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Dell Studio 17

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Dr. H.

Sat Sept 20 2008, 03:11PM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

I am about to buy a laptop sooooo this is what I am thinking about - the Dell Studio 17. Here are the specs of the one I am interested in :

Studio 17: N-Series

17"" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) with Truelife- CCFL, glossy
256MB ATIÂ® Mobility Radeon HD 3650

2.0 mega pixel Camera - CCFL

Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz,800MHz,3MB)
Memory Dual Channel 4.0GB (2x2048) 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

320GB SATA (5400rpm)
8X Slot Load CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)

Dell Bluetooth 370 Card Europe
Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11 b/g) Mini Card European

Intel High Definition Audio 2.0

Backlight keyboar

Worldwide 90W AC Adapter (3 wire)
Primary 6 cell 56W/HR LI-ION

(4) USB 2.0 compliant 4-pin ports
HDMI connector
15-pin VGA video connector
Integrated network connector 10/100/1000 LAN (RJ45)
AC adapter connector
Audio jacks (1 line-in, 1-line out, 1 Mic-in)
4-pin IEEE 1394 port
54 mm ExpressCard slot
Consumer IR

Internal Card Slots
3 Mini-Card

Dimensions & Weight:

Width: 392.6mm
Height: 30mm front / 43mm back
Depth: 288.6mm
Weight: Starting weight of 3.57 kg

3 years waranty .

What do you think about it ? Does someone has one to share his/her's oppinion ?

Ken M.

Sat Sept 20 2008, 04:14PM

Registered Member #618 Joined: Sat Mar 31 2007, 04:15AM
Location: Us-Great Lakes
Posts: 628

I was planning on purchasing the sme model, when it was on sale but just before I had the money to buy it the sale expired, so I went with my other option

, and the specs

I don't have an A-1 but the specs are the same.

Bout forgot, the battery life in powersaver mode is about 1.5hrs, also I imagine the Studio 17 is about 1400$ the F7se cost my 1019.98$ with 3day s\h.

Alex

Sun Sept 21 2008, 03:54AM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

Dr. H. wrote ...

What do you think about it ? Does someone has one to share his/her's oppinion ?

Sounds like a luggable. A heavy, expensive portable computer that you carry from outlet to outlet.

Desktop replacement machines are not really worth it, unless of course you absolutely need the latest and greatest portable machine. They're nice to begin with, but by next year you just have a huge laptop with average specs that has terrible battery life and is a pain to carry from outlet to outlet.

I don't really know what you're trying to do with your machine, but for most people I would suggest keeping the desktop and portable roles separate. Get a cheap portable laptop (13-15" mid-range machine with a good battery (500-800 dollars)), and upgrade your current desktop or buy/build a new one.

Dr. H.

Sun Sept 21 2008, 06:24AM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

Alex wrote ...

Sounds like a luggable. A heavy, expensive portable computer that you carry from outlet to outlet.

yep fully agree on that

I am a new student and I need a computer. I've decided to be a laptop because ... just hate when you need to move your computer from one place to another. Also the room where I am is small and crowded. Ohh and I don't have a second PC - the other one is home...

Hey - I am a fitnes guy and I am not worried about the weight

I am doing a lot of CAD/CAM work and ... just hate to work on small monitors.

The battery wife - hmmm it is about 1.5 hours (according to people who has it - this is with the small version of the battery) - wich suits me :)

Alex wrote ...

but by next year you just have a huge laptop with average specs

Hey - isn't that with all computers

About the most vital part - the price - yep it is high, but compared to the other laptops which are available aroung here, the price is not bad at all

Cheers :)

Mads Barnkob

Sun Sept 21 2008, 08:36AM

Registered Member #1403 Joined: Tue Mar 18 2008, 06:05PM
Location: Denmark, Odense C
Posts: 1968

there is no seriel port, but then again, maybe that was only needed when I studied software engineering 4 years ago. Some applications didnt like the USB seriels port.

Glossy screens.. waah, I really dont like them, they reflect way too much stuff behind you.

If you plan to run Windows XP on it, remember it cant handle above a total of 4Gb memory, including what you got on the graphicscard.

Low batterytime is not ideal for a study pc that you want to bring to classes.

Five years ago I bought a Dell Inspiron 8600 (1.3Ghz centurion, 1gb ram, 30gb hdd) and thats the laptop im writing from now, its the best piece of computer hardware Ive ever had, its sturdy, still fast enough for laptop use with windows xp and it have not had any faulty parts or other huge problems a reinstall didnt fix.

Backyard Skunkworks

Sun Sept 21 2008, 04:35PM

Registered Member #1262 Joined: Fri Jan 25 2008, 05:22AM
Location: Maryland, USA
Posts: 451

Alex wrote ...

...but by next year you just have a huge laptop with average specs that has terrible battery life and is a pain to carry from outlet to outlet.

Eh don't tell anyone but Moore's law has been a little lazy in recent years

I'd bet anything you buy today will still keep pace with the market at least a couple years, if not a bit more.

Monitor does sound like the biggest weak link, in addition to the whole glossy issue, the resolution just isn't that high. My six-and-a-half year old IBM A31P laptop has 1600x1200 resolution. Moore's law crapped out on monitors a long time ago, I'm not currently using one with an active resolution of 6400x4800.

Lmao

Dr. H.

Sun Sept 21 2008, 06:21PM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

big thanks on the repplys

Weeeeel - reading around forums, it turned out that the "Studio"s have a big problem - the keyboard and touchpad stop working ?!? And in the mean time - external keyboard and mouse works just fine.Then you need to take the battery out and press the power button for 10s and then turn it back on to make the keyboard work again ?!?

Whaaaat the hell is going on ?

Hmmmm starting to doubt shoud I take it

Cheers

Ken M.

Sun Sept 21 2008, 09:24PM

Registered Member #618 Joined: Sat Mar 31 2007, 04:15AM
Location: Us-Great Lakes
Posts: 628

I still say check out asus, I've used them for everything, cpu heatsinks, video cards and definetly mobos and I have next to 0 problems even after 4+yrs of use on the desktops I use. As far as laptops go this is my 1st, and the only problem I've had was with powermanagement and the wireless card, it crashs but if you turn of the power management option on hte wireless card the problem is solved, and unlike Dell and most of the other ones, Asus doesn't crap your p with all these promotional programs on it. The only promo crap I had was mcaffe, and MS Office, I despise mcaffe and norton AV so I just uninstalled them and I used an older MS office disc.

Dr. H.

Sat Oct 18 2008, 08:58PM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

soooo - I got that Studio 17 and I am very happy with it

I have it for 3 weeks now and not a single problem - works like a charm. I am really happy how fast it is - wheeeee

Ohhh - just love that backlight keyboard at night - it is sweeeeeet :)

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