***Official Studio XPS 1645 Intel Core i7 Discussion Thread!***

What are you going to do with it.
I do alot of engineering work and cache matters. The 820QM has 8M of cache vs. 6M for the 720QM. That is probably the biggest difference. If you are playing games or doing real work, you will see some gain. If it's browsing and word processing, then no.

 

Thanks for the response. I'm hoping they still manage to send mine out this week. It's scheduled for Friday shipping, and I should have it monday.

 

well i haven't taken into account the fact that i'm studying electrical engineering, maybe the stronger processor would be of use to me?

 

I actually use my laptop for FPGA/ ASIC verilog simulation and running synthesis tools (Quartus). So I heavily use it for EE stuff. I would go for the 820 (which is the one I bought) because the larger cache does help.

If money is an object, then you can always upgrade later when the processor price drops.

 

For Christ sake...pay attention!!!

Are you serious?

 

The benefit isn't worth the cost still IMO.

 

I think it depends on what you are doing with it.
I wouldn't go for the 920qm, if offered, since it's only a small Mhz bump, but I would consider it.

For me, if I can shave minutes off of a run, I can get more runs in during one day, so it's worth it to me.

I can't disagree that the benefit may not be worth the cost depending on the application.

 

Here's a review of all 3 i7 CPUs

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Core-i7-Processor-Clarksfield.21684.0.html

From the look of it for gaming there is no point going with the 820 or 920 with 720 more then enough.

 

Reading that article demonstrates that the benefit of the 820QM or 920QM over the 720QM depends heavily on the application and type of usage... which is exactly what asicguy has been saying.

 

Unless you can justify the purchase for work/research (or just have the money to spend), the gains won't be more than 10-20% from 720QM to 820QM, at a 50% cost increase. I graduated in Electrical Engineering and for a student, even in MATLAB and other multithreaded CPU intensive programs, I couldn't justify the cost of higher end processor. But if you feel it is and you don't mind spending the extra cash to upgrade, then it's fine to upgrade instead of having buyer's remorse afterwards.

 

No, it's $90 CDN for the upgrade to Win7 Pro from Home Premium.... BT is not available.

$90 CDN for BT would be an EPIC FAIL and would not be worth the money.

 

I dont understand, They are not shipping system with Windows 7, they wont even ship the upgrade CD with it. (these are for the Vista orders)

 

You're right, I didn't catch that until you mentioned it. What's up with that?

 

Lame excuse, Im sure they had windows 7 in their labs for a long time now.

 

They have...but buying before the date the operating system is actually released is saying that you are fine with what you purchased (Vista). It sounds a little obvious. If you purchased Vista (like I did; don't worry, I'm in the same boat as you), then you get Vista. But Microsoft gives YOU (not Dell) the upgrade coupon so you don't feel like you got screwed by buying a bit early.

I mean, you might wonder: hey, it might not take that long to flash an image of Windows 7 on the hard drive. Well, they could. And smaller companies do that. Heck, on some companies, if you bought around October 15th or so Windows 7 (NOT the upgrade) was the default OS. But, Dell has a much larger volume than almost every small boutique combined. If one person gets the upgrade, then EVERYONE gets the upgrade. These forums are the perfect example: if even a single person got an "upgrade" to Windows 7 pre-installed, but they bought before October 22nd, all heck would break loose as everyone scrambled to call Dell to get the same upgrade.

~Ibrahim~

P.S. And delays do not entitle you to "upgrades" as we oft assume. It's nice of a company, but not at all required. This delay, I imagine, was not foreseen (should've been, of course) as they knew exactly this would happen: W7 would be released and people would be pissed that they got Vista.

 

If someone chose to upgrade to Windows 7 with the free upgrade offer, then supposedly there were software compatibility issues that demanded the halt of assembly of all 1645s .

 

Did anyone else have this issue? I ordered my XPS16 with the i7 on the 29th of September and it was scheduled to ship today. Well I've been keeping track with this thread and it's delayed -- I figure, no problem I'll just wait longer. Today, I check my order status and the current order has been cancelled and replaced with a new order number under 'processing'. (it was under production before)

Not only that, it now has an ESD of 11/23!

I'm pretty angry right now, I've never pestered them with calls or anything and they felt the need to cancel my order and put me back at the beginning of the line? I'm thinking about cancelling my order at this point.

 

anyone notice that dell charges $300 for a 2gb bump in memory upgrade while on the hp envy 15 they only charge $100.

 

That's certainly horribly wrong. Call them; probably an honest mix-up.

 

Damn, so they can cancel orders out of the blue like that?

 

They canceled both my order for a studio xps 16 and mini 10 and when i called in they said that I didn't verify something. Then someone placed a new order for me and now on the page you check status I see that guy's name on the order. I think they do that because when you order using the website nobody get commission for it so they would cancel your order so a sale person could get commission.

 

A rep cancelled my original order. I replied to her email with "what is the process to cancel the order" and next thing, my order is cancelled. I'm glad it was on an email, which I forwarded to their manager as proof.
There is a phone number there to call for "cancelled orders you didnt cancel":
if you feel your order was canceled or changed in error, please contact Dell's Sales Representatives at 1(877) 248-3731, Option 2, Option 1 for assistance.

 

Yeah, I thought it was the i7's at first, but this makes sense now 'coz ASUS has plenty of i7's gaming laptops available already on Amazon, in stock. Assembly base? Like the foundation where all the expensive piece sits?

 

This is what I was I was emailed today about the delays:

"I just checked on the order at the factory and I see that one of the parts on the order Assembly Base is back ordered and is the only reason for the delay of your order. The estimated delivery date is 10-30-2009 (may be revised ) Every effort is being made to get the order completed for you ."

 

Agreed, and I'm over it... that is why I cancelled that Vista order, and re-ordered on the 22nd Oct with Win7, what's another 3 weeks of waitinig after I already waited 5 weeks? I guess this delay is just like a perfect storm. Just swallowed the entire boat under water.

My original i7 order on 9/25 was vista. Yes even if win7 comes out in 4 weeks. Becuase silly me assumed from past experience from dell that system will ship weeks early. By then I can order my win7 upgrade from billyG and have win7 on this i7 machine around the same time it releases on 22nd. But the whole thing is delayed, drowned and under water, not because of shortage on $400 i7's, or the new OS worth $250... or the expensive bluerays or SSD's... This $1500+ hunk of a machine has drowned because of a shortage on a $2.00 Assembly Base piece made in china.

 

From what I understand, the HP envy has 4 ram slots allowing up to 16gb. So they would only have to put in a 2gb stick to upgrade to 6gb. The Dell only has two slots, so they have to use the much more expensive 4gb stick to add the memory. If anything the HP is the expensive option (in comparison to the cost of the ram). You can always do the upgrade yourself for cheaper.

 

does dell ship a 6 cell battery with it along with the 9 cell, or do u need to buy that separately. i don't particularly want to be lugging a 9 cell battery around. Does anyone know how long the battery life is for the 6 cell battery, and whether it will be longer or shorter with the core i7 processor?

 

Only comes with the battery you've chosen on the build, either 6 or 9 cell. The battery life for the 6 cell is about 2hours and 30 minutes depending on the settings (backlit keys, brightness, idle, etc.) and how heavy the programs youill be using (watching a movie, playing games, internet explorer, etc.). 9 Cell is about 3hours and 30 minutes. This is just my estimation from the previous m1530 I've had.

 

6 cell will last 2/3 of a 9 cell battery. You have to buy the 6 cell separately because dell only gives you a 9 cell battery.

 

when does Dell actually charge the credit card? I read some members here saying that the credit authorization is not there anymore...

 

Well, the credit card I used to order my computer back in september has now expired, Dell has been blocking and un-blocking money from my account (it's actually a cash card) a bunch of times since I ordered, will they be able to collect payment for the laptop even though the card expired or are they going to start calling me and delay my order yet again?

 

LOL u must be new.

 

Future proof?? My mantra is "Today's low end of any processor line is tomorrows Celeron". This is especially true of the variants are more than just miniscule clock speed increases (ie., more cache, faster base clock, or unlocked, etc..)

Unless it costs an arm-and-a-leg, spend the couple extra bucks and get the better CPU. You will thank yourself down the road.

 

Stupid display question:

If I connect the 1645 to a 27" display that has 1900x1200 resolution will the 1645 be able to display the higher resolution?

I'm looking at buying the 1645, but this could be a draw back since I usually connect my laptops to my 27" display.

Thank you

 

yesssssssssssss

 

Is there any significant advantage of ordering your system with Win7 as opposed to upgrading Vista?

 

Cool, thanks.

Another quick question:

Does anyone make a 90 degree (right angle) power cord for these laptops?

I hate how these cords stick straight out the side of the computer! Too easy to catch on something!

Thank you

 

Hah... future proof. The 720QM is fine and will continue to be fine for the next 3 years. Heck most of you would be fine with a P8600 and not even notice a difference in performance unless you were doing a lot of video encoding or calculations. For 50% more to upgrade to the 820QM, is just not worth the miniscule increase in performance. More cache and all that is helpful more when the levels of cache are lower and less so since the 720QM has already 6MB of L3 cache. But as I said before, if you want to upgrade, it's your money. But I'd have no regrets sticking with the 720QM.

 

Agree completely. It's not a leap across the generations like C2Q to i7. To notice in daily performance within the same generation you need at least 400-500MHz difference in speed. Right now between 720 and 820, the difference will show as 2-3 fps in games or 2-3% in tasks that need 100% CPU and can take advantage of the extra cache. In my book, not worth $350.

 

For games you are correct, but looking at the website posted yesterday:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Core-i7-Processor-Clarksfield.21684.0.html

Note the following line of interest:

The CPU has an impact on the Cinebench R10 OpenGL Shading test, as well. The 920XM chip achieved 5450 points, the 820WM 5114 points (-6%) and finally the 720WM 3725 points (-32%). Professional CAD users should thus stick to the more efficient chips in order to achieve a maximum of performance.

The difference between the 920 and 820 is only 6%, so it certainly doesn;t justify the 2x price difference. The 720 to 920 is 32% difference. If we extrapolate and say that the 820 to 720 is 20-25% difference in this test, then for myself, if I can run a simulation that would normaly take 4-5 hours and it takes 3-4, then the difference is payed off in a day. This is a specific test, but in my case and possibly in others doing similar work, the cache makes a difference.

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I wouldn't dismiss the 820 as not worth it for someone doing real work. For gaming or light office work, I wholeheartedly agree with you. In fact, my office mate ordered the 1645 with a 720 and I ordered mine with an 820. If I can arrange it, I'll run my software on both and post an update should they ever arrive

 

Just update on my issue from last night:

Apparently they decided to upgrade the OS on i7 systems to Windows 7 -- or at least they did for me. There was apparently a 'driver conflict' on the wifi card from the vista to w7 and they decided to change the part on my without my consent.

What's worse is the idiot rep failed to even copy my specs right over to the new system and I had to cancel my new order today to get the correct specs.

Sigh...in production for a month and back to square one...

 

They upgraded your laptop because of a driver conflict ? What was your wifi card ?

 

Oh, sorry, to go back on the i7-720QM vs i7-820QM debate:

It's laughable to think that the i7-720QM is "low-end". You have to remember that Intel hasn't released the mid-end and low-end of the Capella platform. Those will be the low-end and the i7-720QM will always be considered the high of end of the i7 mobile segment. I'm not saying this so everyone feels better about purchasing a "high-end" CPU, but just some marketing stuff here. It has performance benefits, too, of course as these will be the last 4 core/ 8 thread mobile CPUs in a while as all the next CPUs by Intel are the low-end 2 core/ 4 thread, which will have built in GPUs, but the CPU processing is cut down a bit.

~Ibrahim~

 

Good for you as far as getting win7. Your original order was 9/26, with original EDD of 10/28. They should atleast try to get you closer to that date. Why 11/25??? just not making sense, dell

 

does anyone know if Dell is on-schedule with their updated EDD's? They should start shipping out this Friday for 11/02/09 EDD's I suppose. did anyone call them to follow up on their order?

 

Thanks for the link, didn't see it before.

Is this the benchmark you are talking about?


From the image above, I'd consider the leap from 820 to 920 being more noticeable in a linear way. In terms of % though, you are right, just like a gain from 2 to 3 is more than the gain from 3 to 4, but to me it's not substantial. Yes, for rare cases where you'd run a program for hours, even 2% gain can be substantial and in that case the gain from 920 over 720 is more compelling for just 3 times the price. I really don't see anything noticeable for the extra cache.

And even if the gain is substantial, it's just 1 benchmark. Since you are going to do something that's similar to this benchmark, I see your point.

At the end of the day you are paying for it. So, you are satisfaction is the only thing that matters here

 

I see some people on here unfortunately have had their orders delayed. I was wondering if I ordered on 10-19 with an EDD of 11-13 is it likely for my order to get delayed. I chose the 720QM processor and RGBLED screen and Windows 7 as the default OS.

 

Actually it comes down to more of the Mhz myth. People are still hung up on the clock numbers presented to them. When they see 1.73 and 1.6. We haven't seen those numbers in "performance" processors in years. So its going to be a natural reaction to go ewwwww. Even though its unwarranted.

 

True, but the main difference that might be ignored is the cache difference between the 720 and 820. That makes more of a difference than the clock speed depending on the applications you are running. If the only difference here were speed, then I would agree with everyone who said the 820 is not worth the price. Also, remember that in the I7, the cache is shared between all processors, so the extra 2MB will make a difference even if running a single core.

 

Sounds like you're just canceling the order after all and re-ordering it w/ Windows 7. It doesn't seem like they upgraded the OS, b/c if they did, you would've gotten the change in the same order. It might have been the sales person's fault, who know...
Did you get an email confirming that they changed the wifi card (from intel5300 to dell)? or a phone call?

On a side note, why so many posts between the performance of i7 720 and 820? Can't you guys just create another thread?