Dell XPS 15 Processor Options

[BucNastyHater]

Hmm I never thought about that. I really dont wanna upgrade it anymore until I do a rebuild in a few years but if I could get it at a decent price i'd do it. Where could I get them, a Foxconn forum?

[Gray Mole]

The bells and whistles are great, but make sure you look into what other people are finding on the new Dell XPS.

I bought a Vostro instead of the XPS in 15" even though the XPS is way nicer to look at, but I did a lot of looking and at the time the GPU's were burning out on the XPS. I wanted a real GPU but I also wanted portable.

So it needed to be 15 and I like Dell for Laptops. There are others, really good. But I like them.

So I ordered the Vostro 1500 and maxed it out. 4 years ago the T9300/8600gt/1050display/4gb/etc option was actually more than the XPS when it was all said and done. But the body is magnesium I think, and thicker and had better cooling and airflow.

It's my daily driver and it's never quit. I don't know if many 15" XPS with 8600/9600gpu's lived much past 2 years with a new board. Not Dell's (or anyone else's fault) since Nvidia told them one heatload and it was higher (so the story went) but I was lucky I checked, both the 13 and 15 were dying at 6 months at times. Only those using aftermarket lap coolers were ok.

I'm not saying to not buy an XPS version, just that you should really check it out. REALLY check it, like forums, warranty concerns, etc.

I didn't get the backlit keyboard though they wouldn't put it into mine when ordered in the Vostro. Wonder if I could buy one now and put it in?


Gray

PS. Is there an i7 available with dual graphics in the Dell yet? Best of both worlds...

[BucNastyHater]

That is a good idea. I am definitely going to look through everything before I make my purchase around christmas. I am getting the 3 year advanced warranty but I am still undecided on the screen, 720P vs 1080P. $130 is a lot of spend but all the reviews I have read that had the people say the quality is unreal but no one compares it to the 720p, just other laptops.

I do massive amounts of research for making almost any purchase, especially something around $1,200.

[Gray Mole]

Don't know about the 720p vs 1080p now, but I looked at the difference between the 1280x800 vs 1680x1050 option and there was no contest.

Gaming, can't always use the high res due to gpu limitations, but in general use the higher res and trubrite version was far far better.

I say it's worth it no matter what. Even if it were 300 bucks more, it's more important to me than a slightly better processor. You actually 'see' the difference every day and every time you use it.


Gray

[BucNastyHater]

Wow well I just checked on it and it just shot up to $195 now. I was really thinking about it but thats a bit out of the price range. I do understand there you're coming from Gray, you make a great point seeing the difference everyday.

Dell is also offering a Dell Mini 10 for $200 in the configuration. CNET says its not a bad netbook minus problems streaming HD videos but I wouldnt be doing that on a netbook anyway.... The price seems too good to beat as most stores offer it at $400 or so. Any other comments on the mini?

[[XC] 4X4N]

Here is my 2 cents on the dell. My wife has the XPS 15 with the i7 720QM, 4570 ati card, 1080P screen, backlit keyboard, 6gb ram, and a WD Black 7200 rpm 500gb hard drive. She got it just about a year ago when the mobile i7's had just come out. It's a great laptop and the screen blows away the 720P screen I have on my Asus lappy. But battery life is awful and it gets hot enough to fry an egg on. I took it completely apart, lapped the heatsinks on the cpu and gpu, used MX-3 for tim and it runs about 10-15C cooler now but is still plenty warm. My Asus has the i3 370m and performs just about as well as the i7 in hers, never even gets warm and has about twice the battery life. I would recommend getting the i3 and the 1080P screen, over the i5 or i7.

[BucNastyHater]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but when do you think the next chip from intel will be released? I believe Sandy Bridge is the code name.

[haschioz]

its already out. the chipset has a problem with sata ports though, so the oem kept them back or have a refund scheme going. as for dell i dont know when new come with the sandy bridge cpus, it shouldnt be too long as intel already shipped the new improved chipsets to the oems.

[BucNastyHater]

A months or so? I'm thinking they'll have a sale on the old ones or the sandy bridge chips will be fresh for 6 months until something new comes out and I can be up to date lol

[haschioz]

dont know if dell does sales on old stock but sb notebooks should be widely available end of march or early april. ivy bridge is a year or so away

they just came out: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15/pd?p...&view=pdetails
you can configure them with sb cpus

[BucNastyHater]

How can you tell they are sb cpus?

[haschioz]

the name. first gen has a three digit code(740), second gen has a four digit code (2630) for example.
appearently us customers cant configure them yet.
http://configure2.euro.dell.com/dell...N00X5M06&s=dhs
this is from the german site

[BucNastyHater]

ahh very interesting. Thank you for that tip. I'll just keep checking the US site until I see them. Any major performance boost with them being a new chipset?

[haschioz]

performance boost should be around 10-15% ipc plus higher frequencies. the new quadcores should be quite interesting because the batterylife is on par with last generation dual cores and performance is about double that.
anandtech.com did a good review on that.

[BucNastyHater]

Looks like they finally got them in!

[BucNastyHater]

Does anyone have the facial feature recognition on there display? It doesn't explain what it is but im sure its something for the webcam/skype