Dell 17r N7720 SE - user review

No comments on the quality of the SSD as I don't know anything about it, but personally I would be getting at least a 128GB SSD for the OS drive. If you can afford it, I think you'd be happier in the long run with a bigger drive

 

Yea,

I'd get the Samsung 830 drive. It goes for under 100 dollars in the 128GB size if you look around for sales. Its also a 7mm drive so you can be sure it'll fit.

 

If you want more info on that SSD, they seem to have a fairly in-depth review of it here.

OCZ Petrol SSD Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

If you don't want to read through it all, then just scroll down to their conclusion at the bottom. Basically looks like it's going to be a big improvement over a regular HDD, but it's still a lot slower than the top of the range SSDs.

 

Samsung 830

 

Yea, I just woke up when I wrote that. I own 4 of them, you'd think I'd get the model right

 

angrybambi...........i see you look between new xps 15 (which is drop dead gorgeous).............and dell 17R SE.

i think you should go for 17R SE............i give you the reasons.

the Nvida GT650M (2GB GDDR5.......GT640 have only GDDR3)
way cooler laptop........all Xps (except M1710/M1730) ive tried/own runs pretty warm
..........and of course the price tag...........you get a full loaded 7720 for about £1000...........a full loaded xps 15 cost about £1900.....thats huge different.

so, will 7720 keeps in the same way as xps 15 ??? (if we talking build quality, etc)........yes i think so. you also get same 1 year next businesses day support on both laptops...which is awesome.

ps...i was extremely close to buy the new xps 15 instead...but the price tag and the GPU change my mind

 

I agree with your post except this part.

The GT640M in the XPS15 has GDDR5 memory. Its available in both flavors, but I had a XPS15, and it had GDDR5 memory.

Other pluses for the 17 R SE

3D screen
2 2.5 inch drive bays
Can use regular optical drives instead of slot load
easily access to battery
# keypad
does not use click pad (my opinion is real buttons are better)

 

ohhh, very strange...i thought Nvidia only produced DDR3 to the GT640, are you 100% sure ???

ps...i see now, on Nvidias site it only says DDR3......but xps 15 use GDDR5 ...its ok.

thats good news anyway.......DDR3 is terrible..........i play a lot of gpu demanding games....so for me its important with a powerful GPU.....

i still think 7720 is the better choice, (if we talking gaming, etc)...xps 15 is very stunning...but to pricey.

 

Hi everybody, I'm thinking of buying this laptop. In my country it costs 1800$ with the following configuration: 1.5 TB @7200rpm and 32GB SSD, 3610QM, 650M, Bluray ROM and a true life 3D display. I have a few questions:

1. Is it a fair price for that specific configuration?
2. How much can you get out of the battery if you are only using wifi?
3. This is the most important one, how is the 3D experience overall (pictures, movies, games)? This is the only reason why I'm considering such an expensive laptop instead of a 1150$ Asus N76.

Thank you.

 

raz25.....................

thats exactly what paid for my top configured 7720.
my 7720 runs about 2 hours with full brightness

i can tell you one thing..............the 3D glasses are the best glasses ive tried (no kidding)....i have tried two 3D games and it was mind blowing...the SEC5440 True life screen really shows deep & colours in 3D,

 

Thank you so much for the answer. I've been trying to get an opinion on 3d laptops for a while now . Only 2 hours? Would you get considerably more with less brightness?

One more question. Would you consider the Asus G75? It's heavier and more expensive but it has a GTX 670M graphics card and a 256GB SD. Thanks.

 

With like 40% brightness and wireless turned off you should reach 3hrs+ in battery saving mode. Wifi alone easily shortens runtime by over 30mins.

To me the G75 is too bulky. And battery time is about same/shorter.

 

G75 is a semi highend gaming laptop mainly. I have one.
N7720 is more like a mid entertaiment/gaming laptop.

I do not think you can compare them. My G75 with 670M OC has 675M performance (right now that is second best consumer GPU from nVidia). On Dell the 650M can't be OC as the throttling problem was not solved. There is quite a big difference between them performance wise. Also G75 runs cooler under heavy load.

But Dell has way better sound, better panel (non 3Ds compared, the 3D is great on Asus as well and I see you are looking at the top model with SSD), better battery life (but not much better for 3D since there is no Optimus), it's much lighter.

 

My 17R SE has an estimated delivery date of friday next week (10th August).

I'm quite interested to see how the GT650M works, how it throttles/doesn't boost and so on.

I've already had two laptops with GT650M (Asus N56VZ and Samsung 700Z7C) and these rarely throttled except under extreme loads like furmark etc, even when overclocked.

 

Thanks for the answer, very helpful. Could you tell me how much does the battery hold on wifi not with full brightness on the G75? Also could you please tell me a little bit more about 3D? Is it really a great experience? The only thing I know about 3D is what I see at the cinema, and I've never been impressed. Thanks.

 

Unfortunately, the original Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 WIFI card supports only 2.4GHz.

There is interesting model of the WIFI card - Intel Centrino Wireless-N 6235, which basically differs only with the support of 5GHz networks.
Could you tell me, if you have tried to install this or another WIFI card, which support 5GHz network in this laptop?

 

I don't have the G75 myself, but in notebookcheck review it lasts 2h 14min with medium brightness and wifi on in battery saving mode: Review Asus G75V Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

raz25...............i tested the asus G75 in a shop and i thought the screen could be a bit sharper,(it was good, but the 3D vision True life on 7720 is better (no doubt about that).......................also i didn't enjoy the plastic material Asus G75 had (7720 have some other harder plastic.

G75 is also extremely tall in the back (where the dual fans sits)................7720 is way WAY slimmer.

otherwise (except for the screen) G75 is a full loaded gaming machine.

 

That's quite odd. Asus G75 (non 3d) and 17R SE (non 3d) are supposed to have the same Chi Mei Optoelectronics panel (CMO1720). Which is a good panel.

 

I had the LG panel on Dell so if what you say it's true, then the LG one is better. You can read my original post here.

G75 should last about 2h.

In 7720 it's easy to change the WiFi card. With G75 it's almost impossible. Even so, with good signal I have very good speeds on Atheros, it almost tops my band at 8 MB/s (I rarely reach 10 on cable). There is always the option to disable the internal WiFi and use something else with better performance, but you can't really change it from what I could understand.

 

Thanks for all the answers guys. I think I'll stick with the 7720 then. It also has a 3 year warranty, really nice.

I'm really interested in what @c_man said regarding the fact that 650m can't be overclocked. I know pretty much nothing about overclocking but I do know it can increase the performance.

"On Dell the 650M can't be OC as the throttling problem was not solved". Will this change in the future? Thanks.

 

I sure hope so, but who knows.

In the end it's all down to what you need more: a heavy gaming laptop or a light multimedia laptop.

 

Thanks, I pretty much have decided to go with the Inspiron in three weeks time since the XPS turned out to be a shined up piece of s**t.

I'm already trying to get my spec and quote perfected now. I managed to get them to put a backlit keyboard in even though I can't get one on the site, and I'm making sure the spec is exactly the way I want it before I buy.

 

WooHoo!
My 7720 arrived this morning, but i cannot figure out how to reinstall windows without all the bloatware
I used the dell data safe application to make a copy on a usb drive, but it just reinstalled windows with mcafee etc on there. I did not have a copy of the windows disk come that came with the notebook. Dell want to charge me and I am still undecided about paying.

Is there a way to create a windows7 dvd without the bloatware?

I have another windows 7 dvd from last year that was used to install w7 on a desktop pc. can i used that dvd but just use the serial code that is printed on the underside of my 7720? or does the dvd have the serial code on it?

I am desperate to get this done asap so that I can get started using the notebook properly! can anyone help?!?!

 

Keep trying different people until someone sends you out the disk for free. Dell customer service people are very inconsistent. Some are great, some are terrible. You own your copy of Win7 so they should do it. If not ask their manager.

 

or u just create a bootable dvd/usb-stick (Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool) with a win7 .iso which u can find in the internet and download legally.

it didn´t work for me with the supplied hdds (guess the multiple partitions were the problem, but i don´t know for sure), but had no problems installing win7 on samsung 830series.

 

Question: What cases do owners of the 17R SE use? It's pretty long for a 17" laptop so I'm concerned about what will fit it?

I was going to buy a Wenger Pegasus backpack, does anybody here have one? Does the laptop fit??

 

Well, first impressions are largely positive.

HOWEVER, trying to play Skyrim is a no go. The game detects ultra as the graphics settings, but when playing the game i have to wait about a second between using the keyboard and mouse. If i try to walk and look around at the same time the mouse just does not respond. I have to stop walking, wait a second and then i can try to look around. This is not good. I have tried a couple of suggesting posted online, but nothing has fixed it so far.

 

That's strange. Have you tried it on lower settings and does it work? Or is it something else non-hardware related?

 

yeah i have tried variations of ultra, high, medium, tinkering with AA on each. this has left me disappointed and frustrated

 

Remove - accidental double post

 

Well it's not the case that the laptop isn't powerful enough then. Hmm, I'm not sure what you could do.

On the other hand here is the link to download Win7 Home Premium legally

 

its weird, even if i am looking at my desktop and holding down a key (say D) and try to move the mouse, the mouse does not respond????

Can anyone else try to see if this happens to them? either on the desktop or in internet explorer, just holding down a akey and trying to move the mouse around????

is this a hardware problem?

 

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

 

Ahhh, i got it.
Theres an option in the touchpad properties, called touchguard, that tries to prevent unwanted mouse movements when typing!
Turned that off and now all is good again.
Although I now realise that the touchguard is needed when i am in windows as, even when typing this, i brush the trackpad and keeping moving the mouse as i type!
Jeez the touchpad is too sensitive for me!!
Thanks for trying to help me

 

well............every 7720 have a recovery partition (as you see on the image)..................or call DELL and ask them to send a clean copy of win.7.


pss......also remember that is just older laptops with lower hardware (slower cpu & Ram) who most "feel" the bloatware.

this machine with i7 and 1600Mhz Ram runs program so extremely fast so you never feel any difference, even if you so have 55 different blotwares/programs running in the same time.........(just press Ctrl+ alt + delete and check performance and you see what im talking about..(the cpu & Ram NEVER stays in 100% during normal using)

 

Completely untrue. Boot up and shutdown times are significantly improved by removing all the bloat.

 

are you kidding ?

i removed 4 bloatware (by DELL).......................FOUR !!!!!!! (you cant be serious if you think 4 bloatware with a private working memory at around 7000kb each will do that on a quad core i7 with 6MB l2-cache and 8GB 1600Mhz Ram.

no way.............

you can put in 25 bloatwares (or programs if you like to call it so) and they will NOT affect your PC one bit.
.......bloatware is just a programs...and as long you not starting them, they lays pretty cool, (sure some of them lays in the background...for example DELL backup software...but like i said...it "eats" around 7-8000kb of your working memory........WOW !

 

are you kidding ?

i removed 4 bloatware (by DELL).......................FOUR !!!!!!! (you cant be serious if you think 4 bloatware with a private working memory at around 7000kb each will do that on a quad core i7 with 6MB l2-cache and 8GB 1600Mhz Ram.

no way.............

you can put in 25 bloatwares (or programs if you like to call it so) and they will NOT affect your PC one bit.
.......bloatware is just a programs...and as long you not starting them, they lays pretty cool, (sure some of them lays in the background...for example DELL backup software...but like i said...it "eats" around 7-8000kb of your working memory........WOW !

 

Hi I dont know if this has been answered already.. But what does the mSATA drive appear as in the BIOS boot menu?? I have cloned my drive to the mSATA but I don't know whether I have the boot sequence correct??

 

has anyone tried GTA IV on their 7720 yet? I'm tempted to get a copy but am unsure if it'll run very well. Was hoping to run it with the ICEnhancer 2.1 mod

 

Hello!

What about the BIOS settings on 7720? Happy owners, please upload some images of BIOS menus
Has anyone tried to put on it Linux?

 

what about it ????..........it just a ordinary BIOS meny........what exactly do you like to see ???

 

Linux works.

 

For example if I can disable battery charging, or if I can disable GT 650M from there. (I need these for linux use, ACPI commands like battery charge control usually doesn't work in Linux... And I've seen laptops that cannot disable the dedicated video card with Bumblebee)

 

Sorry for this question, but i ordered my 7720 with i5 and i'm very curious
Is gt650 GDDR5 with i5? or i'll receive with ddr3? i'm interesting in it becouse i ddont know what does it mean 90W or 130W?
I think it was somewhere but i didnt find it, sorry

 

No and No.

 

vidiotp.........all GT650 configurations is with GDDR5.............i5 CPU give you the 90W AC-adapter....... (i7 CPU give you the 130W AC-adapter).

by the way....DELLs new 130W adapter is freaking slim......way better, slimmer & cooler then the older bulky 130W adapter, (very good stuff)

the new 130W:

 

Have you tried using a 90W adapter with the system by chance? I have tons of them, and i'd hate for them to be useless.

 

For light usage 90 will do.