Vostro 1510: experiences from owners.

I'm in the final phases of picking a new notebook and have kinda settled on the Vostro 1510. The price is good for my purposes (no gaming, a bit of Photoshop & simple video editing, general school work, music & dvds) and I can have a XP downgrade. However, most discussion on this forum and others has revolved around three topics that aren't relevant to my situation.

1) The 1500 is better than 1510. The 1500 is not available anymore, so not worth thinking about. I've played with one 1510 and although the build-quality isn't IBM Thinkpad, its seems alright.

2) The specs aren't impressive. Most reviews, including the one on this forum, are for base models (T5670, 1 or 2GB RAM, integrated graphics). I will certianly option it up (T8300, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8400M GS).

3) Incorrect graphics cards installed. The 1510 in Australia only has one option other than integrated and I don't game anyway.

So, owners of 1510s with mid to top specs, what have your experiences been? Any widespread hardware or build-quality problems. Do you feel that the performance is on par with other similarly spec'd notebooks? Did you get your money's worth for the price and the performance for what you spec'd?

Cheers

 

I got my Vostro 1510 from a warranty replacement. I had a crappy Vostro 1400... but we won't go there.

You can check my sig for my system specs - yea I have the T5670 and it chugs along just fine.

I wouldn't worry about build quality, its been holding up well for the past couple months.

Everything runs great (Vista Business 32) w/ my 8400mgs. Just so you know, its 256mb gDDR2, not gddr3 like the 128mb ones Dell uses. However, I've had better experience with the gddr2 version because of the bigger amount of memory (it helps w/ aero and LOTRO).

The fan comes on every few minutes or so and runs for 5-10s until it cools off again. It seems that the Vostro 1510's bios are set to have the fan kick in when the CPU hits 55-57c. I have the 65nm, 45w T5670 so it DOES run warmer. I T8300 should run much more comfortably.

I also did the Copper Mod on the graphics card because I didn't want to have issues with heat (search nvidia faulty graphics) even though this unit SHOULDNT have any problems since it was built in the beginning of October.

With the copper mod and as5 on the proc, my CPU maxes out at 62 and my gpu has never gone over 65c - impressive considering the temps I've seen other people get on comparable systems.

I will admit that the keyboard is subpar - Dell really could have made a better keyboard with a better finish. It's still quite usable though, so don't fret.

Touchpad is fine, nice and responsive and I haven't had any spazzing issues like some notebooks do.

The slotload dvdrw works great and is quiet and vibration free - no complaints there.

I've got a WXGA+ TrueLife (Glossy) screen and the viewing angles are top notch. Brightness is almost too much at full and everything is nice and crisp. This screen is a million times better than what I had on my Vostro 1400 - and I had the supposedly 'good' SEC screen...

The prices of these machines are pretty darn good, and despite what people say about Dell, the warranty support in the small business line is top notch!

Hope this helps