XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

Ok, screen pics - these actually look quite poor but I hadn't adjusted any settings at the time and the light was weird in the room - it looks a bit better in reality...

I think I'll take some more in a bit, with my proper camera and in a well lit room - that room was pitch dark which I think has made the images look really bad!

 

I've got a few questions for you, CowboyCoder, if you don't mind.

1. When you installed the SSD, did you have the option to install to the included 32gb cache drive?

2. Also, when installing the ssd, was it snug in the slot with no extra room, or would there possibly be room for a 9mm drive as well? I know there's no real way to tell short of sticking one in, but it's worth a try asking.

3. Do you game? If so, do you plan on putting up some 'benchmarks' in terms of fps you got, in x game at y settings?

Thanks a lot. It took me 5 months to finally pick a laptop, even then i plan on tweaking it to my liking.

 

Very nice, congrats, i hope you are happy about your investment

 

Updated pics attached. These are more accurate as taken in a well lit room with the screen on medium brightness.

 

ive mostly familiar with the macbook pros screen and its vertical isnt very great, have you any experience seeing these and could tell me if they are similar viewing angles vertically?

 

Can you please post a video of how you open the computer & change the hard drive and memory?

I would like to see how difficult or easy it is to upgrade the XPS 14 as the 512GB SSD version is way too expensive and the hard drive + 32GB lol accelerator has no place in an ultrabook if you ask me.

For example there is a very good video explaining this for the asus ( Asus Zenbook UX32VD - Aufgeschraubt - YouTube)

 

Sorry but I don't really want to open it up again - because those screw heads are so tiny and brittle, I think they'd soon wear down if you go into it more than a couple of times.

There is a Dell manual further back in this thread which gives step-by-step instructions, but as a simple guide it was something like this (from memory)...

1. Using T5 screwdriver, remove the 6 torx screws
2. Remove the silver panel that covers the Windows OEM sticker
3. Remove two more screws
4. Gently remove the back plate, taking care as it's still attached to the system board by a small ribbon cable (connected to the battery for the LED status).
5. Where said cable attaches to the system board, gently lift the white plastic gripper to allow the ribbon cable to slip free. You can then fully remove the lid.
6. Gently remove the white plastic connector that links the battery to the system board, taking extra care not to tug the individual wires.
7. Remove four screws around the edge of the battery and take it out.
8. Remove four flat screws on the two speakers and disconnect the small cable attached to the system board - this is a tiny white connector that just slides off.
9. Lift out the speakers.
10. Unscrew the four screws holding the HDD in place.
11. Disconnect the SATA connection to the HDD, which is hidden under another ribbon cable. I'm not sure if this one can be removed but if you're careful you can remove the drive without disconnecting it.
12. Swap the HDD for the SSD.
13. Put it all back together again, in reverse order.

It took about 20 minutes and I seriously wouldn't attempt it if you're a clumsy oaf or unless you're reasonably comfortable dismantling electronics.

Hope that helps.

Re: the the MacBook Pro screen, I've not used a Mac so I can't compare them I'm afraid. I'm happy with it and been using it all evening and haven't seen my reflection once. I think it's only an issue with fluorescent lighting or if you're sitting outside or with your back to a window. Viewing angles are fine for my usage.

 

Thanks for answering my questions. Got one more for you, if you dont mind. Did you reinstall with a new copy of windows, or did you make a backup and reinstall that way? i only ask because in the past, OEM copies have given me trouble with simple hard drive swaps, where as they should be tied to the motherboard(if i remember correctly, that is).

 

I previously had a Dell Latitude E6400 that came with a Windows 7 Pro x64 DVD. I burned that to USB a bootable USB stick and installed from there. It accepted my OEM key from the sticker and activated fine.

If you haven't got a DVD, your best bet might be to buy the Samsung 830 SSD which comes with Norton Ghost. If you get hold of a USB caddy you'll be able to put the SSD into the caddy then clone the whole thing before swapping it out.

PS: For those interested; the Windows and Intel stickers peel off really easily and leave no residue. I stuck mine on the inside of the XPS tag on the bottom of the laptop

 

I think I am going to swap out for a xps 15 the screen is too much of a downgrade from a 1080p screen, this one has a 1600 by 900 but it looks grainy

 

Good to know. Thanks for that.

 

It can't be that bad...


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no its not I have gotten used to it, should I do an exchange though a piece of my 8 key is chipped off, not too bad just a little noticeable?

speakers are amazing btw really impressed, trackpad and keyboard are great only getting 4.9 on windows exp because of windows graphics, 3d is 6.9 is that really bad?

 

6.9 for 3D graphics is pretty good.

4.9 isn't that great, however that's for "Windows Aero" among other things, the basic visuals that Windows uses, and the good news is that with W8 there will no longer be any Aero. Therefore, if you upgrade to W8 I'll assume that part of the WEI will no longer exist and your overall score will go up. Something to look forward to.

 

Got mine yesterday very happy with it so far

 

Anyone who's gotten theirs already go post a video somewhere of it. And share the link here

 

Hi Cowboy,
so, some news about the chance to reconfigure mSATA driver?
And if I would if I would to disable it completely (without has BIOS messages), can I do it?

 

I did a little digging. The raid Cowboy broke was the intel rapid storage. For it to work, the drivers set up basically a raid connection between the two disks.

For those that want it, here's a link to intel's webpage where its explained a little more elegantly.
Support for the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

Also, Cowboy, if you want to reconfigure it as a cache drive, here's a link to the driver from the dell website.
Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

From what i understand, you can configure how much of which drive you want to use to cache. So ssd cache drive for an ssd? That sounds scary.

 

Windows 8 won't have the "Aero" theme, with transparency, but it will still have GPU-accelerated interfaces. Windows on the desktop will almost certainly still animate and fade into view, for example, and I'm sure that Metro is hardware-accelerated, too, given all the effects like sliding and flipping into view. So what you said isn't exactly accurate.

4.9 is really low for Windows graphics--I think it's actually close to the level at which Microsoft recommends disabling Aero. My XPS15 with a GeForce 525M has 6.6, and that's just a Sandy Bridge laptop with a pretty old video card.

 

Thanks, people on the XPS 15 thread have been discussing this and the general consensus is SSD caching on an SSD would just cause latency and not be any quicker.

I'm using my 32gb to hold the hibernation file and a backup copy of my vital files just in case the main disk dies, that works well for me at the moment.


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So...email from Dell today, my unit shipped and fedex is showing tue delivery. So i will be getting it a little more than a week before he scheduled date from Dell.

8gb crucial memory on the way from tigerdirect.

Now the $200 question. 256gb or 128gb crucial 7mm m4. Probably going with the 256 at this point.

 

256 gb samsung. I'm scared off by the recent crucial reviews.

 

CowboyCoder, how clean/easy was your windows install and getting everything working? If the spinning drive comes already 'aligned' so i can simply image it i wont need to...but if not, gonna do a clean win7 install.

 

Too expensive. Its 50% more than the m4. Which reviews? Most of what i am finding, with the latest firmware seems to be positive.

If i had to scale back in size, prob go back to an intel 320 in 7mm.

 

Keep your eyes peeled, I got my 256 gb sammys for 190-230 each. They frequently go on sale to similar prices to the Crucial, and read all the recent reviews on newegg on the crucial. It could be solved, but I haven't heard any bad samsung reviews in any quantity

 

Hylton, as well as everyone else, beware on upgrading your ram. The laptop has a single dim slot for ram. So if you ordered an 8gb(4x2) kit, it wont be useable.

 

Actually, I'm using W8RP on a two year-old machine right now, and my WEI score for "Aero graphics" is 7.1. Metro doesn't require 1/5th the GPU processing power that Aero did, so it's a very accurate statement and I'm speaking from experience. When you upgrade to W8, you'll see what I mean.

 

Yep, caught that in the service manual on Dell support. But thanks for getting my back! I ordered the single 8gb sodimm 204 pin ddr3. Unless there is more than one size/design on those (physically) i should be good.

 

Thanks...will do. Only thing is, I am only planning to crack this thing open ONCE given he pia it looks like it will be. Other than a drive failure or the arrival of single 16gb sodimm modulees.

Will be buying something to have in hand by next weekend. Patience is NOT one of my virtues

 

Then why is it in the RP?

 

A question for you friends.
SSD 32 GB on mSATA, what brand is it? Is it removeable?

My doubt is, can I improve the performance if I use only an SSD Samsung on SATA? Or I lose the chance to use Intel Smart Response and Intel Rapid Start?

EDIT: If SSD 32GB isn't very performing (I mean as brand) can I substitute it with another one? For example, Samsung PM830?

EDIT 2: Or, another chance, is it better I use just one bigger SSD (ex. 256GB) on mSATA?

In short, which one is the most performing solution?

 

mSata is the Samsung PM830 and is removable.

There is no gain using the cache with an SSD it only works with HDD. You should consider replacing the mSATA with a 256GB one and keeping the spinner for storage. The spinner will add weight, reduce battery time and add noise though.

Personally, I'd never use a spinner in a laptop in any capacity ever again. My setup is Samsung 128gb 830 SSD + Samsung PM830 32gb mSATA which I use for backing up files off the main SSD.

CrystalMark scores are amazing and WEI score is 7.9.




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I didn't see any deals for 256 this weekend, but [starts 7/9/12] 128gb Samsung 830 series 2.5-inch SSD $89.99 Ships free - Slickdeals.net Here is the 128 GB samsung 830 for 89 bux tomorrow at the egg.

 

Thanks for the thorough reply!

So, did you disabled RAID mode, using the SSD on mSATA like an additional SSD. Don't you?

Wow! The CrystalMark score sounds good! Just for my curiosity, how much are long the start up and wake up times?

Thanks again!

 

Boots up (from off) in about 14 seconds. Resumes from sleep instantly.


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That's nice!

 

Is it instant on with opening the lid?

 

Let's just say the Windows logon screen was waiting for me to enter the password before I'd fully lifted the screen. That quick enough for ya?


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Any of you used to work on high res screens? Is it difficult to adapt to low res?

I'm quite interested in ultrabooks but I have been working for years on 1920x1200 laptops and dual 1920x1200 on desktop and 1368x768 or 1600x900 seems quite crappy, especially for photoshop, film, music or 3d softwares.

What about full-hd bluerays/hdvd? how do they look downscaled?

 

900p is perfect for this size screen. I use 1366x768 at work and it's too claustrophobic. I've used 1080p on a 15" and found the text too tiny to read comfortably. As for BluRay, it doesn't have an optical drive - it's an Ultrabook. If you want a laptop for multimedia best look elsewhere, XPS 15 perhaps.

 

Hey Everyone. my 14 will arrive tomorrow. Does anyone have requests for pictures/benchmarks/ect? I can't promise i'll get around to all of them, but i'll be running my own tests on it as well. Feel free to request some game results as well, as i have a big enough library and ill be testing it alot anyway. I'll have a stock i7+630m, so i can also let you know how long the regular boot time is without a main ssd.

 

Can anyone post the Windows 7 "Windoes Experience Index" numbers for the XPS 14 w/ i7-3517U , 8GB Ram, 512GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M with 1GB GDDR5 VRAM (basically a maxed out machine from Dell's site)? I am really interested in the numbers for graphics.

 

Nice castle. Is that yours? Can I come visit?

Congratulations on receipt of the cool new XPS 14 Ultrabook.

Is the mSATA drive inside the standard mSATA footprint or one of the gumstick style devices? Is the HDD a standard 7mm drive? Did you take any pics when you had it apart?

Thanks,

Thor

 

I normally agree 1600x900 is best for 14 inches but this display is so grainy I've seen better lower resolution screens.

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My castle? Nah, don't be silly. I wouldn't live in a place that small - its one I bought for my parents retirement...

The mSata is the Samsung PM830 - I've never seen one before so I couldn't say whether it's standard size or not, hopefully you can tell from the make/model.

The main drive is the slimmer 7mm model, but the Samsung 830 fits just fine.

Didn't take any pics I'm afraid. I was too worried about nipping a wire or shorting
something out at the time!


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I'm interested temperatures and fan noise during playing a demanding game (like: GTA 4 or Call of Duty) using both engine; i7+630m. A 3DMark11 Performance result too, Please!

Unfortunately this is traditional, when Dell's "quality" screens below average...

 

Does anyone know the make and model of the 512gb SSD you can spec with the XPS 14 ? Thanks.

Edit - I presume its a Samsung 830 series?

 

Ok my XPS 14 is arriving Wednesday (Australian time) and I will be putting in a Samsung 830 SSD 256GB. I originally bought a Crucial M4 but seeing as it wouldn't fit it is back onto ebay.

I have a crappy desktop and this is my first laptop and I am a total noob when it comes to tech although I am a fast learner. Opeing up and replacing the HDD seems somewhat daunting but I am really excited and it should be fun. I'll take it very slow. Losing my laptop customisation viriginty, how exciting haha

The hardware stuff I think will be fine but after that I plan on doing a clean install. I have never done that either lol. I hadn't even heard of the term until I started reading this forum a couple months back. Is there any guide etc. that will help me with that process? Do I just need the drivers from the Dell website? Any tips would be much appreciated.

Also, if anyone wants some pics or has any questions after Wednesday just let me know and I'll be happy to give some answers. It is the least I could do after all the tip I've read on these forums.

 

Here is one install guide that seems popular Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

Here is another http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html

Good luck on your install. Yes you can get all your drivers directly from Dell.

 

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.