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

Would furmark + prime95 compare to rendering a 3D scene? Cuz when I render a scene on vue xstream on the desktop I get 8 full threads plus the bins that also apply (or atleast, that is what I think, didn't check though).

So if I would render with the xps 16, would it throttle? or will it just work fine

 

Double post, sorry

 

I was rendering a large object last night 4.1 million poly's at 4096 x 4096 with photoshop open, ZBrush also open and my browser and the machine didn't even blink. Rendering an image is all CPU based and minimally the GPU. Moving around in the interface with hardware texturing turned on is GPU intensive and less so CPU. I saw no evidence of throttling.

 

That was a good read. Thank you

 

Folks in case you missed it there is some info in the original 1645 throttling thread where Dell has posted updates on the progress being made to address this.

Their focus it seems from the post has been primarily on the 1645 due to the numbers of reports (and longevity of the issue I suppose) but they are also now aware of the 1647's which exhibit the same issues albeit not quite as intensely it would seem.

From the latest post from Bill (no last name) at Dell they are currently testing for the 1645's a BIOS revision and it loks like the hoped for strategy of also rolling out a 130W adapters with the fixed BIOS will be what is happening. The 1647's wwill lag a bit behind the 1645's due to the difference in chipsets. If I understand the post correctly Dell will be sending out new 130W adapters to all those who have purchased 1645's. He wasn't sure at this point whether or not it would be proactive and I would caution based on a long history of experience with Dell that until they start doing it the approach can change so keep an eye on that thread. I sent him a quick note pointing him over here for reference and highlighted that we have been performing the same tests.

For what its worth my history with Dell has been both personal and business oriented. We purchase on average 100 - 200 systems a year at a minimum and that is after evaluating numbers of comparable systems. Dell consistently has won in the price, performance and service categories for us. Thats not to say there haven't been issues but when something like this has popped up once they do move on it, the experience is positive.

So for those who are still waffling on this notebook and are only being held back by the negatives here (which really are all centered around pushing it to the limit as a gaming platform) then I would suggest either waiting before jumping ship or go ahead and know that there is a fix coming. Again I can't say how pleased I am with this laptop. It is even with the throttling issue hands down the nicest one I have ever had and at last count that was somewhere over 15 from multiple vendors.

Now, I have some bad guys to annihilate in Crysis. Thanks to testing I am addicted to the damn game now and ended up buying it! Especially in HD on a 52" flatscreen!!

 

Haha, dont blame it on us! You were the one who wanted to test crysis
Gaming in High-def on a 52 inch LCD. I cant wait to do it on mine!!

Yes I've been tracking the 1645 throttling thread for a long time now and when I heard about Bill's news I was very relaxed..

I am definitely buying one, it is an excellent laptop and without the throttling issue I cant imagine. I will be having mine on the 15-17 of Feb

 

Hey stormwerks, was meaning to ask you about the RGBLED screen. When you got it did you have to do any tweaking? Others have claimed the reds look off or more pinkish? Any flickering? Thanks

 

I pretty much bought this as you surmised as a desktop replacement. I wanted the big bright screen for the multimedia aspect, I wanted a laptop because I like to sit on the couch and also to be able to take this lil beastie with me when I travel and lastly I got the 8GB of memory because when I am using it for the graphics stuff that I do which is my primary use (although Crysis has suddenly become a bit of an addiction) its not unheard of for me to have Maya, Photoshop and ZBrush open all at the same time. All three are memory hungry apps and having 8GB keeps the machine from swapping. I usually end up using 6 - 7 GB of that 8GB when I do that.

I did read the disclaimer and I know it wasn't a targeted post. I did look at the Alienware machine but I do need to take this machine to work when I travel and walking int he doors with a gaming laptop, well, its not really a "business" thing to do if you know what I mean. If I was however after a primary gaming platform I would have likely gone with something like the Alienware machines.

See my previous post, looks like Dell are mobilizing and relief will be on the horizon for those who are really impacted by throttling.

BTW .. I haven't had a chance to open this up and pull one of my memory sticks out to see if the reduction in power requirements had an impact or not but I do plan to do so.

 

fmac - I never said I waned to test it, I was asked to!! Sigh, well it could be a worse addiction.

 

@mattmjb0188 - No I haven't done any color tweaking. My screen looks ok to me but then I haven't really gone into anything where the colors would show up as wonky if they were. I don't find that it is overly red. The colors are VERY vibrant so maybe over saturated. I was going to go through the thread on adjusting this beastie at some point and see if there was anything worth tweaking in my case but seeing as how I haven't had any issues and don't see anything that looks odd (no flickering either) I don't know that I need to.

 

Does anyone has a speaker rattle issue??? whenever I play some music with heavy subs, it rattles very noticeably....it's on the right side of the touch pad, the little subwoofer....

appearently even if they come and replace it, the problem still exist after a while....

try to play this with max volume on your xps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQqiQfsYVA8

 

My opinion is that a 90 watt adapter is marginal at best for these laptops. Even if you are lucky and your combination of parts doesn't have any significant throttling issues during normal use, a 90 watt adapter doesn't have a lot of excess capacity to recharge your battery when you are using your computer. If you spend a lot of time gaming then it might take a long time for your battery to charge up. A 130 watt adapter would be a good choice for that reason alone and 130 watt Dell branded adapters are fairly cheap on EBay.

One user brought it to my attention today that these under powered adapters might be part of Dell's Green initiative. It might look great to the shareholders that your laptops are so advanced that you can ship them with only a 90 watt adapter compared to the competition that uses 120 watt adapters. That's not so good for users though if they have to deal with performance throttling and slow recharge times.

 

OK. Thanks for that.

Wow, that is a very reasonable perspective for all of this. I didnt agree with the hole conspiracy plan of Dell that some guys where thinking, so this Dell's Green initiative is a good answer for all of this.

 

You're right, I totally forgot that it's only throttling when both are heavily used. Good news though, I pretty much stop using a pc while it's rendering.. I have had enviremental renders of up to 3,000,000,000 poly's XD

Another reason for a laptop, so I can render on the desktop and just go on the XPS and do my daily business including creating multimedia ^^

 

Hey guys,

After a couple days of playing around with my 1647... all I could say is wow! This computer handles everything I'm throwing at it like a champ.

I had a buddy do some additional tests (I don't have the results unfortunately) but according to him.... there isn't any throttling. Personally, I don't care, this pc is great!

As for the speaker issue some of you are having, I have not experienced that at all. The speakers are literally amazing and the sound is crystal clear / incredible. If you have your pc, you know what I'm talking about!

The only thing I could comment on is how the fan seems to always be on, whether it be on low speed or high.. it's just always on lol!!

p.s. I think my favorite part of this thread has been Stormwerks gradual addiction to Crysis.... from using it to test to full out addiction! I love it haha

 

Damn, thats a hell of a scene!

 

Hah! You laugh now, wait until YOU try it. I just lost two hours of my life. Again!

 

Took me long enough... it was a promo-movie, FullHD 30fps. I had my i7 desktop(@ 2.8Ghz thanks to turbo) render for a better part of 2weeks (only during the night).

I btw ordered mine now ^^ with the 540 though, but should be okay

 

Maybe Michael Dell can clear this up for all of us..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSsJKpT0d8Q&feature=related

 

@Stormwerks: Those were some great posts you put up on the quality of the 1647. Initially, I was pretty upset that my low end i5 430 was throttling, but after using this laptop for the past couple of days, I'll second your opinion.

I threw some games on here (Anno 1404, Borderlands, Street Fighter 4, etc) and they run great at 1080P with the some of the settings turned down. I've been running Revit, Photoshop, watching some HD Videos, etc. and it blazes through everything. I can't imagine how much quicker it would be with a faster processor and SSD drive.

In short, for anyone on the fence, this is a great laptop. Plus, the recent news from Dell working on a fix for the issues it has is definitely a plus.

 

I agree, it is a very reasonable perspective. However we will most likely never know the truth to it all. Though I will say that the proposed conspiracy theories (plans) thought up by some guys (myself included, ) can be beneficial by serving to keep Dell in check. So if we have wild enough minds to come up with theories that Dell is trying to "low-ball" the owners, hopefully Dell will never consider even attempting anything along those lines... (I hope...)

 

@nodnarb83 - Glad you like yours as much as I like mine. It is a great laptop. I spent all afternoon dying like crazy in that stupid game that I won't mention and it never had a single hitch.

How do you like Revit?

 

from dells website: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/optix/topics/en/optix_energy?c=us&l=en

"Dell Energy Smart Settings
Pre-configured power management settings that exceed governmental standards."

Dell Energy Smart = throttlegate

Let Michael explain it for me ...about half way through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSsJKpT0d8Q&feature=related

 

Hey guys, has anyone that already received the 1647 can tell me if a Windows 7 Install CD is included? Or you are stuck with the pre-installed windows?

I really want to format everything and start from scratch..

 

The best buy version has it in there. I am pretty sure it is the same packaging as the direct from dell version.

 

@fmac - yes it does come with one and its not the reinstall version, its a proper version.

 

Dell dropped the price of the XPS 16 i5 down from $1299 to $1199 and it still comes with 2 years service.

http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/Discount-Dell-Studio-XPS-16-WLED-Laptop/11703.aspx

 

Cool. Thanks

 

That price is no different from what they have been running for days... it's still more expensive from before Feb 2

 

I transferred over from years of using AutoCAD, so it has taken some getting used to. 1080P really helps while drafting at home, but it's tough to transfer back over to my 17" 1280 x 1024 screen at work. The "real estate" on the XPS screen is definitely one of its high points.

 

Did anyone else notice that the top two configuration levels of the XPS 16" do not include the option for an RGBLED?

Pretty funny how they JUST started removing that option after we have been having issues for the past week....

I'm really starting to doubt I will ever get my laptop.

 

Sigh... Tell me about it... I ordered my 1645 i7 720 on January 6th, waited a month, then Dell tells me it won't be delivered until February 24th. I got tired of waiting and found a great deal on a refurb in the outlet, but there was a glitch with my billing address, and without warning after a week, they canceled my order without telling me. Now, I can't order the original 720 nor the 820 I ordered the second time because the RGBLED is no longer being sold with the core i7, and now there is no longer any 1645s on the outlet. (not to mention my 15% off coupon is now gone as well.) I honestly do not want to wait yet ANOTHER month for Dell to tell me my order will be delayed until April.

 

This whole thing has just been a joke. Dell obviously does not care about their customers, so they shouldn't care about how they won't be getting some of our money.

There is no excuse for listing parts that they knew were in short supply, or even out of supply for that matter. No excuse to do that and let people order, on top of the backorder problems they already have from the holiday season.

If there were other decent options I would have gone elsewhere last month, now if Apple rolled out macbook pro updates with i7's I would be all over them, but sadly they have not, and there is no clue to when that will happen.

 

Ya'll know there *is* an Order Status thread for the 1647, right?

 

A Question For: DeathWalking
With: Dell Studio XPS 1647|Core i7 620M|4GB DDR3-1333MHz|ATI 4670 1GB
15.6" 1080p WLED|Intel X-25M 80GB|DVD+/-RW|Intel Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Bluetooth 370|3-year (Warranty+Accidental)|Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

I noticed you have an Intel X-25M 80GB. How do you install one of these? I assume you replaced the Dell stock hard drive and installed the SSD yourself? Does this void any warranty from Dell?

I ask because I am looking to order basically the same system as you have, maybe a larger SSD but I didn't feel confident in the Dell SSD's.

I had read that the Intel SSD's were the BEST (by far) out there right now as far as speed goes.

Any thoughts (DeathWalking) or anyone else on here?

 

Although Dell is currently working on the 1645 throttling issue (Bios A07 +130W adapter), we might need to get more samples before they do the same for 1647...

Can anyone else confirm whether their 1647 does throttle? Surely there are more than just 2 or 3 owners by now?

 

You're correct about removing the stock Dell drive. As for voiding warranty, I don't know nor do I care. If I ever send it back to them for a return, I still have the old drive which I am using as an external to pop back in.

Also, you ask questions funny.

If you've read the last couple of pages, you'd have seen that Dell is working on it, and the consensus is (I believe) that the laptop technically does throttle but barely and imperceptibly.

 

What you've just said is exactly what Dell might want to say in few days time.
Remind me which side are you on?

 

newest reason for the delay - shortage of 6-cell batteries..........

Need pointers to any other good laptops (specs and budget in my signature). Sick and tired of waiting and listening to bullS*it

 

There seems to be a fair amount of empirical evidence that the 1647 throttles, dell apologist comments aside.

EDIT: Once I get a clean install going on my admittedly lower end configuration, I will run it through it's paces and post the results.

 

@raif, what is your configuration? I take it a 430 (as you say it's a lower end config)

Thanks for testing

 

Go read the last 30 pages of the thread, then repeat that comment in good conscience.

 

Which driver do you need to download for TurboBoost on XPS16? Is this it?
ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/chipset/R245385.exe
This driver date is from Nov 2009. I would think that all XPS16 shipped recently should have it installed? I am expecting mine end of Feb. Will I still need this driver?

 

???

 

Yes, you will.

 

Well you guys.... I called again, he said my order was stuck in pre-production for "some reason", he had his manager manually release it to production, should be in production within 5-6 hours...

We will see tomorrow.

 

So, is the url I found that driver?

 

Just out of curiosity - those of you who had a choice of XPS 16 vs Studio 17, why did you end up picking XPS 16? I was kinda forced, since Studio 17 no longer comes with RGBLED. Otherwise, the price difference was not crucial. Actually, fully loaded XPS 16 costs MORE than Studio 17.

So, how about the rest of you?

 

It has a better gpu, 4570 vs 4670. It is a little smaller and it has a little better build quality. That were my reasons anyway. As you can see almost everything is "a little", so if the difference on the price is huge then get the studio 17.

 

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to share some pictures. I've seen a lot of them on the internet but I wasnt able to find any pictures on the High gloss finish without the leather, thats the one I am getting. I was able to find a 5 second scene on a youtube video and it was fast and it didnt look the way I thought it would look, Im worried. So please, if anyone has time..

thanks