About to buy a XPS 15 !

Hello

First of all let me apologize for my poor English : I'm French (nobody's perfect heh )

I came here to answer you guys few questions about the XPS 15 L502X I'm about to buy this month.

First of all, here are the specs I chose :

DOWNGRADE FREEDOS (It removes Windows, I chose that because many of you seems to complain about Dell's software that makes the Fan on/off. This downgrade option is only available to students in France.)
NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 540M 2GB (I plan to play some games, not especially in high or ultra settings. I'll install NVIDIA official drivers if possible instead of Dell ones.)
B+RGBLED screen (I heard it was like a Macbook screen, It convinced me!)
I5 2520M CPU (2,5- 3,2Ghz / 3Mb / 2 Core) (10€ more expensive than I7 2630QM but this i5 is 10W less so it should produce less heat and use less battery.)
8 GB RAM (I'll keep this laptop for at least 3 years so I guess I'll need that many RAM in 3 years)
320 GO SATA - 7200GB (I don't think that I'll need more, and if so, I'll buy a USB 3.0 SSD in the future)
9 CELL 90W/HR BATTERY (One of my most important criterion. I also envisaged to buy a second one...)
3 YEARS PREMIUM D+1 WARRANTY (It's free for students in France)

This XPS will cost me 1440$

So here are all my questions :

1. Should I buy a second battery ? (in ordinary language, what about the 9 cell battery? can I move around my laptop for surfing/youtube more than 5 hours?)
2. Is a notepad cooler needed if I play games ?
3. Which options would you add to my XPS ?

Thanks for reading me.

 

9 Cell battery sticks out: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IgLPrTDyP...AANo/U94bsLh3IX0/s1600/XPS+15+-+L501X+-+9.JPG

Not really, XPS has a decent thermal design compared to other laptops.

Get the i7 2630 over the i5 especially since it is cheaper

 

The 9 cell battery that sticks out isn't a problem for me. Do you mean it could be pointless to use a notebook cooler because of that ?
With a ~1500$ laptop, the 15$ added by the i5 isn't really a problem either, so I guess I'll stick with this because of the 35W TDP

 

Just so you know, the extra TDP of the 2630QM isn't an issue if you aren't maxing the CPU out. At low-to-mid CPU useage (web browsing, word processing, etc) their TDPs are nearly identical.

The 9-cell will work fine with a cooler, it just will sit differently so choose your cooler accordingly.

 

Allright, thanks for the advice. I heard that, except for very heavy and modern games such as Crysis 2, games weren't optimized for 4 cores CPUs. That's what also convinced me to stay with the i5.
My local store sells Targus Chill Mat (not sure about the name) I'll try this one.

 

Well many games aren't necessarily optimized for it no. But many of mine use it I find, even those that don't really claim to use it, and if you play Valve Steam games at all, the Source Engine can really take advantage of multiple cores/threads. That said, a dual-core will still run fine for you probably unless you hard-core game.

 

I ordered a 2630qm xps15 and they sent me a 2620m dual-core instead... oops...
I definitely wanted the quad-core, so they sent me a new system with the 2630qm...
I tested playing mafia2 and it was faster with the quad-core..
The benchmark with AA 1600x900 on dual-core was 14 fps and with 2630qm quad was 18 fps (this is both with 525m)...
The windows experience numbers were better as well...

Overall the quad core seems faster to me, things seem to complete loading quicker during boot, and when doing things etc...
I recommend the 2630qm...

Also here is a youtube demonstrating the dual vs quad performance with starcraft...

‪Sandy Bridge Core i7 2620M vs 2720QM on Dell XPS 15 for Starcraft 2‬‏ - YouTube

Dave
______________________________
Xps15 - i7-2630qm, 8GB Ram, 1080p, Nvidia Gt525m, 750GB HD, Blu-Ray, Backlit Keyboard, 9 Cell, 1030wifi+bt.

 

The i7 is much quicker on its feet and shouldn't make a huge difference in battery life. If you are doing gaming, I recommend the i7.

Notepad cooler isn't needed, but if it'll be on your lap or somewhere with little airflow for a long time, it would be more comfortable. However, if you get the 9 cell, you almost definitely won't need a cooler cause it props the laptop up.

You didn't mention the screen, I'd get the 1080p. Most important upgrade. It's one of the best screens out there.

And only some of us get those fan issues. I've found that the culprit (ironically) is usually software to monitor system temps or the fans. I've had mine for a little while, no issue.

 

Sorry. I forgot to mention the 1080P screen I added.

I'm considering the i7 but I noticed that, moreover it has a 45W TDP and the HD 3000 chipset is slower than the i5 one...

EDIT: People who complained about the fan problem (which always turns on/off) were using i5 or i7 ?

 

Yea, the turbo boost on the IGP is a shade lower, but honestly if the Intel turbo-boost kicks in, more likely than not you are going to use the NVidia card anyway.

TDP is the MAXIMUM POWER. Not the always-running power. Both quad i7s and dual i5s have nearly identical power draw under low loading. Only time the TDP is a factor is when you game or similar, and chances are you are going to use AC power then anyway.

The fan issue is both. The problem has been traced to some desktop gadgets that monitor things. They put enough load on the CPU to tip it over the edge briefly into a higher fan state, then after a slight cool, the lower fan state, but then quickly back again. Avoid such gadgets and you should be good to go. I had this issue when I had the Intel Turbo Boost Monitor installed, but removing it has nixed the problem 100% on my XPS 17. Others have reported similar success on the 15".

 

If you want to use the notebook for 3 years +, I would strongly advise to get a quad. It will cost you less and will not affect battery life, but might give you a nice boost 2 years from now. By the way 1440 bucks is pretty high, thats almost 1800€! I suppose the price are almost identical for every EU country, as Dell seem to consider the EU as a single market, and such unit would cost about 1200€ in Germany or even less.

 

You're wrong. 1440$ is 1014€

 

Thanks, you are right