all is said and done, I have about $600 invested in the machine, which I think is a pretty nice return!

One confusing aspect: The Dell Outlet listed it as having a Radeon HD5650, but hardware is reported as an HD4650.

Big difference, as the 5650 is DX11 capable, and the 4650 is only DX10.1 capable.

Anyone else see this? My screen-prints during the ordering process confirm that it was originally specified as having HD5650.

 

Update: Because of the mixup in video cards, Dell gave a $50 credit.

So in total:

$459 - 15% = $390
Minus $50 = $340.
$91 for 8GB Corsair PC-10600 1333 RAM
$60 Seagate 500GB 7.2K HDD
$99 Phenom II x920
$8 Artic Silver AS5

$598 total.

Not bad at all!

 

Wow that's a bad little machine you have now. It must chug through everything with no problems. I would have preferred the 5650 to the $50 but hey for $600 you can't find anything that will touch that rig. Great job.

 

For me, video is not an issue.
I'm using the laptop as a VM platform, with Ubuntu 10.04.1 on the hardware, and everything else in VM's under VirtualBox.

Actually, the lower the video, the better, as it will draw less power

But yeah - I think it was a good deal.

Now, if there was a hack for the BIOS to overclock the unlocked x920...

 

I ordered one today based on it's having a 5650, do you think it's a misprint on the outlet site or is it possible some will actually have a 5650 ?

 

You will have absolutely zero chance of receiving an AMD-based Inspiron 15, with Radeon HD5650 video.

Doesn't exist.

You'll either get the low-end 4250, or the 550v, which ends up being the HD4650 w/1GB DDR3 RAM. If you ordered a unit with supposedly a 5650, I think you'll receive a 4650.

I mean, it's OK and all, but, an HD5650 it isn't.

 

I can confirm, mine came with a 550v. I'll call about getting a credit for the mistake.

But the 550v is a pretty good gaming card, plays Crysis with medium details at 1366x768. But it's no 5650.

Mine has a Athlon II P320, is it a simple deal to swap cpus ? btw, this setup costs me $343 plus tax, not including an extra credit. It runs very well.

 

AMD's current generation socket is S1G4. You could swap in a Phenom II Mobile quad core but it's pointless as they are locked @ 2.0 GHz with no turbo boost, the Phenom II quad cores are just a marketing ploy and suffer greatly in single threaded applications.

Your best bet is to pony up to a Phenom II dual core, one of them is clocked up to 2.8 GHz.

 

There's a cat on eBay selling the Phenom II x920's, quad-core @ 2.3gHz, for $99.
It IS a simple swap-in....Once you tear the lappie apart

My setup whips the sh!t out of my work EliteBook 8440p with a i5-560M, and THAT laptop cost like $1174! $1174 bought i5-560m / 320GB/2GB (running 8GB now)

AS mentioned by T_H, though, if you need more clock, and can give up the cores, you're better off with a Phenom II Dual-core, N6xx series.
I prefer the cores, and giving up a little clock, because I run 3 VMs under Linux.

Although, I don't know where you got the info about being locked at 2.0gHz - maybe a 2.0 gHz processor, but mine is a 2.3, and runs up to 2.3,

 

Do you find that the keyboard on the M501R rattles as you type? Is there a good deal of flex under pressure? I had a look at this model in the store, and these were issues that I noticed.

 

I have several 15r including 2 m501r, the keyboards don't rattle at all, or flex. Maybe the one you saw had been taken apart and not reinstalled correctly.

 

Or it had ham-fisted kids banging on the keyboard.

Mine's been Miami-to-LAX twice, and it's on it's third out-of-country trip since receiving it around mind-January, and I have zero complaints.

I've even banged the #&%@ out of it in the laptop backpack I carry it in, and it has yet to complain, as do I.