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Dell Vostro 1000

5 offers from £273.78 to £485.28


A review by the Ciao member hackzilla about Dell Vostro 1000

published on 08.09.2007

Dell Vostro 1000

Author's product rating:

Speed	Fast
Look & Feel	Excellent
Comfort & Portability	Good
Robustness & Durability	Good
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Cheap and well spec'd
Disadvantages:	No disadvantages when priced at £352

Recommend to potential buyers:	yes
Overall rating:	excellent good average poor very poor

I bought this laptop for myself early on in August 2007 after researching many laptops.

For my perfect laptop it had to have the following features:
- Price ( Under £400 )
- Graphics ( 3D )
- Ample Memory ( Ideally 2GB )
- CD/DVD Writer
- Wireless (G)
- More than 2 USB Ports
- Not too Heavy (Not more than 3KGs)

The main reason I wanted to get a laptop was to be able to do my own computing projects from anywhere in the house.

One of my projects involves using a service called Second Life, which is basically an online 3D chat environment. The laptop that I got had to be able to run their application.

Most laptops I looked at contained 512MB or 1GB ram which is not enough to run Windows Vista comfortably.

This is a fairly tall order for a cheap laptop. Especially as I am a Pro Computer user.

The specifications of Dell laptops always seem to be getting better. I made the decision to buy.

The snag I found was this Dell Vostro 1000 was a range that is only available to business customers. This wasn't really a major problem, as I could just buy it as a business. Purchasing as a business has a drawback, but it also has a pro point.

The drawback to buying as a business is that the distance selling regulations only apply to consumers, so you cannot send it back within 7 days if you change your mind.

The pro point is that the laptops tend to have less rubbish installed on them, than their equivalent consumer models.


The specifcation of the Laptop I purchased was:

AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual Core Processor TK-53 (1.7GHz,512KB)
2GB RAM
Integrated ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemoryTM
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280x800) display
120GB Hard Drive
DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer DVD+R write capacity
4 USB Ports
Wireless (G)
Windows Vista Business (32 bit)
SD Card Reader
ExpressCard slot
Weights less than 2.84Kgs (Not sure of actual weight; 2.84Kgs is the weight of the same laptop with a larger battery)
Full Restore DVD
Microsoft Works 8.5

The specification was more than I expected.

And the cost to me?

£352 including VAT and Delivery.

The laptop was shipped to me pretty quickly as well. From the time of ordering, it took 5 days to be delivered to my door.

The acid test was the Second Life application, which is passed. I can use it online with no problems. You can't turn up all of the eye candy, but it is still highly usable.
It can also play Command and Conquer 3 very easily. This was a very nice added bonus.

In conclusion this laptop is the best laptop for around £350. I am very glad I chose this laptop.

However Windows Vista is still in question.

Vista completely locks up at least every other day, but I did experience this with XP on previous computers.

Microsoft are suggesting SP1 for Vista will be released Q1 2008.
In hindsight I would probably have choose XP as a build to order option (It costs the same whether you choose XP or Vista)

I still think Vista was a better option, but because it is newer and everyone will support it eventually. After using Vista, I can say I do like and prefer it to XP. Though its use of DRM and Aero can limited your computers performance. Aero has now been disabled, and as a result this laptop runs a lot cooler.

I have also decided to turn off User Account Controls, as they were so annoying. Every time I tried to remove something from the start menu I was prompted.

The choice between Vista or XP is yours, and you will have to decide for yourself.


Update:

I have performed a couple of 3D Benchmarks to give you an idea of this laptops 3D potential.

3D Mark 06 170
3D Mark 05 666
3D Mark 03 1335

You can see that the 3D capabilities of this laptop are much better with older 3D titles or titles with newer special effects turned off.

Update: 11 October 2007

I have removed Vista and install XP Service Pack 2

The 3D Mark has been rerun and here are the new results:

3D Mark 06 219
3D Mark 05 696
3D Mark 03 1402

All tests were run with almost a bare operating system, and all quitable programs closed. 

Memory / capacity	Excellent
Ease of use	Easy
Range of Extra Features	Good
Instruction manual	Good
Manufacturer Support	Satisfactory

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