"Official" Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 Owner's Thread

Ok, so I did this for the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge I bought last, and it was a pretty popular thread. So here it is for the Dell Inspiron 15R 5520.

I got this laptop from a guy off of Craigslist. I paid him 400 bucks. The laptop was only 4 months old and he had never activated the warranty, I put the warranty in my name and have 9 months warranty left.

I got the Intel Core I5 3210M, with Intel HD4000. 8GB ram at 1600mhz. Everything else is regular. Except, I have a Momentus XT 750GB HDD with 8GB ssd, hybrid hard drive.

So this laptop is pretty good, I am really impressed with the 3rd Gen Core I5 over the 2nd Gen I had last year. These new chips seem really cool. My laptop sits at ~50C all day with no fan. The fan is at 0RPM most of the time and kicks in at 2500RPM for a few seconds to cool it down. It is a very quiet laptop, I usually cannot hear it. Generally for the first half hour the laptop sit around 45C until it heats up to 50C and stays there. This is with the laptop using the Balanced setting, full screen brightness and web browsing.

The screen is low res 1366X768, but I am happy with the screen brightness, I have read that it is 300 nits. It is really a much better screen then the Lenovo I had. The viewing angles and colors are all as to be expected for this type of laptop, it has an AUO screen. I really think that the screen is much brighter and more colorful and has better angles than my Lenovo.

The laptop is heavy and huge, the screen bezel and the screen case is huge, it is stupid huge, but it was made that way so that we could Switch the lids. I do not like how big and heavy the lid is, but some people may like the ability to change the lid. The screen case is at least 50% as thick as the base, and this is a thick laptop. My Thinkpad was thick, but you see that the thickness was so that it would stay cool, that being said, I have read the tear down manual and this laptop is like a tank. So the heaviness and thickness gives you a solid feeling laptop and little keyboard flex.

Speaking of keyboard flex, there is little, this keyboard has shallow travel and the keys are very lite to press. I do not like it very much but it is not bad. The best keyboard I have used on a laptop was on my Thinkpad edge, but this keyboard has its own flow that works ok.

The track pad is large and works well.

The wireless works better than on my old Thinkapd and my GF's 13 inch Macbook Pro.

It has 4 usb 3.0 ports, that is pretty good, but not very necessary for myself.

I wish it did not have a VGA port and they had made the laptop smaller, but all well.

The fan vents are kind of small compared to my Thinkpad, but since it stays cool enough it must be fine.

The battery sucks, like most cheap laptops, it is only 6 cell and fits in a way so that it is unlikely that a 9 cell battery will be available. It is 48 Watt hours. I do not use it unplugged much, I have it set to go into super power saving mode when it is unplugged and I think it would last 3 and half hours. But again I work full time and am usually by an outlet so battery life is nice, but as long as it lasts over 2 hours I am fine. I wish I could get amazing battery life, but that is still a few years away.

The DVD drive button is very hard to press but I hardly use it.

The power button seems weird to me like the DVD button, if you push it near the top it does not seem to work, you have to push it near the keyboard side. It is a big button though.

I do not like how it is hard to see if the laptop is in sleep mode when the screen is closed, it has an indicator light, but it is not very bright or noticeable.

That does not really matter though, the Momentus XT works great, I just shut the laptop down and turn it on mostly, it shuts down in 20 seconds, and loads up in 20 seconds. Maybe faster but it is so fast I have not actually timed it. I had the first gen Momentus XT and thought I was not very happy with it, it was only slightly faster, this new XT though, is amazing.

Anyway that is it for now, if anyone has any questions start posting.

 

The last thread was so long, but I forgot some things. The screen is so heavy, you have to really hold down the laptop base, to open the screen, and you have to keep holding it until you have the screen fully opened. Usually I have to hold the base only for a second and I can let go and let the screen go up with one hand not a big deal but I worry about the hinges getting weak with so much weight on them.

After buying this laptop, I will never buy a laptop without some warranty. When I got this laptop it was full of junk, illegal OS, illegal programs, all kids of junk and spyware. Thanks to the warranty I called Dell and had them ship me Recovery DVD's. It only took one day. I used DBAN to wipe the HDD and reset the OS. Then I ran the WEI score and the laptop kept crashing and I was getting 1 or 2 for Graphics and Gaming scores. So I tried to play some games, Half Life 2 would just crash immediately. I called Dell they said the mobo was bad, they sent a box, it came the next day, really impressed with the fast shipping. It was gone about a week, came back, they had not wiped the HDD, they changed the mobo and CPU. Ran WEI score again, everything is right. 6.5 on Graphics and Gaming. 7.1 CPU, 7.5 Ram, and 5.9 HDD. It plays all my game fine, XCOM, Half Life 2, Civ 5.

About games, this laptop is cool and quiet but it gets a little hotter playing games. It sits around 86C when gaming, and the fan is spinning at 4200RPM. It got up 89C but never higher than that and that was only for a short time.

I use Speedfan to monitor my temps and fan speed, it is free and it works.

I had one big problem last night. I was using the laptop playing XCOM, it worked fine for a few hours, then I stopped exited the game and put the laptop to sleep. I came back 30 minutes later and started to play again, but almost immedialty I noticed that the fan was not spinning and the laptop was getting hot. I exited the game and saw that the temps had shot up tp 105C but it could not have been for more than a minute. It let it sit a few minutes and it got down to 80C, but the fan would not work. I shut the laptop down, turned it back on, and the fan came back on. The fan is working to day, just be careful, I always get a program to monitor my temps and now that I have found Speedfan will always watch my fan. I was using CPUID before and that did not monitor fans, at least not on my laptops.

Hopefully the fan is fine, so with a mobo failure, CPU failure and possible fan failure, I will only buy laptops with a warranty, thank fully I have a full time job and can afford to do so. But used laptops can be a great value, if they still have a warranty.

 

Here is some youtube vids that show a complete dismantle of this laptop, they look like training videos for tech support.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE80EB0E7757C59E7

 

Thomas,

Thanks for the videos. I had a pink-lidded Core i3-2370 that just went back to Dell as a return, but I have Core i5-3210 coming in as a replacement. This one has a more manly - grey lid. Smile...I didn't care what color the lid was when I got the original unit for $320.

Should be here in a few days and I'll officially join the thread...

I will mention, the 5520's are currently 25% off at the Dell Outlet. The Core i5 ran me about $350, so if you're in the market for a 5520, and don't mind a refurb...it's definitely a good time to be buying one.

Best,

LC

 

Checked out a few of the videos on Youtube...some of them are less than 10 seconds long...but to the point. Wouldn't mind having one of those tools he's using in the videos...it looks like it may be plastic. The way he's prying up the keyboard would make me nervous. I was cringing in my chair just watching.



LC

 

Dell replaced the mobo and cpu but forgot to put the dvd drive screw back in and connect the status indicator lights. So i had to remove the top plate, not too easy, not too hard. I plug in the ribbon cable and used a chasis screw to screw in the dvd drive.

 

How do you guys like this machine? I picked one up for my girlfriend, she needed a laptop and keeps commandeering my new M17x... Any of you tried W8 with it yet?

I bought her the i5-3210, will be putting the original 8gb from this machine into it and depending on how it performs, possibly an SSD.

I don't suppose there is a backlit keyboard available for this machine?

 

Hello, this thread comes at perfect time for me, I'm planning to buy this laptop within 2-4 weeks (It will be my first laptop),I'm waiting for some Black Friday or Holiday season coupons and save as much $$$ as I can, I'll probably buy the I5-3210m with 6GB RAM version, the only thing I don't like is the 5400rpm HDD but I'll probably change it for a 7200rpm or a Ssd if I find great prices.

I'm also planning to buy a Cooler master notepal U2 for better cooling, I'm not worried about temperature according these reviews and others I've seen on internet, but I think it's better be prepared and extend the laptop life as much as is posible. You know, take care of the laptop.

About gaming performance, I'd like to play some games in this laptop, mainly some old ones such as GTA san andreas, NFS Most Wanted (2005), Carbon, undercover and pro street; Age of empires III, and maybe try play some Assassin's Creed games, or even GTA IV, but it's not something I want to charge the laptop with some hardcore-heavy gaming. How good is hd4000 chip for gaiming in this laptop? may I be able to play those games in high settings?

Also how about some basic photoshop or video encoding? My current desktop (AMD Athlon 64x2 4400, 2GB ram (DDR2@330MHz) and ATI X1200 series) can't run Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS5 at the same time because it crashes. And convert videos for my ipod takes a lot of time, I guess this laptop can run this situations without problems, right?

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000-Benchmarked.73567.0.html Here's some benchmarks of the 4000, it's actually quite good for an iGPU, able to run Skyrim at over 30 fps.

The i5-3210 is about 4x as fast as your desktop CPU in passmark scores. Your desktop is probably unable to run those programs concurrently because of the small amount of ram. This laptop will have no problems running those.

 

I just saw a 14 inch Sony Vaio E series, with a 1600x900 screen. I have to say I am conflicted. I like the big screen of the 15.6 inch, but the laptop is big. 14 inch seems a little too small, but the higher res made me think I cold live with it to have a more portable laptop. But IDK, 14 to small, 15.6 too big. I wish more companies made 14.5 screen like the HP Envy had. It was a good size, too bad I never picked one up when I had the chance.

 

Picked up a Momentus XT 750gb for this machine. That stock 5400 Momentus Slim is absolutely terrible. It does this machine no justice.

I'll let you all know how it works out. I would have gone with an SSD/HDD but she needs the DVD burner.

 

Looked at the Sony E series again, it is really nice, but I like 15.6 screens better, I need bigger screen.

Now that this Dell has broken in, i guess, temps at first went up to the high 80's, up to 89C once. But now it does not go really go above 85C, i don't know of the paste has settled since they replaced the mobo and CPU, but the computer seems to run cooler now.

 

Put the Momentus XT 750 in, made a big difference on the first boot. From everything I have read, it takes a bit to learn what you use the most and put it in the flash memory. I would definitely recommend it to those of you that are looking to speed it up and need the larger space that an SSD doesn't offer.

 

Personally I'm just keeping an eye out for a 256GB SSD, perhaps a Samsung 830 since the new 840 should be driving prices down on the predecessor. I have to say the clicking noise that you sometimes notice from the HDD spinning up can get on my nerves.. The original 500GB HDD can go to the gf to replace her 320

 

ok, so I pulled the trigger and I just ordered this laptop, with I7-3632qm, 8GB Ram, 1TB HDD, and 3 year warraty for $1072 + taxes. The bad thing is that it arrives to my country not before 11/30, so I'll have to wait some weeks until I can test it and write my personal impressions from this machine here.

As I wrote in a previous post I'm probably buy the Cooler Master Notepal U2 (or even build one by myself, there's some old pc fans in my home holding dust I could use XD) just for care/maintenance porpuoses.

 

Check Slickdeals.net - 256gb SSDs are around $150 now, probably lower on Black Friday. Samsung, Sandisk and Crucial are all very good in my book. OCZ is crap.
Slickdeals: Searching for "ssd"

BTW, Momentus XT 750 is on sale @ Newegg for $117 With Promo Code: EMCYTZT2518 with free shipping.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm in the UK though so discounts across the ocean doesn't really mean anything to me.. Shipping and customs basically destroy any good price

I'm in no hurry to up the performance on my secondary so shall probably wait a bit more. Christmas shopping maybe?

 

I would guess the prices are similar over there, I can see where the guys on my other forum get all of their stuff if you would like.

 

Thanks for the thought. I keep my eyes open too so no worries

 

Well, I've been using this laptop for almost a week and I'm very pleased with it so far. This is s short review about it:

The first thing I noticed about the 5520 was its elegant gray building, I love the looks of this machine, the previous inspirons always looked like toys with plastic estructure, in this one instead, looks like Dell used some aluminium and the plastic parts are made to look like metal too.

In second place I noticed the weight, it is a little heavier than I tought but It is manageable, maybe next week I'll be take it to college and test how does it fell in my backpack.

Then I proceed to swith it on for the first time, the normal first configuration, and then I reboote it to se how much time does it take to load. I can say with confidence that is the fastest computer 've ever had, from the pressing of the On button to the windows 8 desktop there wasn't more that 30 seconds, even with the 5400rpm hard drive loads very fast.

I tried W8 and it looks nice, but at first it is confusing to use, I then found the normal desktop looking. But something is pretty sure, W8 was made for tablets, trying to use software on the Windows Store like Skype is frustrating because it uses all the screen and when you want to re-size the windows you have to slide the windows to a side of the screen and then re-size it, If you want to close a program from windows store or that uses metro, you have to do the same tricky procedure. So W8 is a little bit tricky for that.

On the hardware side of the story, my 5520 comes with I7-3632qm, 8GB RAM, and 1TB HDD. The first program I installed was Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS5 and it lodas very fast, even faster than my old desktop. I Also installed Autodesk Maya 2012 and it runs without problems.

Talking about gaming it is good as well, I first installed GTA San andreas and it runs great in high settings and highest resolution, the bad side is that it sems that the laptop can´t recognize the mousepad or even a desktop mouse so I can't turn the camera. I'm also playing Silent Hill Homecoming @higghest settings and resolutions without many problems, maybe lag in some ocations but in general very fluid. Assassin's Creed 1 on low settings, I tried in high quality but the laptop very hot right away, and in less than a 1min of gaming it crashes.

NFS Pro Street on low settings can be played with no many problems, the normal warm.

This is all I've been doing so far, maybe in some weeks I'll posting more info about this laptop.

 

I have just bought this laptop. I wanted to ask that whenever I'm putting it to charge, the charging indicator is blinking. Is it normal? thogh whn i checked it later, the battery was fully charged. Also how much tym is needed to charge its battery 100%? I bought this laptop 4 days back

 

Hello,
I have Inspiron 5520 with ati 7670m & Intel 4000 switchable graphics, and I need an updated graphics driver, the one on Dell's site is old, tried downloading from AMD with no luck, any help please?

 

Hello 2nd post.

I have ordered the DELL 15R 5520 i5 6gb RAM direct from dell due any day soon.

questions / i hope you can answer.

1) i know on the 7520 there is an option to add or change over a Daughter Board called the Msata Card controller. N7JHH part number

Below review implies this can be done on the 5520, can someone confirm this ?

Amazon.com: Inspiron 15R Notebook 5520: Computers & Accessories

PS i am based in the UK ? how easily can i source the above part and will fitand work with the 15R 5520 ?

second question

the 7520 has back-lit keyboard, is the 7520 back-lit keyboard going to fit and work on the 15r 5520 ?

btw before someone says why don't you just buy the 7520 well i didn't need the extra graphics card or cosmetic looks.

hope you all can help thanks

 

I have a Dell 15R 5520 with a i5 3210, 8GB of Ram, Intel R HD 4000, and a Samsung SSD Pro 840. I have one VGA out and one HDMI out, along with 4 USB ports. What I am trying to do is output my video to two external monitors, both are Asus VE278Q monitors. I have only been able to get one to work connecting my hdmi cord, anytime I plug in my VGA along with my HDMI the VGA connected screen goes blank.
What I am wondering is if there is a fix for this, whether I need to buy a HDMI splitter or USB to VGA or USB to HDMI (if that exists). I do not want to clone the desktops either, I am looking to have an extended desktop on both of the screens. Any input you can give would be completely and totally appreciated, thank you for your time.

 

Can anyone tell me if I can fit a 9.5mm SSD in this laptop? Do I need to get different screws or can I reuse the screws it ships with?

 

Probably a bit late to answer the poster above but I believe you can use regular sized (9.5mm) hard drives. The screws are likely to fit but I have seen irregular hard drives that require specific types of screws.

I do have something new to report. I have a 3720QM ES (the one with unlocked multipliers) CPU lying around so I popped it into my Inspiron 5520. Voila, now I've got a full quad-core running at 3.0GHz x 4 (weird stock clocks) . I get minor throttling (down to about 2.6GHz) under Intel Burn Test but the maximum temps are just around 90 degrees C. Windows Experience Index for CPU is up from 7.1 (3210M) to 7.6 with similar improvement in graphics scores if anybody cares

This proves that our trusty 5520 can handle quad-cores fairly well, although regular 45W varieties might be limited by the thermal envelope. Also, I would guess that the same thermal performance cannot be achieved by the 7520 owing to the discrete graphics card sharing the heatsink and fan.

So if you too have a spare 3rd-gen CPU, upgrade away and share your experience with us!

 

hello everybody hope this thread is not dead yet, can anyone of you guys who upgraded to SSD drives tell me if you got full sata 3 speeds or we are limited to sata 2 (300MB/S) .
mine is i5 3210 with 4gb ram and AMD 7670m. it would make a big difference to me because if i will enjoy the full speed i'm getting a 850 evo pro SSD rather than any budget SSD in the market.

 

hello i see you upgraded your dell 5520 with an SSD, did you benchmark it ? have you noticed if you got sata 3 speeds or you been limited to the 300MB of sata 2

 

Took a HWInfo screenshot. Looks like SATA3 to me (see red circle).

 

thank you very much for the effort, mine shows sata2 but that's obviously the segate hard drive speed as i checked detailed info about SATA Host Controller and it shows " Interface Speed Supported: Gen3 6.0 Gbps" so i guess i'm lucky then i'll be going for the samsung evo they are on good offers now

Sata Speed by Mena Beshai posted Jul 24, 2015 at 5:55 AM