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

I was just thinking yesterday that some of the icons look outdated. I like the new keyboard. It's much better than the old one. The touch bar doesn't take anything away from the experience; it just doesn't add anything. I only interact with it because Apple put some essential functions like brightness, volume, etc., there. But I find touchscreens similarly useless on a laptop.

 

I use my touchscreen all the time. Polarr editing photos is a hoot to use with touchscreen. My desktop monitor is touch as well. As for the keyboard..... At least the new one doesn't break after a few weeks of moderate use so you got to give it to apple there.

 

Tried G.Skill F4-3200C18D-32GRS ram in hopes of reducing timings, but it did not work that way. Ram was set to 2933 as expected, however, the ram timings were the same as stock 32GB ram 47-21-21-21. Just sharing for those looking for memory kits.

 

As opposed to Windows 10 whose overall look at feel haven't changed since 1995?

 

Wrong. Windows 10 looks nothing like Windows 95. Seriously? Are you dilusional?

 

Yes, Windows looks drastically different from Windows 95. I installed the beta version of MacOS Big Sur today. It looks more modern, especially with dark mode.

 

I am going to see how I like it when it's official and my sons Macbook gets it. It does have some interesting features.

 

So I'm running primarily linux on it, and have dropped PL1 and PL2 to 25w and 35w. Still when doing mostly nothing (browsers open, slack running), temps hover around 50-60c. Fans are mostly always spinning at 1700rpm, which admittedly isn't too bad at all.

What are your mostly-idle temps?

 

what's slack again?

 

Slack is an instant messaging utility used by companies.

 

Ahhh, right. I could not remember if it was the messaging system or a streaming app for gaming.

 

Apple has a patent for a laptop that resembles the XPS line. That said, I recognize the current XPS line did borrow some things from the MacBook Pro, but the bezels on the Apple laptop make it resemble XPS.

 

About time they changed the looks of the Macbook. They have regurgitated the same design since 2008.

 

Hello

I am searching for a 2TB NVMe SSD for the second slot.
The goal is to set a partition of it in RAID 1 with the SSD already provided by Dell, so it would make sense to have something with approximately the same write speed. I think it should be PCIE 3, since 4 is not supported.

Here are a few options I found:
https://www.techradar.com/best/best-m2-ssd

Which one would you recommend?

 

What 2TB ssd drive do you already have installed?

 

It's a 1TB installed by default by Dell.
This model, I believe (according to the system Information):
https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-KXG60ZNV1T02-22x80mm-1DWPD-Solid/dp/B07WL6XYT8

 

You need o use the exact same drive that's in the laptop now in order to run raid configurations.

 

Don't need the same drive, just the same capacity. I have a mix of drive brands in my NAS working just fine.

 

Please excuse me to jump on this thread. I like to know, if there is a BIOS option within the XPS 17 BIOS to activate RAID settings or if it is planned to use the Intel rapid storage driver to set up the RAID 1.

Sorry to ask, I own a Dell XPS 15 9550 which uses a BIOS setting called “RAID” if you want install the Intel rapid storage driver, but has no BIOS extension for RAID.

 

I would like to see an OLED screen because I have a hard time imagining they can be significantly better than this screen.

 

Good to know. I was always under the understanding when I was building desktop machines that you needed the same drive. That was before SSD was a thing too. We were using dual velociraptors in raid 0 and dual normal drives in raid 1 for storage. Ahhhh the good ole days!

 

They probably won't be better, plus burn in will be a thing as well.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/raid0-on-p775dm3g.834043/#post-11044972

 

So should I use the exact same brand and model in order to run RAID1? I was thinking that something of an equal or higher speed would be enough.

About the capacity: the disk provided by DELL (disk1) is 1Tb, the disk I plan to buy (disk2) is 2Tb. I am thinking to repartition like the following:
- one partition of ~1.2 Tb stored on the 2 physical disks: 100Gb on disk1, 1100Gb on disk2. (it would contain system files and other files for which I don't need duplication)
- 1 partition of 900Gb on each hard drive for RAID1

Would that work?

 

It don't work that way. If you raid using your current drive you will need another 1tb.

 

False. The number of times I've used different brands in RAID is ... non-trivial...

EDIT: I'd say if you are doing it from scratch, yes buy two of the same brand and model, but if you already have one 1TB NVMe.. you should be able to get another one and not worry about the brand as long as the capacity is identical. To be clear you don't even need the same capacity, but you might end up wasting space if you don't do that.

 

Impossible to RAID two partitions (of the same capacity) on 2 different disks?

 

The disks don't have to be the same capacity or brand even but if you put a lesser capacity, then the 2nd disk no matter how bigger it was will also act like the same size of the smallest disk.

so if you RAID 1TB + 2TB, the RAID Controller will see them as (1TB + 1TB) and no you cannot use the remaining wasted 1TB

Also, the RAID Array speed will fall back to the slowest drive so if you had a faster 2TB SSD or vice versa, then the total speed will be double of that slowest SSD

You can do this, but I wouldn't. I'd rather have to similar SSDs from the same brand, size, and speed.

 

That's why I want to create partitions and RAID the partitions, not the physical disks. Is that possible?

why double? Aren't they writing at the same time?

 

RAID0 is striping across two drives which ~doubles throughput for both read and write, RAID1 mirroring would have a lesser effect on read speed but it should increase it modestly (maybe 30-50%?), writes would be the same as a single drive. Other RAID levels aside from RAID10 (two mirrored sets in stripe.. do the math..) are complicated and I don't have any of those memorized, RAID5 has a wild write penalty though... it's not used much anymore but there's tons of other RAID levels..

 

Just ordered the xps 17 today, 5 week delivery time, arrg!

I plan to install a second NVME drive and was looking at the Samsung 970 EVO 2tb, but I've heard they get very hot. Has anyone here installed this drive and seen any throttling? Wondering if other brands/models would run cooler.

thx, Dave

 

My laptop arrived well in advance of the projected date.

 

I plan on adding a second 2TB drive also, curious to see what responses you get.

 

@Spartan@HIDevolution uses another intel or HP drive I think. It's so close to the Evo in speed, but cheaper, cooler and more reliable. He should be by soon to give more information on the drives.

 

The competition has been closing the gap with Samsung over the past few years, which is great for everyone.

 

The best ones are the HP EX950 or WD SN720/730 or the Sabrent Rocket. They don't overheat and give you great sustained performance not only good for some fancy synthetic benchmarks AND their utilities support RAID whereas with Samsung, their utilities (ie. Samsung Magician and their NVMe Driver) won't even see the drives in RAID.

I will not purchase any Samsung SSDs anymore due to this.

 

I was going to goto Samsung for my ssd vs my cheap Kingston. I looked at the specs and realized the very minimal difference in speed is not worth it.

 

I would take a slower SSD in synthetic benchmarks but one that gives me real worked sustained performance any day of the week.

this is not just recent BTW, I've had 950 Pro, 960 Pro, they were all great in benchmarks, then they'd overheat and thermal throttle when copying lots of data or installing apps even though there installed in desktop replacement laptops and with a heatsink, imagine how they'd do in a smaller chassis laptop.

Samsung the king of SSDs back in the days of the 840 PRO has lost it.

 

Thanks for the info, I too would rather have a drive that runs cooler, even if that drive is a bit slower or even more expensive.

Tom's Hardware has a relatively new SSD review up, and they say the SK hynix Gold P31 is much more power efficient than others, which should equate to less heat generation and longer battery life. Only downside is it only comes in 512 or 1tb sizes.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html

I wish someone benchmarked performance including temps.

 

Samsung's Pro disks is still the king if you want max sustained performance in your workflow. Many of the other options lacks proper warranty and sustained performance for heavy duty jobs.

A Golden award won't make the ssd fly



Even a heatsink can't save it from the mess.


Samsung.


All NVMe ssd's will thermal throttle in notebooks without proper cooling or big enough chassis.

Not all notebooks is designed equal. Some can cool down NVMe ssd's.

Techpowerup post thermals in their reviews.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/adata-sx8200-pro-1-tb/7.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/samsung-970-pro-ssd-512-gb/7.html

 

I installed this drive Dec 2019 on my XPS 9550; runs fine with no issues. But my live music work principally requires fast reads so can't comment on writes.

 

SK Hynix SSDs are garbage as well, at least the ones I've used in the past, there we much slower than even standard SSDs. I would only go with known SSDs to be honest with good reviews.

 

The SK Hynix P31 is a very good drive in terms of TLC vs TLC even besting the 970 EVO in certain metrics and power draw, but I agree with @Spartan@HIDevolution if it were one of the older Hynix drives or the Hynix OEM ones that still come in laptops today, those are not all that great.

If at similar prices I'd probably go for a Phison E12 based drive like from Sabrent or MyDigital before a Silicon Motion based drive like the Adata or HP though, as E12s in my experience are generally better for sustained and full drive performance/latencies.

I still use a 970 Pro, probably not worth it for the average user but it's kinda hard to beat MLC with Samsung controllers when it comes to sustained performance even when the disk is full. Looks like the 980 Pro however will be TLC... and on the TLC front competitors are pretty close and some cases better so it’s becoming harder to justify the Samsung tax in that aspect.

Coming to SSD drivers and firmware, I would use MS default NVME drivers as you get little to no real gain with most OEM or Samsung drivers, and after Sammy's borked 2.1 drivers (If I remember the version correctly) which caused system crashes in certain scenarios like Hyper-V, I learned to keep it simple. Same with firmware upgrades don't jump in immediately, let others be the guinea pigs, the 960 PRO for example had a buggy 3B7Q update that took about two months to fix.

 

@GuinnessX @kojack

Ive been skimming through this forum for owners, you two pop out

I'm awaiting delivery of my XPS 17 7000 (i7,16gb, FHD, 512gb SSD) and i'm pretty excited!

Have you experienced any issues with yours?

I'd love to see a PROS/CONS list from you if you have the time?

Cheers

 

How does everyone find the Display on the new 9700?
What about heat generation?

 

The screen is the best I have seen on a laptop, but I have never seen an OLED screen. I have noticed the underside of the laptop is occasionally hot.

 

Sleep Issues

For the past month I've been using my new 9700 mostly at my desk plugged into a dock with the lid open. At night I usually put it to sleep by selecting Power > Sleep from the start menu. The last few times I've done this, however, it won't come out of sleep mode. I have to hold the power button to shut it off completely, and then start it up again.

So Last night instead of selecting sleep from the menu, I just closed the lid to make it sleep. This seemed okay, the external monitor and keyboard turned off. In the morning, however, when I went to open the laptop it was super hot to the touch, the fans were not running, and it wouldn't come out of sleep again. I had to hold the power button again (which was really hot) to turn it off and on again. When it started up again, the fans immediately came on at full for a minute or two because the laptop was still really hot.

Anyone experienced anything similar? I don't think I would trust just closing the lid and putting it in a backpack. Sounds like I need to do a full shutdown all the time. I read about similar issues related to "modern standby" on the XPS 9570, but I hadn't heard any reports of issues with the newer models.

 

I cannot help you as I do not own a xps 17. I have another dell product that I love. Have you taken possession of your XPS yet? thoughts on it?

 

You can search the forum for older XPS models that overheated when put to sleep and put into a backpack.

 

And you have Dell's Tech community forum.