Just ordered a Vostro 1700

I chose the cheapest options on the stuff I could upgrade easily myself (i.e. CPU, RAM, HDD) and the best options on the stuff I couldn't (i.e. Screen, Graphics card). Eventually I'll probably upgrade it to a T9300, 4GB RAM and 200GB 7200rpm HDD.

Base
Intel® Celeron® Processor 550 (2.00 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2-cache)

Memory
1024MB (2x512) 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel

Keyboard
Internal Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Video Card
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT

Hard Drive
120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive

Microsoft Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium - English

Modem
56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter - UK

Optical Devices
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software

Wireless Networking
Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N MiniPCI Card

Shipping Documents
English Documentation with English/Irish Power Cord

Microsoft Application Software
Microsoft® Works 9.0 - English

Standard Warranty
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day

Enhanced Service Packs
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day Included - No Upgrade Selected

Protect your new PC
McAfee® Security Centre™ 9.0 - 30 Day Protection - English

Power Supply
90W AC Adapter

Bluetooth
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data Rate

Primary Battery
Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

Dell System Media Kit
Resource CD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers

Colour Choice
Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera

LCD
17.0" UltraSharp Wide Screen WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife™

Came to a total of £521.70 inc VAT & Del.

I ordered it last night and it's currently in 'pre-production' with an expected delivery date of 21st April.

 

Same as mine, but I stuck with the integrated X3100 graphics card and didn't bother with the webcam/bluetooth/updated wireless. Think mine was £375 delivered, including VAT, but they have raised their prices since then.

Lovely machines. Screen is perfect, well worth the £90 extra cost .

 

Are you sure you can uprgrade to a penryn if your cpu socket is for a celeron?

 

As long as his chipset/BIOS supports it, there shouldn't be a problem. The Celeron 550 is Socket P like the new Penryns and the chipset is a PM965 or GM965 since he has a discrete GPU already. Likewise, if the Vostro doesn't already have a BIOS that supports Penryn (aka, if the Vostro isn't already shipping with Penryns), it should get one in the near future.

 

Well, after reading all the threads about people waiting weeks for their orders from Dell, I thought I was in for quite a wait, but I just checked my order status and it's now saying 'dispatched', and I only ordered it on the 8th

 

You are right that nowadays the mobile cpu is never welded on the socket slot any more.

But I've heard dell will lock the mainboard's FSB frequency to the CPU you ordered. Which means if you order Celeron® Processor 550 (2.00 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, you will not allowed to shift to other cpu with 667 or 800 MHz working frequency.

And you know you cannot switch that via Dell's bios.

Maybe you could try to find the hard swtich/jump pin on the mainboard, I haven't tried and haven't heard that anyone else tried that.

 

This is doubtful, I know you can't change the FSB manually in the BIOS of a Dell laptop (or most other laptops for that matter), but it should set itself to 800MHz automatically when you drop the T9300 in. This is how it worked with my Acer anyway.

Remember, Dell laptops are customisable and so are designed to be simple and cheap for dell to build. Such a lock would add time and expense to the build.

Here's a blog post about someone who upgraded a Celeron Vostro to a Penryn CPU:

http://miket-blog.blogspot.com/2008/03/dell-vostro-1500-cpu-upgrade-to-penryn.html

 

Here's a question - would any of the Cellys give me better performance than a T5250?

 

I doubt it, since they have only 1MB of cache and are single core.

 

Really? I thought they would have been dual core for their speed. What ever happened to the fast Cellys of about 2-3 years ago?

 

Nice one.
I do hope the Vostro is as good as all the Threads say.

At last i've ordered my Vostro 1700 too.
Took me 3 days of calling Sales in the Sub-continent and an online sales chat but i , at last, got a very good deal.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5870 (2.0 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium - English
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day Included - No Upgrade Selected
17" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™
Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera
3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024 + 1x2048 MB)
160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
Primary 9cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)
Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data Rate
Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 (802.11 a/b/g) MiniPCI Card


This includes an upgrade for the CPU, Ram, Screen, Battery and Graphics card.
Comes out at £680 or $1340.

I got them down to £461 or $911.

And i didn't even have to increase the Warranty.

Probably got a HUGE phone bill coming, but worth it !

 

It should arrive today, I just checked Walsh Western's site and it says it's in Gloucester.

 

Wahey! I'll bet you've got the window open, listening for the van... I'm a little bit the same, I'm waiting for an engineer to come and replace my LCD plastics.

 

I'm actually in University at the moment; it's being delivered to my Aunt's house. If it is delivered I'll drive over this evening to pick it up

 

My tech has been and gone. Took 30 minutes from arrival to departure. Faultless service, it really was.

Hope you get your toy today .

 

That was my experience - twice - too.

Very professional service, all completed to my satisfaction in good time.
Can't beat NBD Onsite

 

It came, and I have to say I'm very impressed with it. It's not too heavy or big, and it seems very well built. The screen is awesome, although I had to change the fonts to 125px.

I already have 4GB OCZ RAM on order, and I'll probably order a new CPU and 7200rpm HDD eventually.

 

Wait, I just ran Intel's chipset utility and it says I have a GM965?

Thise makes no sense, I have the Geforce 8600m GT dedicated card, so why did Dell put in a slow chipset with integrated graphics?

Not happy with this, I wanted and paid for the PM965. Looks like I'll be sending it back to Dell.

 

The GM965 and PM965 are the exact same chipset except that the GM has integrated graphics. It just means they can use one board and either use intergrated or discrete graphics dependent on order requirements. The specs for PM965 and GM965 are identical. It's not slower - it's the same Crestline chipset. When you use a discrete graphics card it presumably just bypasses the graphics capability of the chipset.

Comparison here

 

They do look similar, but the strange thing is I can't find any trace of integrated graphics on my laptop, not in the BIOS or device manager.

 

I think it's just the way Dell have it set up - maybe they just wanted to keep the option of intergrated graphics but never really bothered. The Service Manual only mentions discrete solutions so I think I'm wrong of it ever being offered and even though you can see the chip on the pictures there isn't a LCD out to utilise instead of the discrete card - unless to use the Intel intergrated graphics you still need a daughter card to supply the LCD out.

Just relax in the knowledge that your chipset is exactly the same beast.

 

I think you're right, and otherwise I'm very impressed with the machine, it's feels much better built than any other laptop I've used, and I love the keyboard.

 

8 months on and I'm still loving it