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

Well, there are people in this thread that got a bump after a couple of days and their estimated delivery dates were much sooner.

I'm a little worried that my order is still "processing"...I don't know how long that takes, to be honest. I'd rather see it in production.

 

never mind guys. I was Drunk and didn't realize i had taken out the CD already lol. After spending 45mins well dell India. I Just dont like the fact that there is no backup eject like all other CD drives where u could stick a paperclick and eject the cd. and our Cd drives sound more like a Cd shredder when inserting and ejecting.

 

LOL!!!

Do slot drives usually come with a hardware eject button? I know the one on my PS3 doesnt have one.

 

Mine shipped in a week. You are gonna love that system; sounds like mine is the same without the bluray. I spent all weekend on mine loading software and doing some programming in Visual Studio. Last night, my wife asked me to help her personalize the XPS 1530 and I couldn't hardly stand working on it! The SSD really makes a difference!

I think that those of us that have the SSD will be wanting a utility that ships with the Intel x25 in a few months. Based upon what I have read about SSDs, their performance initially is really great, but as they fill up, we'll start to notice a decrease in write performance. This is just the nature of the technology. The utility for the x25 is called "secure delete" and the x25 users will use it when they reformat the drive and reload the OS.

It sounds like we're gonna have to keep an eye out for a similar utility that would do the same thing on our drives and hopefully not need a reformat when doing so! This is kinda like the SSD version of defragmenting.

I'm in hog heaven right now though. I've been using computers since 1977 and I think this is the biggest upgrade for me that I've ever had! The wow factor on this rig is easily much more than when I got my gen 1 XPS!

 

but did blue screen of death really happened or was it just an illusion? lol

 

The performance on Intel's drives is still excellent after they fill up, just not AS fast. That utility isn't really a solution, as all its doing is clearing everything off the drive so it doesn't have to delete things. I mean unless you really want to reinstall your OS constantly just to avoid the already fast drive slowing down 20% or whatever....

There are some methods that future OSes may be able to use to shift the performance penalty. It's apparently not shipping with Windows 7, (possibly a latter update?) but it's possible for a future OS to be "SSD aware" and do file deletion at the time you tell the OS to delete a file, instead of when the drive tries to write a new file. That will keep file writes always as fast as when the drive is new more or less, but file deletes will take longer.

 

that really did happen, which is why i freak out even more and got on the phone with dell. it was the only blue screen i'd ever got on my new machine. and the only option was to recover by restoring factory settings...screw that, i just held down the power buttion to my lappy turned off and then rebooted and chose to start normally.

 

Inst this just an issue with those particular 25-E Intel drives; because of the way the drive controller speeds up the writing and reading through algorithms (instead of actual hardware improvements).

 

This is why I think the best SSD solution in the short run is a dual-drive one. Too bad the SXPS 16 doesn't support two disks. A smaller SSD for OS and apps and a larger platter disk for data, browser cache and other high-write applications.

 

It's an issue, if you can even call it that, with the way all SSDs work, as far as I know. It's really just that that SSDs could maybe benefit from actually deleting data when you delete files, while mechanical hard drives don't need to. So there would need to be explicit OS support for that (which sounds like it's coming).

 

It's called the TRIM command. Both the OS and SSD drive have to support it (and neither currently do!). Reference the latest (and excellent) Anandtech articles for details:

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3531

 

It's moot though, because a correctly designed SSD is still plenty fast even after it's written to every part of the drive. Intel's SSDs are the fastest on the market, and they slow down around 20% if I'm remembering right...which still leaves them much faster than any mechanical hard drive. I mean Intel's drives and those of a handful of other companies making correctly designed SSDs are the first drives tat actually saturate SATA 1 (or older ATA controllers for that matter!)

EDIT: Using two SSDs for that would be total overkill. I can see using an SSD for your main drive, and a mechanical drive to store media or large program installs (just because SSDs are small), but two SSDs for performance reasons would just be total overkill unless you have crazy amounts of money to spend.

 

Catalyst 9.3 is available for download via dell updates. New sound drivers and new bios A06 have also been released today.

 

do you guys think that new drivers could fix my left speaker...the sounds is horrible while playing music (choppy/ staticy)

 

It looks like the 1340 & 1640 will be available in red soon. I'm hoping more options like a blu-ray writer & 1600x900 WLED become available soon as well.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/23/dells-studio-xps-laptop-might-be-going-red/

 

the red MIGHT come out, its not final

 

Anybody know if the bios update supports the new T9900 CPU? It's showing up on Ebay, so it must be pretty close. 3.06GHZ would be SWEET....

 

I dont see Catalyst anywhere. quick question tho should I update the driver if I'm not gonna be using the HDMI output. No flat screen here...

 

I'd guess that's a hardware problem. Especially if its just one speaker.

 

mine used to sound like .. i kept playing @ max volume and after 2 weeks it sorta fixed itself..

 

It includes the ATI HDMI driver so it has to be based on the new 9.3 catalyst.

PS) After installing the new drivers, your HDMI device will actually disappear as an output device. I assume it will reappear when you actually plug a HDMI device into it, I don't use HDMI to confirm.

I would also be interested in hearing if multi channel is now working via HDMI?

 

There is a "burn-in" period for any type of speakers, earphones, headphones, etc.. before they start sounding good/optimal. If it doesnt sound better in a few weeks, then its probably faulty.

 

Catalyst Now controls all hmdi sound and video go to the control panel i beleive. And its not 9.3 its 9.2 ( With 9.3 stuff ) I want to see some benchmarks now of the drivers to see if there better. I was already using catalyst 9.2 so atleast its gone offical now

 

I'm sure you would agree that it's a very good possibility given the color introduction history of other Dell models.

Now, personally, I would like to see the Studio XPS models in midnight blue.

But, if they add a couple of options I would like in the coming weeks, I may settle for the black.

 

The studio xps would only look good in Black and maybe a Rhino White the colored leather looks tacky and ugly

 

quick question guys do i need to update the BIOS as well? to A06? I'm currently installing the new driver for ATI...?? a quick response is needed

 

You should always update your bios to a newer version

 

*an almost drool* I would be willing to *test it out* in The Red..if Dell allowed me

Cin

 

Im guessing reds your favorite color MINE TWO

 

Actually, blue is one of my fav's but red is...yeah..so a tie bet. the both.
I was going to get the 1420 in Midnight Blue, originally when I first started looking at lappy's in 10/08. Then in 1/08, I saw the Red 1530, and fell for it!!

I'm going to really be watching this potential color option on both the 1340/1640, since the Adamo is insanely priced!


Cin

 

Adamo is sexy but def not worth 2000$ most id pay is 1000 tops. But the 1640 should be released in a Rhino White White and silver just go together

 

ok updated the BIOS wat exactly does the new one do?

 

and one more thing im going to run 3dmark vantage on the system. what kind of score should i expect to get???

 

Oh yeah...I will never spend that much on a lappy. It better be embossed in Platinum Gold for me to do that, and I don't even like *bling bling*

Anyways...those would be cool colors for the 1640, and the 1340...for some reason, I willingly revert to that potential red..lol.


Cin

 

lol i spent that on my 1640 but it was worth it. Thank god for monthly payments thow

 

I confirm this. I just tested it out. HDMI by default disappears from IDT control panel. But it will appear again once an external display is connected to the HDMI port.

 

I think the red leather might be a bit much

Any reason the laptop would have shipped along with the mouse/headphones/speakers but not the sound card?

 

New to the forum and I just ordered my 1640 based on mostly positive feedback from here.

Quick question, is the 3670 video card upgradeable to say a Mobility 3870 or maybe the new Mobility 4850. I currently have an XPS Gen2 since 05 but the video card crapped out on me. I upgraded the graphics card from a 6600 to a 6800GT at the time. If this is the case, this 1640 may be a decent gamer if this is possible in the future.

Can't wait. Order date 3/18, ship date 4/13 (I hope sooner)

 

From what I understand we should be able to put the 4850 in these once they come out. I haven't had any issues gaming so far, but I haven't played any graphically intensive games either. I'm waiting to see what happens before I buy any of the harder core games. I don't want to be disappointed.

 

some new updates on the support site, including a BIOS, graphics, and audio drivers

 

I thought the graphics card was soldered onto the mobo. unless you change the whole mobo as well, then i guess, yes, you can change the GPU

 

Placed an order Thursday afternoon(19/3) - EDD is April 1st..

Specs:

C2D P8600
16'' 1080P RGBLED
320GB 7200RPM HDD
4GB DDR3
DVB-T Tuner integrated
Intel Wireless 5100
BD Drive

I'm surprised that EDD is so close seeing as a lot of you guys have ESD a month away..i was even told by DELL that i might get it alot sooner as the EDD was always over-estimated.

Have an question regarding the built in tuner(It comes as standard on the Danish markets). As far as i can see it is the WinTV-NOVA-T model 18109 - but i can't find ANY information about it.

More specifically i am interested in knowing if it's an MPEG2 or MPEG2+4 tuner..as the Danish TV channels(DVB-T) will be ONLY MPEG4 starting this october..

 

A heads up on the Dell Quality Control on the XPS

I took the back lid off of my XPS16 for maintenance and found the wires for the 5530 wireless NOT connected... how could they miss that on the assembly line?

Edit: I just remember.. I had my screen replaced by a Dell repair man a while ago. I bet he forgot to connect those wires!

 

That sucks. But yea there are a few that get out with sub par assembly. My screen isnt sealed the best.

On another note im very happy with the new Ati update released by dell. Now when i connect my hdmi it automaticlly changes audio output to it. No more manually switching it

 

Thanks for the gfx driver update info!

New BIOS too.

And IDT audio.

 

Nm and thanks for the news on the audio driver i didnt know that lol

 

Just a few post up, Cleric already posted the info, lol

 

That would be a sensation if true. Source?

 

The 1640 updates were also mentioned by someone three pages back.

Any benchmarks using the new ATI driver?

 

Remove your heatsink and see if its sodered or not