**The Official Studio XPS 1647 Intel Core i5/i7 "Owners' Lounge"**

I thought the i7-620m came with PM55 but the i5s with HM55?

 

Now that would be cool.

 

I did too. I was very surprised to find HM55 wasn't listed and even more surprised to find in device manager that I have the PM55 chipset.

 

So switchable graphics totally ruled out - even in the future
dell Sucks......

 

HM55 = Switchable graphics ?

 

stormwerks: The game you played is not overly demanding on the CPU. It's great that the throttling didn't reduce your gaming experience for this game but in other games that are more demanding on the CPU, I'm pretty sure there is going to be noticeable stuttering.

In your 90 watt log file there are times when the multiplier is down to its minimum of 9 while the 130 watt log file shows a multiplier up around 21.

9 divided by 21 says your CPU is operating at 42.8% of what Intel designed it to do. When combined with a clock modulation setting of 50%, then it's down to 21.4% of its rated performance level. Some modern games are going to completely choke when running at the equivalent of about 600 MHz and in some spots in your log file, even less than that.

 

What demo would you suggest I download to fully test the CPU/GPU ?

 

Have you noticed how significantly they dropped the prices of the i7 cpus i.e 1645?? Are they being phased out ?

 

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_crysis_downloads.html

Crysis might be a good test. The Nvidia servers are usually pretty good.

Lots more demos to choose from.

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_demos.html

 

Looks like ya were right unclewebb. Thanks storm for the fear2 test. Thats pretty severe throttling going on there unfortunately :-/ Well have to see some before and after of the fps see the reall impact on the game.

crysis is good to test around in, or any valve games like l4d2 or tf2 etc, they will use the cpu and gpu quiet a bit.

 

I doubt they are being phased out and im not saying that because I have one.

 

Actually, if you were going to configure the identical 1645 today that you configured on the Dell site yesterday, the price has gone up by about $100, and it is about $150 higher than it was 2 weeks ago. The current prices are about the same as they were at the end of November, which is when I ordered mine.

What might make the price seem lower is that, in the featured 1645 configuration, the warranty went down from 2 years to one year, the standard screen is the WLED screen instead of the RGB LED screen, and the memory is only 4 GB instead of 6 GB. If you take their configuration and upgrade the warranty, screen, and RAM to what they were on the featured configuration for the last couple of weeks, the total price is about $100 higher than it was yesterday.

Les

 

Thats true I didn't notice the drop in spces. Good sales trick

 

Yup. no switchable graphics now or later

 

When I bought mine on Black Friday with the i7 720, 6 GB RAM, 500 GB hardrive, WLED 1900x1080, Blu-Ray Rom, and 2 year warranty, I paid $1500. If I configure the same system today, it comes to $1603 and that is without the Blu-Ray. So, the current price is actually over $200 more than it was 2 months ago, but I'm sure that, if you called and spoke with a sales rep, you could get at least $100 taken off of the current price.

Les

 

This is for all you i7 owners, does aound the mouse pad and bottom left of the screen get warm NOT hot after being on for any length of time? I wanted to know if its just mine of weather they tend to run a little warm anyway.

Thanks Guys.

 

Ofcourse Sony offers them. Maybe Toshiba, but Big Boys like HP and Dell, no have blu-ray.

 

Yea, you can config identical system between that and i5, sadly i5 comes out more expensive. Wierd. They are giving so much discount on it. Even on EPP too.

I wonder when they will refresh the whole Studio XPS line with a new design.

 

Maybe it will be cheaper for them if they make a new studio line with the fix. However I dont see it happening, the discounts are probably from people sending alod back so they are selling them cheap.

 

No, that isn't true. I just went on the Dell site and configured two computers, one with the i7 720 and the other with the i5 540 (the most expensive of the i5 processors). Both had 6 GB of RAM, RGB LED screens, 500 GB drives, 9 cell batteries, the same optical drive, and 2 year warranties. The 1947 with the i5 540 came to $1718 and the 1945 with the i7 720 came to $1754. A build with the i7 620 would probably be more, but I can't find the i7 620 on any current configurations.

Also, it is curious that, earlier today, the featured configurations changed on Dell's site. Those configurations only lasted a few hours and they have already been replaced by new featured configurations. Within 24 hours, had you ordered a 1645 or 1647 off of Dell's site, you could have paid 3 different prices as much as $200 apart.

Les

 

Anyone having issues when coming back from hibernating ?

I am getting a 0xc0000411 error with hiberfil.sys when resuming from hibernate and it always fails...

Jovani

 

Dell offers it on the Covet (as a 500$ option on a 3300$ notebook) and hp offers it on the..... (damn forget the name of the top of my head) but its only 1200 something

 

Hey guys!

I just bought a 1645 with i5 430m / 4gb ram / 15.6 HD+ Screen / ect ect

I told them that I wanted a 1647 3 times on the phone and when I got my email it says "1645" so I called up the sales rep again and he explained to me that the 1645's and the 1647's were released this january and the difference between the 1647's was that it used an i7 9xx card and a different motherboard and the other cores (i5's and the rest of the i7's) were 1645's

Is he lying? And if so.. is my 1645 a bad buy?? I heard there were issues with it.. but i thought that only pertained to the i7 cores... im kind of freaking out right now.. this whole weekend i've been jazzed but then reading some posts for a few minutes tonight and now im worried!!!

Thanks for the help!
- Joe

 

HM55 with i5 is still listed here in the tech specs section of the SXPS 16 site here in the UK and Ireland.



Also, another potential buyer mentioned earlier in this thread that the rep stated that switchable graphics was coming. Maybe they haven't rolled out the HM55 chipsets with the i5's yet, and are using the PM55's until it's ready, but I definitely wouldn't say it's ruled out. I'd put money on it being available with a HM55 eventually.

 

1645 has the i7's and the 1647 has the i5's and from what people where posting here today, the i5's have the same throttling issue as the i7's.

 

So even though my email says this:

Item Number Quantity Item Description
224-7380 1 Studio XPS 16 Notebook
317-3513 1 Intel CoreTM i5 430M processor (2C/4T, 2.26-2.53 GHz, 3MB L3)
317-2364 1 4GB, DDR3, 1333MHz 2 Dimm
320-8330 1 15.6 inch Wide Screen 16:9 1080p Full HD WLED LCD, W/2.0 MP, XPS 1645
421-1010 1 Dell Webcam Central v1.4
421-0188 1 Facial Recognition
320-1208 1 ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670 1GB
330-6468 1 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,XPS 1647
341-8989 1 500GB 7200RPM Free Fall SensorSeagate Hard Drive
320-8351 1 Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish

it's a 1647? Even after the rep told me its a 1645?

And that's weird you say that i5's have the same throttling issue as i7's.. i thought the throttling issue was just for the i7-7xx or any other i7's... I heard some people on these forums that say i5's don't have throttling issues

 

Yeah thats a 1647. (1640 C2D, 1645 i7, and 1647 i5)

From what I have read today and yesterday on this forum, they(1647) throttle.

 

lppl at the frist post on page one
i got stuff to say in the mroning but im a little drunk. and tire

 

Trying to get there myself, but I think my beers are broken!

 

It says that in the US too. Might it be that Windows can't fully recognize the HM55 yet and just reports PM55?

 

Oh man, my 1647's on the way and now I'm hearing about potential throttling! Oh well, I just hope that it's unnoticable as I've read on this forum.

One question I've got for you guys.... hopefully this is not the wrong place to put it (if it is, I fully apologize!) but I've been scouring the net to understand the difference between the HD Audio 2.0 with SRS that comes with the XPS vs. the creative x-fi software solution?

I have a copy of the x-fi software at home, when I receive my 1647.... should I install it? or is the hd audio 2.0 with SRS better?

Thanks guys!

 

The X-Fi software is a software-based solution which works with the audio chip in the laptop. It is specific to certain audio chipsets (can't remember which) and installing your X-Fi software will not work as it's specifically for your X-Fi card.

Perhaps I'm wrong and if so, someone please correct me.

 

Yes. It's a 1647.

Considering that you have the WLED screen and not the RGBLED maybe your laptop wont throttle, like DW's 1647. But to be 100% sure about that you will need to do some tests... which we all would appreciate

 

I know one thing I am going to do as soon as I get my SXPS 1647 is update the video driver. Have you done this. I believe the latest version is 12/2009? This could resolve it. Keep us posted.

As far as the throttling, anyone know when Dell plans to fix this. How would they fix this? Through a bios update right?

 

The latest GPU driver is on ATI's website released on 1/27/10...here is the link..

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx



@DW.....what are you going to say??? please don't tell me you also have the throttle issue. ...I have the same spec as yours....keep my fingers crossed!!!

 

Hey!

Actually, the x-fi software solution does not need a creative sound card to work. It's designed to work with default sound cards ie. hd audio 2.0. It works with a wide range of laptop audio chips.

It basically enables a simulated x-fi environment on lesser audio chips... that's why some people love it. However, if the hd audio 2.0 + SRS is better... then I won't install the x-fi.

So, if someone could shed us some insight, I'm sure we would all appreciate it

 

I'm considering buying a xps 16 as my desktop just broke, but I was wondering whether I should go i5 or i7. Considering that my configured builds seem to have a price difference of 100 dollars (assuming that I can get a rep to stick in only 4 gigs ram on the i7 and a 1 year warranty), then should I go for the i7 or the i5?

 

i5 or i7 620m.

 

What do you mean "broken"?

 

By broken I mean that it won't POST after a power outage, and everything obvious to fix it didn't work. So, as its an oldish computer (4 years now), and I want a laptop anyway, rather than paying to get it fixed, I'd like to get a laptop. I'm planning on just buying an external enclosure for my hard drives and using the monitor with a dvi-hdmi cable.

@yejun I was looking between the i5 540 and the i7 720 - I don't even see a configuration with the 620. Also, I forgot to fully upgrade to the 540 and add the 9 cell battery, so the 1647 i5 is 5 dollars more than the 1645 i7 0_0... so is there a reason to get the i5 over the i7? Increased battery life? Less chance of throttling?

My config is: (i5 540/i7 720), 4 gb ram, 500gb hd, rgbled screen, (1520/5300 wireless card), x-fi, black with leather, 9-cell battery, and the price is (1444/1439)

 

The advantages of the i5 over the i7 is less power usage so it wont run as hot and you will get a better battery life, the chances of throtteling are resduced especially if you dont have the RGB screen.

And by i7-740 do you mean i7-720 ?

Hope that helps

 

This whole throttling thing has gotten out of control.

If you are a gamer and run games like call of duty, etc at their highest possible settings you are going to most likely have problems, if you don't you will not have any issues.

As for the i7-620M, I ordered one last Wednesday with the processor, and I personally think it's worth it.

Dual core at a faster base clock and turbo clock is better than a quad core, because the quads have a lower base and a lower turbo clock. There are also very few programs and games that actually make use of lore than 2 cores.

I would definately try to go with a 620M or any of the i5's.

 

@fluffy Yeah, I changed my post - by 740 I meant 720. You can see that unfortunately one of the big attractions of this laptop for me is the rgbled screen...

@Josh I /am/ planning on playing mw2, sadly. Is it a 100% chance that I'll have issues? Can they be solved with the 135w adapter and the software posted in the other thread (and can I force dell to ship me a free adapter)? Also, can you link me to a config with the 620? I can't even find it.

 

Josh you are correct in some cases but you also have to look at the bigger pictue.

1. More and more applications/games are being able to use all 4 cores. GTA and dragon age to name a few.

2. The i7-620 is an intergrated chip, very hard to upgrade at a later date. Unlike the i5 and i7-720 which you can pop in a faster one when you have the cash.

But all that said at this moment in time wish all the issues and the technology the i7-620 s**ts on them all.

 

Well thanks to everyone here helping me with a laptop purchase it looks like the xps 16 has not fixed the throttling issue sure I might not have issues but I don't want to buy a faulty machine,I have decided to look into the Asus G73

 

@Kan: Dell have stopped shipping the 130W adapter and you will have trouble forceing it out of them im affraid. If you have the RGB screen and an i5 I would say 90% chance, RGB and i7-720 99% chance.

The software on this forum and a 130W adapter helps the issue but it does not solve it, i.e you have to boot TS everytime you want to play a demanding game.


Hope this helps

 

So are the alienware laptops having these issues?

I'm glad I ordered the 620M, not sure why they don't have it as an option anymore...?

 

Nice dude, glad we could all help, keep us posted on the ASUS though, What pushed you towards that, throtteling by any chance lol

 

Im not sure why they dont have the option either, if you arent planning on switching the CPU at a later stage you picked the best of a bad bunch, and you should see a good responce. However you laptop will run a little hotter, thats normal.

As for alienware I think I heard somewere that they are haing worse problems, GPU and CPU throtteling. They are way overprices and far to ostentatious anyway. XPS all the way.

 

It was really the throttling,I had actually seen the Asus before but it looks pretty good blu ray player,i7 not to mention a RADEON 5870!