SXPS 16 Radeon 4670, hot?? And is it heavy?

Hi all, I'm considering going from a Santa Rosa 2.4ghz Macbook Pro w/ a 8600gt to a Studio XPS 16 w/ a P8700 2.53ghz and Radeon HD4670 1gb.

Couple questions before I do so:
1) I've read some reviews that the SXPS 16 gets toasty, with the P8700 CPU and Radeon 4670, is this sucker going to get crazy hot? My 2008 Macbook Pro never gets unreasonably warm, and the fans, even when playing games in BootCamp, are not too loud. Just curious where the XPS 16 stands here.

2) How heavy /thick is this thing to lug around? I'm used to my 1" thick, 5.5lb Macbook Pro. I'm a in shape 24 year old getting ready for grad school, not sure how much I'll be lugging it around.

And finally, does this seem like a good idea to do? Get rid of MBP for SXPS 16?
Macbook:
2.4ghz C2D
3gb DDR2 RAM
640gb 5400rpm HD
8600gt 256mb

SXPS:
2.53ghz P8700
4gb DDR3 RAM
500gb 7200rpm HD
1gb Radeon HD4670

Getting ready to buy it, any input is appreciated before I do so, thanks!

 

1) the xps 1640 does not get toasty. At least not mine an di have a slightly more powerful processor than you. the fans get a bit louder when playing but dont forget that the graphic card has to be colled down and is more powerful than the one in the mbp. Whe nyou play the laptop

2) it is for sure heavier than the mbp and also thicker especially with the 9-cell battery, no comparaison there , but the the screen is bigger ( and way better imho)and it is loaded with components.

3) the two computers do not really compete in the same classa, this is a personal choice but if you plan to carry it around , keep the mbp even if some fellows will tell you they carry their xps around all the time.

if i had the choice, i would keep my xps but again personal choice and last thing i woul dnot buy it with a p8700 but with an i7 except if you go outlet.

 

I use to lug around a Inspiron 8600 and my SXPS 16 feels very svelt in comparison especially when I consider all that it does. It is a multi-media laptop so can't compete with ultra portables for mobility so keep that in mind. I just installed Windows 7 on it and it seems to run much cooler even before undervolting the CPU. Most "thin" laptops will run hot but after undervolting my SXPS 16 heat is absolutely not an issue.

 

I lugged around a 10lb asus for two years, so my xps16 in my backpack feels like i left my computer at home, its only 6lbs or so. Not that bad.

If you REALLY want a monster portable, look at the XPS1340, my wife has one with the new 512mb n10/210m nVidia card and it is very nice and very portable. L4D2 and WoW run fantastic on it.

 

To be honest, your MBP is fine, I would keep that, unless you really want the stronger graphics card in the SXPS, for everything else I doubt you'll notice a difference. Unless you're just itching for some new hardware.

The SXPS is manageable if you tend to carry it around, but again, it's not meant to be a lightweight laptop. I would keep your MBP to carry around, and get a desktop for gaming.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.
I think I'm going with Heiji's suggestion and keeping my MBP, its gonna be tough to get rid of...

Leaning towards building an Intel desktop w/ a Radeon HD4890 for ~$500 for gaming.

 

How much time do you guys get on the 9-cell battery with screen at like 50-60%, doing light stuff like web surfing, watching a movie from your hard disk, or MS Office work?

 

The i7 will run a little over 2h 15m with it like that. That's just with web surfing and MS Office. I think a movie, which constantly accesses the hard drive, and uses more CPU and even now GPU power, it might be a different story.

IDK, though. TBH, though, keep the MBP. You'll wonder what the point of spending all that money on a laptop when it's hardly faster, unless you game where it might have an edge. You should get the 5770, though, not the 4890. Identical except it has 128-bit, but you can overclock the memory mad (5.6GHz).

~Ibrahim~