XPS 17 Questions

Hello all,

I am building the following XPS 17 inch from the Canadian Dell site:

PRICE: $1399.99

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM 2.00 GHz with TB up to 2.9GHz
LCD: 17.3" FHD (1080p) with 2.0MP HD Webcam
Memory: 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HDD: 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus
Optical Drive: Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Battery: 92 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Wireless Card: Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0
Sound Options: JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3

Here are my Questions:

• Does this laptop come with 4 Dimms? the option for 12gb was available but it costed $150 which is a rip off, i already bought 2x4gb ddr3 dimms 1333mhz.
• Does this laptop come with 1333mhz or the slower 1066mhz DDR3?
• Does the keyboard come with backlight? [its an option when customizing]
• Is this 3GB GT555m equipped with DDR3 or DDR5?
• Does the BIOS have the option to disable optimus? (turn off gt555m)
• Whats the power consumption (in watts) during idle/peak?
• Is this laptop RAID capable? [my research concluded that its not]
• Do you think this is a good deal for this laptop configuration?

Thanks in advanced for anyone who helps out answering my questions.

Best Regards,
Festive Mongoose

 

Yes 8gb should come with 4 dimm slots, but be careful I ordered 8gb and they gave me 4x2gb and not 2x4gb as advertise. I`m now in the process of having new ram sent out to me so I can upgrade to 16gb.

It comes with 1333mhz ram

Standard keyboard shouldnt be backlit, you`d have to select it as an extra option.

Sorry can`t answer the other questions. But its a superb machine for the price unless you want to run games at the highest settings its very good for every task.

Personally i`d say go for an ssd drive and a large second drive, I picked up a crucial c300 128gb for £160 and its the best add-on i`ve ever done. Windows loads in 18 secs, lightroom in 3 seconds, IE9 in a second.

 

You say that your machine came with 4x2GB? Cheeky Dell. I'm assuming that you are asking Dell to pick up your 8GB and replace it with 2x4GB?

I concur. That is why I'm having a Toshiba 750GB waiting to be installed on the replacement machine. I am still thinking about the SSD though. I'll wait for a little bit longer for the price to drop before making a purchase but thanks for the information. Good heaven - Loading IE 9 in a second! That's pretty quick!

 

Yes theyve taken their time but are processing my order for replacement ram. 4gb chips are more expensive so i guess they were trying it on to see if they could save money.

 

Thanks guys i appreciate the answers.

still need to find out whats the power consumtion and if the gt 555m is ddr5?

also im not sure if optimus is the best thing to get right now, the drivers for them are only usable for windows. If the dell bios lets me disable the gt555m then i can run linux without using up extra power.

 

GT 555m is DDR3