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

Yeah, though I think the culprit here is windows 7. Maybe you are paying for the OS when you could get a free update disk. I wonder if you can still go choose windows vista.

 

When you have to pay shipping is not that free after all.

 

Yup, this fluctuation is really irritating. I finally canceled my order ( #188) as the geniuses there couldn't find a way to charge $42 for arctic white color to my DPA with $1100 available balance. I'll reorder whenever the price makes sense again.

Personally I don't like the HP pricing much except for the EPP as a direct employee. But Envy 15 doesn't have the RGB LED option, so it's not really an option for me.

BTW, guys who received the new 1645, please show us the pictures. I am dying to know the temps in normal use.

 

Yeah, apparently they don't change/modify orders, they only "cancel" and re-order and it's hard to get back the deal you had.

I was trying to change the OS to Win7 with no luck. I really don't care about having Win7 pre-installed, I only wanted the new sticker... I could clean-install the OS myself.

As for the HP Envy 15, Engadget has a HP Envy 13 review and the new trackpad doesn't seem to work very well... HP doesn't have good trackpads in their laptops, it has those "plastic" ones. Very useless

 

Yeah....there only way to change a *order* is to cancel, and have you *reorder*

I'm still waiting on *print screen* shots & pics from those that received their 1645's already, if they are still providing them, of course.

Cin...

 

Wouldn't they send a new sticker with the upgrade disc? Didn't notice one though with my launch party edition.

Computer Shopper reviewer didn't experience it. And I guess these reviewers will always have issues as they use it only for a limited time and it's a new design. Most people used to single-touch surfaces will need to spend sometime on these newer multi-touch surfaces. I got used to my old work laptop's cranky touchpad after about a month which I initially thought was unusable.

 

If worst comes to worst and you get no sticker, eBay is usually flooded with them after a while. Right now, though, of course, there are none.

BTW: has ANYONE gotten Dell Downloads to work? I'm planning on maybe installing Win7 in the next couple of weeks, but I definitely want Facial Recognition and Dell DataSafe Local?

~Ibrahim~

 

I placed 2 orders

HP dv6t

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M
15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
Webcam Only
Wireless-G Card
No TV Tuner w/remote control
HP Color Matching Keyboard
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
cost is $820 after tax

and



Studio XPS 16 Notebook
Intel ® Core ™ i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
Full HD Widescreen 15.6 inch WLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP
ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
Integrated 10/100 Network Card
8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
High Definition Audio 2.0 with SRS Premium Sound
5300 WLAN Wireless-N (3x3) Mini Card
McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
$1060 after tax

xpx is better built, has higher resolution (Not a big deal for me), bigger hard, better video card (but not significant difference i guess) but consumes more power, better warranty, and 9 cell battery.

Is the $240 difference justified, should i cancel dv6t or the xps?

Please provide me with your thoughts.

 

Well, if you are a CUDA user or need a remote, the HP could be of better value but the quality of SXPS easily justifies a $240 premium. Specs wise also, SXPS looks much better.

The question is, when did you order? SXPS price is way up right now.

 

I think the $240 is justified, yeah, for all the reasons you stated. Is the HP backlit, the keyboard?

It probably does consume a bit more power, but you get a bigger battery anyways.

 

how did you get this config for this price? even with the best deals here no one was close to your price after tax?

 

Can I ask... what sticker? Are you guys referring to this sticker?



I'm sure if your system ships with W7 it will have that nice new sticker. If it shipped with Vista it won't. I doubt the upgrade would have it as your system shipped with Vista.

 

Online through EPP, jumped to $1499 a couple of hours after i placed the order

 

Yeah, that's the new sticker. There are a couple of bids on eBay already...

 

hi, i have some questions and would be grateful if you could answer

1) Can i order XPS 1645 without processor and/or hard drive? I would then buy processor and hard drive my self.

2) What do think about idea: buy XPS with 500GB hard drive, remove it, change to Intel X-25 160GB SSD, and use 500GB as external for storage? Is X-25 the latest of Intel's SSDs (does it have all the TRIM and other features?), would it fit into the HDD slot? Is it better than SSD from Dell's site?

The reason I am asking this is that i can get Intel SSD for $300 (is it cheaper than normal?) and i would probably get processor cheaper too.

Thanks for your help

 

No, Dell will not sale without CPU or hard drive.

 

Can somebody tell me if it's possible to buy Core i7 SXPS 16 from dell.co.uk without VAT applied (for business)?

 

Any reason why dell.com offers config. for this laptop much better than dell.ca? Canada is always getting shafted, HP doesn't offer CFO to Canadians, dell does but with 2nd world config. options!

I am going to have to (as I did with HP last time I got a laptop) have a friend in the US buy it, free shipping and then ship it up to Canada! So no free shipping really!

Good news, C$ is near par with US$

Went to dell.co.uk and GGBLED is an option at 16" not in Canada - this is unreal, anyone have any input on this? You would think Canada is Ghana.

The main point of buying this laptop has to be the 16" LED.

Whatcha gonna do!

I never bought Dell before, in fact I disliked Dell from my days in IT and dealing with their corporate laptop deal and seeing them contract 3rd party support for us. I was looking Sony, about to get a duo-core Sony FW, then stumbled upon the XPS studio and was stunned how Dell stepped up their game from the days of clunky office laptops. They surely have the best config. by a country mile on other companies. Let me know what/if you would change this config. Would you guys 2nd the need to up the processor for 8MB cache? don't know much about that


Software & Services
SYSTEM COLOR Merlot Red High Gloss Finish with Leather edit
PROCESSOR Intel ® Core ™ i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE No Microsoft Office edit
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis - Important Information edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months edit
HD DISPLAY Full HD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP edit
MEMORY 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz edit
HARD DRIVE 256GB Solid State Drive edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD) Burner (Writes to DVD/CD/BD) edit
SOUND OPTIONS Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB edit
BLUETOOTH DW 370 (USB module) edit

 

Here's what I got from Dell Canada.

Ordered 1st Oct. 2009
Estimated Delivery: Nov. 2nd
Still In production...

224-7375 Studio XPS 16 Notebook 1
312-0950 84 WHR,9-CELL,LION,PRIM BATT,INSP 1
313-7054 8X DVD+/-RW SLOT DRV, XPS1640 1
313-8545 HD AUDIO 2.0 with SRS 1
317-2361 Intel CoreTM i7-720QM (1.6-2.8GHz 6M/8) 1
317-2364 4GB,DDR3,1333MHZ,2 DIMM 1
320-8340 15.6 945p HD+ WLED LCD, W/2.0 MP 1
320-8350 ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670 1GB 1
320-8354 Arctic White LTHR,INSP 1
341-8989 500GB HARD DRIVE,7200RPM,M1640 1
421-1205 WIN VISTA HOME PREM,64 1
430-2955 INTEL WIFI LINK 5300 802.11AGN 1
430-3605 INTEGRATED NIC 1

total (Before taxes): $1,419.00

Since the Order is still in production Is that possible to get the RGBLED within that price cause I saw many USA orders that comes with the RGBLED and the Blue-ray drive for aprox. that price...

 

Unfortunately Canada tends to be more expensive than US and hence you most likely will not be able to get either upgrade for the same price.

 

Well you can try talking with a Dell sales rep. Sometimes, they offer free upgrades to "sway" you to purchase(like free warranties and I heard about a guy who got a free RGB upgrade). Other than that, there isn't much to do but wait for a promotion of some sort.

 

Surely you would just claim the VAT back, Dell won't sell it to you without the VAT, we buy stuff from Dell the invoice has the price including VAT and you claim it back from the taxman.

 

I hope we get some of these bad boys soon, I'm looking forward to a review! Hope battery life has improved since on idle, the new i7s are supposed to be more efficient that even the C2Ds. Also, does anyone know if the DVD drive is removable, for in lieu of another HDD?

 

User "TerryO'QuinnMedicine" has been banned for a month for posting useless comments and harassment - I apologize for any interruption that might have caused. If he does anything else when he gets back, let me know via PM or by reporting one of his posts and I'll personally make sure the issue is taken care of.

Carry on.

 

Yup, it is...I don't know which thread, but I posted the right caddy link somewhere: search for posts under my user.

~Ibrahim~

 

Thanks for moderating. I tried to ignore his posts, but it made me sad to see someone provide others with false information to others. Keep up the good work.

- Garrett

 

Oh, that's both good and bad to know. There was another user who claimed to have received it. What about him? Did he really get it?

 

As always, thanks so much Chaz!

Cin...

 

Thanks! Good thing you only have 100 posts to sort through I think this is the post you were referring to? For anyone looking for it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5411111&postcount=287

 

will those ODD HDD conversion/adapter bays actually work with the 1645 and it's slot-load drive bay?

 

Haha, much appreciated it. I started to look for it, but I stopped around page 32, post 311: so this would be why I couldn't find it.

There was someone mentioning that a particular caddy wouldn't fit (DVD drive is 5"; that caddy was 5.8"), but this caddy doesn't mention depth: I don't see why they would make it larger/smaller than the optical drive, though.

~Ibrahim~

EDIT: Yeah, they will because, in the end, it's still an optical drive.
EDIT2: After a look at the service manual, I don't think that that is actually a face-plate. I think that "slot" for the optical drive is legit part of the case: can't be removed. Not that you'd need it for a hard drive....

 

Has anyone actually tried the hard drive caddy in the ODD slot? I'm curious to see the fit into the XPS 16. Also, is the XPS 16 DVD drive a 12.7mm SATA drive? And is there an external eSATA caddy for the DVD drive?

 

Just ordered MINE got some discounts since I went with the Dell Preferred Account and $30 off and EPP. $1,684.10 before tax

Studio XPS 16 Notebook
Intel ® Core ™ i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
Full HD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP
ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Arctic White High Gloss Finish with Leather
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Integrated 10/100 Network Card
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9, Multiple Languages
Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB
Intel® 5300 WLAN Wireless-N (3x3) Mini Card
No Microsoft Office
McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis - Important Information
1Yr LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection
Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
DW 370 (USB module)
Dell Remote Access, free basic service

 

Nice deal matt!!!

BD large HDD, nice warranty and services for a great price. Congrats!

 

Well dell "accidentally" canceled my order... I'm waiting for my rep to call me back.

Anyone have any experience with talking Dell into free upgrades when they screw up? Thinking about pressing for the addition of an SSD to both the laptops I ordered...

 

WoOT!

You finally got your lappy ordered! Grat's! Grat's Grat's!
Nice specs! When is your lappys' ESD?

Cin...

 

Thanks, so HAPPY been waiting for 5 months now.

 

Thanks, you guys are so nice on here. EDD is 11-11 I believe. Not bad, waiting is NOT AN ISSUE LOL. I've waited all this time whats 3 more weeks?

 

Indeed. Good luck with your new toy (read: beast) there!!
THAT is a powerful laptop.

 

One thing I wanted to ask was about the speed of the memory? Can anyone tell a difference on the 1333 Mhz vs the 1066 Mhz I think it is or even 800 Mhz ?

 

Oh yeah.....You shouldn't have any problem on their *error*
Ask them what they are going to do *to compensate* for their error....AS, a result of *their error* has pushed your *order* ( your being the *loyal* customer:
* Pushed your order build & arrival date back even further
**** Meaning that the potential for a Part delay, aspect is now there.
* Delayed any intention that you had for usage with your laptop work wise, leisure (enjoyment) wise.
* Ask what are they going to do to keep you from ordering a nearly same build from HP that can ship sooner & much cheaper w/FREE Next Business Day shipping, and additional Savings

If they ask what you want.... Tell then honestly...the only way that you are going to be made happy is if they give you the SSD *you are speaking of above*, as you are already configuring one out with another Brand (HP), or what not.

Approaching with words like: What are you going to do to make me a happy Dell Customer again...are good actions words! Not words like: You owe me this, you screwed up my order.....

If the Rep balks at any of this, tell him you want to speak with a Resolutions Specialist. As, you due to his ineptness....you are very unhappy.

Be very firm..yet polite...thruout your conversation. BE sure to get a Case Number e-mailed to you (its your backup of what entailed in the phone call).

Good luck! It's worked for me before..when they messed up both of my orders!!

Cin...

 

I don't know of anyone who has tried, unfortunately: the fitting is still to be decided.

Yeah, it's 12.7mm: I've checked.

There is an external eSATA caddy for a hard drive on that site, though I haven't seen one for the DVD drive.

~Ibrahim~

 

Were Dell peeps, we expect no less of each other! lulz.

Well, the ESD is usually over projected, I always say ~ to protect Dell from any potential *production* delays, as such. Most times, it will ship ahead.

And, since the they are now already building (it looks like) w/Win 7....I think you might get yours shipped before your 11/11 date..Unless there is some huge BackOrder fiasco

Practicing the Art of Patience, is sometimes..the next best thing! When you get that lappy...you will have forgotten that long wait ~ trust me!


Cin...

 

Yeah, it's 1333MHz for the i7 SXPS. Or 1.333GHz, as I like to say, lol. The C2D SXPS had 1066MHz memory, or 1.066Ghz as I called it.

Doubtful. Most people can hardly tell between DDR2 and DDR3, even from DDR2-800MHz and DDR3-1600MHz: if you timed certain CPU-intensive things, yeah, there'd be a difference. But it isn't very appreciable.

There are so many things slower in a laptop than DDR3 memory: memory is actually one of the fastest sub-systems a computer has, IIRC.

~Ibrahim~

 

@Cin -If you ONLY knew what we've gone through with Dell trying to get our laptops ordered. In fact, let me give you a brief play-by-play:

Friday 10/9/09 We priced out our orders and made an order. Something happened with my DPA and the following series happened:
1) My order was cancelled.
2) My DPA was put on hold pending validation.
3) I spent 3 hours *that night* trying to figure out what was going on and nobody would tell me until I finally got a hold of some one telling me that this all occurred because my initial rep put in "Avenue" instead of "Street" on my DPA setup. The rep I'm on the phone with that finally spills those beans tells me that she can't help me recreate the order because she isn't EPP, and EPP is closed.

10/10/09, I call back in. I spend an hour on the phone with a dell rep only to find out that he isn't EPP (this is after I told him i was EPP, and he took my EPP member number) He transferred me and the new agent took the quotes from my customer name, and he's actually the one that helped me rebuild them into what became my order that i posted a few pages back. But guess what? He isn't EPP!!!! He at least bothers to tell me that EPP is closed on weekends. At this point having spent almost 7 hours on the phone I sent a complaint giving details and names about all the hassle i'd gone through to our EPP account rep. He passed me on to a great guy on Monday who got me squared away the next day (Tuesday, 10/13).

or so i thought, since now my account is canceled with the message "This order has been canceled because the associated lease financing was declined." I've used DPA before, but it had closed from inactivity. I have a near-800 credit score so it cant be something having to do with me, especially since everything was set and done right?

Anyways I catch this at about 3pm PST today. EPP closes at 7pm CST and my rep leaves at 5 CST so I'm like "Cool my rep might be gone but some one is there to help me." I call in and end up talking to some one in resolutions and he tells me "Oh i got your rep on our messaging service. He is going to call you as soon as he is off his current call."

Well, its 7:30pm in Texas or wherever they're located. They're closed and I never got called. As good as my rep was on the phone, I'm pretty sure i got straight up lied to by that "resolutions expert".

I went from a 11/1 Est delivery to a 11/27 because of their screw-ups, and NOW I'm sure it'll be clear into December.

So yeah I'm thinking they better give me something REAL good after all of this total BS.

 

This is so cheap, if i change this to USD > MYR rate, its around RM5220..when i do the same setup from Dell Malaysia (dell.com.my), this is the price..a whopping of RM6820 equals to $2200..thats another $600 ripoff!

 

Thats because Dell is charging you import fees. Even though they have a special site for your country, they are still nailing you for the "service"

 

That's horrible..absolutely horrible.....One Rep, does not know what the Rep to the Right is doing...Been there, done that...

You can, take this route...You should copy & paste ^^^the above...and send it to the following e-mail addy, and you will get a call back from someone at Upper Escalations: [email protected];

Ibrahim also has this information for contacts:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5351534&postcount=11

Cin...

 

Don't take this as me trolling for HP, but they have introduced a few i7 models also, and a fairly equivalent dv7t Quad like this:

HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition customizable Notebook PC
NZ584AV


Moonlight White
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 3GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M
17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
Webcam Only
Intel Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
No TV Tuner w/remote control
HP Color Matching Keyboard
8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
No Modem
Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

runs $1199 after discounts. Granted the display isn't 1080p, but I think everything else if fairly equivalent. So a $500 difference is a good chunk of change!

I'm just bringing up how inexpensive a decent i7 laptop really is!

 

well i believe dell here shouldnt add up that much, because in Malaysia we have our own Dell Factory which is located in Penang and a big Dell Call Center located in Cyberjaya (very near to my current working place). I can dare you that most of dell support especially on technical located in Malaysia

I was planning to upgrade actually,want to sell my current SXPS and upgrade to a new one, but when i compared the price, i'm so frustrated..lol..