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

Futuremark.com (of course )

newest 3dmark. Vantage____________really fun new Benchmark
http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmarkvantage/download/

3dmark06________________king of Benchmark
http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark06/download/

 

got my laptop yesterday and its simply amazing. it does get quite warm so ill be getting Zalman NC-2000 cooler. RGBLED screen is awesome. btw I got 6700 3dmark06 score

 

yeh, that T9600 CPU really put up the heat some degrees.

 

Even the P series procs get a little toasty in the 1640, so I could imagine the T series....

 

Hello, I'm a fairly new member that was lurking around for more information on this machine and I guess I'm joining the Studio XPS 16 club =). My machine is due on 8/4 and I cant WAIT! For several members who have done this...has anyone replaced the thermal paste on the CPU/GPU that can give me a rundown on how to do it? Thanks beforehand! =)

 

So, as everyone may or may not know (ive seen some talk about it throughout the thread) the sxps16 application/driver cd does not include a few things (facial recognition software, webcam utility, Power DVD, roxio). So I called up dell to try and get them to send me the software. The lady, definitely from another country and not exactly fluent in English, spent over an hour through remote connection thinking she could fix things and doing all the exact same things I had done. By the time I finally convinced her there was nothing that could be done unless she sent me the software that should have been included anyway, she then told me she could do nothing because Windows 7 was installed

She said since Vista was no longer on there she could not do anything. This is when I got a little irate. After another hour of telling her she was going to give me the facial recognition software (which is all i had called about) and that was that, she then, without me asking, told me she would include 7 discs which include everything (even another copy of the app/driver disc and recovery). She did tell me that she was 100% positive none of these discs would work on W7.

End to this story.... I received them today in an overnight package free of charge and everything is now working great. This made me pretty happy with Dell to say the least.

 

You should've called during regular business hours...otherwise you get this guy.

 

So the software that had to be there in the first place without having to ask for it, wasn't included. Then you need 2 hours to convince them to send it over.

Well that would not make me pretty happy.

I hope it wasn't an international call because of your telephone-bill.

Maybe some people here are interested in the drivers you received for Win7 that are working

 

Well, the fact that it wasn't there is stupid. But the fact that I got all the software, including some I wasent even calling about, and they overnighted it to me for free made me pretty happy. Yea the time and effort sucks... but it is nice to see results and that does not always happen with dell.

It was a 866 number, but im sure it relayed to somewhere way far away.

 

Search the forum before you ask... You'll find plenty of info there... I started a thread about a coppermod for the SXPS16; think that is what you're looking for.

 

As far as I know this is a piece of hardware which is placed in all SXPS16s, which is activated by software. Of course the software must be purchased...

 

A little tip for phone support in Canada: choose the option for french, because none of the foreign agents speak french! Then when you get a canadian agent, just speak english... (I'm fairly sure they are all bilingual anyway)
Works a charm for not getting the ignoramus treatment

 

can someone check me what the end of the power cord looks like? (the part which connects to the power brick) is it some kind of regular plug which i can easily find anywhere or is it a special one?
i'm moving to europe from usa and need to get another power cord to get it work there.

 

Just get an unversal international plug adapter. They work fine and are sold at pretty much any hardware store. You won't need a transformer since the transformer it ships with handles 120 or 240 (says right on the unit).

 

i see, thx. however i'm still thinking about getting another power cord, i think i would look strange running around with an universal international plug adapter all the time, but sure it could be also a solution
so is this part like this? http://snpi.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/320-4766.jpg

 

No, more like one of these.

 

i can play battlefield 2 only on low settings is there something im doing wrong? running the game on high settings works fine but as soon as i get into fight the fps drops down to 10-20.

 

Hello!

Sorry for not reading all the pages from the topic to find the answer of my question,but it's too long.

I'm really interested how is the 4670 performing in OpenGL mode and are there any problems with OpenGL and CAD programs (AutoCAD,Archicad,3D Studio etc..).Are there any problems with driver versions and compatibility?
I'm asking because i'm intending to change my Quadro card(in a dell precision laptop) for a laptop with 4670 (MSI GX623 probably)

 

well, thx, but this is a universal international plug adapter, i'd rather want to know what the end of the power cord of the sxps16 looks like? (the part which connects to the power brick) so i could get a power cord instead of a plug adapter, it would be more practical imho..

 

The connection of the 230V AC power cord that goes in the power brick itself looks like this (most left in the picture). However the connector makes a 180° U-turn so the power cord goes over the adapter (not away from the adapter). On the power brick you can see the female equivalent.



The connection of the 230V AC power cord, you plug in the power outlet of your wall looks like this (right side of the picture):



At least, that's how it is in my case, I think it can differ from country to country. But most countries will have the same if I'm not mistaken.

 

disco-stu: great thanks for this, that was all information i needed
yes, i think in europe i'll basically need a cable which has an ending in the very left of the first picture and and ending on the right of the bottom picture.

 

I keep hearing folks bringing up the fact that the 1640 gets hot...I think it's old news by now, considering the many posts about it. I appreciate the posts that recommend good cooling solutions as this will help, but for me, I have found that by raising the laptop up in the back about 3/4" makes a significant difference without having to pay out extra cash. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything, it's just that when it comes to laptops that have blazing fast processors and dedicated video, it is automatically assumed that the laptop will put out some heat. I am part of the club, so i have the same issues, but they are easily dealt with and hardly take away from the wonderful performance I get with the laptop. I wouldn't trade it for the world! Hell, I still have to restore my HP DV5 back to factory defaults before i sell it and when i have to look at that screen, it is a noticeable difference. not that i am knocking that machine, it is still great machine, just not up tot he specs i need a laptop for.

In any case, i am thoroughly enjoying this machine. The screen still takes some getting used to since I use dual 20" screens at work that aren't rgb led screens, but I can't and won't complain...I finally have a laptop I am happy with.

 

Did you not get the little slip of paper with your documentation in the little black box that tells you that you can go to the support site for dell and download the software? i was able to download everything from the site that I didn't get on dvd and back it up on my archive drive.

 

Funny, just last night I happened to come across a video on msn and I decided to watch it to test out the video and audio for my laptop. I am bout fell over when i heard this "theater quality" sound eminating from those tiny speakers. I was highly impressed as I didn;t expect to get such great quality out of the "default" sound system. I have not upgraded the drivers, I used the default setup in Win7 and I get awesome sound, even better than the Altec-Lansing speakers in my HP.

I opted out of getting the Soundblaster software enabled setup (needed to shave a few bucks) and also because I don't do much on my laptop to warrant raising the volume up to max for movies and such, but again, i am impressed with the quality. Anyone here know who the manufacturer of the speakers is? I'd love to shake their had for producing well made speakers.

 

Now here's a question I can answer. I use Microstation (and sometimes AutoCAD) on my laptop, along with 3D Studio Max and all of them work just fine with the 4670. I especially like having the increased resolution to reclaim some screen real estate. I also don't change the video modes or tweak any of the settings to run CADD software...the default settings work just fine.

 

.....delayed to 9/18!

The wait, this is the worst.

 

Wow, mine wasnt supposed to get here till september10th and they got it to me 2 days ago...

Ive been working on mine for these two days for almost 8 hours a day and let me tell you, it doesnt get that hot, the wrist area on my 1530 used to get hotter...

I barely have any eye strain from the RGBLED and the colors are perfect out of the box....

Windows 7 performs like a beast... This laptop coupled with the 256 SSD is unstoppable...

Mine came preinstalled with Bios A10...

 

Unless there is some severe parts problem, it will ship a week before that.
They always build in a weeks leeway, you'll see.

 

What games have you guys been able to play on this configuration? Has anyone tried the new Batman demo yet?

 

can someone with the option to download the "sound blaster " software from dell download be kind enough to share the file with me? i don't know if i need to return my laptop or not but the sound right now is horrible...would like to see if the sound blaster software makes a difference. Thanks.

 

Im trying to update my Blu ray burner driver for my 1640 but dont see it on dell driver download... in my device manager its listed as MATA BD-RE UJ235A ATA DEVICE. all i see on dell website is Panasonic UJ235A 12.7mm SATA 4X BD-RE

thanks in advance.

 

Actually most of the CAD/3D software (AutoCad,3D Studio...etc Autodesk products) don't configure OpenGL by default.So you should actually turn this on to work in opengl mode.I don't know if you do that? So you don't actually answer my question...

 

My ETA was the 11th...coming tomorrow now.

 

if its not listed then they dont have a new firmware version for it yet ther are no drivers to update for the cd drives so if your instaling win 7 you should have no problems

 

Really?! Oh, snap, now that's exciting. Yeah, my build is identical to mostly everyone's here, so I think I should be all right with the parts.

My night is officially 10x better, lol.

 

Post up some pics of that white model, and see if you have the new bios please....
Odd that new bios isn't posted up yet.

 

I downloaded some application that checks for driver updates and it said mine was outdated...i confirmed it when i looked in the device manager - it had a 2006 date on it ...so weird. i couldn't update it directly from that program because it was a trail software and they wanted money for it.

Just curious if anyone esle have the same BluRay burner drive?

 

Can someone share their sound blaster software? my speakers sound is horrible and im trying to avoid the whole return and wait for a new one -3weeks later thing.

would like to see if this software could fix it.

 

In what way is it horrible? Do the speakers sound blown out or you simply do not like the way it sounds? If it's the latter, then use the IDT equalizer and set it the way that pleases you. There's absolutely no need for Creative's bloatware.

 

They sound blown out with a crackling sound. I read somewhere that it could be the subwoffer? i'll try messing with the IDT equalizer. Thanks Joker

 

Some people had this problem and they fixed it by opening up the system and fooling with the subwoofer, something about it rattling but I can't quite remember. Give that a try if IDT doesn't fix it.

 

I've had 3 subwoofer speakers and the have all been really bad quality. The actual units themselves are very badly made and distort over 50% volume.

 

I already arranged a return of the system and I just received it 30 minutes ago. I didn't even turn it on. I'll post some pics and show why. If all the white systems look like this stay away.

edit: Ok, the pics are the not picking up the defect. It has black smudges on both the glossy and leather parts of the lid. I tried different ways of cleaning it and it doesn't come off. When I called Dell and told them they accepted the return immediately. I'm going to go drop this off at the UPS store soon.

 

It took most of us two or three systems to get a good one, hang in there..

 

Unless there's a deal I can't refuse I'll get something else.

 

Anybody using Rivatuner and it's Vista Sidebar Tool?

 

You've already got a pretty sweet laptop. Why do you need the SXPS? I'd grab a netbook or something if I was in your place and needed a portable.

 

I do use my AW as a desktop and my portable system right now is a 15" Thinkpad. I prefer it to be around that size and 7lbs or less. The overall size of the SXPS 16 was acceptable. Dell/AW should be announcing a new 15" system any day now but I may go back to lenovo.

 

Joker, how do you rate the asus g51 against your sxps? How is the external temps of the laptop?
The touchpad and palmrest temps really bother me on my sxps (plus i have had to undervolt to stop the cpu throttling) and considering this is only a mid range gfx card surely they could have done a better job with the thermal solution

 

I am in a predicament here, whether I should go for P9700 or P8700 as my processor...The thing is the price difference is a staggering RM1050, almost equivalent to 300USD