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

Must be an update that hasn't been put on the downloads yet.
Know nothing about it.

 

Good info, I'll add that to the FAQ and credit you.

 

anybody know when the Window 7 is coming pre-installed on their laptop on their Dell website?

 

A08 here, and I can dim the screen just fine with FN+key down or key up

 

How do I configure the LUT loader? Or change its setup or properties...It no longer loads the color profile on startup?

 

new problem started two days ago and is still on going... Random blue screen of death followed by a reboot.. anyone esle experiencing this?

I ordered on july 6, 2009 and got it july 31,2009 so its fairly new.

 

I was not really clear about it, I meant dimming option in the power options so you can set it to dim after some time when its only idling. On the A08 I can only select it to just turn the display off after x amount of time.

 

Caused by latest Microsoft patch see this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=412660

 

Oh really, you can dim the screen after a certain time with A10? That's good if so as I missed that feature. Come on Dell release A10 to everyone.

 

Hey all. I am thinking of purchasing a Studio XPS 16 with the ATI 4670 but I was wondering what the battery life and heat were like. Any comments would be appreciated.

 

Yes I like the feature also, here a screenshot in other thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5257223&postcount=5841

 

I will very shortly be an owner of an SXPS 16 + ATi 4670! My laptop is in the "Boxing" stage now =)

 

Read through this thread or search for the terms you are looking for. No need to repeat the same thing over and over again...

 

Does anybody know how many displays can be used simultaneously on the sxps16?

The laptop has got:
- laptop display
- displayport
- HDMI
- analog D-sub

So looking at the # connections, 4 displays can be attached, but can the sxps 16 drive all those displays simultaneously in practice? Or what is the limitation, and by what is it caused?

 

You can only drive 2 at any given time. So internal display + one external or 2 External sources and no internal display.

 

Just want to say, I have Windows 7 RC..and the IDT audio drivers posted by Dell finally work! Yay! So go grab them!

 

I have read through the entire thread. Basically what I am understanding is that it does heat up, but no more than any other laptop with this much power, and that the 6-cell battery gives about 2 hours while the 9-cell gives 3. Correct?

 

Yup, that about sums it up...

Keep in mind that there are specific places where it heats up (the bottom and under the palmrests). So if you're planning on frequently using it on your lap or if you're a heavy internal keyboard user this is not the machine you want.

By the way, if you actually read the ENTIRE thread, then I applaude you... Must have been quite a tough job going through 157 pages...

 

32 pages, with 50 post per page. I actually just searched for "battery", "life", "heat", and "hot" on every page. Only took about 15 minutes

 

That's not really true... why would you be inconvenienced by a warm keyboard? You're not keeping your finger on a key for over a second. The bottom does get hot but it's all solved by a portable cooler or lap desk. I use my Zalman on my lap as a lap desk and a cooler when on my desk.

 

Sounds like you're a smart person. Then why ask that unnecessary question?

Anyway, you have your answer; that's what counts!

 

Well, this is something people can argue about. I find the palmrests to get too hot to do some intensive typing on. I was not speaking of the keyboard which gets too hot; I was speaking of the palmrests and the touchpad, and I think you must agree with me that they tend to get uncomfortably hot!

 

I haven't done anything intensive with my SXPS yet, I received my Adobe Production Premium today and have yet to run a game besides Half Life 2 Lost Coast, so I can't comment on that. But at just doing office work, it by no means gets hot. And if it does for you or anyone else, it is easily remedied by a notebook cooler. Really even buying a portable one like Cooler Master Notepal U2 will help.

 

the laptop gets hotter than my 3 year old toshiba satellite, but as people have said it isn't so hot you can't touch it, most would prefer it run cooler though

I've had the laptop on my lap for the past hour surfing the web, I don't even really notice the heat on my legs except warm like any laptop and I'm wearing basketball shorts

 

One (major) difference is that you have a P8600 and I have a T9900, so.. there's no real comparison possible between our machines.

Anyway, it looks like we're going to have the same discussion again we've been having about 100 pages back... I don't see the point in that.

 

Ok need some help:

For some characters that are not on the keyboard, I want to use ASCII-codes. E.g. the combination ALT+0176 results in the symbol ° ,but the numbers 0 1 7 6 must be typed on the numerical part of the keyboard which the sxps 16 doesn't have. Other laptops don't have a physical numerical part on their keyboard either but the same functionality can be achieved by using the Fn-key. On this picture you can see the numerical part printed in blue on the alphanumeric keypad so by pressing the Fn button while using those keys, you have the same functionality as a keyboard with numeric keypad. On these laptops there's no problem using ASCII-codes.
The sxps 16 however doesn't have numerical keys printed (as a second or third function). How can I use ASCII-code keycombinations on the sxps 16?

 

I don't think we can use ASCII codes, however I do have a convenient workaround.

If you download Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator:

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/...aa-780d-4253-9e0a-e17e51db2223&displaylang=en

Install into a directory with no more than 8 characters such as C:\MSKLC. Run the program and then go to File - Load Existing Keyboard and select your current keyboard layout from the list. You can now change each individual key and also change what Shift+key and Ctrl+Alt+key represents.

Add the characters you require and then go Project - Build DLL and Setup Package. Give the new layout a name and it will build the install files. Run the setup file that it creates and you should be good to go. Go to Control Panel - Region and Language - Keyboards and Languages - Change Keyboards and make sure your new layout is listed and set as default.

 

I mean if you get a T series processor you should have no expectations on heat

 

Does anyone use SetFSB to overclock their CPU on this laptop? If you do what is the PLL of this laptop.

 

Does it make that much of a difference in getting the T or P series when comparing the overheating issue? I was thinking of getting the T9600 but maybe I should get the P8700 instead.

 

get the P series. (2.4 or 2.5 ghz is perfect for this machine.....higher is not needed + it will runs a bit more warmer)

 

I believe the SXPS (no matter what processor) gets hot. Only the slower processors do not get as hot as the faster ones. As always, it is the person who judges.

 

what do you guys think would be better to have: P8700 w/ 6GB of RAM or T9600 w/ 4GB of RAM? Everything else would be the same and they are pretty much the same price.

 

The difference between T and P cpu's will be very small, I think average just a few Watts.
The difference is almost negligible in comparison to total power dissipation of GPU+CPU+chipset. SXPS 16 systems with P cpu also get very hot.
Undervolting and applying TIM in the correct way will have more influence on temperatures.

 

^nm they are not the same price. I'll probably get the P8700 with 4GB of RAM and same some money.

 

It depends on what you want to do with the system. If the stuff you do is CPU-intensive, then the T9600 would be best. Undervolting and TIM is indeed a good solution, as Disco-Stu indicated.

An alternative would be to take the T9600 and work with it for a year and to upgrade memory later. After a year memory will be much cheaper, so then the upgrade is a lot cheaper.

 

Got my XPS 16 today. Installed Windows 7 Ultimate.

In Firefox, the scrolling on the touchpad doesnt work. Anyone found a fix for this? I'm using the latest Dell drivers. I tried the Synaptics website, but those drivers are older than the dell ones.

 

^that sounds like the smart way to go. Thanks.

 

You can find the latest drivers in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=407994

They work great for me, and add many features compared to the Dell driver. Dunno if they are Win7 compliant, but since they are the latest ones around you should have the best chance with these.

Post back on your findings please!

 

Brilliant! Working great now, thanks for that link!

 

T series has 35W of TDP, P series has 25W of TDP, i think this could be more than a few watts.

 

Anyone got GtA IV? Can anyone post their graphics settings screen? I can't find a good balance between quality and performance...it seems very laggy even on low settings.

 

Are you running on a 3670 or 4670?

I tried it on my 3670 machine but it was nearly unplayable...

 

4670...had the 3670 model but returned it.

 

Well, I'm not much of a gamer... Only reason I installed it, is because I understood that this particular games had some high demands for hardware in order to run properly. And that is exactly what I found out on my SXPS16 with 3670. I also returned the machine for one with the 4670... Just got word this morning that they shipped it out. Should be getting it on 4 september.

 

Why are people expecting high end gaming performance out of a mid level multi media machine?

 

Probably because games are so easy to benchmark?

I bought the machine to create High Def videos, which it does brilliantly. And I do some work stuff on it too, but that just requires memory; hardly any CPU.

I'm not a gamer, but I must say that I like to see a machine work hard and produce fantastic graphics.

 

after been reading in both SXPS 16 threads, i think "many" SXPS//3670 owners are waay to scared that their 3670 card are much slower then 4670.......(7500 or 5000 in 3dmark06 doesn't mean everything)

calm down guys. 3670 is still a good gaming card who play most games in high details, there is absolute no rush to send it back and pay this 15% for a new SXPS

just a thought

 

Well I (p8700 + 4670) can play Crysis Warhead at max settings (no aa or v-sync) (720p) at around 15-20fps. Thats pretty respectable.

 

you can't compare two graphic cards with a single game, with completely different graphic settings.