XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

No, none around near me but thanks. I don't mind waiting a little but hope it is not as long as they have quoted. I do hope if it is that long all the issues have been resolved!

 

Nice. I have never used one before so looking forward to it. Got any recommendations for a good SSD brand?

Also, HWmonitor shows my CPU cores idle(with nothing running) at around 42-48C. Should I replace the thermal paste or is that normal temps?

 

Has any user given thought as to wether there might be a suitable magnetic connector attachment for charger to ensure that the plug will not be yanked when I trip over the cord...as per an Apple Magsafe connector. I have see something called Chargesafe but nothing else.

 

LOL

Funniest thing I've read all day.

 

I agree. MSE is great if you tend to be careful. Sadly, most people aren't.

If you're looking for something that requires a bit less caution, is still light on resources and doesn't nag, try Bitdefender free edition. It's very light, offers top-rated protection, and doesn't nag you at all.

 

Samsung is an extremely popular SSD brand. The 840 Evo is particularly popular and is available in both 2.5" and mSATA form factors (the latter may not have launched yet, but it was announced a few weeks ago so it should be available soon at least). There's also the 840 Pro (2.5" form factor only) if you'll be doing more write-intensive work, for which the 840 Pro would deliver better performance over the Evo. Crucial is also a very popular choice, specifically the M500, also available in both 2.5" and mSATA form factors. And lastly, Intel is basically the very best, but you'll pay extra for it, and their capacity offerings aren't as high as competitors. Lastly, Lite-On delivers good products but they're basically only available to OEMs, so you wouldn't find them shopping around at retail -- but Dell ships this system with a Lite-On SSD if you order it a 256GB unit (that option might only be available on the M3800, come to think of it....)

I personally have used Samsung SSDs in all of my systems and I like them a lot. They're the only brand I know of at the moment that develops every component of their SSD in-house: the flash chips, the controller, the PCB, and the firmware. I think that's a big reason why Samsung SSDs have proven so reliable while also remaining price-competitive.

For temperatures, 42-48 C sounds fine. I wouldn't consider replacing the thermal paste a requirement, just something that more techy people might want to do either to quiet down the fans and/or because they just prefer the idea of a system that runs cooler and like tinkering around -- which I completely understand! But it's not as if your system is going to overheat, catch fire, and melt down if you leave it as-is.

Apple has a patent on MagSafe, which is why you don't see it elsewhere. I think that's a big reason why you haven't seen many third-party options out there; Apple is known for being quick to sue perceived copyright infringers, after all. And since the system itself doesn't have a magnetic charging port built in, any magnetic charging solution would require using a little dongle between the power adapter and the power connector on the laptop itself, which seems more trouble than it's worth to me.

 

I ordered on 2/12 and have an estimated delivery date of 3/25. That's definitely strange.

Also, has anyone ordered from the MIcrosoft Store? I wondering about the build dates on those laptops. Have they been sitting there for a long time? Cause the price is the same, so I might just go ahead and cancel from Dell and order from the Microsoft Store.

 

Yeah, I figured it'd be hectic to pull something like that. So far, 1920x1800 and 1600x900 have been the most friendliest resolutions with 1920x1080 being a little more power-hungry.

See, my dilemma is choosing between the EVO and Pro series because I read somewhere that the Pro has longer lasting components and that they're built in-house. It's such a disappointment that there isn't a 1TB variation of the 840 Pro, but even so, I'm sure it would be expensive. Do you guys think there's a big difference in quality (not performance) between the EVO and Pro? I'm wondering if the EVO will fail on me too quickly because it IS a pretty great value, after all. I just hope it's not one of those things where it's too good to be true.

 

So here's the story. The 840 Evo (and 840 non-Pro before it) use three-bit cells, whereas the 840 Pro uses two-bit cells. Three-bit cells basically allows for more capacity using a given number flash chips -- that's why there's a 1TB 840 Evo but not a 1TB 840 Pro. Three-bit cells are also technically more likely to fail earlier. The reasons are that a) more data stored per cell means more writes are likely to occur in that cell (and writes are what wear out memory cells), and b) when each cell can have six possible values rather than only four (two possible values per bit), then in cases where the cell is weaker (i.e. after many write cycles), more possible values in that cell means more potential for reading the weak cell incorrectly and more chance that the SSD's error correction algorithms won't be able to fully correct the issue.

HOWEVER, that's far more of an academic issue than a practical one. The Tech Report ran an SSD Endurance Experiment using a bunch of different models on the market, including the 840 non-Pro that uses the same three-bit cells as the Evo. It started to show some issues only after 200TB of data had been written to it, which is 20GB of writes per day for over 27 years -- and since most people's workloads are overwhelmingly read-oriented, they probably won't write anywhere near 20GB of data per day, which means they can reasonably expect their drives to last even longer than that. I don't know about you, but I don't plan to keep any hard drive anywhere near 27 years. There's also the fact that as SSDs have gotten larger, there are more cells over which to perform wear leveling, and since the number of write transactions often doesn't scale proportionally with capacity, that means the wear on any given cell is reduced even further

So honestly I wouldn't worry about the lifespan of an 840 Evo compared to a Pro. Get an 840 Pro if the difference in the benchmarks is relevant to how you'll be using the drive and worth the cost difference to you, but otherwise get the Evo. Both are likely to last far, FAR longer than you'll actually be keeping them.

 

Oh wow, that's good news! I totally understand it now. Thank you for sharing this knowledge with me. I think I will go ahead and keep my eye on the 1TB EVO. I'm also going to throw in a 480GB mSATA from Crucial in my XPS 15 as well. Although, I'll probably wait until the summertime to do so since there are some great sales during that time.

 

Just to note, I have a 240gb msata M500 in my system as the primary drive and am a bit disappointed in the hibernate performance - it is noticeably slow coming out of hibernation (as you probably saw, I'm also in the midst of troubleshooting some hibernation issues - so who knows). I'm not entirely sure that the EVO will perform better, but definitely has the edge in benchmarks. Something to consider if that's important to you.

That being said, a 240gb msata SSD for <$130 seems like a steal - and I have had much better success with Crucial SSDs in other systems (when compared to Intel and OCZ) in terms of reliability and compatibility.

 

Hope it goes well - i just had a successful (albeit SLOW) resume from hibernation with about 6gb RAM in tow, but no blue screen.

Also, beware of the dell tech - I was left with a mess after they replaced the mobo in my XPS14 (which is how I got this new XPS15).
- Missing thermal pads
- Damaged ribbon cable
- Screw through wifi antenna (pics below)

So, just keep an eye on the guy when he's there! Looking to hear back on your results.

 

My replacement is just delivered, but surprise! There is an eyebrow under the glass just placed to the center of display...
I'm really annoyed and disappointed, also the coil whine seems higher than my original system but this is not a big issue for me.

If someone want to see just download the file on the follow link
Multiupload.nl - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

 

Finally ordered from dell outlet for a lower price. Its a not top tier its a i7 with 32 ssd one. Been waiting on buying this laptop from November. Its been a long wait. Hopefully this treats me well.It took me two hours to order from dell chat. It hasnt been easy but in the end if the laptop works great I have no complaints.

 

My wife's XPS is also quite slow when resuming from hibernation - something is fishy. Mine is very fast and wakes up nearly instantly.

In the last 15 years we had about 2 or 3 times an onsite service. They always did a good job. I hope that the main board swap will fix the issues.

 

Crazysah--

I got mine in store but it had a build date of December 30th.

 

See, that is what I was worried about. Seems the newer build ones have lesser problems. Though, the price is cheaper at Microsoft Store now.

 

I doubt that this would account of a huge difference in resume time, but check the BIOS to see whether you're in Legacy or UEFI mode, and if you're in UEFI mode whether you have Legacy Option ROMs enabled -- and gdir13, definitely check that after you get the motherboard swap because I had a system that shipped in UEFI mode but where the replacement motherboard was configured for Legacy. In any case, UEFI should be a bit faster on boot and therefore possibly on resume -- and MAYBE it could account for the NVIDIA driver issues you're seeing, though admittedly that's a bit of a long shot. If you're currently in Legacy mode though, I don't know if there's a way to switch to UEFI without also having to reinstall Windows as a result. Haven't looked into it.

 

I also purchased from the Microsoft store. Zero problems. I don't know where to find build date but according to Dell product support website mine originally shipped on 12/21/13

Edit: Sorry I misread your post and thought it said that the earlier had more problems. I think you are right and I'm glad I got an earlier one.

 

FYI try using a site such as imgur for uploading images. That link took forever to download, and imgur is much more reputable and fast

 

My first XPS15 doesn't have an eyebrow, but has some kind of particle (dust?) trapped under the glass. It also has a white stuck pixel that I can't get rid of. No coil whine though.

My first replacement also has a particle trapped under the glass. No stuck pixel this time, but it has coil whine!

Now I'm waiting for another replacement. Fingers crossed for 3rd time the charm.

FYI, I placed my original order back in the first week of December. It's been a long wait, and I'm still waiting.

 

Was just wondering: Suppose my 2nd replacement has no screen defects, but has coil whine. Would it be possible to swap the top panel from the 2nd replacement with the original laptop myself?

That way I'd have a perfect machine -- no coil whine (from original laptop) and flawless display (from 2nd replacement). That's assuming, of course, that my upcoming replacement has a flawless display. Ideally it will also have no coil whine, but given the seeming propensity of its occurrence, I don't hold much hope.

 

Not sure I understand that either except that I took the free shipping, really never gave it much thought. Probably should have asked for 2 day maybe it would have saved a day or 2.

 

What is the recommended way to go... mSata or 2.5 SSD? I was thinking of popping out the 32GB mSata and putting in something like a crucial or samsung evo 256GB mSata and leave the 1TB drive for movies, movies, pics, ect. Would this be the way to go?

 

Multiupload supplies 6 mirrors so you can find at least one fast enough, but thanks for your suggestion.

imgur: the simple image sharer

imgur: the simple image sharer

imgur: the simple image sharer

I placed my order December 1, delivered January 3 , Dell orders my replacement at January 17, delivered today and now I'm waiting for an answer from Dell.

My first XPS 15 9530 had stains/abrasions on the lid also it had dead pixels and dust under the glass.
This second unit has a perfect screen except for that eyebrow, also coil whine seems a little higher than the first unit, but if screen did not have that problem I would keep it happy.
The touch panel of second unit stops working very often until I updated the touchscreen firmware after the update seems to work normally.

 

I think at the very least you'd have to keep the motherboard from the replacement system since it will contain the service tag, Windows product key, etc that Dell will now have recorded as "your" system. If it were the other way around (i.e. your current system is quiet but has screen defects and you want to move the display from the replacement to your current system), that should be easily doable as long as you don't break anything in the process, of course.

I'm surprised Dell is sending you an entirely new system purely over a display issue, though....

For the same product available in both 2.5" and mSATA (like the 840 Evo or Crucial M500), form factor truly doesn't matter. mSATA is just a smaller SATA connector, like microUSB compared to USB, so there's no practical difference just based on the interface. Go with whatever is available at a price point you're comfortable with.

An mSATA SSD for your OS and a larger drive for bulk media is a pretty typical strategy and makes perfect sense if you actually need that much internal storage.

 

Perfect. Thanks!

 

You're welcome! And btw, when you quote someone's post, you should leave the part of the tag that includes the username and the post ID, because that way people can click back to the original post to see it in context, and it also notifies the user you quoted that there's been a reply -- otherwise the only chance they'll have of noticing that someone quoted them is manually going back and checking threads.

 

I still have both systems (original + first replacement), if that makes a difference. Maybe they'll let me choose which one to keep to be recorded as "my" system?

The support rep I've been dealing with offered a second replacement or refund. Since I can't find any alternative laptop that I'd rather have, and Dell support has been rather accommodating thus far, I figured I'd try for another replacement.

 

I am running the screen at 3200x1800 with 200% scaling. I am wanting to know what is the best browser to use that will scale correctly? IE11 or perhaps Firefox?

Also what do users find is the best email client that scales the best ? Win 8 Mail, or perhaps Thunderbird or MS Outlook?

Also do you think it is possible to run at 1600x900 with no scaling and then have no problems? or are things blurry ?

 

IE 11 probably scales best (no surprise) but I'm fine with Firefox. There are a couple cosmetic glitches but nothing major at all.

All of those mail clients handle scaling very well. Win8 Mail of course has the obvious downside of being a Metro app and thus must be run in full screen mode though....

I've run at 1600x900 and don't mind it. One person here feels it's blurry, which is suspected to be caused by ClearType smoothing algorithms not being optimized for the subpixel layout of this panel, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest when I have to use it for an app that doesn't scale, like RDP.

But if you already have your system, why not simply test these things for yourself and see what you think??

 

Man this thing has got to have the worst QA and attention to detail I've seen for a premium priced computing device in I don't even remember how long. What the hell are they thinking. Dell get your act together.

 

Just ordered the top of the line model on Outlet for $1200 shipped/taxes! This includes the QHD and 512 SSD.

Is there any way to find the build date on the Outlet models? I am really hoping for one without issues, but it seems to be hit and miss at the moment.

 

Hi Guys,

Just ordered a top tier XPS from Dell.

On arrival I rebuilt it with a clean windows 8.1 pro install, latest dell drivers and windows updates.

Now when I use the USB 2.0 port (right rear) it only powers up devices and they're not being recognised at all in windows.

Anyone else had this issue? Device manager isn't showing any issue at all.

Thanks.

 

Hey everyone! I hate to bring this up again, but I was just wondering if anyone who knew could answer my question:

Are magnetic flaps on sleeves dangerous to have? Could they interfere or damage any hardware?
I had to return my current sleeve because I was afraid of the zippers scratching my notebook, so I turned to this one, but it has a magnetic flap for closure. Everything looks great, but I'm not sure if it's safe:

Amazon.com: Snugg Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch Leather Sleeve Case in Black - High Quality Case with Card Slot, Pocket and Premium Nubuck Fibre Interior: Computers & Accessories

If anyone has other similar sleeves, please share them with me! I'm trying to find envelope/flap-style sleeves instead of zipper ones.

 

Dell has their own leather sleeve for the XPS 15 that features a magnetic flap.

Dell Leather Sleeve - XPS 15-inch : PC Accessories | Dell Canada

I assume the magnets involved aren't powerful enough to affect anything. Ordered one myself in January but still waiting on delivery. I'm going to contact them today to see what the hold up is.

 

Just got off chat with Dell about my order and the coil whine.

Ordered 2/3, with ETA 3/18 (top-tier). He said that it is scheduled to go into production next week :thumbsup: (just hope he's correct)

What's more, I asked him about the coil whine and if Dell had a solution for it yet, his response was

"we have fixed that issue for sure"

I sure hope he's correct. Should be soon now!

 

Wow, what a great deal!! I doubt you'll find build date info since Outlet systems are assigned new service tags before they're sold as Outlet systems. But as you say, build date doesn't seem to matter much since even new systems have coil whine and occasional QC issues. If yours has issues, personally I'd wait a bit to use that warranty until Dell has sorted out their own issues here.

 

wow. Great deal. Can I know if how you got that discount ? Dell had a 25 % promotion only yesterday.

 

I would take second thought on the representative's promise.

My machine was sent for diagnosing and repairing because of the noise problem 3 weeks ago. They got stucked on that and neither can they fix the noise problem nor provide a replacement system, saying that the noise problem hasn't been solved yet and it is likely to happen on the replacement unit as well.

So either my or your rep is not telling the true. Personally, I think the latter has a higher possibility. Your rep might just want to sell the machine. In the worst case, if you discover your unit still has the noise problem, they will give you a refund. Nothing to lose for them, but you will have wasted 6 week's waiting by then. And you might need another few weeks to go through all tedious processes to get your money back.

 

Which rep did you talk too?

Feb is almost over. Any other updates of people's statuses going into in-production?

 

Edit: Double post.

 

Do not trust to Dell reps, specially if they speak about technical problems 99% of times they say that have already fixed even it's not true.

 

Hey, I'm not professing it as truth, just telling you what was told to me. Frankly, I'm a bit skeptical myself as well, but again, just telling what was said to me.

 

The best way to counter this - if they tell you it was fixed - is to ask them:
- what was the cause of the coil whine
- what was the solution that Dell used to fix the issue

If they can't answer those (easy) questions, then they are not being honest in telling you that the problem has been fixed.

 

So just received my XPS 15 top tier model today.

System throttles a lot during gaming (Dota 2).

I've searched entire thread and doesn't seem to be a fix.

Anyone know?

 

When did you order the top tier model?

 

I ordered it on the 2nd of Feb.

 

I noticed the same thing in SCII (max resolution, max graphics settings) after just receiving the computer (first day). I tried it again a day or two later and it seemed okay, during this time I updated a bunch of drivers. I was using it on my lap when it throttled so its possible it wasn't cooling fully. Make sure to update all the drivers as it may help

 

I was going to order the top model from Dell but the ship date was mid-late March. My local Microsoft store had them (Toronto) and students get 10% off which made it even cheaper than from dell with the 150$ promo.

I'd recommend checking out the MS store.