New Dell Studio 17 announced (Studio 1745/47)

I purchased this unit online 11/24 and I received it 1/6/2010. I had several delays and to be real honest I couldn't believe my eyes when it showed as shipped.

The dell supplied "est. Ship date" was one day behind what FedEx said and turned out dell was wrong. Upon getting the box my first impression was the laptop box was smaller than I expected, about 4 inches deep and just wide enough to hold it. Everything was packed in the box very tightly and was secure, however the studio paperwork/disc holder had come unsealed (folder for discs) due to the large quantity of discs jammed in it.


The laptop booted up fine and I was very impressed with the 1080p BG+R LED LCD. Its really the best looking screen I’ve ever seen for a desktop or laptop. The Plastics lcd lid (the side of the LCD you don’t view that has dell logo on it seemed a tad cheaper than a studio 15" I bought in 2007. Instead of a flat black with kind of a rubbery feel it was a high gloss plastic (stock black chain link pattern). Its so high gloss I would suggest a pattern with a lighter color (white or silver) to help reduce finger prints.

The speed of the laptop was great. I bought the duo core 2 2.53 mhz ver with 1 gig video card option. No bottle necking, played games great. the lowest windows index score was 5.9 with many of the scores 6.9. This thing will have zero problems playing games or anything I throw at it. Some said the sound of this model is a tad "tinny" but to me it sounded great with its JBL speakers/laptop built in sub. I think the Maximum volume on this unit may be a tad lower than other laptops you can sure tell the JBL influence. It sounded VERY high quality. Their may be some kind of software level max that can be adjusted too (like a new ipod or other music hardware).

The facial security software was a big touchy. upon imprinting my face samples it logged in fine and can track my movement fine but later seemed to have issue "finding me" later. Background light may of been a issue.

The keyboard feel is very good as the touchpad. I think the touchpad has a bit more "texture" than past models. The backlight is nice but not as bright as a real gaming system keyboard. It did allow me to play dofus in the dark without additional room lights to help me type.

To Recap I loved:

1. RG+B LED LCD
2. Speed - 6.9 score out of 7.9 on windows gaming index
3. JBL sound
4. Blu Ray combo drive

What could of been better

1. Facial security software (works but fingerprint reader is better)
2. LCD plastics sooo damn glossy it attracts fingerprints.


J. Heckelsmiller

 

But that 10W more is including the memory controller AND the pci-express 2.0 controller! So the Core 2 Duo setup is a 3 chip setup (cpu, northbridge and southbridge/io controller) and the Core i7 is a 2 chip setup (cpu and the io controller)

So i dont see the case that a Core i7 setup (as a whole system) needs to take that much more power as a fast 35W Core 2 Duo with the same GPU.

 

I suppose the turboboost feature allows the processor to eat more than 45 watt if possible... that could be a possible reason.
Many owners already said: it's only when you push the laptop to it's highest that you have the throttling issue.
And a memory controller and pci-express consumes 10 watt? I thought it would be less...

On the other hand, whatever the reason is, the throttling issue is there. Final point.

 

Intels TDP is not the max any way so yes they can eat more.
and as far as i know the turbo boost feature looks at the power consumption purely of the processor so i dont know what the max really is.. Does intel really look that it stays within the 45W?

But purely looking at the spec:

Core i7 = 3.5W (PM55) + 45W (CPU) = 48.5W

Core 2 Duo = 7W (PM45) + 35W (CPU) + 3W (ICH9) = 45W

yes a bit less the PM45 has a tdp of 7W

But i think that the Core i7 now has a turbo boost thats really working, My Core 2 Duo also should have a feature like that that it could give 1 core more mhz to handle a single task better, but that doesnt work under most operating systems because task/processes are jumping constantly between cores.
I guess intel fixed that with Core i7 so now they really are able to drain the full power envelope way better so the likes like Dell should really design it better for a full load.

But reports are that idle time of the Core i7 is really better then Core 2 Duo combined that with the fact that the cpu is quicker done with stuff because if is faster and can scale up quickly if it needs more cpu power, so for most of us here a Core I7 should get more out of the battery then an exact same setup with a Core 2 Duo...

 

1080p and blu-ray still not an option here in the UK, what a **** up the proverbial

of course people are going to want 1080 and blu-ray with this system more than any other, its the newest, largest screen consumer notebook they do...

"why not make the most of your new studio 1747's massive 17.3" screen with premium JBL 2.1 speakers by selecting the obligatory DVD drive and 900p display!"

 

Thanks for the clarification!
Did not know the pm55 chipset was also less power hungry

 

I cancelled but from what I understood they where not going to ship it knowing about the power problem.

 

Does anyone know what happened to the 1080p screens? I was thinking about biting on a new machine and when I checked back, the option is completely gone.

 

wow i'm shocked I see that the order has shipped today (of course no tracking number) and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow lets see if that happens

funny that dell's Better business report isn't available "its being updated says the website" I wonder if it has anything to do with all the customer complaints... hmm

After this whole thing I honestly will never purchase anything from Dell again,
FYI ASUS offers 2 year warranty on their laptops and has the highest ratings for consumer reports. I should have known better.

 

Keep watching, I got mine =)

 

Hi stocovick

Can I ask how you were able to cancel your laptop while it was in the "In Production" phase? According to Dell (at least here in the US), you cannot cancel a laptop order that is "In Production" -- unless they informed you of a further delay and gave you the option to cancel? If this wasn't the case, I would be interested in finding out since I'm not in a good position to wait.

Thanks,
Rayt

 

Me too, having the same question in mind . (For canada)

 

Guys you can cancel at any time. I got into it with one of the Dell reps over an issue i was having. He gave me that same crap about not being able to cancel, I said fine, I will just hang up the phone, call the credit card company and revoke the payment, if you still ship it to me after that, good luck getting it back.

I placed on hold and transferred to the supervisor. She gave me the option of canceling. Fortunately (for dell) she was able to solve the orginal issue for me. Had she not been able to, she was more than willing to cancel the order.

 

The i7 processor is no longer available for the Studio 17. i5 is the best you can get. I kept waiting for all the components to be high-end and available (1080p, wireless N, bluetooth) but one of those was always missing from the options. Now it seems like these machines are just getting weaker. I guess I won't be buying a Dell for the first time in 15 years. The new Sony F looks nice...

 

While that's interesting, it's not the same as "you can cancel at any time". What you're saying is "If you're really persistent and get the right person, you might be able to cancel even though they tell you you can't".

 

The i5 is not that weaker. The i5-520m scores only a little less than the i7-720. Only for quad-core optimised software the i7 gains an significant advantage. So only if you're a programmer or video editor you have reason to complain.
The i5 should also avoid the power consumption problem. So kinda logic Dell solves it this way.

The only thing we can really complain about are the lacking 1080 screen and the absence of the dedicated video options!
But I hope both of them will return soon in february.

Yes the F series look nice indeed Except I'd prefer 17.3 inch and not 16.4 inch... and the bad sony after-sales service, the whole crap software you get...
I had one and build quality was good, screen also, but than it suddenly died (bad luck happens) and the experiences I had with customer sales afterwards we're terrible.
At Dell, well you need to be persistent, but at least you know you mostly get what you want at customer services (well here in Belgium, Europe).

I'm looking forward to the updated studio 17 (when more option come available, like the 1080p screen).

 

It's available. They just haven't updated the Studio 17 page yet. You need to look at "Performance Laptop Deals" page:

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/performance-deals/fs.aspx?refid=performance-deals&s=dhs&cs=19

Direct Link:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...w1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=performance-deals

They are still out of 1080p screens and blu-ray drives. Latter is really no big deal, but you would want the nicer screen.

 

With anything that utilizes more then say 2 cores, i7 is going to be stronger. Sony is nice, but video card will be weaker then ATI 4650. Plus you can have 2 HDs in the Studio 17 (when caddy becomes available).

 

I agree, but for most people the core i5 will be more than enough. They'd better invest the money in a ssd if they want a 'faster' laptop. Because that's the great bottleneck nowadays.

 

Depends on what they are doing, of course. Heck, some newer games are taking better advantage of multiple cores as well. For me, I want to run some VMs, so i7 and two drives are great.

 

Yeah, I'm a programmer and graphic designer so the quad core is important to me. I think I'll probably end up switching out laptops several times this year as everything seems to be in more flux than normal. My current development laptop is really old, so anything will be an improvement at this point.

Anybody have a link to direct comparison of mobile video card benchmarks? My laptop currently has a Quadro 2500m, so I'm assuming any of these will be better.

 

Here you go:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

The quadro 2500m is not that bad
And keep in mind Ati is rolling their new 5000 series out. But rumours are they're having production difficulties and well they can't handle the demand yet. Don't know if they finally got their production process under control or not, but the real roll-out is going to be february at least.

 

Forget that, I am going with ASUS, ATI 5870 DDR5 , and Core i7 for $1,500

game over. All it needs now is a 32nm Core i7 or Core i9 I will NOT Purchase another machine at 45nm.

 

You are absolutely right, as a mather of fact I was jealously looking at US prices for the Asus G73hj today: $1645,- (€ 1150,-).

Unfortunately for us here in Europe they'll be charging us a whopping €1950,- ($2790,-).


If I'm gonna spend that kind of money, I'll be looking at a Dell Precision 6500 instead.

 

Well, it's $1650-$1700, depending on where you get that, if you are talking about Asus G73j. Plus, I believe it's either late Q1 or early Q2 release, nobody seems to know 100%.

That said, either the Asus or upcoming Envy 17 may not be a bad idea at all.

Edit: "32nm Core i7 or Core i9" - this does not exist in quad-core.

 

Speaking of alternatives: the new Sony Vaio F-series
Core i7-720QM, 8GB ddr3 RAM, 500GB, 16,4"-1920x1080 (100% Adobe RGB), GeForce GT 330M 1GB GDDR3 VRAM.

prices from: US $1000,- / EUR €1250,-

Looks very promising, but haven't seen benchmarks of the Nvidia GeForce 330m yet. It's marketed as a mid-range GPU??

 

Should be a bit weaker then 4650.

Edit: Forgot to add that otherwise, this is a very nice system, depending on what you are looking for. I am guessing, real performance will be within 10-15%.

 

Hi,

Wondered if anyone can help. Just took delivery of 1747 with i7 processor.

Issue I am having is getting it to clock up to 2.8ghz using the turbo boost. I have the intel gadget installed amonst others reading the cpu and it stays at 1.6 all the time.

I ask this as I have tested super pi several times which i believe just uses 1 core and should cause it to boost to 2.8 but mine does not and takes 26 seconds for 1m test.

Reports ive seen with this processor is 16seconds and it jumps to 2.8ghz.

Anyone know why this is on mine is it something to enable etc any help would be much appreciated

Thanks

 

read this thread about the studio XPS 16, same thing applies to the studio 17.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=446193

 

Thanks for the reply and I am aware of that thread however as I am literally only running superpi and nothing graphics intensive there should be no reason why the single core isnt turbo boosted to 2.8ghz.

It just stays at 1.6 all the time i have seen no evidence of getting any reading over 1.6 and as I say all i am using is superpi nothing else so there should be no power demand issue and throttling happening.

Do I need to do anything to get the turbo boost to work? enable or a bios of software upgrade?

 

Since the beginning I told the sales representative that i needed the laptop before january 15th and yesterday when i sent an email asking for some info why it had not shipped yet the guy told me he had a shortage of screens so i called him and he also told me they removed the rgb screen from the options because that's what was causing the throttling issue and that they were not going to ship it before january 15th or until the problem was solved. I asked to cancel my order then and today it was canceled. Now i'm waiting for the refund...a girl from the costumer care told me i should be getting it tomorrow or monday or in 4 to 5 days maximum. Let's see how it goes....

 

Stocovick

Thanks very much for clarifying. I had ordered the 1080 screen with the i7 also. I'm pretty disappointed that Dell would continue to sell these after they admit to there being problems with it. I will give it a bit of thought and decide if it's worth pursuing a cancellation. Thanks again for your inputs.

Rayt

 

Did you check your power management settings? Make sure CPU is set to 100% max (and try 100% min) in Advanced settings.

 

For what its worth, HP Envy was found to be doing the same thing just recently. A lot of i7 laptops are being throttled (and Asus G51j is doing the bluescreen dance in gaming). There is a fully functioning workaround right now for the Dell Studio 17/XPS 1645 issue with 130w PSU and ThrottleStop, so it's not that bad really. Plus, the 1080p screen is really nice.

However, now that CES is upon us, Sony FW and especially the new Asus G73 laptops are really looking good.

 

It would seem the CMOS battery replacement fix for 7 beeps now has official approval and that a bios fix is on the way for this:
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19310587/19627131.aspx#19627131

 

Wow as anyone checked out the Studio 17 with the i5 CPU? What a joke! No real graphics card, only 900p display, no blu-ray option, very few upgrade options! at least it MIGHT not be throttled.

 

Citing brad from DELL

Our Engineers have been looking into what is causing the “7x BIOS BEEP” and a temporary fix that they have been able to replicate is to reseat the CMOS battery. Here is a link to the Service Manual that will explain how to do this: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio1747/en/sm/coinbatt.htm#wp1182375 The issue that is causing this problem to occur is the BIOS and it is not hardware related. Please keep in mind that replacing parts for this issue will not be a permanent fix. Dell’s Engineers are currently working on a BIOS revision that will address this issue.

We will be monitoring this thread and will provide updates as they become available.
Do you believe this s***?

 

Does any one know if they will provide the 130W and the cooling mat for free?

 

LOL! they will not ship free cooling mats! once word got out they do that for once person, everyone will want one and that would be a HUGE loss for dell.

I am 95% sure I am going to be sending mine back for the new Asus G73. What I will most likely do is hang on to this one, use the work arounds, and wait until the g73 is releases, or has a set release date and then send back my studio.

I will be sure to open a complain within the first few days of getting this laptop so that they cannot use the 21 day crap with me.

 

For me Il ggive them until next monday (The bios release date), if that is not solving the problem I'll cancel my order and get me another one. It will be my first and last deal withh dell

 

I wouldn't go as far as saying I wouldn't deal with dell anymore. They do occasional make some great products. It just so happens we bough lemons.

 

My 1737 will keep me happy, waiting for.

-32nm Core i9 or Coire i7, probably only using 20 watts or 15w watts TDP, NOT 45 Watts yikes no battery life.
- 8GB DDR3 1333mhz performance RAM
- 1080p RGB LED
- 4x Bluray Drive burner
- 1GB ATI 4670 or (I dream evergreen 5800 series)
- Intel 5300 WiFi 3 antenna's or 5350 WIMAX
- Backlit keyboard
- USB 2.0 and maybe USB 3.0
- 500 GB 7200 RPM or SSD option

This is a Winner in the 17" category. However of DELL continues to delibertaely bann or prohibit certain configurations like I have shown above, in order to force an upgrade to the Studio XPS line, I am buying an ASUS.

I have when DELL denies stuff, and does not let you build and get the options that.

#1. You want
#2. they have offered but now don't

good luck to you rb420 hope DELL does not cancel your order like they did to the other guy on here.

 

Arrival date pushed back once again. First it was 1/4, then 1/13 now it is 1/20.

I ordered on 12/9

 

I too may switch to the new 17" Asus..my system is back ordered and now this monster comes out....this thing is sick....unbelievable specs...reasonable price dual hdds ssd ..raid...wicked vcard..not sure how the screen matches up to the Dell's however....time will tell....

 

Might be time for me to jump ship to Sony... The Vaio F series with i7 is here:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644691999

Looks like these can be ordered with i5 at the UK site, I wonder if/when that would be coming to the US...

 

The ASUS with the ATI 5870 DDR5 is a beast and worth every penny, So is the SONY. However no so much gaming wise.

at 17.3" inches thats a gaming desktop replacement investment.

I went with DELL because of the great price, Specs RGB LED Bluray and Montivniea Core 2 Duo. Centrino 2.

However, now things have changed its very hard to configure a 17" on DELL with what you want.

the ASUS, is a winner, in ALL categories, the only thing holding it back is that 32nm Core i7 or Core i9 is around the corner, and will add an extra hour of battery life.

or even a Dual Core 32nm Arrandale will smoke a Core 2 Duo, regarding TDP, 35 TDP for a Core 2 Duo , vs. maybe 20 or 15 TDP with a 2 Core 32nm Arrandale.

Now thats value for your cash and long life.

Buying a 45 Watt Core i7 whatever you spend in a few month it will devalue so quickly.

 

This is a silly statement. This magical 32-bit quad-core CPU does not exist, and it especially won't exist in 15-20W version since Arrandale is 35W!

Also, any electronics will devalue substancially within 6 months. If one is using the system, Dell Studio 17 with i7 is pretty good value for the money now (well, back in Nov/Dec when you could get 1080p screen). Asus will be awesome value for the money in March (maybe end of Feb). Sony FW is a great system but a little bit different targeted (smaller screen, slower video, 1 HD).

I am personally using Studio 17 with i7 every day and it works just fine. Q3-Q4 when new hardware is out I may sell it and grab a better system.

 

So I thought I would just jump in here and clear the air on the part required to add a 2nd hard drive. I purchased a 1747 back on Dec 7 and received it Dec 15. It has the 1080p screen and i7 720. I bought an Intel X25 80GB SSD drive as well and swaped it in as the primary drive once I received it. This laptop is SO fast with this combination. I love it.

I immediately called Dell Canada to order the caddy for the 2nd drive. After 30 minutes on the phone with someone I could barely understand, they completed an order for part #J7P67 for $5.99. It arrived 2 days later and was clearly the incorrect part as the caddy and the interposer did not fit. I called back and after another lengthly call had a replacement order sent out - same part #. This time it was the correct caddy, but there was no interposer in the package! One more call to Dell and they sent out a THIRD order (same part # again) with the correct caddy and interposer. No screws were in any of these orders, so the the 2nd drive went in without any - it is quite secure once the bottom of the case is screwed back on.

So there you have it - part # is J7P67. Dell Canada has it in stock. On all 3 occassions I received the order in 2 business days.

 

I still CAN NOT understand why the Studio 17, with a Freakin! Touch Screen !! is not getting more hype and attention????

If it was an Apple laptop with a Touch screen people would be dying for one.

 

Because it doesn't have a good screen resolution, has an old processor and Dell has been hiding it on the site. For most of December there were no links to the product page at all. They only just added a menu link this week after selling the thing for two months.

I was waiting for Dell to add the i7 and 1080 screen to the touchscreen Studio 17, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen soon if ever.