XPS 15 Config

Hi guys! I’ve been following the XPS threads for a while now and have a few questions so please bear with me! I tried the owners lounge but have had no luck there.

I’m looking to order an XPS 15 with the FHD screen as I do a lot of graphic design work using adobe packages. I don’t game (I have a PS3 for that) and as my last laptop is over 5 years old I’m a little unfamiliar with what the current processors can do.

I was thinking of going with the i5 560 with 4g of ram.
1) Would this be adequate for my purposes? How do those of you who have this processor feel with it?
2) I’m slightly worried as most people in here have been having heating problems, mostly with this processor (sometimes getting hotter than the i7). Is this a processor issue or just a coincidence that thermal paste has been incorrectly applied with these configs?
3) The jump in price from 4g to 6g of ram is £160 ($250) and this seems vastly overpriced to me. Would it be easy to buy ram afterwards for cheaper? Has anyone here done this?
4)Also finally this is just a question in general regarding Sandy Bridge. Is it worth waiting for or will it bump up the prices a lot for a small difference in output?

Right now I can get a i5 560, 4g Ram, 500gb, FHD screen and Blu-ray player for £766 inc delivery which is about 140 less than the same with i7.

Thanks everyone,
Adrian

 

Hey Adrian,

I ordered the XPS 15 as well, although I dont have the machine as yet, I will try to answer some of your questions as best as I can.

1.I do some graphic work and I am also some coding, I have ordered a machine with the same config as yours as I believe that it should be sufficient and also I choose the i5 over the i7 as I wanted the extra battery life. From what I have been reading the i5 would be sufficient unless you are doing heavy multi threaded stuff such as 3D rendering and video encoding. But many users are happy with the i5 CPU for video editing and stuff like that.

2.Dont know much about that, there was a user I think it was dkwhite who had some heating issues but when he re applied the paste the problem was gone. I myself would not be comfortable with re-pasting this laptop, so I hope mine does not have any issues.

3.Its cheaper to buy ram afterwards and swap it yourself, its easily accessible from the compartment at the bottom of the laptop. The hard drive on the other hand, I have no idea what dell was thinking when they placed the hard drive in position that you would need to remove the palm rest to access it.

4.I have no idea about sandy bridge, from my understanding the biggest benefit would be integrated Graphics on the quad core cpus and a slight bump in performance, but I am not sure about this..I am sure someone with more knowledge would be able to tell you more.

Hope my opinions help you a bit.

 

Thanks for the opinions dude! Definately helped.

I hope when your one arrives it is all you wanted it to be. I think it looks like a really nice machine. I can't beat the specs anywhere for the price. Sounds like it should be ok but I hope someone already with this processor can give me some opinions about their experience with it. Maybe even a guru who is familiar with the new processors, that would be great.

The hard drive is ridiculous indeed. I have a 5 year old Dell Inspiron 9300 and it has two screws on the underside of the machine to undo and it pops out. I guess they must be pretty sure about the reliability of them on this one!

Only other bugbear is the lack of backlit keyboard. Really wanted one. I hope its as easy to swap over as it is on this machine if and when they get some stock in.

 

I had an XPS 15 with a Core i560 and 6GB of RAM. (It is being exchanged due to some faulty screen hinges). I hadn't had any heat issues. The palm-rest was cooler than my XPS 1540M, which had a Core 2 Duo. I used the former notebook for some Adobe Captivate 5 and I was very pleased with its performance.

 

Thanks Kajouma, it sounds like the problems were due to the thermal paste being applied incorrectly on some peoples machines.
I think it should be adequate, I'm just not sure if the 140 quid is worth the extra horsepower of the i7 and i dont really need the extra grunt of the gt435.

Hopefully someone with experience with both these types of configs can help.

 

Re. backlit keyboard: it is available as an option during the config stage, either on the Dell site or with a phone rep.
EDIT: just saw in another thread that backlit keyboard is unavailable as an option on Dell UK. Bummer.

Re. RAM: to "upgrade" to 8 GB yourself after you receive the laptop, you would have to remove the existing RAM and buy two 4 GB sticks. In Canada Dell Canada charges CAD$200 to upgrade from 4 to 8 GB, while one can buy two 4 GB sticks for about $160. So there is a savings, but it's small. If one can re-sell the sticks that came with the laptop, then that can help defray costs, but how easy or convenient is it to try to see used RAM?

 

Thanks for the help toronto.

I don't know about selling sticks of RAM but the upgrade cost from 4gb to 6gb on the Dell UK site is £160 (CAD$250) or from 4gb to 8gb £280 (CAD$440). I dont really have that much extra to spend on that. Just seems way too much to me but I am unfamiliar with how much good ram costs or if anyone had done it already.

Also yeah no BL Keyboard is truly sucky.

 

In terms of looks, I would have to say the Dell XPS is one ugly looking system, I would give it a 3 / 10 but thats just my opinion and I have not seen mine in person as yet. But I really bought it for work so I was more interested in the performance / price ratio than looks and the USB 3.0 and Display ports give me some comfort knowing its sort of future proof.

I found the envy 15 had great potential, but had some problems with heating and stuff, no backlit keyboard no optical drive, bad battery life and people looking like smurfs when they used the webcam under incandescent light. If they were able to rectify those problems then the envy 15 would have been my perfect machine. But sadly it seems discontinued (not sure if its a temporary thing or if its discontinued altogether). The main selling point of the envy 14 IMO was the radiance display which is no longer available.

I should get my XPS 15 next week, I hope it performs as well as I hope it would.