It arrived!

My Vostro 1500 arrived today!

Apart from the webcam drivers DVD being cracked everything seems to be perfect

I got an n series system so no OS but have put Vista Ultimate on myself and all is working great. The Ricoh driver caught me out with the three ever so helpfully named "Base System Device" items just sitting there in device manager but that is all sorted now thanks to a post on this forum.

So my specs, I got -

Vostro 1500, 2.5Ghz C2D (T9300), 1440x900 TrueLife screen, 4GB RAM, 8600M GT, 200GB 7200RPM HDD, Dell Wireless N, Bluetooth.

The screen seems great so far. I don't *think* it is grainy however sometimes I catch it at an odd angle and it looks a bit suspect. Does anyone have a picture of a grainy screen compared to a non-grainy screen?

Screen hinge is great, no wobble at all (something I was worried about as the I1525 has a bit of wobble in the ones I have used).

Keyboard is superb. Excellent quality, solid with zero give. Really really impressed with this.

HDD isn't as fast as I would have thought but not slow either, glad I went for the 7200. I just checked the driver model number to ensure it was a 7200 drive and it is so I didn't get ripped off there

The system runs warm but not hot. No way near as hot as other C2D laptops I have used. The Penryn chips seem to run much cooler than those before it which is great.

I am unsure if I will keep Vista on here. I am not a huge fan of the OS after using it for development at work since its release. One of the reasons I bought the Vostro was that it had XP support.

Oh yeah almost forgot, I was wondering if anybody had the Vista x64 drivers? The Dell website only lists x32 which is rather annoying as I wanted to run Vista x64 not 32.

Any questions just ask. I may do a review for the site however there are already two good reviews and I don't know if it would be worth the time.

Cheers,

Morgan

 

Grats on the new system!

Where did you find the Vostro without OS? I can't find it anywhere on dell.com.

 

With the screen, IMO, if it doesn't jump out at you, don't go looking for problems, nothing good will come out of it.

Take a quick search, I believe that people have found drivers for Vista x64.

Nice looking config by the way.

Greg

 

Congarts hope you like it!

 

I rang up and said I didn't want the OS. I have an MSDN subscription so I am covered license wise for pretty much everything from Microsoft anyway so I didn't want to pay £60 for something I already have.

Annoyingly I asked for them to not put the n series sticker on the laptop but they did

 

Congratulations! And enjoy your new lil' toy!!

 

Congrats! I just set my new desktop today as well!

Good luck, dell vostro 1500 are beasts.

 

You are spot on, I have decided not to look for problems as I will just see something wrong even if my screen is perfect. The screen is fine, viewing angles and colour reproduction is great and the black levels are *very* good. I think that may be down to the TrueLife screen. I was a little unsure of getting TrueLife but bit the bullet and so far I really like it. It makes everything look more vivid IMHO.

I was very happy with the spec. I got 3 year warreny as well and total price was only £700 in the end. i was tempted at the MacBook Pro however this is pretty much an identical spec (except the graphics memory is half the amount but I couldn't care less about that hehe) but the price is less than half what the MBP is! I know this is much bigger, etc. however it is to be a desktop replacement so it will be sitting on a desk 95% of the time anyway, I didn't need something super mobile.

I have been looking around for Vista x64 drivers but can't seem to find them all. Now I know what specific hardware is in here though I will try and look a bit harder.

 

That is a very nice spec desktop if it is the one in your sig

edit: I couldn't agree more with you about the Vostro 1500 being a beast. It is *the* perfect laptop for me. It is a monster performance wise. Runs Visual Studio 2008 like a dream. If anyone is looking for a decent developer notebook this is most certainly what you are after, the performance is superb but the keyboard is just amazing. I have been using it for a few hours today and I just love how it feels under my fingers, so comfortable to code on.

 

>>>>>> Grats

 

It would be great to see a review with the faster processor and the GT card to see how it compares to the ones that have been already reviewed.

I really am VERY happy with mine. It has operated flawlessly and the build is very satisfying.

 

Well it is my second day with the Vostro 1500 and I am sad to say I am unsure if i want to keep it.

There are three things with the system that I am not happy with

1. The screen does seem grainy/fuzzy. It is no where near as crisp as other laptops that I compared it with today. I decided to bite the bullet and check the screen details in Device manager. I have an AUO2077 and from what I have read here it most certainly is grain and not just my eyes

2. The hard drive performance is MUCH lower than I expected for a 7200RPM system. Copying over a 3.3GB file from my desktop to the laptop took 30 minutes

3. The high pitch noise when using headphones is annoying. I believe it is down to the location of the headphone socket being near the hard drive (although not 100% as I am not an expert).

I am pretty disappointed in all honesty. Processor wise the system is great however the drive really lets it down speed wise. Some things I love but I don't know if I have the patience to get a new screen out of Dell and I will never get a faster HDD or resolve the sound problem.

This is the third laptop I have bought from them in the past 5 years and all three have been wrong or faulty. This was my last chance for Dell and I feel as if they have failed now. At first I loved the system but the problems above are pretty much a deal breaker for me