**The Official Studio XPS 1645 Intel Core i7 "Owners Lounge" - Part 2

thanks for your response seeker_moc... I'll try your tip on getting the new video card... in case I don't get it... what do u think should be better? Full HD WLED or Full HD RGB LED? I'm also considering giving a shot to the i7-820QM

<edit>forgot to tell... I always use my laptops without battery.... this won't affect performance... will it? with all this throthling issues

 

Where are you buying from? I know that the RGB LED isn't even an option for most of us anymore. That said, RGBLED + 4670 + quad core i7 = perfect storm for throttling. I'd avoid that combination if possible.

The i7-820 is awesome if you can afford it.

 

I'm buying it from Spain... they still have the RGB LED but they also still have the Radeon 565v...maybe WLED + 820 + 565v (4670) is better

 

what about ThrottleStop? maybe it will help

 

ThrottleStop will help identify throttling, but it's limited in its ability to stop throttling. It can lock the multiplier at whatever you set it at, but if the CPU gets too hot, it will just start modulating to throttle, so not really much of a difference.

 

"RGBLED + 4670 + quad core i7 = perfect storm for throttling"

thats me, but with my 1710 130 watt adapter and an external display no throttling at all... but my display is at work now so i will be using the rlaptop screen so we will see if there is any issue now. formatting now, going to try to streamline the windows 7 install as much as possible.

 

$1,299 (Canadian) a reasonable price for the following specs?

Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish
NEW 2010 Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)
Edge-to-Edge HD+ Widescreen 15.6 inch WLED LCD (1600x900) W/2.0 MP
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5730 - 1GB
8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
High Definition Audio 2.0 with SRS Premium Sound
Battery Options 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Wireless Card Dell 1501 Wireless-N
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card

 

looks pretty good, I paid the same for and i7-720QM, HD 4670 and only 320 GB hard drive

 

I also ordered that but with the leather upgrade. Estimate arrival is 21/10/2010. Since I ordered it on the 1st u think I will arrive sooner? It's already in production. I am in Ontario canada

 

Hi Guys,


I'm new here, I found this site on Google. I just received my new Dell Studio XPS 16 as a replacement for standard Studio 15 with i7 proc. which was overheating...

I would like to ask about the screen resolution. My new XPS has FULL HD but when I browse internet (IE8), everything looks very small-fonts, icons etc...??? I found that very strange. It looks like full HD is good for watching movie but not the best for browsing internet and this is the primary use of my laptop. I tried to change zoom level to 150% (125% is default) but it looks odd....

Any suggestions? Thanks for your advice and please bear with me..English is my 5th language and this is my first laptop purchase in 10 years...

Bob

 

hi, on the production page it says i have a 15"6 945p HD+ WLED
I realize it's the lowest grade of display you can get for this laptop... as there were no options on the dell.ca customize page when i ordered it.

it's not going to look very bad is it? how does it compare to display of other brands... what's the difference between HD+ and Full HD??

 

@bob007
When you get a 1080p resolution display text will look very small, but you can try adjusting it from the windows menus. Try the medium setting (125% zoom), I use that and it looks much better. You can also zoom on web browsers using ctrl + scroll. Also try calibrating your screen, it might help, but don't forget that it will take a while for your eyes to get used to it!

Best of luck!

 

The zooming option is very handy, but it also defeats the purpose of having FHD at the same time.

 

This is going to sound a little unhelpful, but chances are you'll get used to it really fast. I'd just go ahead and test drive 100% zoom for three or four days. If you can't seem to get the size difference out of your head, then try this:

Click on the start bar and type in "DPI." Click on "Make text or other items larger or smaller." The window where you selected 150% scaling should pop up. Instead of choosing one of the custom sizes, click on the "Set custom text size (DPI)" option in the sidebar. A small window should pop up, and you can type in however much you want to scale-- 134% or whatever, so find something that suits you.

The problem with 1080p on a 15.6 inch display is that you get ridiculously high DPI. While this is technically a good thing-- more pixels per inch makes everything sharper and more detailed-- text tends to have a set size and so cramming more DPI on a display, regardless of size, makes text smaller and smaller. To counteract this, Windows has DPI scaling. You can set Windows to scale the DPI used for text and icons so that they're as big (size-wise in inches, not pixels) as on displays with less DPI.

That's all fine and good, and it works fine and dandy within Windows. The problems start to show up when you go online and only the text on websites is scaled up-- everything else stays the same size. Windows DPI scaling does not scale text box size in Facebook, so you end up with huge text inside tiny text boxes and it all looks horrible.

This is why I recommend you get used to 100% scaling. It works better, and you can see more of a web page, and text boxes aren't as annoying. I personally use 105% scaling myself-- my eyes are HORRIBLE and that 5% takes the edge off of the tiny eye-stabbing knives that pass for text on high-DPI displays these days, while preserving most of the internet's intended formatting. Remember to run the ClearType wizard after setting your DPI-- it makes everything look better.

Hope this helps//

 

Yeah, a 15.6" 1080p display has 141 DPI, so just set the Windows DPI to 141 (works out to 147%), and then adjust from there to suit your taste.

Going along with what everybody's said, DPI scaling works great 90% of the time in Windows 7 (not so much in Vista or XP), but some things, particularly older programs or web apps, just won't look right. I have mine set to 122% (optimal for 900p), and I don't have any serious issues with it, though 122% is much less than 147%.

 

Thank you all for trying to help me out!

Just out of curiosity, is there any difference between changing "text size DPI" and Zoom level option at the right bottom corner of the screen?

I'm trying to get used to new resolution but it is hard as I'm used to my wife's Studio 17 screen.

I got this XPS as a free upgrade replacement of Studio 15 that was overheating so I better find a way to get used to.

Thanks again,

Bob

 

DPI only adjusts the size of the text, zoom changes the entire screen.

 

Great-Thank you!

I did 135% on text and Zoom as well (125% was default), will see how that goes.

I'm still exploring my new XPS, it is a big change from my 10 year old Sony VAIO

How you guys like your XPS?

Thanks again for help!

 

I love my XPS! I use it mostly for school work with occasional gaming and I love the performance!

 

hey, could you please tell me if the battery specs are normal or not. this is a new laptop and the battery already shows a wear level of 6% and charges to less than its full capacity!
and why does it show a 820QM when I have a 740QM ? ?
thanks in advance !

 

hey guys. The i7 720 XPS 1645 is currently on offer on the Dell UK site but for some reason they only offer a 640GB 5200RPM HDD with it, do you think it'll make a big difference from 7200RPM?

 

If it says 820, then you have an 820. No, a wear level of 6% out of the box is not normal.

 

I feel that I need to ask, because it's a little worrisome to me:

Whenever I run CPUID's HWMonitor (installed or not) I cannot see my GPU sensor at all.

Whereas when i run GPU-Z, i can see everything (as i should).

Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong?

 

i have a dell xps studio 1645 with i7 and it freezes up all the time and also on system startup and tells me system cannot start and it begins repairing startup. What is wrong? What should i do to fix this? Is this a major hardware problem?

 

i just realized FHD is still available in Dell canada. except it ONLY shows up if you choose the ultimate option and +$100. to summarize, the ultimate option forces you to at least have i7 740, 6gb or ram, blue ray

the dumb part is if you choose this option, you can't choose to have the leather trim $50 and NOT pay an extra $100 on the FHD display. You can however, pay for the FHD display with no leather trim...

Dell Brain fart? I choosed the BEST option... 3rd out of 4... dell still didn't give me the option for a FHD screen, however, i can have the normal screen with and without leather trim....

FAIL.

 

if you call Dell Sales, you can customize your laptop to your heart's content. basically if it's an available option online (regardless of which "model" Dell has) you can get it over the phone.

 

If I phone them to customize a laptop will they give me the discount that is available to me online? I can get 17% off of online models..

 

It's always been like that. You could never get the leather with the 900p screen.

 

^i got the 945i with leather for $50 more

however I couldn't get the full HD because I didn't get the 6 gb ram and blue ray.

 

What's a 945i??

 

opps my bad: i meant to say 945p

9-cell Battery $0.00
1 313-8545 HD AUDIO 2.0 with SRS $0.00
1 313-8874 8X DVD+/-RW SLOT DRV, XPS1640 $0.00
1 317-2364 4GB,DDR3,1333MHZ,2 DIMM $0.00
1 317-4828 Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73-2.93Ghz, 6M/ $0.00
1 320-1307 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 - 1GB $0.00
1 320-8334 15.6 945p HD+ WLED LCD, W/2.0 MP $0.00
1 320-8352 OBSIDIAN BLACK LTHR,INSP $0.00
1 330-6222 Windows 7 OS Label,CNB $0.00
1 330-7785 RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,MDSN,XPS 1645 $0.00
1 342-2122 500GB 7200 RPM, Studio XPS 16 CLF $0.00
1 410-1883 Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 MLANG CNB $0.00
1 410-2461 MCAFEE PEARL MUI,30DAY,W/O,CNB $0.00
1 420-6436 PC-RESTORE, DIM/INSP $0.00
1 420-6576 DELL WELCOME,SW,DIM/INSP $0.00
1 420-7938 DELL CONNECT 2.1,DIM/INSP/XPS $0.00
1 420-9100 DELL DOCK CONSUMER,INB/XNB $0.00
1 420-9352 DELL,SW,WILD TANGENT INC GAMES I/S $0.00
1 420-9691 DATASAFE LOCAL BACKUP $0.00
1 421-0092 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG $0.00
1 421-0187 DELL SPRT-CTR SW,64BIT,2.0 $0.00
1 421-0188 FACIAL RECOGNITION $0.00
1 421-0323 WINDOWS LIVE SEARCH,MUI,CSMR NB/DT $0.00
1 421-0757 SKYPE VOIP SOFTWARE APPLICATION,CNB $0.00
1 421-1010 Dell Webcam Central v1.4 $0.00
1 421-1361 Roxio EZCD Creator 10.3 DE, Factory Inst $0.00
1 421-1737 WIN 7 HOME PREM, 64, ENG,S/XNB $0.00
1 421-2086 EBAY-WEBSLICE, CNB $0.00
1 430-0763 Dell Wireless 1501 for Canada and Latin $0.00
1 430-3605 INTEGRATED NIC $0.00
1 410-0487 MICROSOFT OFFICE STARTER 2010,CNB $0.00
1 920-5070 XPS WARRANTY SPRT, INSPIRON, INIT YR,CA $0.00
1 923-9437 HW WRTY,Studio XPS 1645,SOL,INIT,CA $0.00
1 934-8940 RTD,STUDIOXPS 1645,SOL,INIT,CA $0.00
1 009-6800 SHIPPING FEE $0.00
1 950-9057 NO WARRANTY,YRS 2/3(1-1-1RTD) $0.00
1 600-0043 ON $2.75 ADS, NOTEBOOK PCS $0.00

as you can see~

i got the leather + 945p display.

btw, its' been only 4 days and now the status changed to Delivery preparation.

 

i certainly hope since the display is not the same as yours it's still made by LG... I would be disapointed if it's anything less than superb.

 

Interesting... The 1680x945p monitor is something entirely new. It's not even available in the US yet, and nobody has talked about it on the forum yet. It might be the new display they began producing for the (rumored) new XPS15.

When you get it in, would you mind going to control panel, device manager, monitor, generic PnP monitor, properties, details tab, hardware id on the pull down menu. Let us know what it says, I'm curious to the manufacturer/model number for this new display.

 

^of course. i would be glad to. I'll get it no later than 10/21/2010. but since it's already in the delivery preparation stage I might get it sooner?

well, on the bright side, if they are producing it for a new model, it SHOULD be good unless they give up trying right lol...

 

Generally, LCD quality has been going downhill, the expense of lower prices... However, you may be pleasantly surprised. If it's LG it's probably going to be great. AUO or Samsung.... have to measure it to be sure.

 

i'm just going to go on dell.ca and have them check for me actually.

 

oh of course the support wouldn't tell me and says she's not qualified in knowing that information...
oh well i guess i have to wait.

they say i have to talk to a technicial support... and of course i couldn't get to one without my service tag

 

ummm o wow... the status just changed to SHIPPED. I find it crazy fast... to give you an idea I ordered it on friday night. it started to be "in production" on monday night. it changed to "delivery preparation" on friday morning, and "shipped" on friday afternoon.

the estimate delivery date is 10/21/2010. today is.... 10/8/2010

I am not complaining.

a question... is it smart to invest in a bluetooh mouse/headphone?
I do have a tiny 4 slot hub so the lack of port isn't a problem.

 

I bought the Dell bluetooth travel mouse. I like it, it's small, but not micro-small like some others. And with the bluetooth you don't have to worry about cords, or wireless adapters. Just turn it on, synch it the first time, then you're good to go.

 

I have a doubt...Does my lap get affected if I charge even after its fully charged?

 

Laptops made in the past many years automatically disable battery charging when the battery is fully charged. You have nothing to worry about. The best way to keep your battery going strong is to use the laptop any way you wish as long as you follow these two rules:

1. Don't use the laptop in any place that can smother the battery and cause it more heat than a flat surface such as a desk. Never use the laptop directly on a bed or pillow. (web browsing directly on your lap is ok)

2. Drain the battery by at least 50% at once every month or so. More is fine. Draining the laptop by 10% five times and charging it 5 times doesn't count.

 

^thanks

when you are using the laptop while it's plug in. it keeps using electricity right? does it draw power from the battery or directly from the adapter?

also, would it drain the battery heavily if i were to say charge an ipod from usb, use the usb for a laptop cooler. how much would you say doing those would affects the actual battery life. what about blue tooth?

 

That has to be some kind of typo. There are only two types of screens available. It's either 900 or 1080.

 

this is dell.ca

try for yourself and customize it. in fact 900p isn't even available. only the945p is "included". I doubt they would have typo on both my order reciept (one was cancelled)and on the website...

 

@seeker moc : everywhere else like in cpuz it is 740QM, don't know whats wrong with HWMonitor.
worse, the wear level is now 9%, looks llike I've got a malfunctioning part, gonna give them a call.
thanks a lot !

 

No, nothing will happen other than it will run off AC power instead of DC battery.
Modern batteries stop charging once they're fully charged.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought at first too, but at dell.ca it very specifically says 1680x945...

 

I stand corrected then. It is really strange... I don't know how it could produce an incorrect reading like that.

 

Dell USA has the 1680x945 display listed in the specification page, though you can't customize a system with it.

 

1680x945 isn't that weird, it's just new and different. 1680x1050 has been one of the most popular 16:10 ratios in the past, and since Dell (and others) are into 16:9 these days, keeping the 1680 will mean the vertical must be 945.