New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

This is another 15.6" laptop MSI GE60-i789W7H with Ivy Bridge 3610QM+gt650m
No problems neither here with stress test (prime95+furmark):
CPU run @2.2GHz and GPU maintains its maximum Turbo clock of 835 MHz even in FurMark and never surpassed 80 degrees Celsius.
Review MSI GE60-i789W7H Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Think a bit
hot goes to cooler
fan cooleer --
processor midlle +-
gpu extreme ++ heat

The closer to the fan the cooller the thinks get theoricaly, its thermodinamics after all.
unfortanly duo to maybe bad quality paste, or just the fact that the ivi bridge processor runs some 10 degrees hotter then the heat pipe he is touching because of being a small chip ie small contact area.

The heat pipe assenbly seems ok to me the problem seems to be the small size fan and obstructet hinge fan design.
the new apple and samsung has a great free from obstruction hinge design, this does not.

I'm only bashing arround because i reallly like this computer and still want it, but it goes agains lot of thing i defended previously about chousing a laptop

 

Sorry guys, but the problem is enough clear to me.
I guess no BIOS update can solve the problem.
Just look XPS15 cooling system.


As you can see GPU and CPU share cooling system.
I suppose GPU is the element with has over 1 heat pipe, therefore CPU is the element with has over 2 heat pipes.
When GPU generates heat also the CPU is heated. This seems to confirm some tests seen in this forum.
If CPU generates more heat than GPU then GPU can't dissipate heat because it has temperature lower than CPU, instead maybe GPU receives other heat form CPU and this is the way to shut down.
Conclusion this is a Stupid Thermal design

 

ok, heat goes to cooler
gpu themperature needs to be hotter for the heat to travell to the fan, there is no othether way around.
read my post above^

 

I'm agree with you

 

sadly heat doesn't have a one direction flow such as electricity. therefore it will travel upwards or downwards regardless, thus adding to the CPU temp.
2 copper heat pipes doesn't seem to be enough in this case, comparably some alienware have 2 for he cpu and 3 for the gpu respectively.
the fact that so many manufacturers look up to apples success and try to copy it whilst staying on the same old manufacturing technique is undoubtedly the reason as to why we have seen this bad thermal design pattern lately. sony, hp and now dell are all suffering from trying to achieve a design that the hardware simply cannot handle.

the thing that bugs me the most atm is the fact that the CPU runs a lot hotter than the GPU, which is never the case in desktop computers... again I'm ignorant when it comes to mobile hardware.

 

So it was not that wrong what I said after seeing the cooling design. But slowly it looks like I was wrong about Dell doing any reasonable tests of this cooling system.

 

fan needs a redesign .... heat pipes need to either be one wide head pipe like what apple did or the system needs two fans like the envy simple but that is not possible since space is so limited already and if dell decides to solder everything on the board every one will be pissed

solutions for 2013 or windows 8 refresh in October remove the DVD drive and supply it as an external ...... put another fan like what it has now albet slightly larger and only cools the cpu .... beef up the battery put in a mini sub woofer beef up the speakers with the added space and maybe a 4th usb

then now the XPS will be able to handle a GT 650m and still keep its slim portable design be a little lighter and handle games as people would like and be cooler or and an IPS or PLS display

 

I think we should not pretend to be thermal engineers.

 

Apparently, neither should the engineers who designed this laptop's cooling system...

 

ahahha WIN

 

You're definitely right, I didn't understand that the one with "GS" labes was GPU and the other was CPU, I had inverted them

 

As we are all suddenly thermal engineers, what do you think of the acer M5 design.

Also comes with the throtteling feature

( ps some say buy a mac, and other say use wide heatpipe design macbook is using, but the MBr also got throtteling issues, so that makes them just as stupid as the other manufacturers.)

 

FWIW, the AnandTech guy was able to easily resolve the MBPRetina's issues with a software fix, so...doesn't really seem comparable?

 

What software was that?

 

Check the several times it's been quoted on these forums?

It was right there in the quote, all along...

 

The bold one is the key word of your sentence...

Man, what would you expect from Acer?

/IRONIC

 

The guy whose laptop shut down did that, forced high the PROCHOT# signal (I think with ThrottleStop or similar software) and the CPU ran over 100°C. The one who assigned 0/5 stars (sorry can't remember the nickname).

 

Since Anandtech didn't mention the computer shutting down due to extremely high temps like that, I think we can probably assume the issue in the XPS15 is worse, then.

 

The guys that have experienced XPS15 shut down are two, but only they have tried stress test.

 

It is not a simple software fix...
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

 

It's software-based, i.e. he didn't touch the hardware inside his computer. It seems pretty simple to me. Lots of button-pressing, but it's not like you could screw it up.

 

I have just read the Lenovo w530 review by Notebookcheck and the is something of interesting.
It perform stress test without problems, but when it uses battery then it runs @ 1.2GHz even if CPU power profile values is set to 100%.
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Lenovo-ThinkPad-W530-N1K43GE-Notebook.77861.0.html

 

This a piece of Lenovo w530 review

I'm almost sure that xps problems is to impute to poor thermal design, but should be interesting if someone could try a more powerful PSU.

 

Now xps 15z is in clearance deals with a 12% discount+8% quidco cashback. (UK)

is there any laptop prbs if i buy from clearance deals?

 

Is there any news on xps 14 at outlet, or coupons for it?

Anybody think I can still call and get 100$ or more off of the xps14 in the us? Would be from 1199 I think.

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Dell inspiraton 15 SE sems to work great on the stress test:
Google Tradutor

The processor just down clocks a bit to the standard 2.1 Ghz speed when it heats up.
So everything works fine on this dell computer, lets hope a bios update make the xps 15 behave the same way (downclocking gradually as it heats up...)

 

Ispiron R SE performs stress test very well, pity for poor screen.
If Dell cannot do the same thing with its premium line should be very bad.

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poor screen to me the screen seems good by the numbers only place it fails is in brightness could have been better .........

battery life is a major fail 4 hours with wifi lowest screen brightness and idle that's horrid last years inspiron topped that

that system is nice but too thick for me rather go lenovo y580 or XPS and it should have had the skullcandy subwoofer too

 

Yeah, that battery life is abysmal. Complete dealbreaker for what otherwise seems like a pretty good system! If it had a subwoofer and a battery twice as big, it'd be a damn good offering.

 

I have been working in my new xps all day, and i never saw 2.1ghz on my system. Or it was 1.2ghz, or it went up to 2,8ghz or even 3,1ghz . Nothing in between.
So lowering to 2,1 when the laptop gets warm could be the solution.

If you think of it, its stupid how it works now, first turbo boost until you overheat then go in save mode. Instead of running at 2,1 ghz as proccessor spec.

 

Almost makes you think the guy typed the digits the wrong way round when coding the bios and put 1.2 instead of 2.1 when it gets hot lol.

 

CPU-Z is a MHz validation tool. What CPU-Z reports when a CPU is lightly loaded can be misleading.

ThrottleStop uses the monitoring method recommended by Intel in their November 2008 Turbo White Paper.

http://download.intel.com/design/processor/applnots/320354.pdf

Run ThrottleStop with the Log File option selected and you will see a much more accurate look at what speed your CPU has been running at. CPU-Z has decided to report a couple of different frequencies with nothing in between which is not accurate at all when a Core i CPU is lightly loaded.

 

Ugh Inspiron... why such a bad battery life. I would have bought it even though AMD graphics if the battery life wasn't so shockingly (surprised) low.

 

This might be the solution: if gt640=on then turboboost=off

Can throttle stop do this?

 

Whether deliberate or not on Dell's part, the Inspiron R SE's end up filling the role of 'cheap desktop replacement' extremely well. (Particularly the 17" with its better speakers, screen, CPU, GPU and space for an SSD).

They're not particularly mobile, although not excessively heavy either, and their battery life isn't great. For those who don't need the mobility, you would struggle to find a better laptop for even close to the price of the 17".

In contrast, the XPS 15 is clearly aimed at people who want a mobile multimedia laptop. Which is fine, except for them screwing up the thermals and over-pricing them. Sadly, it seems that those who need the mobility would probably be better off shopping around other manufacturers

 

It'd be a pretty ridiculous workaround to be fair, most of the time you'd need the turbo boost is when you need the 640M on too! Really really poor heatsink design on Dell's part, and when I receive mine on Friday, I'm giving strong thoughts to refusing delivery and picking up a Lenovo Y580 instead.

 

What exactly would I lose with the Inspiron R SE in comparison with this new XPS (aside from style and thinness which I don't care about, of course)?
Because I was finally ready to spend my money on something but all of a sudden the XPS has problems, the Asus G55 doesn't exist in my country... I'm out of options!
The only problem is no SSD on 15"...

EDIT: nevermind, just tried the Dell configurator and there's no stand-alone SSD (not even on the 17"), plus I'm not convinced by the video card.

 

The battery in the XPS is a lot better than in the 15 SE, while the graphics card (640M vs 7730) and screen (apparently) are also somewhat better in the XPS. Surprisingly, there only seems to be 160g weight difference. Build quality should also be higher in the XPS.

On the other hand, you pay about £350 (in the UK) more for the XPS, and it's doubtful you'll see the full power of the XPS due to throttling.

If portability is not an issue though, just go for the 17 SE. Apart from the battery, it's much better specced than both the 15 SE and the 15 XPS, and only costs a little more than the 15 SE (about £60 more in the UK).

I'm sure I've missed stuff and would be happy to be corrected on anything!

 

Yep, it's all correct - thank you.

Sadly, while I don't care too much about weight, build quality and battery, I'd still prefer a 15" and the 15 R SE doesn't cut it in terms of video card and storage (and neither does the 17, anyway).

So I'm back to square one. Damn it, I've got Mass Effect 3 ready to play and my Vostro 1500 cannot handle it anymore.

 

How about hp envy 15?

 

Not sold in my country, and just like with the XPS 15 I would have to compromise on performance in exchange for thinness and style that I don't really need.

 

Sounds like you're more after something like an Alienware, Clevo P150EM or MSI GT60. In Britain at least, I know you can pick up a P150EM with a 7970 for about £1200-1300, about the same price as the underpowered XPS 15.

 

Yes, except Alienware and similar 'gaming' rigs are tailored to an adolescent audience with unprofessional looks. Barebones like Clevo are probably my last hope, although I'd have preferred to continue with Dell.

 

good choice but i wonder about the build quality of the lenovo i want to go that way to but then i think if for windows 8 dell improves the XPS and i didn't wait i would be pissed since they might put an even better IPS or PLS screen maybe fine a way to work in some other stuff maybe i mini sub woofer who knows what they will do with it might even replace the whole fan system for sum-thing better

 

Bill stated recently that he was not aware of a blu-ray writer that was thin enough to fit inside of the XPS 15. Well that should no longer be an issue, Pioneer is making an external that is thin enough to fit inside an XPS 15.

PCMAG.COM

If Dell wants to advertise the XPS 15 as a content creating machine, at the very least it should be able to create content in a format that over 25% of Americans have.

 

I don't think he said one wasn't thin enough, I'm almost positive he said because the cost would bump it up another 300 to 400 dollars.

 

Lenovo has some pretty good build quality. Their builds are a bit on the ugly side but they are built to last. They acquired IBM's thinkpads and they pretty much incorporated that quality into their products.

Really hoping for the xps 15 to be fixed though

 

bill posted its gonna be fixed dude

 

I think it's better to wait to see how the fix works...

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