Shall I or Shan't I? Bluetooth, wifi n, 2.4G CPU...

Hi all,

I've decided on getting a 1555 but there are a few nice to have's upgrade options, can someone tell me what the advantage are pls?

1) Bluetooth (£35 ~ $58)
Apart from allowing me to perhaps transfer files to my mobile phone for example(which I hardly do) and maybe use a bluetooth mouse without the little dongle. What else can I use it for? I do prefer using a mouse over the touchpad, does the bluetooth use much power from the laptop?

2) Intel 5300 upgrade from 5100 (£15 ~ $25)
What's difference between the two? Has a 5300 got a better range? Will the 5100 be sufficient? It says on Dell UK that the 5300 only support a/g/n as opposed to the 5100's a/b/g/n. But I did some googling and it says that the 5300 also supports b? Can anyone confirm this?

3) C2D P8600 2.4G 3MB 1066MHz from 2.1G 2MB 800MHz (£80 ~ $135)
What sort of performance difference will I see? I'll be using programs like Firefox, messenger, windows mail, photoshop, matlab. Is it better have the faster one some it'd be more 'future proof'

Thank you in advance for everyone's input.

 

The main advantage with the built in bluetooth is that it keeps your usb slots free. On laptops we tend to only have 2-4 of these, so they are pretty valuable. My advice is that if you are going to be using a lot of usb ports to get one.

5300 wireless card has a better range and higher bandwidth. Not that you'd really notice it for surfing the net (because we just don't have connection speeds that fast yet), but you'd notice it if you were copying files from one machine to another. It does need special wireless routers to fully use.

imho, it's simply not worth it at the moment. The 5100 is perfectly fine for pretty much anyone.

The upgraded processor is a lot of extra money, but in my opinion it is worth it for what I was using. If you are using Matlab a lot then it might be better for you. The extra 1MB L2 Cache is a nice boost also.

 

Thanks Fragilexx.

There are 3 on the 1555. I'll use 1 with an external hd for backup on a regular basis which does not require a permanent connection. Maybe 1 with a flash drive which again is not permanent, and maybe a mouse with a dongle which the laptop is in use so looks like I don't really need built-in bluetooth at all. What other things will I possibly need the usb ports for?

The bandwidth is probably not very important here as I doubt any public routers out there(including mine) will fully utilise it anyway. But the range, what sort of range would the 5100 give me? Will it be plenty enough anyway? I'm not planning on using my laptop in the middle of a corn field LOL.

It does cost quite a bit to upgrade the processor. Though I'll be using Matlab quite a bit but have you any idea how much speed gain we're looking at. Matlab will run on almost any pc/laptop nowadays. It's not, to my knowledge, a very demanding software...

 

Matlab is not very demanding no, but it depends on how much you are going to use it. Also, some of the functions are more demanding than others.

To be fair, you'd probably be fine with the 2.1GHz CPU.

The extra range on the 5300; well it is supposed to be there, but so far everybody I know who has upgraded it on their own has said there was no difference at all. I have a 5100, and I can use it anywhere in the house or garden with no troubles.

With regards to the USB ports, well let's see what I have connected to mine:

Joystick
Wireless mouse
Number keypad
TV Tuner
External soundcard
External HDD
Notebook cooler
Bluetooth adaptor (for phone)

However, when I'm using the notebook away from my desk it would typically just be the external HDD, the mouse & a USB HSDPA modem. In reality you'd probably be fine without the bluetooth internally, but it's a personal choice as to whether you'd like to keep a USB port free for anything else you might bring with you.

 

I see. Why an external sound card? Is the 1545 onboard one no good? Any idea if the 1555's better? I was planning on getting a pair of speakers for music/video and games thinking that it'd be enough. Never crossed my mind that maybe the sound card inside might be inadequate...

Is a cooler necessary? I haven't heard of any heat issues with the 1545s and 1555s but the Studio XPS 13s and 16s.

Going back to the bluetooth mouse, if I have internal bluetooth, will I still need to use the dongle?

 

The sound card is fine on both the Inspiron and the Studio, but I have 7.1 speakers at home, and neither machine can deal with that properly, so I have a seperate USB sound card that can. That's the only reason.

The speakers on the Studio are better than the Inspiron, but neither are amazing. They are good for a laptop, but laptop speakers normally are not up to much anyway. Best to get some external speakers, but just some 2.1s will be fine for the vast majority of people. Again, I only use the 7.1s because I had them anyway, so why not use them.

The cooler is not necessary no; but I had one for my Sager 8660, and for machines before that, so if I've got it then might as well use it

If you have internal bluetooth then there is no need for the dongle.

 

"Fine" is pretty relative. The onboard sound is total crap and the reason why I didn't get rid of my desktop. If you like to listen to music you will be sorely disappointed. I'm hanging on to my desktop till I can get a nice USB DAC. When I reassembled my laptop, I left the speakers out because they aren't capable of producing pleasing tones. The studio's might be better, but there is so much room for improvement that I really doubt they are "good."

I thought bluetooth might be cool to connect to my phone with so I bought a $3 dongle. I can't say I've actually used it. I really don't mind connecting my nice wired mouse to the computer.

 

I'm not sure how you can talk about sound quality without using a term that can be referred to as a relative term. Anybody who is an audiophile will be disappointed with any laptop speakers regardless.

Anyway, when I said "fine", you'll notice I was talking about the sound card (or rather the onboard sound). Plug some decent speakers in and the sound quality is good enough to listen to without crying over the lack of bass or the tinniness of the high notes.

I tend to use the bluetooth to download pictures from my phone; seing that it uses a micro SD card, and I always end up losing those damned adapters they include when you buy them.

 

Guys...I'm a bit confused here. If I get myself a decent set of 2.1 speakers and connect them directly to the laptop(using audio out?) Music and videos will play fine? Or will I need an external sound card? Otherwise, I'll use my headset/phones in library/starbucks.

Hey Trottel, I guess a wired mouse sounds alright too. Save me messing about with dongle/battery etc. What's that nice wired mouse you've got?

 

No you wont need an external sound card for that. But I do for my 7.1 speakers, as there are not enough channels otherwise.

Meh, I can't stand a wired anything. Logitech VX Nano all the way for me.

 

Sorry if that was confusing. I was talking about the actual onboard sound as well until the lasts two sentences. It makes me sick to my stomach, but not vomit like the onboard speakers do.

I'm just saying don't buy it unless you find yourself needing it. Buying something because you think you might find a use for it is a bad idea. The one I bought only extended half an inch or so and was rounded so there really wasn't any need to ever remove it.

You wouldn't need an external sound card. Just be careful with what headphones you get because the onboard sound lacks some power to drive a number of headphones. Anything that doesn't cover your ears should be fine though. I knew the sound quality wouldn't be close to my desktop's, but I never thought it would be that bad. I'm sure it is fine for people who aren't used to listening through some high quality equipment. Of course I always cringe at the sound quality at concerts or bars, but that's just me.

It is a Logitech MX500 I bought new from ebay 4 years ago even after they had been discontinued for a while. I got it for nostalgic reasons but it is still a fine mouse and good enough to kick some A in first person shooters.