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

Just wanted to let people know that the 1647 is on the list of Energy Star 5.0 complient computers.

You may ask what has that got to do with anything.

Well a computer that throttles uses less energy and Energy Star is all about energy efficiency.

Is it a coincidence that the 1640 1645 1647 and all of the other computers with throttling are on the same list?

Check for yourself http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/database.htm

 

Does anyone know off hand what type DDR3 1333 RAM the 1647 uses?
10600, 10660 or 10666 or do they all work?

 

You mean this: PC3-10700. Thats the reported speed.

 

No, I mean the PC3 type, see Pic.



From Newegg

 

There's no practical difference, especially because the CPU can't use anything above 1066MHz. I bet, though, if any 4GB owner sold their 1333MHz sticks on eBay, they would have enough to buy these and still make a profit. I would bet that that would be a performance increase because the CAS latency is 4 lower than our 1333MHz modules. Interesting. I think I might just do that.

 

Looks like lots of options have disappeared from the configuration on the Dell UK site:

Only the SSD drives and the 500GB 5400RPM drive is available now (the 500GB 7200rpm and either of the 320GB drives are missing).

The 6 cell battery is no-longer available, only the 9 cell.

In addition the ONLY screen available is the RGBLED 1080P one (no lower res one or WLED).

Think they are having major issues right now or just phasing out? (I'm still putting off buying one till they refresh to the 5xxx cards, as when spending this much I want to make sure I'm getting current gen, I just hope it's soon).

 

For what it's worth, I also have a 5.9 on my memory. It has been 5.9 since day one. I've tested it on BIOS A01, A03, and A04 and it has never changed.

That's actually a really good idea to consider. I'm guessing Dell just buys the 1333 in bulk and pops them in most of their laptops, regardless of the performance. I think I'll wait for the DDR3 prices to come down a little bit though.

 

Quick question for those in the know -- just got an XPS 1647 a couple of days ago -- how do I know if the display I have is a RGBLED? Looked in the device drivers and its not there. Anywhere else to look? Like to find out the manufacturer of the display. Thanks.

 

@rbats
Goto Computer Management > Device Manager> Monitors> Right Click Generic PnP Monitor and select Properties. In the Drop down Property list, select Hardware IDs The value will be MONTOR\SEC5448 as shown in the pic below.



EDIT: You can also look at the Silver mounting brackets on either side of the screen, if there is no gap between these mounts and the viewable screen then you have a 16.0 RGBLED

 

Thanks -- have the same value.

 

Really? I have and have had since day 1 6.8. My only score below 6 is my hard drive and THAT has a 5.9.

 

Stormwerks, it's because you have 8GB in your lappy and nodnarb83 and myself have 4GB. Looks like 6-8GB owners are getting 6.8 WEI scores and 4GB systems are getting 5.9s.

 

If it was based on the amount of memory... wouldn't you think 8GB would get more than 6GB...

But I have 6GB and stormwerks has 8GB and we both get 6.8...

 

EDIT: My bad, thought this was the thread for 1645!

 

WEI is not accurate at all, so yeah, a part from latency and frequency it can be based on the amount of memory. Maybe for WEI (which again, is inaccurate) 6GB doesnt make any difference from 8GB but it does for 4GB. Thats why I have 4GB and WEI is showing a 5.9 score.

 

@Josh,
I did not write the WEI program I only observe and post what I am seeing.

Does it make sense? NO of course not. 8GB should get higher scores than 6GB if this was the case but they are not. I know that WEI states “operations per second” NOT amount. But maybe just maybe, WEI is doing more ops per second because it can do more operations with the greater amount of RAM installed. and anything over 6GB is just not being utilized by WEI tests. If you have a better answer to this then please enlighten us.
Better yet, why not pull out your 4 GB stick and run WEI to see what the score is running 2GB? Or maybe I’ll pull one of my 2GBs out after dinner and run it. Sound like a plan my friend?

EDIT or pull your 2GB and test with 4GB.

 

Is the memory a different clockspeed for the 1647 vs 1645? I have a score of 7.4 on my 1645 with 4GB.

 

Yes, due to the i7 the 1645 uses 1333mhz compared to the 1066 from the 1647

 

Count me in as having 5.9 for memory -- new laptop with 4 GB. Weird thing is that even my 256GB SSD shows a rating of 5.9 -- thought that would be way higher...

 

Yes, that 5.9 for the SSD is awkward. Are you sure you dont need to refresh WEI?

 

I could have swear that before upgrading to the A04 my memory was around 6.7 but after A04 it dropped to 5.9.
SSD should be around 6.7/6.8 Make sure you have installed intel matrix storage and not the newer rapid technology driver. Yes, the new driver gives lower speeds but the older Matrix storage gives the right speeds.

 

Try this thread for some help with your SSD.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=462069&highlight=SSD

 

Try installing Intel Matrix Device Manager.

My SSD shows 7.2..

 

Ok guys, I found this tidbit about WEI scores, it’s from the old scoring numbers that had a max of 5.9 (Vista)but as you can see in the snippet, below it DOES matter how much RAM you have in your system as well as other RAM, CPU and BIOS factors.

Quote: "Not having enough memory is a limiting factor on performance. As a result, the amount of memory in the system constrains the score value. The amount of system memory is determined by the overall system memory minus any memory reserved for graphics (if any)."

Source: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/458117.aspx?PageIndex=4


EDIT: I’m still looking around for a more up to date data with regard to the new WEI 7.9 max score(Win7 version) and higher RAM amounts used than the 1.5GB max as shown in the snippet.

 

Thought I read somewhere that you have to install the Intel SSD Toolbox for TRIM garbage collection maintenance -- that is, you have to maintain manually as opposed to it being done automatically.

This SSD/TRIM stuff is really getting to be rocket science to me...

 

Hello, this is my first post in this thread.

I am looking for a new Core ix laptop, I'm wavering between the VAIO F (Core i7) and the XSPS 1647 (Core i5).

The most important thing that stop me buying the XSPS 1640 is its temperature. But I hope in this new version 1647, Dell had some improvements for the heatsink. So I'd like to ask you if the 1647 is cooler than the 1640.

 

I haven't had any heat problems since I have gotten mine. It has never gotten hot, just the normal warm...

 

been seeing a quite a few posts on WEI scores about RAM...was wondering could it because 6 is a multiple of 3, and the Core i CPUs use triple channel memory? 4 GB would be asynchronous, but 6 GB is synced.

 

Thank you. That is great!
Could you please give me some screenshots captured by temperature monitor apps?

 

@melthd:
I don’t know, it could very well be.
I’ve been trying to find an answer to this today. It’s not that WEI scores really matter to me as there are better tools for benchmarking, but mostly to find out why WEI scores the way it does and to put an end to this debate once and for all
.
The latest info I found just now is from http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=622&pgno=2 and shows the max RAM score one can have with 3GB is 5.5 and 4GB is maxed at 5.9 (64bit) See snippet below. Still trying to find information for max WEI scores above 4GB ( 5-8+ GB ).

However, that being said, it is quite apparent that the amount of memory in your PC does have direct relation to your maximum possible WEI score contrary to the belief of some of the posters on these threads.

 

I have that SSD Intel toolbox. What it does it optimizes the drive more like a defrag utility, but its not. Its advised to run it once in a while. Personally I haven't noticed any performance gain after using it. It will not effect your WEI index score.

 

That sounds kind of odd to me ... maybe because 2 dimms vs 1?

Edit: Scratch that .. saw the posting on memory vs wei scores. Never knew that.

 

6GB dual channel (164x) vs. 6GB tripple channel (sxps 435MT)

6.8 vs. 7.5

That's a different I would say... clocks match, though I don't know it my desktop has native 1067Mhz or also a bunch of 1333Mhz modules.

So that's 1x2048MB + 1x4096MB vs. 3x2048MB

 

Not to digress from the WEI discussion, but...to digress:

Finally got some dedicated time for getting to know my newest baby (see specs in sig.) and I had a couple questions:

I have updated to the latest BIOS (A04) an want to do a clean install of Win 7 Pro x64. Has anyone done the same thing, with similar hardware, and run into any issues re: drivers? I'd rather use manufacturers' drivers when available (like for the ATI card, Ethernet, Wifi, maybe?) but want to get some input from anyone who's done this already. I know the easy thing would be to just use the Dell drivers from their site, but shouldn't I be using the latest manuf.s' drivers when available? If you've got some advice, or a cheat sheet for the driver versions/order installed, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Also, I've had no love with trying to get a 130w adapter (in the US). Tried email and phone support and they will only send the same 90w adapter as a replacement. Did I miss the boat on those since A04 has come out or what?

 

Try this link. Worked just as he indicated for me after I got a similar response to you when I called.

BTW, thanks to MattMJB for pointing the way...

 

You’re going to get a higher score on your desktop (with the same amount of RAM) because of the 920 processor and faster bus speeds on the Mobo. The BIOS can also have an impact on the scores too.
The i4, i5 and i7 620m have a bus speed of 1066 no matter if there is 1333 installed.
So these really cannot be compared with regard to WEI RAM scores.

 

This thread is giving me second thoughts about buying an XPS. So far I've seen that most people have issues with:

Over saturation of the RGBLED screen (and off-whites/off-blacks)
Issues with speaker buzz or non-working sub-woofer
Random exceptionally long lead-times with vague shipping information
Flickering screens
Throttling
Some misc other various issues

Now the machine looks great on paper but the amount of people reporting these issues is really worrying. If I buy one am I likely to be disappointed due to continual issues or shoddy build quality?

 

Over saturation is adjustable, the flickering seems to stop as soon as you make use of CCC.
The sound, well, I have absolute no complaint, 2 people had (2 out of ?? (no offence))
Shipping was probably due to the special events and it depends on where you live.
Throttling has been solved(as far as I can tell), A04 with a 130W adapter. XD


About the memory, so you can't compare desktop to laptop, even on RAM? lol.. why can't it be easy for once, haha. btw, 920 only supports 800/1066.

 

Well, you can't compare laptop to laptop either as a quad lappy will give higher WEI scores than a dual with the same memory, so yes.

Thanks for the correction on the 920native bus speeds but it's still a quad comparing to a dual which does affect the scores. Read my other posts and the links included with them as to why.

BTW you can get 1333 and 1600 speeds by dialing up Core i7-920's base clock speed up from 133 to 167 and 200MHz, which allows it to run the memory at 1333 and 1600MHz, respectively. Yea, Microsoft does not make it easy at all.

 

FurMark Score went way up? 540 --> 926

After updating the the 10.3 Preview Drivers at strags.com, my furmark score is now at 926 (full brightness, 90w).

With the shipped Dell ATI Drivers, Dell updated 8.692.1.0000 Drivers or the 10.2 WHQL certified drivers at strags.com, I was getting only around 540...


Even with prime95 + furmark + Throttlestop v1.94 (just logging), it's now at 917 (furmark score) even though the CPUs are throttling with the 90w and A04.

 

Nice! thanks for the info.

 

fyi, I went from shipped --> updated Dell ATI Drivers --> 10.2 WHQL (strags.com) --> 10.3 Preview (strags.com).

more info about my update process Here

Now at these Versions:

Code:

Driver Packaging Version 8.71.3-100205a-095620E
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1010
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0735
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9606
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0205.1306.23449

I have to check if I lost the updated HDMI version (from Dell ATI update) when using 10.3 Uninstall, then 10.3 Install

 

I upgraded to the new BIOS and the beta 10.3 Catalyst drivers and I'm getting consistent Furmark scores of 1456 and frame rates averaging 30 fps. Thats way better than before!

 

Laptop CPUs run dual-channel still. The 6GB is a 4+2 setup.

 

what was you previous score before you upgraded the driver

 

Most likely, your main memory (8GB vs my 4GB) is the reason your score a lot higher than mine, even more so than the 540m vs 520m CPU.

I've been running my furmark via a Window (full size though).

Still amazing a there is such a difference between <10.3 drivers and 10.3 Preview.

 

I love dells answer when I asked them if there will ever be a newer driver released

Code:

20:06:01   	  	 John
is dell going to release a newer ati video driver
 20:06:01   	  	 Prashanth_156460 	
Sure. Go ahead.
 20:06:37   	  	 Prashanth_156460 	
Yes. We will only release new ones unless we find issues with the previous drivers.
 20:07:17   	  	 Prashanth_156460 	
You can watch our support webpage and we might release a newer driver soon.

might is just another word for were too lazy

 

Sounds real good Stormwerks and I’m eager to dive into this these updates but I’m waiting for the official release of the 10.3 drivers as I use my laptop for work and need it to be stable.

I am also holding back on the A04 BIOS until I get a 130w adapter, which according to Todd (Dell) in post #1985 on this thread, should wait until a final decision is made on the adapters. With any luck I’ll be able to keep the 90w when this is all ironed out.

 

I was getting a score around 600 - 650 if I remember correctly.

 

All I've been hearing is good things about this 10.3 driver. I really want to try it, but I also want to wait for the official release which should be pretty soon, right? I was wondering whether this 10.3 preview driver is stable, because the performance increase is sounding unbelievable. Well done to ATI if the official release even ups this. I can't wait...