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

Current owners, if you could change two things about your 1645, what would you choose to do?

I'm interested in hearing about some of the weaker aspects of the machine.

Thanks!

 

Hey guys, anyone with 4GB has gotten into a situation where you need more RAM? Under normal circunstances i mean. I'm a heavy multitasker and I always got like 20 tabs of firefox, photoshop, word, Visual C# and some other stuff.

 

Really?! Wow....that is despicable. I'm not trying to rub it in, but I got mine well over a week ago and I ordered on 9/25. That's just messed up, man, messed up. Congrats on the Envy 15: it looks drop-dead amazing.

I know: I was JUST thinking that last night. Give it cheap to university students who can advertise by just carrying their laptop around!

@furmark person

Furmark stresses the CPU?! Since when? I'm pretty sure it's solely a GPU stress tool.

EDIT: Just tried Furmark. Either Furmark is worthless on this GPU or my GPU went up a whopping 4C. GPU-Z (in conjunction with Furmark) also showed my GPU running at 200MHz?! Either it's reporting wrong or Furmark didn't stress my GPU enough to make it jump into 3D-mode. The fan, though, definitely spun up to its high-level.

@Crysis dude with FPS problems

Disable Catalyst A.I. See if that works.

@dude who wants to know two things I would change

I would find a way to get 9-cell battery life WITHOUT making it prop up. Not a huge issue (I know it helps ventilation, thanks), but it's a minor annoyance.

I would also give it a better cooling system, but don't ask how, lol. It looks like its pretty good, but I wish it wouldn't get warm. It doesn't get hot, but warm, yes. It does help in these frozen dorms, but when summer rolls around....

@m1n05_4

I don't use that many programs concurrently, but it all depends on what you're doing. I mean, it's just like a desktop. Or whatever other computer you used before. Was that one OK with 4GB? It's not like this 4GB is any less or more than regular memory.

~Ibrahim~

 

Little confused here Ibrahim.

 

Refresh your page.

Wrong person. Or do you not get my comment still?

 

The Envy looks good, but doesn't it come WITHOUT an internal optical drive? Deal-breaker for me.

Jim

 

Hmm, well this machine I'm talking about only had 2GB but was running a 32bit version of WXP so... I'm wondering about changes with a 64bit W7.

What's the load of RAM at startup? With no apps except required.

EDIT: Deja vu... Hmm, I wonder If I sent a message similar to this somewhere else?

 

You can get an external optical drive, which isn't a big deal to me. For me, it's the fact that they still only allow 1x 2.5" drive or 2x 1.8" drives. The sXPS 1645 can take 2x 2.5" (one drive can even be 12.5mm) if you remove the ODD.

More RAM consumption is better. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. Vista and 7 are good at optimizing use of unused RAM. If you need that RAM, it will give it back up due to its low priority, so IMO RAM load is a useless figure when comparing btw OSes.

 

my order was delayed... damn you dell

 

I'm just saying, while on XP I reached 1.7GB and it never gave me any problems. So I thought that maybe if I get the load of WXP at startup and then substract it to my current load and then get the load of W7 at startup then I could see if it's the RAM I need. Just an estimation of course.

RAM consumption is a lot less on W7?

 

I replied in the other thread where this was asked...

Basically, it is actually something that works perfectly for me ( see my post for the details). And the quick ship build comes with an external drive. The case for that drive looks very nice and it also has 2 extra USB ports for some added functionality.

 

Yeah I have similar workloads and it's been fine. I've never had a machine start thrashing with 4 GB of RAM. If you start running virtual machines or something I can see the need for more RAM but otherwise, it's too expensive to buy Core i7 laptop RAM if you don't really need it. I wouldn't buy it just to give Windows more space for caching.

 

Only 2 weakspots "out of the box" that I have found:

1: Mousepad is being a PITA. It doesn't like "dragging" across large areas to copy to the clipboard (such as text), but I'm working on its settings to hopefully improve this.

2: The Matsh!ta Blu-Ray sucks the big one! It has RipLock! Honestly, this is flat-out false advertisement on both Dell's part and Panasonic's, since Panasonic claims it'll read 8x on DVD-ROM (movies), when it's limited to 2.x or less. One of the reasons I got this drive was for backing up the hundreds of DVDs I have purchased over the years. Oh well!

 

Tried http://ala42.cdfreaks.com/MCSE/?

~Ibrahim~

P.S. And it doesn't support this drive anyways...never mind. In that case, just to confirm if it is RipLock, send an email to a Panasonic representative and see what they can net you. If they tell you it does, maybe you can "ask" for a firmware without it.

 

I'm really interested in a deal you've got.

Would be so kind to tell us some deal number, or something that would prove dell rep that such offer existed?

I'm going to make a phone call to dell to get a better deal...

Thank you in advance

 

Thanks Ibrahim! FYI, I emailed Panasonic yesterday, so I have my fingers crossed they'll have an answer for me.

FWIW, any particular reason why we should NOT upgrade to the A02 revision found below?

Dell Support - Panasonic UJ235A 12.7mm SATA 4X BD-R v1.11, A02E

I realize it's not specifically for the 1645, but it is for the 1640 and Alien M17x.

 

Got my laptop today. It's not as hot as 1640!!!

though out of the box 3dMark 06 score was kind of dissapointing

3DMark Score 5361 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 1938
SM 3.0 Score 2219
CPU Score 2614
Date Nov 21, 2009 21:39
Pro user No No Yes
OS Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows Vista
CPU Intel Core i7-720QM Processor Genuine Intel(R) CPU 000 @ 2.40GHz

VISTA 64 Home Premium

any idea how I can optimise my xps?

Going to call for win7 upgrade tomorrow.

 

@BfB

No problem. I'm sure it wouldn't be that big of a deal to make a version without it. I'll "request" it, too, see if it helps them any, LOL.

@Asgaroth

Huh....5.3K is actually kind of *low*. Huh..I'll run it in the coming days and see what I get.

~Ibrahim~

 

I got the same 3dmark score. I tried overclocking my GPU like in this thread, but it didn't work. Despite setting the clocks higher in RivaTuner, the actual clock speeds didn't budge.

edit: forget what I said about the OC thing

 

Right, the GPU part is fine. But 3DMark ogles over quads...maybe not as much as I thought it did.

~Ibrahim~

 

Hi everyone just like to say i love my dell xps laptop its Absolutely amazing!!!

below are the specs of the laptop, i've had for couple of days and dont agree on people who say it gets hot, the battery life i get 3 - 4 hours sometimes 5 - 6 if i opt for the power saver which is wicked!

1 thing i would LOVE is spell checker in explorer just like MAC's do in there safari app.

Specs below

Estimated Delivery Date: 14-November-2009


Item Description Quantity Total Price

N11X6501 1 £1,086.76
Studio XPS 16 : Intel Core i7 Processor 720QM(1.60GHz,6MB cache) 1
Display : 16in RGBLED Black Leather Edge to Edge Full HD1080p with TrueLife 1
Camera : Integrated Camera with Facial Recognition Software 1
Resource DVD : Studio XPS 1645 Diagnostics and Drivers 1
Ship Accessory : English Docs 1
Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel 1
Hard Drive : 500GB Free Fall Sensor (7200RPM) 1
Optical Drive : Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray,DVD and CD read & write) Slot Load Combo Drive 1
Power Supply : XPS 90W AC Adapter 1
Power Cord : UK 1M 1
Battery : Primary 9-cell 85W/HR LI-ION 1
Not Included Carry Case 1
Graphics : 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card 1
TV tuner : No Integrated TV tuner 1
Wireless : Europe Dell Bluetooth 370 Card 1
Wireless : Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11 b/g) Mini Card European 1
Keyboard : Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard 1
Operating System : English Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 BIT) 1
English Microsoft Works 9.0 (Word Processor, Database) with Recovery CD 1
Software : Datasafe Local 2.0 Basic 1
Software : Napster for Win 7 (60 Free Songs and 1 year Free Music Streaming) 1
Dell Dock 1.0 1
English McAfee Security Centre 10.0 - 15 Month Subscription 1
Advanced Service - 2 year Collect & Return Service within 6 days + 2 years Accidental Damage Support 1
Standard Service - 1 year of coverage included with your PC 1
2 years Accidental Damage Support 1
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1
DataSafe Online size - 2GB Trial 1
I have already selected the Services promotion. 1
Studio XPS 1645 Order - UK 1
Studio NB - System Only 1
Subtotal: £1,086.76
Freight: £0.00

Total Net: £1,086.76
VAT( 15%): £153.69
Total: £1,240.45

 

While I don't use IE myself you could try http://www.iespell.com/ for a spell checker.

I use Firefox instead of IE and there is a spellchecker addon for that that works very well.

Also if you don't mind me asking when did you order your laptop?

 

oh excellent i'm going to have a look into that i ordered my laptop on 27th of october, did take some time due to various issues but i did receive compensation, £50 refund, but i used that money to buy a sleeve and a laptop bag, so kinda of a bargin.

Do you think Microsoft will have spell checker as a ad on there IE?

 

Hey guys I got another question, but this is such a small detail and it's regarding all SXPS models I believe.

There isn't any pause key, is there any work around?

 

Thanks for the date, I ordered mine on the 5th Nov hence me wondering how long you'd had to wait.

I take it you realised the link I gave was for an IE plugin spell checker.

Also if you Google 'microsoft ie spell checker' there seems to be quite a few of them available.

 

Hey guys, I was wondering if you order this machine with a 9-cell battery as primary, do they also deliver the 6-cell along with it? Or is it an either/or option?

Seems a bit confusing as on the .be/.nl specs pages I see:

Energie
6-cel batterij
6-cel en 9-cel batterij

 

The XPS 1645 only has 9 cell option (in Canada and USA, at least).

 

[DUTCH MODE]Nee, je krijgt de 6-cell óf de 9-cell [/DUTCH MODE]

A question to the owners: Do you advise me to do a clean W7 install when I receive it? Is there alot of useless bloatware? I still have a license lying around.

 

It's combined with the play button. Press it when music is playing and it's pause. Of course, the software (if it's not Windows) has to support media controls.

~Ibrahim~

EDIT: Clean install on Win7? Heck yes. I went from 85 processes down to 64.

 

I think he meant an actual 'pause' key. It's usually on the same key as 'Break'.

 

Great, thanks I love clean installs, but sometimes it's not the best thing to do.

 

Yep, you are correct:

 

I think the software that comes preloaded might be different in US than the software in Western Europe so I wouldn't jump into a clean install right away. Ordered my XPS (from Belgium) a few days ago too so we can keep each other updated and see what's on From what I heard a clean install may not be realy necessary here. I'm hoping so in any case

 

There are many key-remapping utilities around. I think you could probably remap the printscreen key, or that context menu key.

 

What do you use the pause/break key for? lol, I've actually never used it on any computer...

 

Well I got an app that works with hotkeys and it stops and resumes actions more quickly than it would to open menus and then stop it and then open the menus again to resume it.

 

Ha....got it. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Right, well, it doesn't have a pause key, unfortunately.

~Ibrahim~

 

I know it's so annoying they got rid of this key and scroll lock, yet added a dedicated key to toggle an external monitor. Not to mention all the touch-sensitive media keys I keep hitting accidentally and turning off my wifi.

 

You can turn off the WiFi button in the BIOS, even control what things it turns on/off. I think the default is WLAN/Bluetooth.

~Ibrahim~

 

There's a Windows shortcut, winlogo+break that opens System Properties. I tried to do that first thing after getting the laptop and was confused for a second since I use it all the time.

Also there are debuggers that use the break key in order to, well, break. Like ctrl+break in windbg, that's what it was designed for.

 

I use it for this all the time. I think I'm going to remap a key to do that when I get my laptop.

 

I wonder, could you create a new combination for the break key with the FN key and some other key like P.

 

Speaking of keyboards... can somebody from Canada weight in to say whether theirs came with a US keyboard or the craptacular bilingual keyboard please?

Thanks

 

US keyboard. I hate French keyboards.

 

I hate French peop---I mean keyboards, too.



~Ibrahim~

 

I scored the following:

3DMark Score 7205 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 2529
SM 3.0 Score 3113
CPU Score 3285
Date Nov 22, 2009 23:04 CST
Pro user No
OS Windows 7
CPU Intel Core i7-820QM Processor
CPU Speed 1728 MHz
GPU Generic VGA
Memory 6144 MB

Ibrahim, I have the basic 3DMark06, and if you notice my scores above, it shows my GPU as "Generic VGA". Also, my system runs in Basic Color Mode when I start the program, FYI.

 

I think the reason for my low 3dMark score is because I had powerplay disabled, which locks the GPU clock at 400 or something ridiculous. I've re-enabled it, and the 3dMark score would probably reflect that. I haven't run it since, though.

I'll go ahead and add this here, I guess. Anyone notice that the brighter your screen is, the lower FPS you get in games? You could be in the middle of a game, lower the brightness, and see a visible noticeable improvement to FPS.

 

The 3dmark06 scores you guys are posting are way too low. With the i7 you guys should be getting close to 7500 out of the box. The CPU score looks ok, the shader scores are low.

 

If that is the case, then it seems like a power limitation of the system. The brick is just too weak. Get a bigger PSU.

 

Is that just a switch? Pretending that I found a 150W adapter to replace the existing one, do I have to worry about the extra capacity, or would it work just like a PSU, where a 1000W PSU doesn't mean you're drawing 1000W, just that you could.