Dell Inspiron 1564: Mobile i3/i5 for the Masses
by Dustin Sklavos on March 3, 2010 11:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Dell Inspiron 15 Application Performance
Given the 4GB of memory and powerful quad-threaded Intel Core i5-520M processor, it's reasonable to expect our Inspiron 15 review unit will tear through most processor-related tasks with relative ease. To refresh, here's how our Inspiron 15 is configured:
| Dell Inspiron 1564 Testbed | |
| Processor | Intel Core i5 520M (2x2.4GHz, 32nm, 3MB L3, Turbo to 2.83GHz, 35W) |
| Memory | 2x2GB DDR3-1066 (Max 2x4GB) |
| Graphics | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB GDDR3 (80 SPs, 450/1.2GHz Core/RAM clocks) |
| Display | 15.6" LED Glossy 16:9 768p (1366x768) |
| Hard Drive(s) | 320GB 5400RPM HDD |
| Optical Drive | 8x DVDR SuperMulti |
| Battery | 6-Cell, 12V, 48Wh battery "Up to 4 Hours" |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Pricing | $979 as configured |
For basic performance we've tested the Inspiron 15 in PCMark05 and PCMark Vantage, and in both programs you'll see it simply excels, blowing past the Intel Core 2 powered competition. We've also included results for video encoding, 3D rendering, and web browser performance.
Intel made some very big strides with the Arrandale-based Intel Core i5 processors, and the i5-520M's performance here is proof of that, showing leads of 20% to 65% in the various benchmarks compared to the next-fastest notebook (Dell Studio 14z/P8600). Suffice it to say, it's very fast and more than up to any processor-related task you want to throw at it. The only way you'll get more performance in a laptop is to move to a quad-core CPU, and even then it will only be in tasks that can leverage multi-threading effectively.
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T2k - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
1. Well, I have seen both (current) displays and I found Acer's somewhat better + webcams were always great in the few Acers I've come across recently (in 2-3 years) whereas Dell's track record is rather spotty there...2. There's an i5-520M version of it, for $850 but I don't think it worth $100 at all - IMO you would be better off rather spending it on a small SSD for the system and moving the 500GB to an external case instead...
3. Acer is fully-featured, unlike this one which, as the writer said it, feels stripped down.
4. The new DX11 mobile ATI chip gives you full 8-channel audio over HDMI which is a big plus for HTPC use, even if occasional.
5. Of course, this new mobile chip will drive 13x76 resolution just fine even in new games.
KaarlisK - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
Why should that be an external case? Just replace the DVD drive with a caddy holding the SSD/HDD and move the DVD drive to the external case.kmmatney - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
I'm not a big fan of the 16:9 laptop screen. Seems like things have gone backwards when you have fewer vertical pixels that the old 1024 x 768 screens many years ago.JarredWalton - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
What I've heard is that it's all about maximizing the number of LCD panels you can get from the glass substrate... if you use 16:10 each panel is 10% larger, and the source substrate size has been optimized lately for 16:9 production.strikeback03 - Thursday, March 4, 2010 - link
Might be true, but it still sucks. Kinda like just about everything relating to laptop LCDs these days.shobazee - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
Dell Inspiron 17 inch with corei5 is the best laptop .. Dell's designers seem to understand the importance of user experience extending beyond simple metrics like system performance... I THINK IT IS A GREAT DEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!anisurrups - Monday, June 15, 2020 - link
Your article is very important for every dell user