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

OK well some non-technical feedback from someone who's had it for a few days now

1) The standard WLED screen is great, more than meets my expectations for my needs (work via citrix / word and some gaming). However the resolution (1900x1080) is a TINY bit too small, for example when using outlook through citrix. I'll cope though

2) Gaming. I won't do "FPS" numbers, but played through a few hours of Dragon Age on 1900x1080 with everything turned to high apart from anti-aliasing which was off. No issues, ran like a dream. PES 2010, to get a decent framerate out of it, I changed the res to 1280x720 and ran it in highest details. Again, great performance. This is all with the latest mobility modded ATI desktop drivers

3) Heat. I generally game on my lap in front of the sofa, and whilst the palmrest gets "warm", the underside of the lappy gets quite hot, you can probably manage to keep it there, but you're probably harming your fertility
I had mine with a copy of edge underneath it, and i still felt it was quite hot. Am tempted to invest in a logitech lapdesk or belkin cushtop.

4) Multitasking - as expected, multitasking works great, had stuff downloading on Steam, playing dragon age, and alt-tabbing to internet windows (for walkthrough help!) with no problems or slowdown

5) OS support : clean install of windows 7 worked great, just downloaded a few drivers straight from Dell, and the dell dock. Fedora 12 also installed ona separate partition and runs fine. Did not have any luck with OSX86 but thats all i'm saying as its against the regs.

 

I've seen the same connection of FPS to display brightness. If I shut off the laptop display and use an external display I get significantly better performance. I don't think its heat related. If it's actually a power limitation, wouldn't the system crash hard, not simply slow down?

 

I'm wondering similarly. I have a 130W Dell M1710 XPS PSU that should do the job, it also has a 2m lead which is a "must have" for me.

I just unplugged the adaptor from my Latitudes docking station to see if it was the same size as the 1710s (my 16 hasnt arrived yet) and got a message up that said "Please connect a Dell 90W AC adapter or higher to the dock for best system operation" which sounds positive.

 

It's probably built to deal with less power than it wants by throttling. Else, how would the power management states work?

 

Hmm...I'm D/L'ing 3DMark '06 right now. I'll test it out with the different brightnesses.

~Ibrahim~

 

Whenever I get mine in I can test this system on several different power adaptors, we have 65/90/130W laptop adaptors, and most dell adaptors are interchangeable.

If anyone has a Kill-A-Watt Electric Usage meter or other device that can show AC Wattage draw being used by the laptop during heavy use, this would rule out if it’s an issue or not.

 

If the FPS problem was just power related wouldn't it use everything from the power adapter and then use a bit more from the battery?

 

OK, some interesting and shocking news:

Full brightness: 5003 3DMark '06
SM2.0: 1664
SM3.0: 2189
CPU: 2568

Lowest brightness: 5405 3DMark '06
SM2.0: 1834
SM3.0: 2326
CPU: 2785

Every single score went up with a *lower* brightness. That's just messed up, Dell, that's just messed up.

And, besides all that, that is an uber-low score. PowerPlay was on, but was set to to Maximum Performance plugged in and, of course, it was plugged in.

Very weird....yeah, mine set to Aero Basic and reported GPU as "Generic VGA". I'm running Dell's stock drivers, though: not Mobility-modded.

~Ibrahim~

 

Message Deleted

 

Wonderful...if that thing (with a 4570) takes up 90W, how much does the XPS 1645 need with its 4670, which has 4X the pipelines? Of course, it's only taking 90W, but, to me, it needs much more.

I didn't buy this laptop to game, but this is pretty -poor news.

~Ibrahim~

EDIT: BfB, what power settings are you on for PowerPlay? Was it on or off when you got your 7K score?

 

I went to buy an XPS16 with the I7 720 processor however the website does not allow you to spec an "n" wifi card. I called Dell and they said it has imcompatibility issues at present therefore I did not place my UK order. Cannot believe you go to buy a £1000+ laptop and cannot spec a "n" wifi card. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

 

About power consumption: did you try to remove battery? May be it's being charged while you are doing tests so it makes additional power consumption...I know it doesn't solve the problem, but still...

How about those of you having wled??? It should have lower consumption right?

And how about running on battery? May be it can output more power...

EDIT: And another thing - when you're having such problems with 720QM, I'd expect those with 820QM and more ram to experience some serious instability...

 

I believe you should really reinstall your gpu drivers, I'm sure it will solve your problems...(those not related to power cons.)

 

I scored 7071 on 3dmark06 demo @ 1280x1024 reso
SM2.0 2467
SM3.0 3097
CPU 3125
I have the i7 720

 

That score sounds more like it should be, aleiro... Do you have RGBLED/WLED? Did you run it plugged in? Which graphic driver?

 

Check the 4th page of this topic, a guy already did a 3dmark06 @ 1280 * 720. The score was 7836 pts... Why you only get 5000 ??? Really strange

 

and the 1640 ( P9700 and hd4670) was hitting 6400...

 

Yeah, that guy was me...and those numbers are scary...5k is way too low, Do them again...I did them on the demo version of 3dmark06 btw... dunno if that makes a difference

 

If it turns out to be a PSU limitation (which I suspect it is in certain configurations), then you guys should purchase the AW M15x brick, it should have more than enough power for the sxps 16 and be interchangeable.

 

an update
Clean Win 7 install
and the score is:

3DMark Score 6753 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 2473
SM 3.0 Score 2831
CPU Score 3016

Intel Core i7-720QM Processor
4GB DDR3 1333

much better than bloated original Vista 64

 

Is there any way to confirm that that will not fry the SPX16 or void the warranty?

 

Isn't the power supply internal to the laptop? I thought the adapter just switches to DC. How would it deliver power from the battery to the rails?

I doubt it's a power consumption problem though, if the power supply is insufficient the voltage will drop and the system will freeze/crash/turn off. There's no automatic throttling down the CPU/GPU in this scenario, it would be too late anyway. Computer components don't react well to something like that.

 

Another question:

I think I know the answer, but can the graphics card in the SXPS ever be upgraded. My guess is "no."

JimmyB

 

The GPU is part of the motherboard, so there is no way to upgrade it. If you want a better GPU, you would need a totally new motherboard with a compatible case

 

OK, so here are my results:

Full brightness ~ 5,000 points
GPU is underclocked approximately 108 seconds out of a 540-second test

Lowest brightness ~ 5,4000 points
GPU is underclocked approximately 40 seconds out of a 540-second test

There are some sections where it SHOULD be underclocking (when 3DMark minimizes to start a new test), but in BOTH tests, large swaths of underclocking were occurring DURING tests.

This is on the latest Dell drivers: off to reinstall.

~Ibrahim~

 

From what i found on the web using a larger power supply (more watts, same volts) cant hurt anything. It only supply's the power as needed.
I would also assume a larger supply would run cooler to the touch. some posts ago eblock12 said his got ridiculously hot, ikjadoons got pretty hot, Haydes got uncomfortable hot after about a few hours of intense applications or gaming.
I know when i changed my 250w ps to a 500w (vid card upgrade) the 250s fan was always blazin. now with my 500w the fan only cranked up a few times in the summer while gamming hard.
Maybe the 1645 is under powered. does anyone know the numbers for the 1645 like Intoxicate posted:I ordered 2 PA-15 from Ebay too (one for traveling, and one for the living room ). Im pretty shure it will work.

T9400 = 35W
FX 3700 = 75W
RGB LED = 17W (I don't trust the manual for this...)
HDD 2x = 5-10W
Ram, chipset etc. 5-10W
_______________
max. ~ 140W --> 150W should work even for a X9x00 (10W more), because not everything will run under full load at the same time.
copied from this page: HERE

Ideas?

 

Ouch, that has got me a little nervous. One of the main reasons I've ordered this laptop is for the speakers & screen, else I'd have ordered a Kobalt with a GTX 280m (UK Clevo) which is overkill for the gaming I do, but at least itll work properly and the GPU will stay current for a while.....

 

I'm kinda skeptical about it being the power adapter or even a power problem necessarily, although I don't really have any better ideas. It's an interesting problem. One way to rule out the power adapter is to run the tests on battery while setting everything to use a max performance power policy.

 

Exactly. Use OCCT or a similar program to stress the CPU/GPU and turn on all features such as wireless/wired ethernet at max brightness. Then use RMClock or a similar program to monitor power consumption and/or compare how long it takes to drain the battery completely and time how long it lasts (knowing the total capacity charge).

 

All righty, reinstalled drivers and they definitely seem to have been an issue. Running at medium brightness gave me 6018 3DMark points and about 112 seconds of underclocking in a 540-second test. Again, some underclocking is to be expected (about 20 seconds worth), but these are much much more.

Going to run @ full brightness this time (one above is medium-high, two ticks away from highest level).

~Ibrahim~

 

Wait, what? Can we run by that idea one more time?

OCCT, on battery (but plugged in settings? Max performance profile has battery settings as well as plugged in settings), and how does this help?

~Ibrahim~

 

I checked the adaptors for my Latitude. I have a 65W for on the move and a 90W for the dock - both supplied with it by Dell. Cant think the dock uses much so that would support what you've read about being able to use bigger psu's. Seen as its actually my work machine and I didnt pay for it I just attached the 130W M1710 adaptor and it doesnt seem to be annoying it in any way. Really need to get to bed but I'm going to run 3Dmark06 on this with the 65W then the 130W tomorrow and see if makes a difference, might be that 65W is plenty anyway but will give it a go out of interest - I'd rather fry this than my new XPS (whenever it arrives)

 

Quote Jambo6: "I'd rather fry this than my new XPS (whenever it arrives)"
Dont blame ya one bit. looking forward to your results.
Also check the warmth of the two and see if its a noticeable difference while loading them.

 

You guys do realize that 3DMark is not a very reliable test for consistent numbers.

A variance of ~300-500 points means little to nothing.

In fact, the higher you score, the bigger the variance tends to get. 3DMark is just a fancy looking "rough idea" of what your system is capable of. if you look at those people with monster rigs that score 20k and higher, they will essentially run the bench over and over and not change any settings and have variances of 1000+ points!

You would be much better off running Far Cry 2 or Crysis FPS/Benchmark loops for consistent numbers. Be sure to run it once to cache everything, then run it for the real numbers

 

lol........

It is the adapter, it is the adapter, it is the ADAPTER! Ugh.

On cable:



On battery:



I think this is a bit more than a few hundred, Zlog. Same exact profile, made sure everything was identical between Battery and Plugged In. Drained about 15% of battery life.

WHAT THE FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

Whew. All right. Good luck with this guys, will be back tomorrow.

~Ibrahim~

 

Is dell trying to lose customers?!

First the delays/playing games with people's orders, then, they neuter what's supposed to be an 8x drive to 2x. Now, they don't even give it a power supply that can power the computer sufficiently?!

My comp is scheduled to ship tomorrow (finally), but I'm starting to wish I never re-ordered it. It will be the last dell I buy for a very long while.

 

On Crysis the FPS would drop to 1 or below whenever I cranked up the display brightness. And the sound would start crackling as well. Playing on an external monitor or setting brightness to low would fix the issue. It's annoying but there's a simple workaround and I like to play games on an external monitor anyway.

 

just call tech support and work with them, that’s what I plan to do, we have a lot of 130W power adaptors at work I can use until I force dell to send me one free of charge to properly power this laptop. You have to remember guys, this is new hardware for this laptop, and it’s going to be several months until dell has these systems bugs worked out. Just be glad everyone here that currently has one of these is testing it out for all of us to help us figure out what the problems are.

And no, a 130W power adaptor will not screw up your laptop, as a matter a fact I doubt the 65W adaptor will even allow the laptop to boot up past BIOS.

The 130W adaptor might allow the laptop battery to charge faster, depending on how the BIOS is programmed for the system, and allow the computer to push more wattage to the system as needed, it will also have the side effect of making the laptop get hotter due to the fact of keeping it from throttling the system down as much as it is due to the lack of wattage being supplied.

 

Are any of you are using the Mobility Radeon "Windows 7 Beta" driver off the AMD site?

 

I have a few questions regarding this power thing.
1. I'm assuming by testing it on battery the computer gets the full wattage it needs?

2. What wattage PSU is needed - 130 or 150W? Would the Kensington 120W from amazon work? http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-K3...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259024489&sr=8-1.

Note: I'm still waiting for my 1645 to ship. Good luck to those tyring to convince technical support to ship them a power adapter.

 

i personaly wound'nt use anything but the dell power adaptors to power your dell laptop.

 

By testing the full load on maximum performance while on battery, you can get a fairly decent power consumption measurement since you know the charge capacity (XX WHr) of the battery. For example, if the battery is 80WHr and the notebook lasts for 2 hours under full stress, that means it consumes 40W of power at max load.

 

I see your point, but I don't have much faith in dell to make this right. I can see them claiming that the neutered power adapter is the right one for the computer and refusing to give a more powerful one.

I understand that there are going to be bugs worked out, but with all the delays, it's absurd that they would have screwed something up as basic as the power adapter.

 

Yeah you work out the bugs before you sell the thing, especially things like heat and power. I would have expected them to have tested the laptop in the worst case scenarios before shipping it. Any competent engineering team would have done this.

 

Here is some good reading. A topic here on notebookreview on power.

65W vs. 90W AC Adapter

 

im still in the order process, but this does not sound good.. seein as the i7 is a max of 45w and the 4760 is a max of 35w

that leaves 45+35 - 90 = 10w to run the display anything other then the cpu and gpu. does it work like this?

given that its not a perfect world.. and a 90w rating of the power supply is probably variant on how hot it is (cooler = more power).. thats not good, sounds like a huuuuge oversight on someones part to me.

I cant imagine this thing charging and running a load at the same time either.

 

The hard drive alone is probably 10 watts.

Someone should totally load it up, play Crysis and watch a DVD movie, full brightness, and load up all the accessory ports. Then if it explodes maybe we can get a quick resolution from Dell.

 

i still have a m1710 pa 13 130 watt brick, glad i held on to it

 

WLED, yes it was plugged in, and the graphic driver that came on the computer

edit: Ok, IF I wanted a new brick. Which one should I get?

 

Just look at the D630, decent laptop, but it started at BIOS A00, and currently they have BIOS A16 on their page. I don’t expect dell to fully test this laptop if they have so many issues with their ordering process, customer service, and factory processing. I do however plan to weed all the bugs out myself and get the laptop working the way I personally want it to. 1st thing I’m going to do with this system is change the thermal paste on it when I get it.

You do not need to stick with dells drivers on the webpage. The NIC is ?Broadcom?, go to Broadcom’s website and download the latest drivers from them directly (currently 12.2.2.0), the Wireless is Intel, go to Intel’s website and get the latest drivers from them (currently 13.0.0.107).

We currently order 960 SFF desktops at my place of work and the AIO (All in One) monitors designed to go with these SFF desktops come with VGA Analog video cables..... The computer has Display Port, HDMI, VGA... the monitor has VGA, DVI... they send a VGA cable... cheap ba5tards... put in a Display port-DVI or something.

The fact that dell is sending 90W AC Adaptors for this system is a huge oversight, but it is one that they definitely must correct. Dell makes a lot of retarded decisions, its Dell. We need to work with their Tech Support group with these problems, if the owners have not engaged this issue with them yet, they need to start doing so now.