*** XPS 17 Owner's Lounge ***

What did you expect?

 

I wouldn't have expected a thin and (comparatively) light 17-inch laptop with an 8-core CPU and RTX 2060 to score nearly 100% in this test when most gaming-focused laptops I've owned in the last 18 months would either barely pass or fail. It even did better than my desktop.

 

Oh I see what you're saying. It's likely because it can't push the clocks of other devices so it's more "stable"

 

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Say it isn't so! ha ha.

 

Fom all the evidence I have seen the XPS 17 is one of the fastest notebooks available.

 

In what ways? I mean it throttles down and the 2060 is much slower than a full power 2060 (which is much slower than a 2070, 2080, 3070, 3080, etc...). I liked mine, but it was just too large to use on a daily basis for things like doing work on the couch. It was well built, but I've had MUCH faster laptops.

 

In the pantheon of laptops, this statement is objectively false. Off the top of my head, the Eluktronics MAX-17 is roughly the same size as the XPS 17 and is far more powerful, not to mention significantly cheaper.

The RTX 2060 is a Max-Q so yes, it's going to be slower. I wish Dell would have put this GPU into the XPS 15. The decision must have been based on thermals for the particular chassis since the 1650 Ti's TGP is just about half of the 17's RTX 2060 Max-Q. I don't see overall portability as a factor since the 17's 130W adapter isn't what you'd call bulky.

Thermal throttling is the 17's biggest problem, which I think could have been partially alleviated had Dell offered a pairing of the i7 10750H with the 2060. With Dell releasing BIOS updates that allow undervolting again on some of their newer Alienware laptops, I'm hopeful the same will happen with the XPS. In the meantime, tweaking Speed Shift and power limits in ThrottleStop has helped quite a bit. There is a performance loss, but it hasn't been significant enough to have a severely detrimental impact on the work and play I do with this laptop.

Said losses are more than offset by its other positive attributes. My unit has none of the build quality problems that plagued early versions. It's a large laptop, no doubt, but I've not found it any more uncomfortable to use around the house than a MacBook Pro 16 or thicker gaming-focused laptops I've used like the Lenovo Legion 5 or HP Omen 15. Battery life has been great even with the 4K display. With half brightness with WiFi and Bluetooth on I can push 8-9 hours, though 6-7 is more realistic. The screen offers almost OLED-like contrast but with none of its downsides (color accuracy and power consumption that vary wildly based on brightness, potential for burn-in). It's not a gaming laptop, but it's more than powerful enough for what I do want to play.

Having gone through at least a dozen different laptops of varying shapes, sizes, and purposes over the last 18 months, the XPS 17 is proving to be the least compromised for my usage. The only other one that would even come close is the Razer Blade Pro with the 4K/120 display. While it certainly has its own advantages over the XPS, it wasn't worth the $1,000 ($1,300-$1,500 when factoring in an extended warranty) price premium.

 

Funny you mention this. I've been waiting to get this model, but have been waiting for early production bugs to be worked out. I have a three-ish year old XPS15 that I have been very happy with, and am ready for the 17. It's not urgent, as my 15 is running great, but something I'd like to do sooner than later.

Are there any reports of still existing bugs? Or conversely, any rumors of updates or changes coming soon?

Thanks!

 

Intel's 45W 11th-generation H-Series CPUs are imminent so I would hold off to see how Dell implements them on the XPS line. My guess would be a June or July street date, though it could be sooner given the rather poor reception of their Rocket Lake desktop parts. I would expect the 17-inch model to receive a 60-65W RTX 3060 GPU but am hopeful it also appears on the XPS 15. Otherwise the 1650 Ti will probably carry over on the smaller model.

 

Thanks, good info.

 

You can re-enable undervolting on the XPS17 with bios flags, it helped mine quite a bit but it still throttled. And for me the 9700 was too big, especially considering I have a 9500 and a 9310 at home. The 2060 (even max-q) would have been perfect in the 15, but we will see what dell releases next. I loved my Razer, but their support is so terrible I won't ever buy one of their products again.

 

I would have even been OK with a 1660 Ti Max-Q in the XPS 15. I wouldn't put it past Dell that the decision to leave the 2060 out of it was intentional to get more people into the 17. Regarding Razer, I love their hardware, peripherals included. However, if you're going to charge Apple-like prices for your computers, you need to provide Apple-like customer service. When I was daily driving my MacBook Pro (it's been nearly a decade now), the few times it needed service, I received exemplary care. I've read far too many Razer horror stories on this forum and elsewhere to trust them with such a pricey laptop.

 

New XPS 17 9700 BIOS dropped - version 1.7.2

Dell XPS 17 9700 and Dell Precision 5750 System BIOS | Driver Details | Dell US

 

I just ordered the best model XPS 17 9700 I could find. I have looked through here a bit, but trying to go through all 52 pages is tough.

Is there anything in particular I should be aware of or doing when this arrives?

https://www.microcenter.com/product/624187/dell-xps-17-9700-17-laptop-computer-silver

 

Other than turning it on, using it and stop reading so much into all the nonsense....NOPE. You're good!

The baby XPS blows the doors off of the M1 mac when encoding video in resolve so I can assure the 17" model will be faster since there's room to breathe in the case.

 

Dell refreshes the XPS 17 with Intel Tiger Lake-H CPUs, RTX 3000 GPUs and improved touchscreens - NotebookCheck.net News

I was excited to see what Dell was going to do with Tiger Lake H45 and RTX 3000 for the XPS 17...until I saw that the 3060 GPU they're using will have only a 4 GB frame buffer. WTH?

 

This must be a mistake. The 3060 has a 192-bit bus so 6 fbga packages. GDDR6 is only manufactured in 8 and 16 gigabit sizes so there is no possible memory configuration that leads to 4GB on the 3060. I'm guessing Dell erroneously copied the 3050 spec over to the 3060 or maybe the upgraded GPU is a 3050ti instead of a 3060?

 

If Dell can sell AW laptops with crippled CUDA cores, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them offer one with gimped VRAM as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Dell sells the Alienware m15 R5 with a trimmed GeForce RTX 3070

Dell's engineers/support think they can do everything...


See also W1zzard's answer on Dell's claims....
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...-counts-not-matching-spec.282910/post-4536777

 

It looks like Dell is advertising 6GB for the RTX 3060 on the new 9710 page.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/xps-17-9710-laptop

Not that you should believe everything you read here... Dell is also specifying dimensions and weight values differently for the various possible displays: FHD 360Hz, FHD 165Hz and UHD 120hz.

 

Wondering if anyone has had this issue or would know what may be causing it:

I basically keep my XPS 9700 always plugged in. Occasionally, after the laptop is closed and not in use, I go to open the lid and it's completely off. And when I try to turn it back on, it will not turn back on unless I unplug the laptop. Then it boots up fine. Clearly it shut off abruptly, as when I go to open the browser it asks if I want to restore the browser tabs. What's also odd is that I don't get the typical message on boot that Windows was not shut down correctly

Any thoughts on this?

 

What does your Windows Error log show? Use WhoCrashed to see if any dump files were written that might give a clue. If you are on a newer version of Windows 10, they have been hard-coded to wake up and reach out to the internet for stuff. Perhaps something is going wonky with that process.

 

My charger died yesterday, four days short of a year from my laptop's delivery. I got Dell to ship another one even though they acted ridiculous about it first. I refused to go to the online store and pay for another one. It should have lasted longer than a year.

 

Hello, I am looking to buy an XPS 17 9710 with at least i7, UHD and RTX 3060 video. Should I wait until Black Friday to get the best pricing? The Dell Outlet is barely cheaper than new at the moment.

 

Yeah, prices are crazy. Six months ago, my dream was $3400. About a month ago, I commented here it had gone up to $4000+. I spec'ed it today, over $5,000!!!

 

anyone tested if the XPS 17 9710 supports this configuration:

Slot 1 = 4TB NVMe SSD
Slot 2 = 8TB NVMe SSD

 

The smaller brother.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DellXPS/comments/l3wqka/sabrent_8tb_nvme_with_xps_15_9500_will_it_work/

 

Having had an awful experience with Dell certified manufacturer refurbs in the past, I recommend that you buy new. I have had no problems with new units.

 

What was the problems? Similar as this mess? http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...books-from-dell-outlet-online-store-d.826215/

 

I've bought hundreds of refurb laptops from dell;s outlet over the past 7 years and only had one of them that had an issue.

 

Agreed. I've managed to snag tremendous deals from the outlet. Even if you have a problem you can return it or Dell will either repair or replace when pushed.

 

I read the reviews of the Dell Premier Sleeve 17 (PE1721V) on Amazon and the majority (in German and English) say it does not close with the laptop inside. It is too thin and the magnets don't hold. I just scored a nice xps 17 9710 in the outlet, and need a sleeve. I have trouble believing that Dell would design a sleeve that does not fit. My XPS 15 premier sleeves both fit my XPS 15 9550 and 7590 fine. Is it true that the Dell Premier Sleeve 17 does not close fully with an XPS 17 97x0 inside?

 

It appears it does not fit that model. Multiple sources I am reading the enclosure does not stay shut with that model.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/hdw5mb/just_got_my_xps_17_looking_for_a_padded_laptop/

 

I just received my refurb and it looks like new. The box is not as fancy.
I just updated BIOS and drivers. Any downside to installing the newest game-ready RTX 3060 laptop nVidia driver and GeForce experience for the RTX 3060, instead of the Dell-provided driver (the latest from their website does not even install due to signature problem lol). The version number is a lot newer.

 

Yeah dell's outlet boxes are pretty crappy, thankfully they seem to do the job as I've never had a laptop damaged from transit (even if the box was totally demolished).

 

While others got 4 in a row with all sorts of issues within 6 months. Bad omen or bad luck?

Maybe the pure Dell branded models get more love. Or have less issues?



https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

 

I'd like to dual boot Windows 10 and 11 for a while on my XPS 17 9710 until I am comfortable enough with the new OS version. I now have Windows 10 21H1 on it. Would it be better to clone my Windows 10 to another partition & upgrade it to Win 11, or install Windows 11 from scratch on a new partition?

Edit: I shrank my OS partition to make room for another one, cloned it to unallocated space using Acronis TrueImage, disabled BitLocker, changed the storage mode in the BIOS from RAID to AHCI. After updating the clone to Windows 11, the end result of my fiddling is a large main partition with Windows 10 and a smaller partition to play with Windows 11. I just found out there is no setting in Windows 11 to enable all notification icons. I get the sense that I will run into more removed features and limitations so for the time being Win10 is going to be my main OS.

 

Several people, including reviewers, got lemons around the same time I bought that XPS 15. Dell replaced it after initially attempting to repair it. I told Dell it was bad unit, but they proceeded. The unit failed utterly like two weeks after they replaced it. They sent me another certified refurb that could not record audio. I figured out the issue on my own after the tech they sent couldn't do it. I went on to sell that unit, thinking it was fine, but the new owner detected some issue related to a faint noise that Dell couldn't repair. He got a brand-new XPS 15 with an OLED screen after Dell failed to repair that unit. I'm glad for anybody who has had good luck with Dell's refurbs, but I laughed at "rigorously tested" when I got a computer that couldn't record.

 

Couldn't find a discussion of this on search, but apologies if I missed it - but assuming you're not doing GPU-heavy operations, has anyone tried the 9710 (or Precision 5760) with dGPU with a 90W PSU? Does it throttle badly? Run down the batter? Both?

Got a new machine coming in a couple of days, but the 2nd PSU is backordered 3-4 weeks and am trying to figure out if it's worth getting one from a 3rd party meanwhile. If it's fairly usable for light use with one of the 90W I already have around, I'll probably just wait for the one coming from Dell, but if it throttles badly I need to be able to move easily between my home office and elsewhere in the house.

 

To answer my own question: unlike prior Dells I've used (all predating being USB-C-only) this one does not throttle the CPU at all on an under-powered PSUs. It works perfectly for a heavy no-dGPU workload on a 90W USB-C adapter, and in fact will not throttle (but will run down the battery over time; powertop on linux shows a ~400mW draw from the batter) with that same workload on a 65W - on a more normal, not-running-large-compiles, workload it seems to be quite happy even on the 65W or the (effectively-65W) 7.4mm to USB-C adapter.

 

The Cyberlink UHD advisor tells me (using my xps 17 9710 RTX 3060) that SGX technology is not available. Does anyone know how to enable SGX and the Advanced Protected A/V path? Never mind the missing UHD-BD optical disc drive; I do have a USB one.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqAlU5UQxL06h-VEu6YXRHD5GTaWCg?e=iCx0KD

According to the XPS 17 9710 Service Manual, SGX setting is in the BIOS/Security, but I cannot find it in my v1.4.1 (latest) BIOS.

 

Pulled the trigger finally on a new XPS 17. Black Friday sale was about 10% off, plus another 10% off coupon thrown at me when I checked out. Woot!

When I last chatted with a CSR, about two weeks ago, shipping time was 7-10 days. Now it's 3-4 weeks. I'm in no rush, but still...

 

That is a cool laptop.

 

This happened to me, even though SGX was enabled in BIOS. We got around it by removing and reinstalling PowerDVD. I have the 9700. I have always been able to find it in BIOS.

 

After doing more research, I found that i7-11800H CPU (and newer generations) no longer support SGX.

https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/11th-gen-cpu-why-no-SGX/m-p/1248815

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...1800h-processor-24m-cache-up-to-4-60-ghz.html

This really bites, given the great 17" 4k screen on my new xps 17 9710! No UHD disc playback possible on new Intel notebooks anymore. On my older notebooks, it is still possible.

I spent time trying older BIOS versions and in the process, I found this brand new BIOS version 1.5.3 for the XPS 17 9710: https://www.dell.com/support/home/e...k&oscode=wt64a&productcode=xps-17-9710-laptop

Fixes & Enhancements

- Firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities.
- Fixed the issue where the system does not resume from Modern Standby when an external monitor is connected. This issue occurs on monitors that support Dell Power Button Sync (DPBS) feature.
- Fixed the issue where the Alt Gr key on the keyboard does not work in BIOS Setup Menu.

 

I knew desktop CPUs were losing the ability this year. I guess it only made sense that laptops wouldn't be far behind. Cyberlink has to hate this. I will keep and treasure my 9700 for a long time.

 

After sitting "In Production" for a couple weeks, my order has finally moved to Completed, and being prepared for shipment. Uhh... isn't that putting it in a box?

Ship date, Jan 5. That's a long time to prepare for shipment. Patience Grasshopper....

 

I have a garbled screen on my xps 17 9710 rtx 3060 when it wakes up from sleep. Reboot fixes it so hopefully not a hardware problem. I have the latest 1.6.0 BIOS and latest video drivers. As a troubleshooting step, I am going back to BIOS 1.5.3. Anyone else seen this problem?

Update: reverting BIOS made no difference, but reverting from the latest Dell-provided Intel UHD driver 9955 to the previous 9664 fixed it. Also upgrading to the latest Intel-provided Intel UHD driver 101.1191 also fixes the problem. Hope it does not matter that it is not a Dell-provided video driver.

 

How do you obtain 10% discount on XPS?