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

^yeah except my main concern is... does the new display matches the XPS 16's reputation of having great screens.

Also of course i planned to use seeker_moc's Color Profile... wonder if it'll match up.

my laptop is now:
2010/10/08 scanned at 15:08
In Transit in U.S.

wonder how long for it to get to toronto Canada. anyone got experience?

 

Can anybody give me an idea of the speed/battery life of the following two 1645 options? Lappie will be used for photo editing/browsing mainly.

a) 4gb DDR3, i7 720, 250GB 5400rpm, RGBLED

b) 8gb DDR3, i7 820, 256GB SSD, RGBLED

Obviously the 2nd option is considerably more expensive, just trying to decide if its worth the cost difference. I haven't had a laptop in years, so not too sure what speeds etc are like these days!

Thanks in advance and sorry for the first post question.

Cheers

Dave

 

With Rgb you are looking on avg at 3 and under.

 

Thanks. The RGB screen is the main reason I'm getting this model. Was hoping the SSD might give it a bit of extra battery life but will just have to make do.

Do you think I'd notice a big speed jump for everyday tasks?

 

speed yes battery life no. It will give alot of speed. But yea RGB is a power sucker as it use's 3 leds to 1 white led it uses 3x more power. Without the rgb i got around 4:20 mintues. Now i usually get 3 - 3:30

 

How the hell do you guys get more than 3 hours? Iget 2 hours 30 minutes to about 2 hours 45 minutes. Just browsing the web in class half brightness. i can probably make it to 3 hours on dim lcd and wifi off though. but def not much more than 3 hours.

 

The RGB on the dimmest settings is still very bright. Thats how i get more then 3

 

how do you enable usb charging while laptop is in sleep mode or is switched off???
Thanks

 

The option for that is in the BIOS, though I'm pretty sure it's enabled by default.

 

Yes it is. Interestingly enough even if the laptop is shut down/powered down completely and unplugged from AC the USB charging still takes place.

...So with the 85 watt hour battery you could (in theory, not taking discharging into consideration) play music from a iPod for ~219 days straight without using AC power as long as you charge it once a day with your laptop or leave it plugged in (iPod can play 24 hours of music on its 0.39w battery).

 

My XPS 1645 throttle when I play L4D2 but the odd thing is, it don't throttle when I'm on SC2 with ultra setting. Any idea why is that so? The temperature never exceed 90C and I had ThrottleStop on.

 

I also have both games (just got L4D2) and yes, it runs about 7C hotter for me than SC2. "Better" graphics doesn't mean hotter, since the card will work just as hard to put out as many fps as possible. To test this, just run a game on low and don't turn on frame capping settings, and enjoy.

 

Thanks for the replies..

 

same here. all those damn zombies are killing the cpu.

 

I've got another question for you all. I did a clean install when I got my laptop 4 months back. Now I want to back up the install using the 15GB restore partition which Dell made. I'd need to erase the partition to start fresh but I'm wondering exactly how to do this. I'm just looking to back up system critical stuff and settings, I don't much care about programs and files as I have multiple backups. If anyone knows how I should do this, I'd love to know.
Thanks,
Spike

 

A12 BIOS IS OUT!!!! Any updates on throttling and other settings that they have changed??

 

please answer him ~

i wanna know this as well

 

I tried my L4D2 with low setting at 800x600 with everything disable and it still throttle. Can't seem to find any solution to it. Do you mind sharing any tweak that you have done toward your laptop (i.e. ATi Catalyst setting) for you to be able to enjoy the game? Some people experiencing gaming improvement by simply updating to the latest ATi driver software and I have the latest driver (10.8) but it doesn't help. And I'm not sure whether I installed the ATi driver properly or not as I just install it without the modder. I'm kinda confuse with this modder thingy.

 

My two "tweaks" are using A09 BIOS, and removal of the vent covers on the catcher (the plate on the bottom of your laptop with 10 screws).

I played L4D2 on all maximum settings except for I turned Anti-aliasing off and I only put Anisotropic Filtering on 2x. My screen resolution is 1920x1080. I get a solid framerate (usually 40-60). Temps are very high but no throttling at all during over an hour of playing (80C for the CPU, 94C for the GPU).

Using A09 changes the GPU throttle point from 84C to 100C, and since I only hit 94C, I have no throttling.

Removing the vent covers keeps my CPU and GPU 3-10C cooler while playing a game (average of 5C). If I didn't do this, my CPU would go above 84C and throttle. So basically doing both "tweaks" were necessary for me, since one fixed GPU throttling and the other fixed CPU throttling.

 

Thanks for the info. Will downgrade my A11 to A09 and see how it goes.

 

There seems to be improvement for my gaming experience after downgrading my BIOS back to A09. A quick question here, is it necessary for us to change the 3D settings at ATi Catalyst Control Setting to Optimal/High Performance from Balanced? Or should we just leave the settings as default?

 

The best is usually to have as many "let the application decide" type of choices selected. I think "Balanced" already does this, or you can change the setting for individual components.

The one other ATI setting to be sure is enabled is ATI Powerplay, on max performance while on AC power.

 

AGAIN!!! A12 BIOS is out!!!!! Any updates???

 

A11 and A12 are identical except for SLIC2.1, which has nothing to do with throttling, temps, or speed. So no, there's no real difference.

 

Sooo wait, question, I have the XPS 1645 I7 720qm with the ATI 5730, I'm running Bios A11 atm, should I downgrade to A09? I do have throttling issues, but throttlestop has capped that, but when she runs hot, I've seen the GPU throttle down.... A09 will solve this?

 

asrgggg the wait! its still in transit in us!!!

granted its been holiday since the laptop been shipped out to purolator by dell. is it thanks giving today for american as well?? i hope i get it by friday ths week.

 

Today is "Columbus Day" in the US. It's basically some BS holiday, wouldn't be surprised if it was a day off for large companies like shipping places.

 

don't worry. at least columbus found your country, maybe he does deserve a day. Our version of that is we have a day dedicated to the queen here north of the border... which is wayyy more stupid.

O well i am chinese, what do i care.

sigh i shoulda ordered the lappy maybe a week earlier. I have an assignment due that really coulda used a good laptop this week.

 

Actually, Columbus discovered Cuba and the Caribbean, not mainland America, that was discovered 500 years earlier by Leif Erikson (he landed in present-day Canada). So yeah, it's a totally BS holiday, though I still have the day off, so it ain't that bad lol.

 

My new system has been shipped and should be here on the 15th. I went from the system in my sig to this:
i7 720qm
4gb ddr3 1333mhz
565v graphics card (same as 4670, I know)
9 cell battery
500gb hdd
dvd drive (bit of a downgrade, but I never use it and got a CPU upgrade so I don't care)
RGB LED 1920x1080 Screen
Pretty pleased

 

If you had bluray before just take it out of the old one.

 

Do you reckon I'm allowed to do that? I got a 4 year warranty on it and don't want to void it. If I'm allowed to though, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

hey guys. mine will be here by latest 9pm! insanely pysched!

what did you guys do first when you recieve a new laptop??

 

Hope that it doesnt throttle?

 

got the laptop. the 945p screen is manufactured by LG as well i believe!

 

came with a nice black sleeve.

oh, where can i get the driver for bluetooth. since i did a clean install I have to re download all the drivers. the one on the CD didn't seem to work for some noobish reason

 

You need to run pc wiz now and post some info here. do it NAO!

 

Drivers and Downloads

Also, bump for display model number!

 

LGD0214
did the fan screen thing already

 

Awesome Any chance that you have a colorimeter and could post some measurements for us?

 

omg i am starting to wonder if i even got bluetooth in my machine. I could have sworn i added it on in the customization screen...

 

if you can give me instructions i'd be happy to

lol this is such failure on my part... i forgot to add bluetooth on my second order. i had it on my first one which was cancelled. OMG

 

When you removed the bottom cover did you see the bluetooth card? It's the card with only one antenna attached. Mine didn't come with the bluetooth card either (though the specs said it had), I just called customer service, and they sent me one out the next day.

Do you have a colorimeter (like a Display2 or Spyder3)?

 

check your device manager. it will definitely show up if your bluetooth radio is enabled.

 

no i have neither of those. i am a total noob.

i can download them i guess if you provide a step by step.

 

It's not something you can download, a colorimeter is a physical device, they cost about $200 for a basic one. If you don't have one, don't worry about it, it was just an idea.

 

Is there any way to dedicate one of the buttons, preferably the hibernate button (Fn+F1) to make it turn off the screen. I want this so then I don't have to wait all of the time for the clock to run out for it to turn the screen off. It would save me some much needed battery power.

 

If any 1645 owners with the 4670 are interested, I modified the A12 BIOS with the 4670 vBIOS from A09. That way you can get all the updates that the A12 BIOS brings, while still keeping the high temp threshold and throttle-free 4670 vBIOS from A09.

1645 A12 stock clocks with A09 vBIOS for 4670 users

 

Mhh nothing against u but i dont really trust a customized bios. has anyone tried it yet? maybe u could start another thread and people coudl comment on it.

 

I already did, and people already tried it. See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/521990-bios-modding-gpu-oc-fun-profit.html pages 1, 7, and 8

I just wanted to post it here, because it would reach more people, as not everybody is interested in Overclocking, which is what the other thread is about, although this particular BIOS isn't overclocked.