Dell Inspiron 15R Special edition (7520)

[Ambicja]

Bill, do you get paid for your engagement in this forum? just to make sure whom to thank (Dell or you)
it's really great having someone that well-informed answering questions and even helping people with specific problems, concerning Dell self or their hardware!
thanks a lot.

as someone above I'd also like to know the difference between he 90W and the 230W version of the GT650... the saleswoman I talked to said she doesn't know, but she guessed it shouldn't cause any difference in performance.
also, I couldn't find any information about Ethernet LAN on my order sheet, where can I find out if it has 10/100 or 10/100/1000?

one last question: as I'm gonna use the laptop mainly as a desktop-replacement, battery doesn't really matter. but I don't want to 'kill' it asap either, so I thought about taking the battery out and only use it like once a month. is that possible with the Inspiron 17R SE? or would the battery leave like a hole in the laptop, without any plastic to cover?
that's the case with my current netbook, I just don't know whether it's normal...

thank you very much in advance, and as I already ordered it (and it will take 3 weeks to arrive...), you don't need to hurry to answer either

[keloo05]

as someone above I'd also like to know the difference between he 90W and the 230W version of the GT650... the saleswoman I talked to said she doesn't know, but she guessed it shouldn't cause any difference in performance.

230W is a website mistake. It should be 130W.
As for the difference beetween them:

90W - GDDR3
130W - GDDR5

[Dell-Bill_B]

Bill, do you get paid for your engagement in this forum? just to make sure whom to thank (Dell or you)
it's really great having someone that well-informed answering questions and even helping people with specific problems, concerning Dell self or their hardware!
thanks a lot.

as someone above I'd also like to know the difference between he 90W and the 230W version of the GT650... the saleswoman I talked to said she doesn't know, but she guessed it shouldn't cause any difference in performance.
also, I couldn't find any information about Ethernet LAN on my order sheet, where can I find out if it has 10/100 or 10/100/1000?

one last question: as I'm gonna use the laptop mainly as a desktop-replacement, battery doesn't really matter. but I don't want to 'kill' it asap either, so I thought about taking the battery out and only use it like once a month. is that possible with the Inspiron 17R SE? or would the battery leave like a hole in the laptop, without any plastic to cover?
that's the case with my current netbook, I just don't know whether it's normal...

thank you very much in advance, and as I already ordered it (and it will take 3 weeks to arrive...), you don't need to hurry to answer either

Engagement is part of my job. It's not a primary function, and technically I could do my job without engaging customers at all. But TBH, I love this forum and this community. So, I'll always be kicking around in some capacity.

I'm not familiar with the 650 as discussed in terms of wattage. I'll have to research and ask around, but I will find something for you.
I believe the 15 has full Gigabit Ethernet, but strangely the 17 is 10/100.
Removing the battery will leave a hole, but there's a way to kill charging. I forget how, but someone posted the steps. You may be able to figure out by clicking around. I am running out the door to pick up the kids right now, but remind me tomorrow in another post, and I'll poke around on my 15 and post the steps.

[Jako]

This is the difference between the daughter boards

CONTROLLER CARD - N7JHH
Long Description: Daughter Board, WLAN/RJ45/USB/with MSATA,7520
Unit price: $ 46.1564(+ VAT and delivery costs)

CONTROLLER CARD - MRDMM
Long Description: Daughter Board, WLAN/RJ45/USB,7520
Unit price: $ 45.9244(+ VAT and delivery costs)

[rseiler]

@Bill, the 17R SE "Gigabit situation" actually doesn't make sense. As you're aware, it and the 15R SE use the HM77 Express Chipset--and it has Gigabit Ethernet. For Dell then to somehow not use that and add some other Ethernet that's only 10/100 is, I think, unlikely. I'm still thinking it's a misprint....

You didn't comment on what size a caching SSD drive can be. The whitepaper you mention actually says "Smart Response is a feature that uses both a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) and a solid state drive (SSD) of greater than 32GB together. Since the one Dell supplies is 32GB, the whitepaper seems to be in error, but is it suggesting that, say, a 64GB one would be OK (not that caching drives get much larger to my knowledge)?

[Qbasix]

@Bill, the 17R SE "Gigabit situation" actually doesn't make sense. As you're aware, it and the 15R SE use the HM77 Express Chipset--and it has Gigabit Ethernet. For Dell then to somehow not use that and add some other Ethernet that's only 10/100 is, I think, unlikely. I'm still thinking it's a misprint....

Looks like the ethernet card is on the daughter board, probably for positioning and design reasons? But still seems highly unlikely that the card is 100Mbit only... Gigabit has been out for years.

Here is a mSATA drive up to 120GB:
OCZ Nocti mSATA SSD 120GB [OCZ-NOC-MSATA-120G] - $229.00 : PC Case Gear

I dont think we will know until someone bites the bullet and actually buys a larger NON Dell drive and puts it into their 15R SE...

Also how hard is it to get to the daughter board? Will the tear down manual be updated to include instructions for the 15R SE?

Regarding the BSOD, thanks for the answer. I'm hoping my unit does not have this issue, seems to be AMD 7730M related, hardware or driver it's still a shame.

[ManilaByNight]

Bill-Dell,

I'm new here and I'm considering buying a new 15r SE with the msata option. The 17r SE is way too large and heavy for me. However the graphics card is indeed a bit disappointing with the AMD and I was wondering if it is possible to replace that with an Nvidia one like the one used in the 17r models? Can that part be purchased separately from Dell and will it work?

Also another issue is the 8GB memory limit. I know that there are very good 1600Mhz 16GB laptop memory kits available from Crucial, Patriot and Corsair. I was just hoping that these should be able to work. I've read somewhere that these worked in some of the older 14z, 15z and 17z models but just had to be upgraded to run Win7Pro as a minimum. Has the lady engineer given you any feedback yet if this is possible on the SE versions?

note: I've read on the Crucial website that their 512GB Crucial m4 2.5-inch SATA 6GB/s is "Guaranteed-compatible with the Dell Inspiron 15R (7520)" so for upgrading the HD to a faster SSD is possible. YAY!

Thanks.

[bananam8nuk]

This is the difference between the daughter boards

CONTROLLER CARD - N7JHH
Long Description: Daughter Board, WLAN/RJ45/USB/with MSATA,7520
Unit price: $ 46.1564(+ VAT and delivery costs)

CONTROLLER CARD - MRDMM
Long Description: Daughter Board, WLAN/RJ45/USB,7520
Unit price: $ 45.9244(+ VAT and delivery costs)

Looks like the ethernet card is on the daughter board, probably for positioning and design reasons? But still seems highly unlikely that the card is 100Mbit only... Gigabit has been out for years.

Here is a mSATA drive up to 120GB:
OCZ Nocti mSATA SSD 120GB [OCZ-NOC-MSATA-120G] - $229.00 : PC Case Gear

I dont think we will know until someone bites the bullet and actually buys a larger NON Dell drive and puts it into their 15R SE...

Also how hard is it to get to the daughter board? Will the tear down manual be updated to include instructions for the 15R SE?

Regarding the BSOD, thanks for the answer. I'm hoping my unit does not have this issue, seems to be AMD 7730M related, hardware or driver it's still a shame.

I personally would not spend a penny on any Msata card unless we could prove the daughter board for the Msata is installed, yet again certainly in the UK it states Msata is optionable!!! but you cannot select to add it, suggesting you as the user have the option to add the msata board later,

but there are no instructions and no proof you have the correct daughter board fitted, along with the fact despite still showing the backlit keyboard is supplied as standard, you can only choose one particular model to able to add it, what is DELL playing at

@ DELL BILL is there anyway other than tearing the laptop apart to find out what daughter board we have,

[Nugi@bavaria]

@ DELL BILL is there anyway other than tearing the laptop apart to find out what daughter board we have,

I did it once, and it's not that difficult, just a few minor scratches when I removed the palm-rest. (Or you can get a specialist to tear your laptop down, should cause fewer scratches.)

Dell is sending me a tech today, to replace the mainboard and the graphic card, to make sure that my BSOD is not a hardware failure. I'll post whether it worked.

[bananam8nuk]

I did it once, and it's not that difficult, just a few minor scratches when I removed the palm-rest. (Or you can get a specialist to tear your laptop down, should cause fewer scratches.)

Dell is sending me a tech today, to replace the mainboard and the graphic card, to make sure that my BSOD is not a hardware failure. I'll post whether it worked.

I unboxed my laptop today

1st thoughts are. niice. love the dimpled effect on the palm rest and the cover,

definately solidly built, and does not feel plasticly or flismy

1st thing i did was windows index test. and thought i would compare it to my desktop R3

alienware R3 desktop

index rating 7.7

Processor 7.7
(i7-2600)

memory 7.7
8GB DDR3 1600mhz

graphics desktop 7.8


Gaming graphics 7.9
1GB ATI 6870

disk data 7.9
(CRUCIAL M4 128GB SSD)


15R SE

index rating 5.6

Processor 7.5
(i7 3612QM)

memory 7.8
8GB DDR3 1600mhz

graphics desktop 5.6

Gaming graphics 6.6
2GB AMD 7730M graphics card

disk data 5.9
(WD Scorpio Blue 1TB SATA 5400 rpm Hard Drive)
( being replaced by SAMSUMG 830 256MB SSD)

i think those are resonable scores, the only two let downs where desktop graphics which arent a real blow, and the hard drive which will change when the SSD is fitted later,

i loaded crysis and let it choose the settings, which where all high
was quite impressed it played at around 20-24 fps with no major stuttering, but i lowered all settings to medium and the fps went up to 35-40 fps, and very happy playing on them settings,

also loaded call of duty 4 MW., and all settings maxed out inc 4xAA fps was over 30 fps. but i know COD games are not greatly GPU intensive, and im into COD and battlefied etc so all cool.

just to add in all three tests there where no BSOD thankgod

also check out the enthernet port and that is definitely gigabit, (thought i would check as someone asked i think

looked in the bois and it states " MSata - not detected " weather that means its setup for it but its not connected (fitted) or its just playing with my mind i have no idea, but when i change the ssd out im gonna have a poke around