Dell laptop

[doug2500]

Morning Knowledgeable people,

I've been looking for a new laptop and have a couple of questions if anyone can help:

If I bought a Dell is an XPS worth buying rather than an equivalent, or even better specced Inspiron?

Would I notice the difference between an i5 and 7, just general laptop use although I do tent to have many pages and tabs open at once.

Or is the generation more important? 10th vs 8th

Is thunderbolt connection worth having?

As well as the Dell's I was considering an Asus zenbook, but the Dell's tend to use the new intel chips, any comment?

Thanks.

[Bminusrob]

Hello. I am posting this from a Dell laptop, so I do have a bit of first hand experience. This one is an i7 based Inspiron 17. It comes with a 17 inch screen, which is something I particularly wanted, and 16Gb of RAM. It is just over three years old, and is very reliable.

It sounds as if your usage is very similar to mine, although I do occasionally do a bit of heavy weight work with applications like Sketchup. If you have lots of concurrent windows, your top priority should be RAM and lots of it. When I got mine, 16Gb was considered lots of RAM, but three years on, you may want to see if you can get 64Gb. More RAM is key to fast switching between lots of windows. The i7 works very well for me, but I am not sure I really need it, or that it gives me much over an i5.

I haven't ever missed Thunderbolt, but fast USB (USB 3 - the blue connector) is very important.

Personally, I don't think an XPS would improve things for me, so if I were buying again, I would go for another Inspiron with lots of RAM, and if possible an SSD.

Good luck.

[doug2500]

Thanks for the reply,

I may be underestimating RAM needs. I had discounted 4GB as too little and thought 8GB would be enough......

[kyu66]

Thanks for the reply,

I may be underestimating RAM needs. I had discounted 4GB as too little and thought 8GB would be enough......

8GB RAM with an SSD is fine for all but the most intensive concurrent tasks for most users, i.e. browsing the internet, photo/video editing (not professionally), office type work.

The advantage of having an SSD is that it reduces the need for a huge amount of RAM since if you do run out of RAM, the memory is paged out to disk. In this instance, the performance of the fast SSD is much higher than a spinning HDD.

kyu66

[Infrasonic]

Thanks for the reply,

I may be underestimating RAM needs. I had discounted 4GB as too little and thought 8GB would be enough......

8GB RAM with an SSD is fine for all but the most intensive concurrent tasks for most users, i.e. browsing the internet, photo/video editing (not professionally), office type work.

The advantage of having an SSD is that it reduces the need for a huge amount of RAM since if you do run out of RAM, the memory is paged out to disk. In this instance, the performance of the fast SSD is much higher than a spinning HDD.

kyu66

^^ +1. I'd agree with this.

One caveat is to check whether any prospective laptop you are looking at has upgradeable RAM/SSD/Wifi+BT card. It's a bit hit and miss out there even within the same brand ranges, for instance the Dell XPS' have at various stages been both soldered components only (non-upgradeable) and user swappable/upgradeable or a mix of the two. Don't rely on Curry's and the like to get it right either, only rely on the manufacturer's website spec pages or the better online review sources. If you buy one with soldered components make sure it is future proofed enough.

Thunderbolt 3.
The full fat spec is four PCIe lanes which will give up to 40 Gbps of bandwidth. Watch out for cheaper laptops that advertise TB3 ports but it then turns out to be one or two lane , not four.
Modern NVMe SSD's (when in a TB3/USB case) can easily saturate even a USB 3.1 gen 2 port (10 Gbps), so TB3 is worth having imho. I wouldn't buy a machine of the spec you are considering without it.
External boot would be very speedy with TB3 and a fast SSD, so handy as a backup plan if the laptop C drive (SSD) failed for instance.
External TB3 GPU's are another option (eGPU), so if you ever wanted to do gaming/high end graphics/video et al, you could (within reason).

[monabri]

My Dell Inspiron (17" HD screen) is a MERE 13+ years old.... I recently upgraded to 8GB of RAM (from 4) and installed a 512 GB SSD.
I'm guessing that the i5 processor is Generation 1.... (?).

viewtopic.php?p=237642#p237642


It boots up pretty quickly and I use it mainly for web browsing and Excel. It's fast enough for me.

(I've got (1) an Excel workbook open in the background - I reckon that the file contains about 80 (eighty) worksheets, (2) HYPTUSS , (3) four browser windows open and (4) email open - all simulataneously).

[Infrasonic]

The latest spec Intel laptop i3/5/7/9 CPU's are Quad-Core + now, whereas previously they were dual.
If you Google the gens I think 8th gen was the first to be quad.

[scrumpyjack]

Must say I do like having a touchscreen on my laptop
(Asus I7 N550J)

[BobbyD]

If I bought a Dell is an XPS worth buying rather than an equivalent, or even better specced Inspiron?

I bought an XPS 13 because it fitted inside a large internal pocket in one of my jackets. Very useful for circumventing airline baggage restrictions. Not the quietest machine on earth, but beautifully designed and really portable. Reminds me I need to see if I can fix it.

[Bminusrob]

Thanks for the reply,

I may be underestimating RAM needs. I had discounted 4GB as too little and thought 8GB would be enough......

8GB RAM with an SSD is fine for all but the most intensive concurrent tasks for most users, i.e. browsing the internet, photo/video editing (not professionally), office type work.

The advantage of having an SSD is that it reduces the need for a huge amount of RAM since if you do run out of RAM, the memory is paged out to disk. In this instance, the performance of the fast SSD is much higher than a spinning HDD.

kyu66

Take care when looking at SSDs. My Inspiron only has one bay for a disk, so I can't have a (small) SSD and a big disk (for all my photos etc). Do check if you can fit two disks if you are considering an SSD. I have just checked, and a 1TB SSD costs in the region of £100.Maybe I should look into it again.

[dionaeamuscipula]

Be very careful with the XPS. I have one for work, its sleek quick and light. But you can't even change the battery without dismantling it.

DM

[doug2500]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Having been on the verge of ordering an XPS over the weekend I have ended up with a 7 year old Samsung!

I couldn't decide what size would be best for me so I borrowed my Mum's samsung to see how I got on with 14" and she told me to keep it as she couldn't remember when she'd last turned it on.

I updated it to Win 10 and it it'll do for a while at least. It's not really what I want but it didn't cost me anything. Considering it'd a newer laptop than my old one it seems slow and has a poor screen. I only regret not doing a clean install of W10, that might have been better.

[kiloran]

It's not really what I want but it didn't cost me anything.

Surely it cost you at least a nice bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates?


--kiloran

[servodude]

It's not really what I want but it didn't cost me anything.

Surely it cost you at least a nice bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates?


--kiloran

Notwithstanding the flowers, which are an excellent idea, not all 14" laptop screens are equal.
It is probably (to me) the perfect size (well 13 - 14), if you get a good (read appropriate for you) aspect ratio and resolution.
Any bigger I can't be bothered lugging about.
Smaller gives a terrible keyboard.

Sluggishness can often be helped on laptops by appropriate SSD and RAM upgrades; not many other parts are likely to be upgradeable anyway.

Have fun
-sd

[doug2500]

It is probably (to me) the perfect size (well 13 - 14), if you get a good (read appropriate for you) aspect ratio and resolution.
Any bigger I can't be bothered lugging about.
Smaller gives a terrible keyboard.

-sd

It probably also depends on the age of the computer - my inherited laptop at 14" is only slightly smaller than a new XPS 15.6 due to much smaller screen surrounds.

I have a cheap 11.6" laptop for holidays etc which fits in hotel safes and is fine for the job but too small for normal use. It's only slightly smaller than a new XPS 13, also due to screen surrounds.