Positive:
Can add msata (half size) to existing HDD setup.
Can install & boot Windows from msata.
Super light 1.6kg between RM1.6K - RM2.5K

Gonna pick up my Dell 5470 this afternoon. For me the problems can be solved but I can't shave off the weight with other brands. Weight, screen size & price is my criteria. Other brands for i5 4200u & 1.5kg is gonna cost 3500-5500k without GPU summore in some models.

Tested my Vostro 5470, i5 that came preloaded with Ubuntu. So far no LCD screen problem (too early to tell if after more frequent movement of the lid will the connecting ribbon problem surface). WIFI connects ok. Will do a more comprehensive test on the wifi strength later to see. But as it is, I'm happy with the notebook so far.

You sound like a newbi on Win 8 notebook. Firstly, avoid updating to Win8.1 as the OS is still not stable plus you will encounter lots of driver issues especially with older equipment that the manufacturer have not provided updated drivers. Besides drivers, some Window legacy software will also not run well on Win8.1. MS is suppose to launch a big update to Win8.1 soon to address these issues. Since you are stuck in an improper installation of Win8.1, go for factory reset/installation of Win 8. The factory image of Win8 should be in the hdd.

Unless I'm wrong, the mb doesn't support boot up from normal ssd (replacing hdd). However it does boot up from half size msata ssd.

My 5470 doesn't have wifi issue & its on Intel not Realtek card. However, I discovered that it cannot boot from msata despite reading several forums on this subject that it can. It seems Dell uses different MB on the Vostro model for different countries & this has lead to different experience by owners of the same model. I have also tried several bios version (A05 & A06) for 5470 downloaded from Dell Msia & Dell USA to test..no luck.

Another issue is that after installing kingfast half height msata 128GB, the nb hangs for about 80-90sec at POST. This i read could be due to incompatibility to mb. But after the longer boot up time, the bios recognizes the msata & windows could accesses the drive as per normal. There were several occasions after POST, bios could not detect msata & Windows didnt show it either. However after reboot, it gets detected. Digging further from Dell site, there is a special driver for Liteon msata but it can't be installed for other msata ssd. So I'm not sure if the Vostro only recognizes Liteon msata & require msata driver to work properly. Googling, I couldn't find anybody selling Liteon half height msata on the net.

If i have some time will test if it can boot from 7mm ssd...

Boot sector & OS is now on hdd & msata is only another drive. POST is experiencing the boot up delay.

I tried installing Win8 in msata with & without hdd installed. While I managed to install Win 8 on msata ignoring warnings, it won't boot up from msata.

I dont think that's gonna solve my long POST problem. What msata are u using?

Dont know where this was copied from but my bios under advance tab dont have iRST. I have read this earlier before I bought the Vostro. However after looking at the actual bios options following my purchase, found that its not the same. Also under device boot priority, there is no msata option for me to escalate up as first boot device.









This post has been edited by hart932: May 27 2014, 11:08 AM

I think the msata i got might not be very compatible with this vostro. Or else POST won't hang for longer than usual. The compatibility is an issue here cause occasionally the nb wont recognize the msata. If the OS is installed there, the nb will require a hard reboot should it not recognized the msata. I dont have time at the moment to test if this vostro 5470 version can boot from ssd. I have one 7mm ssd 128gb in my nettop which I could swap over for the testing. Busy on my work matters for now... Will appreciate if others have time to try booting from ssd.

What ssd brand/model are you using with yr 5470?

Just encountered a problem when trying to copy files from external hdds. I have 2 units of usb3.0 hdd that I plugged in the notebook. Both of the external hdd was recognized by 5470. Then i copied files from one external hdd to the other external hdd. The copy speed increases to 90+mb/s for about 30sec then both usb3.0 hdd got disconnected & disappear from file explorer. I had to reboot nb in order to get them recognised again. But the same thing happens when copying files across both ext hdd. It looks like a usb 3.0 power issue that the usb ports are unable to supply the full 900mA power per usb port when the file copying gets faster.

Question is how do you limit the copy speed of usb3.0 hdd so that it won't suck up 900mA? I don't think we can increase the usb port power delivery. I repeated similar test with 2 units of usb 2.0 ext hdd & there is no problem. Repeating similar test with one usb 2.0 & another usb 3.0 hdd gave no problem as the file copying speed was about 19+mb/s.

With more & more ext hdd sold in the market comes as usb3.0, I think the pc manufacturers should make it a compulsory std for all usb ports to be 3.0 compliant.

Few weeks ago I got myself a usb3.0, 4 port hub & faced power issue as well. The external power supply only provided 5V 2.1A & couldn't even power 3 units of usb3.0 peripheral plugged in the hub. That's when I learned usb3.0 requires up to 900mA per port. I had a hard time finding a 5V 4A power supply unit.

Lucky mine with the intel wifi card gave no problem. Could be a Intel QC problem with the card since not all batches of the card provides poor reception.

Lucky you. I haven't been able to get my finger scanner working. I have installed the scanner driver from Dell but didnt know where to download the reader software. Hope other owners can shed some light on this?

Thanks for the software, Bro. I configured the PERSONA software to read my print but how do you get Win 8 to boot up with MS account with it?

Can provide step by step guide?

Follow up from my report on the incompatible kingfast msata (sata 2) that caused the long boot up time. Bought another msata brand (mydigitalssd which is sata 3 & this time the Vostro 5470 behaved like its supposed to be - fast boot up!

As suggested by others here, I installed the entire Win8 on the new 128GB msata. Then use easybcd to point towards the freshly installed OS on msata. Formatted the hdd partition containing the old Win8 files & I'm happy with this setup.

For those interested in the msata:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171315865547?ssPag...984.m1497.l2648

Don't know of any shop selling the half msata at lowyat. That's why i bought mine online.

As reported by others, u may not get the the ultimate wifi speed. But if you must have the ultimate speed, can always use a good usb wifi adapter with it. I'm not sure how many thin & light laptops out there can deliver the max wifi speed, max HDD read/write speed, max memory speed, max graphic card speed, etc. I'm sure if u do find one, its gonna be max $$$$ as well.

I might be wrong, but as of today there aren't any sub RM2K, i5 Haswell laptop with dedicated GPU & weight 1.5kg in the market. If there is do let us know.

Can adjust the speed of touchpad to yr taste from control panel.

I'm very satisfied with the mydigitalssd 128GB that i have in my Vostro. Its stable & performed like normal hdd with lots of read write to it since i use photoshop, illustrator & video encoding on it. Must say the new i5 is weak in video encoding compared to my old i5 460M nb. That's the real trade off for double the battery life & 0.7kg lighter which I'm ok with.

As for sandisk, maybe some others who have used it can comment. I presume if it works with the 64gb model, should be ok for higher capacities.