Upcoming; Inspiron 1520 and 1720

windows is my premium choice, and its standard.

 

going back to the AV stuff, who in their right mind would use a lappy for a HT system? seriously? And I am not talking about hooking it up to all the components. The whole thing I was trying to say was that it is a known fact that Bose has great small speakers. Sure you can get 1" tweeters, and 6" mids, and a 50" sub, but that won't fit on a laptop which was what I was trying to imply. Meaning that almost all laptops have those teeny tiny speakers that I seriously believe could be greatly improved with Bose technology. So if you are watching a movie somewhere where you can't hook up all that extra stuff, you still get descent sound. Didn't mean for that to be blown up the way it was.

I believe I remember seeing that the 1521 offered ubuntu, but I may be wrong on that. Considering the larger fanbase of that flavor of linux, I can't see that it should be all that too long before you can find drivers if not.

 

That is cool. I new the slots were the same. But that does make me wonder. Get 2 2gig cache cards, that would be sweet. a bit over kill though and doubt it would enhance performance that much any who. just something for a geek to drool over

ummm... not sure how to approach this question. Ubuntu will run on anything you put it on. You might have some driver issues with the Wireless card but that is the only thing. Plus, there is tons of self help out there on how to build your own drivers for unix. just have to be willing to do it Plus if you want long enough, Dell is supposed to be offering Red Flag.

Did I miss something? a 50" sub? why would you want a speaker that is over 4 feet tall!!!! That would make you deaf!!! I would say my nice 12" works great but I would then have to admit that the system that has that has 4 of them . But that isn't my HT system. I just use my Logitech z680's for my home theatre and for my little apartment it works great. so when ever I want to listen to music on my notebook, I just plug it into those

 

lol, I know it was overkill, I was just trying to make a point. I did want to ask you if there is any difference between using the 2 gig 150X SD card vs. using a 2 gig cache card? And when will Dell start offering those cache cards or are they standardized to the point that I can order one else where? And also, what in the world will it be called when I order it?

 

You can order a 1 gb flash cache card here:
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Turbo-Memory-Card-1GB/dp/B000Q82V1W

BUT... I'm wondering why Dell hasn't started offering it, and I'm thinking there's probably a good reason they haven't. One possibility is that Dell may not have support for it in the BIOS yet. Another possibility is that they just aren't seeing much performance benefit. Another possibility is that there are stability issues... in the Lenovo forum here, people have reported the flash cache/Turbo Memory card causing BSOD.

For the person who asked about running Ubuntu, be sure to order it with the Intel wireless card (which has Linux support) and a video card (or integrated video chip) that has Linux driver support. I notice that on the Inspiron 1420N (Ubuntu version of the 1420), Dell is only offering the x3100 graphics chip... it may be because of lack of drivers for the nVidia card.

By the way, what the heck is WPAN? Is that Bluetooth, or is it some other technology? There are too many frickin' wireless technologies.

 

My Sub is 42" tall.....it's a custom built driver (12"), 320W Special Amp, and a 42" long Sonotube to give it flat responce to 20Hz...and a very gentle roll off to 10Hz. Little store bought Subs (even the $2K and up) ones cannot do that, its takes space to control the sounds waves with that much presicion.

Now, with a SB card plugged into my I9300...I can put out 5.1 into my Pioneer VSX1014 and drive that Sub, and all of the surrounding JBL Monitors. DVI comes out and with a custom DVI to HDMI cable from Monoprice.com I can feed 1080P into my 61" LCoS 1080P set.

For movies? Heck no...got a HD DVR and DVD player for that.....FOR GAMES!!!!

On the road....good headphones will rule over anything internal speakers can do....though relaxing in a hotel room the internal speakers can help improve a dreary room. LOL!

If your serious about HT sound...check out the Ohio built www.svsubwoofers.com best bang for buck and very honest company with a great business model. It will be your favorite HT toy, and you can always resell it for what you paid for it on ebay. Know that my sub is from their least expensive line....and I have no reason to ever upgrade it. It is unreal....

 

I don't know where they got that name for but all of the spec sheets I have looked at call it a WPAN slot. It is also labeled that if you open the bottom up. How they came up with it? Who knows.

 

I've never heard it called WPAN, but I do know PAN = Personal Area Network = Bluetooth. So maybe they are calling it a Wireless Personal Area Network?

 

who knows. I thought it was weird too.

 

WPAN= Wireless Personal Area Network.
WLAN= Wireless Local Area Network.
WWAN= Wireless Wide Area Network.

WPAN, BT would be classified as such, they even make BT wireless routers, or use to at least many years back. Wireless USB should be under this grouping too. I believe the distance limit for this classification is 10meters or about 10 feet (class 1 BT (or 2 can't remember).)WLAN, your regular a/b/g/n wifi. WWAN, you cell phone provided wireless.

Edit: 10m = 30feet.

 

Is that a standard design across all manufacturers? This particular card is made by intel, but does that mean it will actually work with a Dell laptop, or other laptops that customize their boards? Also, YoJr, how sure are you that those slots are intended for turbo cache? Are you sure they are not for something else and your just misunderstanding it? I don't really mean to question you, but I don't want to spend the money on a card to find out that Dell never intended to use this particular technology advancement of the Santa Rosa chipsets.

 

No, I've asked more than one Dell rep who all answered that the new Inspirons do support TurboMemory

I also noticed your sig says 2GB SD card for readyboost, TurboMemory is readyboost - so as soon as you slide the card in, you can no longer use your SD

 

but which will be faster? If it's the turbomemory then I would rather use that. I only got the 2 gig because of how cheap it was, and the fact that it is a 150X card. If the turbo memory can beat that speed, then I will just use the card for my camera. I use a 2 gig now, but it's not high speed, so that would kind of be interesting to see what difference I would see...lol. But anyways, my main concern is just the resulting performance, and if I can increase the performance of the machine for $20-30, then heck yes i'll do it.

Thanks for letting me know what you already have though, much appreciated.

 

In order of speed ( I don't have the exact numbers, but you can look it up), the best way to go is to get maxed out on your RAM slots. You can put 4GB on the new Santa Rosa laptops, then it's the Robson cache, and then your SD/CF slot.

 

I thought Santa Rosa supported 8 gigs? They just had to make the chips big enough to max it. I thought about going with 4 gigs, but for the cash difference I didn't see the performance gain as a wise money decision at this present point in time. I have been researching the whole Robson thing, and I think I will just stick with my SD card. I already have it, and the gains you get after having 2 gigs of ram are just not worth spending any extra cash at this present point in time, at least that I haven't already spent. I will run my own tests when I get my lappy and see if I even notice a difference at all. Does anyone know if you can use the SD card as a ready drive as well as ready boost? I have read that you can do that with the Robson. I figure I could partition the disk if need be to 1 gig sectors to make 1 gig for ready boost and 1 gig for ready drive.

 

nope I was wrong, 4 gigs max, but funny thing is the spec sheets on intel's website say they support 256, 512, and 1 gig sticks, but doesn't regard 2 gig at all, but I have already heard that other laptops worked just fine with the 2x2gigs. Just something I found funny.

 

I'm trying to decide between D830 and 1520. I had one of the first D830's and returned it because it did not have the dedicated graphics, just the built in intel which really sucked with vista. I was not wowed with the screen brightness. anyone know how it compares to the 1520 for screen brightness? Also, the 1520 does not have gig networking or 2.4Speed. Am I correct in that? anyone know how much difference they will make? does the gig network really perform that much better on the notebook?

 

Keep in mind, you'll only be able to use about 3 gb with 32-bit Windows (like the versions of Vista that come pre-installed).

I've heard the Intel graphics works well for Vista... and it seemed fine testing models in stores. What specifically was bad about it?

Check the "Help me choose" links on the Display section. I think the 1520 with 1440x900 resolution has 250 nits brightness, which is pretty good. Glossy screens also tend to appear brighter.

Yes.

For transferring files around a local network, yes, assuming the router and the other computers support gig ethernet. For internet access, it doesn't matter at all, since no one's internet connection even comes close to 100 Mbps.

 

First, just wanted to point out I knew about the 3 gigs thing, I was just talking about theoretical max capacity for the notebooks. I was thinking that I had read somewhere that they can use 8 gigs, maybe I was just thinking about vista 64's capacity.

The gigabit networking is not really an issue unless you transfer A LOT of files between computers. For occasional transfers and internet, the standard 100Mbit is perfectly fine. Actually can today's hard drives even take full advantage of 1000Mbit? if so it's gotta be cutting it close. Especially on the 5400 rpm HDDs. I did want to ask, what did you mean by 2.4 speed?

 

A typical laptop hard drive transfer speed is around 30 megabytes per second, or about 240 megabits per second. So you're right that it can't take "full advantage" of 1000 Mbps, but it can do noticeably better than 100 Mbps. I agree though that 100 Mbps is fine for occasional file transfers.

I think "2.4 speed" was a reference to Intel's 2.4GHz cpu, which I think Dell offers on the Latitudes but not the Inspirons.

 

wow, how much would that thing cost then? I opted for the 7300 proc because it was the lowest with a 4MB cache, but the other procs rapidly go up in price. I just don't think the performance gains would equate out. And with the possibility of replacing your proc in current gen laptops I would get the 7300 now, and wait for the rest to come down in price. I was actually even doing research on if Intel had plans for a quad core notebook chip, but I have not seen anything supporting that idea. It's not on any of their roadmaps. I am sure it will happen at some point but doesn't appear to be in the near future up to about 2 years from now.

I was wondering if anyone has recieved their 1520 yet?

Also for the guy looking for a remote card to go into his express card slot, it looks like the 1520 comes with it standard. At least according to a review i read on this site about the HPvsDELL S.R. notebooks. Both had remotes and it didn't say they were optional, just that they came with. I REALLY hope that is true, not cause I need it, but it definitely has it's cool factor.

 

thanks for the feedback on 1520 verses d830. The other thing I'm curious about is why Dell is adding a $400 discount coupon with the d830. Is it possible that they are readying 800 ddr2 ram for it? Seems that since the centrino pro supports that, it's just a matter of time before all the top end notebooks will have that as an option. I'm assuming that d830 is not compatable with 800 ddr2 ram, even if it were available. True?

 

centrino pro does not support DDR2 800. The fsb on the proc yes, but the mem is only supported to 667. That comes straight from intel's website. I recently bought the mem to upgrade my laptop to 2 gigs and was going to get 800 until i researched it and found that out.

 

The unit I returned (with 4gb ram) actually showed 3.5GB available for Vista.

I'm curious where you could see dell's in stores? What I mean by slow was things like dragging screens around (kind of jerky), Doing the 3d view of windows in vista, very jerky. Just was not smooth. Not sure if the Vista performance index means anything, but the graphics reported well under 3.0

I do transfer a lot between desktop and notebook. My current notebook has a 1 gig port and I often see about 150 between the computers. not more than that.

 

Heads Up for those that are getting 1Gb of Memory with their order...Best Buy this week has Kingston 1Gb PC5300 Sodim sticks for $39.99 each....

I'll be stopping by for 2 tomorrow, got the same stuff in my I9300 and it loves the stuff!

 

thx for the heads up, but i already got my 2*1gig from newegg of PNY Optima memory, was only 73.99 + no tax, and shipping is like $5 (i ordered some other stuff as well). But for people not wanting a online order that is a good deal. Is that with a rebate, or just flat price?

 

Flat Price..................

Yeah, I dig Newegg as well.....order one day and almost always shows up the next. Being in SoCal, I do pay Tax though, but its worth it for the 1st rate service. (I like to build my own desktops for gaming and the kids PC's)

 

same here, this was my first order from them, but it showed up like 3 days later, and in 2 different boxes plus another one due monday. I also recently ordered a $100 desktop case from them that I will get $100 back in rebate, 4th july sale, so that was cool. Good service, quick, and usually the best prices, or at least highly competitive.

 

Not Dells, I mean I tested other computers with Intel integrated graphics. Actually it was the older Intel GMA 950 chip, and I thought that worked fine with Vista Aero. I can't remember if I also tested anything with the newer x3100... maybe I just assumed that would work at least as well as the GMA 950.

By "dragging screens around", do you mean dragging windows around? Wow, I'm surprised if that much is jerky.

Hmmm... I wonder if it's a driver issue.

Interesting... while I don't put too much stock in the "score", I'd expect better from the x3100.

Dell always has a discount (not actually a coupon) on the Latitudes. Sometimes it's $400 off of $1700+, sometimes it's $450 off $1900+, sometimes $500 off of $2000+. It varies from week to week... I wouldn't read anything into it. I'm not sure whether the D830 can use RAM at 800 MHz or not.

 

Ok, got the memory...now just waiting on the Laptop to show!

See that the Vostro's are out...looking at the 15.4" model...sure looks like a 1520 through and through. Does that mean "our's" have these features:

Durability:

Vostro notebooks can withstand the rigors of your business day with RoadReadyTM durability and around-the-clock reliability.

Extra-durable magnesium-alloy exterior adds strength without extra weight

StrikeZoneTM shock absorber technology helps protect critical data in your hard drive

Mylar® -sealed keyboard helps guard against dust and spills

Over 13,000 hours of system reliability testing

----------------------------------------------------------------------

It would be nice if true...almost Teen Proof!

 

I just noticed they were out too. I was reading this and kinda wonder. It is confirmed the Inspirons have the Alloy frame but I didn't know about the sealed keyboard. that would be awesome. Most commen issue I saw when I was working for them was keyboard spills. It is the number one cause for the system to die when there is something spilled on it. Sealing that would make it like you said, "teen proof" or as I would also like to add PEBKAC proof or ID 10 T proof (what ever you like to use). I like them though. They have a nice sleek look to them.

 

Hey bud..nice to see you here again!

Sleek.....hmmm...not the impression I got from this review!

http://www.reviewpub.net/2007/07/inspiron-1520.html

Liked it though!

Cheers!

 

Yeah, My new job has been keeping me busy. It is nice not talking to old ladies that buy these $2000 USD notebooks and don't know how to use them. I think all computers should be sold with Windows for Dummies or Computers for dummies. Although it did give me job security when I worked for Dell

 

LMAO, i used to run a computer business so i know exactly what you mean. Only thing is the companies would probably PDF it and the idiots wouldn't know hot to open it...lol

 

Wow.... I can't stop laughing about that... I could only imagine the call..... Plus, I am sure someone would claim the manufacture is calling them an "idiot" by including it. Some law suite would happen, I just know it... If some dumb@ can spill hot cofee in her lap and get a couple million out of it, I am sure someone would sue and win.

 

LMAO, that is so true too.