XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Any ideas why my Geforce GT 750M is stuck at 400mhz?

 

Did a search on that graphics card, and it looks like a lot of the GT 750M reports 405MHZ..
http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=basic&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/gpuname/fs/P/NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GT%20750M&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

 

I think that field in the report is nonsense. The one on mine says 405 MHz.

 

how did you go about the install of windows 8.1? too much hassle? , did you go with a recovery image, or downloaded an ISO?

 

In fact on that site, all of them when doing advanced search and saying 1 GPU report 405 MHZ.. so it's fine.

 

Hail to the King baby! I love this thing!!!!

I had an older XPS 15 (the L502X which is older by two generations) and while it is a good laptop, it has always been a heavy beast. My battery finally died so it made me think it might be time to start looking for a new laptop. I wanted something thinner and lighter but wanted to keep the 15" screen and the backlit keyboard. I also wanted the whole SSD instant-on thing, as well as power, performance, good speakers, and the ability to play games. I'm in the IT industry so I also want something with enough CPU and memory to run VMWare Workstation for testing from time to time. Been pretty happy with Dell and have used them at home and work for years so I didn't bother looking around at other brands.

I have been waiting a long time for Dell to refresh this product line. I was just about to pull the trigger on one of the new Inspiron 15" 7000's which they just refreshed, but I played with one at Best Buy the other day and it still felt too heavy. Luckily I saw an announcement about this XPS refresh and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I ordered mine a couple of weeks ago on the first day it was available and they told me it would be 11/15 before it shipped, but I got it on a little early on 11/7.

This is a beautiful piece of engineering, my hats off to the Engineers at Dell--well done gentlemen! The fit and finish is AMAZING. I love the soft silicone palm rest. The aluminum lid is nice and I love the look of the carbon fiber bottom. It feels SO light compared to my older XPS--over two pounds lighter actually. The QHD touch screen is pretty cool. I thought the default font size was a little too small so I set the resolution to 1600x900 and everything now looks about the right size to me. The touch screen is kind of nice and I tested it every way I can think of, but I still prefer the minimalist control and movement you get with a mouse compared to waving my hands around like a zombie and leaving smudge marks all over the screen.

I got the one with the i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and the 512GB SSD. No CD/DVD on this to keep it thinner, so I just ordered it with a USB CD/DVD drive. The original text on the Dell website said it came with an RJ-45 Ethernet port, but I noticed in the pictures that I didn't see one, and since I ordered mine they changed the text on the web site to correctly indicate that it does NOT have an Ethernet port. I read some stuff in the forums and people were guessing they were going to include a USB to Ethernet dongle, but they did NOT, which is kind of a problem for me being a Network guy and all. I called customer service and made a big deal about it and they sent me one for free. All that came in the box was the laptop, the power supply, and a little Quick Start guide. No CD's. No Manuals. No way to rebuild if you have a problem?!?

It has the new Intel 7260-AC Wireless which seems to be working great with my Asus RT-AC66R wireless router. Reading in the forums, people seemed to have a lot of problems with the Intel wireless stuff in the last generation XPS laptops, but so far this new 7260-AC is rock solid. I've tried it on both the 2.4Ghz band and the 5Ghz band I've never had any problems. My AP is upstairs and I'm usually downstairs about 50 feet away. I've tested all over my house, I've closed the lid, rebooted, done speedtests, streamed audio and video, downloaded files, and it works like a champ. I have Time Warner cable Internet in Dallas and I consistently get over 20Mbs down and over 2Mbs up. It connects instantly upon startup and I have not had any sporadic connectivity or connection drop problems. Based on my experience, it looks like they have fixed the crappy WiFi problems that plagued users of the older XPS series.

I've been playing with this thing for about a week now and I can still say it is AWESOME. The battery life is amazing. I used it off and on all day yesterday for long periods of time from 9am in the morning until about 1am before I realized I was unplugged all day. Wow. Again, it wasn't on the entire time, but I would have plugged my old laptop in at least twice during that same time frame so this feels like it really lasted all day on a single charge.

And now for the bad stuff. Not much really. The speakers are not as good as my older XPS which was bigger, heavier, and it had a built-in sub-woofer. The old XPS probably had one of the best speaker setups I've ever heard on a laptop--front facing speakers on both sides of the keyboard with a sub woofer on the bottom. This new XPS has speakers on the bottom front edge and even with all the Waves Maxx audio magic, they are really just very average at best which is a little disappointing, this being the premium multimedia laptop in the Dell product line and all.

So besides the missing RJ-45 Ethernet port and the average speakers, the only other bad thing I have to say about this thing is.... Windows 8.1--not Dell's fault really, but I hate Windows 8. I'm a power user and want my desktop. Windows 8 just does not fit the way I work. So I loaded the latest version of Classic Shell (free). Classic Shell is so customizable and it really gives you the best of both worlds. I now boot right to my desktop which looks like Windows 7, but lurking in the corners with a few swipes of my finger are all of the Windows 8.1 features. Of course I am a little worried that I am only one service pack away from Microsoft trying to kill Classic Shell, to force me to use the crappy Windows 8.1 interface "to make my life easier".

This really is a great laptop for work, for play, and everything in between. I love the size, the look, the feel. Its fast, its light, its got great connectivity, and great battery life. I've waited a log time to find the perfect laptop and this one is pretty close to perfect for me.

 

I don't think the recovery image works (at least it did not for me). I had to download an ISO. Boots in 1 second now

 

Interesting, that wasn't listed in the spec. Do you have NFC as well? If not I wonder if they scrapped NFC and standardized on TPM for both the XPS and Precision models. Unless maybe there's some early manufacturing glitches that are causing Precision-spec motherboards to make their way into XPS machines -- do you have a Quadro GPU as well?

 

Honest question... Shouldn't I be downloading the latest AC7260 drivers since thats the wireless card in the XPS15?

 

Must have been a mistake in the spec list, probably because the M3800 does include the dongle. But according to the accessory options list when ordering, this is a Gigabit Ethernet dongle that only uses USB 2.0, which means USB will become your bottleneck -- assuming the USB 2.0 listing isn't a mistake as well. If you got one for free then I suppose that's the best outcome, but if you find your LAN speeds aren't what you expected, you'll probably want to get a USB 3.0 Gigabit dongle.

As for manuals, they're online and I think it's great Dell doesn't include them; it was just recycling material for me anyway. For rebuilding, with Microsoft allowing you to download ISOs and use them to create bootable USB sticks, I don't see the need anyway, but it seems Dell will send you a free USB recovery stick if you need one, at least according to some people here who've called to get one. It's also possible there's a recovery partition on the drive that contains a factory image? If not, then maybe it's unnecessary because of the new Reset feature built into Windows 8? Not sure if that restores a base Win8 install or can be customized to restore an OEM's factory image, but either way I'd imagine that's what you'd do if you needed a rebuild. Most users aren't advanced enough to know how to (or want to) go through installing a totally base Win8 environment and then have to reinstall every single driver.

Sounds like it's fixing problems for people here, and it's generally a good idea anyway. Dell doesn't always get their own driver page updated with the latest versions from the manufacturers (though they seem to be getting faster about that), but you can get the driver you want straight from Intel now.

 

Tekjunke suggested I download the latest AC9260 drivers but the wireless card on the XPS15 is AC7260 .... my questions was in regards to downloading the 7260 driver over the 9260 driver.

 

There is no such thing as the 9260, probs a typo.

So yes, grab the 7260 drivers off the intel site.

 

Does anyone know what the little button next to the headphone jack does?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

When the power is off and not plugged in, pressing that button will show you the charge capacity of the battery on the 5 LEDs.

 

the new intel wireless drivers are much better and showing higher levels of connectivity.

Dell is sending a tech out on Monday to look at the 'noise' some of us are getting so will let you know what they say.

 

For those who have successfully installed Windows 8.1 on the rMBP, may I know how long can I expect the battery to last unplugged?

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Tapatalk

 

I can confirm that the XPS has NFC. I share articles from my Lumia to it all the time. It is around the mouse pad

 

Arg! It seems that the original ship date is going to be the one for me! Ordered on 29/11. Estimated Ship Date is 22/11. I have received everything that I ordered except my laptop, which is still "In Production". I have my external DVD player, the transfer cable and a 240Gb mSATA to exchange the 32Gb in my upcoming machine. I'm hoping that I'm going to get a perfect laptop with no screen problem, or the sound that some people have, or the wifi problems.

 

Its a typo, my bad

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk Pro

 

What's the resolution that you have used to run 3DMark11?
To have a comparable results it must be 1280X1024.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Metro skype is full-screen limited, uninstall that and install the traditional desktop version for the behavior you want.

 

Can you kindly confirm to me if you are getting this problem with your screen, similar to what weewyum is experiencing (I am also getting this issue):



I would like to know since I am thinking of returning this laptop

Thank you in advance

Regards

 

The noise comes when the CPU works at high freq. When I run the Comsol which is a CPU consuming software, the high pitch noise never stop. I suggest that you can run a CPU consuming program (i.e. let the CPU run at high freq.) and hear the noise to see whether you are the same as me.

 

DRIVERS: so i spent 1 hour and 22 minutes on the phone with a dell tech rep last night, because outside of updating the BIOS, which we did together...my system apparently thought a dozen (12) more drivers needed updating or installing, after the computer ran Dell System Detect, it didnt realize my drivers were up to date. He took screen shots, and said he would escalate. So thank you to those that responded to my plea for help...it turns out that my intel drivers, nvidia drivers, and others, are all up to date, but for whatever reason, my computer cant see that...anyone else experience this? id like to know then, how am i supposed to know what is OUT OF DATE, if my own system doesnt know...the dell rep said this is the first he is hearing of it...he found it odd my system couldnt show me what was current and what was not....

anyway, i would appreciate feedback...a lot of this forum is now WAY above my head...im trying to keep up :-/

thanks all!

 

Touch screen has stopped working every day for me. If this isn't fixed within the next few days this computer is being returned.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the driver check system wasn't up to snuff for the new XPS 15 yet; not too long ago the support.dell.com portal was recognizing XPS 15 Haswell service tags as the previous generation XPS 15, so of course the drivers shown on the site were wrong. Best way is to manually go to support.dell.com and compare version numbers against the driver version listed in Device Manager -- or just download them all and try to install them since typically installers and Windows won't replace a newer driver with an older one. For the NVIDIA GPU and Intel Wifi though I'd go to their respective sites. I'd say the same for the Intel GPU but someone mentioned a while back that it didn't work, probably due to some required driver-level Optimus tweaks.

 

GreaseMonkey90,
I think you said you upgraded to a bigger mSata and an SSD drive.
My question is, is that better than just booting off your SSD drive and removing the mSata?
I originally ordered the bigger battery with the 512SSD, however by doing that, I'm pretty sure I don't actually get a 2.5" drive bay that I can use, so I have also ordered the 1TB+32GB mSata with the smaller battery. I will return the first one. I have a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD that I am going to put in my wondering if the mSata is even going to be used at that point, or even should be used. mSata is quite a bit slower than normal Sata SSD's so I am trying to see what makes the most sense.
Anyone can feel free to chime in here.

 

Exactly, mine also has annoying noise when I run my program. If the problem cannot fix, I will return it as well.

 

Where are you hearing that mSATA SSDs are slower than 2.5"? The SATA port is exactly the same in terms of bandwidth, and at that point just like 2.5" drives, the speed you get depends on the SSD you buy. The 512GB SSD Dell is shipping is the Samsung SM841, which is essentially a Samsung 840 in mSATA form factor with all of the performance of an 840, still one of the top-performing SSDs out there. But to answer your question, if for whatever reason you feel the need for a 2.5" drive, if you're using an SSD there I don't see a point of using mSATA at all except for additional capacity; the caching option would be pointless because chances are the cache-size mSATA drives are going to be slower than a top-tier SSD like the 840 Evo. But if you have a regular spinning drive in the 2.5" bay, you can either install a small mSATA drive (like 32GB) and use that as a cache through Intel Smart Response, or install a "regular-sized" SSD and use that as an entirely separate drive to boot off of.

And yes, larger battery would mean you can't use the 2.5" bay, though theoretically if you could work through Dell Parts to order the smaller battery and the little drive sled with connector, you could always convert your machine at a later date.

Personally I'd keep the first machine you ordered and return the second. Very few people need 1TB of internal storage, especially given that 2.5" external enclosures are small, USB-powered, and easy to carry. There are even tiny mSATA enclosures now. Why not just stuff the Evo into a USB 3.0 enclosure? You end up with more storage total and a larger battery with pretty minimal inconvenience. If you go that route, make sure any enclosure you buy supports 6Gbps SATA internally as well as UASP if you want to maximize SSD performance over USB 3.0. Enclosures based on the ASMedia ASM1051E would satisfy that requirement, though beware of combo interface enclosures (e.g. USB 3.0 + eSATA/Firewire) because sometimes even if the USB bridge chip in that enclosure supports UASP, the interface switching chip upstream of it can prevent that. The ASM1053E is the second generation chipset but I haven't seen it in products yet, only the 1053 non-E, which doesn't support SATA 6Gbps.

 

thanks! thats what the dell guy said in fact...he said the new xps is so new, that the dell system check might not be able to check this system yet...thank you for the advice, i will keep my eye on device manager vs driver updates....also, i should head over to intel's site? can you be specific about what intel drivers i need to look at? thanks again!

 

MSATA SSD vs SATA SSD - SSD - Storage

Is one place. I also looked at the Samsung 941(?) which is the mSata version and then the evo 840 and the mSata was substancially slower.
But I am not an expert, so if it makes sense and if I can load the OS on the mSata and my data, etc on the 1TB SSD, then I'm fine with that.

But isn't the mSata SSD just used when you have a slower physical drive??

 

It's not the computer that is the problem, it's the web site. Who knows when that will get fixed.

You can examine driver versions directly through Device Manager, and compare that to what the driver suppliers have made available.

Don't be a mad rush to always use the most current driver though, unless you're having a problem OR there is a security vulneratiblity that becomes known in an existing driver version I strongly advocate NOT needlessly updating drivers.

 

I know the EVO comes with Samsung software (Magician) that allows part of regular memory to be a cache, for example. I think that would still work if it was externally setup, though I'm not sure.

I already own the 1TB SSD, but you might be right, I could possibly run it as an external. I run VM's so I have 800GB of them but I don't use all of them that often.

If the mSata is as fast as SSD, which I would like to see documentation that states that, then I will think about it. But I did compare Samsungs own SSD vs mSata and it looked like mSata was slower, unless I was comparing the mSata to the beefed up EVO running the Magician software.

 

It's a storage device, use it as you want.

The default configuration uses the Intel Rapid Storage drivers to use it as a cache for the HDD, and Intel Rapid Start uses it as a fancier sleep that goes to full power off by storing a system memory dump on the SSD, which is then used on startup to reinit the DRAM.

I have a cheap 120Gb mSATA SSD on my machine with the OS on it, 16 Gb of DRAM, and task manager reports 4.8 seconds for a cold boot. Wakeup from hibernation (and my hiberfile is on the mSATA) is about the same. Wakeup from sleep is about half, somewhere between 2-3 seconds. I can live with that. I'd imagine there are easily better performing mSATA SSD than what I have though ... in write speed in particular.

 

Well the ones for the Wifi card you have, of course! But here's the direct link; then just click the OS you're running in the filter box at the top to narrow the list and grab the top result, which will be the newest version: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Se...AC+7260&ProdId=3714&LineId=1784&FamilyId=1783

 

Um, first of all, those results show the mSATA drive to be FASTER than the 2.5" drive in all tests! But the test is also irrelevant for a few reasons. First, the drives tested are tiny old OCZ drives, which have nothing to do with the newer Samsung drives being discussed here. Second, the two models being compared aren't even claimed to be identical except for the interface, in fact even the capacities are different, so there are far more variables than interface in that comparison; the only reason they were compared was because the OP wanted advice on which to buy. You can't just look at the specs of some random older mSATA drive compared to some random different 2.5" drive and draw conclusions about mSATA vs 2.5" drives in general, good or bad. But even if the test had matched SSDs that were identical except for form factor, it would have been a pointless test because mSATA is just a physically smaller SATA connector, like Mini-DisplayPort vs DisplayPort or microUSB vs USB. The only reason mSATA would be slower would be if the fastest mSATA SSD wasn't as fast as some other 2.5" SSD because the latter hadn't been converted to mSATA yet -- but that difference would be due to the SSD model, not the mSATA interface itself.

In any case, take a look at this review of the Samsung PM841; the difference between the PM841 and SM841 is that the former uses 3-bit MLC and the latter uses 2-bit (like the 840 Evo vs 840 Pro), so the SM841 should actually be even faster: Samsung PM841 512GB mSATA SSD Review - Performance and Capacity in a Client SSD | The SSD Review. I think someone even posted benchmarks of the 512GB SM841 included with the top-spec XPS 15 and M3800 somewhere in this thread if you're brave enough to dig through all of these pages to find it.

As for the mSATA connector itself, the default setup when used with a 2.5" spinning drive is to use mSATA as a cache, but you can change that in the BIOS (flipping the SATA mode to AHCI rather than Intel/RAID/Smart Response) so it works just like any other SATA port, which is how the top-spec machines that only include a 512GB mSATA SSD are configured.

See review above re speeds, and again any speed discrepancies would be due to the model of the unit you buy, not an inherent limitation of mSATA itself. I doubt that function of the Magician software would work on a USB-attached device, though. But then again that's just my gut instinct, not a fact-based statement.

 

THanks for the information on the drives.

So the general thought is unless I really need 1TB of online storage all the time that the best is to get the 512GB mSata and the bigger battery...

 

Yep. And keep in mind that unless you need 1TB RIGHT NOW, chances are there will be a 1TB mSATA drive in the near future. The PM841 512GB mSATA drive only has chips on the top side of the PCB, but mSATA allows double-sided cards, which means Samsung could simply add more chips on the back to get to 1TB today if they thought there was a market at whatever price they could sell it for.

 

For those wanting a comparison between the Late 2013 MBP 15 and the Dell XPS 15 9530, here are my impressions. I'm not going to include a performance benchmark because those are everywhere and should be completely objective. This is only a subjective write up.

Top spec XPS 15 vs Top spec MBP 15 (512g SSD in both)

Build Quality
Construction:
These machines have a lot in common. Both of these machines use high quality materials, aluminum unibody for the Mac, aluminum and carbon fiber for the Dell. Both screens are covered with corning gorilla glass for durability.
The Mac has a smaller footprint and less bezel around the screen. I didn't actually measure it (I can if you want) but here's what I can say, top bezel is about the same, side bezels are smaller on the Dell, bottom bezel is much larger on the dell (probably 2x the Mac).
For those who have used aluminum unibody macs (this is my second), they always feel very solid. They also tend to get very warm when they're in your lap for a long time. My 17" MBP from 2010 would get really hot if I used it for a long period of time.
The Dell is actually thinner and lighter than the Mac but only barely (4.44lb vs 4.46lb, 0.7" vs 0.71".. barely).
Issues:
I haven't experienced any issues with my MBP. I do have coil hum on my Dell, but it's not loud enough to be annoying and I have a feeling this will be corrected shortly. Dell really wants this machine to compete with Apple so it has to be as flawless as possible. Some users have also reported issues with displays and the touch screens.

Overall Feel:
Both of these machines feel really solid. I actually prefer the feel of the Dell's palmrest to the Mac as the soft touch keyboard deck is really comfortable. That said, I prefer the Mac's keyboard (and touchpad but more on that later). The keys on the Dell's keyboard are a bit stiff. They might soften up in time, but compared to the Mac, which has very light accurate feel, the Dell currently feels a bit stiff and spongy. On my desktop I use a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches, so smooth and accurate feel always appeals to me.

Display
Color Uniformity and Accuracy:
Out of the box, the Mac has much better color uniformity and accuracy. That said, most of that is caused by software. Another user on this forum pointed out that Dell ships this laptop with the color mode set to vivid. Turn that off! It's about equivalent to the TVs you see at best buy in demo mode settings. The colors really pop, they're really bright, and they are completely terrible when it comes to accuracy. Turning off Vivid mode (Start -> Mobility Settings) brings things much closer. You have to remember that both companies are trying to attract professionals to use these products and the displays have to be accurate in order for that to be true. So, vivid mode off, colors are much more uniform on both systems. The Mac has slightly better contrast.

After calibration, it was really hard to tell the difference between the 2 laptops. They both look great.
My only caveat here is the backlight on the Dell. It's REALLY bright at max settings. It's so bright that you can actually see a slight reflection of it off of the front glass when turned all the way up. When I performed my calibration, I calibrated for 180 cd/m brightness. I achieved that at 60% backlight on the Dell. 100% backlight was around 350 cd/m. The Dell is probably great for outdoor use, but for general daily use, turn the thing down!

Resolution:
2880x1800 (1440x900) for the Mac vs 3200x1800 (1600x900) for the Dell. Mac OSX allows a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 using their scalar (unless you install custom software or modify a plist file). Windows will allow you to push all the way to 3200x1800 or 2880x1800 on the Mac. Things are just too small on a 15" display to use that resolution at 1:1 scaling. I personally have my Mac scalar set to 1920x1200 and the Dell is 1.25:1 which gives me 2400x1350.
Either way, both displays look great with the right settings. The extra resolution and PPI is nice on the Dell, though you may not even notice it.

Touchscreen:
The Dell has one, the Mac doesn't. Some users are experiencing issues with it. I'm having no problems. It works just fine. I hate touching my monitor though, lol.

Touchpad
Touchpad: The Mac's is better, hands down. They both click, and the click mechanism works fine. The click feels better on the Mac and it's more accurate. All too often when I click on the Dell, the cursor moves during the click. I never have that problem on the Mac. I also feel like I can click the touchpad in more places on the Mac.
I've found that with the current drivers shipped by Dell, the touchpad pressure requirement is way too high. I have mine turned almost all the way down and that seems to solve some of the sensitivity issues, especially with gestures.

Gestures:
Again, the Mac's work better and again this could be driver related. With 3 and 4 finger gestures especially, the Dell seems to just miss them every so often.

Audio
Speakers:
At low volumes, both sound good enough for a laptop. The Dell plays much louder than the Mac, however, the sound quality at maximum volume drops off as the bass response at those volumes just isn't there. The Dell's speakers also are a bit bright sounding. That may change with use, but it's not bright enough to be obnoxious. (If you've ever listened to reference speakers, like B&W 8 series with diamond tweeters and kevlar cones, when they're brand new, they sound very bright. The treble can be almost unbearable at high volumes, as they age, they settle down quite a bit and are just wonderful.)

The Mac really does have better bass response across the entire volume range. The sound is much more natural. Apple apparently spent a lot of time on these speakers with this revision.

Ports
Mac: 2 thunderbolt, 2 USB, 1 HDMI, 1 SDXC Card slot
Dell: 3 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, 1 Mini Display Port, 1 HDMI, 1 SDIO/SDXC slot, NFC

Conclusion
They're both really good, but the Mac is better overall.
I find this odd because I didn't buy the Mac, I bought the Dell. The Mac was given to me on Monday when I started my new job. I was replacing my 17" MBP with the Dell XPS and I told myself I wouldn't buy another Mac.
While I don't think it was a mistake to purchase it, I'm really surprised I came to this conclusion.

Assuming Dell can get the minor issues with their machine resolved, I might change my mind. Running Windows 8.1 native on a Mac drives me nuts. I always end up remapping the keyboard as CTRL | OPTION (alt) | COMMAND layout just doesn't work for me. I much prefer the CTRL | ALT | OSKey layout of PC keyboards.

The Dell has more options. It's got the better port configuration, NFC, the touchscreen display, higher resolution monitor and better hard disk options (SATA + mSATA).
The Mac has the faster processor (4960HQ vs 4702HQ) and also consumes more power because of it.
They run the same video card (GT750M 2GB DDR5)
They have the same RAM configuration.

The top end Mac configuration costs ~500-600 more.

Comments or questions are welcome. Again, this is my opinion and anything above that I may have mis-stated I will correct.

 

Warning, Dell does not use PM841 that is the equivalent of 840pro, but instead uses SM841 to 512GB model and LiteOn models for version that have size less or equal 256GB.
SM841 and LiteOn models have lower performance than PM841.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I know, I mentioned above that the Dell has the SM841. The reason I mentioned the PM841 in the post you quoted is that it uses 3-bit NAND, which is probably the only way they got 512GB of storage onto a single-sided PCB and therefore the most likely platform they'd use to create a 1TB mSATA SSD in the future.

Where have you found benchmarks comparing the SM841 to the PM841? The 840 Pro with its 2-bit NAND outperforms the Evo's 3-bit NAND (slightly), after all. Granted that doesn't mean the SM841 will outperform the PM841 purely on that basis, but whatever the numbers, I doubt the differences would be significant enough to matter, just like the 840 Pro vs Evo -- unless maybe you'll be sticking it into a server that will have heavy random writes. But most people care most about reads, where both of them are very close and very fast.

 

I would agree with this comparison. I had the late 2013 rMBP first and returned it after I got my top spec XPS 15. Although the MBP had a slight edge, I could not justify the almost $700 price difference.

 

What about battery life in BootCamp?

 

I can't comment as I don't have my MBP bootcamped. It's my work computer and although they don't care, I'm not going to do it at this time. I'm currently running Win 8.1 in VMWare Fusion inside of OSX 10.9.

 

I had Windows 8.1 installed on bootcamp. In my experience, battery life wasn't pretty good coz it was using the 750m GPU all the time.

 

Question for anybody who has the spec with the 512GB SM841 drive, running Win8.1 PRO, and doing so in UEFI mode: Can you test BitLocker? I'm curious whether the built-in encryption on the SM841 is compatible with Microsoft's eDrive standard introduced for Win8, which would mean the drive would encrypt instantaneously rather than BitLocker overwriting every sector in the drive with software encryption. I know Samsung has an impending firmware update for the 840 Series that will enable eDrive compatibility, but since that firmware won't be usable on the SM841, I'm hoping the 841 shipped with that capability since hardware-level encryption interferes less with routines that may be baked into the SSD firmware, like autonomous garbage collection separate from OS-controlled TRIM. And of course initial encryption and permanent decryption would be a whole lot faster and require no CPU.

 

a quick question... some of you say that its very quite and that they don't hear the fans, did you mean that they do spin -but are very quiet ?

Mine seem to spinning all the time.

 

Anyone brave enough to try and FrankenBook it or Hackintosh it.. depending on your perspective

 

Hi,

I am in a same boat to decide between New XPS15, m3800 or rMBP. I will get a discount on rMBP and with that the price comes down to 2200. So in essense all of them or with in the same price range. That makes the decision tough.

ramana.

 

just experienced my first touch screen malfunction...i was on wordpress working on a blog...left the machine for a few minutes, returned to a black screen and had to wake it using touchpad, and when i went to touch the screen...zilch. nothing. i logged off, signed back in, all using touchpad and keypad, and presto, screen worked again. im not gonna cry in my cereal over this...but if somecan can render a guess about what might be going on here, id like to hear it.