Dell Studio XPS 1340/1640 now available for purchase on Dell's site !!!

How much faster do you think XPS 1340 with 2,5Ghz processor, 3gb ram and 9500GPU will be from M1330 with 8400gs ?

 

So far all of the reviews I've read (about 5 or 6) have been positive, with two editor's choice awards. It looks like the XPS 16 has a bright future. Now, where are the XPS 13 reviews?

 

Nobody knows, as there are no benchmarks on 9500M yet, because it's the first Hybrid SLI system, but my estimate would be it's twice as fast as 8400M GS from m1330.

 

Yeah, I figured they would try to get it out to as many people and as many computer hardware configurations as possible. As those are the only two games on the PC coming out that I have any interest in playing, I want to make sure I can play them as soon as I get them.

Now only if I can find any information on whether or not Starcraft and Total Annihilation will play on the laptop. I know the computer hardware is more than enough to play it, I am just worried about Vista/Windows 7 compatibility. Even though they are many years old, they are still two of my favorite games to play with my friends. There is just something really satisfying about building a base and sending an army to destroy the opposition!

 

I can confirm that Starcraft works on both Vista and Win7 as my brother plays on his computer all the time. I'm not too sure about Total Annihilation though.

I, myself, am waiting for DIII as well after playing so many years of DII.

 

I'm tired of people speculating about Hybrid SLI and whatnot.
Here are some actual benchmarks of Hybrid SLI.





Also:

from http://www.dvhardware.net/article25044.html

As you can see, Hybrid SLI is still very buggy.

 

What's your point? The guy specifically asked about 8400 GS vs 9500M. And you just posted a bunch of irrelevant graphs.

 

Actually his graphs show me that 9400m with 9200m sli (=9500m) is no good and there is no increase in performance, or am I getting it wrong?

 

Irrelevant? It's totally relevant. He asked what performance gain he would get from a 8400M GS. You replied double the performance, which is wrong. A 9400M performs slightly ahead of a 8400M GS, so you're expecting Hybrid SLI to double the performance. The graphs prove you wrong, as there is no where near a 2X performance increase in any graph.

I'm not saying that Hybrid SLI is completely useless, but that you can't expect too much out of it.

Why hasn't NBR got a 1340 yet? Then we can end this speculation (I bet I'm going to be proved wrong).

 

Ok then the ultimate question from me is: Will I be able to play COD4 1024x800 High settings? I saw ppl playing it on Macbook with 9400m. I'm just expecting slight increase in performance from 9500m. You think NBR will release some proper drivers for it ?

Also why isn't anyone talking about how promised hybrid delivers absolutely no increase in battery life?? (according to chinese review of 1340) . 2h25 Min on one charge ? Thats redicalous !

 

Earlier on this post I asked what the performance increase would be on DDR3 RAM over DDR2 and someone said that it offered no practical benefit because of latency. So now I'm wondering why Dell included DDR3 on this computer if it doesn't really offer any benefit.

 

Because most people won't know that.

 

Very nice cherry picking of benchmarks.

All the benchmarks:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-hybrid-sli,1924-4.html

The benchmarks show significant increases in performance in some games. And yes, even up to 2x performance improvement for the particular combination of 8400GS + 780a MCP in SupCom 1024x768.

More benchmarks:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3305&p=5

They paint a similar picture. Boosts in some games, other games show no significant improvement or even losses in performance.

It's worth noting that these benchmarks were performed on an old 780a MCP chipset, which was based on the 8400GS core, I believe. The modern 9400M chipset with new drivers could very well increase the potential benefit further.

We just don't have enough information to make any conclusions at this point.

 

No cherrypicking there mate, just digging up a post of mine back in the old Dell 13/16 thread.

 

Man, this has been the longest boxing stage that I have ever encountered. Wonder what's up. Anyway, it looks like whoever predicted that reviews will be in by page 200 of this thread is looking to be correct.

 

Unless I post like crazy

Something that is really edging me further away from the Dell SXPS 1640 is this:


Asus Lambo VX5 with Quad-Core, GT130M (with Hybrid SLI 9100M) and Leather

Decisions, decisions.

 

Maybe it's a new Dell "strategy" to make you think there's progress on your order when the truth is it's not even in boxing yet.

Either that or there's issues with the packaging.

 

The Danish Dell office reports that they are being swamped with requests/orders on the new XPS Studio 1340/1640's. That's the main reason why my 1640 order is still in phase "Production", he said.

 

Since I was one of the first to order a 1340, I thought I'd update the status of the order. It's finally gone "In Production".

It still has an estimated ship date of: 1/27/2009.

 

taude, Didn't you order on Jan 9th, or so? And it is Just now going "In Production"! That is slow indeed.

I ordered the SXPS 16 on the 11th and went to "In Production" Status on the 13th and an Estimated Shipping Date of Jan 30th.

However, Dell has stated that it should be getting shipped in the next 1-2 days, when I spoke over the phone... but I am kind of expecting it to take a few more days then that.

 

I guess we wont see any configuration updates until they get the first batch of computers out. Otherwise people would start cancelling

 

i ordered a 1340 on the 8th
it's been in production since just a few days after that
esd is the 27th

 

Have you checked what stage of production you're in?

 

That doesn't have LED back lighting, does it?

Mine's still in boxing. (January 15th order date-really 13th)

 

That sounds right unfortunately

Oooooh boy. If they release a better and/or Nvidia GPU in this anytime soon...

 

Yes, I ordered in on January 9th. It was slow to go into production.

It's a new product line, I'm sure there's glitches to work out, and I'm not really expecting it to ship on time, though if it does it'll be a nice surprise.

 

It is about time to replace my HP dv2700t. In the past I didn't particularly like the XPS notebook series, but this new line looks great. The Adamo looks fantastic too although I wan't more than a 13" screen. A lot of my notebook use is in the dark, so the illuminated keyboard is an huge advantage over the HP line. The XPS 16 is a quite a bit bigger than my 14.1" HP, but not that much heavier. The 1920x1080 screen is awesome, as I am used to a 2560x1600 desktop at home (Dell 3007). An old Sager 9880 I still have uses a1920x1200 17" screen -- awesome, but the 12+ lbs and massive size (almost 3" thick) had me looking for another notebook quickly!

I am going to hold off ordering for a while, in the hopes that the 256gb SSD, 9 cell battery, and upgraded video become available. I don't play games much anymore, but also would really like to see Dell move up to the newly announced 4000 series. Nvidia 130M would be a great choice for this notebook too, but obviously this is not a likely possibility. Top cards like the 4800 & 9800 are probably off the table also, because of heat and battery life issues, not to mention competition with the XPS and Alienware "gaming" notebooks.

It would be useful to see how the 3670 video card is installed, i.e. soldered or MXM or proprietary connector, as this would hint at the feasibility of Dell offering other options, or even a user-installed upgrade. At the least, a move to the 46x0 series would be nice, with better performance and improved battery life. Hopefully someone will be willing to take the bottom off their new XPS 1640 notebook to look at the innards!

The 17" Macbook Pro is a very nice machine too and I have considered it. But it is overpriced (perhaps less so than other Macbooks, given its features), and I'm not sure how well it will run Windows 7. I currently triple boot my HP notebook into Windows 7, Linux (Mandriva 2009), and Mac OSx (iPc 10.6.5). If anyone is interested I can walk though how to install the three operating systems for successful triple boot. I am a long time Windows user, and like others had a lot of issues with Vista. Microsoft seems to have gotten it right this time around with Windows 7. Linux definitely has some good points -- i.e. Compiz-Fusion and all the free software, but it is a headache to get working and keep running. And I don't really see what is so great about OSx. Windows 7 with Rocketdock looks better and is faster, and crashes no more often despite being beta. Beneath the surface, Mac OSx offers nothing over Linux except limited and expensive software options. At this point, I occasionally play with Linux and may do some programming with it. I only use OSx86 for synching my iPhone with iTunes. iTunes seems to wreak havoc with Windows (perhaps by design, knowing Apple), with both Vista and Windows 7 becoming unstable after the Apple crapware is installed. Being incorporated into OSx, it seems to run well. I wish there were a decent 3rd party software available to synch with iPhone, however.

 

I'm actually in the middle of deciding between the Dell XPS 16 and Apple MBP 17" unibody...

The Dell definitely has much more features and ports...and potentially a better screen (?)... however the Macbook offers better battery life, a better trackpad... but most notably I'll be using OSX. I will install Vista or Windows 7, but the point to getting a Mac is to use OSX.

OSX seems to be better for daily activities. Browsing, emailing, etc. Less to worry about viruses, etc.

If and when I need/want to use windows, I can. There are ,however, many reports of the Mac's running Windows either poorly or not efficiently. What I mean is, the laptops seem to heat up and work harder.

 

This is definitely a tough decision.

My question is, if the MBP 17" was $2100 (2.66GHz)/ $2325 (2.93 GHz), would that make it a clear winner for the Mac?

 

Unless you HAVE to have OS X (I personally like Vista and XP a lot more), there's no comparison there. The XPS 1640 is basically over $1000 cheaper, and the only compromise is an ATi GPU instead of Nvidia. I vastly prefer Nvidia, but I can't justify $1000 for it.

Thinking about how much vastly cheaper my system is versus a 15.4" Macbook Pro makes me feel better about my choice! (Plus I don't have to use an external Blu Ray drive, plus I prefer this system's screen size and resolution, etc.)

 

Oh, and the 17" Macbook Pro is apparently completely sealed again. The battery isn't replaceable, but I guess that means the hard drive isn't user accessible either.

Also I'd question how that battery works in Windows. It might be fine, but it depends on how it's managed. If it's managed by a program actually running on the CPU in the OS, then it's not going to work the same in Windows. If it's in the firmware, then it might be fine.

 

If you need OSx, then there really isnt a decision to be made at all. Personally, i never understood what the fuzz was about with OSx, Vista has served me very well for the past 1.5 years... i wouldnt pay $1000 to be able to use OSx.

 

Being someone who looked at the MacBooks for awhile, it quickly became a no-brainer for me. While I love a lot of things about the Macs, I live and work in the Windows world. While you can use virtualization and such to run windows apps, and use BootCamp to run Windows Vista, etc...It's not as good as working on Windows on a machine built for windows. Especially if you're doing anything advanced (like say running Visual Studio, or Excel with complex macros, etc.. -- I'm sure others can mention other applications). Office 2007 on the Mac is nowhere near Office on Windows (if you use it all the time interacting with others using it.) I didn't see the sense in paying for an Apple when I'd prefer to run Windows 95% of the time.

If you like and work with OSX, get the Mac. If it's only for Home use, I'd say get the Mac. The new uni-body construction is very beautiful, and I love the mouse pad -- two finger browser scrolling while surfing the web is really excellent on the new MacBooks.

For me, I prefer how Dell's warranty service works with people showing up at my door when something goes wrong instead of me finding a local Genius Bar.

The new Dells aren't as bad looking as year's past, though they're still no uni-body Mac.

I like how I don't have to carry dongles with me to plug into a VGA monitor at work, or my display port monitor at home, or to my HDMI television to watch a movie.

I like how I get eSata without having to use an ExpressCard slot.

I also like how these new Dells (1340s) come with 7200 RPM hard drives and 4 gigs of memory by default. With the MacBooks (don't know about the 17"), you'll be swapping out the drive, and paying extra for the memory (at least I would).

All that being said, I tell my non-techie friends and family to get a Mac -- so I at least don't have to support them.

 

I just plain don't like the OS X interface as well as Windows Vista/XP. Expose is cool, but other than that I like about everything else much better on Windows.

The thing that really kept me from running OS X full time though was the terrible font rendering. They use this super ugly anti aliasing that's sooooo much worse than 'Standard' or 'Cleartype' IMO. It varies depending on the screen in question, but it's just nasty and hard to look at on my monitors. Microsoft's is so subtle you generally can't even tell it's there, without shutting if off. Blurry and round-y is bad.

Plus there's the practical issue of having to reboot to watch TV/movies or play a lot of games, etc.

 

The HD and RAM are user replaceable, and it is fairly easy.

 

By that do you mean "it's possible to do", or do you mean they're actually user accessible parts, as they are in the current 15" model, but were NOT (the hard drive that is) in the older models?

I didn't see any openings on the 17" model...

 

They're actually user replaceable parts... it's somewhere on the apple.com website.

 

There's a good thread going on here: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/01/07/tuaw-macworld-video-macbook-pro-17-hands-on/

I would wait till they are out in the wild and someone actually does do the swap.

 

I don't see anything about the hard drive there though (or on Apple's site). Unless they're listing somewhere how you take off the bottom, it's probably not user accessible (which doesn't mean it can't be done, but...)

 

Why dont you just order with the HDD/SSD that you want?

 

why would you pay 1k more just to use mac OS X? if you want you can totally dual boot (win+mac) on dell after you buy a mac os X license which helps you clear legal issues. Also, apple has no right to prohibit you to install their OS on a dell. If apple wants their OS to be installed ONLY on a mac, then that is an act of monopoly-which is prohibited by the free market laws

 

Not sure if this has been asked already, do studio xps series laptops get support from the xps technical support?

 

In my case it's so I can swap drives back to the original if it needs to be sent in for warranty service. Put also you might want to upgrade it down the line, need to replace it, etc.

 

Why? So you don't have to send your personal data to them?

 

If Dell added a better GPU option on the XPS 16, there would probably be a flood of canceled orders, at least from people posting on this site.

Now while I believe it will be a while before we get a GPU update, we probably will get a medium resolution option (1600x900) based on a conversation I had with a Dell rep in addition to the 9-cell battery & 256GB SSD options. I'm hoping next month.

 

i've used a mac almost exclusively for the last 2 years

i want out

that's why i'm getting a dell dude

 

I dont go so far as to take the hard drive out of my laptop, but I do take all personal data from my computer and move it to an external hard drive so nothing is left on the PC. No music, movies, pron, etc. I dont want them to have access to anything I dont want them to.

 

Welcome back.

 

Can you post reasons? It would help myself and MANY other readers.

 

With your warranty...do you just have the one year? Or do you have the warranty that includes *on site* repair service?

If you have this, you don't have to send in your drives, etc


Cin