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

Another week delay from Dell posted on my account. Damn RGB.
EDD now it's 2.17.2010 on a 1.16.2010 (Signature Sale) purchase date.
Is anyone else getting delay notices from Dell? I hope I'm the only one.
This is getting old real quick.

 

Thanks man!!

 

So, how do we stand now? 1 620 that doesn't throttle, one that does. A 430 that throttles...

Good news from dell though!

 

I thought cpu-z wasn't accurate on the icore series? did you try monitoring with throttlestop? I don't know if this will make a difference or not

but it would unify the results ^^

 

Fantastic News! My laptop has been delayed again! New EDD is Friday, 2/12/2010. Not as long as previous delays but they better get their act together this week. Of course I have to call them now so that they won't cancel my order, since it's been nearly a month of pre-production.

 

what would be the performance difference between the i7 620 and i7 720.............?will it be huge or is negligable.....??????iam thinking abt buying 1747

 

If you're looking for an SXPS, then the dual cores(520m, 540m & 620m) perform much better, for they don't throttle as bad as the quds (720qm & 820qm)

But apparently there is a fix on the way, so if you want certainty... wait!

 

Same here

 

So the rep you spoke to yesterday was giving you BS?

 

This must really be some hot laptop for you guys to put up to the delays and BS by Dell! If you all think it's worth waiting for, then it definitely must be worth buying!

 

Well I'm not in dire need of a new laptop now. My Insprion 6000 is still holding up so I can wait a bit.

Wonder if I can extract an upgrade or two out of them for all these delays.

 

These days i'm struggling to get a 130W adapter instead of the 90W on the XPS1647.... I'll let you know how it goes

 

The 1647 laptops are in a bad position. Dell rep (Todd) recently said that they do not need a 90 watt adapter, and that the new adapter only applies to the 1645. Besides that, I have a feeling that they are working harder on the 1645 BIOS and that they are leaving the 1647 a side

 

This is bordering on pathetic. The customer care number they sent in my order delay notification is "not in service". Brilliant.

 

Called the order modification department to see what they'd say this time and they just told me their system wasn't showing why it was delayed and there was no other way to expedite anything. Rep just extended my order so it wouldn't be cancelled. Here's to another week of waiting. I'm hoping by March...

 

Has anyone with the 1647 had any luck getting a 130 Watt adapter from Dell? I've run test after test and it is definitely throttling. I know that the 130 Watt isn't necessarily the best solution, but at least I could run some different tests and use throttlestop if I had it.

 

ya... i guess. total crap these guys are.

 

Jeez, this is getting depressing for those of us who want to order one. If there was another decent laptop with the same specs I'd be looking at it, but I just don't see anything else out there...

 

Lets face it, there's probably a big queue ahead of us waiting for the same missing parts (probably leftovers from the holiday rush) so I'm going to gamble on a March delivery for our laptops. I'm going to keep waiting unless I spot a better deal out there for a similar config.

 

Well... I managed to get a rebate equal to the price of a 130W adapter... so i should order soon

 

I too have started looking for other laptops now.
Guess dell does not want our business.

 

I'm in your boat ,The only other one I would consider at this point is a jump to the Asus but it will cost me another $300.00

 

Just called Dell's "Technical" Support. They are not budging on a 130W power adapter for the 1647's. I told them that I would send it back because it doesn't offer the power that I bought it for, and they were ready to give me a full refund.

It's crazy how they won't send out an adapter that would cost them ~$100, but they are willing to lose ~$1,000+ by me sending it back, restocking it, and trying to resell it.

I think I'll wait for the fix...

 

But did you asked him about a BIOS update that fixes the throttling?
The i5 only needs 35 watt, the i7 needs 45W, maybe the 90 watt psu is enough for the 1647. But unless there is a fix for the 1647, we have no hope.

 

You're right fmac, it could have to do with the bios a lot. All those algorithmes and so on...

Don't know if anybody knows the exact numbers in Watt for all the components.. and knowing that it had to be below 85W for a 90W charger to power the system and charge the battery at the same time

 

The adapter costs <$25 for dell ........ $100 is what they sell it for.
On ebay u can find original dell adapters (130w slim) for $35-$40.

 

@nodnarb83 - yup same experience as you except I had full 20 - 21 (almost 22) on battery

 

@stormwerks Out of curiosity, did you get your 1645 yet?

 

Not to get too technical on you, but there is also opportunity cost that you need to factor in. Sure the adapter is ~$25.00, but they are missing out on the money they would have made had they sold it at $99.99 + tax.

Also, I know that it is an issue in the BIOS that needs to be addressed, but who knows how long it will take to get an update out for it? Especially if they could be "processor specific". Would the i5 430m be the last one to get updated because it's the lowest power? I don't know...

The 130W adapter with throttlestop running would solve my problem this instant. I don't really want to wait for a BIOS update from Dell. Especially when I have no idea how long I will be waiting...

The Envy 15 is starting to look pretty good. I guess I have a few weeks to decide...

 

About the 1647:

 

They don't restock and resell them. Any machines that are returned to them are pillaged for their parts and the parts are used as part of their repair process. If the device was defective whatever components were the problem are removed and disposed of and the rest is put into parts stock. The unit itself ceases to exist as a whole. We deal a lot with Dell and I had one of the Veep's answer that for me since we were getting demos and sending them back after we were finished and I was curious if they went in a refurb pile.

 

Funny you should ask that ... no. I should have had it Wed. Now my status says "Information temporarily unavailable" and has since Wed. I ordered (through work this time) a this machine. This one is an SXPS13. It was ordered Jan 28 and was delivered this morning. Naturally I am off today so I'll have to wait until Monday now.

 

Wonder what's holding that up. Was it even released to FedEx?

 

Seriously... I'm getting sick of Dell. Simply don't list parts as options if the stock does not exist or the parts are going to run out.

I started the order horrors on 1/16, and 5 re orders later I was assured all parts are in stock and it should go into production within 3 hours, here we are at a week stuck in pre production.... Again just like my original order, and it's just pissing me off.

I honestly wouldn't recommend Dell to anyone I know anymore.

 

I did some research and although Dell has had shortages and delays in the past, they were nothing compared to the massive issues this past holiday season. They're still recovering from it and filling backorders while letting new orders stack up.

Though I do agree with you, they should not list parts as having short wait times when they know they have nowhere near enough stock expected to come in. It's a gross failure of their supply chain management system and it's just snowballing into a massive mess.

 

Just turned mine on for the first time....DAMN it looks sooooo sexy!


UPDATE:....

um guys Mine is not having the throttle issue... how do I log throttlestop to a log file?

 

How about put a check mark in the little box that says Log File?

Also check the More Data option too if you want to collect lots of data and create a big log file. Upload it to www.sendspace.com or similar and post a link here and tell us what tests you did or games you played while logging. Keep track of the time so it won't be too big of a guessing game when people look in the log file.

 

Same here. 12 hours after I got confirmation from email Dell that I do not want the order cancelled, they called me to verify it again... which I did. While on the phone a asked them why all the delays. To make a long story short, I got transferred four times for a "vanilla" this is a very popular system and production is backed up... blah blah blah. And that I am an old and valued customer and now it has been delayed twice production will put this in priority queue, blah blah blah. I’ll wait it out as I don’t see another unit on the market that is better for the price I paid.

Just my two cents on the delays.
Looks to me the whole supply chain went to crap, RGBs DVDs Bluerays etc. I don't think it's just Dell. If the parts suppliers aren't ramping-up production to keep the parts supplied then dell can't knit these units. Windows 7 likely helped boost a long awaited PC refresh cycle (as Vista never did) even in this poor economy and a lot of companies got caught with their pants down.

 

wow, epic fail on my part, delete please

 

Yup...too bad Dell doesn't have the stones to de-list parts they know they won't have in stock for weeks.

 

K ill play around with it tonight...first I got to install my crap on it

 

Still a 2/17/2010 EDD here.. hopefully I don't get delayed because of my screen choice

 

Minor update....

I ran some tests again now that I have everything updated and configured the way I like it, but in the end it is still giving me the same results. This time I used Throttlestop to monitor the CPU multiplier

Prime95
Multiplier at 19
All cores hover at 99.8%

Furmark
Multiplier at 19
All cores at 100%

Prime95 and Furmark
Multiplier at 13
All cores at 100%

So....it's not as bad as what cpu-z was showing the first time I ran it, (x9) but x13 is still disheartening.

 

On the Dell order page, it no long states that there's a delay for the RGBLED. Only issue is that the default shipping date has been shifted to the end of the month. Bit wonky to me.

 

The Core i5-430M has a default multiplier of 17 and with turbo boost when either one or two cores are in the active state it can go as high as 19.

The good news is that you are getting full turbo boost during your first two tests. The bad news of course is that your computer is throttling during your third test down to 13. It should be running at a minimum of 17 which is the default for this CPU. 13 over 17 means it is running at about three quarters of its rated performance.

Prime95 + Furmark is a bigger load than most users ever encounter with normal applications. I'm not sure if you're a gamer or what stressful applications you usually run but it would be a good idea to run them while ThrottleStop is logging your data to see if this throttling is going to be an issue for you. If it is an issue then at the moment a 130 watt adapter combined with ThrottleStop is your only option. I don't think this solution is as effective on the XPS 1647 as it is on early bios versions of the XPS 1645.

If the only problem is during synthetic testing then it might be a while before Dell fixes this if they ever do.

 

Well you never know... Hopefully our orders will finally start production....

 

Thanks for all of your great advice. All the games I was expecting to play on this machine have been smooth so far. I think I'm okay with the performance hit, but I still hope Dell releases something quick.

Also, I think I'll be watching the President's Day sales as well and see if I can get a similar system at a similar price somewhere else. Dealing with Dell can be pretty unbearable and I don't think I'll buy another system from them again.

 

The multiplier on these Dual Cores is a lot higher than the Quads so even when there is some multiplier throttling while gaming, it's not usually as big a problem as it is with the XPS 1645 and Core i7-720 combination.

Testing shows that an HP Envy 15 can run the Prime95 + Furmark extreme stress test with absolutely no throttling on a Core i7-720QM. That's the bar that Dell should be shooting for. It's not acceptable for a company's goal to be "barely adequate" or worse yet, "I hope no one notices".

 

@unclewebb: do you think that the 1647 really needs a 130 watt adapter, or a BIOS update with the correct algorithms to control the throttling should be fine?

thanks

 

I think the top-of-the-line 1647 would, and maybe a couple variations below it. Mine just plain doesn't throttle, 90W or 130W adapter. Stormwerks and I figured out that his configuration is pulling 11W more juice than mine. So I'm guessing that at FULL load (cpu + gpu + screen at max brightness + hdd working, which is what I was testing as my ultimate test) I pull close to but just under 90W. Probably 86-89? Just a guess, but an educated one. So I think that since I have the "base" config except for the proc (on a side note, I really don't understand why people get 8gb of memory and a power-hungry screen for a laptop. I mean, the whole reason I exchanged my 1645 for a 1647 was because the 1647 can do what I want faster because of the higher clocked dual core, and it can do what I want longer because the dual core uses less power and is built on a 32nm process. Maybe people are basically buying a high-powered desktop replacement, but I think an Alienware is a better choice for that. But I digress.) which doesn't really use that much more power than the lowest-end model, anyone who gets this laptop who doesn't get an SSD is probably going to use more power than me, and will thus probably need a 130W adapter.
I'm including a disclaimer here. This is my lightly-supported, inference-heavy opinion. If you're thoughtful enough to read this and have understood that before you got to this disclaimer, this is not aimed at you. You can stop reading now. For everyone else, PLEASE do not go trumpeting this around as if it is gospel. Don't say "I've heard that all 1647s will throttle!" or "Oh, a 1647? You need an SSD to makes sure it doesn't throttle!" I will be sad about causing more lies to be spread on the internet, and you will be spreading more lies on the internet. As if there isn't already enough misinformation floating around. Yes, JoshGlzBrk, I'm looking at you.