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

I have the same configuration that you do, and also optical drive is DVD-RW (no bluray). Can't think of any other thing that could be different.

 

No worries. Cin was probably still updating some of that when you posted.

 

Very nice notebook! I'm playing with it now. Windows 7 won't arrive for a few days so i'm holding off my clean install for now. Only one gripe (might be just my particular unit), but

THERE'S A %#@ DEAD PIXEL IN THE UPPER RIGHT SIDE OF THE SCREEN :-( :-( :-(

After what it took to get this laptop i don't want to have to send it back and wait an eternity for another one. It's not that noticeable when I'm using it, only when the screen is completely black, but still. I paid good money for this. Any suggestions?

 

unfortunately the only way is to return it

 

I was wondering if someone could shed some light as to how the 5.1 sound works? Are the three audio jacks on the side reconfigurable to Sub/Centre, R/L and RR/RL? Or does it only work over USB or something?

Thanks

 

Hi there...
Anybody using their XPS 1645 for Poly pushing (3ds max, Z-brush, Maya and Unreal SDK)?
XPS 1645 any good with polys?

 

I think they are just referring to the fact it can output digital audio over the HDMI port. So if you plugged it into a receiver it could decode 5.1 dolby digital or even the new blu-ray stuff, whatever it's called.

 

Yeah I guess. It's a pretty high-end GPU for a laptop. I haven't loaded any modeling program yet but I'm working on an Xbox360 game in my spare time (using XNA) and the performance is very nice. I'm pushing more polys on the laptop than on the Xbox360 build.

 

Unfortunately for just 1 dead pixel I don't think they'll change it anyway as this is classed as within tolerance.

http://support.dell.com/support/top...dsn/document?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&dn=1018431

 

Any updates on any heat issues?

 

It's just going on and on about the delivery issues... GO TO THE OTHER THREAD FOR THAT, like said countless times. Use this thread only for talking about your brand new 1645.

As for me, I'd really like to know more about the battery life with the 6 cell!

 

Studio XPS 1645 standars 9-cell. Why do you want to know about the 6-cell?

 

The 6-cell battery, if you took one from a 1640 and it fit, would give you 2/3 the battery life of the 9-cell

 

Come-on now, can some real 'owner' please post a picture of the rear vents of the notebook alongwith how it looks like with the 9-cell battery, plus any other useful pictures.

 

Exactly, where are the pics for the vents and the inner guts? Battery life? heat?

Com on guys make it rain.

 

There have been posts made by owners already regarding the interior, battery life, heat, benchmarks, etc. It's not a long thread and you could easily find it if you wanted.

 

A few things I have noticed. One the speakers sound horrible when you first boot. Go to dell and download the new driver and install it, then disable the audio effects under control panel>sound double click the speakers then enhancements. I disabled all and the quality is much better. Also, I set the default format to 24 bit, 96000Hz to reduce the pops and things.

Update the bios, not sure the changes but I went ahead and did it.

edit: fixed the audio, I ended up only disabling one audio enhancement (loudness). Using the IDT audio control panel I made the adjustments to stop making the sound so watery.

 

I don't think those are new versions.

 

I'm swapping my 9-cell with my 6-cell as soon as I get the laptop. Can't stand it when batteries stick out.

 

I had an older version of the bios, and the ati drivers have been updated.

 

Whats the GPU like?
How does it perform when playing games?

 

I'd assume the same with all other SXPS 16s that have the 4670?

 

Is that good....... as i cant decide between the XPS 1645 or the Alienware m15x.

My problem is the M15x is heavy and looks like a extension!

 

LOL exactly this thread should be based to questions about the new PROCESSOR
and things related to that(I.e. Chipset,) every other aspect is identical to a 1640 except for CPU and RAM

 

ok Bottom line SXPS 1640/45 are not marketed as gaming lappy's they are multimedia laptops that can handle some gaming in medium/high settings

the ALienware M15x will outperform the SXPS 1640/45 in gaming due to GPU being better

I personally love the SXPS 16 with the 4670 i can play L4D2 completey maxed out 8xaa 16xaf very high shaders and so forth 40-60 FPS with fraps running
I can play RE5 at 1920x1080 with med settings and get 30-40 FPS
Older games you can play maxed out new games tend to be more on medium except for L4D2

 

Exactly.. If you want a gaming laptop then don't go for the SXPS 16. I am glad that so far there have been no reported over-heating issues

 

Cheers for the info, I'm in the market for a new laptop for 3dsmax, maya and Unreal SDK work .... don't want anything with a lame duck GPU.

 

Pictures of the rear vents, pl0x!!

 

i would go with an alienware or have you looked at the Sager's check them out

 

Ive looked the Alienware.... good spec, but looks OTT!

 

check the sagers out pretty good IMO and cheaper than Alienware you can get them with the 260m/280/m i think single card maybe you can in SLI but not sure check it out

 

You mean all three of the people that have received one so far?

 

Alienware m15x has the options of a 240m by default, so the XPS 1640/5 with 4670 will outperform it. Most reasonable people would get the 260m upgrade on the m15x and not have to worry about their GPU for a few years.

Looking at your numbers above its pretty hard to not call the 1640/5 a good laptop to consider if the person has any other interests. A pure gaming laptop will be weak in other areas (mobility, weight, battery life), the 1640/5 reaches a good compromise. Sure it may not run poorly optimized games like Cyrsis at max, but it looks to handle everything else at high settings, high resolution, with good frame rates. Source games are some of the best out there, and it runs them perfect. 260m might get you more longevity, but if the looks of today's maxed out games is enough eye candy for you, then you can be very content with the 4670 in the sxps 1640/5.

 

In that case you don't want a notebook with an ATi card in it. nVidia GPU and drivers are best suited for the tasks you stated. Take a look at Clevo/Sager notebooks. My Sager 8690 that arrives today has a nVidia GTX 280m chip in it which is more than enough for what you need. As for AW M15x, the look is growing on me but if you're a fan of the SXPS look, then the 8690 comes closer than the M15x.

 

Can nobody out of the lucky owners write a detailed review including all benchmarks of xps 1645???

 

Not in my country (The Netherlands), haha

 

Well thats better than nothing!

 

I read a review of the XPS GPU
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Studio-XPS-16-ATI-HD4670-Notebook.21440.0.html

It made the follow comment..... "Verdict: Basically, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD4670 belongs to the high-performance multimedia graphic cards. Its use in the Dell Studio XPS 16 wasn't really impressive in the practical test with various games. Principally, this was due to the observed repetitive short performance breakdowns, which were also already seen in the Acer Aspire 8935G with identical graphic hardware.
The given performance should satisfy occasional gamers, but ambitioned gamers won't be happy with the inconstant performance, especially in shooters that require a consistently high frame rate for a successful session."

>>Principally, this was due to the observed repetitive short performance breakdown...... Was that fixed with new drivers? was it ever an issue? only asking cause i think notebookcheck do good reviews.

 

I think something was lost in translation there. They probably mean the 4670 isn't up to the task of running modern games at native resolution with options on high. When I had the 1640, many games like Left 4 Dead would not run very well at native resolution (e.g. 30-45 fps at native resolution, no AA turned on). If you want good gaming performance, get a gaming notebook.

 

The temperature is warmer than C2D P series and more like the T series. Don't expect a cool and quiet notebook. The fan is always on but it didn't reach the level of inconvenience for me. The same for the palm rest, it is warm but ok to touch at load.

For a powerful laptop it is a good compromise of weight, speed, gaming, multimedia, noise, and battery life as you can never maximize all.

When comparing i7 power consumption and temperature to C2D don't forget that the northbridge is now integrated into the processor, so in simple approximation the TDP for i7 is 45W-7W used to be used at the northbridge= 38W which is the slightly higher than the C2D T series and the more recent powerfull P processors. That is why we may never see an option to disable the fan being always on.

 

Ive ordered a XPS 1645 for game development .....worried i should have ordered an alienware..... But the XPS looks good and is portable.

 

This gives you an idea what gaming to expect from this laptop. And yes it is more portable.

 

khaledseif can u pls tell me about ur room ambience ie room temp and the approx temp in palmrest and rear when on load.....?

 

any overclock software for our ati mobility radeon 4760?
thanks in advance.

 

Room is around 70F.
I will re-run HWmonitor under full load when i am back from work.

 

Thanks for doing these tests.

When you run your load tests again tonight can you let us know how long you ran it?

This post you did a few days ago: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5503900&postcount=50 I wasn't sure if under 80 was the stable temp or just what it was at after a few minutes?

 

it was after around 15-20 minutes.

 

Props to Dell on sizing the cooling well. The sager machines i believe got a ~5C warmer. I suspect the 75w GPU in their chasis contributed to that difference.

If you want to torture the system I believe future mark has GPU torture test. Not sure if it does the CPU, but you can run prime95 to torture the CPU at the same time and see what impact sharing a fan/exhaust has.

Overall under normal use do you even notice the heat? Same question in a game if you game? Any keyboard/palmrest warm spots you are concerned about?

 

I tried running Crysis (just for kicks) and didn't notice any heat issues, its warm to touch compared to idle use but not a concern. The performance in that game really sucked though, the framerate was really irregular, and would suddenly drop to 1 fps every once in a while. Not sure what the bottleneck is.

 

So, what are the numbers on thsi thing on idle, on normal use, and under load?