Dell Inspiron 15R SE $849

timmysbiscuits on 11/09/2012 - 20:31
Last edited 11/09/2012 - 20:32

Hi everyone

I need to buy a new laptop and I wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts on the following:

http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15r-se-7520/pd?oc=v510661a…

I will need it for general office use (MS Office, Emails, Internet etc.) and some basic gaming (mainly older titles like SC4, Civ IV, RCT, and possibly some newer ones like Civ V and basic online games with friends, eg. Terraria).

What is attracting me is the 1080p screen, dedicated 7730m GPU, and fast 750GB HDD.

Does anyone have any feedback on this laptop or know of a better option?

Will the 7730m be fine for what I'm after and possibly handle some new titles as they come out? I'm a little worried I won't be able to play Sim City 5 next year.

Does anyone know the quality of the screen or general build quality?

I'd like to keep the laptop for around three years.

Thanks and appreciate any feedback!

Computing

Comments

  • joffmc on 12/09/2012 - 12:42
    +1

    Great value. Yes, the 7200rpm hard drive is nice, you don't see that often on a <$1,000 lappie.
    The 7730M is more than enough to play the games you mentioned. It's rated in the higher end of the middle class range of graphic cards. You should be able to play current graphic intensive games like BF3, Crysis 2 etc fairly smoothly on medium settings.

    Personally, I'd upgrade to 8gb ram and the only thing I don't like about it is no num keypad.

    Overall, definitely nice specs for the price imo.

    Here's a couple of links you might find useful:

    www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Inspiron-15R-Special-Editi…
    www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7730M.72678.0.html
    www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.8…

  • timmysbiscuits on 12/09/2012 - 20:42

    Thanks so much for the reply Joffmc. I appreciate the feedback and advice.

  • timmysbiscuits on 13/09/2012 - 14:47

    Okay, so I've actually just gone ahead and purchased a Dell Refurbished laptop for almost $200 cheaper ($663 delivered).

    It's still the Inspiron 15R Special Edition, but arguably a higher model than the one above.

    Differences:

    Positives:
    *i7 (i7-3612QM) CPU vs i5
    *8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM vs 4GB
    *Blu-Ray combo drive vs DVD only drive
    *1TB HDD vs 750GB
    *It's $200 cheaper! (which I will use to buy MS Office)

    Negatives:
    *Might be some minor scratches on case (I'm okay with this, and it's likely there won't be any marks at all. I confirmed with Dell that they don't sell any refurbished laptops if the screen is damaged or scratched)
    *5400 RPM HDD vs 7200 (review says the HDD (WD Scorpio Blue) actually has similar data transfer speeds to some 7200 RPM drives)
    *HD screen vs Full HD (if I need the screen space, I have a 1080p monitor I can easily hook it up to on longer sessions)

    Everything else is the same as the model I mentioned in the original post.

    Overall, I'm happy with the trade-offs given the price I paid. I get a full 12 month warranty on it too.

    Thanks again joffmc.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join