Dell Inspiron 15R Special edition (7520)

Why dont buy it from USA then ?

 

I appreciate your response and it makes me more comfortable going with the 15R SE. Judging from what you wrote, I take that you have an 15R SE? If so, did you get it with the 32 GB mSATA SSD? Frankly, I do not with to do any modifications to the laptop myself, so I would not do any after-market upgrading (at least for the first few years). Having said that, I am wondering how fast the 15R SE boots with the 32 GB mSATA SSD? Even an estimate would help a lot - say, less than a minute? Two minutes?

Any information on this - how quickly the 15R SE boots up with the 32 GB mSATA SSD - would be helpful. Thanks!

 

From memory it was pretty quick with the default Dell install.

I would say.... less than one minute but more than 30 seconds, 45ish?

Thats pretty good for a spinner, however my 15R SE has the 32gb mSATA which helps with the boot up speed.

The 32GB mSATA in the 15R SE is a Samsung PM830 drive that does 400MB/sec sustained read and 90MB/sec sustained write (not sure why write is so low, but thats what I get in my test and looking at the Samsung specs for this drive shows max write = 90MB/sec).

Samsung offer this drive in 32GB to 256GB sizes! Who wants to buy a larger one and try it in their 15R SE?
Specs here:
http://www.samsung.com/us/business/oem-solutions/pdfs/PM830_mSATA SSD_32_64_128_256GB_Spec_1.0.pdf
(speeds on page 7)

I've got mine empty for now, going to use it as the temp drive where I hold random stuff....

 

This was a long read but I'm ordering the 15R SE today based on a lot of info.

Has anyone installed the new video drivers or at this point are we comfortable with the theory that the original problems with BSODs were due to a single bad chip?

Also, for those who are looking into hard drive upgrade options I'd like to offer up a couple of solutions...

I have been using one of the hybrid Seagate drives in my current laptop and even though it only has a 4GB SSD I noticed a very nice increase in performance. It's a more price/MB friendly option that you may consider.

Also, there are many aftermarket manufacturers of CD/DVD bay expansion kits that would allow you to throw in a 2nd hard drive at the cost of your CD/DBD/BR bay. Who needs those old things anymore, right?

-Olds

 

Hello 7Chobbes8,

If you are waiting for a delivery, you can email me at [email protected] and I will look into it.
Vincent / Social Media Coordinator / Customer Care Team / Purolator Inc. / E-mail: [email protected] / Follow us on Twitter: Purolator Help (PurolatorHelp) on Twitter

 

Hi Guys iam from germany and i have 2 questions:

The first one:
Is it possibile to upgrade the 15" to 16GB of Ram with 2x8 GB Ram chips? I need it for After Effects etc.

My second question is:
I ordered in the german-dell store. It was not mentioned if the 32GB Msata is included or not?! Iam a little bit confused...


Thank you

 

From the conversations I was having with the representative, the model that I choose haves the option to insert mSATA, so I will be able to put one. What I was after is a whitepaper with instructions on how to set the partitions and so on.

 

Not sure if this covers what you need, but worth a shot.
Dell Whitepaper: Intel Responsiveness Technologies Setup Guide - Direct2Dell - Direct2Dell - Dell Community

 

WOW Bill! Thanks one more time, this is EXACTLY what I need

 

Bill, this works with a Seagate Momentus which is an SSD + HDD on the same disk?


Edit:

Sorry!!

 

Has anyone found a way to oveclock dell 7730m yet?

I find this very frustrating, tried afterburner unofficial overclocking, enableulps 0, -xcl..... tried all different drivers. just no way.

MSI afterburner keep stuck at 0 if I use unofficial overclocking.

HP's envy 15 with 7750m and new trinity with 7730m can be overclocked with afterburner.

but not this dell.

That's bull.

 

I´m from Germany too.
My 15R SE arrived a week ago. There is definitely no 32GB mSATA included in the 15R SE ordered via the german dell store. So, the first thing i did after the arrival, was to exchange the HD with a Crucial M4 SSD.

 

The msata will give you a boot time relatively close to any SSD on the market. Should be roughly 30 seconds hard boot. Personally i am simply waiting for my 15r SE to arrive Monday. The 15R SE has 3 different choices to pick from. The difference between the most expensive and the one below it, is a blue ray player, the msata SSD and $100 dollars. I simply chose to save the $100 dollars and buy an SSD to replace the HDD.

 

I wonder whether this is a case of the same 'bug' as with the 17R SE?

The bug essentially freezes the gpu clock speed, preventing turbo boost or overclocking from occurring. If this is the problem, it can be overcome by turning the machine off then removing and reinserting the power cable before powering the laptop back up.

Using the machine on battery power, even for a few seconds, causes the bug to occur.

 

Not only that. In Dell if CPU temps go above 80C I think, GPU will disable boost until you do that shut down again and remove power supply.

On the long run this could be a good thing since it should keep system temps at a decent value (around 70-80C). I always hated my previous XPS that was running ~100C. The 7720 keeps resonable cool.

 

Ah, that would explain why mine went yesterday. CPU can run for hours at 100% 8 thread usage and still not get much over 70C if the 650M runs the desktop. With the HD4000 doing it, it hits 80C.

I agree that it's actively good behaviour to disable the GPU boost at high CPU temp and when on battery. However, it should re-enable once CPU temperatures are low again or the computer is back on power.

Currently, because this behaviour lasts even through normal shut-downs, the behaviour is actively undesirable. Many people will not even realise it's happened unless they use something like GPU-Z, and will just constantly have the >10% graphics performance hit.

Dell-Bill B, would it be possible to get the tech guys to take a look at the 7720 (and possibly 7520?) bios to try to get us a fix for this GPU issue? I recognise this issue isn't as serious as the XPS issue, but it is still clearly not working correctly!

 

It's more than 10% from what I have tested in different scenarios. Indeed, it should go back, but it does not. GPU-Z will give default values, you need to monitor the working ones so you need to put the GPU do some actual work to see what maximum it will hit.

Look on the bright side. It has an easy fix and most people will never know anyway.

 

Okay Thanks




Has someone already tested, if the 15r is running with 2 X 8 GB of ram?

 

We should let him finish the XPS problems. Seems like it's more serious and there are more users.

 

There was someone who had tested it, think it was c_man or similar, a few page back.

 

What problems is the new XPS having? I havent been on that forum thread since I got my 15R SE....

 

There is a topic with overheating and downclocking.

 

Has anyone seen any unboxing videos on the 15r SE? i am just curious. Should get mine Monday. Got a 256gb OCZ Vertex 4 seating here right infront of me waiting along.

 

Why don't you do an unboxing video of the 15R SE to start us off and link it to us on youtube?

So far I haven't seen any unboxings for the 15R SE and I have only saw 1 unboxing of the 17R SE but its one of those unboxings where there is music in the background as oppose to a guy talking so it doesn't really help and its not the USA version.

Any update on this How-to video? Is it due for release any time soon?

 

There is an unboxing video on youtube but its not in english.

I have not watched it, but at about 6 mins long looks like it goes into some detail.

Very quiet here recently I guess the mad rush is over and now everyone is enjoying their laptops?

On a related topic:
What is everyone doing / planning for their 1TB HDD (for those who have replaced it with SSD).

I'm thinking of putting mine inside my HTPC, but would need to make a bracket up to mount it as my case (NSK2480B) does not have a provision for 2.5" drives!

 

Where? could you please post the link?

 

Here:| Unboxing Dell Inspiron 15r Special Edition - YouTube

 

I just found this review from CNET Uk, I don't know if you already read it:
Inspiron 15r Special Edition

And a little question for the lucky owners... how big is the laptop? I'm talking about general feel, is it unconfortable to carry around? too heavy?

 

I take mine to work and back everyday in a backpack including sometimes on a bike. I also have travelled a bit with it. It is adequate for me as I have never had anything smaller.

I have really liked the screen so far. I usually keep it on minimum brightness and have no problem reading the display.

I am surprised the speakers weren't mentioned in the article. They are not as good as I hoped but good enough to watch a movie or listen to music without the volume cranked all the way up.

 

Thanks for the reply
I've never had anything smaller than a desktop computer, so I should be good.

I too noticed the lack of any reference to the speakers. Maybe they're not great, but are certainly worth mentioning, especially since most of the other laptops are so deeply lacking in sound quality

 

Hey!
Im new to the forum,
I was just wondering if you buy a low end 15r, can you take out the keyboard and replace it with an off market backlit one?
Also would the laptop be up to video editing and emulators

Thanks

 

I don't know about the keyboard swap but I can tell you that I bought this to replace my current HD Video editing desktop. The entry level 15r SE has the horsepower to do more than I was doing which included 3 and 4 camera mixed of full HD video with multiple sound channels.

 

you can get one from dell and change it out!!, mine came with the standard keyboard and it was replaced with a backlit one, i believe one of the vostros has the same keyboard, might be the Vostro 3510,

 

That's great, can somebody give me a part number so I can get an estamation of cost, also has any one else noticed that the second cheapest config has gone up €30+, is the 1080p screen good and what is the deal with the msata I've seen a lot about it in the thread and I don't really get what it means?

 

ive still got the box the backlit keyboard came in, ill check tonight when i get home, to see if its on it,

the 1080P is 200nits, but i think most peeps are really happy with ithe screens quality, myself included, and certaily from my point of view it has good veiwng angles, if you search my posts on here i did put up photos of screen for someone esle, and one of the backlit keyboard in action

 

On the UK site there are 8 models for the 17R Special Edition. I noticed the other day that the price on them hadn't changed, but all but two of the models had had their RAM downgraded to 6GB from 8GB. About a week ago, all but three of them had 8GB... Dell and there sneaky price changing... grrr
Oh well... I would replace the RAM anyway...

 

Ordered my 15r SE (i5) today morning. . . Really happy. . . Getting it for 54k INR . . .yea I have taken backlit keyboard. . . . They said will be getting it in 7-10 days. . Hope all turns well. . Seriously wish that 15r stands on all of my wishes. . . . Will post about it when I will recieve it, till then cheers

 

I received the 17R SE last week, I have tried many things and thought I would share.

RAM - 16 GB runs wonderfully. 2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance

mSATA - 120GB Mushkin - interestingly with no other HDD/SSD in the 17R, windows installed to the mSATA just like a primary drive. BUT Bios does not have an option for booting from mSATA. I may play with this a little more later today to find out if the mSATA is bootable if no other OS is found.

SSD - OCZ Vertex 4 - In the 2nd HD bay this thing is fast! Boots in less than 30 seconds with room for commonly run software and still allows for 1TB drive in bay 1 to be kept for storage.

 

Pyrommniac, great to see that you changed the mSATA drive and it worked!

On my 15R SE the mSATA can be selected to be the boot drive, in the BIOS under boot drives/options/priority I see 2x "Hard Drive", one is for mSATA and the other for the normal drive bay... their not distinguished by name like they should be but pretty sure you can move one up or down and it will select the mSATA (have not tested this though).

Too bad the mSATA drive is a big chore to swap out in the 15R SE

 

I read where the 15R SE was limited to 8GB, but I also thought the 17R was also, however someone here mentioned putting 16GB in 17R.

Does anyone know if the 15R SE can handle 16GB? and if so, what chips do I purchase?

Thanks
Alan

 

It has been confirmed that the Inspiron SE models can handle 16GB of RAM since the Intel chipset allows for it. The stock Insprion SE RAM is DDR3 RAM at 1600 MHz. This is what you would like to get.

 

Alright, I'm stuck.

I've had this thing for maybe a week. Up to this point, the mic has worked fine. Today, I go to Skype, and the mic won't pick up anything. Listed under recording devices is only "Internal Microphone." Shouldn't there be a listing for a microphone array also?
I've reinstalled the audio drivers, reinstalled the webcam central, nothing works. Help?

 

15R SE. seems to be promising.

Did anyone succeed to get Dell to give 5-10% discount on your order?

i was on chat with one, but i can i only get 2% off through the coperate buying program and 5% in dell e-dollars to use on dell.com

 

It's in brand review now, which usually means legal review comes after. However, we've asked legal to start reviewing it now. So, it should be up pretty quick. PM otw.

 

The notebookcheck review is out. very detailed and informative, just as I like it --> Review

 

The dell xps 14z is no longer part of the xps lineup. It was replaced by the xps 14 and the name was reused in the budget-oriented "ultrabook" inspiron 14z.

That said, the site is fake and a clear scam attempt. The four "new" articles were posted the same day and clearly ripped out of some other site (source is endgadget for the 14z review).

EDIT: please delete

 

I just purchased two of them for my family members . ( was about to go for the HP DV6 ivy bridge then opted for these )

7520 core i5 | 8gb | 1TB HD | Radeon 7730 2gb | all other are base specs
5520 core i7 | 8gb | 1TB HD | Radeon 7670 1gb | all other are base specs

The disappointments I had that there was no FHD screen available in my country , and while they had confirmed that its with the backlit keyboard I didnt get one

Apart from that , both of them are a welcome upgrade from Acer laptops . Some points ill write down based on their usage :

Its a little on the bulky side , but really doesn't bother me as i will not be moving it around much .

Built quality . I cant go into the micro details as pro users , but i guess i got pretty much what i paid for .

The usual 720p screen , Have to live with it so cant say much on that

LOVE the keyboard and the Trackpad . If only i got the backlit version

The speakers are pretty good . Much much better than the standard ones you get in the laptops at this range . It could've had a woofer though ( similar to dell xps 15 502x )

Performance , I tried some test renderings on the i7 and speeds seems on par with i7 desktop machine .

The fan remain pretty silent even during gaming . So does the HDD

For game performance, I haven't got a chance to try any latest games . Played two year old Dragon Age : Origins without any prob ( not really demanding on gpu )

As much as I need to use , the temperature remain pretty cool . Ive no concerns with stress test as I will probably wont be taking them that far . . . . yet .

The battery life is a lot better on the i5 .

Nvidia Optimus wins !

Also I noticed that I am getting better wifi singals on the 7520 as compared to the 5520 . I wonder why .

I am pretty satisfied with my purchase

 

when do you guys think these will start showing up on Dell Outlet?

 

Something I have noticed on my 15r - how do you get the hdmi out to work? I plugged in hdmi out whilst on desktop and tried pressing Fn + F1 but nothing worked- any ideas? Its quite important for me to be able to run the desktop through hdmi to connect to a tv.

please advise.

 

Not much to it, I just plugged mine in to the TV and then opened up graphics properties.

From there you can select if you wanted it to clone the laptop screen, or span it etc...