My New Dell XPS 17

Dead_Assassin · 26 Oct 2011 at 09:26

Silver Anodized Aluminum
Internal Backlit UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Intel Core i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium(64 BIT)
17.3 FHD WLED AG (1920x1080) with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated
8192MB (2x4096) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
1TB (2x500GB) Serial ATA (7200RPM) Dual HDD
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card
Internal Backlit UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Wireless : Europe Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (1x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo Card)

What sort of games could run on my machine and what resolution ? Also how good is 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card ?

str · 26 Oct 2011 at 10:09

Enjoy! The backlit keyboard is a nice touch.

GTO656 · 26 Oct 2011 at 14:54

Awesome Laptop!!! should be good for any PC games

Dead_Assassin · 26 Oct 2011 at 18:18

Thinking about getting enternal blu ray drive from dell £70

ian54 · 26 Oct 2011 at 19:08

Got one for my step-son for uni, very impressed at the graphics for a sub-£1,000 laptop, only complaint is having to get a bigger bag as it's a bit of a beast.

JENSON10 · 27 Oct 2011 at 20:17

@ Dead Assasin, Amazing configuration :eek:

. I am planning on a getting a desktop replacement for Christmas.
I think the i5 suits me better as the family uses it only for browsing !!

Is it possible to upgrade RAM without the warranty being void and is it easy to access the memory modules ??
If this is not possible I will have to satisfy myself with the 3 gb ram :rolleyes:

JimboJet · 27 Oct 2011 at 22:59

Yes ram upgrades should be fine warranty wise and are very easy to do. Tons of guides on the net but really its a case of find the old stuff, put in the new.

Definitely dont be tempted to pay Dells prices for ram, they are criminal!

Dead_Assassin · 30 Oct 2011 at 12:10

JimboJet said:
Yes ram upgrades should be fine warranty wise and are very easy to do. Tons of guides on the net but really its a case of find the old stuff, put in the new.

Definitely dont be tempted to pay Dells prices for ram, they are criminal!

Have to agree with JimboJet , including hard drives , very expensive

why they charge such high prices i will never know

Thinking about upgrading to internal blu ray drive and external 24" Dell Ultrasharp monitor next

DAnDan · 30 Oct 2011 at 15:46

Dead_Assassin said:
Have to agree with JimboJet , including hard drives , very expensive why they charge such high prices i will never know

Thinking about upgrading to internal blu ray drive and external 24" Dell Ultrasharp monitor next

Actually with the massive rises in HDD prices recently, it can be cheaper to upgrade the drive in the build with Dell, rather than get a new one afterwards! :O

Dead_Assassin · 1 Nov 2011 at 23:05

The only thing i dont like on my Dell XPS 17 is the web-cam , very poor

JENSON10 · 6 Nov 2011 at 20:36

How is the cooling on your XPS. Is the temperature managed well by Dell. The old XPS laptops were notorious for overheating, though NVIDIA's faulty GPUs are to be blamed. Hopefully with the big chassis there is no such problems.

Dead_Assassin · 7 Nov 2011 at 00:20

JENSON10 said:
How is the cooling on your XPS. Is the temperature managed well by Dell. The old XPS laptops were notorious for overheating, though NVIDIA's faulty GPUs are to be blamed. Hopefully with the big chassis there is no such problems.

Yes cooling is spot on , the only thing i dont like about the XPS is the web-camera , you would think dell would have fitted a HD camera ,

I phoned them up the other day and they are sending me a free Logitech® Webcam Pro 9000

Dead_Assassin · 7 Nov 2011 at 16:29

What sort of games could run on my machine and what resolution ? Also how good is 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card ?

str · 7 Nov 2011 at 17:00

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-17-Notebook-i7-2630QM-GT-555M.51949.0.html

Lots of information on that page.

Dead_Assassin · 7 Nov 2011 at 17:14

str said:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-17-Notebook-i7-2630QM-GT-555M.51949.0.html

Lots of information on that page.

Thanks Str

bushmins · 9 Nov 2011 at 15:50

Nice machine but i think the graphics card lets it down abit.

I have a c2d 2.8 with a 280M @ 1920 x 1200, i dont use it anymore but it trumped up over 11500 on 3dmark06 and its over 2 years old!

You would definatally have trouble with the Witcher 2 because i did (but give it ago and let us know how you get on - maybe having so much RAM and a decent CPU will help), but hopefully everything else should be ok, since most decent games are based on concole games they probably wont use all that hardware.

fendi · 9 Nov 2011 at 18:12

bushmins said:
Nice machine but i think the graphics card lets it down abit.

I have a c2d 2.8 with a 280M @ 1920 x 1200, i dont use it anymore but it trumped up over 11500 on 3dmark06 and its over 2 years old!

You would definatally have trouble with the Witcher 2 because i did (but give it ago and let us know how you get on - maybe having so much RAM and a decent CPU will help), but hopefully everything else should be ok, since most decent games are based on concole games they probably wont use all that hardware.

Yikes. I hope this isn't the case. I have the above spec but with 12GB of DDR3 1333. Won't know how it is until the weekend though, it arrives on Friday

. I'll let you know.

What settings were you playing it on? (no hijack thread)

bushmins · 9 Nov 2011 at 18:26

Have a look here. The 555M is a few cards down from the 280M. Not sure why anyone needs more than 4 gig of RAM to play games. But i guess sellers make more money putting more ram in.

Hopefully its my c2d holding back my laptop and having an i7 will work wonders for you.

I managed witcher 2 with every on low (a few up to medium settings didnt seems to hurt) at 1920x200 and got 25-30 fps. Changing rez didnt make much difference.

Bearing in mind the Witcher 2 was the only game i had any trouble at all with. Games like Deus Ex HR, borderlands and Dead Island ran great at full and the gpu sat nicely at 71C. I have since bought Shogun 2 but only play that on my desktop, im guessing something like that would get my laptop struggling.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-580M-SLI.56637.0.html

DotA · 9 Nov 2011 at 20:27

I have found people who have overclocked the 555m to to 760/950 and with the over clocks have found them near the 460m/560m levels. they generate more heat but by an avarage of 3-6 extra degrees. they where using msi afterburner to do it.

an extra option for you.

bushmins · 9 Nov 2011 at 21:12

Not sure i would ever overclock a laptop. A bit to expensive to reduce its life by adding more heat.