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

just talk to a dell rep...1GB mem soldiered to mobo. i wanted to purchase the 3GB option and upgrade, but i cant find a single 4gb DDR3 stick. the ones i see are 2X2gb configs.

update - looking at crucial they have a 4gb for 450 so the upgrade price on dell is not out of line.

 

Im just hoping the Y450 gets re-released with improved cooling system, higher resolution, and a better processor.

I would pay $1200 for the Y450. Paying $1200 for the Studio 14z at this point just doesnt seem as satisfying.

 

Wow... that sucks.................... my order is still in is in the In Production stage....says it will ship to me on 21 July 2009 what a bummer... so long to ship a laptop is just wrong.......now after reading here i find out that one of the memory sticks is soldered to the board then i hear that there are 2 empty slots and now i find out there is only one free slot and one soldered on.... anyone know if i can cancel my order and just get a computer elsewhere... shame on dell and all the laptop makers that solder the memory on the board...............

 

Call Dell support and ask. If it hasnt shipped, you shouldnt still be charged.

 

I was watching QVC last night.. so it really dawned on me. They make these computers for the suckers that just watch TV and order whatever they see (not that the computers are bad)

 

Eh??? I ordered this laptop because it met my requirements for a competitive price. Not sure I understand what you're saying, eh. (feeling especially Canadian today eh).

 

I was just reading on the net that in a few weeks some companies will offer the Vista to Windows 7 Upgrade.... like dell did with the Vista Express Upgrade.... I guess all us suckers who ordered the ne Studio 14z won't be eligible for the express upgrade when it comes to Dell...... Now I am seriouly....seriously thinking about canceling the order........ Also on another forum on the web i saw a guy who had a acer netbook that had soldered ram and he had a video showing how he removed it and soldered on a new 1gb chip.... it may be possilbe with the dell but I know it will most likely void the warranty................... any comments on the Vista to Windows 7 upgarde would be apprciated.

 

Computer companies start offering the Vista to 7 upgrades on June 28th. Any computer ordered before then is not eligible, and not all upgrades may be free (but they will be cheap).

 

so technically we should all get that option since we ordred the systems and they are not shipping to mid july or later.. My shipping info still says delivery will be 21 or 22 july 2009. furthermore its been in production for 2 or 3 days. the last time I checked it only takes a few hours for the machine to go through the assembly line. Am I missing something......

 

I just read an article that says the Studio 14z has something called Failsafe.... Is this an extra item you have to purchase.... I don't remembe seeing it as an option when i configured my laptop. Can anyone chime in on it........ Also I contaced Dell tech support to see if they will give us a Vista 7 upgrade option but the first rep said no and the next rep said yes.... both were apparantly from some overseas call center... What has the world come to..........................I mean look at it we wont' get our systems until after mid July and they still won't offer us the upgrade....... I know others say it will be cheap but as I recall with vista express upgrade it was no more than $20 to get the Vista upgarde it may have been cheaper you can;'t beat that oposed to going retail and paying $99 bucks for an upgarde.... come on now ........

 

PS... and I don't know about any of you but my account has already been charged for the computer.... I thought you don't get charged until the items ship.........

 

maybe it has been shipped early? just be patient...

 

Patience is hard when a dell rep phones and leaves a message saying they need to confirm shipping address, and they leave a number to call but no answers all week. Can't even get through on their other numbers (like sales)!!

Laptop has been "in production" since June 12. Patience he says! LOL

 

It's a brand new laptop model, and everyone and their mother is ordering one. Yes, have patience.

 

Let's see.... Dell is a worldwide company.......Dell has seen this issue before with the release of the XPS Line M1330 etc........Someone making all that cash would have enough business since to anticipate a surge of orders..and plan accordiningly.... also the ship and estimated delivery dates a month or more than when you placed an order is absurb... Do you expect me to belive my system has been "IN PRODUCTION" for more than 2 or 3 weeks........................am I supposed to belive it takes 1 month 2 weeks and a day for a laptop to be built and shipped from a modern facility.........my account has been charged already....wow they have my money for more than a month before they ship the laptop........ lets see..... would Dell give me a computer and let me pay them 20 to 30 days after I get it in my hands........Patience........yeah I guess users have no choice but to be paitient while Dell rapes us for our money and time....... I can tell you this.... when that laptop gets here .... I am gonna return it...for a full refund.... I will never no NOT EVER purchase a dell product again.... and neiher will my family.... the word is out Dell..... you have lost a good deal of money doing this .......

 

...and where are those goshdern'd reviews?!

 

Has anyone received their 14z's? For those that have, do post pics.

All I've been seeing around are first impressions on the 14z. Hope a review would come out soon.

 

Any word on the build quality? Heat? Fan noise?

I'm planning on keeping this for about 4 years+. Do you think a 3gig ram limitation will be an issue with windows 7? (I'm still on xp)

 

Ram won't be an issue you can always upgarde the ram when the ram prices drop. Windows 7 only requires 1gb so you are good to go with 3gb.. I have a beta running on one of the ACER one netbooks that has an atom processor withe 1.5gb of ram and its running smoothly

 

+100!

Is it normal to wait three weeks from "First Look" to full review? I'm trying to be patient...

 

its normal for Dell I tell you we need to stop getting suckered by Dell....

 

michael dell himself that is

 

i got a call from a co worker he tried to cancel his order and they canceled it... his was in production.... he used that dell prefeered acct to pay to get that 9 months zero percent intrest ....funny thing is the charge is still on his account and when he tried to get it removed they said they have to confirm with dell....................... i thought dell finanacial services owned that perfeered acctount turns out citibank does..... i think he is in for a fight.... dell dell dell why do u do this to us.

the point is if its in production you can still cancel....keep in mind u may be accessed a 15% restocking fee......?????????????????? WHY DELL WHY?

 

Mine shipped! Waiting to get my tracking info Updated delivery date is 06/25/09. I will post pics once I get it. I ordered mine on 06/02/09. Can't wait!

 

nice one. Be sure to post info the day you receive! Not that we'll see it in the UK

 

let us know about build quality/battery life/heat/noise!

 

Ordered mine today. Estimated delivery date is July 23...

 

First question, WHEN DID DELL STOP SENDING SHIPPING NOTICES VIA EMAIL???

On Saturday I get a notice from Fedex that they tried to deliver a package. I was in my home theater and didn't hear the door bell I had this feeling it was the Dell 14z so I checked online and YES! it had a failed delivery attempt

I will post pics tomorrow. I got 2.4ghz, 900p w/red, 3GB, 250gb 7200, backlit keyboard.

I came here hoping someone else had posted pics.

Lastly, I was kind of hoping mine wouldn't ship after finding out about free Windows 7 upgrade plans.

PS. I ordered 6/7. It shipped from Maryland to my place in Virginia.

 

Awesome man, can't wait to see you pictures and impressions. I've been holding out on someone on here to get one and give us a little more info before ordering mine.

P.s. Please let us know/show us exactly how the memory is configured, i'm tired of incompetent dell sales reps not knowing their own product!

 

Hey,
I have an old media remote from the XPZS M1330 will this remot work wiht my studio 14z when it arrives.

 

Also when was the original release date of these laptops

 

beginning of the month

 

Take as many pictures as you can.
Also, please do some size comparison pics with other laptops (if possible).

 

oh don't think you missed the doorbell, fedex does as much as possible to do as little as possible. They won't ring doorbells, and then they'll live half a second after they "knock".
They delivered my dell and 2 seconds after they knocked I was at the door and theyh were already writing the failed attempt slip and the guy said, disappointed, "oh, someone IS home.."

 

Back to my question.... Will my remote conrol that came with my wife's XPS M1330 work with the stuido 14z

 

I read the 14z DOES NOT have an infrared port, so no remote control (unless you purchase a bluetooth kind)

 

GUYS!!! What if the sales guy was accurate and we are looking at the first laptop with 3 memory slots (one soldered). It makes sense because its DDR3 which prefers three slots of ram so it can read for all three at the same time. My i7 machine at home has 6 ram slots because its expecting 3 ram stick in it at a time. That would be AWESOME!

i'm sure its just a dream.

I will find out this afternoon, when I get home from work and tear the 14z apart!

 

mate get those pics up tonight!

 

Highly unlikely; the chip you have in your i7 machine has 3 channel mem controller on die, and sits in LGA1366 socket; that's why DIMM slots should be populated in multiples of 3's in i7 9xx machines. The core2s have no such configuration, unless NVidia's MCP78M has features that no one has ever heard of. While it's still possible that somehow the 14z runs 3 DIMM slots in dual channel DDR3, no other laptop that I know have that configuration.

 

good point about the 3 channel mem controller. The dang memory is the one thing I am very very disappointed about. This laptop is far from extremely thin. No reason to solder ram.

BTW, I only have a MSI Wind, Asus 1000HE, Macbook Air laptops to compare it with in my pics. Have owned many many laptops so I can try to give subject opinions on build quality.

 

yeah any comments on build quality, battery life, heat, and especially fan noise would be very appreciated.

yeah, the ram and optical drive(not that big of a deal) are the only things that bother me

 

The service manual they have on the dell site (the Studio 14 is the Studio 1440) It appears that the laptop only has one accessable memory slot. The other must be soldered like the other person commented... This is a day of mouring...... Alas when I get the laptop it will be going back..... I can't justify paying another $400 bucks for a 4GB ddr 3 slot when I can get 6GB of ram configured on the xps m1330... (make sure I don't get that darn NVIDIA 8400) DELL DELL this is a sad day.

 

It's worth the "sacrifice" of optical drive for hopefully a much better "build quality. "

External ones aren't too hard to find nowadays and a useless drive sitting in the laptop doesn't help with power consumption either.

I'm slightly confused about all the commotion with the ram problem. they soldered on a gig to lower the price by a little and gave you 2 more gigs. whats wrong with 3 gigs total? even with shared graphics you dont need that much do you? at least on this kind of laptop. its kinda like an extreme case of giving an atom 4 gigs of ram. almost completely pointless. anything more intensive for a lightweight budget laptop then youd be at a business class worktop

 

its a dual core laptop... I need the memory as I use the laptop to produce music...... I use Propellerhead REasons nad Fruity Loops Producer Editions XXL.... Its nice to be able to add the RAM... Also when Windows 7 comes out lets see if the 3GB users will want more memory... Yes system requirements on the box (windows 7) states 1GB requried but lets get real... anytime microsoft says 1GB you know you need at least 4GB..... its netier here nor there.... if most laptops sold at Best Buy and the big chain stores are comming with 4GB standard what makes you think 3GB is fine....??? I thoguth we were supposed to move forward not backward..........Its not pointless for those who want to utilze the true power of the machine.... DVD optical drives is not big deal you can always use external but you cannot use exteral memory for your system memory.

 

I posted on that already in this thread, but apparently it fell on deaf ears (blind eyes?). There is little to no chance that this laptop will require more than 3GB during it's 2-4 year lifetime. It may possibly benefit from the upgrade to 5GB at some ppint dueing its life, but the upgrade will be cheap by then. Heavy gamers, graphic artists, 3D rendering, and other extreme users will select different laptops anyway. That isn't the target audience of the 14z.

Me thinks that some people in this thread have need-more-itis. All they know is that more is better, but ignore bottlenecks, the law of diminishing returns, and lack an understanding of their actual needs.

 

A little research would help you make more informed decisions rather than relying on heresay and 'feeling'. Windows 7 will install and run on a Pentium 2 with 96MB ram. It behaves poorly below 96MB. 3GB will be quite sufficient.

PS what audio files are you editing that cause your OS to use more than 3GB? I edit audio in Vista 64bit on my desktop and occassionally hit 2GB.

 

Because if you realized that encoding and working with files is more cpu based than memory based you would realize. Also, just because best buy and big chain stores sell it doesn't mean its good. MONSTER CABLES are sold at best buy. Are they better than normal HDMI? Windows 7 runs plenty fine on a netbook with the wimpy atom and 1 gig or less of memory. It's much smoother than vista in all regards. Now if you really wanted to get indepth, there are benchmarks out there that will inform you that 4gigs is actually a bad number. 3gigs perfectly justifies a high performing 32bit setup. 4gigs is the borderline need for a 64bit OS and being a more complex OS as it is, the memory performance isn't sustained until you hit 6gb. I forget which site had this review. In either case, it is safe to say that there were no performance impacts going from 3GB to 6GB except lower possibly due to latency.

Just having the memory isn't always a good thing. My roommates wanted a quad core for gaming as it would be "better" as there is more. In truth a dual core would have performed at a much higher level. On the other hand, voltage requirements are often increased with higher capacity memory sticks. In plain english this means "possibly higher power consumption."

By the way, the true power of the machine isn't affected by memory as much as you think it is. Get a faster cpu if you consider "true power" as a criteria.

 

On a different note than whining about the ram, who knows how to reformat and clean install Vista from USB?

Reformating and clean install is a ritual for me with Dell. I hate all the bloat they install. I won't have access to my desktop until Sept either, as I am out of province for the summer.

Not sure how I'm going to do this, but it's not a deal breaker if I have to put up with the bloat until Sept.

 

I'll admit I was heated about the single ram slot. Mainly because I have been running on laptops with 4GB for 1 1/2 yrs now. But I also didn't know any company would think to do that on a 14" laptop. And the fact that I paid $1k for my 14z makes me feel I paid too much when I see they cut corners. I am a developer who runs VMs occasionally. While I am sure I will come very close to 3GB limit. I agree with others that it will be sufficient for the next few years.

The other very important thing to point out for those of use receiving the laptop in the next week is the Windows 7 upgrade program ... technically we will miss the free upgrade date by a week or two

And anyone who plans to put one 4GB into the ONE slot is silly. If you argument is that in the next 1-3 years we will be happy with our 3GB, then you are wrong. How are the 14z owners going to feel when Dell Laptops are shipping with 8GB and we are forced to 5GB? (in a 1GB x 4GB configuration!)

I'll be honest. I don't keep laptops longer than one year, I ebay them. So this laptop will be fine for me and the next year of usage.

(PS. My laptop was shipped Fedex Home which works Tue-Sat...so I missed my delivery on the worst possible day (last Sat), I AM PISSED!!! Sched Delivery is Tue, June 23 for second attempt)

 

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

Used this guide for doing it myself, works great.