==>The Official Studio XPS 1640 + ATi 4670 GPU Owner's Thread <== *Part 2*

The only issues performing is when playing FEAR2 and Batman A.A at 1080 resolution and settings on medium. I would hate to have to put all the settings on low. SIMS3 plays at 1080 with everything high and is very smooth. AutoCAD runs the 3D models without a hitch. I was just disappointed with the performance on FEAR2 and Batman A.A. Oh and NFS Shift was just horrible performance wise.

 

This is unfortunate, alot of the major contributers to this thread seem to have jumped ship since the release of the i7 processors and 1645 system. Was enjoying checking for daily bits of useful info on my system ... Oh well

 

Have someone tried the new BIOS A11 (10/14/2009)?

Fixes:
Improve boot up time.
Enhance brightness function.

 

I am on the A11 bios and boot times are about 3 secs faster + dont have to press FN + up arrow to fix brightness

Yah im having poor performance with those games as well even L4D, but have seen an improvement in L4D with an Undervolt

 

Yeah it's pretty much the same thing that happened with the old 1640 thread when the 4670 came out.

 

my new studio 16 with 5 rows vent slit is much cooler than the old one, i played wow for 2 hours straight w/o using cooling fan, the computer is just warm.
while the colling has improved, the color saturation with ati 4670 is quite a shocker for 1st time user, colors are way oversaturated specially the red and green.

 

I'm glad to hear the fifth row of vents makes a difference. My second one ha only 4. They are replacing it yet again supposed to have five this time! Getting the T9600 in place of the P8700 I don't know Joe that is supposed to help heat, but anyways...

 

How did you get a replacement?

 

Tell them you have heat issues and that you heard there was a new vent for the exhaust fan and you wanted to get one they are easy to put on

 

I worried them to death! lol The first one was a combination of heat probs and the technician leaving gaps when putting it back together. When I got the new I found out about the 5 vents thing. I called them back and threw a fit...lol 2 supervisors told me they could only offer a replacement of the vent or a refund. I didn't want just the vent replaced because it would be the same tech. I didn't want the refund because my spec has already been upgraded. I told them I wanted to speak to the escalations team so when they called back he offered me a repalcement or a full refund I took the replacement with the upgraded CPU.

 

ia there is a way just to change the piece of plastic with the vents ? and if yes, is there a way to just receive the piece of plastic and not have to resend the lappy.

 

Thats an earlier post i made about removing the plastic, i guess if you hound dell they might just send ya the plastic piece to save the hassle of sending it out to em... dont no though.

There may be warranty issues, or protocol that they cant.

Can always try i guess and let us no

 

its really easy to do this take of the access panel and slide the vent to the left while the screen is closed then shimmy it till it comes out be patient sometimes it can get hung up but i just put the 5 slot vent with the raised edge on the bottom on my laptop

 

ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670 1GB is this good enough for lotro and civ 4?

 

i got 52c on acpi, 43 on cpu, 56 on gpu playing wow, thats with a fan colling the laptop.
these numbers are awesome, i dont know what has changed on colling design on new studio 16, one more row of vent slit cant be the only cause.

w/o colling fan, acpi is 68-70, cpu 63, gpu 67-68

 

has nayone got a good deal with 20% off coupon from dell outlet?
it used to be 15% off . extra 5% for the holiday i guess

 

Yes, I have got the one in my sig for $756 + taxes from the outlet

 

isn't the 20% off coupon just for inspiron 14 & 15?

 

thats just so unlikely, cheapest 4gb ram per stick gskill brand costs $200 @newegg.
i thought the one i got from outlet was cheap.

 

Hey guys whats up? I would like to know what type of monitor maker is your screen? If you don't know how to find it out you can use Everest or go to device manager and look for monitor and then right click, got to details and look for hardware ids and it will tell you. Also how bright is that RBG LED is compared to other LED screens?

 

Does anybody know if it's only the 4670 edition that ships with the "new" cooling system (5 rows)? If the 3670 edition still ships with the old chassis I think the upgrade was made especially for the 4670 with the new i7 processors in mind.

 

Sorry, I have a mistake, it as 759,20 and I got vista ultimate with it
. Hwever my fan is spinning all the time even at idle (bios a11), is that normal? i was thinking the computer was quiet? My temps are not high at all. I have got the 4 vents coolling sytem. Could I have a defectuous fan?

 

The RGBLED is pretty bright screen and colors are amazing i used to have the a led in my Studio 15 and this blows it outta the universe colors are vibrant Also Its a Samsung screen and model number is SEC5448

 

Listen carefully, as u have the 7200rpm hdd its probably that. Alot of people me included have made that mistake.

Just put ur ear to the machine and listen to where the sounds coming from, if its near the power button its the fan, if its coming from the left of the handrest its ur hdd.

To be honest it seems to claim down after a few days of use so i wudnt worry too much (Mines at it at the moment). Unless its really annoyin ya then get onto dell.

Pis*ed at the moment myself, when im typin and lightly rest my hand on the palm rest a pretty audible and irratating click happens. So as u can imagine and hour of typing results in "click" after "click" after "click". Like chinese torture or something!

The access panel seems to be loose, ive looked and can do anythin bout it. Wanna ring dell but my service tag still isnt recognised and i dont feel like the same bull i went thru last time i was on!!!!
At my wits end with there customer care!!!

 

Mkelliny: i read somewhere its not Samsung, it's Seiko Epson.

 

lcds on both of my studio 16s are samsung sec 5448 although the quality is not the same. the lcd on my new studio 16 is signaficantly better than the old one's, brighter and sharper, much moe vivid.

 

You are absolutely right, all the noise comes from the hard drive on the left side, what the heck is going on, the fan is indeed very quiet. Is that normal and safe, is there a way to make it go quiet

 

My precision m6400 is amazing, the colors are great, i also have RGB LED.

 

My precision m6400 is amazing, the colors are great, i also have RGB LED. I am also wondering when will dell release the 4870?

 

Yah! mines too got one in september as a replacement for studio 15 and bought one cuz i really wanted the 4670 but side by side i see my 4670 screen looks alot better i almost didnt believe i got the RGBLED till i looked in device manager

 

SEC as far as ive always know stands for Samsung Entertainment Corporation

and im 99.9% sure its a Samsung screen

 

Well then you already know what im talking about I dont think they will be because DX 11 is coming soon so they might move up to the ATI 5XXX series

 

Yes your right they will bring out the 5,000 series. I am considering the Toshiba x500, but i want the 1.73 core i7, I think the difference will be significant, sort off, the nvidia GTS 250 is a GDDR5 card actually but i think what will make the difference is that having both direct-x 11 and gddr5. Which i7 do you want?

 

I received my xps in September and am very happy with the build quality and performance. Although I am slightly dissapointed with the gaming side of things. I know games such as crysis and ms flight sim x demand allot. I just wish they ran less laggy. Is it possible to over clock the gpu in this machine if so what program would you reccomend.

 

I personally would get the 720QM but would upgrade later on down the road maybe when they get cheaper and more become available ...well Gddr3 is twice as fast as DDR3 i think and Gddr5 is three times as fast not sure might be other way around or not that way at all but the tesselation in DX 11 is going to make character models look insane

I have had this problem and there is a thread on it , but we have come to a conclusion that its the gpu not staying in state #1 but not sure if its a VBIOS issue, Driver Issue, or Heat issue ( i think its this ) I undervolted my processor and noticed it ran games better not so many dips but when i looked at the Thermal Paste application i seen that most of it was pushed out to the sides and very little was actually on the GPU (+ dell TP sux) However i am getting a replacement MOBO and am going to apply Shin-Etsu to CPU and GPU insted of the crappy Dell Dry thermal paste strips

 

I agree that the tesselation is going to look really insane especially for games like batman arkham asylum and Crysis, the second one is coming out. See the thing with Crysis is that it was made on Nvidia quadro cards so that is a constant problem with ATI. But the new 5,000 tears it apart, some people are waiting for direct x 11 i might wait too.

 

If you can wait it'll be more than worth it

 

Yeah i know, i am deciding in a way to anyway.

 

Wrong, I think it's Samsung Electronics Corporation

 

Unfortunately not that i no of, mine does it on and off sometimes whn im not even doing anything on the computer. Did make alot more noise when i first got the system though, as i said it claimed down. Have heard of dell replacing a fair few of em for burning out. My advice is keep eveything backed up just incase but i cant imagine theres anything wrong.

If it is getting to ya contact dell, might offer a replacement. I dont think there'll be much of a change though.

Could always splash out on a SS HDD which is wht ill be doing just as soon as they drop in price and increase in capacity

 

I will backup and hope that the noise will settle down. The drive is really fast though (so far) and it is not the clicking noise that some others have. So no reason to ask for a replacement. I will get an ssd anyway later on when the prices will settle down and put this badboy in an enclosure for backup.

 

I have the 500GB 7200rpm HDD as well and it is whisper quiet. I still back up everything at least once a month. You may want to contact dell and see if they willl offer a replacement if the noise is really bothersome. Even when loading a game from the HDD or an AutoCAD file, the HDD is very quiet.

 

Ya mine sounds like a clock alright, lol i really need to get onto dell myself id say!!

2 things bothering me at the mo and dont no why im just putting up with em, did spend a hell of alot on this laptop. Gonna have to sort em b4 its too late

 

My HD ran fairly constantly when I first got the 1640, but then every PC I've had since XP came out has done the same.

I tracked it down to Windows indexing every damned file on the HD. You can stop it but it behaves itself once it's finished anyway.

 

I'm selling my laptop if anyone is interested. Its a hair over a month old, in perfection condition, specs are in sig but just to repeat. Nothing is wrong with it I just no longer need it as it was a 2nd machine.

1640- t9800 2.93ghz - 4gig ddr3 - 500gb7200rpm hdd - full 16 rgbled 1080p screen - ati 4670 1gb video card - wireless 5100 - blue-ray/dvd-rw + additional 9cell battery and a brand new case logic sleeve blck. PLus windows 7 disk/kit from dell that I will be receiving this week.. make me an offer, its in perfect condition. will take pics if necessary.

 

Hey guys...I have a slight confusion about the Studio XPS 1640. When I use HW Monitor to view my system specs it says that I have 2 x 2GB RAM modules at 533 Mhz each. That cant be rite, can it? Coz isnt the 1640 supposed to have the DDR3 RAM running at 1066 Mhz each? So why does it show 533 Mhz each?

Am I missing something here or have I been swindled by Dell?

 

DDR stands for "double data rate" - so double the clockspeed to get the effective speed. (2 x 533 = 1066mhz).

 

If anybody is waiting for "that" e-mail regarding Windows 7 upgrade I would suggest not waiting for it but to go through the ugrade screens and, using an account sign in, get the upgrade from Dell straight away. I have not received my upgrade yet (it's only 2 days ago) but at least I know I'm in the loop (I know........... So what!)

 

Ohh ok..I wasn't aware of that. So 533 Mhz is normal rite? U all have the same thing? Anyways...thanks for the info.

 

You are right. My guess is that Dell's gonna send that email at their convenience (which means never). I went to the windows 7 Dell upgrade site and ordered the upgrade kit myself. But I dont think its gonna be arriving anytime soon...coz its been 2 days and there isnt even an 'order status' update yet.

One good thing though...they dint charge me a single penny for the upgrade kit...I was expecting to pay for taxes and shipping but it was $0.00. Maybe its location dependent but I'm pleasantly surprised by Dell on this one (my past experience with them has been horrible).