New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

Hmmmm I keep swaying between this and the Y580.

Really different things keep pulling me either way. Lenovo have changed the UK specs of the Y580 and it now includes a 64GB SSD (I'm assuming mSATA).

The cheapest I can get the XPS at the mo is about £1065 but then I want 3 years warranty plus AD which for some reason has bugged out on the Dell site again and isn't an option. It does however give you the choice between 1 year or 1 year accidental damage protection at different prices :S

The XPS is without BluRay and mSATA for some reason.

The Y580 now comes with 64GB mSATA and also BluRay and can get 3 years warranty and 3 years AD cover all for like £1100... Plus they usually have a 10% code floating around to take it down to 1k plus cashback.

I know they aren't direct competition, but it's out of these two for me really... I like the 660 in the Y580 too but the XPS is likely far far superior in build quality and looks much nicer!

 

OMG! This post is from Owner's thread:
(Someone advised me to be far from that thread)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ps-15-l521x-owners-lounge-24.html#post8689800

It's a big shame, I have never seen a so low result...

 

You were advised because of your trolling in that thread. I wouldn't recommend trolling here either if that is what you are setting up to do.

 

So I can't comment results of tests with my disappoint?
Or I must say good job Dell?
I'm here from 2 years ago, because i wanted buy XPS so maybe you can't understand my big big disappoint, for this new XPS.
All this time it has been a big waste of time.

 

As stated above, you are trolling. Also I commented in the other thread, that running prime95 and furmark together is a tremendously idiotic thing to do.

 

Nothing wrong with being disappointed. Happens a lot these days. You should see the HP section.

In any event, just avoid what can be construed as trolling and all will be well.

 

really what did you expect? a high end performing notebook in slim form factor?
sorry but what you are looking for doesn't exist on the market, either you go for a big and clunky design but with a lot of power and short battery life such as sager or something like an ultrabook that sacrifices power for it's mobility.
desktop benchmarks tend to overheat laptops, looking at the competition even the latest VAIO lines exceed 95 degrees during normal gaming, and the throttling issue is prevalent in a lot of recent models. I don't think it has anything to do with hardware.
either wait it out and see how dell deals with these issues or go look for something else, we all know that you are disappointed, get over it.

anyway looking at downlinx's review it would seem that he managed to run some games smoothly from the look of things.

as many have promised I will run some benchmarks of my own when I have mine sometime this week.

 

In the meantime try a cooling pad when maxing out the CPU and/or GPU on anything ( this is a good one from what I've heard, anyone care to correct me? [yes I know it's huge... I don't actually own one yet but it looks like I might be getting one soon if this news keeps up])

Also, you can make a custom GPU fan profile with MSI Afterburner. Try putting it on 40% below 40C, sloping up to 100% beyond 70C (yes, I do realize that's quite aggressive, but it appears to be necessary). You cannot undervolt the CPU from what I gather... and it's a shame too because Ivy Bridge's thermals are severely affected by voltage changes. Hopefully Dell will enable voltage changes in the BIOS sometime, or the ThrottleStop people will finally figure out how to do it. I believe you CAN use the aforementioned MSI Afterburner to undervolt the GPU though, just make sure you run a stability test with OCCT and try some real-world testing before using it for a critical gaming run. It appears that most of the CPU heating issues are the result of the Ivy Bridge processors using a VERY bad thermal paste, so if you can have it replaced (or do so yourself if you are confident), then it will likely work wonders on the thermal profile (you might as well have it done or do it on the GPU also, especially since after doing so you may be able to turn it into a 650m if you do certain settings right on certain software afterward)

 

Conclusion of your statement is people of Notebookcheck is idiotic (they tests all notebooks with this test).
People of Notebookcheck say for first that it's not happen in real life 100% CPU + 100% GPU, but a test is done to verify the limits.

I see many reviews with stress test, it's first time that i see a results of this kind, after 8/9 minutes notebook shut down and I can't believe someone justify that.

The Verge tests XPS and discover it's a defective unit, are you sure?
Every XPS on forum is updated to last BIOS A04 and perform in same wrong way.

Can you suggest an application to test throttling in notebook in standard way?
Because
For only Prime95 (100% CPU) someone says it's not happen in real life.
For only Furmark (100% GPU) someone says it's not happen in real life.
For Prime95+Furmark someone says it's idiotic.
First time that I read these statements was in XPS threads.
Maybe my PC is very old, but i see CPU very often to go on 100% with normal applications.

An User has reports with Prince of Persia the CPU after some minutes downclocks itself to 1.2GHz and drops fps from 80 to 35.
Are you considering this a good or normal performance, specially for a machine with these prices?
I hope this post in not considered trolling, because in not mine intention, but I'm very disappointed for my big waste of time.

 

The unit of downlinx is a dual core + GT630m, do you think it generate same heat of I7 + 640m?

A laptop thinner than XPS with a more powerful GPU and CPU exist.
It has a better thermal dissipation and it's easy to find, but I prefer to not mention it.

 

cpu usage never reaches peak on most games anyway so I wouldn't worry about crazy temperatures but they need to do something about that bongus throttling. It's mind boggling to even think that they might be using a bad thermal grease on these premium laptops.
sure we could change out the thermal compound to something more efficient but doesn't stuff like that void your warranty?

 

Again... This is not a gaming machine. It is not designed to run games or handle those temps. If you decide to run them that's what is going to happen.

 

The bottom of XPS is made of some kind of insulating material (to not heat people), so cooling pad could be useless.

 

Ok, but if it's not a game machine why does it use gt640m with 2GB GDDR5?
The HD4000 wasn't enough?

 

Im sorry, but no matter how you put it that is not what should happen.
in extreme heat the laptop should underclock to protect himself, but i guess even then that's not enough and he shuts down..
It´s a multimedia laptop, it should support some heavy load, don't believe this was designrd to be a Facebook laptop.

 

If you mean the one that is twice the price, has limited demanding software, zero customization and self repair (or even vendor repair) options once the warranty is out and already known for overheating.
sure go ahead.

 

Go look at gaming laptops such as the Alienware's... they use the GTX cards... not GT.

The laptop shutdown to protect itself. The chips aren't fried... the laptop still works.

 

Then where, good sir, are the vents on the XPS?

 

don't jump to conclusion yet, again I don't think that the problem lies with the hardware, a lot of laptops run this hot during intensive operations. the problem at hand is the inconsistent throttling that is causing all the problem.
some users are already reporting an improvement after an update.

 

One of the best tests to use for the CPU is called Intel Burn Test; it makes the CPU a bit hotter than Prime95. If it can run at least 100 times without crashing (after using ThrottleStop to force the CPU to stay at 2.1 GHz... unless you WANT to test it on turbo lol... and don't run FurMark at the same time unless you want total mayhem), then the computer is stable. Otherwise it's very unstable... no computer should fail this test at stock settings.

 

You ask if there is some machine thinner or equal dimensions of XPS that can handle heat with same or higher components.
I agree with you and all your statements except for overheating.
If you think it overheats I suggest to read Anandtech review.
Sorry but I don't want to talk anymore about that machine in this thread.

 

Well apparently my order from best buy was a special order since the L421x just released. And I wasn't notified about it so best buy refunded me for my two day extra cost shipping and added overnight shipping to it so I'll have it Tuesday

 

Wrong wrong wrong....

I've been defending this laptop and where it is aiming for in the market relating to its design and build quality but even if it isn't marketed as a gaming laptop (which you are correct, it isn't) it is still marketed as being capable of playing games and shouldn't be throttling down after standard gaming usage after 5 - 10 minutes.

It should be able to handle that sort of load at standard clocks.

Isn't XPS - Xtreme Performance System no?

Taken from the product page:

NVIDIA® Optimus™ Technology: Seamlessly optimize your battery life while maintaining the graphics performance you expect, whether you’re watching a video or surfing the web or playing a game.




Anyway, sure that will likely be resolved by BIOS update with some tweaked fan profiles or something.

 

There's sure a lot of excuses going on here...according to some people here this laptop is apparently only a pretty looking machine for web browsing and Microsoft Word. I'd like to know what type of tech illiterates here are buying an i7 w/ 640m for such basic tasks.

I also don't get the people attacking [-Mac-] as a troll for posting about thermal throttling and shutdowns. Are we not allowed to discuss anything that is not 100% praise for Dell? Ridiculous. I found his post useful as I hadn't seen that thread before.

 

They're not "attacking" him without due reason. There's a pattern and a history to [mac]'s posting. Mod team has been receiving reports about it from posters.

Anyone is more than welcome to speak their mind. Though, when it becomes a veritable crusade, it tends to irk posters and garner one the branding of "troll."

Curious that you didn't see the owner's lounge. Sort of hard to miss, no?

 

I am also very disappointed .. Since I saw it only had a fan, was interested in knowing the thermal performance. the results confirm what I expected. They have sacrificed everything to achieve a slim and beautiful aesthetics but have failed in the most important part.

 

Ah. Forgot about other countries configurations, I was only going off the US site. I'm jealous you have that option, since we now know of the quad core throttling.

 

I don't think he was trolling, to be honest. I hope we can freely write what we think (in a polite manner, obviously) or we should think that DELL banners on this forum bring moderators to think to new and esotics definitions of trolling
Oh and in that case, no blaming, this is a free forum, admin are free to manage it how they wish, user are free to surf other forums they repute better.

Cheers

 

100% agree. Everyone spends his own money the way they prefer, and personally I wanna know if I'm buying a 1600€ Facebook machine, for two main reasons:
1) I've always blamed Apple's customers for such a waste of money (but as I said, everyone buys what he/she wants)
2) I can view PDF and browse web also with my smartphone, don't need and i7 laptop with 2GB GDDR5 GPU for that.

If Prince of Persia can cripple this laptop, I wonder what some FEM or CFD would do

 

I would have considered such an option as well. I'm really curious about these strange combinations picked by the regional managers. Really terrible choices IMHO. That being said, I'm still excited to get mine today (and being able to rectify the regional managers choices by swapping out my HDD)

 

Bill we miss you! Please bring us good news!

 

There have been 2 episodes where I have seen intervening the Mods to my posts.

First episode:
A new user which was not liking mine posts (no problem with that).
He was writing that I was presumptuous because I had written below to my nick things as "notebook consultant" or "notebook evangelist"
I have response with irony, writing to him that it's post was funny and his observation was smart.

Second episode:
Yesterday, an user in owners thread write that XPS was an economics machine (I think everyone can judge this statement by yourself) specially compared with a famous other machine and the only disadvantage of XPS respect to it was the lack of 16:10 display.
You can still read these posts because they are still present in owners thread.
So I have response to him with a list of objective benefits that come with the other machine, compared to XPS (this post was deleted).
Therefore someone write that my posts was tiring and ridiculous, and he suggest to me to leave all XPS threads.
I have response in same way and with same suggestion.

I'm agree with you that owners thread it's not better place to do a comparison, but someone else starts the comparison.
So 2.0™ write to me to stay away from owners thread.
I think that if the problem of the XPS will not be solved it will be very easy to me to stay away from owners thread



I believe that my only guilt is to answer to personal attacks in same way.


MOD EDIT: There's more to it than that. Several users have reported that you were trolling the Owner's lounge based on several of your posts there.

 

Talk to your fellow posters who see it as him trolling, being disruptive and contributing nothing of worth to the owner's lounge.

Mods are just responding to the reports of posters. If it's just one poster claiming it, we tend to delete the offending post then watch and wait unless it's blatant. When it's multiple users reporting the same thing for different posts, we intervene.

Your "freedom of speech" is good in so much as it doesn't irritate and offend other posters all the while being within the guidelines of forum rules.

You can rail against, trash talk, and poo-poo Dell to your heart's content - until that is, your fellow posters get sick and tired of having to read it ad nauseum. When it becomes crusade like, that's when it becomes trolling.

 

Yeah I'm interested to see if Bill will have some feedback from the technicians.

They have three weeks to get it sorted. Once I have money it'll be harder to hold back even if there are problems. I just hope it's all fixed by then

 

[-mac] maybe you should open a new topic that discuss everything related to overheating and drop in performance. I would be very interested and would not bother those who will not read anything about it.

 

I’ve been in the market for a laptop for the last 2 months or so, carefully researching all the options and upcoming hardware as manufactures made the change to Ivy Bridge.

In the end I had my eyes on a few of models; one included the new Dell XPS 15.

I have to say, I’m massively disappointed with the pricing level Dell have aimed this at, this appears to be the same problem most people have with the XPS 15.

Now, I’m quite happy to drop north of £1500 on a laptop, providing I’m getting something I’d consider ‘value for money’. I like to know that I’ve paid a fair price for the hardware I’ve purchased, not a cheap price, just a fair one.

When the XPS 15 was rolled out at different events I was impressed, the 640m while not the fastest GPU in the world suggested to me that this would be a happy compromise between quality construction, performance and hopefully price.

For £1299.99 for the i7 version of the Dell XPS 15, I can’t help but feel even with the increased build quality that this price is massively inflated.

I can pick up a Lenovo Y580 with a 660M, i7 CPU, Bluray Player, Full HD screen and all those other gubbins you’d expect for around £900. Now, you will always pay a premium for the XPS as the materials are of a far better quality than the Lenovo. However, the disparity between hardware and price is just far too wide. Particuarlly when Dell is using a GPU that is being whacked into Laptops between the £500-£600 price marks.

We all happily chin on about ‘Apple Tax’ – but I’ve owned Apple laptops before and I’ve also handled the new Dell XPS 15. I can tell you, Dell is still quite away from reaching that premium grade finish that you get from an Apple product. Not to mention, the top notch and almost unquestionable customer service Apple give when you product goes wrong.

Dell are playing a dangerous game, they’re pricing themselves within £200 of the Macbook Pro which sports a 650m. For me personally, they can't quite pull that off yet. All reviews say the Dell XPS 15 is a good laptop - just 'good' - It's not phenomenal, it's not blown the doors off and cause everyone who touches it to recommend it as a must buy..

Another worry for Dell is the Sony S15 has received quite favourable reviews and can be had for around £900-£1000 with an i7 CPU and 640M.

I decided to wait for my other choices which were the Gigabyte N2442 and Acer M5, the latter which has now been released at around the £700 mark for the i5 version with a 640m. Then I saw a deal on for a Sony Vaio VPC-F23N1E for £420 brand new, not bad considering it has an 540M (Which has very good overclocking headroom), i7 CPU, Bluray etc.

 

Or you could just read the owner's lounge where they're talking about it daily. You can even ask questions.

No real need for another thread about it.

 

So, we can't openly discuss here about this heavy fault without being called trolls? It's not a crusade but it's a very important problem, so it's obvious we write about it a lot

 

[-Mac-] I understand your frustration because I am frustrated myself. I don’t like the new XPS but I don’t like the others even more.

Inspiron looks like the laptop I had 6 or 7 years ago. Lenovo Y580 would be good but I have Lenovo desktop and the customer service is very bad. It’s like comparing Chinese democracy to US customer service.

So at the end even if the new XPS doesn’t work at all I have no choice and will have to buy after summer holiday.

But for those telling you not to post here it’s unacceptable.

 

How is it that you guys are getting so confused? Seriously. You can post about the issue, no problem. That's not merely what Mac was doing.

Mac was posting in the owner's lounge things like "get a Mac" and "The rMBP is better" (paraphrased) and other annoying things. They didn't want him out simply because he was posting about a throttling issue. They're also posting about issues the XPS has. So you have to ask yourself, "if the owner's of the XPS are discussing the issues, why would they take offense to [MAC] discussing it too? Must be more to it than that."


BTW - if you're looking for his offending posts, they were deleted the day of report.

 

i agree its wrong ..... to post "ok get another brand in the owners thread" i admit it did it hear to because some one who was new was ranting some other brand was better i was annoyed and said well go buy that brand and stop complaining .... but there are still alot of poeple ranting about price and specs when most of us have gone past that phase and its evident by our posts
DELL said that there whole system like is going to move towards a portability and battery life perspective on things and the XPS is the first line to do that and still offer some kind of performance XPS is not the multimedia and gaming monster it is there is alien ware for that.

hope im not crossing any lines

 

Agreed, I did not see any personal attacks from -mac- nor trolling. There have been others that were much more offensive in my mind, but nothing is done about those posters.

 

ejl1980 - Read two posts up from yours.

Also, no one is saying he can't post here. I honestly don't know how anyone came away with that. What are you guys reading?

What I did was asked him steer clear of the owner's lounge where he was causing trouble. Normally what happens, is that the offender gets an infraction or gets banned. I don't like doing that unless it's really necessary. Mac seemed reasonable enough that a simple PM should suffice.

 

I have just read again the entire owners thread fo find all my posts.
Can I assume that you have deleted only my two last posts?
In specific:
1) Comparison with benefits list that come with other machine. (Another user starts this comparison, you can still read it)
2) My reaction to suggestion to leave all XPS threads.

So this the list of all my posts in owners lounge thread (until now 25 pages):
My first post was on page 9 and my last on page 14, you can check all.

MOD EDIT: {redacted}

So my several posts are 9 (11 if you counts 2 deleted), Ask to you please to clarify me how and when I have start to trolling so I can avoid to repeat that in future.

 

Yes, your offending posts were deleted so you wouldn't be able to see them.

See a few posts up for clarification. If you're still not sure or do not understand where you went wrong (though I'm pretty sure you know in spite of a possible language barrier), you can PM me.

This really shouldn't be discussed in this thread. And it should be fairly obvious that if it were just one post, you wouldn't be deemed as acting in a troll-like manner. It takes a pattern of posting for other posters to recognize it and report it to the mod team.

 

A little bit off-topic for anybody who is still looking for competitors of the new XPS 15 (which I will do until the throttling problem is investigated or solved):

GIGABYTE U2442 listed in Germany. Price is ok...specs look really good! 1kg less heavy than the Dell machine and all other specs look like copies from my wishlist. If thermal design (dual cooling confirmed) works and if the screen is good I might have found an alternative to the XPS 15 - for me

 

The new Gigabyte is getting some awful reviews and is poorly constructed.

 

@ Xps13SAM
Links?? I did not find anything so far about the mass production models.

 

I'm starting to look at the Lenovo y580 now.unfortunately, it doesn't have the aesthetics of the XPS 15, but the specs to price ratio of the 580 is impressive.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

 

I'm not sure I'd buy a laptop from Gigabyte, I haven't been thrilled with ASUS or MSI machines, I'm not sure I'm willing to try another mobo manufacturer's attempt at a laptop.