Solved! Dell Vostro 3700, worth getting?

[TomD_1]

I'm thinking of getting the Dell Vostro 3700, with the core i5 430m and 4GB of ram. I'm interested in this laptop because I think it has a lot of computing power for the amount it costs. And the GT 330m will be good for gaming, and for 24" monitor i plan to use with it.

Can anyone say if I should go ahead with this laptop at around $900, or are there better laptops/notebooks out there for my budget that i should consider?

 

[TomD_1]

jamess21037625, I would say its decent. It will never replace any desktop, but its definitely better than my friends laptops with the intel graphics chipsets.

johnt7225, I have tried out a few CAD programs on it and they all seem to work ok. I have only been using fairly small models on AutoCAD and Solidworks, so I cant really say much more.

The down arrow key stopped working for about a week, but then mysteriously started working again...

 

[randomstar]

THe Vostro 3700 is the unit I had that just got stolen:
same basic specs as the one referenced here,
It was great with Adobe CS4, AutoCAD 2011, navisorks, quite a lot of heavy software.
the only problem I had with it was it had an x900 display. needed higher resolution was the only drawback I had-
Would buy it again if I could get a high res pannel.

 

[johnt7225]

THe Vostro 3700 is the unit I had that just got stolen:
same basic specs as the one referenced here,
It was great with Adobe CS4, AutoCAD 2011, navisorks, quite a lot of heavy software.
the only problem I had with it was it had an x900 display. needed higher resolution was the only drawback I had-
Would buy it again if I could get a high res pannel.

randomsatar, Thanks for sharing your CAD + graphics experience. The x900 resolution is a concern of mine too. I am leaning toward the Sony Vaio 16.4" that has a 1900x1200 option, spec'd the same otherwise with slightly less screen real estate.

The Dell m6500 is $2k more spec'd as a real desktop replacement (i7-840, 8gb ram, nividia 3800, 1900x1200). But way out of reach for me right now.

 

[D@rkAng3LS]

I have to disagree on the Dell Vostro V3700 statements about sound. I have one and I find it all round fantastic. Why are you using the firewire in the first place? Personally I have had no problems with the Firewire port. There are Firewire to USB adapters out there that won't cost much and solve all your problems. I do some heavy online gaming as well as using it as a media station and it out performs all other computers I have had. I have only added RAM to the machine as the wmpnetwk.exe was hogging the RAM but now she is perfect. For your budget and with the Dell 3 year warranty, you can't go wrong.

 

[D@rkAng3LS]

is this really such a bad notebook if considering playing games on it. if read that the the Nvidia Geforce GT 330M 1g isn’t such a bad card after all. have any one of you benchmarked this laptop on any modern game on different settings and resolution? isn’t the 17'' gonne give low fps?

Don't let these comments put you off. This is one awesome laptop. I have the Dell Vostro V3700 i7 and it has 1 g DDR5 dedicated video RAM and it is great for gaming. I play Crysis 2 online and it performs alongside the guys running really expensive riggs and I rank in the top 5 every time (and I don't play too well). No lag and with just 6 G RAM it is really great value for money. I only added a external SSD and that is all. I play on a 42 inch LG plasma screen and still runs great. You won't be sorry buying this beast and with a three year warranty from Dell, what more do you want

 

[D@rkAng3LS]

I have had a Vostro 3700 for about 6 weeks. In roughly 40 years of being around computers, this is absolutely the worst experience I have ever had. The Dell Hell service remarks are all true. You can't return the thing. I have had the motherboard replaced twice as well as the Nvideo card. When the tech came out to replace the boards, he was the definition of not caring and he broke the keyboard which then had to be replaced. I have wasted roughly seven full days of my life on the phone with tech service to no avail. The remarks are true on downgrading to Xp. Plus, of four graphics cards available on this machine, only one has XP drivers. If you have a different card, it just defaults to VGA. After all this, the machine still runs maybe 30 minutes and you get the blue screen of death. This computer is so bad that I abandoned it - at only six weeks old - and bought a HP Pavilion, a brand which I have owned before. In the same environment (business) the HP just flat works. No glitches, no problems. I will never own another Dell until they fix their customer service issues. I informed Dell of all this and although they are very sorry, they are not going to do anything.

Dude, 40 years around computers and you can't even fix your own thing? I seriously doubt your statement is justified here at all (if true that is).

 

[D@rkAng3LS]

Dell Vostro i7 V3700 benchmark score is 7.9 and that is damn impressive for a standard laptop with no upgrades at all. What do you say to that?

 

[cebenswan]

Well i own a dell vostro 3700 i7.....

standard the score is only 5.9

processor 7.1
RAM 5.9
graphics 6.5
G graphics 6.5
HDD 5.9

upgraded ram: 2x 2GB kingmax 1333mhz - 2x corsair 4GB ddr3 1666 mhz
upgraded hdd: wd 500gb hdd to corsair 640 GB ssd

processor 7.1
RAM 7.1
graphics 7.1
G graphics 6.5
HDD 7.9


added usb 3.0 expansion module

benchmark still not 7.9!


sure it is fast but its only worth it becuase you have to restart every 20 mins if you do hard graphics on it.
the "m330 1gig gddr5" graphics memory isnt as good as m200 series 256 mb DDR3 for only 1 reason the memory needs to get utilized via nvdia driver instead of being part of gpu itself in other words the machine has virtual 1gig ram routed to gpu as opposed to ram on gpu itself.... this equals major heating issues

I use it for adobe photoshop cs 5.1 extended....

I do 3d logo design for independent film makers....

resolution is only 1600 x 900
nvidia sterioscopic 3D capable but not worth it as full HD 3d requires resolution 1900 x 1200

heavy delay on m-audio interface's (battery removal seems to improve it a bit though)

not a good machine if you want to record using pro tools

the gpu overheats and the memory usage is never under 1.8gigs....
try benchmarking with 3d mark max or any gaming benchmark utilities.....
4.1 on standard machine.....

that is dissapointedly what i have to say about that...

it just isn't as good as any other competing class laptop....

it is pretty looking though....
nice for students maybe....
or as a gift...
but it sucks....

sorry...

get a mac!!!!

 

[D@rkAng3LS]

Well i own a dell vostro 3700 i7.....

standard the score is only 5.9

processor 7.1
RAM 5.9
graphics 6.5
G graphics 6.5
HDD 5.9

upgraded ram: 2x 2GB kingmax 1333mhz - 2x corsair 4GB ddr3 1666 mhz
upgraded hdd: wd 500gb hdd to corsair 640 GB ssd

processor 7.1
RAM 7.1
graphics 7.1
G graphics 6.5
HDD 7.9


added usb 3.0 expansion module

benchmark still not 7.9!


sure it is fast but its only worth it becuase you have to restart every 20 mins if you do hard graphics on it.
the "m330 1gig gddr5" graphics memory isnt as good as m200 series 256 mb DDR3 for only 1 reason the memory needs to get utilized via nvdia driver instead of being part of gpu itself in other words the machine has virtual 1gig ram routed to gpu as opposed to ram on gpu itself.... this equals major heating issues

I use it for adobe photoshop cs 5.1 extended....

I do 3d logo design for independent film makers....

resolution is only 1600 x 900
nvidia sterioscopic 3D capable but not worth it as full HD 3d requires resolution 1900 x 1200

heavy delay on m-audio interface's (battery removal seems to improve it a bit though)

not a good machine if you want to record using pro tools

the gpu overheats and the memory usage is never under 1.8gigs....
try benchmarking with 3d mark max or any gaming benchmark utilities.....
4.1 on standard machine.....

that is dissapointedly what i have to say about that...

it just isn't as good as any other competing class laptop....

it is pretty looking though....
nice for students maybe....
or as a gift...
but it sucks....

sorry...

get a mac!!!!

Sorry to hear about your bad experience man

I had overheating issues and also the restarting problems in the beginning but, and that is a BIG BUT, when I called Dell and reported the problems, they where extremely honest in admitting the fact that there was a flaw in the GPU design and immediately sent a techie out to replace my whole motherboard complete with a new design GPU, fan etc.

Now it is running 5 times better than it was before. I don't know why you got under 7.9 score but maybe your laptop was one of the faulty ones.

Everyone has a different experience and mine was just great.

As for your comment "Get a mac" I'm sorry but I like a machine that is universal and compatible across the board. I am sure it is a great machine for you but NOT for me.