XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

I don't know if it's possible, but it would be a nonsense: you don't need to put parts of the OS and softwares in the cache since you already have it all in the mSATA SSD. My advice is: if you have the money buy a 128GB mSATA and install everything in there. If you want to save money, keep the 32GB and it will be enough for cache, even though it wouldn't perform like the first option.

Anandtech said that Crucial m4 mSATA has the same speed of the standard crucial m4 SSD 128GB on amazon for 200$ (more or less)

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That is bizarre. Why would dell even bother making the 128 msata drive cache anyway?

 

If i run the OS on the SSD, the battery hours will improve, right?

 

How much faster is the GT 640M vs my current GT 525M? I am assuming it is a substantial difference?

 

Lets put it this way, on Passmark, the 525M scores about 588.

The 630M scores 779.

The 640M isn't listed on their site yet.

The 650M (doesn't specify GDDR5 or GDDr3) scores a 1324.

Since the 640M is just an underclocked 650M and it has GDDR5, I'd expect significant increases from your 525M. (Yes this is only one test, but just to give you a general idea)

 

Ok, I'm going to ask a couple of really dumb questions because my Google-fu skills are not working.

What is the difference between mSATA and a SSD? If I wanted to upgrade my 32GB mSATA to a 128GB mSATA, can someone point me to some options? When I go to Newegg or Amazon, I don't know what I'm looking for.

 

mSATA is just a mini SSD, so usually price is a little higher, but technology is the same. For what I've understood in these days, the fastest and most reliable mSATA units seem to be the Samsung PM830 and the Crucial m4 (not necessarly in this order, I don't know which of the two is the best, if there is one): the first is the one mounted by Dell, but I don't think you will find it on Amazon or somewhere else; but you should be able to buy the Crucial m4 somewhere for less than 200$ (as I wrote 5 posts before.... )

 

Pulled the trigger on this -- hope it works!

Amazon.com: Crucial SSD CT128M4SSD3 128GB mSATA SATA III 6Gb s Retail: Electronics

Should be here at the same time as my XPS

 

Has anyone else ordered the $1999 (US) version of the XPS 15 and had a similar experience?

- I ordered early on 6/26. My order was processed and went to the 'In Production' stage. A few days later, I recieved an email stating that the estimated ship date changed to 7/9.

- This morning, I went to check the status and noticed that my order had a status of 'Changed' and had been cancelled. The order was recreated with an entirely different order number and went back to the 'Processing' stage with an estimated ship date of 7/19. I just recently recieved an email stating that a newer version of one of the parts had become available and that was the reason for the order change.

Currently my estimated ship date is 7/19, but the estimated ship date on the Dell web site when you order is still isted as 7/12. I'm not sure why my estimated ship date is a week later than the estimated ship date for someone ordering now.

Anyone have any idea what's going on?

 

It's either production supply issues or quality of product issues, i.e. like what happened with the unit they sent The Verge. It's not a clerical error, computer glitch, Dell employee screwing with your mind or an Act of God. They either weren't ready to start shipping units en masse from the source or they found problems in the units already assembled. Remember, the XPS line is not customizable, so it's not like they're "custom building" the unit just for you. These should have been made already. You are neither the only one nor the first one who has had their ship to and delivery dates rescheduled without cause or reason. In my estimation, Dell wasn't ready to bring some or all of the various builds to market.

 

Yes, I think it should work. Please let us know, I'd like to buy the same unit

Btw, lack of customization should imply short production and delivery time, but it doesn't seem to be the case...

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Running out the door but wanted to jump in and let everyone know I'll be reading up on this thread tomorrow.

 

As always, thank you for your time, we're grateful! :beer:

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Looking forward to hearing some of your responses to the queries here.

 

Annnnnnd the seller just cancelled my order

Trying to find another one

 

Ordered my dell xps 15 with i7 640 and 512 ssd with windows 7 ultimate and office business (max 8gb of ram available in australia on dell website) on the 27th of June. I just got an sms from the courier company saying it will be delivered on Thursday morning. Not bad turn around time but looks like some other orders may have been delayed. My original delivery date was 17th of July so they really got moving.

 

I'm sorry but can you give me the link of this XPS with 500 GB of SSD? i cannot find it in Dell Australia website >_<. Thanks!

 

What BIOS version is it running? If it's not A04, suggest you update that before you close the lid and let it hibernate.

4) You got it right. I hear the algorithm that determines what data goes on the cache drive is pretty sophisticated and goes off what you use the most.

Not so fast. I am checking, but there may be some Project Sputnik love in the works for the XPS 14 and 15 at some point down the line. I'll ask Barton if he has plans for the new models. Who knows? He may even pop in here to discuss.
Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop « Barton's Blog

Same. I think all mSATA drives are rated at SATA III speeds.

Cache is managed by the iRST setting in the BIOS. To install the OS on the mSATA drive, you have to change the setting to AHCI. When you change to AHCI, you lose iRST functionality, so the additional 1/3 (presumably) would just be another regular volume label.

I think if you really want a blazing fast storage experience, the best config is a 128GB cache mSATA and a fast SSD in the main HDD slot, with the OS living on the main SSD and the 128 mSATA for caching. (more on why so large a cache below)

This is because the algorithm referred to above can make use of more space and cache more programs and files in all the space beyond 32GB. Is that a cost-effective implementation? I don't think so, because it just "feels like" the marginal performance gain to having more data on the cache will not justify the price jump from a 32GB mSATA to a 128GB mSATA.

The difference between the 2 is strictly form factor and probably power consumption. I think mSATA is a little more power efficient. You can upgrade the mSATA to a larger drive, and you can probably find the Samsung PM830 or similarly performing drive on NewEgg, etc. However, if I have a 32GB cache drive, I'd leave it alone and use it as a cache drive. I'd take the spinner out and throw in a nice standard SATA III SSD for my OS, programs and files. That way I have a fast SSD housing all my stuffs and a cost-effective cache drive that I already paid for doing its thing.

 

mSATA drives appear to be very hard to find right now on the consumer market (unless you want to roll the dice with a OCZ unit). I think I'll take your advice and wait for SSD prices to drop further

 

I'm so curious as to just how fast my suggested config would be (32GB cache mSATA+large SSD for OS, programs and data). If anybody sets their rig up like this, I'd love to see some benchies and thoughts on how it performs vs the stock set up (32GB cache+spinner).

 

Bill, send me a 32gb msata drive, and i will test it out for you, haha.

 

I would refer you to your beta program manager at this point. lol

 

mSATA's are very hard to find in retail/online!! And the Samsung PM830 is impossible to buy because it's only sold to OEM's. Any word on simple customization options (RAM, HDD, mSATA) coming soon?!?!

 

@ Dell-Bill maybe you can refer me to the beta manager to get Trinidad ppl like me on the list lol

 

News you can use, if you happen to be Canadian:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ad-post-here-help-dell-sales.html#post8674249

 

Hoora for Canada It's nice to have good support somewhere else than in the US only... Yeah, there are other countries, for those who didn't knew

Had this thread lauched the day before yesterday, it could have been interpreted as a gift for Canada day

 

Thats great ,You can PM me with any queries you have when you are ready

 

And he meant to add "Happy belated Canada Day!"

 

Happy premature Independence Day!

Every time this thread gets bumped, I think there is a new review

 

Haha me too! I saw that anandtech released a MBPwRD review on June 23...so, let's say, 2 weeks after launch?

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sorry for the silly question but how do you check your bios revision? Pressing setup during loading? My XPS 15 is due to arrive tomorrow so want to check I have the upgraded BIOS Bill talked about

 

Well I decided to take the plunge and had one ordered up as my new work laptop. I went for the 2nd top UK small business varient, 3612QM/8gbRAM/750gb 7200+32gb msata/DVD writer (bleh). Going to pick up an external bluray drive to fix the shortfall here, and I'll probably pick up a decent SSD to replace the 750gb drive too. Looking forward to receiving it, although I have no idea how long it'll be yet as it's still in processing...

Have a quick question for anyone with it in their hands though, the synaptics touchpad, does it have mac-style gestures? 2 finger right click/scrolling etc.?

 

That's the model I've been looking at. Still awaiting reviews though.

 

All dell's list their bios revision during boot up.

When the Dell splash screen appears at the bottom it will say something like A01 or J1 or whatever. Just make sure that number is at or above what Bill specified. If its not, make sure you update immediately before using your machine.

 

Hi, I'm seriously considering buying one xps 15 but they do not allow modifying any of the configurations. Is there any chance that in the near future they will open up to customization or should I just buy one now?

 

Received my shipment notice this morning for the $1699 config I ordered on 6/26 at 11:00am. Only a week later than was said on the sales page when I placed the order.

 

Mine says it shipped yesterday, but the tracking number isn't good yet. Doesn't matter, I wont' be able to pick it up until monday now anyway.

 

Anyone makes a battery test for this one ???
I'm curious about the battery, how long it will go with 60% brightness + continuing web surfing ?

 

Are there some owners available to throttling test as notebookcheck way?
I think this test is very useful to understand build quality specially in reference to thermal dissipation.

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+1 quest

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I won't be able to set mine up til monday, but I'll be happy to run whatever tests you need (within time constraints). Shoot me a PM with what you need.

 

Same here, wonder if they actually shipped them.

 

For stress test as notebookcheck way you need:

prime95:
ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v277.win64.zip
Run a task for every core (so 8 tasks if you have Quad core, because HT)

furmark:
FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

HWinfo:
HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools
To monitor HW

Notebookcheck says:
In the stress test, we ran the processor and graphics for one hour at full load. This test shows if the laptop has sufficient cooling to provide full performance.

I think 1 hours is too risky for HW, so maybe 15 minutes in enough.
If you find the problem before you can stop quickly.
Remember to take pictures of the tests like that following one:

 

Is this the same LCD panel that is used in the XPS 15z?

My M1530 is getting old and I could use an upgrade. I'm considering this or the Macbook Pro w/ Retina although I definitely prefer a Windows machine.

 

I have the i7 / 640m version. I'm happy to run all the tests as long as I don't have to pay Run both at the same time?

Also, just as a FYI, I will be running a 64GB PM830 Msata drive as the OS Drive, and a 256GB 830 as my programs drive so my scores on benchmarks may be higher than a stock system.

 

Yes, run both at the same time prime95+furmark+HWinfo.
HWinfo is only to monitor the results.
Can you take a screen shot every 5/10 minutes?

HDD Doesn't matter these tests don't use it.

Stress test doesn't supply numeric value, you could take a screen shot every 5 minutes (screen shots are the result of the test).
I don't recommend to run test for long time, 15/20 minutes could be enough.
This test stress HW too much, so it's risky to abuse it.
Test run until you stop it!!!

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It's bad that Dell Australia not allow customer to have the 16GB model or Blu-Ray. However, with Blu-Ray you still can buy it if you unter this Bundle Code: V510695AU. Somehow, Dell Australia has decided to hide this version from public.

I have end up buying the $1999 model with 15% discount on 28/06, delivery date is 13/07. 4 days later, Dell has decided to reprocess my order without any explaination (they can't tell me why) and now delivery date is 18/07. Can't wait until that day.

Dell XPS 15 L521X - 3rd gen i7-3612QM 3.1GHz, 1TB w/32GB SSDR, 8GB DDR3 1600MHz, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM

 

Not a problem. Files are all downloaded. After I do my clean OS install, calibration of the LCD, etc, this is next on my list of things to do with the machine.

 

I have heard Furmark always throttles on all our Nvidia cards. So this may not be the best test. You should be able to run 3DMark + CPUPrime + Throttlestop in logging mode to see where it throttles.

 

It would be nice to hear something about battery life.