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

swaggaXL, there is an Edit button that you can change or add to your first post.

1. Congratulations! you will LOVE it totally
2. the 1647 does not have throttling with BIOS A05, using 90W adapter. You will not need a 130W adapter.
3. HD 5730

 

Hi guys, how's A05 working out for you on the long run, I've been reading mixed messages all over the last few pages, any conclusions?

 

I havent recieved any details about the upcoming graphics card. But I was told oen is coming. Damn im leaving to Hong Kong on the 8th of may. Ill be away for more than 3 months and I need a laptop.

Does Dell have international support?

Maybe I stress my machien so much it overheats and I want a new gaphics card lol.

Do u guys know if Dell woudl upgrade Motherboard, Graphics card? Or is there anyway to get them to do it?

 

Great. No issues. But then, I never had any.

Yes.

No, and no.

 

OK, man I can't wait, should be here next week. I was looking @ the possibility of a new video card being offered within months of my purchase, but I'm going to be building a beastly machine @ the end of next year so I'm too concerned about that.

 

Has anyone tried these new drivers yet? Any issues?

Thanks.

 

Hey just wondering guys, can I upgrade from win7 64bit home to 64 bit pro? I have my official pro copy from school but I'm getting the home edition with my XPS.

 

Probably, it may depend on the type of key you have for Pro (upgrade/full/oem), if it's a school copy I assume it's a full key and you should have no issue in using the anytime upgrade process.
Certainly I was able to use a legit work license key to 'anytime upgrade' a laptop from Home Premium to Pro (shortly after I'd edited the registry to allow me to upgrade from Vista Enterpise to Home Premium ).
HTH

 

OK, as soon as I get the machine I'll give it a shot, should be here in a day or two.

 

Hopefully I will be able to join your ranks soon. My 1340 is being replaced

 

How much longer?

 

Let me know how it goes.

 

I recently sold my studio xps 1640 and am now looking at either getting a macbook pro or an upgrade 1647. My question is simple, do the 1647s suffer from heat in the touchpad area and in front of the touchpad area like the 1640s did?

 

It's here!!!! BEST LAPTOP I've Ever Owned!!

 

My touchpad gets mildy warm, never hot. Laptop can get hot if your doing extreme gaming but not uncomfortable hot. I don't consider it to have any heating problems, except for the thermal limit on the gpu

 

My 1640 got unconfortably hot just surfing the internet right in front of the touch pad. Its good to know the 1647 doesnt do that, thanks.

 

congratulations SwaggaXL Join the owners of the best overall laptop in the world

as for the heat, it doesn't get uncomfortably hot unless extreme gaming as said, and i never hit the thermal limit anyways.

 

So far so good, shaping up to be the best investment of 2010, lol

 

lol i notice i have the exact same specs as you, with the exception of Windows version. Mine is Home Premium.

 

New A06 bios released!
I let you know if there are big noticeable changes

 

just updated it. seemed like the longest BIOS flash ever. dont see any diffence yet. Does anyone have the exact changes made? I cannot seem to find them

 

Just curious if anyone knows if there is a plan to implement USB 3.0 in these laptops?

 

"Support new CPUs". I'm rather curious what CPUs, but as usual Dell gives as little detail as possible.

No.

 

it seems they are always vague about the deets on those updates....but I will slam it on anyway....

 

Yea man, this is the best laptop ever, I'm rating this over the mac book pro which I got tired of seeing .............with the ridiculous prices for their logo, those PC's are sub standard for the money people dish out, though I just saw their their new line of pro's just got the core processors, ............................but not the mac books, wow, how wack is that? lol

What updates should I look out for or get right now concerning drivers

 

them MBPs suck compared to these beautiful sleek machines Let Dell show Apple how its done

As for your update question, first would be the BIOS A06 update. A05 is fine actually, as A06 doesn't seem to bring any improvements (according to my Vantage scores) So to make life easier, here is the list, in order of importance:

BIOS A05/A06
ATI Catalyst 10.3
Dell Wireless Mini Card 1520
IDT Audio Driver
Dell System Software

there you go

ADDED: bah..just brushed some irritating dust out of the air vents...temps were lowered by 2-3C lol.

 

Great info here. I've found a used 1647 (Best Buy model purchased in Feb) in mint condition here locally for $725 (after talking him down). Seems like a great deal for an awesome PC. Can any gurus confirm? Thanks!

 

Hey Glider what part of the country are you in? I was looking at one for about the same price for a buddy- ( who flaked) - you got a GREAT deal-

the BB model is the i5 - 430, 4gb and 900P screen- ( which i like) the RGB is better- but HD+ is just right for most...

Enjoy- Transfer the warranty right away-

 

Thanks Raether. I'm in San Francisco. There is also a guy on Ebay selling two of these used for $850 each which is not bad either (considering these are sold today at BB for $1080 w tax). Glad to see that the latest BIOS means I can keep the 90w slim adapter that it comes with.

 

I think its the same one- was in Tracy, CA- Congrats on the score-

You will love it, My 1640 is being replaced with a 1647 that ill have monday.. I have the 130- which ill keep just to be sure

 

Dell is going to replace my system with either an i5 or i7 machine. Is there a large jump in performance (games like Crysis and applications like Encore/PS) between the 720qm and the 820qm? 520M vs 430M? 520m vs 720qm?

 

So I just got my replacement 1647 and I have both laptops side by side and I notice that the backlight on the keyboard is much brighter when on high setting on my 1640, the one thats going back. I was wondering if I should just swap the keyboards out. The quickset function is also reverse on my 1647 where you push funtion plus the right arrow, the settings are in reverse order, High-Low-Off, where as on my 1640 it goes Off-Low-High and I also get an on screen notification. Does anyone else with a 1647 have the same scenario?

 

yes. i see the exact same thing. also on the 1640, the KB back light comes on faster

 

Can I just swap the keyboards out, if so do you think it will make a difference? I kinda like having the on screen notification!

 

Im not sure that has anything to do with the KB. The OSD is usualy software

 

I was actually talking about the keyboard brightness. My 1640 is much brighter

 

Ok. i dont see why not. its the same KB. i thought about it myself. still procrastinating

 

alot of little screws, I wish I would have know this earlier, I had my laptop taken apart a couple hours ago when I swapped my dvdr to my BR from my 1640

 

if you do try this let me know how it turns out!

 

Was the seller in Livermore?

If it was, you're mean. I was trying to buy that!

 

Don't C2D chip perform better then the i5/i7 from the start?

 

They do not.

 

Not at all. For a point of reference, the i5 540M performs almost as well as a T9900 but costs a whole lot less.

 

I went from a P8800 to the i5 540m, is that an improvement?

 

I apologize for repeating my question but it has remained unanswered: "Dell is going to replace my system with either an i5 or i7 machine. Is there a large jump in performance (games like Crysis and applications like Encore/PS) between the 720qm and the 820qm? 520M vs 430M? 520m vs 720qm?"

 

You will be GPU bound in almost any game at any decent resolution.

i7 620m is your best bet for gaming. It is clocked highest and will turbo boost highest as well.

Above that are only quad cores (7xxQM and 8XXqm), which are clocked lower and turbo lower. This will not be as good for gaming.

Below the 620 are i5 5xxm, 4xxm. They are the same as the i7 620m, but are clocked lower and turbo lower. They are clocked higher and turbo higher than the i7 quads (7xx, 8xx). 430m might not be much higher.

For raw performance numbers you can view this benchmark list:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

Most games aren't multi-threaded, so the faster a single core can run the better. Most multi-threaded games are targeted for dual core, so the faster two cores can run the better for them. The i7 quads are slower in most cases for single thread or dual threaded applications than the i5/i7 dual cores. Any threads above that 3-8 the i7 quads will be better.

 

Considering Dell does not offer the SXPS16 with the 640m I guess that means its either the 820qm or the 540m. Most of the games I own/will own will be games that use multicore tech (BFBC2, etc). I also do lots of video editing and converting. I assume the 820qm would be better for those tasks. Its unlikely that Dell will give me the 820qm though, as it costs a ton. I assume the 540m would also be more efficient and run cooler which is a plus. Am I right or mistaken?

 

Awesome info here. I just picked up a 1647 used and love it. Can someone please suggest the best way to "reformat" the HD back to the original factory install? I have the CDs that came with it. Should I use the CDs or use the Restore utility? Thanks.

 

I am going to buy a 1647 with an i5 chip. I am not a gamer, and I want maximum battery life and minimum heat, so I am thinking of waiting to see if they update the 1647 with the ATI 5000 series. For example, I see the 5830 uses 9 watts less power than the 4670. Do you guys think a new GPU will make much difference from a heat/power perspective?

 

@paskowitz I haven't heard of a 640m. There certainly is a 620m. It used to be an option on the 430m configuration. Someone might have a link with a more open config (sometimes dell hides configurations) or they are short/out of 620m and no longer list it.

@TedCarson. The I5 or i7 620m should use 10w less power than the i7 quads. Should also save 10w (p series) to 20w (t-series) compared to a core2 system with the other architecture changes and the north bridge moving onto the CPU.

A new GPU would likely be on 40nm process, so would be more efficient, which would give consumers some combination of less heat/power at the same performance or more performance and the same/similar power/heat level compared to the current 4670.

@gliderjoe. I've never used Dell recovery discs, but you might try putting the recovery CD in and rebooting. Hit F12 on startup and select the CD as the boot source and see if it walks you through some sort of format/recovery.