---> OFFICIAL: Dell STUDIO 14z Owner's Lounge <---

yeah that's the plan. the new intel ssds are coming out momentarily, and I didn't even realize that some drives had different thicknesses

 

Hehe, I just read the news today about Intel's upcoming models, and I think I'm getting a 80GB drive, they plan to lower the current models' price by $100 when the new ones are released.

 

Right now I have my knee covering the only fan on this thing and I'm pulling temps from speedfan 54 with the GPU which seems to be the average running temp for me. I suppose the temps would be around 50c with some better ventilation going on if I had it on a desk. Then I have two unlabeled temp readings for 38 and 35. Probably the CPU cores or hard drive or something. And yes it sounds like a sexy purr fer sure.

Yeah the touchpad is somewhat weak, usable but scrolling is sometimes hard to trigger. It might take a try or two. Nothing major but something to take a quarter star/5 off the score.

 

Did anybody run The Sims 3 on their laptop yet?

I might pick it up tomorrow, but if it performs crappy I'll probably just pass.

 

I've been playing it quite a bit, nilosays. No performance issues either plugged in (settings on maximum) or on battery (settings on minimum to preserver battery life).

While the touchpad scrolling does work, I'd say about 90% of the time I use the page up/down and up and down arrow keys. When all's said and done, it's quicker and more precise.

 

You get 7% with EPP, 5% with paypal, or 5% with AAA

 

If it can run all the other games that have been previously mentioned, I would say that SIMs will not be an issue with this laptop, even on maximum settings.

 

Anyone has a link to purchase a lid for the 14z? I ordered mine with the black chain-link but now would like the indigo blue. any help would be appreciated.

Bigdog-1

 

you mean midnight blue?

 

can you somehow combine any of these? I have an EPP account, paypal and I also have AAA. I dont think it is possible though since AAA makes you use their link to a specific aaa/dell site.

 

That link only takes you to a page which gives you the coupon code.

 

it said that you have to click the aaa link for the code to be valid though.

 

To anyone considering the 14z and debating the merits of the T6400 vs. the P series, I'd like to share my undervolting experience. I was able to undervolt all the multipliers down to 0.925, a drop down to the minimum, with no stability loss. I dropped from mid 70 degrees under stress to mid 50, and I gained about 30 minutes in battery life from beforehand. Of course, the P8600 can surely improve its performance in these areas with an undervolt, but for the money you can get great value out of the T6400.

 

Can you provide some more details on this? How did you undervolt the CPU? I would love to drop the temp a few degrees like that.

N

 

Check out the great undervolting guide on the hardware forum.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

 

Nice! I'll check this out later.

 

Ah I got away with only getting the code. I called a Dell rep and he just added the discount to my total.

And would someone be kind enough to explain the main difference between the p8600 and the t6600? I ordered the latter, will there be a noticeable difference in any way?

And could I possibly upgrade the processor at a later date?

 

The T6600 is 2.2GHz, with 800MHz FSB, drawing a peak 35W of power. The P8600 is 2.4GHz, with a 1066MHz FSB, and 25W peak TDP.

Basically, the P8600 is faster and more powerful, while drawing less power. A handsome upgrade if you can afford it. I'm running a P8600 in my Studio 15, and it's beautiful.

Yes, you can. Dell has the instructions for removing the processor heatsink and replacing the CPU on their online Service Manual for the 14z. Dell doesn't really like customers doing that, but it shouldn't affect your warranty as long as you don't damage anything during the installation.

 

Nice, wish I would have known about that before I made my purchase. I would have gotten an additional 40 ish dollars off. Wonder if they will allow me to reduce the total post purchase?

 

There's a f####g ALPS touchpad in this beauty? I had thought it was a synaptics up until this point. My experience has been that they are a lot more precise and responsive than the ALPSs, to the point it's actually harder to move the pointer around on the screen. Can anyone compare this touchpad with a synaptics one?

 

My old Studio 1535 had an ALPS pad, and my new 1555 has a Synaptics. The Synaptics has some nice gestures and feels a little smoother, but the ALPS pad was by no means harder to use. There's nothing wrong with an ALPS pad; it's just not as awesome as Synaptics.

 

Anyone has a ink to Dell for purchasing a colored cover for the 14z?

 

Just checked my order status and found that my 14z order is once again delayed. My delivery date was to be 7/24. it has now been pushed back to 8/4. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH DELL AND THE 14Z? No one can seem to answer that question. They just keep delaying orders and jerking people around. I think I'll just have to cancel and look elsewhere for a notebook or just get a battery for my inspiron e1505 ( was refusing to pay $175 for new battery, current one no longer charges).

 

WOW, $175? I order all of my replacement batteries from either atbatt.com or ebuybatteries.com. Should be $75-$90 depending on if you go 6 or 9 cell. We have 20+ Dell laptops and I've probably ordered 7-8 replacement batteries from these places and I've had zero problems with any of them. For me, they actually have outlasted the original OEM batteries from Dell.

 

Just call Dell and order it. You can't find it on the Dell website or any others from my experience.

 

Sadly, I'm in the EXACT same boat you're in. E1505 battery is done; refused to buy a new one. Now my 14z is constantly being delayed.

Also, I'm still unable to see anything in my order status.

Edit: Nevermind, there is a number to call to check the order status. Turns out it's still supposed to arrive on or before the 27th.

 

i just ordered mine in red on saturday 18th july
backlit keyboard and t6500 from the base model

I called last night and it was scheduled to be built in 4 days.

I did notice they killed the t6400 option and now have the t6500 option instead.

 

just ordered mine on july 18th. really excited to get my hands on it. before i bought it i headed over to BB and got some hands on with it. its really nice! the keyboard is great, very little flex unless you push pretty hard and very easy to type on, unlike the mac or vaio style keys. of all the laptops i looked at when i visited BB (all of them) the 14z's screen was the best, and they only had the "720p" version on display. the bottom of the laptop is great and the whole chassis feels really sturdy. its also lighter than it looks. the touchpad seemed a little iffy, but that could have come from a number of reasons...and i dont really care as i use a mouse almost always. the mouse buttons were easy to push and quiet, but they did shift around a little bit. oh yeah...the speakers seem GREAT! i was in BB, one of the loudest stores on the face of the earth, and i could hear youtube quality music pretty clearly. i played around with the webcam and it looked surprisingly crisp. one thing i noticed with the model on display was that if you looked REALLY closely you could see some weird white dots/lines flashing, kind of like static or something. then again its really hard to see and this was on a 720p lappy that sits out all day being poked by hundreds of ppl...so im not too worried. overall, nice laptop. im excited to get mine and i hope my mini Best Buy hands on review helps someone with their choice.

 

Well, you can add me to the list of people who have gotten a delay notice. Ordered 7/9, was supposed to ship today (7/20) and arrive by Friday (7/24). It's now supposed to arrive by 7/31. I'm annoyed only because I had already read about delay problems before I ordered mine and I specifically asked the rep I ordered from about the possibility and he assured me three would be no problem with my configuration. I took that with a grain of salt ..., I thought ..., but I guess as the last 10 days passed I was starting to look forward to it so much I was really disappointed to get the delay notice. Guess it'll be another week of twiddling my thumbs.

Hope you folks who have already gotten yours are enjoying them. I've appreciated reading all your comments, and am still looking forward to getting mine ... eventually.

 

I finally got the game today and I can't max it out like you said.. On native resolution with Medium settings, I'm only getting around 20-30 FPS.

What settings are you using? Did you update your video drivers? And which processor do you have? I think that might be the issue.. I'm looking to get at least 40 FPS constant.

 

Anyone have an issue with closing their screens (without the suspend setting turned on), and then opening it a short time later (1-30secs) and having some mouse problems?

 

Nope, that's never happened to me.. I just tried it right now and the mouse still works fine.

 

Man, it sucks to hear everyone getting their system pushed back. I guess I got lucky cause I ordered mine on the 10th and had a expected date on the 27th. I actually got an email yesterday saying that Fedex has it now and I'll actually get it on the 22nd... almost a week early. Maybe ordering through the phone is better than online?

 

Yes; Dell prioritizes phone orders over those placed online.

 

! I don't even know you, but I hate you!

Kidding, of course.

Actually, I ordered mine over the phone specifically because others in my company had said they had gotten some prioritization by doing that, vs. online. As you can see, it did bupkis for me.

twiddle, twiddle, twiddle ....

 

Hey all. I've been watching this thread for a while, looking for any major issues, and that lacking, i'm probably pulling the trigger on it today. Going to order on the phone, because clearly, those people seem to getting theirs earlier. here's the list of upgrades I'm planning on:

T6500 processor
900p display
7200 RPM 250 GB drive
bluetooth
74 whr battery
backlit keyboard

Any advice either way would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help.

 

I was one of the fist to recieve mine and i ordered online.

of course mine had to be sent back and I still dont have the replacement....

 

Unless you are me. I bought my laptop on the phone on the 3rd.

Dell did not change my est shipping date even though that date was yesterday and as of today it's still not shipped. I called in today to find out my new est shipping date (you guys should feel lucky just to have them change your est date!! I don't even get that).

Apparently, my ship out date got delayed to Aug 19th.

So far my experience with Dell is absolutely horrible.

 

my experience with dell repair is horrible. if your dell ever goes in for repair. theres a high chance you wont get the bluetooth module back. 2 friends of mine and me did not. you might as well get the $3 modules off ebay or something. the nano ones.

 

their just in time method isn't exactly the best for getting out stuff on time. i'm sure the random change from the t6400 to the t6500 isn't helping them either.

 

Maybe their Kanban system is not working...sounds like its time for a Kaizen event!

 

Folks let us start a survey here!

Among those who DID NOT have a delay in their shipment, what sort of configuration did you have?

For those like me who HAD delays what was your config?

Just trying to find some sort of a common thread.

 

I might not be thinking straight ( delay of my 14z is causing some adverse reactions) bit the delay might not be all that bad. They are putting all of us inline for a free windows 7 upgrade.

 

Delayed

T6600 processor
250gb hd 7200 rpm
900p screen
6-cell battery
Blue tooth
1515 wireless-n
Backlit keyboard

 

T6400
900p screen
6-cell battery
no-msworks install
320 gig hd
2 year warranty that was the base warranty for deals-of-summer


Mine was delayed, but after calling I was able to get it un-delayed...luckily. I did not get any bonuses or windows 7 upgrades though .

 

Not Delayed (edited to add in lid)

Black chainlink
T6400
900p
3GB RAM
5400 320GB HDD
8 cell battery
Bluetooth
Wireless n
Backlit keyboard

Phone ordered

 

What did you say when you called?

 

Delayed

Ruby Red
P8600 processor
3 gb ram
320gb hd 7200 rpm
780p screen
8-cell battery
Blue tooth
1515 wireless-n
Backlit keyboard
Phone order

Any pattern emerging yet?

edited to add lid color and method of order

 

yeah. they're all made by dell. looking...

you guys forgot to put lid colors

sometimes when you call, they'll bump your order to the front of the queue. my estimation is august 4th in the email. however, i was calling for a bunch of different reasons and the last phone call said that mine would be built and shipped thursday...which is kind of odd.

ruby red is delayed.
T6400 might be delayed as its gone from the options
thats all that is said on the dell site

 

I ordered on the phone on July 12th and it was delivered today. My estimated was the 27th so I got it a week early. Was pleasently surprised since for my XPS it took them over a month to get it to me.

Black Chainlink
900p
T6500
320 5400
1515N
3gb
8 cell
bluetooth
backlit keyboard