Purchase Timing

Interested in 1647 as replacement for Inspiron 9300. Have really appreciated all the notes in this forum as to "issues" with the SXPS 16.

Think the machine will do for me as I don't game, just e-mail, fourms, Youtube type videos and tweaking the odd digital photo.

Buy now? Reports are "back to school" sales volume low (discounts should be good?). Or wait for technology refresh via Sandy Bridge Roadmap?

And (after many user experiences by members of this forum) is the SSD a wise investment for someone who hangs onto these expensive plastic boxes (aka Desktop Replacement Laptops) long time?

 

As for performance, the SSD is the best thing you could add to your machine.
But as for a wise investment? I don't think so. The 7200rpm HDD's aren't exactly slow, and SSD will come down in price sooner rather than later. At the moment you'd pay far more per GB for a SSD than a HDD.

 

I was pondering waiting for Sandy Bridge too but one wise forum user said to me ... You will always be waiting for something.

After the Sandy Bridge CPU's come out; there will be something else on the horizon.

Throw yourself in now but take note of the issues experienced with the i7 quad cores.

I am waiting for the following config to be available in Australia
i7-620M (dual core), blu-ray, 640GB HDD, Intel Wifi 5300, 8GB DDR3 RAM

All for about $2000 (as this is what I can get the quad core for). And isn't that funny. The quad core is cheaper than the dual core option. Perhaps they know something we dont.

 

yuley, you should wait for the new 640m as it's real close and opt for a 7200rpm HDD and 4gb mem. You can buy your own 8gb for less than $200 USD on ebay.

 

They're both about the same price in the US. Except you get a 9-cell, 1080p screen, and the 6250 instead of the 6200 all for just 140 dollars more on the 1645 as opposed to the 1647.

Lol.

 

I can wait for the 640M and have been told to opt for the 500GB 7200RPM HDD before as well.

If I knew it was to be a WD Black, I would configure no problems. But I have no idea who Dell uses for their HDD's. The 7200RPM may be noisy and it may mean less battery life.

Strangely I cannot configure the 7200RPM drive on the Dell XPS 1647 either.

I was thinking much along the same lines as Anodize. Buy 4GB of DDR 3 RAM. Get the cheapest HDD configurable option I can. Then when I get it delivered; add a few tweaks. Another 4GB of DDR3 RAM. And a new WD Black 500GB 7200 RPM HDD.

Re-install the operating system (will need to ask for the disks as they will not be delivered) and away we go.

Seems like a bit of work though.

 

I thought I would add this.

I just had Dell come back to me and say they would price match the configurations. The only difference being the fact that I would need to select the Dell Wifi N minicard as opposed to the Intel Wifi 5300 I could have selected on the 1645.

When I told them I also had a 10% e-coupon which gave me a further 10% off the 1645, she said she could not give me that as well.

Cheeky b*ggers.

... They may have said the same about me.

 

yuley, Dell uses the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 /w free fall sensor, which is one of the best 3 in my book(Hitachi 7k500 > Toshiba 5061> Seagate 7200.4). You definitely want 7200rpm if you are planning on using it as boot drive.

 

Nice that it comes with a free fall sensor. And I am checking out the specs on this one now.

Do Dell also use Seagate for their 640GB option?

Just finished with specs ... Looks nice

Quicker than WD. Slightly noisier than the Seagate 5400RPM equivalent (but use bels as its unit of measurement as opposed to decibels. I am assuming a 10 multiplier to put it in perspective with WD).

 

I've gotten 2x 1645s (original and replacement) with 500gb 7200 drives. My first came with a Toshiba 5056, and the 2nd a Seagate 7200.4. FYI, the Toshiba is dead silent.

 

Wouldn't you actually have to replace the 4GB RAM that it came with, to insert new 8GB RAM that you desire? I thought the SXPS 16 had two RAM slots, and that both would be occupied by two 2GB sticks when you order 4GB config from Dell.

 

call me ignorant, but is this Free Fall sensor in-built to the HDD itself, or is it an external module built into the notebook's chassis?

my current notebook also has a free fall sensor, though it is built into the notebook's chassis, not the hard disk.

just wondering...

thanks!

 

Well yeah... But it's still massively cheaper than the price you'd pay to get it from Dell.
I plan on just upgrading one stick at a time when I need to! No point in having unused RAM!

 

Agreed. His language was inaccurate though. He can't add 4GB RAM, but he can replace 4GB with new 8GB. Raises the question: can you order a SXPS 16 with less than 4GB, say 2GB? That would lower the price and reduce the waste, if I'm going to then buy my own RAM anyway.

Since you're going through this, do you have the exact specs of the RAM required, so I can check prices at Crucial, etc?

Thanks.

 

I think both. Seagate charges premium for their ffs drives.

 

Seagate momentus does come with a fall sensor. Called g-sensor or something in the specs.

In Australia, the XPS 16, comes with a minimum of 6GB. So if I ended up upgrading the DDR3 RAM, I would need to replace the 2GB in any case.

 

OP, sorry for the off-topic discussion here

i hope the chassis has a free fall sensor as well. my 1645 has the 128 SSD, but that capacity, unfortunately is too small (it was an "upgrade" from Dell for stuff they screwed up on their end). for me capacity is more important that read/write speed. luckily i have a 320GB Seagate HDD that i use as a spare external drive around the office. i plan on just swapping them: 320 HDD into the 1645, 128 SSD into the external drive.

 

Dave, I think you should get a 2nd HDD caddy and install the 320gb for storage use and keep the SSD as boot drive. You can get an external optical drive for fairly cheap these days if you ever need to load a disc.

 

i considered it, but i'm quite certain doing so would void my warranty. not exactly something i want to do with a brand new computer!

also, i have to burn a lot of DVD-RWs (maybe 5-6 times a week) to pass files/projects to co-workers (personally i prefer a USB flash drive or just SD card, but don't ask my WHY somebody set up the whole DVD-RW system...). an external drive would be a little cumbersome for that purpose.

though for most people a SSD + HDD + external DVD would be a pretty darn good setup.

also, 15 minutes until i'm off work today. then i go home to my yet to be unboxed 1645 (partner called, she said it arrived and she signed for it before going on shift)! a little excited, and a lot happy. this is a huge upgrade for me.

 

Adding a 2nd HDD caddy does not void your warranty and it's not hard to do. Takes 3-5min and there you go. You can get an external esata enclosure for your burner and you'd burn your dvds just as fast.