Just recieved my Inspiron 1520, ZERO ISSUES!!!

I just got my Inspiron 1520. So far, no issues! I actually got it a day early. DHL is fast. It wasn't even in my state this morning.

Screen looks fine. No graininess, no oiliness. I can't imagine why I'd ever want anything higher res, and I have a 1680x1050 desktop. If this were higher res, I'd be squinting.

I haven't tried the included headphones, but my headset has no chirping or ringing.

At first I was scared, because I popped out the Express Card filler thing, and I couldn't figure out how to lock it back in. Turns out I'm just a spaz.

I uninstalled all the trialware, and I feel very clean with what is installed.

UT2004 is the only game I've tried so far. It runs perfectly on max settings. That's with MSAAx4 in NVIDIA driver settings as well.

I'm loving it. Everything has been a great pleasure.

Edit: I guess I do have chirping, but it's so quiet, I don't care.

 

Does DHL do the 3-5 day ground method?

 

you just made my day, I love UT04 and I just haven't installed it yet. What kind of frame rates were you getting? If you don't know how to do that, bring up the console by hitting the ~ key and then type in statfps. That will show you your frame rate both avg and instant.

 

^^ congrats!!

 

Yeah, DHL did the 3-5 day, and I got it in 2!

I'll run UT2004 FPS as soon as I'm done installing Supreme Commander.

I've never had a webcam, but this one is fine.

The built-in mic is way better than I expected. It sounds the same as my headset.

The keyboard is great. Just the right amount of 'click' for me, and I liek how Ctrl is placed left of Fn, unlike other notebooks I've used.

Touch pad works just as you'd expect. It feels extremely natural, and even has scrolling functionality on the right and bottom.

The whole thing is bigger than I expected. I LIKE IT IT. I always pictured 17'' ones this big, so those must be huge.

Edit: UT2004 averages 80fps. I should turn VSync on!

 

I just got mine today too. I am installing UT04 right now, and the packs are downloading

 

Please tell what kind of performance you get in Supreme Commander as well, I'd like to know =)

 

i got mine today too!... also a day early! no graininess/whatever screen problems... no headphone noise that i can hear... its great!..

 

haven't really played with the headphones, guess i should...lol

 

my friend's 1520 has no problems as well. I think the latest batch of inspirons are of better quality.

 

You got lucky on DHL shipping (worst shipping service around, even usps is better). You got lucky on everything.

 

I just got mine today as well...and I have a very grainy screen. I am most likely going to return it and possibly get a Sony Vaio FZ in the future.

Good luck with your 1520s.

 

What kind of screen did you have?

 

I feel so lucky. I can't give any numbers, but Supreme Commander, with whatever it had at default, + 1280x800 + 4xAA, runs around 30fps it looks like to me. Regardless, it's totally playable and enjoyable.

 

well i just played ut04 with everything maxed and max filtering, for some reason it won't let me adjust the AA settings (wierd?) Anyways was constantly pulling 70+ fps with running at 1280*800

 

Either you got obscenely lucky or the new Inspirons are much better than the first batch.

 

1440 x 900 Glossy screen - The graininess was very very noticeable by my eyes. Ordered 6/15 and received today 6/24. Overall it's a pretty nice looking laptop (midnight blue), albeit a bit heavy. Hopefully I can get a laptop that will suit my needs.

He had to have gotten lucky!

 

It seems that ALL 1440x900 screens are getting the graininess. Now I'm starting to wish I went with the wsxga+ or a matte.

 

Does this only affect the 15.4" 1440x900 screens, or all 1440x900 screens?

 

1520 or 1420?

 

I have a 1520...I believe it is only 1520s; Don't quote me on that.

 

Got mine today. I don't know why Andrew said it diesn't get hot at all because mine does get quite warm (when I don't do anything, music and web only)

everything is great but the is noise when I use the headphones (any headphones).

 

The headphone wine is really only when the computer is idle. If the CPU goes about like 10%, it goes to nearly nothing. The computer itself is pretty noisy, but much quieter than my desktop I'm used to. It does get pretty warm in one spot, the back left, but if I lift it for a second, it goes to cool immediately.

Halo 2 runs fine. I set it to medium, which looks no worse than High, and I'm really saddened it doesn't support 1280x800, I play at 1280x720.

For UT2004 AA, the default graphics drivers werent saving settings for some reason. I upgraded to 163.11 I found on laptopgraphics2go.com, and now it works fine. For some reason, VSync does nothing for UT2004, but works plenty in other games.

The 5400rpm harddrive is far slower than my RAID0 dual 7200rpms, but only for installations. How often do you seriously install things though? That's the my biggest inconvience with this notebook though. The rest is fantastic!

 

apparently my friend had decent performance from his 8600gt but then once he installed new drivers the performance was even better.

 

Yeah, I'm also very pleased with my 1520.

So far, the only games I have tried are Halo 1 and Rainbow Six: Vegas. Halo obviously runs on max, and Rainbow Six: Vegas runs perfect on medium...I didn't play that much yet.

I plan to try many other games. I will post a thread for screenshots with the 8600m GT.

 

What drivers are you guys using for the 8600m gt? i've heard about nvidia's new drivers specifically for the mobile versions of their cards, but I haven't tried it out yet.

 

I haven't gotten around to downloading updates for Vista or my 8600M GT.

Can someone link me to the drivers? I will search for them now if I can.

 

hey jbizzler, you think you can please take a picture of your desktop with a digital camera.

I just want to see how the 1680x1050 resolution looks, as I'm still undecided on which resolution to get.

Thanks in advance

 

Its nice to have someone confirm an arrival with no problems (i'm ignoring the headphone noise) jbizzler.

I ordered a 1520 with the same specs as you except w/ a 7200 RPM HD.
Thanks for your post!

 

here you go http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/1170/desktopdavron1ut4.jpg

1680x1050

 

I got the 1280x800. Still want a picture?

I'm using Forceware 163.11 modded for mobile cards. I can't decide if I should overclock or not. I bet it'd void the warranty my parents paid a bunch for.
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13871

 

Oh sorry, I mis-read your original post, I thought you said your resolution was the 1680x1050

ok, thanks anyways.

 

look at the previous post/page if u wanna see 1600...

 

Okay, turns out, the OS reinstallation process DOES NOT install all the software you don't want. It's identical to my OEM installation on my other computer, except doesn't require activation, says Dell in the system settings, and has less things in the Windows Quickstart.

I got all the drivers I need, but how can I get my Fn key combos to show on-screen stuff like battery and disabling WiFi? Before I reformated, turning off wireless on the left side of the machine would have an on-screen notification.

Edit: It's QuickSet

 

I'm so excited. My biggest issue with Dell was always worrying about pre-installed software. I want everyone out there to know you can reformat, and the restoration stuff won't automatically reinstall everything. And another upside, I know Vista has a limited number of activations, but when I install with the DVD I was provided, it's already activated, no Internet connection.

I have Vista's default installation, drivers, Dell Webcam Center, Dell QuickSet, and Dell MediaDirect. Nothing else. It's so nice and clean and functional.

 

Wait... How did you make it all work? Did you restore from the harddrive partition? If not, then how did you make mediadirect work- I heard that it doesnt work on reinstallation of the system!
Im a n00b in this, so can you please make like a "mini guide to reinstalling everything in 1520"? It would be greatly appreciated