Vostro 1510 --> What next?...

Hi all

I've got a vostro 1510 with the following spec:

C2D T8100/4gb/320gb/8400m/1920x1200

its getting a bit long in the tooth now, 4 years old and due an upgrade


however, theres NO 15.6" laptop with a 1920x1200 screen!

they all have a ridiculous 1920x1080 screen - whats all this about?!

I've been looking at the vostro 3560 with the core i5 processor, how does this compare to what i currently have?

its only really used for office based tasks, mainly internet/word processing/playing MKV's

what would people suggest?

would an i7 be overkill? and is a 2.5ghz i5 (ivy bridge) sufficient?


I will have to select the vostro thats specced with the 1080p screen of course - no way can i survive with a lower resolution screen now i'm used to a 1920x1200 screen!

many thanks!

 

For now there are indeed no current 15" Dells with WUXGA screens. If you something better than a 15" FHD, you'll basically have to buy used or get a retina MBP; that's just the state of the industry right now - maybe things will be different in a year.

Otherwise, if you're just doing office work, the lowest-spec Vostro will be more than sufficient; in fact I'd argue that you're probably better off putting an SSD in your 1510 (unless there's something specifically wrong with it - dying Nvidia GPU perhaps?), especially if you want to have a WUXGA screen.

 

Hi,
that was the second option...

well, the specific problems with it are as follows:

1) the screen is battered! its been lugged back and forth from university for the last 2/3 years and its taken its toll being in my 'messenger bag' and theres pressure marks (dark points) on the screen along with an actual cut in the screen itself - i guess i could replace the panel itself - this would cost about £60

2) adding an SSD is an option - i'm assuming this would involve some sort of caddy which would replace my optical drive? i've seen caddies which replace ordinary optical drives - would these work for my slot load drive also?

3) whats the best SSD to go for in terms of speed and most importantly reliability? it would have to last me at the very least another 2 years


(i did have a failing nvidia graphics card but dell replaced the mainboard for me in the 1st year of purchase!)

many thanks

 

2) It will only involve funny business if you actually want to replace your optical drive with an SSD. If you replace your main drive, you won't need any additional hardware.

3) Intel or Samsung. The bigger 256GB 830s can (quite commonly?) be found for less than $1/GB now, which is really quite cheap from a historical perspective.

 

Hi,

I'd definitely want to replace my optical drive with an ordinary mechanical HDD so i can have my main system drive as the SSD - i download a fair bit so would move my 320gb WD black into the optical drive assuming it would work in there...

i've been looking into this SSD business and i've narrowed it down to:

Intel 430
Samsung 830
Corsair m4

i'd be going for a 256gb SSD - which of these is best?

would i be bottlenecked by the chipset in my 1510?

thanks

 

There is no "Intel 430". Are you talking about 330?

Ultimately all of those drives would probably be fine; it's a matter of price and preference at this point. I would personally go for Samsung, but you won't notice a difference in performance between the three, especially with a light workload.

They will all technically be bottlenecked by the SATA 3gb/s bus, but again, it's not actually something you will notice.