[Review] DELL Vostro 5470

[Gribber]

DELL Vostro 5470
Unboxing (pics taken from Google images, more images here: Dell Vostro 5470 unboxing | Laptop Informations):

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*Note: DELL Vostro 5470 offers a number of variants. Mine is $1,399.
Refer here for the variants offered: DELL Vostro 5470

Specifications:
Processor & Mainboard:
• 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-4200U processor (3M Cache, up to 2.6 GHz)
• Intel Lynx Point-LP, Intel Haswell

Display:
• Glossy 14.0 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and HD resolution (1366 x 768)

System Memory:
• Upgraded to 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz (8GBx1)[Originally 4GB DDR3L 1600MHz (4GBx1)]

Storage:
• Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT012-1DG1 (500 GB, 5400 RPM, SATA-III) + XM17 32GB V2 mSATA

Graphics Card:
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 740M 2GB DDR3
• Intel HD Graphics 4400

Network Connectivity:
• Intel® Wireless-N 7260 2x2 BGN + Bluetooth 4.0
• Realtek PCIe Gigabit Family Controller (right side)

Operating System:
• Windows 8.1 Single Language (64Bit) English

Audio:
• Dell 2.0 Speakers with Waves MaxxAudio® 4
• Two 1.5W Stereo Speakers and a 2W Subwoofer

Interfaces:
• Intel Lynx Point HDMI @ Intel Haswell-ULT - Mini HD Audio Controller [C-0] (right side)
• Realtek PCIE Secure Digital CardReader (left side)
• Integrated 720p Webcam
• 3 x USB 3.0 (2 on left) (1 on right with Power Share)
• 1 Microphone-in jack (right side)
• Multi-Touch Touchpad with gesture support

Security:
• Biometric Devices (Fingerprint)
• Kensington Lock
• Intel Anti-Theft Technology 4.0
• Intel Identity Protecetion
• DELL Backup & Recovery Manager

Power:
• 51.2Whr, 3-Cell Battery (Integrated)
• 65W AC power Adapter

Dimensions and Weight:
• Dimensions: 0.76" (h) x 9.19" (d) x 13.29" (w) / 19.35mm (h) x 233.5mm (d) x 337.6mm (w)
• Weight: 3.6lbs/1.62kg

 

[Gribber]

DELL Vostro 5470 - Test Setup

Test Setup:
HDMI Cable to a AOC 2757 27” LED Monitor @ 1920 x 1080
27 degrees room temperature

PerformanceTest 7.0

Disk Benchmark (CrystalDIskMark 3.0.2 x64)

Temperature after running all of the tests (CPUID HWMonitor)

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*For the adventurous

Additional Info

Instructions to change your own parts:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_vostro_notebook/vostro-5470_Owner's%20Manual_en-us.pdf

Internal/Interior

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Things that I have upgraded (After benchmark):
1 x 8GB (from 4GB) - (purchase from HWZ Marketplace)
1 x Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 (from Wireless-N 7260)
1 x Matt Screen Protector
1 x Thru Keyboard Skin Cover/Protector

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Items that you can purchase from if you want to:

DDR3L RAM - (Sim Lim Square)
Intel Wireless-AC PCIe Half Mini Card - (ebay or Amazon)
Screen Protector & Skin (matt/clear/privacy) - (E-Power @ Sim Lim Square Level Level #4 - they will stick it for you if you brought your notebook along)
Keyboard Protector - (ebay)

 

[Gribber]

DELL Vostro 5470 - Conclusion

Pros:
Battery life at medium brightness with wireless lasted me between 6-8hrs
Class 2 Graphics for average gaming
Dual back fan for ventilation, excellent heat dissipation
Dual vent at the back of the notebook chassis which is rare
Durable anodized aluminium chassis
Inaudible fan rotating sound
Island/Chic-let keyboard
Slim, Light Weight
Speedy Workhorse


Cons:
5400RPM HDD provided (upgradable)
4GB RAM provided (upgradable to 8GB)
Glossy reflective screen (bought an anti-glare protector to eliminate the gloss)
Single band wireless card provided (upgradable to dual band)
Single DIMM Slot (good to have dual)
Removal of the entire backplate to access internal components
Two small hinge (prefer a single long better quality hinge)


In conclusion, I would say the DELL Vostro is not perfect, but extremely value for money if you are looking for a portable, high performance notebook with security features all thrown in.


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Even for Malaysian Sets, you can request from DELL to provide you with this instead of burning it yourself

with Windows8.1

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For people deciding this against the pricier ASUS.

 

[mysky26]

Hi Gribber,

Do you know whether the mSATA can be used as the boot drive? Thinking of changing the mSATA to 128GB as the boot drive.

 

[Gribber]

Hi Gribber,

Do you know whether the mSATA can be used as the boot drive? Thinking of changing the mSATA to 128GB as the boot drive.

yes. it is possible.

the steps are as follows:

From DELL

Power on the computer and press F2 button on the Dell logo
Using right arrow key,highlight Advanced option
Using down arrow key, Highlight Intel® Rapid Start Technology and press Enter
Press Enter on iRST Support and Disable it
Press ESC button to go back to previous menu
Highlight the Boot option and take the boot drive(For example CD/DVD) to first priority using the +/- keys on keyboard
Press Enter on Hard Drive and make the mSATA drive first boot priority
Press F10 to save changes and exit
Press F12 on Dell logo and Insert the Operating system media into the optical drive
Highlight the CD/DVD drive and press Enter to boot from the installation media
Follow the onscreen instructions to install the operating system
Ensure that you install the operating system on the mSATA drive at the drive selection screen

Setting up Rapid Start (changed to a new mSATA)

Setting up Rapid Start

Now that the Smart Response is up and running we can create our Rapid Start Partition. Intel recommends making this partition the same size or more as the amount of memory that is installed in your computer. They recommend just making a 8192 GB partition as this will always work for all configurations but you can play to see what works best for you!

Open a command prompt and run “Diskpart”
Type “list disk” you should see a list of disks. Note that your SSD will now show up as a smaller disk as the step before has created a partition for memory cache. Remember the Disk Number that is listed beside it.
Select the disk by typing “select disk 1″ for me it’s disk 1 for you it could be a different number
Verify that you have selected the correct disk by typing “list disk” and you will see an “*” beside the disk you have selected
Now we are going to create the partition type “create partition primary size=8192″
You should see a success message “DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition”
We need to now set the ID of the partition “set id=84 override”
Again you should see a message that it succeeded, if you get an error “The specified type is not in the correct format.” then this is because when you initialized the disk you did not set it to MBR you set it to “GPT” you will have to go back to the beginning and follow each set and make sure you set it to a MBR when you initialize the SSD.
Once you are done you can reboot your computer for the EFI or BIOS to see the new partition.
You can enter your setup to see that Intel Rapid Start is now enabled. Once you have verified this you can go back into Windows.
Download and install the Rapid Start Software from Intel’s site
You should receive no error now when installing

 

[MercyOfASwiftDeath]

Is there substantial difference in boot up speed after having set the SSD as the boot drive?

Btw, here is a teardown of the Dell Vostro 5470
³¬Ô½Think´÷¶ûVostro 5470´¥¿Ø±¾²ð½â_±Ê¼Ç±¾_̫ƽÑóµçÄÔÍø

So, for those you can add your own mSATA or DD3L ram, maybe change the dam glossy to matt(options which are not individually customisable if you buy directly from dell)

Of course there's warranty so watch it haha

 

[Gribber]

Change to matt just plaster a matt screen protector can le ma.

I think you meant DDR3L instead

 

[Gribber]

Is there substantial difference in boot up speed after having set the SSD as the boot drive?

Btw, here is a teardown of the Dell Vostro 5470
³¬Ô½Think´÷¶ûVostro 5470´¥¿Ø±¾²ð½â_±Ê¼Ç±¾_̫ƽÑóµçÄÔÍø

And btw, nice finding.

I think DELL allows 1 to change parts themselves as they have provided a full guide which I have shown above a user manual to dismantling your set.

 

[winguy]

Looks good considering its price. Thanks for the review!

 

[PC_Dreams]

Yes. This dell is one of the most value for money model if you want its weight. So far, no other models can match its specs and price.

 

[Gribber]

Looks good considering its price. Thanks for the review!

Np, hope its of some use.

 

[quekky]

anyone knows where to get this with 8GB ram? (with the ram warranty directly from dell) Online only sell 4gb and doesnt have 8gb option

 

[Gribber]

anyone knows where to get this with 8GB ram? (with the ram warranty directly from dell) Online only sell 4gb and doesnt have 8gb option

From stores probably. Else, you can install yourself ma. You save more that way since you can sell the 4GB away.

Do note that the ram required and will only work with DDR3L = 1.35V

 

[FlushX]

Is the following HP Envy 15 comparable/better than the Vostro?

HP ENVY 15-j126tx Notebook PC (ENERGY STAR)(F7Q46PA)| HP® Singapore

$1299 at Harvey Norman w 12GB Ram and 2 years warranty

 

[Hailgod]

Is the following HP Envy 15 comparable/better than the Vostro?

HP ENVY 15-j126tx Notebook PC (ENERGY STAR)(F7Q46PA)| HP® Singapore

$1299 at Harvey Norman w 12GB Ram and 2 years warranty

From what i can see, only got 8gb ram. HP Notebook - Laptops - Computers - Computers
Specs wise, the hp is much better with its quad core cpu. Actually, this com looks like a nice deal.
but be aware that its 2.2kg, have a 1366x768 15.6" screen, and most likely have quite bad battery life.

 

[Gribber]

Is the following HP Envy 15 comparable/better than the Vostro?

HP ENVY 15-j126tx Notebook PC (ENERGY STAR)(F7Q46PA)| HP® Singapore

$1299 at Harvey Norman w 12GB Ram and 2 years warranty

Before my vostro, I was using the HP ENVY 14.

Tried to perform a recovery on my notebook, to my dismay, the note book could not work thereafter.

Sent notebook HP, they took 3months and nothing happened (they failed to fix it even on another model), ultimately I ask them to refund me so that I could move on with my life.


Of course, you can install the OS manually but I dont like the idea of having something "not working" when it should.


Btw, the HP notebook is too heavy to be competing with the vostro, different league.

 

[winguy]

Regarding Dell Vostro 5470 , I suppose its speakers are better than comparable peers?

 

[FlushX]

From what i can see, only got 8gb ram. HP Notebook - Laptops - Computers - Computers
Specs wise, the hp is much better with its quad core cpu. Actually, this com looks like a nice deal.
but be aware that its 2.2kg, have a 1366x768 15.6" screen, and most likely have quite bad battery life.

The current version is FHD. Yea, not the lightest around. I see it as a value for money multimedia laptop though.

Btw, the 12GB ram I mentioned is after free upgrade.

 

[Gribber]

Regarding Dell Vostro 5470 , I suppose its speakers are better than comparable peers?

2.1 2 speakers with 1 sub.

 

[Gribber]

The current version is FHD. Yea, not the lightest around. I see it as a value for money multimedia laptop though.

Btw, the 12GB ram I mentioned is after free upgrade.

I will gun the acer v series instead
I think its more value for $