===> The Official Studio XPS 1640 Owner's Thread<===

That's good service!

I am wondering, has anyone been able to successfully connect wirelessly with the intel wifi 5300? I connect successfully per se, then can't do anything because I get disconnected right away and I can't figure out why??

 

Yes the 320GB 7200RPM is the 7200.3. Who knows if it really does have issues. I could have been the unlucky fool that has had 2 out of 4 fail on me.

If you want a larger disk it's cheaper to order with the stock one and then buy from newegg.com, tigerdirect.com or somewhere like that.

In fact Tiger Direct has a Hitachi 320GB for $59.99 and a WD 500GB for $84.99. Me, I like the Hitachi disks. They've been some of the fastest disks available when compared against other similar drives.

 

I just ordered an XPS 16.

Should I cancel or try to modify to order?

 

Its Here And Omg I Love It.:d :d :d :d :d

 

At this point it's all conjecture. Nobody knows if they are going to stick the thing in the SXPS 16.

Plus, if you constantly wait for the next improvement you'll never buy anything. Computers are pretty much out of dat in 6 months or so, that's life.

 

If you try to modfiy your order..you will end up having to cancel anyways.
Once an order has been placed, the only way to make changes...is if you cancel and reorder..

Why don't you just wait and see what happens once you receive your 1640? For all you know (and should remain positive about)..is, that your 1640 will be delivered in excellent working condition.

Plus, you don't know...exactly when it's going to be availi'!

ZoMG! Finally Congrat's Brendan~! Brendans' in so total love right now

Cin

 

Hey guys,

I was surfing around trying to find out more info on the XPS16 and came across this amazing thread, so I decided to register. Yay.

Anyways, I'm up in Alberta Canada, and bought my XPS16 on the 18th I believe. I got my email saying it was shipped on the 23rd, and am eagerly awaiting my new baby. I just had a few questions about it for people that already have theirs.

What needs to be re-installed if I were to do a fresh Windows install? I would like to do this as I know Dell likes to put a ton of useless junk on their computers.

And also, where would I find these important drivers?

Should I download them onto a CD or Pen Drive before I re-format so it is easier to install them afterwards?

If I'm going to be doing a fair bit of gaming, would you recommend I get a cooler of some kind? I will usually have a table handy so it won't be a comfort issue, more of a performance issue.

Thanks a bunch guys.

 

I know how you feel I'm still enjoying mine greatly!! It's an awesome machine.

As for bloatware, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. There was very little on my SXPS 16. I removed the Dell Dock or whatever it's called. Removed the AV to install my own. Removed a couple other Dell things (don't remember what they were at the moment). Like I said though, you'll be surprised at how littel bloatware there is on your machine.

You can get all of the drivers at Dell's website here:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen

As for heat...it gets warm, but not hot. I've gamed with mine on my lap and yea, it's a little warm, but not too uncomfortable.

 

XPS 1640 showed up at 9am today from Fed Ex... I'm at work, so I only had about 1 hour to play with it, and I'm typing on it right now

My initial impressions are it's a very well built laptop, the keyboard is a little slick at first, but I'm adjusting... the backlit is very nice. The speakers, I don't seem to have that one side louder then the other, they sound fine so far. Now the screen, well, this is amazing. Bright, gorgeous colors, just really, really nice... and the glare is no where near as bad as the HpDV7 I was using. The 1080 HD footage I edit up on my Mac looks phenomenal on here.

I played about 5 minutes of WoW:WoTLK, I had it at 1920x1080, pretty much everything maxed, but shadows were off. It ran just fine, no issues at all, and the colors just blasted off the screen, I was very impressed.

Now, the only issue I have so far is the heat, and I can accept it, but yes, it gets pretty warm just being on All in all, a very happy customer so far.

 

I've just noticed that trackpad scrolling on 1640 does not work on Firefox! (But it works on my IE and other applications)

Anyone else with this problem?

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

I will definitely download those drivers that are necessary onto a CD or something so that they will be handy if need be. Is the Anti-Virus software they give you with the machine capable, or should I download something else? I would rather not buy something else if need be.

 

The AV program that comes pre-installed is just fine. I think he was assuming that you may already have AV software that you prefer to use. I use NOD32, the laptop comes with McAfee most of the time.

 

Works perfectly for me, i'm using it on firefox right now! You have to find he "sweet spot" on the touch pad.

 

Perfect. And for anyone else who has played games with this thing..

How is the performance on it? I've been reading some reviews/posts that talk about how the GPU in it is not quite up to snuff. Anyone have a comment on that? Is it possible to upgrade the GPU in the future?

 

The SXPS 16 is not really a gaming laptop. It's a nice looking multimedia laptop. There are games that it handles just fine, but don't expect future games to do well. As for upgrading the GPU, I don't think it's possible. There are some laptops that use a discrete card that plugs into a slot, the SXPS 16 appears to have the second chip stuck to the motherboard. In fact, there is a picture somewhere on this forum of it.

 

I've played the land and see battles from the Empires: Total War demo with everything on high at 1920x1080 and it didn'tbreak a sweat.

The naval battles were 100% smooth, but the land battles were a bit choppier due to how much more there is to render. But to combat that you can just put the resolution down, or do as I did, and zoom out a bit so you don't see all the incredible detail of the soldiers and grass etc.

I've also played CS:S and L4D at high and 1920x1080 with no problems at all.

I'm going to be trying out Age of Conan in a couple of days/weeks and I think it'll be ok.

 

Found that picture!

 

Dell will probably offer the 4670 which according to ATI/AMD will offer almost double the performance of the 3670. Of course we won't know for sure until the first reviews with the new GPU. You might want to wait a few more weeks.

 

I got my studio xps 16 today, woohoo.
First impression: Absolutely gorgeous
Second impression: The screen does covers my exhaust vent T_T
Third impression: updated all the updates for windows on first run and didn't have any BSODs. I installed win 7 64-bit on it, all things are great, except for some driver issues.
Fourth: not really hot after 4 hours, but we'll see when I put some games on it.
Finally: I haven't seen any things superior over my 2 year-old HP Pavillion dv9000.

 

Man, that's good news for you. Just return the 16 for a refund and keep using your 2 year old Pavillion

 

Hey!

If your looking for fantastic AV for free try: Avira AV, or AVG.

Yours will probs arrive with McAffe preinstalled..personal preference if you choose to keep:

Here is a link for Freeware: (located here on the forum).
The best free antivirus/firewall/anti spyware programs
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=190538

Check out CCleaner and RevoUninstaller..also both excellent programs!
Revo can even uninstall McAffe for you!


Cin

 

or even better, ws2112 could give it to me and keep using the Pavillion.

 

LOL. I ordered a T9800 and X25-E, so I'm hoping my system will be fast.

 

haaha, it could be an option if my dv9000 has not been so unstable recently. That's why I'll have to keep this new lappy

 

has anyone tried to overclock the cpu or gpu in this? It's a laptop and gets warm so i am afraid of doing it but just wondering if anyone has done this or heard of someone doing it?

 

I ran my the experience index score several times on vista and on windows 7.
But why does my score so slow? Especially the hard disk ><

 

Typically we have not been able to overclock processors in Dell notebooks as there is no method to do this in the BIOS. However, there have been volt mods using various tool and sometimes pin mods in combination to achieve some overclocking.

I just stuck a core 2 extreme in mine which is supposed to require about 33% more cooling, but it doesn't seem very hot so far to day. Basically the same as it was before, warm on the right touch pad. Haven't used it in my lap yet, though. Wait, there is a big brown scorch mark on my desk...just kidding.

 

It's a Windows 7 issue in that it inaccurately measures the hard drive score. Something about drive cache being an issue. I think disabling it under properties and redoing the test gives you a higher score.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+7+low+hard+drive+score

 

What is the return policy for Dell? Like, lets say that a week from now Dell announces the 4670 will be in the Studio XPS 16s as the base option, or say for another $100. Am I able to return it with a full refund?

EDIT: I just looked at Dell's policy on returns.

If you are an end-user customer who bought new products directly from Dell Computer Corporation ("Dell") in Canada, you may return them to Dell up to 30 days after you receive them for a refund or credit of the product purchase price. If you are an end-user customer who bought reconditioned or refurbished products from Dell, you may return them to Dell within 14 days after the date of invoice for a refund or credit of the product purchase price. In either case, the refund or credit will not include any shipping and handling charges shown on your invoice and will be subject to a 15% restocking fee, unless otherwise prohibited by law.

So If I return my laptop within 30 days, I get back only 85% of my money? That is garbage.

 

Why? It costs Dell money to receive the laptop and sell it again.

 

The key is to look for a flaw on the system, no matter how minor. Then say you want to return the system for a full refund without having to pay a restocking fee. If they say no, simply tell them you are going to file a charge back with your credit card company for receiving your product "Not As Described."

 

just tried out Prince of Persia on this system. And I have to say, it's blazing fast. I was downloading and playing it at high spec with 2x AA. It didn't seem so slow down the system a bit.
The system does run a little bit hot, but still acceptable to me.

 

what res were you playing at 1280 x 720?

 

Has anyone that owns one tried to play any of the HL2 mods on it? I was playing Day of Defeat a bit and it kept crashing to the desktop. I updated the Vid drivers and did a few other things but it was still doing it. Just wondering. I plan on getting back into CS and don't really want to get upset when my replacement shows up if I still have the issues.

 

Sounds good to me. Thanks.

 

no, I ran it on 1366x768. And it runs fine at that resolution.
But still, I'm gonna check out some more hardware-demanding games because for me prince of persia doesn't have really good graphic though

 

Have you tried out STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl? Or has anyone? That is one game that I badly badly want to play with my new laptop when it comes.

 

Anyone got the 9 cell battery for this laptop? I am thinking of picking one up but want to know if its worth it. How much battery life do you get from it?

 

Oh, I want to see a picture of the 1640 with the 9cell! I would love to compare it to the 1530 with the 9cell


Cin

 

A little less than three and a half hours unless I am playing WoW then it's a little over two hours.

 

Anyone asking about gaming performance, I've been playing Dead Space with everything high and on 1920x1080 and it runs smooth. That game is just gorgeous!

 

Really? Do you happen to know your FPS? And what is your definition of smooth? I know people have varying opinions on what that means haha.

That just seems crazy because I know my friend has that game on his beefy desktop, and he runs it at pretty high settings and resolution, and it seems kind of choppy at times.

 

That's actually the sxps 13, hence the nvidia chip... I suspect that it's the same set up for the sxps 16. I wonder if it would be as easy as simply switching the motherboard in order to have the ati 4xxx

 

I don't know what my fps is but I can safely say that it should be around 30 just because it hasn't lagged for me yet. Response time is fast and it isn't choppy at all. The only time that it actually becomes not so responsive is when I'm in the game menu (pressing ESC while playing) for some reason the mouse has some lag but that's it.

 

For people with the 1080p RGBLED >

Is the resolution annoyingly to high? Is text really hard to read and things hard to click?

Thx

 

It's really weird. When I'm trying to scroll Firefox, the scroll mouse icon appears but it does not scroll at all.

I'll try to reinstall the trackpad driver and try disabling some FF plugins; maybe one is interfering with the trackpad function.

 

Cin, read the 1640 review article of NBR. It has the 9-cell (in all included pics).

 

I can tell you this, I have the 720p and it's annoyingly low. All the icons are big and it drives me nuts.

 

Waiting for the 1640

#1. With Windows 7 Free Upgrade certificate
#2. ATI 4670 512MB DDR3 GPU (uses same watts as 3670)
#3. Intel Core 2 Duo T9800 2.8Ghz 6MB cache

mainly I am not worried about Battery life or heat since I want it to be a Desktop replacement.

Not sure about the Display

Does the standard WLED Display or the RGB LED Display use up the same or less battery power??? Not sure.

 

You have to wait for 6 months then because of Win7