Thoughts on Dell laptop

marno21

Hey guys, thinking of getting the model on the far left here.

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-15-7559-laptop/pd

Intel i7-6700HQ (2.9GHz upto 3.5GHz)
1Tb hard drive with 8Gb embedded flash cache
8Gb RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5 graphics

What are yer thoughts?

EGriff

Pretty good IMO, the graphics card is decent and from the one review I watched it looks easily upgradable. Pop an SSD in there and you'll be flying.

A bit bulky and heavy but not too bad for a gaming capable laptop at that price.

duffman3833

definitely get a ssd and use the 1 tb as an external backup or something

marno21

Cheers lads, swapping out the drives wouldn't be too hard I presume? and would it be worth it?

mordeith

marno21 wrote: »

Cheers lads, swapping out the drives wouldn't be too hard I presume? and would it be worth it?

Hmm, I had been looking at the PC Specialist Cosmo IV with the GT940m.
The Dell seems to stack up well against it. Price was similar although with the Cosmo I had configured it with a 750GB 7200rpm and a 120GB SSD.
The GTX960 seems to well ahead of the 940m in gaming benchmarks though.
I wonder which is the better build quality?

EDIT: I also couldn't get any response on PC Specialist's live chat function and I'm waiting over a day and a half to a direct email response.

duffman3833

looks like taking off a couple of screws to give you access

EGriff

duffman3833 wrote: »

looks like taking off a couple of screws to give you access

That's a different Dell, its silver for one thing, the model OP is talking about is all black.

This guy opens the back in his review http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r_8yFIYxP4s

One screw opens the back, no soldered on RAM or any of that rubbish, easily upgradable.

JustMac

Hi Guys,

I was going to start a new thread until I saw this one talking about 1 of the laptops I was considering. Apologies if I am hijacking this one.

The main thing stopping me pulling the trigger on this laptop is the fact that it is 4k and the fact it is a touch screen. Most of the negative reviews say that much software is not ready for 4k and as a result buttons, messages, controls are too small and very hard to read. The same with system messages etc. The other thing is a little paranoia that I don't expect that I would use the touch screen much at/all and it might cause other problems with the machine.

I teach so I carry my laptop around a lot. Recently I have been doing a good bit of video editing (200+ hours) using Adobe Premiere Pro and it is likely I will be doing more in the future. I bought a 960gb SSD on Black Friday so I will be popping that into any machine that I get.

Because I have a personal contact who can get me a decent discount I am between 3 Dell laptops:

The 1st is the original one being discussed in this thread (The one on the very right):
http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-15-7559-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC

The 2nd one on the far left in same page. Same model FHD v 4K, Less memory 8gb v 16 gg, Not Touch Screen.

The 3rd is the one of the very right of this page:
http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-15-5559-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC

This is an older model, less powerful i7 processor (Dual Core), FHD, Not Touch, 16gb.

Which should I get????

marno21

Laptop is coming today boys. Should I just get a SATA SSD in Maplin and switch them out?

Also is it straightforward copying over the content from one to the other?

EGriff

How are you getting on with it?

marno21

Had a busy few days so haven't sorted the SSD yet.

But so far, it's very fast, much faster than the old laptops, loading apps and displaying content

Haven't given it much of a test yet

marno21

Had a busy few days so haven't sorted the SSD yet.

But so far, it's very fast, much faster than the old laptops, loading apps and displaying content

Haven't given it much of a test yet

EGriff

Keep us updated anyway, I'm torn between this and the XPS 15 (or a 13). If someone launched a decent eGPU enclosure I would just get the 13.

marno21

http://www.dabs.ie/products/kingston-240gb-ssdnow-v300-sata3-2-5--7mm-solid-state-drive-sv300s37a-240g-8F77.html?src=3

If I were to get this would it be a case of just cloneing the drive in the laptop and swapping them out? And I can use the 1Tb drive with a caddy as an external then?

hamhamwich

marno21 wrote: »

http://www.dabs.ie/products/kingston-240gb-ssdnow-v300-sata3-2-5--7mm-solid-state-drive-sv300s37a-240g-8F77.html?src=3

If I were to get this would it be a case of just cloneing the drive in the laptop and swapping them out? And I can use the 1Tb drive with a caddy as an external then?

Would you not need a m.2 SSD?

gloobag

I have this exact laptop myself. You can upgrade it with an m.2 SSD and extra ram (max of 16gb). Very simple install. I installed a Samsung evo 850, then used their own data migration software to transfer the os from the installed HDD to SSD. No messing around with external caddies needed.

It's a really nice system once upgraded.

marno21

gloobag wrote: »

I have this exact laptop myself. You can upgrade it with an m.2 SSD and extra ram (max of 16gb). Very simple install. I installed a Samsung evo 850, then used their own data migration software to transfer the os from the installed HDD to SSD. No messing around with external caddies needed.

It's a really nice system once upgraded.

Where did you get the m.2 SSD? this looks more appealing as I can keep the 1Tb HD for storage.

I presume tehre isn't much work involved in installing it?

gloobag

marno21 wrote: »

Where did you get the m.2 SSD? this looks more appealing as I can keep the 1Tb HD for storage.

I presume tehre isn't much work involved in installing it?

Here's the SSD I got: https://www.dabs.ie/products/samsung-850-evo-120gb-mz-n5e120bw-sata-6gb-s-m-2-solid-state-drive-mz-n5e120bw-BVX3.html

And the extra RAM: https://www.dabs.ie/products/kingston-8gb-1600mhz-ddr3l-non-ecc-cl11-sodimm-1-35v-kvr16ls11-8-985D.html

This is probably the easiest laptop to upgrade that I've ever seen. Just one screw to unlock the base panel, and it gives you easy access to the m.2 port, DIMM slots and you could even replace the installed HDD with an SSD as well if you wanted.

Decent video here about upgrading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjGS53m9wp0

EGriff

How is it for size and weight? I really want an XPS but dunno if I can justify the extra cost over this.

gloobag

EGriff wrote: »

How is it for size and weight? I really want an XPS but dunno if I can justify the extra cost over this.

It's definitely a little larger/heavier than the average 15 inch laptop, but I wouldn't say that it's excessive or anything. Easily fits in my standard laptop shoulder bag and it doesn't feel like it's going to break my back when carrying it around.

It's running like a dream for me, although I'm sure the upgrades help. I'm not a big gamer, but I installed Batman: Arkham Knight for the craic, as none of my other PCs could even start it up, and it's running fine on this laptop at max settings.

nameIwanted

gloobag wrote: »

I have this exact laptop myself. You can upgrade it with an m.2 SSD and extra ram (max of 16gb). Very simple install. I installed a Samsung evo 850, then used their own data migration software to transfer the os from the installed HDD to SSD. No messing around with external caddies needed.

It's a really nice system once upgraded.

Hi just had a couple of questions from an actual owner:

Did you get the 4k screen version or the 1080p?

Was it cheaper to upgrade the ram and ssd or do you think it would be worth getting the top range model from the outset?

gloobag

nameIwanted wrote: »

Hi just had a couple of questions from an actual owner:

Did you get the 4k screen version or the 1080p?

Was it cheaper to upgrade the ram and ssd or do you think it would be worth getting the top range model from the outset?

I bought the base model. 1080p, 8GB RAM, no SSD. I didn't want the 4k screen. The upgrades cost me €120. I should point out though that I had 15% off coupon code, so it was a much better deal for me.

If you're happy enough with the 1080p screen, then upgrading yourself is definitely cheaper. But if you want the 4k, then you'd only save about €30 vs. the top of the range model.

Personally, I have zero interest in 4k until it's properly supported, which it isn't at the moment.

nameIwanted

gloobag wrote: »

I bought the base model. 1080p, 8GB RAM, no SSD. I didn't want the 4k screen. The upgrades cost me €120. I should point out though that I had 15% off coupon code, so it was a much better deal for me.

If you're happy enough with the 1080p screen, then upgrading yourself is definitely cheaper. But if you want the 4k, then you'd only save about €30 vs. the top of the range model.

Personally, I have zero interest in 4k until it's properly supported, which it isn't at the moment.

Thanks for that, I'd probably go for the 4k because I'm used to using it in work. I'd love to know how you got the coupon though.

gloobag

nameIwanted wrote: »

I'd love to know how you got the coupon though.

Former employee

Ivefoundgod

Did you pull the trigger on this? Looking at the very same one myself.

nameIwanted

Ivefoundgod wrote: »

Did you pull the trigger on this? Looking at the very same one myself.

I ordered the 4k 16gb ram edition today, chatted with the online sales guy and he knocked 100 off the price

Ivefoundgod

Am hoping to make a move on the 1080p version in a week or two. Did they say how long delivery takes? Let me know your impressions.

nameIwanted

My order confirmation says I should have it by Friday, so fingers crossed.