Originally Posted by AltoLXI

I ordered DELL Inspiron 15R-5537 today and will be getting the delivery tomorrow. Configuration is 4 Gen i5 CPU / Win 8 / 6 GB RAM / 1 TB HDD / 2GB Video Card. Could not get 8 GB in i5 based laptops but is only available for i7 based laptops. Per DELL, the one I ordered can be upgraded to 8 GB later. The cost is Rs. 50190.

Mate!! sorry to say this.
I think, you have picked the wrong one. This is more of gamers machine where there is a 2 GB graphics card with a weak processor. I think, these machines are optimized for power consumption.
Core I5 4200 U is a 1.6Ghz processor. Which can be overclocked upto ~2.6 Ghz.

You could have got a 3rd gen 2.8 or 2.6 ghz one at much less price. And, for the type of your requirement, why 2 GB graphic card?
As i said, Ram could always be extendable. But the machine should have vacant ports + Mother board should be able to support it.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by gemi_kk

Mate!! sorry to say this.
I think, you have picked the wrong one. This is more of gamers machine where there is a 2 GB graphics card with a weak processor. I think, these machines are optimized for power consumption.
Core I5 4200 U is a 1.6Ghz processor. Which can be overclocked upto ~2.6 Ghz.

You could have got a 3rd gen 2.8 or 2.6 ghz one at much less price. And, for the type of your requirement, why 2 GB graphic card?
As i said, Ram could always be extendable. But the machine should have vacant ports + Mother board should be able to support it.

Does this mean this cannot be used for the development work? I read applications like WPF hangs on some laptops hence I went for the GPU also. I was told that the RAM can be extended to 8 GB. I also went for 4th gen because the MOBO might not be compatible if I upgrade later.

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

Does this mean this cannot be used for the development work? I read applications like WPF hangs on some laptops hence I went for the GPU also. I was told that the RAM can be extended to 8 GB. I also went for 4th gen because the MOBO might not be compatible if I upgrade later.

Mate !!
I cant say whether WPF hangs or not. But the performance will definitely be slow when compared to typical desktops. The reason being the type of complex applications you use.

I would suggest you the following configurations.
Take a core I3/I5 with anything > 2.4 Ghz. these can be overclocked to 3.0+ Ghz.
As said, Dont worry about RAM. Anything 2/4 Should be good.
Take the minimal GPU laptop. the 1GB ones.
You can Add Ram. It costs ~2K. You can even add a SSD ~6-9K depending on sizes.
This combination should give you the best performance in a Laptop.

Or
Increase the budget and enter their Precision or other high end laptops range. There you can find a better product. Also, Inspiron 7000 series looks good.

4th Gen processors are good for battery life. For performance, you could pick the 3rd gen ones with higher clock rate.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by gemi_kk

This combination should give you the best performance in a Laptop.

Or
Increase the budget and enter their Precision or other high end laptops range. There you can find a better product. Also, Inspiron 7000 series looks good.

4th Gen processors are good for battery life. For performance, you could pick the 3rd gen ones with higher clock rate.

I have already got the delivery today. I am entering the comment from the laptop. . Can I "downgrade" the CPU to 3rd generation for faster speed given that the MOBO is for 4th generation?

[Trust_In_Thrust]

Old Lenovo T510 was put on home duty so Got a Dell Vostro 3360 i3/8GB RAM / Windows 8 / HD Screen / 13.3 Inch / 45WattsH Battery / 65Watts Charger / Fingerprint Scanner/500GB HDD/ 2 year Accidental Onsite NBD support , Insurance / All Aluminium .Got it for 40K few days back. Battery easily lasts 4hours plus . It has a extra Wwan / mSSD support too . May be in future i will go with mSSD.Screen is good as long as angle is right for viewing. Very Light 1.65kg.Also upgraded to Photon max WiFi for 2K INR and it is a great piece of dongle to be on internet in home , in car etc.

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

I have already got the delivery today. I am entering the comment from the laptop. . Can I "downgrade" the CPU to 3rd generation for faster speed given that the MOBO is for 4th generation?

Dont worry mate! Its not a bad laptop. Its has the latest generation processor. The only concern is its not a performance laptop. But it can be used for all of your requirements.

Use it as per your requirements. If you feel it as underpowered, Be ready to Plonk an SSD into IT. You dont need a ram upgrade as you already have 6GB.

Comming to your question. Can i downgrade it? Yes you can. IF...
- If the processor is not soldered to your board. (Unlike Apple. Apple solders processors to board.)
- Check the socket type and check the target processor socket type. It should be good.
- Check the target processor wattage. Your processor is of 15W. The regular processors will vary from 25-65. I7 Quad need more than that. Like tyres, dont upsize your processor by 10 +watts.

I think, you need not do all these stuff. Leave it as is. Use it. that should be good.

[ahmad.007]

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

I have already got the delivery today. I am entering the comment from the laptop. . Can I "downgrade" the CPU to 3rd generation for faster speed given that the MOBO is for 4th generation?

Don't worry about your machine, its fine. Go to the website cpubenchmark.net, you can get the performance rating of your processor and compare them with other processors.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by ahmad.007

Don't worry about your machine, its fine. Go to the website cpubenchmark.net, you can get the performance rating of your processor and compare them with other processors.

I will check it. The performance as of now is not apparent. Checked in task manager and the CPU utilization rate was around 22% when running VS 2010. Let me check for a few days.

Originally Posted by gemi_kk

Use it as per your requirements. If you feel it as underpowered, Be ready to Plonk an SSD into IT. You dont need a ram upgrade as you already have 6GB.

I think, you need not do all these stuff. Leave it as is. Use it. that should be good.

I will go by the existing configuration and in case of performance issues, I will try the alterations. The CPU speed in task manager was showing around 2Ghz. Do the laptops come with CPUs overclocked or am I reading something wrong?

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Fortunately, cost in Zero. You can begin with "Express" versions that are free and Legal.

Installed VS 2010 Express yesterday. Also installed SP1 for VS 2010 for ASP.NET MVC 4.0. It went for on 4 hours and was stuck in 1st step. I had to kill the process as cancel was not responding. Tried today morning again and it got installed. How do I get the product key after 30 days? Do I need to send mail to MS?

[CRV2010]

Planning to purchase HP Pavilion 15-E016TX Laptop. Anyone using this ? How is the build quality and any issues ?

[CliffHanger]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Did you buy anything yet? Assuming you haven’t, may I suggest a model from the Lenovo Essential B490 series?

I am currently using a Core i3 spec'd B490 since the last 4 months and it has never let me down. Of course, my usage is a lot different from yours but there are different specs from the B490 series that may suit you. The laptop is extremely rugged and built similar to their Thinkpad lineup. For 28k and an additional 2.4k for a stick of 4GB RAM, the laptop is now my regular workhorse for browsing, editing those occasional photos on Picasa, video editing on Handbrake and 24x7 downloads. The laptop has been switched on permanently since day 1 and there has not been any issues of overheating, random shutdowns or anything of that sort. Yes, all laptops tend to become a bit sluggish after a period of usage and requires periodic maintenance. Physical too! The vents would be clogged with dirt and dust and have to be cleaned from time to time to avoid overheating but this is just a walk in the park if you have the necessary tools.

If you can spend a bit more and get an SSD, your laptop will be lightning quick in most day-to-day apps. I did not put one in mine since it stays on 24x7.

I have laid down some initial impressions of the laptop on a different forum. You can read about it here - TE

Flipkart is currently running discounts on their laptops. eBay could also be cheaper if you have discount coupons.

2 caveats here:

1. Customer support is a mixed bag - some have had very good support with Lenovo whereas some others not. Fortunately I did not have the need to use their support. Yet!

2. The laptop is not exactly light weight (not definitely in the league of the Ultrabooks) but not exactly heavy either. It is durable and rugged in build quality compared to the others that retail in this price bracket. As far as build quality goes, this is as good as the HP Probook and Dell Latitude mobile workstations.

Thank you. I read your review and it was very informative. Will definitely consider that model.

I'm willing to spend up to 40k, so in case you are aware of any other model in that price bracket, please suggest them too.

Would you suggest the following models? Comes with a very good offer, at least that is what the site suggests.

[COLOR=#0066cc]http://www.cromaretail.com/HP-Pavilion-15-b002TX-15%22-Notebook-(Black)-pc-15802-191.aspx[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0066cc]http://www.cromaretail.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-U310-59-342832-133%22-Notebook-(Black)-pc-15104-191.aspx[/COLOR]

Originally Posted by Aroy

1. This calls for a lot of CPU and GPU power. I doubt you will get any thing remotely within your budget.

2. Here again, the lighter it is the more expensive it gets.

3. Durability depends both on your usage and on the length of ownership. If you are careful and want to keep it less than three years, then there is no problem. But with field use a lot of travel and long term ownership you require a premier product.

All said and done your specifications point to a mobile work station, either from Lenovo (T/W/X series) or Dell or HP These start at 60K and end at 200K+. Please go their respective sites and browse the specifications.
http://shopap.lenovo.com/in/en/lapto...w-series/w530/
http://www8.hp.com/in/en/products/laptops/index.html?facet=Business|Sophisticated-image#!view=column&page=1&facet=Business
http://search.ap.dell.com/results.as...le+workstation

So either you think about the specifications or be prepared to pay at least twice your budget amount.

Thank you. I'm not too keen to spend anything upwards of 40k for a laptop.

I would like to buy something that offers the best performance for my kind of usage at that price bracket.

I've quoted two laptops above, pls have a look at them and let me know your thoughts.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

Thank you. I read your review and it was very informative. Will definitely consider that model.

I'm willing to spend up to 40k, so in case you are aware of any other model in that price bracket, please suggest them too.

Would you suggest the following models? Comes with a very good offer, at least that is what the site suggests.

[COLOR=#0066cc]http://www.cromaretail.com/HP-Pavilion-15-b002TX-15%22-Notebook-(Black)-pc-15802-191.aspx[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0066cc]http://www.cromaretail.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-U310-59-342832-133%22-Notebook-(Black)-pc-15104-191.aspx[/COLOR]

The Lenovo U310 is a fantastic Ultrabook with a Aluminium unibody construction just like the Macbook and good specs. overall except for the 4GB RAM part. Ideally 8 GB is recommended for photo/video editing as you may be working with multiple large RAW files at a time that draws a lot of memory. But there is a wireless connectivity issue that plagues this particular model (U310) since its launch.

Here’s a thread from the Lenovo forums that has run into 80 odd pages - http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-...fi/td-p/790527

Connectivity drops if you are away from the router/hotspot. It appears that the internal mPCIe WiFi module is faulty but Lenovo hasn’t addressed this issue as newer owners still seem to complain about the connectivity issues. It may be best to stay away from the U310 model thus. However, a workaround is to disable the internal WiFi module and use an external USB adapter. This will however consume one USB port at all times and the adapter will jut out from the laptop like a sore thumb on an otherwise sleek looking laptop.

Avoid that HP laptop please - the specs. are on the lower side.

Leaving the portability factor aside, this would be my pick:

Flipkart - Lenovo Essential G510 (59-398343) Laptop (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ DOS)

Add an additional stick of 4 GB DDR3 RAM for 2.3k:

Flipkart - Corsair DDR3 4 GB Laptop RAM

And you have a power-packed portable machine in under 40k. If you cannot upgrade the RAM yourself, take it to Lenovo’s showroom/service centre or any laptop service centre and they would do that as a goodwill gesture without charging you for it.

The HD 4600 iGPU is ahead of several AMD and nVidia offerings so don’t be misguided by the fact that Intel GPUs are inferior to the rest. Here’s how they fare - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-H...0.86106.0.html

PS: An mSATA SSD would be a killer addition to this laptop and the difference in performance is instantly noticeable esp. if you have Windows 8 as the OS - the system boots in under 10 seconds! A decent 64GB mSATA SSD from Crucial/ Plextor retails around the 6-7k price bracket. It is a plug-n-play affair just like the memory addition.

PPS: Please avoid Croma for purchases. Their pricing relatively is on the higher side compared to other e-tailers. Croma is good for checking out the stuff in person. It is best that you order the laptop online.

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Avoid that HP laptop please - the specs. are on the lower side.

Leaving the portability factor aside, this would be my pick:

Flipkart - Lenovo Essential G510 (59-398343) Laptop (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ DOS)

Add an additional stick of 4 GB DDR3 RAM for 2.3k:

Flipkart - Corsair DDR3 4 GB Laptop RAM

PPS: Please avoid Croma for purchases. Their pricing relatively is on the higher side compared to other e-tailers. Croma is good for checking out the stuff in person. It is best that you order the laptop online.

Super like it
Good post mate. This is how a machine should be choosen. Thanks for a good post.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Leaving the portability factor aside, this would be my pick:

Flipkart - Lenovo Essential G510 (59-398343) Laptop (4th Gen Ci5/ 4GB/ 500GB/ DOS)

Add an additional stick of 4 GB DDR3 RAM for 2.3k:

Flipkart - Corsair DDR3 4 GB Laptop RAM

Originally Posted by gemi_kk

Super like it
Good post mate. This is how a machine should be choosen. Thanks for a good post.

Has any one tried Ubuntu on this one? Ubuntu site does not recognise G-series for their compatibility ? Any reasons or because its a recent series ?

[sgiitk]

Got my Lenovo Flex2 and am quite happy with it. Still at some loss about the Win 8 user interface.n I never realised that in order to see and get access to the Win 8.1 upgrade on the Store one must install all updates to bring 8.0 up to date. Did that and now I am busy downloading the 3.61GB of 8.1 update!

As it turns out we have three of these in our family in quick order. my son's on the 13th (two days prior to the official launch), mine of Friday and now my son-in-law in Kolkaka or Saturday (his 5 year old HP packed up on Friday!).

[raju2512]

Got a Lenovo G500 (i3 3G/2gb/500gb/win8) from flipkart. The quoted price was Rs.31.990. Got 5% off on CC + 10% off ob SBI CC + Rs.900 on ewallet. Added 4 gb ram and OS got upgraded to win 8.1. The total works to around Rs.29000, where as most of the outlets quoted around 34,500/-