Vostro 3350 Owner's Cafe

I was running 6GB for a while and that worked fine. As long as you have a 64 bit OS you should be able to use all of the ram, 32 bit maxs out at 3.5-4GB.

GPU-Z shows a Radeon 6470M in my 3350.

 

Device Manager show I have the 6490M....I'm run GPU-Z and see what it says

PS: Civ 5 runs fine at decent graphics....late it the game with a huge map tho, it slows ....

 

Yeah, Device manager says 6490M for me too.

On the other hand when i compare game framerates on notebookcheck my fps lines up almost perfectly with their 6470M.

For me that's as much as i need to know. I don't do much graphic intense stuff on mine anyway. That's what the Clevo is for.

 

Hello All,

I am interested in buying a laptop optimized for photo editing as well as some light scientific computing. Ideally I would want to get a desktop or a Lenovo W520 like workstation but being a grad student, portability is an important factor. After debating between 3350 and Lenovo X220/ x220t, I am getting inclined towards 3350 due to its lower cost and DVD bay. I plan to use it with an external IPS display, wifi keyboard, mouse/ Wacom Pen.

I wish to confirm whether 3350 comes with a PCIe or WWAN slot which can be used for a (bootable) SSD. I also wish to know whether I can use this as well as a (bootable) caddie ssd and the main HDD which comes with the the laptop by default.

What I would eventually want to do is use 3 separate SSDs: one for booting OS and apps, another for Lightroom catalog and other files and a third one as a scratch disk for Photoshop, LR and other stitching s/ws. Is it possible to do so?

I plan to get the i5 version, then upgrade to 8gb ram. I am unsure whether I would get any noticeable advantage by getting an i7 instead of i5, and whether or not to get the discrete graphics card (I don't game). I also plan on dual-booting Windows 7 and Scientific Linux/ Arch linux.

Are there any specific issues/ limitations with the 3350 which I should be aware of?

thanks in advance,
hrishi

 

the 3350 does not have a PCIe slot, if my memory serves correct. if you require a PCIe slot, you should consider the Lenovo instead which i believe does have one.

instead, you could consider getting USB 3.0 external drives for your SSDs. maybe you could swap out the internal HDD with a SSD for your OS and applications, then use the two USB3.0 ports to host your external drives (SSD + HDD). you could also use the eSATA port. whether or not this will work, sorry i cannot confirm as my own 3350 has not arrived yet. but i don't see why this shouldn't work...

well that's my whiteboard scribble for you. that *should* work provided you really want the 3350. but if you must have a PCIe slot, you should look elsewhere, sorry!

 

Thanks daver160 for your reply. I'am aware that X220 has a WWAN slot capable of hosting a bootable mSata SSD. I just thought it would be real cool if Vostro also has it. Beacause then Vostro can take three internal SSDs. I have no experience with USB 3.0 external SSDs so I am unsure whether that will work. But I had not considered that option hence thanks for pointing it.

Regarding the other questions of mine, do you think it is worth upgrading to i7 2620m for photoshop? The thing is if I were to go for i7, then 3350 looses two of its advantages over X220, viz cost and USB 3.0. And will a discrete graphics card help?

thanks,
hrishi

 

what i was thinking was that you could replace the internal HDD with a SSD, then put a SSD and a HDD into two separate external drive enclosures and plug them in via the two USB 3.0 ports. I meant something like this. Or if you do not require portability, a dual docking station like this. I certainly adds more items to carry around with you, but it will definitely allow you to have 3 hard drives with you at all times. i am quite certain that the 3350 can handle up to 3 physical drives at once, as even my old laptops were able to detect and use 3 physical drives at once (same setup, internal HDD, 2 external HDDs). external hard drives can also be booted from, you just have to set it in the BIOS.

honestly, i don't think you will benefit too much by upgrading to the i7 for photoshop work. if your grad school work requires you to crunch numbers, then yes the i7 should help, but if you are just going to be working in Photoshop most of the time, your better option would be to get the discrete ATI card.

a discrete graphics card almost always helps with graphics work like in Photoshop. since the ATi option isn't exactly a 6970, you shouldn't expect the world from it, but it should prove to have a noticeable difference in performance.

HTH! I just woke up and started typing this in a haze... if any of it doesn't make sense to you... tough luck lol

 

@daver160,

thanks a lot for your reply. Yes it helped a lot. It appears 3350 does have a WWAN slot, but it is hidden inside its body. Where is the Vostro 3350's ExpressCard Slot - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

I searched a bit about the links you provided and it seems that they will serve my purpose. I will be assigned a desktop for crunching numbers at my dept. So i think I'll go for i5, discrete graphics.

thanks,
hrishi

 

Hi hrishi,

I have a Vostro with i7 and do not suggest upgrade to i7 because you really can not realize its performance because of other slow components like HDD. Unless you do any process pure in ram using i7, you will not see any difference with i5. In some games or picture processing like ray-tracing you can see performance difference with i7. But I suggest go for a SSD for a i7 upgrade cost. Your i5+SSD system will be much faster than an system with i7+hdd.

X220 is a good notebook but do not forget its has just 12.5 inch LCD ! Almost an inch smaller than a 13.3 inch notebook. Its too small for daily usage.

 

true, but i believe he will be using an external monitor anyways, so the size of the screen shouldn't make a huge difference. also,the resolutions are the same for the X220 and the 3350, so ultimately there is not too much of a difference in terms of usability