The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Dell XPS 13 with a I5 6200 or I7 6500 and SSD upgradability

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by davidst98, Jan 3, 2016.

  1. davidst98

    davidst98 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi, I currently am looking at buying a Dell XPS 13 but not sure if I should get the I5 6200U or the I7 6500U. I was originally going to buy a XPS 15 that has a real quad core CPU and dedicated GPU but I already have a pretty high end desktop and would rather like to have the smaler lightweight ultra book.

    I currently have a 2011 Mac Air and usually have been using just been using that to remote desktop into my desktop. However sometimes I'm unable to do that. I'm a software developer and need to run Visual Studios, Eclipse and sometimes a VM on my laptop if I'm unable to RDP to my desktop. Will the 2015 XPS 13 be able to handle this? If not I might be stuck going with the XPS 15. I do not plan to play any games on either laptop.

    Also, can the SSD on the XPS 13 be upgraded?

    Thanks.

    David
     
    davidst98, Jan 3, 2016
    #1
  2. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,354
    Messages:
    4,449
    Likes Received:
    476
    Trophy Points:
    151
    The difference in between those two CPUs is a small clockspeed boost, and a small L2 cache bump. The i7-6500U is a "nice-to-have", but by no means necessary. You honestly wouldn't notice a difference in real-world performance.

    Yes, you can run VMs on this laptop if needed. But I would warn you that the CPU is a dual-core CPU that is relatively slow. So a VM will run. Just don't expect it to perform like a multitasking beast, like what you would expect from a 45W or desktop-level CPU.

    And yes, the SSD in the XPS 13 can be upgraded to an aftermarket M.2 SSD.
     
    kent1146, Jan 13, 2016
    #2
  3. digitaldriver

    digitaldriver Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Following up on this one: Can the NVMe / PCIeM.2 SSD be replaced by a SATA M.2 SSD (both 2280)?
    I'd be interested in going 1TB, but I can't find a (Standalone) 1TB PCIe SSD availble for purchase yet, while SATA is reasonably affordable.
     
    digitaldriver, Jan 28, 2016
    #3
  4. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,354
    Messages:
    4,449
    Likes Received:
    476
    Trophy Points:
    151
    Yes you can use a SATA M.2 SSD, if you can't find an M.2 NVMe model with the right capacity.

    Its max speed will be slower than an NVMe model (500 vs 1500 MBps). But I honestly wouldn't worry about it, for two reasons:

    1). That max speed only applies to sequential reads, which is only about 5% of the data access patterns on a computer. The remaining 95% is random reads. And you won't notice any real-world difference in that regard.

    2). The tasks you do on this laptop will likely be CPU-bound anyway, so storage will probably not be a bottleneck.

    If you need 1TB onboard, and you. An find it inexpensively, go for it.

    Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
     
    kent1146, Jan 28, 2016
    #4