Question for Studio 15 Laptop Owners

Hello Studio 15 Owners:
I am currently trying to decide between a Dell Studio 15 and a Sager NP2096 and I currently have these questions for anyone who has a Studio 15. Please answer as much as you can, but don't worry if you can't answer some of them. Do offer other suggestions, if you have any. Thanks in advance.

1. I understand that Dell offers the Broadcom (Dell) G and N wireless cards. However, they are both supported by only two antenna U.Fl leads. I am trying to upgrade to the Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300 which uses three antenna leads. For this reason, can someone tell me how many U.Fl leads this laptop has? (These are the little tiny wires that goes into the wireless card, although some maybe unused) - I have heard mixed answers about this, and recent CCFL monitors/screens have three leads?
- Please also tell me if your configuration of your LCD screen (resolution and/or type), whether you have Bluetooth, a WWAN card (Verizon, Sprint, ATT EVDO, etc)
- If you have already "upgraded" your card to the Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300 or the 4965AGN or any three leaded cards, can you tell me what approach you took? (such as getting a portable Mini-PCI antenna on eBay or using Bluetooth/WWAN leads) What is the performance you are getting?
-- I couldn't tell exactly from here how many leads are specifically designed for wireless, since the WWAN card is missing - http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=34508
- If you are currently using the Dell wireless cards, what are your experiences?

2. Is anyone having issues with the slot load drive? Has anything gotten stuck in the drive because of this? How would one go on cleaning the drive of lint and/or other particles? Is the drive user-replaceable?

3. What are your battery times? What activities were you doing to achieve this battery life time? What GPU and CPU and screen do you have? Do you currently have a 6 or a 9-cell battery?

4. Anyone have any successes in undervolting this laptop and/or its CPUs offered by Dell? What software(s) are you using?

5. Have anyone actually used Dell's warranty services? What are your experiences? Was it for an accidental damage or was it only for regular warranty?

6. For the CPU/GPU combination you have, do you think the laptop gets hot during regular (web surfing, word processing) activities?

7. For users who have the Hi-Def resolution (1900x1200) screen, do you happen to find that the text is too small to read? If yes, what resolution(s) would you recommend? (I have tried a 1680x1050 screen and they were perfect)

8. Can you tilt the LCD screen all the way flat? Or does it only do it to a certain degree?

9. For users of VOIP and/or video chat, do you find the mic/webcam combination sufficient? Is the microphone too low to be heard? Does Microphone Boost need to be turned on for you to actually record anything?

10. Does Dell integrate its fingerprinting protection in the BIOS or can this only be used within Windows and its applications? I understand Dell does this for its business class laptops, but I haven't actually seen this done in home-based laptops. In other words, were anyone actually successful in making so that you have to swipe your finger before actually "starting the computer" (even before Windows?)

11. Have anyone actually messed with the Lojack protection offered in the BIOS/laptop? I have heard that the option is permanent and cannot be changed once set in the BIOS. I would like to turn it on as I do plan to get Lojack for my computer, but would like to turn it off someday shall Lojack become too expensive for me to afford or become unnecessary. Is it true that Lojack will write its files to the hard drive if they become corrupted or deleted? (I wonder how it will handle with NTFS or even other file systems?) - Or does it "call home" directly from the BIOS?

12. If a supervisor/user password is set within the BIOS, does this prevent the use of the boot menu without a password?

13. How is the sound quality from the laptop? Is it better than the average integrated speakers?

14. How do you generally feel about the build of this laptop? Do you think it's easy to have parts of this laptop scratched or scuffed? In other words, do you think this computer is built from "cheap plastic?"

15. Under your current configuration, is your laptop running silent? If not, what is the noise level relatively to background noise?

That's all the questions I have now. Sorry if I am posting this in a wrong forum. But feel free to answer any or all of the questions if you could!
Thanks so much in advance.

 

2. Is anyone having issues with the slot load drive? Has anything gotten stuck in the drive because of this? How would one go on cleaning the drive of lint and/or other particles? Is the drive user-replaceable?

My 8 year old son pushed in another DVD in it while it already had one !! It makes a LOT of sound when inserting/ ejecting. No idea on how to clean it and whether or not its user replaceable

5. Have anyone actually used Dell's warranty services? What are your experiences? Was it for an accidental damage or was it only for regular warranty?

I got my DVD drive changed as well as BH headset. Dell service intent is good but the execution is dependent on what kind of a service engineer your luck gets you

13. How is the sound quality from the laptop? Is it better than the average integrated speakers?

Big fat NO

15. Under your current configuration, is your laptop running silent? If not, what is the noise level relatively to background noise?

Very silent. The only time it makes noise is when its not being used (i.e. screen saver is active )

 

Thanks for the feedback.
It is interesting how you disliked the sound as many reviews regarded the sound on this system to be above average if not excellent if you are not an audiophile... Umm..

 

I dont know about the studio 15,but I have owned 3 dells,been happy with all of them, but ALL THREE had problems burning dvds which is why my next 2 laptops have not been dells. Message to DEll--stop using inferior dvd drives!!

 

I just answered the ones that applied to me:

1. I understand that Dell offers the Broadcom (Dell) G and N wireless cards. However, they are both supported by only two antenna U.Fl leads. I am trying to upgrade to the Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300 which uses three antenna leads. For this reason, can someone tell me how many U.Fl leads this laptop has? (These are the little tiny wires that goes into the wireless card, although some maybe unused) - I have heard mixed answers about this, and recent CCFL monitors/screens have three leads?

There are two antenna wires in mine. The service manual also shows two, so I suspect that they all have two: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/1535/en/SM/minicard.htm#wp1181360

- Please also tell me if your configuration of your LCD screen (resolution and/or type), whether you have Bluetooth, a WWAN card (Verizon, Sprint, ATT EVDO, etc)

WLED 1440x900 screen, bluetooth, no WWAN

- If you are currently using the Dell wireless cards, what are your experiences?

No issues at all. I have reception in all rooms in my house (Using a linksys WRT54G router) and download speeds are exceptional. I can get 1MB/s + when I'm close by the router.

2. Is anyone having issues with the slot load drive? Has anything gotten stuck in the drive because of this? How would one go on cleaning the drive of lint and/or other particles? Is the drive user-replaceable?

The only issue I had with it was that I received a warped driver disk with my new mouse and when I put it in it vibrated like crazy and was hitting the underside of the keyboard. But then again, that was a problem with the disk, not the drive. My only gripe is it doesn't support 48x burning for disks, but it's not that big of a deal as I use my thumb drive more than anything else.

3. What are your battery times? What activities were you doing to achieve this battery life time? What GPU and CPU and screen do you have? Do you currently have a 6 or a 9-cell battery?

If I'm just listening to music though my stereo, I can get 2.5-3 hours out of it on a full charge. Gaming it's only a bit over an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Normally it hangs around 2 hours, but I leave it plugged in most of the time. I have the stock battery (the upgraded one was really expensive...)

4. Anyone have any successes in undervolting this laptop and/or its CPUs offered by Dell? What software(s) are you using?

Awesome success for me, I decreased my core temps by 10C+ by undervolting. I use the RMclock utility and Prime95 to stress test it. Setting up dynamic CPU speed switching really helped the battery life as well. I set it to run at half speed at idle.

6. For the CPU/GPU combination you have, do you think the laptop gets hot during regular (web surfing, word processing) activities?

During gaming (Team Fortress 2) it gets pretty warm. The palm rest gets a bit warmer than I would like it to, but then again thats after like an hour of gaming. Plus I have switched to an external keyboard so it doesn't bother me. During normal use you wouldn't even notice it.

7. For users who have the Hi-Def resolution (1900x1200) screen, do you happen to find that the text is too small to read? If yes, what resolution(s) would you recommend? (I have tried a 1680x1050 screen and they were perfect)

1900x1200 is just too small on a 15.4 inch screen for my taste. I have a laptop at work that it set to that and I can barely read the stuff on the screen when sitting at the desk. That's with my contacts in too. The 1440x900 screen is a wonderful upgrade and it seems to me like the perfect resolution.

8. Can you tilt the LCD screen all the way flat? Or does it only do it to a certain degree?

It only goes back to a certain degree. I haven't hit the limit during normal use so it's not a problem for me.

10. Does Dell integrate its fingerprinting protection in the BIOS or can this only be used within Windows and its applications? I understand Dell does this for its business class laptops, but I haven't actually seen this done in home-based laptops. In other words, were anyone actually successful in making so that you have to swipe your finger before actually "starting the computer" (even before Windows?)

As far as I can tell the fingerprint reader is only available to windows applications. I didn't see a setting in the BIOS for it. However, the software that comes with the laptop is really good in my opinion and it great for not having to use your password(s) all the time on programs.

12. If a supervisor/user password is set within the BIOS, does this prevent the use of the boot menu without a password?

I don't have one set but it should prevent anything past the POST screen from proceeding without the correct password.

13. How is the sound quality from the laptop? Is it better than the average integrated speakers?

Basically, the speakers suck. I don't care that much because I have a really nice set of headphones and a XFI usb sound card I use. The only time I use them is when I watch youtube videos with other people. Since the sound from youtube already isn't good, I don't notice the bad speakers. For good speakers you need to get an XPS or maybe a Toshiba or HP. They have really good quality speakers. The integrated sound is fine however, and having two headphone ports (individually adjustable) is really nice.

I'm sure if you really wanted to you could upgrade them, but to me it's simply not worth the effort since I use them so seldomly.

14. How do you generally feel about the build of this laptop? Do you think it's easy to have parts of this laptop scratched or scuffed? In other words, do you think this computer is built from "cheap plastic?"

I haven't had any issues with it, but I am pretty careful with mine. I have a nice soft case for it and it keeps it well protected. I do have one scratch on the cover though, and thats because when I turned the laptop over to get to the insides I set the top on a small screw and it scratched it. No big deal.

15. Under your current configuration, is your laptop running silent? If not, what is the noise level relatively to background noise?

Under normal use the laptop is very quiet. The fan is noticeable when it comes on, but it's not too noisy on low speed. Generally it's on for 5 minutes or so and then shuts off so it's not too bad. The higher setting for the fan is noisy, however it only turns on when I am gaming. Even then I have my headphones on so I don't hear it. Dynamic CPU speed switching will cut down on fan usage greatly, so thats another reason to undervolt.

Hope that helps.

-Dan

 

Very detailed, thanks!