Latitude 15 3000 - Gaming system for $780? Too good to be true?

Actually, the 3540 is the 15" model. The 14" model is the 3440.

 

Wow, this looks like a good buy! ( Or goodbye to my old laptop )
Did you guys opt for the touchscreen display? If so, is it any good?

And I'd also like to know @ichyass022 ,
do you think I could get 11hours as well with an SSD on windows 7 ? Or is windows 8 more battery efficient for that laptop?

 

I did not opt for the touchscreen, simply because it has a low res and doesn't have the anti-glare, which is really nice in the full hd version.

I did stumble on a problem with the secondary hard drive though... It seems to be running constantly and draining my battery since a couple of days.
There aren't any programs running from it and i have disabled the index option, which normally allows it to run even when it's not being used.

Here's a link of options I have tried so far: windows 7 - How can I force an internal hard drive to power on or off when I want? - Super User

Does anyone have this problem with their system? I have been looking for software to manage my drives, but can't find any.

 

Hello,

Is it a chiclet keyboard? Does it have any flex?

In images I've seen, which curiously don't show the keyboard clearly, it looked like chiclet with the gloss plastic flooring, which was terrible on the Inspiron 15. The middle of the keyboard flexed like crazy.

Thanks.

 

I think it is, but it doesn't flex too much when you're not hammering on it. The space bar is a piece of crap though, which you really have to 'learn' to work with since it doesn't react at all at some places.

 

I reckon if Thom Fonti says his 3540 is reaching 11 hours on a charge on Win 7, then it should be possible with Win 8. I've read a couple of tidbits bout Win 8 on the internet which supports the idea that Win 8 is a tad bit better with battery life than Win 7. Apparently when Win 8 was introduced battery life was a lil worse using old hardware, but that has since improved significantly with newer hardware.

Interestingly I am currently using the notebook on battery. I've used it for 3 hours and 39 minutes and have only used 33% of its battery life (67% left). The battery icon gives an estimate of 6 hours and 2 minutes before it shuts down. I am fairly confident that this notebook can reach 9 hours (conservative estimate because I don't really trust the Windows battery meter) - with my personal use of browsing the web, downloading pdf's, and reading through academic journals. Also watched a few short flash videos as well.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that this notebook has been broadcasting its own personal Wifi hotspot signal that my phone is always connected to. Perhaps this might improve the perception of battery life for this machine.

From what I have researched, the only way to get a hard drive to stop using power is to disconnect it. If I find a solution then I will let you know. I will definitely keep researching on this topic.

Honestly, I'm new to the concept of keyboard flex so maybe I'm not qualified to say this. If there is keyboard flex on the 3540 that I am currently using, then I cannot feel it. My perception so far is that the keyboard is more rigid and crisp than the Dell Vostro business lineup.

 

I think i have finally found a way to make my Latitude more power efficient. I'm still not able to fully power down the secondary hard drive, but I know where the problem of it not staying idle lays.
The problem mostly lays in the lack of knowledge about windows 8 basically. It's still fairly new and the genuine knowledge that everyone has about windows 7 can be misleading.

The fix: Firstly, when you go to your laptops power management you can go into advanced options, here you can unfold hard disk and set how many minutes it keeps running before it goes idle. Now if you put this to 0 it will idle as quick as possible, but behold! As i said before, your genuine knowledge of windows 7 misleads, because in the older OS '0' meant that the hard disk wouldn't go idle, ever.
Secondly, that I made my SSD the new 'master' drive and cloned my version of windows 8 on it, doesn't mean that my pagefile.sys got cloned to the SSD as well. You can guess why my hard drive began to run so now and then. So to make it as energy efficient as possible: relocate your 'DUMP', or pagefile.sys to you SSD and give it at least 500MB.

And don't forget: Google holds all knowledge, so if you don't know how to do all this, it will be your savior (I had no idea how to do all this before I stumbled on the problem myself).

 

@ Thom Fonti , itchyass022

Thank you for your replies !
I'll be considering this laptop. I might have to wait for december sales though, but i'll definitely keep an eye on it.
It seems to have all the specs I look for in a laptop : a good screen, a good battery life and a decent gpu for occasional gaming!

 

This is some great information. I do plan on upgrading the main drive to a SSD as well as adding a secondary SSD drive in a couple of months. So knowing this will definitely come into play in the near future. Thank you for investigating this issue.

I hope that Thom Fonti and I haven't lead you to believe that this lappy model is the perfect lappy without any issues whatsoever. For example, the screen is not of the wide-viewing-angle IPS variety. Though it is a matte display, the TN screen is pretty limited in terms of viewing angles. Also, there isn't an HDMI output present on this device. For office users - there is also the lack of a pause/break button for using some older DOS programs. Next, while the lappy comes with 64-bit Win 7 Pro, it does NOT come with the WIN 7 recovery disk. Instead, it comes with a Win 8 disk. Last but not least, everytime I check Dell Support for the drivers, they are always out-of-date. Luckily, the AMD Catalyst drivers can be updated to the latest official drivers from the AMD website - and happen to be compatible with this lappy.

There are probably some other issues that I'm overlooking (but haven't realized them yet). I'm trying to find some criticism with this lappy, so when I do find them, then I will let everyone know.

Make no mistake though - I love this lappy. It's definitely a no-frills device, but it's also very utilitarian. Its simplicity is its virtue.

I agree with your comment - lappy does have a good screen (to reasonable standards), a good battery duration, and a decent GPU. If these attributes are what you've been looking for then I hope that when December comes around - this lappy becomes your favored amongst your list of choices.

 

I was thinking about buying this but then I realized a horrifying deal-breaker.

No HDMI.

How does this happen in 2013?