Just bought a Dell Inspiron 15R SE...need to know if I should have buyers remorse or not???

Hi All,

I have posted a couple times in the "What notebook should I get" as I have debated whether my Dell purchase was good or not. I kind of jumped the gun because I thought I was getting an extra good deal through the EEP program. Found out later I "could" have gone through our corporate dell account at work (slaps head). Anyways, I ended up getting the $699 (listed price) version for $660 after tax and free shipping. I felt happy about that purchase given the specs on the machine (or what I thought were good specs).

I don't have enough knowledge about the type of screen it has. I am not a fan of "how glossy" it is. Not sure if that can be changed out or not after the fact.

I can deal with the weight, though 6lbs is hefty and I use a Macbook Pro Retina at work lol. The battery life, from what I have seen thus far, sucks. It is running Windows 8 which might be part of the problem..not sure. But I ran a full charge, threw it into Balanced Power mode, and ran a DVD..and had about 20% left when it was finished. I was surprised by that..but the system also contains a bunch of bloatware I am sure.

I purchased a 256gb mSata SSD thinking mine had the correct daughter board to support it. It doesn't..but I have a couple caddys on their way so I can put the 750gb as storage in the optical drive location, and the mSata SSD will end up being in place of the current HDD (with an mSata - Sata caddy). Maybe running the OS and apps off the SSD will help battery life?

I am within the 30 day return policy, but this was the first computer (especially laptop) I have purchased since 2003. I currently run a Desktop Dell Dimension XPS (1st gen) from 2003. The 15R SE will be used 90% at home, likely plugged in to replace my desktop, but I will certainly take it for those times I need to go portable.

I would love other people's opinions who own the 15R SE and whether you like it, or things you have done to it or for it that have made it ultimately a better purchase for you.

Thanks!

 

All, I can say is a 15r is a good laptop at a good entry price. My 17R cost me $1044 so for me I would pay the extra and get a 17R....... but that's just me. You say yours is 6LBS? My 17R is only 3.3KG x 2.2046 = 7.27 LBS, not much of a diff. I love my 17R but I love my M18 even more, just not as portable. (You get what you pay for)

 

yea. I can't install my SSD yet, hopefully tomorrow but I am wiping windows 8 and installing Windows 7 ultimate right now onto the 5400 RPM hdd, just for testing reasons. I am curious if the computer will handle power better on an SSD versus the old school HDD's.

 

If I can get the power under control (maybe even buy a 9cell battery if they have one), running this machine off the SSD for the OS and apps, and even upgrading the ram to 16GB if I want (yes the 15r SE can support that, others have tried the Corsair brand and said it works)..I could have one heck of a machine.

I don't know, however, if I have the ability to switch out the lid to a Matte type screen, as this one is hella glossy.

 

But your ssd is msata correct? Do you have a masta port on the 15r? I don't know if its the same as the 17R but our msata port is only sata II not III. That would affect the speeds you will see. But if you put it in the hdd slot like you said earlier I doubt that will be an issue. With the 17R there are 2 drive slots so I will be pulling my 32gb msata from caching and installing the samsung 840 pro 256gb for my main ssd and then using the spinner for data. I really don't want to to do this though till I'm ready to do an entire teardown of this thing. I want to put ICD24 thermal paste on it and swap out my wireless card with the 3 antenna design all at once.

 

Oh ya, forgot to mention, just stay away from ocz ssd's if you want efficient power. As an example a ocz agility 4 uses:

Idle: 1.3 W
Active: 2.5 W


and the samsung 840 pro is:

Idle 0.15W to 0.32W
Active: 0.73W max


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/840-pro-ssd-toggle-mode-2,3302-6.html


BIG DIFFERENCE.

 

The 15R SE I believe is Sata 3. I know if you buy the one with the mSata port, it was Sata 3, but in general I believe for the HDD, etc.. its all sata 3 anyways.