New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

Look, it has nothing to do with being a skeptic or receiving confirmation by some god at Dell.

If the mSATA SSD is large enough (either Dell "grants" it to you or you install one yourself), you can always make that mSATA SSD a boot/OS/apps drive.

There is nothing sacred about the "cache functionality," nor about the "mSATA SSD boot drive." No need for kudos. The user can always remove the cache with one BIOS setting.

 

Hablas ingles?
You called Dell Latin America, right? Hmm I'll try calling Dell US later on.
I'm ordering next month too, you think I can get the same price?
+ that student discount ($200 gift card) + 5% dell advantage

^ That would be a great price for me to jump the gun and finally buy it. Looks like most issues are getting fixed, new bios and some hope with wifi using linux (most likely a software bug in windows)

 

im buying it cuz i got a 5mbs connection so wifi should not bother me 1
the router in im my room and the house ins 1 level @ school imma just use a lan cable or sum thing should not be that bad

as for wifi bill said its a similar setup to what the MBPwR has check the owners lounge i post a pic of how apples aerial is like and i think that is an aerial issue maybe a wire touching where its not supposed to or contacting the metal case causing the issue should be fixed with a display change

if dell has to do a major hardware recall or sum thing i would hope they would change my system ...... the design won me over else ill go with the l502x

i doubt u will get the same price as the us does not have an i5, 8gb, gt640m 1TB + 32 gb option @ 1499 ... but u can get the closest model or when u call ask if they have a similar spec then add teh 128gb ssd + 750gb

 

Yeah I have ty wired and wireless at home because I'm cheap.

But I need the good wifi connection at school. I'm okay with using wired in the dorm room since it's 150mbps but I need good connection on campus and in classrooms.
Thanks. I saw all the posts in the owners thread. Hoping they don't need to do a recall cause I really like the design too. L502x is too bulky for me, I'd rather get the alienware instead of it.

Hoping for an i7, 8gb, gt640m, 750 hdd + 128 msata for a good price. Probably not going to happen, unless they release a coupon or drop the price.

 

The user is typically computer retarded and has no idea what most of the words in your post mean. That is why I think the "original configuration" is important. 95% of the consumer base has no idea how to reconfigure their OS installation. The typical user has no idea what BIOS is. I know that my parents and siblings would read what you just posted and just laugh because they'd have no idea what you are talking about. That is why until an actual owner of 128GB mSATA configuration confirms that the Intel caching function is not leveraged, I will remain skeptical.

I'm not sure what you're even arguing about.

The kudos was for the idea that Dell might install an OS on the 128GB mSATA in spite of the fact that their XPS 15 storage architecture relies on the idea that a spinner+mSATA cache should reach near SSD performance.

 

Neither those "dumb" users have any idea what WiFi performance and radio Tx/Rx are all about.

This grandiose phrase will also confuse them.

 

Thank you for confirming your troll status.

 

Not sure if I really want to keep my L421x. I bought it through Best Buy so I'd have to have it all reimbursed to a gift card which is not very pleasing. If anyone would like to purchase it I can sell it to you for a little cheaper than MSRP. Just got it a few days ago.

 

So we can get to know you better -- what is something that makes you happy? Something that makes you smile?

 

Funny to see now you want to sell your baby dell. You were one of the people who made alot of effort to praise this new xps

 

I love it. Great pc. I just need one that's working now due to school. Don't have the time to sit around and wait for a fix

 

I don't think he's trolling. Most people won't know anything about their download speeds and won't speedtest it. They'll just notice that downloads are taking a long time and probably complain to their ISP and not think it's the laptop.

 

If you are bored with the conversation, perhaps another would interest you elsewhere? I have explained price ad nauseum within this thread. Materials, build quality, support, warranty. Those things add cost. If you want to save money, go with a competitor system or have a look at another one of our offerings that isn't saddled with things you don't want to pay for would be my advice.
I have no idea what your point is about pricing on the 512 SSD drive. Is it higher than our competitors? Can you cite your source if that's the case, please?
I have no personal problems with you either, and frankly if I did, I wouldn't mention it. I'm paid to be here, so that would be most unprofessional. I just want you to be happy, so the overall happy quotient of the world goes up. Hence, why I suggest you may want to consider something besides the XPS, be it Dell or otherwise. I wish you the best.

The configurations are all planned and tested by my team and sister team here in Austin. We release the list of configs to the regions. It's up to the regions to know their market and make available the configs they think will sell best in their region.

Cost saving of fixed configs over build to order is anything but bull, and it stands to logic and the mathematics of permutations that 9 configs is easier to manage and support than whatever the exponential value of x components to the factor of y configs is.

Latitude and XPS are very dis-similar. We have a WWAN model. It sounds like in your country it would be a good idea to offer it. Do we?

Can't argue with this one. I'm on an email string about this now.
Fact is InspironR S/E is the logical follow on to the previous gen XPS, and the current XPS is pretty much a resurrection of Adamo, but done a little better on the materials and performance side...a lot better.

No. The severe throttling on BIOS A04 will be corrected on A05.

Please shoot me your name, service tag, ship to address, email, and phone number in PM. I want to look at the case history of your L502x if you don't mind.

My apologies for the misinformation. The 128GB mSATA drive is a cache drive, but obviously we here all know (see what I did there? ) know you can change a BIOS setting and use it for the OS or whatever you want.
I sent a PM to Amith offering my assistance when he's not sure about a technical question. Thanks for pointing this out.

GDDR3, dual core? This isn't a serious comparison is it?

Synaptics.

 

What is the purpose of offering a 128GB cache in the top-end L521X configuration? 32GB cache makes sense, but 128GB? The 128GB mSATA SSD is more than capable of serving as a boot/OS/apps drive, leaving the 1TB HDD for storage (hmm, like, 1080p MKV encoded movies? ). Such a configuration is not unusual in last year's and this year's laptops.

Would you please double-check with Product Management about this? Thanks.

 

Agreed. Using the 128GB as a cache drive would be foolish IMHO

 

its not an issue u can do a clean install of windows on the m-sata drive ..

 

Oh, Bill, no. You mean the same Adamo line introduced in January, 2009, which failed to impress the critics and consumers because it demanded an astronomical price-to-spec price tag and therefore woefully undersold and was discontinued by November, 2010? Please tell me you didn't just admit on behalf of Dell what some of us have been complaining about for weeks (a misguided step in your product line), and then compare the XPS and its new direction to what was arguably Dell's biggest failure of the past ten years?

I already felt bad for those who were foolish enough to buy the 14/15 and are now saddled with beta-testing your product on their dime, but to come out and admit that it's the successor of a technological Titanic is just corporate cruelty. The Adamo ranks right up there with the Edsel, New Coke, and From Justin to Kelly.

C'mon man...

 

Most people I know have no idea how to do a clean install of an OS. Especially since the system doesn't come with install discs.

 

Sigh... Sorry to bug you but have you heard anything/followed up on the mSATA upgrade options? It's been difficult in that other thread trying to find information and when I do they tell me the upgrade for the HDD and mSATA (750GB + 32B to 1TB + 128GB is $150).

It seems that many here want to install their OS directly to the mSATA and they are upgrading the mSATA themselves afterwards...

Any way to convince them(Canada/US) to allow us to upgrade the mSATA independently of the HDD?!?!?!

 

This amuses me.

 

Using 128GB SSD for cache is truly amusing. Indeed. Much more amusing than speculating about antenna and radio Tx/Rx.

 

sorry for them i get my windows through the university free i think i get to activate it on 3 diff pcs so i just burn the iso ..... its not my fault regular people cant install windows and if they cant install windows they would be good with the cache setting the laptop comes with default

 

I don't recall doing too much speculating myself. Hopefully when I get my hands on the XPS 15 that I purchased for my sister tomorrow, I can put my networking/wireless grad school classes and wireless sensor network research to good use. X_X

I'm going to do some sniffing with WireShark in addition to the inSSIDer and speedtests that people have been compiling.

I'm actually really excited to tackle this WiFi issue.

 

Hi guys, i'm new here but i must be getting my XPS 15 this next monday, i have been following the whole discussion about the problems i might face, i wonder if those who have problems with WIFI could tell us, what kind of encryption is being used by their routers, like WPA, WPA2 , TKIP, AES etc. i remember that a year or so ago i saw this problem with a laptop and WPA2 with TKIP, it connected to the right speed (N) but the throughput was quite low, once the setting was changed to AES, it worked as fast as expected, this later was checked with Linux, and it was discovered that somehow the AES was accelerated on hardware while others were left to be done on software.

Also i kind of find those test done using speedtest invalid because u are mixing ur wan speed with ur wireless speed they arent the same, something else should be used, like copying stuff from a shared drive in the same local network or something like iperf, to measure real speed.

 

Anandtech's review of the XPS 15 has been posted

AnandTech - Dell XPS 15 L521X: A Detailed First Look

Haven't read it yet myself, but I'm about to grab a cup of coffee and see what they have to say.

 

AnandTech - Dell XPS 15 L521X: A Detailed First Look

Finally someone in the mainstream media with the guts to tell it like it is.

 

Maybe they have a contract with Intel and they have to sell the laptop with IRS enabled...just guessing
EDIT

I've just read the whole "review", and I have to say that I'm overall satisfied:
1) The only XPS 15 competitor on the paper seemed to be the Asus N56VZ, but here it comes out that XPS 15 outperforms it in almost every scenario (and with A04 BIOS!!). Keeping in mind that beta2 BIOS seems to provide strong improvements, I think I'll be happy with performance
2) The reviewer did not mention any pixel grid issue! This represents about 60% of my worries, so it's good news for me. Note for Bill: any official word about this? Do you at Dell recognize this as a recurrent issue or is it some isolated case which will be solved with a display replacement?
3) The reviewer did not mention any wifi issue, even though he might have used laptop near to the router, so this could have hidden the problem
4) About display, reviewers always compare white and black levels, but I think it would be woth it to compare also red/orange and blue/violet this time

 

Ok, they ar dis-similar (your win ). For us there, a little bit (or more) over "average" tech wise people. But before (comparing L502X and Latitude) they were still more dis-similar and now less... At least if speaking about materials and build quality. And for information - Im satisfied about it, especially about build quality.
About offering WWAN with L521X in my country - Dell (or representative) dont offer anything yet (not even new XPS itself!).
But "messing" with names/lines is confusing, again - at least for lots of us there. As an example - for me InspironR like "logical follow" of previous XPS line is like "lovering" us as customers and our demands for quality.
And why Dell didnt name new gen XPS simply "Adamo XPS" then? It had "eliminated" lots of confusing...
___________________________________________________________________________

XPS_15 - Intel_HM67 - i5 - GT_540M - 6GB - Crucial_M4_128GB - 1920x1080 - Dell_5540_3G - Backlit - Win7

 

Marketing man... Would you ever be able to sell a car called "Lada" in the USA, even with one of those "Though as hell" advertising campain for GM trucks?

You should never name a product with a name that's associated with a flop! A Adamo being sold as an "XPS" has much better chances to be accepted! Personally, even though the first impression is similar between Adamo and XPS, and agree with Bill comparison, this XPS is not an Adamo... far from it... it's way better...

If all problems gets corrected with satisfaction (in my eyes, mostly the WiFi issue), this should turn out to be one of the best laptop Dell ever made!

Only future will tell, if they'll be able to raise the public attention, to make some sales! It'll be their #1 challenge, to be seen outside, in order to be considered and bought! Dell should advertise a lot this baby, but not before it get's fixed or it'll get a lot of bad reviews on the net... And we all know how long those stays online

 

Anandtech benchmarks with A04 bios + throttlestop are worthless.

New bios will change the cooling system behavior and the notebook performances (for better or worse)

 

Did you try beta 2?

 

Hi, new here

Been following.

@bill why not 256gb msata 500gb hdd cut the blueray or something and make it affordable or 128gb msata 500gb hdd

Please get yout rapid response squad to fix these issues I need to purchase this Laptop in August and I need it from the factory with all the fixes. I do not like patches

Thanks Bill. Because of you I must purchase this laptop.

 

At this moment BIOS A05 beta2 does not correct throttling issue:
In the follow file you can see stress test (prime95+FurMark) with BIOS beta 2 posted in Italian forum.
CPU still throttles and continuously jump between 1.2GHz and 2.8GHz, while GPU drops its clock to 134MHz and memory bus to 202MHz (Base clock value are 635MHz & 1000MHz).
View attachment stress test BIOS A05 beta 2.zip

Comparison with Gigabyte U2442N:

Gigabyte U2442N (21 X 339 X 233)mm, 1.65Kg
DELL XPS14 (20,7 X 335,8 X 233)mm 2.1Kg
DELL XPS15 (23,2 X 371 X 249)mm 2.6Kg

U2442N uses i5 (standard) and GT640m (DDR3)
XPS14 uses i5 ULV and GT630m (DDR3)
XPS15 uses i5 (standard)/i7QM and GT630m (DDR3) / GT640m (GDDR5)

TDP of i5 3210m used in U2442N is 35W same TDP of i7 3612QM.
GT640m used in U2442N has same clocks of GT640m used in XPS15 this means same TDP.

No throttling on U2442N while it runs stress test, throttling problem for both XPS14/XPS15 even if they perform only games.

Totally agree with you.
Even if for me it's not correct that Anandtech have used Throttlestop to published games comparison, specially if this application is not used with others machines.
I hope Dell makes some donations to developer of this program

I guess you don't see results of BIOS beta 2 testing...
In comparison between ASUS N56 and XPS15, is Asus uses Throttlestop or only XPS15 has used this help?
Where is this comparison?


About the screen Anandtech says:

 

Yeah. It confirmed what I've seen.

My son got his L521X screen replaced because of the grid problem. (The technician struggled with the disassembly and had to come back a second time. The WiFi problem remains.) We are able to put the L502X and L521X screens side by side.

 

Returning my L421X and going for the MBPR. Sorry guys. Just not worth it for all the problems.

 

How is teh new screen? Can you still see the grid?

 

Does that means that the "grid problem" is a bad screen? The new screen doesn't have the issue at all?

Nice to hear, if it's problem is related to some bad screen, and that a replacement can fix this issue!

 

The replaced screen does not show the grid as visibly. But, using both the XPS L502X FHD and ThinkPad W501 FHD screens regularly, I don't like it. YMMV.

 

Great review, shows the XPS 15 for what it is unfortunately, worse keyboard and screen than the L502x.

And the worst part is that the max clock speed the CPU can maintain under full load without shutting down is 1.8Ghz, not even the rated 2.1Ghz of the i7-3612QM, so even if a BIOS update solves the throtteling problem down to 1.2Ghz, it still won't run at the rated speed of 2.1Ghz under full load

AnandTech - Dell XPS 15 L521X: A Detailed First Look

I was thinking of upgrading, but now I'm just gonna buy an SSD and an 8GB RAM kit for my L502x.....

 

hoo, but they did know, why do you think the bios throttles the laptop so much
they just decide it was not that important

And that was on an air conditioned room.
There is nothing dell can do besides redesigning the cooling system.

 

That should be better. On my L502X, I replaced the stock HDD with a SSD and moved the HDD to the optical bay adapter (NewModeUS).

 

notebookcheck review!
Google Translate


well, 94 to 97 degrees with the processor underclocked to 1.2 Ghz after several hours of Battlefield 3.
Granted, the ambient temperature was between 24 to 27 degrees.
No way dell can stop the throttling without the computer crashes, it needs a better cooling.

 

This should take you to the translated version of the NotebookCheck review:

Google Translate

The German reviews are normally translated properly and available on the English version of the site Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News - Notebookcheck.net within a few days.

 

Wow, shut down in stress test even for Notebookcheck...
New Bios does not solve the issue even for Notebookcheck...

I guess Dell needs to redesign cooling system..

 

I've been following this thread for the last week or so as I'm in the market for a new laptop. This new XPS 15 has been on my short list as my previous laptop was the Dell XPS M1530, and I was extremely happy with it. In case you're wondering, the XPS M1530 is still going strong, and has now found a new home with my mum.

Unfortunately, I know I'm going to want to play games on it and the throttling is going to be an issue for me.

For the last year or so I've been using a Cooler Master X2 cooling pad which not only kept my M1530 quite a bit cooler, but also elevated the screen slightly which made the laptop more comfortable to use. Has anyone tested the L521 on a similar cooling pad to see if it makes a noticable difference?

Although it looks like the throttling will eventually be improved with the release of a new BIOS, I was wondering if a cooling pad used in conjunction with this fix could make the throttling a non-issue for gaming.

Perhaps Dell should release a bespoke cooling pad with extra ports and a subwoofer, then we can have a capable gaming system when at home, and a stylish laptop on the go!

 

THAT would be a GREAT idea! I'd definitely purchase it


Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

This...is actually an amazing idea. That Asus laptop comes with an external subwoofer, Dell should do the same thing. The L521X is definitely thin enough that a cooling pad wouldn't be a pain in the .

 

Lol. Hate to say this but I told you so. For this price, mbpr is better value.

 

what price is that btw?

the full blown xps is 2300 for 16gb RAM and 512SSD...same specs for MBPR is 3000

 

Lets compare the price for the core i 7 model. Xps 15: $1700, mbpr:$2200. Price different is $500. But for that you have better processor, better graphic, much better screen. If I have money and look for premium product (style over performance, "WOW factor"), i would go for that. If i look for cheaper altenative, i would go for hp envy 15, arguably as good as dell 15 in build quality but much better in term of performance. More important is both those machines do not have wifi and throttling issues.