Which Dell:Inspiron 15 7559 version should I buy?

[Jon1969]

I only game occasionally and I need a laptop as my only computer. Latest game I have at the moment is Bioshock Infinite.
For about $750 there are three Dell Inspiron 15 7559s available. I tried an ASUS and wanted to like it, but it locked up and had a keyboard I didn't like.

The differences are:
i5 6300 HQ
256 MB SSD
FHD screen

i7 6700 HQ
1TB HD
FHD screen

Signature Series
i7 6700HQ
1TB HD
UHD
Touch screen
Are the touch screen and 4K screen more trouble than they're worth. I really don't care about the touch screen and the 4K screen isn't practical with the GPU limits, from what I hear.

The main question is whether the i7 or SSD makes a bigger difference out of the box. I understand I could add an SSD later.

Thanks

 

[jaguarskx]

The difference between the i5-6300HQ and the i7-6700HQ is the i7 has slightly higher clock speeds (300Mhz) and Hyper Threading (HT). HT allows the i7 to process up to 8 different threads of instructions compared to only 4 that the i5 can do. The number of games that can take advantage of HT is extremely small. The only one take does get a performance increase is Overwatch as far as I know. Game performance will only be slightly better with the i7 since the clock speed difference is small.

The difference between a SSD and a HDD can definitely be noticeable because the SSD has much faster read / write speeds. Windows can boot up faster, games and programs can load faster. A SSD does not increase FPS in games, but the game itself should load faster and textures will get loaded to the GPU's RAM significantly much faster which should fix any issue with texture popping that were loaded from a HDD; if any. Overall, it improves the laptop's responsiveness, but has no impact on the CPU or GPU performance. The SSD is on a M.2 SATA port.

I don't care much for a 4k resolution or touchscreen. The higher resolution cuts battery life and you need to rely on Windows scaling (assuming programs are designed to use it) so that menu icons and text can be made large enough to read. And there is no real point in attempting to play games at 4k resolution unless the laptop has at least a GTX 1070. However, Bioshock Infinite not a very demanding game. The only screen I want to touch is the one on my smartphone.

I purchased the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 with the i5-6300HQ, 256GB SSD and 1080p screen. I am pretty happy with it. For the moment, the only game I play with it is Star Trek Online. I increased the RAM from 8GB to 16GB and I installed a 1TB HDD, though looking back at it I think I should have spent a little more money for a 2TB HDD. The 256GB SSD is fine for now, but I would like to replace it with a 1TB M.2 SSD in the future when the drops to maybe about $225 (Crucial, Western Digital), or $275 for the 1TB Samsung EVO 850 SSD.

 

[Jon1969]

The difference between the i5-6300HQ and the i7-6700HQ is the i7 has slightly higher clock speeds (300Mhz) and Hyper Threading (HT). HT allows the i7 to process up to 8 different threads of instructions compared to only 4 that the i5 can do. The number of games that can take advantage of HT is extremely small. The only one take does get a performance increase is Overwatch as far as I know. Game performance will only be slightly better with the i7 since the clock speed difference is small.

The difference between a SSD and a HDD can definitely be noticeable because the SSD has much faster read / write speeds. Windows can boot up faster, games and programs can load faster. A SSD does not increase FPS in games, but the game itself should load faster and textures will get loaded to the GPU's RAM significantly much faster which should fix any issue with texture popping that were loaded from a HDD; if any. Overall, it improves the laptop's responsiveness, but has no impact on the CPU or GPU performance. The SSD is on a M.2 SATA port.

I don't care much for a 4k resolution or touchscreen. The higher resolution cuts battery life and you need to rely on Windows scaling (assuming programs are designed to use it) so that menu icons and text can be made large enough to read. And there is no real point in attempting to play games at 4k resolution unless the laptop has at least a GTX 1070. However, Bioshock Infinite not a very demanding game. The only screen I want to touch is the one on my smartphone.

I purchased the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 with the i5-6300HQ, 256GB SSD and 1080p screen. I am pretty happy with it. For the moment, the only game I play with it is Star Trek Online. I increased the RAM from 8GB to 16GB and I installed a 1TB HDD, though looking back at it I think I should have spent a little more money for a 2TB HDD. The 256GB SSD is fine for now, but I would like to replace it with a 1TB M.2 SSD in the future when the drops to maybe about $225 (Crucial, Western Digital), or $275 for the 1TB Samsung EVO 850 SSD.

 

[Jon1969]

Thanks for the thorough response.
Does the RAM being only DDR3L make a difference vs 4?

 

[jaguarskx]

Generally, no. The difference is pretty minimal. You can read the following article that compares DDR3L to DDR4 RAM. Video encoding using Handbrake shows the biggest different in performance of 4.58% in favor of DDR4L, but the Faststone 4.9 benchmark shows that DDR4 performance is lower by 2.08%.

http/www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/7


Basically, unless you are encoding a large batch of video, you are not going to notice any difference. I encoded videos for like 50 hours straight. If the laptop had DDR4 RAM it would have taken a little over 48 hours instead.


You shoul be aware that the new Dell Inspiron 7567 was recently released with a starting price of $800. It has the newer generation i5-7300HQ and the more powerful GTX 1050 which is slightly better than a GTX 965m. A definite improvement over the GTX 960m. But the newer model replaces the IPS screen with a TN screen which has narrower viewing angles. So better performance with a lower quality screen. But it has DDR4 RAM and a new design.

http/www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop

 

[Jon1969]

Generally, no. The difference is pretty minimal. You can read the following article that compares DDR3L to DDR4 RAM. Video encoding using Handbrake shows the biggest different in performance of 4.58% in favor of DDR4L, but the Faststone 4.9 benchmark shows that DDR4 performance is lower by 2.08%.

http/www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/7


Basically, unless you are encoding a large batch of video, you are not going to notice any difference. I encoded videos for like 50 hours straight. If the laptop had DDR4 RAM it would have taken a little over 48 hours instead.


You shoul be aware that the new Dell Inspiron 7567 was recently released with a starting price of $800. It has the newer generation i5-7300HQ and the more powerful GTX 1050 which is slightly better than a GTX 965m. A definite improvement over the GTX 960m. But the newer model replaces the IPS screen with a TN screen which has narrower viewing angles. So better performance with a lower quality screen. But it has DDR4 RAM and a new design.

http/www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop

 

[Jon1969]

Generally, no. The difference is pretty minimal. You can read the following article that compares DDR3L to DDR4 RAM. Video encoding using Handbrake shows the biggest different in performance of 4.58% in favor of DDR4L, but the Faststone 4.9 benchmark shows that DDR4 performance is lower by 2.08%.

http/www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/7


Basically, unless you are encoding a large batch of video, you are not going to notice any difference. I encoded videos for like 50 hours straight. If the laptop had DDR4 RAM it would have taken a little over 48 hours instead.


You shoul be aware that the new Dell Inspiron 7567 was recently released with a starting price of $800. It has the newer generation i5-7300HQ and the more powerful GTX 1050 which is slightly better than a GTX 965m. A definite improvement over the GTX 960m. But the newer model replaces the IPS screen with a TN screen which has narrower viewing angles. So better performance with a lower quality screen. But it has DDR4 RAM and a new design.

http/www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop

 

[Jon1969]

Generally, no. The difference is pretty minimal. You can read the following article that compares DDR3L to DDR4 RAM. Video encoding using Handbrake shows the biggest different in performance of 4.58% in favor of DDR4L, but the Faststone 4.9 benchmark shows that DDR4 performance is lower by 2.08%.

http/www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/7


Basically, unless you are encoding a large batch of video, you are not going to notice any difference. I encoded videos for like 50 hours straight. If the laptop had DDR4 RAM it would have taken a little over 48 hours instead.


You shoul be aware that the new Dell Inspiron 7567 was recently released with a starting price of $800. It has the newer generation i5-7300HQ and the more powerful GTX 1050 which is slightly better than a GTX 965m. A definite improvement over the GTX 960m. But the newer model replaces the IPS screen with a TN screen which has narrower viewing angles. So better performance with a lower quality screen. But it has DDR4 RAM and a new design.

http/www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop

 

[Jon1969]

This is great info too. Thanks. It may seem petty, but I really hate the look of the excess red trim on some laptops...the 7559 strikes a nice balance with white on black keys. The red on black keys are difficult to see in a dim room, where I'd use it most.. The ASUS I tried before was the same way.

What do you think about this HP? Does 2 GB vs 4 GB of GPU ram make a difference? Doesn't the limitation of the bus make more than 2 insignificant?
http/store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-power-pavilion-laptop--15t-x7p44av-1

Though I generally don't think too highly of HP, my 7+ year old laptop still runs fairly well and has only just started to lose track pad function.


Thanks

Generally, no. The difference is pretty minimal. You can read the following article that compares DDR3L to DDR4 RAM. Video encoding using Handbrake shows the biggest different in performance of 4.58% in favor of DDR4L, but the Faststone 4.9 benchmark shows that DDR4 performance is lower by 2.08%.

http/www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/7


Basically, unless you are encoding a large batch of video, you are not going to notice any difference. I encoded videos for like 50 hours straight. If the laptop had DDR4 RAM it would have taken a little over 48 hours instead.


You shoul be aware that the new Dell Inspiron 7567 was recently released with a starting price of $800. It has the newer generation i5-7300HQ and the more powerful GTX 1050 which is slightly better than a GTX 965m. A definite improvement over the GTX 960m. But the newer model replaces the IPS screen with a TN screen which has narrower viewing angles. So better performance with a lower quality screen. But it has DDR4 RAM and a new design.

http/www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop

 

[jaguarskx]

The HP looks fine. I generally recommend spending the extra $50 for 4GB of VRAM. In the past 2GB of VRAM was fine for playing games at 1080p but probably around 2 years ago that started to change.

One thing I do not like about HP laptops is the unusually large trackpad; some are as large as an iPhone. However, the trackpad is supposed to be disabled while you are typing.

 

[Jon1969]

The HP looks fine. I generally recommend spending the extra $50 for 4GB of VRAM. In the past 2GB of VRAM was fine for playing games at 1080p but probably around 2 years ago that started to change.

One thing I do not like about HP laptops is the unusually large trackpad; some are as large as an iPhone. However, the trackpad is supposed to be disabled while you are typing.

 

[Jon1969]

The HP looks fine. I generally recommend spending the extra $50 for 4GB of VRAM. In the past 2GB of VRAM was fine for playing games at 1080p but probably around 2 years ago that started to change.

One thing I do not like about HP laptops is the unusually large trackpad; some are as large as an iPhone. However, the trackpad is supposed to be disabled while you are typing.

 

[Jon1969]

What kind of practical differences are there between 6th and 7th gen? I don't know how to translate these numbers into real-world differences.

http/cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i5-7300HQ/m34954vsm223877

Am I right to assume the HP (or Dell) with 7th gen i5-7300HQ and GTX 1050 will perform better in most areas than the Dell 7559 with i7-6700HQ and 960m?

 

[jaguarskx]

There really isn't much of a difference between 6th and 7h gen Intel CPUs. The biggest difference would be the integrated graphics core performance.

The GTX 1050 is about 15% - 20% more powerful than the GTX 960m.

 

[Jon1969]

There really isn't much of a difference between 6th and 7h gen Intel CPUs. The biggest difference would be the integrated graphics core performance.

The GTX 1050 is about 15% - 20% more powerful than the GTX 960m.

 

[Jon1969]

Thanks for all the help.