Dell XPS M1530 user, looking for new laptop, help/advice needed

[scsi stud]

I am potentially looking to replace my Dell XPS M1530 laptop with a new one and I wanted to get some advice/opinions on what to get.

First off, I have been VERY satisfied with the one I have. I got a great deal on it from Dell Outlet. It has one of the rare 1920x1200 screens, and it even has a Blu-Ray Burner!

I'm looking to stay with Dell as I haven't had any bad experience with them so far.

A few questions:

1) Are there any laptops (Dell or other) that burn both DVD-+R and BD-R discs? As mentioned above, my current one has a Blu-ray burner and while looking around I haven't found any laptops that offer this (including the new XPS 15's).

2) I may do a bit of gaming on it, but nothing too crazy. This will mostly be for software development type work, including having some VMs on there as well. I'm looking for the following minimum specs:

- Must be 15-inch
- 8GB RAM (I currently have 4GB)
- Blu-ray burner as the optical drive
- 1920x1080 resolution (Are there even new laptops that offer 1920x1200 anymore? If so, I'd be VERY interested..)
- 256GB+ SSD drive
- HDMI In/Out

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[TheStu]

You can always replace the drive with an SSD, which is probably recommended so you can get a better one than most OEMs offer. Plus it would probably be cheaper. Unless you want to run everything off the SSD, then you might want to look for a 15" that has dual drive bays, then you can have a 128GB SSD for the OS and common applications and a 500-1000GB HDD for everything else.

 

[Meaker10]

You can always swap over the burner in your current notebook to the new one.

1920x1200 is dead i'm afraid.

 

[scsi stud]

Thanks for the replies so far. A couple of questions for you all:

1) If I purchase an SSD drive, will it fit into my laptop? I'm looking at this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249015&cm_sp=Cat_SSD-_-Plextor-_-20-249-015

2) What new laptops do you all recommend if I were to go that route?

3) It was mentioned above that I could take out the Blu-ray burner and put it into a new laptop that I get. Is that pretty much universal, or do certain drives only work on certain brand laptops?

4) If I were to just get a new SSD drive for my current laptop, how would I properly set it up so that I don't have to re-format? I would ordinarily use Norton Ghost but I can't connect both drives at the same time and do a 'copy drive' option.


Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[scsi stud]

I just wanted to follow back up on this and see if anyone had some input on my questions in my above reply.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Trader05]

I can recommend the HP Envy 15...it has 15" 1920x1080 screen (IPS panel but has soft reds), SSD option, HDMI, 8GB option...the only thing missing is the Bluray Drive, theres only DVDRW available for it. I own one, possibly the best laptop i've owned.

The SSD upgrade for the Envy15 laptop is as simple as it gets, the battery/hard drive panel slides right off with a unlock slider button.

If you were to upgrade your laptop now to SSD, i'd recommend getting one with a transfer kit, connects usb and some use an acronis software clone tool.

 

[jrocks84]

Don't pay for the 8gb ram upgrade from a manufacturer. They massively overcharge for something that's only $30 now.

 

[scsi stud]

I looked around to see prices on upgrading my 4GB ram to 8GB, and the prices are $160 and up! Why so expensive?

This is SO-DIMM DDR2 memory. I know DDR3 memory is much less expensive, but I am under the impression that DDR3 SO-DIMM memory will not work on DDR2 SO-DIMM motherboards.

Is this correct? Can anyone see if the Dell XPS M1530 supports DDR3 memory?

Assuming that I would have to shell out $160+ for a RAM upgrade, would it even make sense to keep this laptop anymore?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Meaker10]

Why do you need 8GB of ram?

Much like desktops, SODIMMs are neither forward or backwards compatible and are physically keyed differently too.

 

[TheStu]

I looked around to see prices on upgrading my 4GB ram to 8GB, and the prices are $160 and up! Why so expensive?

This is SO-DIMM DDR2 memory. I know DDR3 memory is much less expensive, but I am under the impression that DDR3 SO-DIMM memory will not work on DDR2 SO-DIMM motherboards.

Is this correct? Can anyone see if the Dell XPS M1530 supports DDR3 memory?

Assuming that I would have to shell out $160+ for a RAM upgrade, would it even make sense to keep this laptop anymore?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If it was made in the last... couple of years, it is almost certainly DDR3

 

[scsi stud]

I need 8GB ram because my memory gets maxed pretty quickly. I sometimes run a VM on there, in addition to numerous software development tools. My HD keeps thrashing as the OS is mercilessly using the page file.

So if it were you all, would you buy a new laptop or keep my M1530 (btw it has a Core 2 Duo, T9600) and upgrade to an SSD drive with 8GB RAM?

 

[TheStu]

Well according to Crucial, your system takes DDR2, so, yea if you are insistent upon 8GB in your system then it is going to cost a pretty penny (comparatively), but still less than a new system.