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

FWIW, my 3.5 yrs old E1705 is running 7 Ultimate (I am a host for Win7 launch party) for past 9 days with zero driver issues. I don't think for such a new system like this, there would be any issue at all.

I wonder why they included Studio 15 but not Studio XPS 16

 

Just thought I'd let everyone know that this spectacular deal of an initial $524 discount ended today. I *just* got in on it yesterday. I was trying the day cuoog posted this, which was the 14th, as they included the leather accent for the case as the only option, but I fell asleep (lol). Now you'll only get the gloss black case (no biggie), but I believe they did take the $40 additional off the price. Regardless, I purchased my system with the initial $524 off, an additional $154.68 off for the EPP 7% discount, and an additional $68.34 off for the DPA (Dell Preferred Account) 3% discount. All in all, I saved an additional $223.02 for the EPP and DPA discounts, and a total discount of $747.02 overall!

The best they are offering off on the I7 systems now is $224 (see here [6th system down]). That's still a great deal, plus 7% off, and an additional 3% off if you use your DPA (choose Other Payment Type first, then it'll give you the link to choose the DPA to get the additional 3%).

Regards,

BfB

 

Quick question guys:

EVEN though it doesn't apply to the SXPS 16 (I'm trying to see if I can maybe convince them), when Dell has their little Easy Upgrade thing, does that mean they do a CLEAN install of Win7 or do they just do the upgrade for me, going from Vista-Win7?

I ask because upgrade performance, just like XP->Vista, is crippled in Win7 if you don't do a clean install.

http://blog.tune-up.com/windows-os/windows-7-performance-check-upgrade-install-vs-clean-install/

~Ibrahim~

 

Hi folks I'm seriously considering getting the 1645, but I have a couple of q's.

Firstly how good is the HD 4670? Is it good enough to run games on the full 1080 res? And how well will it run them? I'm not a hard core gamer, but would like to be able to play the odd game of WOW and a few FPS.

Secondly, is the Solid state HDD a good option? I would like good access times and a quick boot, but also need a fair amount of storage for photos etc, I can use an external disk but wonder if a second HDD is possible?

Lastly, with the move to I7 how are the reported heat issues with this laptop is it going to be worse?

Any further advice appreicated

 

Delete, the deal is dead

 

Bought one.
Preliminary shipping 13/11/09

 

Based on some of the benchmarks I've seen, it looks like the 4670 should be good enough for today's games, but it definitely isn't future proof.

 

I've been in the windows Beta through MSDN since before it was public so I'm not worried about its stability with older machines as that was one of their big focuses. However on a NEWER system (i7 is a new chip and all) that hasn't had its feet on the ground for more then a few weeks (by the time win7 comes out) might have some driver development to go through before it is without bugs. Thats what I'm happy to avoid by doing the ugprade myself when its time. Sure i'll try it out right away, but it will be nice to have a vista key to fall back on just in case

 

Sorry I have a bad connection at times. Nvidia gpus never have failed on me. I have a xps m1530 with 8600 gt I was playing batman

 

I have a question about the 128GB SSD upgrade option for this laptop. Anybody knows what the make/model is? I ordered it but was wondering if there is a chance it'd support TRIM with win7 .. or slow down like other SSDs with Samsung controller.

 

there should be no slowdown if its a newer SSD and you have the proper firmware running on it which dell has hopefuly already loaded for you.

 

I wanted to say "slow down over a period" as I'd be using huge temp areas with Lightroom. Without TRIM, SSDs would slow down as more and more files get created and erased (but not freeing the pages). Unless of course it supports TRIM or there is a tool (for windows or built inside firmware) that frees up erased blocks when the machine is idle.

 

Thats correct, i might ahve misread your first post. I thought though that OCZ and intel at least had figured this out on non-TRIM systems.

 

Placed my order today, and I was told on Monday that they were shipping this baby with Win7 already. Will confirm later.

 

Yes, if it was a OCZ Vertex or Intel X35-M G2, I'd have been thrilled but neither comes in 128GB size. So I am thinking it'd probably be one of those with the not-as-good Samsung controller. Can anyone confirm?

 

Any SSD is a "good option", I would say. Some people have replaced the optical drive with a second hard drive, if that would interest you? But there are no open slots for a second hard drive, unfortunately.

TDP for the i7-720QM is 45W, which is 10W more than the T9600, but how many people will be stressing out all four cores? Few, I imagine. So, hopefully it should remain in check.

4670: I've heard stuff from it's crap to "I can play high details, 1080P fine!" Fine is subjective....these people might be OK with 20FPS, I don't know. It's all up in the air with it, but it grabs about 6.5K in 3DMark '06 with a T9600.

~Ibrahim~

 

I got the system today!! I am typing from i7 BABY!

 

REALLY???
Tell us!! How does it feel!!
Review review review!!

 

LIIIEEESSS!

HOLY CRAP. Now, you shouldn't have told us: now we HAVE to know everything. Did you get Win7? Does RMClock work? Does it get hot? What is your 3DMark '06 score? Vantage? SuperPI 1M run? Does Turbo Boost work right? Does CPU-Z recognize it?

Ahhhhhh!

~Ibrahim~

 

How does HT and TB work?
Timing on boot up?
Specs!
Everything!

 

And I'd like to know the temps. How hot do different parts feel while gaming / running Orthos.

BTW, Congratulations on being 1 of the first few to actually own it !

 

How much is battery life and noise??

 

How did you manage to do that? I ordered the second they became available on Dell's website and I still have to wait until the 26th

 

TerryO'QuinnMedicine is actually an anagram for Michael Dell.

~Ibrahim~

 

how do you know?

 

Sorry, that was a bad joke: poor execution. It's not an anagram for Michael Dell; I have no idea how he got his system so early, daresay suspicious?

~Ibrahim~

 

Grat's!

Are you going to be providing us some pics & feedback on how it's running, working out for you, etc?

Please!


Cin...

 

since nobody else asked: when did you order it, and when was your estimated delivery?

 

Boo! Hiss!

Nah I'm glad for you. I ordered mine October 5th, with an estimated ship date of November 2nd. The sales rep I ordered from has been really great. I don't know if this is typical, but she's called me at least twice since I ordered to give me status updates and such. In fact today she called and told me that she was sorry for the delay in shipping my laptop (which I found confusing since it's always had an ESD of Nov. 2) and that the reason for the delay was that they were waiting for the i7 processor to come in.

Should edit that to say "that the reason for the delay was that they were and still are waiting for the i7 processor to come in."

 

The thing i do like about the 1640 or 1645 is that it is a light machine for being an all purpose notebook. Now just so powerful with ati graphics and the core i7, i can't wait to read reviews. I want to know what will people be using the 1645 for?

 

1080P, eh?

Mine is for school.

 

I ordered my i7 laptop two days ago and am thinking of doing this upgrade later on when SSD's are a bit cheaper and some of the issues are ironed out. Is it an easy upgrade, or do you need a special caddy to mount in the optical drives place?

Also when windows 7 is released, is there any way to obtain the media for a new install, and will the product key work with it?

 

garrettwp, you ordered the Studio XPS i7 processor on the EPP (sounds like a great deal)? I don't see any options for the Studio XPS in conjunction with the EPP (any help would be appreciated). Or maybe I can call Dell Sales.

Thanks

 

I believe you can do a clean install with the upgrade disc Dell will send out, right?

 

Well, if you are doing a direct replacement, you would just put the SSD where the current hard drive is now: no caddy needed.

If you want to KEEP the old hard drive and this new one, then yes: a special caddy will be required.

You can use the upgrade media to do a clean install; yeah, the product key will work because you'll be doing a round-about upgrade, which will actually be a clean install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

~Ibrahim~

 

Thanks a lot for the help lkjadoon. I thought the update would only allow you to install over the top of vista, but it's good to know it allows a fresh install. Can't wait until it arrives, although I don't have an ETA yet as I only ordered on Thursday (invoice said 10 business days but I think it will be longer). What I'm planning is to install an SSD in the near future in the DVD drive bay, however my search for a caddy is proving difficult. I also found this which looks like it will put the 500gb drive in my recently dead laptop to good use.

 

Right...well, it isn't absolutely certain as I've found out. Very likely you will be able to, but no one will know for sure until October 22nd. But, there is a very high chance it will work.

Caddy for SXPS 16

This one should work. They have a guide on that same site, too.

Great find on that cable, BTW: it'll be perfect!

~Ibrahim~

 

Thanks for the link. It's good that it sounds possible. What threw me off was that the drive was slot load, but now I think about it, it will just be a standard drive mounted behind the frame. I hope that SSD's nosedive in price soon, as the current $/GB rate is to high for me. In 3 years time we might be running 1tb SSD's in 1.8" format (that will be awesome). A friend of mine had work experience at the ANU (Australian National University) physics faculty and told me that he saw the terabyte disk, a dvd sized disc that would hold 1tb+. Sorry, thinking about upgrades gets my mind going on many wierd tangents.

 

I ordered mine from the federal government employee page. I just went to the xps 16 section clicked on the option that offers the i7 chip and configured it from there. I ordered my XPS 16 on Sept. 25th. The day after they were announced. I was going to order it the day of the announcement, but the EPP page did not have it yet.

As for the poster who said they received their XPS 16 with an i7 chip, I call BS. When did you order your laptop? I have like many others a delivery date of Oct. 26th.

- Garrett

 

The OS options have now changed from vista to W7.

Just another question. For people who bought the SXPS 1645 did your laptop come with a 6 or 9 cell battery as main?

 

9 cell standard, why?

 

I wonder, would they give me a free windows key instead of the whole CD-Instalation? I could install Windows 7 some other how, I just need the key.

 

Hey everyone. So now that I have the system, I have been trying to test it out using some real world use-cases instead of just benchmarking, etc.

While running Windows 7 I tested out the CPU by doing various things all at one time for several hours. Here is what I am trying, let me know what you think.

I am doing some heavy lifting in Photoshop, Lightroom, and also playing Street Fighter, have Zune software open and downloading about 25 podcasts, Itunes running while burning a cd AND downloading podcast and getting album artwork on 120GBs of music and the CPU is using less than 25% on ProcessExplorer!

To kick things up a little bit more, I have Safari, Chrome, and Opera all browsing at the same time. Within Firefox I have about 12 tabs open. Now I am downloading and playing the Avatar trailer in HD (1080p) on a loop and the cpu is at 48%!

I would put more load on the CPU but I don't have any other programs lol.
It is undoubtedly impressive, but I don't think I am the type of user that can take advantage of its capabilities regularly.

 

Cool! What happened to your 1640 with the T9550? When did you order?

 

As someone who is not an expert on laptops and a Dell newbie, I am experiencing something that may be a standard issue or maybe not?

The colors on the screen are brilliant and display really well, but I think there is a tint issue with Red and Green.

Those two colors just seem off to me. I am taking the laptop to a friends house to compare it to his iMac screen. We'll compare some websites, and pictures on flickr and see if the rgbled lcd is skewed, or maybe it is the color profile?

Regardless, I will learn to live with it no matter what, but I do feel some buyers remorse for not waiting for more detailed reviews to come out before diving in on the purchase.

What has your experience been?

SYSTEM COLOR
Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish with Leather

PROCESSOR
Intel ® Core ™ i7 820QM 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)

WARRANTY
2 yr In-home Service after remote diagnosis + Complete Care

HD DISPLAY
Full HD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP

MEMORY
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz

HARD DRIVE
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE
Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)

SOUND OPTIONS
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB

BLUETOOTH DW 370 (USB module)

 

What's your Windows Experience Index? And when did you ordered?

 

Hey Lando3000, the order was placed on 9/27 and the delivery date changed repeatedly from Nov 3rd to Oct 30th and so on. I called in immediately after and the rep mentioned that those estimations are made from the production side, and from his experience, Dell always delivered much earlier.

 

It sounds awesome, TerryO'QuinnMedicine. You know what other program you can run? Take some pictures of your specs and upload it for us to prove you have the system. A lot of us are hopeful but being the first means you get criticized until there is proof.

Also, what are you temps?

Anyways, you could try running some benchmark programs while doing all of that other stuff...that should tax things a bit more. Or open some web games from yahoo or Pogo. Have fun.

 

Those fields are left blank for some reason and I have no idea why. When you place your order, ask to see if your order & production can be expedited... I was transferred around to a few departments before someone higher up entered into the notes for immediate delivery (or something to that effect).

I just read some articles that were sent to me about the core i7, check them out before you order to see if you need it:

http://techgage.com/article/intel_core_i7_performance_preview
http://www.techspot.com/review/124-intel-core-i7-920-940-965

and finally

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Intel-Core-i7-Processors-Nehalem-and-X58-Have-Arrived/

 

My brother retired his Inspiron e1405 to our little cousin and now owns the 1640. Honestly, the 1640 with 2.66 is ALOT of laptop. It performed really well, including boot up, shutdown program execution times consistently. We installed Windows 7 and maybe that it why it ran so fluid?