Thinking of purchasing the Dell Studio 15. Can I have your opinions please?!

So im thinking of getting a Studio 15 with this configuration:

Intel® Core™ i5-540M (2.53Ghz, 4 Thread, turbo boost up to 3.06 GHz, 3MB cache)
Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 Graphics Card
500GB (5400RPM) Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
1 year of coverage included with your PC
2Yr In-Home Warranty Support, including evenings and Saturdays
Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module - European
Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
Camera 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
Midnight Blue with Microsatin Finish
15.6in Widescreen Full High Definition (1920 x 1080) WLED with TrueLife
TOTAL Incl. VAT:£866.63

But the things im most interested in are things like the build quality, heat and noise output and also the weight of the notebook, what does everyone think of these things? I owned an Inspiron 1520 which I always thought I looked after well, kept it well maintained etc but literally as soon as my 1 year warranty ended, the thing broke! So i'd really, really like to avoid a similar situation again (especially as spending £850 on a laptop is a lot of money to me)

Thanks for any help you might be able to give me!

 

i have an older version of this laptop and it works beatifully. the loudest thingwhen word proccessing is the hard drives gentle click, and other than that it can be silent when idle. when gaming, the fan can get quite loud, but the speakers are so good that its irrellevant. as for heat, my friend has a laptop with the same proccessor and equivelent graphics and if its like that i would invest in something to raise your laptop up a little when gaming (i made a basic stand to allow plenty of airflow with min, and i lost 5 degrees off the cpu, my friends PC also lost around 7 when on a stand)

basically-i think its an excellent looking machine!

 

You may be more intent to buy a Latitude, if you are worried about Build Quality. An E5500 can be had for £659, but with a Core 2 Duo P8700. Line here.

 

Build quality - average. Not as tough as a macbook or somethng you might get from Asus. Doesn't feel flimsy but you can tell it's made in China and not Germany, for example. Heat-wise, my Studio is new, and its the higher spec version, so it gets pretty warm. See the official Studio 1558 thread for more info about this. As for fan noice, i dont find it annoying. It is a little audiable, far from silent, but its not bad. Ive only heard the fan at full speed once (when i updated ther bios), and im not going to lie, it was louder than my X1900XTX GPU fan spinning at full throttle. Whether it ever gets to this speed in normal operating conditions though, I don't know as I dont game.

One thing I think you should know though, is the i3 and i5 processors are Dual core not QUAD core like the i7 (which I have). Also, something that Dell don't make very clear sometimes, the i3 and i5 actually LIMIT the ram you have to operate at 1066Mhz. So you might get 1066Mhz modules, or you might get 1333Mhz modules, either way it'll operate at 1066Mhz. I only found this out after digging deep into these forums and I tell anyone whos thinking of i5 vs i7 to bare this in mine. The i7 operates at 1333Mhz obviously. Im just stating this as I noticed you specified 1333Mhz with your i5-540 spec in your post.

Otherwise, I recommend the 1080p screen, it's a beauty and one of the best things about the laptop, also I'd recommend the backlit keyboard. Perhaps try and get a 7,200rpm drive is you can.. it's a lot of performance for the money either way.

You'll see from my sig that I picked up a high spec version when the i7 had a pretty good deal going in March (Dell Deals + Day of Deals + Dell coupon @ 5%).

You can use a coupon on your order which will deduct 5% from the total price. Find that here: www.dmxdimension.com , just enter it at checkout.

Any more questions? Just ask. Overall, the Studio is more of aa Toyota than a Mercedes.

 

Thank you 3 very much for your help, especially you dimodi, that was a great post that has pretty much answered all my questions

It's a tough decision for me though, im not sure if im allowed to cross-link, but I started a thread in the "What Notebook Should I Buy?" section of the forum ( Here. Having read what everyone has said here, i've managed to choose between 2 of the 3 i've mentioned, either the Studio 15 or the GS660 which is from Kobalt Computers (a company in the UK).

Thanks very much

Oh lastly, how heavy would you guess the Studio 15 (with my configuration) is?

 

The only thing about the configuration is that I noticed you picked a wireless b/g card. I don't know about Europe, but wireless N is pretty much the standard now (at least in the US) and if you want to give your laptop some longevity, I recommend getting a wireless card that supports 802.11n as well.

Also, for what it is worth, I am typing this on a 5 year old Inspiron 8600. The machine still works great; I am simply out of hard drive space so I just ordered a new studio 15 laptop with the hopes it will be as reliable. I suspect with any manufacturer, you are going to get those laptops that die prematurely and those that last as long as you would expect.

 

Thanks for the suggestion about the N card, i dont have any equipment that currently support wireless N but it will most definitely be worthwhile trying to include a card in any new laptop. Thanks

If you'd be so kind, let me know how you get on with your new Studio notebook when you get it I hope you have many hours of enjoyment

 

I've ordered my studio 15 yesterday, and no wireless N for me also. I don't have wireless N at home, I don't have it at my university... and the next couple of years I also won't get it at my home also because I won't benefit from it, I simply do not need it the next few years.

There is no point in being 'future proof' if it is allmost sure you ain't going to change your network in the near future.

 

Until your router breaks and then you go get a new one which has wireless 'N'.

You could always rip your laptop apart and upgrade it yourself in future. But for the extra £10 or whatever it is to upgrade, sometimes its worth paying a bit more upfront knowing that at least it has some longevity.

 

Even if my new router has N, my internet speed is still that much limited that b/g is faster than I need. ATM my internet speed is around 500-900 kbps, so it will take a long time before my wifi b/g will be the bottleneck for me.

But yeah, you can allways spend an extra 15 euro's if you want, it isn't that much so everybody can do what he thinks is best for himself.

Is it hard to build in the wifi card yourself btw? Do it yourself is allways nice

 

Ha! I ordered it on April 1 and the estimated delivery date isn't until May 5. Crazy, huh? I don't know why it takes so long, but I suppose my desire to get this laptop exceeds my impatience.

 

Perhaps your new router will have Gigabit ports...

I've not replaced the wireless card myself, but once you're out of warranty, you can rip it apart at your leisure. There are service manuals on the Dell site which guide you how to open bits up.

But you still need to get your hands on the hardware modules and they may not be so cheap.

@rmw82 I'm afraid you'll have to play the waiting game. We've all been there and it's a killer. If you're lucky, you may get it in 2-3 weeks.