Dell Studio 1555

Sweet. I ordered, should be here in a couple weeks.

 

You really think 2 weeks? What specs did you order?

Mine's been almost 19 days and it's in production still. Good luck with 2 weeks!

 

If your order takes 3 weeks and then a better deal comes along I'm sure they'll help give you some money off or something right?

 

Yes it is but you can only get it if you call them, and he told me that i would have a delay of 1-2weeks.

But i still dont know what to get , i wish to be able to play once in a while, would the hd4570 really be enought? Should i take the risk of buying a machine that only has 1 year warranty??

 

What games are you looking to play? If they have a demo, I could possibly try them out for you and see how playable the game is. Benchmarks are great for comparison but not very indicative of actual gameplay.

 

Team fortress 2, warcraft 3 TFT, left 4 dead ,CC 3, and in the futur starcraft 2 and diablo 3. Thx!

 

Yikes Blackhawk, you've been waiting forever. Hopefully it ships really soon -- it really stings entering a credit card number for something that you'll have a month later. The wait is killing me as well, I just try to not think about it and hope that when it does eventually arrive that there's no problems.

 

I've played the following two games all the way through on the laptop: Half Life 2 (entire series) and Crysis. With Episode 2, the game runs at 1600x900 everything on except for AA. Crysis is playable at 1280x720 on low with some medium settings although I suggest forcing the game to run on DirectX9 instead of DirectX10 for the icier second half of the game.

Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne - Unless there is a compatibility issue, this will probably run well.

Team Fortress 2 - Appears to run better than Half Life 2 Episode 2 with everything on high at 1600x900 with AA to 4. I don't have the time to play a full game right now, but it looks like multi-core rendering helps

Blizzard is usually good at releasing games that run well. Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 from the videos I've seen should be playable. They both do not seem to have the performance hitting bullcrap that Crysis flaunts instead of gameplay.

 

Good and bad news from Amd-Ati concerning the bus width of the ati 4570.
Here's the answer from their consumer helpdesk:

You can check Dell consumer care to be sure. But one thing is, the 128-bit bus width is possible. This explains why gpu-z and others gave it as a result.

Clearly the real bottleneck would be the limiting 80 stream processing units.

 

I got my Lappy 2day , 11 days after ordering. One thing that annoyed me abt this lap is that there r no indicator lights at all ( nothing for for wifi, bluetooth, capslock, numlock, LAN, Hard disk). That could be real irritating for ppl since u hav to depend on the dell app to provide the status of caps, wifi.. etc. the build quallity is good, backlit keyboard is excellent. I had thought that i wouldnt be able to use the USB under the slot drive much since it might block the cds, but u wont have any problems if u hav a regular size USB. those r some of the things i found, thought it might be useful for ppl plannin to buy. the rest i m still exploring

 

Man that's brutal, but it probably is because you're getting the 1080p screen. I noticed Dell's site said that would delay the order. I've ordered the 900p so hopefully there will be less delay.

 

Yeah I'm getting mine with the 900p display, and it took 11 days from order to ship. Ordered on the 13th, shipped the 24th, and hopefully here by the end of the week

 

I hope it ships by Friday or I'll call a third time and complain.

 

In my case I usually don't play so I have a perfect choice (the 4500MHD) for power saving. However, as any product sold in europe, the warranty is mandatory for 2 years, regardless the web statements (perhaps one will have to pay for sending or receiving the laptop, but they must still repair it for free).

 

Do you think if mine doesn't come by June 4 (likely has to ship by this Friday), can I call to complain and get something for the extremely long wait? I think the Dell page is not being updated or something.

 

Yeah I do
I did it for something before a few years ago

 

What did you get?

I'm thinking a $100 gift card if they do not honor the shipping date... is that too much to ask?

 

No. They're a giant corporation, at least you don't have to feel bad from taking away from their profit margin.
I can't remember what the problem was, might have been a delay like yours, I asked for an extra battery and they sent it to me. Took them a few tries to get me the right battery though.

About to place my Studio 1555 order right now!

 

Haha, go for it! You will be happy the minute you get yours.

And yeah, I'll call Friday if it hasn't shipped. That would be 22 full days...

 

Wow. Is this because of the 1080p screen? I opted out of the screen just cuz I didn't want the delay

Is what I got a good deal?

I've been looking for like a week for the best deal on a Studio 15.. I ended up somewhere around $1250 but today, out of luck I received a catalogue in the mail today which was fortuitous since it led me to this link

www.dell.com/may2 which let me get it for $1074

If you go to the Dell website by itself and pick the best deal package you get it for $1254 but that comes with a $100 giftcard and a wireless n card so I still think I got a better deal.

SYSTEM COLOR Midnight Blue edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works edit
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis edit
HD DISPLAY 15.6” High Definition+ (900p) Bright LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera edit
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz edit
HARD DRIVE Speed: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) with Free Fall Sensor edit
VIDEO CARD 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load Super Multi (DL DVD+/-R Drive + RAM support) edit
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® WiFi Link 5100 802.11agn Half Mini-Card edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell) edit
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0 edit
KEYBOARD Back-lit Keyboard

 

Wow, nice deal there. You pretty much got the sweet spot.

 

I was apprehensive about buying a new laptop for so long because I knew I'd have to go through this whole coupon ordeal. Dell always marks their computer up from some mysterious magical number no one knows about. I mean you take apples, super overpriced but always one set price. With Dell you might have a coupon to take $100 off.. or you might go through a chat rep who offers you $150 off.. or you get a link/dell catalogue code that gets you $200 off.. So you never know if you got the best deal or if someone else got a better deal etc

 

Completely agree, some pricing transparency would really set consumer's minds at ease. This whole coupon mystery shenanigans is ridiculous.

 

Shipped!

10char

 

When I get my Studio 15 I would like to separate the harddrive into two main partitions and add a second OS (like windows 7) to the second. It's just safer that way anyway.
What should I use to partition the harddrive or can Vista do it for me?

 

With that link my system is $109 cheaper.

 

Yeah see this is what I mean.. I think it's kinda cheesy that honest people get a little screwed over compared to other people who might have gotten a catalogue.

BUT you can probably call and complain and keep complaining until they give you a refund or credit or a free battery or something

 

My system is still in production to. Ordered on 5/19. Now I find it $109 cheaper!

 

You can use the Vista recovery disk to arrange partitions prior to reinstalling Vista. Alternatively, you could use a third party program like Partition Magic, which I have always had success with.

 

oh good you should be able to get your money back for the partial difference

 

You haven't still spoken about the monitor's brands...
What do you have (720p)?

 

Who are you asking this qustion?

 

Dell 1555 owners...

 

Just noticed on the Dell website the UK one they are offering the 1920x1080 screen now. Just wondering what it is like to use on the 15 inch screen compared to the 1366x768 screen. This is on the Studio 15 model.

 

I ordered mine with the 1080 screen.

 

Received my 1555 today

so far so good. just wondering:

- my catalyst reports some weird value for the vram (got the 512MB version):



do you have that also?

- there was some paper that came with the lap that says i should charge the battery for 12 hours the first time..
when i started the lap the battery was at almost 100%... charging it anyway now.

did you have that too?

 

That is normal for the amount of ram, the videocard uses its own 512MB and also shares some with your computer. I also have about 2300MB available for the videocard to use.

 

Received my 1555 today! It was a system exchange for the 1535. Some initial impressions:
-Palm rest/touchpad area gets much hotter than on the 1535. I suspect it has to do with the rearrangement of the internal components.
-Speaker bar looks weird. I don't know if its just something with my unit, but all the black accents are glossy, and the speaker cover is matte. Not a big deal but looks strange.
-Build quality on a whole seems a lot better than the 1535. Keyboard is very sturdy, so is the palm rest
-Loving the 900p screen. I only had the standard screen on my 1535 and the extra real estate is well worth it. The LED backlight compared to the CCFL is amazing as well

Let me know if there are questions and I can answer as well...

EDIT: I meant to mention the sound is also SO much better than the 1535. Much less tinny and no crackles either.

 

Why dont someone who has the 1555 do a good review on Youtube.

 

Been exactly 3 weeks since order and it's still in production. Is there something wrong? I don't want to blame the extremely long wait on the 1080p.

 

If I had an external camera, I would do a complete review of it.

The only thing I will probably be doing is showing various gameplay videos (Crysis, Half Life 2, etc) to show how the 4570 runs.

EDIT:
I'd call up and ask politely (or complain vehemently) about the status of your delayed system.

 

Can someone post some pictures with it? I'm interested on the 900p screen and backlit keyboard.
Finally i've ordered one today...So my 1537 will go back to Futureshop

 

I'll get a review going tonight with some pictures...little bit of a tease for those of you waiting on yours to ship

 

Just picked out this setup going to order it soon

COLORS, PATTERNS, & ARTIST DESIGNS Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista SP1™ Home Premium (64 BIT) - English

OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English - (Does not include Microsoft® Word)

HARDWARE SUPPORT 3Yr In-Home Warranty Support, including evenings and Saturdays

LCD 15.6in Widescreen Full High Definition (1920x1080) WLED with TrueLife

WEB CAM 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera

MEMORY 4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]

HARD DRIVE 500GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive

GRAPHICS CARD 512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570

OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal Blu-ray Disc (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM) Slot Drive including SW

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 9-cell 85 WHr Lithium Ion battery

KEYBOARD Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard

PROTECT YOUR NEW PC No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English

BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - European

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel WiFi Link 5300 Half Mini Card (802.11 a/g/n) (Centrino)

All together comes to £948.79, think its a pretty good deal.

 

I received my 1555 today, and after making sure it was all hunky dory with Vista 32-bit, I formatted and installed the Windows 7 RC (64-bit). Unfortunately, now I'm getting a 4.9 in Windows experience index instead of the 5.1 (For gaming ability) that I was in Vista. Not only that, but the drivers are terrible and don't even install properly (all folders are empty) and after a full day of downloading things from the Dell website that are supposed to be Vista 64-bit, none of which work, I'm really pissed off. The audio drivers for the dtp soundcard don't install, saying that's not the soundcard I have on my system, then Windows 7 automatically downloads a standard HD audio driver, and there's no program for the soundcard that was in the original Vista install (also I can't find it anywhere online).
EDIT: Apparently Dell don't like it updating from their own driver CD, so you have to unzip everything, then go into the device manager and select the Hd audio thing, say update drivers, the point it to the Dell folder. Far too complicated. The program's also on there now, so fixed, apart from the GPU driver. By that, I mean the Catalyst Control Center won't install. I've downloaded 3 separate installs for it. It gets as far as creating the folder on the C drive in program files and then nothing else is in there.

 

Can anybody tell me how i can install catalyst 9.5 drivers on vista. Can i install the default setup available frm AMD or do i hav to get a modded version ?

 

I was just researching and apparently Dell don't like keeping up to date with drivers. I haven't yet got it to work, but try this:
http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php
follow the instructions on their site.

 

Thanks dekstar, i ll give it a try. Btw i also found a link for modded version in the alienware section here. Will that work for dell too?

 

If you look on page 3 of your link, there's a download someone made to Vista 32-bit drivers. If you're on 32-bit then there you go.

 

Yeah i saw it too, thats for XP 32bit. Unfortunately i m running Vista 64bit. Heres a link if any needs it http://rapidshare.com/files/235807494/9-5_xp32_dd_modded_ATI_Radeon_4570_Mobility_Drivers.rar