The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Dell BIOS & Some Hardware info

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by miggs78, Apr 29, 2010.

  1. miggs78

    miggs78 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    20
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Just a quick question please. Been wanting to buy a laptop probably with an i5 520 processor.

    Seen very good deals on Lenovo, unfortunately came to find out their BIOS is locked, and so with Sony too. Is Dell BIOS locked also, main reason is because I use virtualbox and other related software, and I need VT enabled, will this be an issue with Dell too, as with Lenovo it is (at least as per the threads on the Lenovo side, and no fix yet).

    One other thing, talking about Lenovo again or even Acer, I've seen them offer a i5 520 on 14/15" laptops, then why is that I don't have an option to get an i5 520 on a Studio 15.

    One last no-brainer question, sorry.. 15.6" screens have a resolution of 1366x768 (16:9) and newer 14" laptops I've seen also have the same resolution, is that also 16:9 and 720p ?

    Thanks. :)
     
    miggs78, Apr 29, 2010
    #1
  2. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

    Reputations:
    2,962
    Messages:
    8,231
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    216
    As far as I know, Dell doesn't lock down VT in their BIOS. At the very least, I've found VT options easy to find and usable on pretty much every mainstream Latitude since the D620.

    The Studio 15 does have the option for an i5 520... you might just need to click around a bit? The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

    15" and 14" 1366 x 768 are both 16:9 and can support 720p videos without any resizing; the only difference is that the pixel density on the 15" screen will be lower.
     
    Commander Wolf, Apr 29, 2010
    #2
  3. miggs78

    miggs78 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    20
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Hi Commander, first of all Salute.. :p

    Let me first say, I'm from Canada.. :) You guys are attracting lots of is Canadians, I found lots of useful info on this forum.

    Thanks for the info, it looks like I'll have no choice to either go for Dell or Acer or Asus. Both Lenovo and Sony lock down their BIOS, and Toshiba's i core systems are out of my budget.

    Like I mentioned VT, only reason I want to go for an i5 5xx series over the 4xx series is that the 4xx don't include Intel TXT, VT-D and AES, VT-d especially, since I'll be using apps like virtualbox.

    Do you know if anyone is able to hack down the Lenovo Ideapads BIOS. Acer Aspire AS5740-6395 Notebook PC - Intel Core i5-520M 2.4GHz, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6" Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Blue at TigerDirect.com this one from US, give and take with shipping and custom charges, it will probably cost me $1k.

    Asus has some nice laptops, or Dell it maybe.
     
    miggs78, Apr 29, 2010
    #3