Ordered a Vostro 1320 from the Dell outlet last week and it arrived in 3 days
Having previously owned its older and bigger brother, the 1510, I decided to order the 1320 because I got a good deal on it on the Outlet .....
im not sure if i want a graphic card in it, as it would just eat battery life and i would get nothing much out of it, since i have no plans in gaming with it.
i will be, however massively watching movies, and streaming movies (99.9% of the web, not dvd player) would that need a dedicated graphic card?
i would also like to know which are the best in terms of :
price, screen quality, build quality, weight, which ones have the same keyboard,current known issues, and are they any rumors or known news of any updates of any of these models in the next 6 months worth waiting for?
ive also bought a m1330 a few months back, but since i had some issues with school, i had to return it and delay my purchase to this year.
the laptop was getting extremely hot, like not even possible to put on my lap kind-of hot. is that issue fixed?
Looking into a simple and fast laptop for general use, and mobile music production (nothing pro, just a hobby). Thinking of the following:
13" Vostro 1320
2.53Ghz 1066Mhz
4Gb 800Mhz
320Gb 7,200rpm
256Mb Geforce 9300M
Cherry Red
6 Cell Battery
Fingerprint Reader
Wifi Intel 5300 Half Mini Card
So I am contemplating between these two models but can't really decide. I like the real estate of the Vostro 1520 but the weight may be a problem. The 1320 is an option cause of it's battery life and weight. But at this point I am at a standstill...
So mainly, what are your opinions about these two macines..
I'm thinking of buying an external blu-ray player for my wife's 1320.
Questions:
1. I'm almost sure it'll work with her Intel graphics. Am I right?
2. As you know the Vostro doesn't have a DVI or Display port. Will it output the full 1080 to our 23" monitor through the VGA?
I'm looking for opinions on which of these notebooks to purchase. I like both because they are 13" form factor and both are nicely spec'd but the Vostro is cheaper when spec'd out. I can get both in red which is another plus.
I can't find much info on the Vostro 1320 here on the forums and I do know that there are some heat issues with the XPS 13 that seem to be alleviated through updates.
I had some issues with the vostro that i have, its been very frustrating, when i have the battery in, it will goes to hibernate supposedly due to low battery after some usage
View 6 Replies View RelatedThe Vostro 1320 looks almost ideal for what I need (a pc easy to move around but can still serve as desktop replacement for most tasks). The matte screen is a big plus, as is the integrated optical drive. The price is also quite reasonable.
I however question his long term durability. I'd like to keep this laptop for around 4 years. Is the 5400 more susceptible to last that long ? It's a bit bigger but I'm ok with that, as long as there is a real quality difference. It's still smaller than my current 15"
I am intending to buy a Vostro 1320, I will use it for text editing, Internet surfing, occassional photoediting, so I don't have high hardware demands only that computer works smoothly.
There are some things which I dont understand:
1) they offer processors with fsb 800 Mhz and fsb 1066 Mhz, but the RAM memory works on 800 Mhz
I am prepared to pay for little bit better processor but do I have advantage of better CPU when I have slower Ram ?
2) they have also half-height and full-height wireless card,
is it some particular advantage with half-height ?
3) is it worth to buy 256 MB Nvidia instead of onboard Intel X4500MHD graphics card, and as I said my demands on graphics are not so high ?
I recently received my new Vostro 1320 and i'm quite satisfied with the system thus far.
I would however really like to put my own copy of XP on it (the system came with Vista Basic). I have my own copy of XP and all the XP drivers from dell's support site.
I've heard that there might be some issues regarding the BIOS that might make the reformat less than simple. Can anyone provide any advice about it or should I go about it as usual.
I want something around 12 to 13", fast, that can handle the latest windows without lag or anything.
I don't plan to play games on this laptop, maybe some movies. I will usually be using it for Word, internet, and regular things.
I saw this Vostro 1320 and this are the specs that Dell is offering, which seems pretty good for the price:
My System Details
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, with Media, 32-bit, English
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6670 w/ VT (2.1GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 2 DIMM
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with Free Fall Sensor
13.3 inch WXGA Anti-Glare Display
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™ DX 8.1
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Dell Wireless™ 1397 802.11b/g Mini Card
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Vista
Integrated 1.3MP Webcam and Digital Mic with webcam
Subtotal$635
Im did a research on reviews of this lappy on notebookforums but can't find any. Please if someone have this laptop, would you please recommend it or give your opinion of it .....
I've been looking at the Dell Vostro 1320 and been messing around with the upgrades, but I noticed that whenever I try to place the Nvidia 9300M I get a compatibility error
View 3 Replies View RelatedI'm anxious to see how the new models compared to their predecessors. I've always liked the Vostro models and recommend them quite often in lieu of budget "retail" models.
They have decent build quality, look nice and they often go on-sale for dirt cheap!
The new models look promising. I hope that they are at least as good as the 1310/1510/2510/1710 that they're replacing. I'd also love to see the 1320 with a 13.3" LED-backlit display like the one on the Lenovo ThinkPad SL300!
Last night my audio went dead, and I didn't change or install anything.
I've run the diagnostics tool and confirmed that the audio is indeed working, both the internal and the headphone jack.
I'm running Windows 7 x64 and the drivers I'm using are from Dell's driver site, version 6.10.0 6224 dated 03/11/2009
I've tried older drivers but no luck.
I got a good deal on Vostro 1320 base model and just got confirmation from Dell Canada. Now can any one share your opionion whether it is worthwhile to add the integrated 1.3M webcam for $40 and upgrade HD from 160G 5400rpm HD to 250G 7200rpm HD with free fall sensor for $50 (all before tax)?
I might call them to see if they can manually upgrade for me.
I know I can upgrade the HD afterward, and I usually can find a good deal on 320G 7200rpm Hitachi HD for $70 or so if I can wait.
But my question is how difficult and how much hassle is to upgrade HD myself, and does that invalid the warranty, also what does the free fall sensor mean? Worth to have it?
my vostro 1320 (intel X4500 ) recently got a problem for not being able to detect correct monitor type and resolution, even with a fresh install OS with up-to-date intel driver.
also there is a relative loud noise in last second of shutting down(the moment computer finally powered off). is this a hardware failure?
I get these "skips" and "stutter" on everything, movies, mp3, FLAC and it doesn't matter which media player I use.
I've tried locating a newer driver but so far I haven't been able to find one newer than the one from Dell which I'm running right now.
The driver version is: 6.10.0.6146 and is called IDT High Definition Audio Codec.
What brand is that exactly, Intel?
The options Hibernate and Sleep are there but I cant select them, also the laptop turns off automaticly after some time and gets hot. Its a vostro 1320 runing windows 7 and without battery.
View 6 Replies View RelatedI'm owner of Vostro 1320. I've updated BIOS to last one A08, but I cannot find info what maximum size of hard disk it can handle.
I'm planning to put 1TB SATA 3 or 2 7200 rpm, will that work OK?
I have a Vostro 1320 that crashed during a bios update, Power/battery light still come on and the screens backlight comes on but it remains black, and shows absolutley nothing on the screen, not even that little white underscore, completely black.
Ive been looking around and from what ive found this dell has a phoenix BIOS and I have found people in forums who have successfully recovered from bad bios flashes such as mine but on different model dells. They used a program called "phoenix bios crisis recovery" however I can not find this program for download for my model laptop.
-a download link for this phoenix bios program for my vostro 1320 for making a bootable usb of new bios.Â
-The keyboard commands for my vostro 1320 to force a blind flash
 (even if you cant find the phoenix bios recovery program knowing this command could work,  should be something like windows key + b or function + b, It might work because although im fairly sure i need the phoenix bios recovery disc i might be able to reflash without it, I have already extracted the .wph and .rom files from the new bios im flashing and i might be able to get one of those to work for a reflash)...
Dell Vostro 1320 won't boot:
Switch on. Fan starts. Fan stops. Num lock key flashes on and off rapidly and repeatedly.Nothing else.
Have: Cleaned keyboard. Removed/reinstalled RAMRemoved/reinstalled HD
What next?
I have an aging M1210 with 2 gigs of ran, a OCZ SSD & the C2D 2ghz T7200 processor.
I wasnt really planning on an upgrade but the pricing looks pretty good.
I am not sure if its worth it though. My M1210 with SSD is amazing.
I just dont know if going from a 2.0 T7200 to a 2.66 T9550 is worth it or if i should wait longer for an I7 system in this size?
For a while now, I have only considered using Thinkpads. Primarily because of the great keyboard, but also because of the business aethetics.....solid pure black design and great materials. Often I would rant about how somebody else had to adopt these two features and add some competition.
I have to say Dell did an outstanding job with the E6400. The keyboard is actually nicer than the Thinkpad keyboard due to a shorter slope on the edges which give them more surface area on the top. Otherwise, the feel is very very similar. Excellent job.
The design is serious and sophisticated with a lower maintenance lid. The Thinkpad, however, still has more polish in the build construction. Specifically, the amount of overall flex and how well they had their seems disguised.
The LED WXGA+ screen has ruined me. My desktop LCD now looks dim. It's the most beautiful matte display I've ever seen on any monitor or notebook. I'm not sure I've ever seen an LCD television as nice. It's just spectacular.
I'm very happy to see Dell finally taking the business notebook market seriously. From what I've seen, I believe they've succeeded in broaching the hallowed arena held for so long exclusively by the Thinkpad. While not quite there in terms of build quality, they have more than matched Lenovo in at least a few areas and hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
I have started this separate thread to get more visibility (for now) but this can be merged into the master 1558 thread eventually.
I have the laptop for 1 week now
Pros:
•Great screen, 1080p screen is easily the best thing about the laptop. Very bright and sharp.
•I5-520m is quite fast. Good enough for most task and even some gaming, I ran the beta of Starcraft for a dew mins and it ran at mid to high settings for most (I have 4570 GPU)
•6200N is a good card and is much faster than the g card I was using in Vostro. Connects to the router in about 10 secs if I turn it off and then turn it on while laptop is on.
•9 cell battery performance is decent, I think I get about 4 hours of use with light to middle load of use. With very light use I should be well over 4 hours.
Cons:
•Slot DVD player is noisy, makes one loud clicking noise when every you boot the laptop. Sometimes there are two clicks.
•Froze one time when I booted up one morning, had to reboot again by holding the power button. Not sure what happened there.
•Biggest issue is heat for me, coming from a 14” Vostro I thought this will produce less heat but it seems to produce the same amount. The touchpad is quite hot to the touch as well as the bottom area just below the laptop. These external temps do not fluctuate much with the change in the core temps, at least that is what it seems to me. My core temps have not been too bad. 35-38C idle, 40-46C with light use (internet surfing), ~50-55C watching youtube etc. 70-74C when stressed 100% for 5 minutes. So what can be done about heat as that is my biggest concern and I have to decided if I want to keep this laptop. I opened the bottom cover and saw the CPU is smack under it. CPU is quite small and the heatsink as well. I could not see where the fan is but it does not seem close to the CPU so no wonder you cannot get heat to get out. Has anyone tired put a larger heatsink over the CPU or put thermal paste?
•Fan Control is very poor but I am optimistic that eventually DELL can update bios to address that. Fan turning on and off every minute is not acceptable.
•Has anyone noticed some light vibration around the touch pad area, when you put your hand to feel it? My laptop seems to have it and it is the highest close to the touch pad area. Not sure if it is the fan or CPU or the DVD player.
Anyway need 1558 users advice as I would like to make the decision on this laptop if I want to keep it. I got it as refurb so the price is quite good for the specs but I do not want it to die after a year and a half.
This is a hands on discussion of the new videocard which include benchmarks, screenshots and video links to demonstrations.
View 7 Replies View RelatedIm writing this so that others who are curious about these types of cards can decide if the upgrade is right for them. This installation required me opening the laptop and breaking off a small piece of plastic, which was very easy. I also updated the system BIOS to A09 and acquired the 130 W PSU as this baby draws about 45W of power itself compared to the 20 the GS requires.
When I originally bought the GS I knew it was a good card. It still is. I got this card because I felt the upgrade would be more cost effective then rebuilding my old desktop PC. All I can say is that where the GTX shines is where the GS shows its weak spots. The GTX can really handle higher resolutions really well as well as keep the frame rate fairly smooth.
For my temps, since I AS5'd it, runs at about 45 idle and 75 peak which is fairly good considering all thats going on.
The biggest jump was in STALKER which quite honestly the GS really had trouble with. Im happy to report the GTX can max out this engine fairly well with little to no choppiness.
Well shoot, what are we waiting for lets see some pics and results.
7900GS specs
7900GTX specs
Bioshock- All Mazed out- no Vsync- 1920x1200 20-30FPS
Gears of War- All Maxed out- No Vsync- 20-30FPS
Stalker- All Maxed out- 1600x1200- Smooth 30-45FPS
In conclusion, the GTX stomps all over the GS in higher resolutions and with the extra clock and memory speed it can easily outperform the GS in almost every aspect. It should be noted these are stock speeds and OC'ing would result in hopefully even better performance.
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Order Date: 18/09/2008
Estimated Delivery Date (on or before this date): 20/10/2008
Actual Shipment Date: 25/09/2008
Cost: 1461.68 euro (2135.08 usd)
Config:
QTY Item Description
1 Latitude E4300 : BLACK Intel Core 2 DuoSP9300(2.26GHz,1066MHz,6MB) Latitude ON Reader
1 Standard Touchpad 214-10064
1 Display : Black -No Camera, Latitude On Reader, WWAN- 13.3inWXGA(1280x800)
1 Documentation : English Shipping Docs
1 Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 800MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
1 Hard Drive : 80GB Serial ATA (5400RPM)
1 Optical Drive : Roxio Creator 9.0 Software (XP & VistaCompatible) with Recovery CD
1 Optical Drive : Power DVD 8.0
1 Optical Drive : BLACK 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
1 Power Cord : UK/Ireland 90W AC Adaptor 3-pin
1 Battery : Primary 6-cell 60W/HR LI-ION
1 No Carry Case
1 Wireless : Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard with Centrino label
1 Keyboard : Internal UK/IR Qwerty Standard Keyboard
1 Software Driver : Latitude E4300
1 Software Driver : Recovery DVD
1 Operating System : English Windows Vista Business SP1 to XP Pro SP3 Downgrade
1 Windows Vista Business SP1 Os media
1 Client Systems Management Disabled
1 AntiVirus : Not Included
1 Base Warranty
1 3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty
1 No Warranty Upgrade
1 Declined CompleteCare
1 Latitude Order - Ireland
1 Road Freight Charge Per Unit 1-10 unit
Collected my dell latitude e4300 saturday morning (27/09) from my local depot instead of waiting for it to be delivered and been giving it a whirl for the last day or so.
First some quick figures. On my kitchen scales the e4300 with the 6 cell battery weighs about 1.8kg (4lbs). The charger and power cord weigh another 500 grams (1lb) making for a total travel weight (notebook + 6 cell battery + charger) of about 2.3 kgs (roughly 5 lbs).
The e4300 feels sturdy enough although the 6 cell battery that sticks out at the back feels a little loose when given a tug. The keyboard (uk layout) as far I can tell is almost same the size/layout as its bigger brother the e6400 except for the page up and down which are full size and placed beside the arrow keys.
When first powered up the machine spends a little over 2 minutes in some kind of bios initialization mode before booting into a windows xp setup screen - subsequent power ons are a lot faster taking about 50 seconds to a bring up a full xp desktop.
The matte display (device manager says LCD2207) is brighter and has better viewing angles than the Latitude D630 I used some months ago but I was expecting a lot more from a LED screen.
Heat wise the notebook gets a little warm under the chassis top left near the air vent where the cpu is located but was still comfortable enough to place on my lap while wearing jeans.
Noise is a problem with this notebook. The cpu fan although not loud is audible if you're in a quiet room. The latitude D630 was almost whisper quiet in comparison. There's also a slight electronic buzz which sounds like someone sending morse code coming from the top left of the notebook which becomes extremely irritating after a while.
The battery meter claims over 6 hours when fully charged but I've gotten nearer 5 with wifi and some web browsing - will do more formal tests later.
The default software install on this machine is a mess - see attached screenshots taken from task manager and process explorer.
On booting into Windows xp over 354 mb of ram is already being used up by running processes all seemingly related to the proper functioning of this laptop. I though vista memory usage was excessive but for an xp install this is ridiculous - if only 512Meg ram was installed this machine would not be usable as a business notebook.
In general use the touchpad becomes intermittingly laggy with the mouse pointer pausing to change shape (2 black arrows,twirl) no doubt due to some value add cruft running in the background and the touchpad has twice stopped responding to finger input necessitating a windows reboot.
The bottom right of the keyboard doesn't seem to fit snuggly with the notebooks chassis leading to a noticeable flex everytime you press the page down or right arrow key.
Theres an ambient light sensor that adjusts the screen brightness on the fly depending on lighting conditions but anytime I enable it the display brightness seem to jump about a lot (even indoors at night) so I left it off.
With wireless configuration there also appears to be some kind of bun fight between windows xp,dells control point and Intel PROSet software with the apparent winner being Intel.
Not sure if there's also a problem with whatever tracks hard disk usage on this notebook as the hard disk light on the bezel is constantly flashing even when filemon.exe utility reports no file activity.
I'm going do some more tests and try and find out if I can do something about the buzzing noise, hard disk light and keyboard flex but as it stands for the price I paid this notebook is failing to impress.
Very brief note (I supposed to be cooking Christmas dinner...)- I've got my M6400 and it is great.
I stuck an extra hard disk in (the 2nd caddy and interposer was in there) and installed Vista 64bit as RAID0. All seems well. I patched it to all the latest patches and no audio problems (but then I only play MP3s on it - no audio work), no BSODs etc.
I've put in the 5505 WWLAN card from my D820 - and it works, but I need some drivers - the Dell drivers detect the system type and refuse to install - which is a pain in the to be honest - but I'm confident of getting around that. More on that later - after Christmas!
The system is blindingly fast (QX9300, 8GB RAM) . Battery life is about 1hr20mins. By far the fastest computer that I've ever owned.
Only fly in the ointment is to do with the hard disk system - in there I have a 250GB and a 320GB - and it only let me setup a 500GB RAID0 setup - and won't let me do anything with the spare 70GB. Never mind - it isn't like I'm short of disk space!
There was some pretty major keyboard flex when I got it - but I fixed that by reseating the keyboard and all is well now.
There are some drivers that I seem to be missing but I don't know what they are (looking at device manager - some devices without a driver) - but the system is running ok. This is my fault for not saving the original vista configuration first before wiping and re-installing! So any suggestions there would be great (they are the Broadcom USH and 2 devices called "Data Interface" - I downloaded the Broadcom USH drviers from Dell, but they didn't work on the 64bit vista. I'll phone dell support between Christmas and New Year and see what they say)
So - specs are:
Non-Covet, 1920x1200 FX2700, 8GB RAM (it shipped with 4GB), disk as described above, and vista 64bit. No webcam or fingerprint reader. And I've also got a E-Port plus docking station.
Happy Christmas!
the PSUs - even after being warned - the size came as a real shock! I must try the system with my 90W PSUs from the D820 - I'll let you know how that goes.
I have ownwed a 1730 [purchased from Leee73 here] for 12 hours now, I spent a few hours downloading all the necessary drivers from Dell and installing them as it had a fresh install of Home Premium. I loaded 3D Mark 2006 and ran it with slightly underwheling results [12000 marks] But I do know that Vista and some drivers dont do well in that benchmark. I loaded Crysis, R6 Vegas2, GRAW2 and UT3 and I must say that this machine totally rocks. Every game is maxed out in screen resolution and still pulls playable framerates. The image quality is mind blowing. The Logitech LCD is fun in a bunch of ways. Ya this is a desktop replacement, but definatly ultra portable compared to lugging a tower to a lan party or on a camping trip. The I/O ports are all laid out well. THe one thing thays missing is a fingerprint scanner. Imagine going to the toilet at a lanparty, you could simply lock your computer with the swipr of a finger so jealous competitors cant go mess with your regidstry. The webcam is a must along with the microphones [although I have no use for them at the moment] The speakers sound crisp and clear and I hear sounds in games that I previously have never heard on my Quad core 3870 Xfired 1066ram raid powered desktop. I also own a 1710 and anyone who compares these machines simply has no idea what there talking about. I really like my 7900GTX powered 1710, but its no 1730 when it comes to flat out image quality and overall performance.
The 1730 could use some beefed up ram as thats the only thing holding back the Windows experience index to a 5.0. I got a great deal on my 1730, I would buy one new from Dell if a smokin deal came along like when I bought my 1710, but I am too cheap to pay full retail. If you were thing on buying a 1730 but had read others complain, dont listen to them, Its an awesome gaming rig, and even though guys with single 8800s in their laptops can brag of simular 3D Amrk scores, you can rest assured that they would have bought a SLI if they could have. And they secretly deep down inside will forever remain envious.
Just got my m4400 finally. Quad core + uxga/led. The led screen went pink or something when docked without a/c power. It also flickered a bit when I was using it on battery (only happened once).
The fan is way loud (using bios A11). I found the I8kfanGUI program to control the fan (works pretty good) but what's funny is the laptop keeps wanting to turn the fan to full speed, then the tool kicks in and turns it off again. So it spins up, back down, up, back down .....