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

I can tell you this, I tried to run Crysis demo and it was unplayable. I've seen others say they played it and it was fine, but even at the lowest settings the menu was even choppy, let alone gameplay. I'm not sure if the people that played it were using an SSD and if that will make a difference, I can't guess. I can't see a 2.93 processor making that much of a difference over my 2.4 either. I play CS:Source and I get great fps with it. I play San Andreas at max settings and it runs great. This really isn't a gaming laptop and I don't forsee them ever making it into one unless Alienware is phased out.

 

I can't get City of Heroes to load on my Vista 64 XPS studio 16. Apparently it's an OS/GFX card that they don't support yet. So I'm using my HP dv9000 until it's supported.

 

I guess if Crysis is peoples game then I don't understand what they are doing on a laptop and they sure as hell can't expect much from any laptop with Crysis.
2 GTX 280 in SLI still can't provide enough performance for the game for some people.

Of all games to play on a laptop, Crysis is not it. Having said that, there will be people satisfied with 1200x900 resolution playing on lowest settings at 20fps but my points remain.

The 3650 is decent enough for many things, it's just hard to push 1900x1200 pixels in 3D. While the screen and resolution is great it adds a real problem due to the memory use and graphics pipeline at that resolution.

I've been a hard core gamer since my voodoo 2 SLI back in the 90's and I have never considered a laptop as good enough for gaming for me, it's always been a compromise and I think people should always be prepared to compromise when buying a laptop for gaming regardless of what it is but that's just me.

Just agreeing with you, I wouldn't buy this as just a gaming laptop, then again I'd never buy any laptop for gaming specifically but I'm not in college either.
I'll probably load a few STEAM games on it over time, but Crysis won't be one of them.

 

I remember when I got my Voodoo 3 3500 card way back when. That coupled with my 128 megs of RAM and my Athlon 850 Processor made me the envy of all the guys I gamed with.......for a week.

 

hehe being able to show people what Quake looked like in GL rather than a software renderer and how it performed better at 1024x768 than theirs at 512x384 was quite enviable.

 

The funny thing was the game I played at the time, Tribes, used Glide so Open GL wasn't even the best thing for it. I had to run an emulator but it still blew anything that was out at the time away.

 

I have a question for you guys, basically recieved my SXPS16 last week and very happy with it so far but anyway... I have hooked my lappy upto my 20" widescreen Dell monitor via vga, hooked my mx rev mouse and mx3200 keyboard up via usb and using my external 20" as primary monitor, only worry is have now i basically have the laptop lid closed resting with the back of it slightly raised on my monitors feet, with the lid closed i can still have sound coming out from laptops speakers but i'm unsure if have sound coming out through speakers with the lid closed (meaning obvisouly they will pumping out directly onto the screen) if this might damage the screen at all? it might sound stupid and the sound is not that loud but i just want to be sure.

Thanks.

 

Can anyone tell me if the Intel X9100 CPU is compatible with the Studio XPS 16? I'd like to put one in with 8GB RAM and X25-M.

 

X9100 OEM/3.06G/1066MHz/6M/45nm/ support mobile gm/pm45 chipset

The official official OEM version, better then engineering sample

dont think studio 16 allows overclock, so the best bet is t9800 2.93.

 

...and have the fastest XPS of all of you...muhahahahah

CPU modding of this lappy would be quite interesting indeed.
This socket is about to be phased out so in the next several months I will be on the lookout for compatible CPU's too before they all disappear.

I guess the question is what is the BIOS going to do with it, will it recognize it and set the multipliers/voltage properly, and can it's 45watt TDP be fed???

Only one way to find out.

EDIT: One other interesting point on the X9100 is it has EM64T which I'm not experienced in but apparently may be an issue without proper BIOS support.

 

I think it kinda funny in that I didn't really take thermal management into consideration when looking at computers. Dont get me wrong, I freaking love my 1640 now, the screen is so ludicrously better than anything else out there. But the side exiting exhaust port on my M4400 that I have for work works so well that even when I'm rocking intense CAD programs while its on my lap, the chassis BARELY warms. I would happily give up 1/2 of the ports on my 1640 for this type of setup. Alas.

 

EM64T is just intels way of saying the CPU supports 64Bit(aka AMD64 extensions). So every C2D and a lot of P4's out there are EM64T and therefore this should not be an issue installing an X9100. However that 45W might be a show-stopper...

 

does the studio xps a SATA300 drive or a SATA150 drive?

 

So you don't think this part from Intel's notes could be a problem?
Processor will not operate (including 32-bit operation) without an Intel EM64T-enabled BIOS.

Strange thing is that looking at the exact same documents on the other Dell supported CPU's doesn't include the comment on EM64T, only the X9100.

I should've figured that was the 64 bit extensions, been like 5+ years since I read about then.
If it's just 64 bit extensions than the support is in the BIOS and it's a non issue like you said.

 

It's SATA300

 

Everytime I see "default pnp monitor" it makes me squirm.

Why hasn't Dell provided a proper inf for this monitor, I mean this RGBLCD is not some crap pnp monitor with it's wide gamut and colors. Plus better supported resolutions could be supported in the driver, etc.
rhetorical

 

I don't know why that particular comment is only attached to the X9100. That's basicly two C2D's slapped together. Support for EM64T is: "Intel Core 2 (Including Mobile processors since "Merom")" - since merom it's included by default in the mobile C2D's and QC CPU's.

So that's definetly not going to be an issue. However seeing as the laptop does get hot under heavy load i don't think the thermal design can accomodate the X9100. It might work but maybe it will throttle back when it hits those high temps?

Also is the question of the PWM design and if it can actually feed the extra juice needed to run the X9100..

And lastly if DELL actually has included the neccessary microcode to offer support for the CPU

 

just received my $14.50 sennheiser cx300, its loud definitely the loudest earbud i ever heard.
but its not better than original apple earbud .

 

Hi. I received my studio xps 1640 today. I ordered it last friday through Dells danish customerservice and got i it 13 days before edd. The Labtop looks also alot better than i expected.

But I have a question about making a fresh installation of Vista (64 bit) to get rid of all the software that Dell installed, which I will never use and to optimize the perfomance (if possible). I read some of the comments in this thread, but i was difficult to find a complete guideline for newbies for the fresh installation of Vista on the 1640. It would be great if some could tell me where I could find a easy guideline or just link to some comments about this in this thread. Thanks on beforehand.

 

It's fairly straight forward. Basically you boot to the CD, when the partitions come up you want to delete the 10 gig Dell image partition and delete the C: partition as well. After that there will only be one partition which you can then format and install Vista. Once you've done that you should do the Windows updates first and then start downloading and installing drivers. I always install the video driver first because it drives me nuts looking at a 640 x 480 display. All the drivers are available here.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen

Just make sure you pick the 64 bit drivers and not the 32 bit.

 

How do you restore from the recovery partition with no OS installed?

 

Thanks N20D5OH.

I have som questions about the process.

1. I read on a forum that it was prefered to install some kind of AHCI driver first, because it could optimize the performance by up to 15 %. I don't know if this i true or not?

2. And is it necessary to make a backup of the files first? I have just recieved the labtop and therefor not installed any programs etc., so i guess not.

3. Finally I read that it is possible to find newer drivers than the thoose that is available on dells page.

 

You have to go into the diagnostics from the F12 menu. Once in there you can run a recovery and it looks for the image. I can still run the recovery even with Win 7 installed, it just doesn't find the image.

 

1. I don't know, I didn't and mine ran just fine with Vista and runs just fine with Win 7.

2. I don't see why it's necessary to make back ups, you will have all the software and drivers needed.

3. You can get a few newer drivers besides the ones at Dell, like the Video driver, but you have to Mod it. Once you're there let me know and I'll help you with it.

Also, do not install the IDT sound driver. I had an issue, as have others, with it taking up 50% of CPU usage. I deleted it and let Windows find it's own drivers and it works fine and sounds better to me.

 

I tried to run the installation, but seems like i diden't reboot (format) the c-drive, but instead saved it as an old version. Is it possible to reboot the c-drive during the vista installation process?

 

Yes, once you delete both partitions you then should have a raw partition. It should then give you the option to format that partition before you install the OS on it.

 

i have a question that im hoping someone already solved. id like to merge the 10 gig recovery partition in with the c drive.

windows says it cannot merge them because of the location of the recovery drive before the main partition. and the programs ive checked that can do the merge dont support vista 64.

has anyone already done this, or does anyone know which application would merge these drives?

formatting is not an option.

 

I tried it with Partition Magic and it wasn't pretty. I had to reformat because it corrupted my OS partition, so don't try that.

I tried many things but nothing really worked. I even went in and tried to delete the partition with the Windows install disks, Vista and Win 7, but it wouldn't let me do it. I'm anxious to see if someone knows a program that would work.

 

yah thats what i had read. i dont want to risk corruption the c drive.

 

Hi,

I've searched the thread and couldn't find an answer to this..

Do I need to change any settings in the bios or do anything else when upgrading from 6gb to 8gb? Or just swap and reboot?

Thanks!

 

I'm almost positive you don't have to update anything, just pop them in.

 

Yeah I just upgraded to 8GBs of ram. All I did was slap them in and the machine was ready to go.

 

Great, thanks!

Did you notice any difference?

 

Well I do alot of video editing and working with very large photoshop files so I noticed a bit of a difference.

I have the 256SSD so I have no page file running and sometimes when running large photoshop files or editing some HD videos my ram would run out with 4GB. Windows doesn't like it when it doesn't have a page file, things start to error out.

So with 8 GB I can open as much as I like and dont have a problem.

 

Gotcha, thanks! I keep trying to decide if I want to re-order with a 256 SSD...

 

Well for me, this is my first SSD experience and I won't be going back to mechanical drives. At least for my main OS drive, for storage sure no need for ultra fast access there.

Completely quiet computer, no humming, less heat, insane access times....whats not to love.

Once you set up Vista for an SSD it hardly ever accesses it unless it really needs too. I turned off prefetch and all that other nonsense that was a stopgap for slow harddrives. Finally the last bottlenext in the computer is being addressed.

The only one con I can find is the speed slows down when writing very small files, but its still above 30mbs in my case so 30mbs for 4k files. Its going to slow down for about .1ms. Hahaha. No stuttering what so ever.

for a 400.00 dollar upgrade its unbelieveable. Especially for a 2nd gen SSD.

 

sounds good...hmmm...

wonder if there are any in the outlet that I could swap out... they probably take the 256SSD's out before putting in the outlet..

 

I saw one or two ssd's when I was looking in the outlet. You gotta nab them fast though.

 

Hi, this is my first post and am a relative laptop noob. I just ordered a SXPS16 (P8700, 4gb, 1080P RGB, 320/7200 with BR drive) a week ago and am awaiting delivery with an EDD of 5/7. I was seriously considering a Mac Book Pro but its premium couldn't be justified in my mind and I have no real experience with its OS.

Quick question: Can this laptop handle any sort of AVCHD editing? I was thinking of replacing my aging camcorder and finally making a jump into HD but am having doubts a P8700 could handle it. I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks.

 

Are the red and green letters in for instance the icon titles on the desktop screen normal for the RGB screen? I'm hoping it is because of the red, green and blue back lighting. Other than that my refurb model seems A-ok.

 

you got a pic of these "red and green letters"?

 

No pic, but it's not all of the letters. For example the I in "Image Burn" is red and the u is green. The other icon titles are the same. Just a letter or two being either red , green, or blue.

 

Also I just figured out that if I move the icons, the letters stay the same color. Both L's in Mozilla are green.

 

Have you changed any fonts, font settings?
Need a pic, no it's not normal but I heard about it, not sure how it happens if it's hardware/software.

 

AVCHD editing is a bear on any machine, but it's a dual core, how much faster is there?
At that speed a few more percent frequency doesn't relate to tangible performance as well. While yes it will effect encoding time, you wouldn't notice a big useability difference.
What's important is the architecture of the CPU and it's a great CPU.

 

OK Mad, I changed the font size back to 96 but still have colored letters! I'm charging the battery on my camera, I will max out the font size for the desktop and take a pic of my rainbow letters. I have a feeling I'll be calling the tech guy to come replace the screen tho. I'll post again when I get a pic.

 

OK! It only does it with specific backgrounds. I'll keep the background that it doesn't happen with. I love this computer and don't EVEN want to have to call the man to come fix it.

 

I must say I am very impressed with my NEW Studio XPS 16 I finally got yesterday!!! I just finished my fresh install of everything (and then tweaking some things with the Vista tweak guide) and I must say this thing friggin fast!!! I love the RGB screen (and I especially love the resolution/screen real estate). So far, no real heat issues, but the SSD prbably helps with that. All that's left is the wait for Windows 7 and it'll all be perfect.

 

has anyone got the tv tuner and is it anygood?

 

I have it. It is the European version DVB-T from Hauppauge. It's ok nothing spectacular picks up the programs that are available so nothing to complaint about from here