Just bought a Dell.

For the past few weeks, I've been posting a lot in the HP & Compaq section of the forums about the HP Pavilion dv6500 series. I was extremely close in buying a model from that series. However, as a resident of Canada, I got frustrated with the lack of model options HP gives to Canadian residents. To make the long story short, I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 1520.

My general specs are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo T7100
2GB RAM
15.4 UltraSharp Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife
160GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
1505 Wireless-N Mini-card
355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)

If you have any questions about the rest of my specs, feel free to ask.

For now, let me ask a few questions.

Firstly, will my notebook be shipped with restore discs? I was looking for an option to pay more for them, as I remember seeing that option awhile back, but couldn't seem to find one today.

Secondly, how much bloatware will be included with my Dell Inspiron 1520? It comes with a 30-day trial of Norton Anti-Virus. It also comes with Microsoft Office Home And Student 2007 (which I do NOT consider to be bloatware). Is Norton Anti-Virus extremely difficult to uninstall completely? I am wondering if I'll be doing a clean install of Vista on my Dell. I know that if I had purchased an HP, I would've done a clean install the same day I received it.

Thirdly, what will my screen resolution be? Once again, I chose the 15.4 inch UltraSharp Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife.

I think I should be pretty pleased with my new notebook. What do you think?

 

go for higher res screen and go with 1gb ram (unless it's promotion), and go with T7300. If I were you, I would go with Wireless N, but that's just me.

 

Yes, it'll have restore disks...any software installed when you receive it - it'll be on the restore disk as well. Also there is a recovery partition on the system as well.

There isn't too much bloatware, and it isn't bad to uninstall it all...but if you do choose to install a fresh clean install with Vista you already have - read around about BSOD issues so you can install the AHCI drivers so you don't have any BSOD problems while installing.

 

I went for the higher screen.

I went for Wireless-N.

Is it the standard 10GB partition?

I'll be reading around the Dell section of the forums for more information on doing a clean install. One thing that worries me is not being able to retrieve all the drivers and getting stuck with non-working hardware...

 

Now just hope you get it before 2009

 

How long is it SUPPOSED to take to build the computer?

 

That's what I was talking about, just refer to my post here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2257867&postcount=23

 

I got my laptop last week here in Canada, so it should be the same for you. Your laptop will come with a OS install disk, this install disk is just a plain OEM install with no bloatware, I didn't even have to activate it, it just works, I didn't even have to use the AHCI drivers. Then just use the included dell drivers disk to install all your drivers.
Also, when installing video card drivers, i suggest that you use Dell's, because the ones off of laptopvideo2go caused a problem with my laptop not waking up after sleep.

 

Wait, what?! This OS install disc you're talking about... is it the Anytime Upgrade DVD? And what's this about a Dell Drivers disc? My notebook will actually come with a disc that has all the drivers?!

 

It's just a Vista recovery disc. And yes, Dell includes a drivers disc that contains all the drivers that are already loaded onto your computer when you get it.

 

Looking at the Disk, it is called a "Reinstallation DVD", that has a plain no-bloatware Vista Installation on it, just like if you bought a Vista DVD, except I didn't have to activate it.
Then you get a Drivers and Utilities disk, from which there is a utility to install all your chipset, sound and video drivers. There is a third disk you will need that is also called Drivers and Utilities disk but it says on it "For reinstalling Dell Webcam Manager" this is for getting your webcam to work.

the box also came with four other cds: Roxio, MS Works, Antivirus, and MediaDirect (use that disk if you want media direct, i didn't)

Hopefully that isn't too confusing

 

It's not an Anytime Upgrade disk though, only has the edition you ordered...

 

My disk only has Vista Home Premium on it

 

Dudes!!!!!!!! This is amazing! So basically, I install whatever stuff I WANT to install! If I don't want Norton, I don't pop the Norton CD in, correct?

When I first get my notebook, will everything already be installed? If so, I'm FOR SURE doing a clean install and I will use the CD's that I WANT to use. And I won't have to burn at least 5 DVD's to back-up my system because it comes with the restore discs! And loading drivers will be a flash because it comes on CD?!

Wow, Dell makes it really easy. You guys should check out the HP & Compaq section of this forum; they have this huge thread that is over 20 pages long about how to do a clean install with Vista and loading drivers. Which are scattered all around the notebook as if HP doesn't want you to find them.

 

yeah we love dell

 

Yes, just like any other brand.

HP isn't as bad as you make it sound.

Having the OS and drivers already on a disk is handy but not necessary and HP is trying to reduce wasted discs by not including them unless you want them (so they say).

If you read the posts you'll see that ALL of the drivers are in one place - the "C:\Swsetup\" folder. That 20 pages thread are people commenting on the clean install instructions. The detailed instructions are all in one post.

Also you don't need to burn 5 discs - I don't know where you came up with that. You can backup the drivers and make the 2 recovery discs for a total of 3 discs if you want. If you're brave, you don't need to make any discs at all since most of the hardware drivers are supported by Windows Update and you'll usually get newer drivers than those included with the laptop.

I originally made all 3 discs to backup the system and so I can restore the laptop to factory condition when I sell it later on, but I don't use them when I do a clean install. I simply do a clean Vista install and then run Windows Update to get the drivers. If something is missing (Quickplay buttons is the only thing on my laptop), you simply download the latest driver or use the included driver from backup.

The recovery partition contains a complete factory reinstall if necessary, and you can use an Anytime Upgrade disc to do a clean install without activation.

You can selectively install the various included programs as well by simply running the setup program from each sub-folder that you choose.

Several of my friends own Dells and I almost bought a Dell because the specs and configuration options were nice. I also checked out several brands including Toshiba, Acer, Lenovo, etc., and finally bought from HP for reasons I won't go into here.

And before anyone complains about me posting here, ATR90 double posted in both forums so it's only appropriate I read and reply here.