My New Dell XPS 17

davieg · 9 Nov 2011 at 21:35

No need to overclock it or anything to be honest, the 555 isnt a bad GPU at all for the price of the laptop, can quite comfortably manage BF3 for me at the minute on pretty high settings, infact I've not had a problem with any game including Witcher 2 which only problem it did have with my laptop was optimus was kicking it over to the IGP for some odd reason.(Which is easily solved in a couple of button presses).
Thats one thing to look out for if you think a game is running pants make sure optimus is behaving and it hasnt kicked over to the IGP.

Dead_Assassin · 14 Nov 2011 at 01:36

Just rated my Dell XPS 17 on windows 7 for the first time

Is the score about right ?

Processor > 7.4
Memory (RAM) > 7.6
Graphics > 6.9
Primary Hard Drive > 5.9

Total Score > 5.9

str · 14 Nov 2011 at 17:05

I have the same scores with my XPS L702x.

Dead_Assassin · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:10

str said:
I have the same scores with my XPS L702x.

Do you have the same spec as me ? i wish i went for a higher CPU but as i dont play games i dont mind thinking about it

str · 15 Nov 2011 at 11:00

My spec:

XPS L702x
Intel Core i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz
16GB Crucial DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHZ (4 DIMMs)
2 x 500GB Serial ATA II (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card - 3D Capable
17.3in FHD 3D WLED TL (1920X1080) 1080p with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera
Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (2x2 b/g/+ Bluetooth Combo Card)
Primary 9-cell 90W/HR LI-ION
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)
Certified Refurbished

The 16GB Crucial DDR3 is an upgrade. It originally came with 6GB DDR3.

Dead_Assassin · 15 Nov 2011 at 17:55

str said:
My spec:

XPS L702x
Intel Core i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz
16GB Crucial DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHZ (4 DIMMs)
2 x 500GB Serial ATA II (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card - 3D Capable
17.3in FHD 3D WLED TL (1920X1080) 1080p with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera
Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (2x2 b/g/+ Bluetooth Combo Card)
Primary 9-cell 90W/HR LI-ION
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)
Certified Refurbished

The 16GB Crucial DDR3 is an upgrade. It originally came with 6GB DDR3.

16GB Crucial DDR3 :eek:

Was that expensive ? , Dell said i would not be able to up grade to 16GB cant see why i have 8GB

str · 15 Nov 2011 at 23:03

It was £75 for the 16GB Crucial (two 8GB kits = 4 x 4GB modules).

I wanted to run 16GB so I bought the 3D 3GB GT555 L702x because it has 4 memory slots. The other L702x configurations have only 2 memory slots.

I think you can still upgrade to 16GB but it would cost a lot more due to the high price of 8GB DDR3 memory modules.

Dead_Assassin · 16 Nov 2011 at 01:46

str said:
It was £75 for the 16GB Crucial (two 8GB kits = 4 x 4GB modules).

I wanted to run 16GB so I bought the 3D 3GB GT555 L702x because it has 4 memory slots. The other L702x configurations have only 2 memory slots.

I think you can still upgrade to 16GB but it would cost a lot more due to the high price of 8GB DDR3 memory modules.

I see

. I looked on Crucial web-site but could not fine 8GB DDR3

str · 16 Nov 2011 at 01:57

CT2KIT102464BF1339 - 16GB kit (8GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-10600 memory module

Specs: DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.35V • 1024Meg x 64 •

£285.59 inc. VAT

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT2KIT102464BF1339

It's the latest 1.35v memory but it says on the Crucial site it'll work fine at higher voltages for example if the motherboard sets it to 1.5v it'll be fine:

1.35v memory modules can run at higher voltages to match existing memory or change based on what the system requires.

str · 16 Nov 2011 at 02:04

I should add most people won't need 16GB. I wanted it because I'll be doing programming and running a few VMs on the laptop so having lots of memory is useful it's more like can't have enough memory for it.

If the 16GB kits come down to around £75 in the future I'll go for 32GB lol.

Dead_Assassin · 16 Nov 2011 at 02:06

str said:
CT2KIT102464BF1339 - 16GB kit (8GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-10600 memory module

Specs: DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.35V • 1024Meg x 64 •

£285.59 inc. VAT

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT2KIT102464BF1339

It's the latest 1.35v memory but it says on the Crucial site it'll work fine at higher voltages for example if the motherboard sets it to 1.5v it'll be fine:

Ouch

Dont think i would need it to run photoshop CS5 , I only wish i went for higher CPU

str · 16 Nov 2011 at 02:13

I'm not sure the expense of the higher clocked CPUs is worth the 10% to 30% performance increase.

The 2630 is pretty good and is easily fast enough for most things especially with the turbo up to 2.9 GHz although I've disabled turbo on mine for now to stop the fan from spinning up so frequently lol.

Dead_Assassin · 16 Nov 2011 at 02:17

str said:
I'm not sure the expense of the higher clocked CPUs is worth the 10% to 30% performance increase.

The 2630 is pretty good and is easily fast enough for most things especially with the turbo up to 2.9 GHz although I've disabled turbo on mine for now to stop the fan from spinning up so frequently lol.

I see , i love my Dell XPS 17. The screen upgrade was well worth it to (1920X1080) 1080p , shame it did no come with a HD webcam

Dead_Assassin · 21 Nov 2011 at 14:58

Another question is > how good is my 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card compared with other laptops graphics cards ? Is it poss to overclock just a tiny bit ?

Dead_Assassin · 21 Dec 2011 at 18:03

Bad news my Dell XPS 17 went belly up last night :mad:

Spoke to Dell today and they said they will give me new Dell XPS 17 and upgrade CPU to

From > i7 2630 to i7 2640 free

Bishie · 21 Dec 2011 at 19:02

Dead_Assassin said:
Bad news my Dell XPS 17 went belly up last night

Spoke to Dell today and they said they will give me new Dell XPS 17 and upgrade CPU to

From > i7 2630 to i7 2640 free

The i7 2640 is a dual core, as opposed to the 2630 which is a quad.

http://ark.intel.com/products/53464/Intel-Core-i7-2640M-Processor-(4M-Cache-2_80-GHz)

G-MAN2004 · 21 Dec 2011 at 19:09

Bishie said:
The i7 2640 is a dual core, as opposed to the 2630 which is a quad.

http://ark.intel.com/products/53464/Intel-Core-i7-2640M-Processor-(4M-Cache-2_80-GHz)

Lol, oops.

Can't wait for mine to arrive on Friday.

Dead_Assassin · 21 Dec 2011 at 19:11

G-MAN2004 said:
Lol, oops.

Can't wait for mine to arrive on Friday.

What Dell XPS 17 did you get ? Spec wise

G-MAN2004 · 21 Dec 2011 at 19:57

i7-2670QM
4gb RAM (will be upgraded to 8gb shortly)
3gb 555M
720p screen as I'll be wanting to run games as smoothly as possible
500gb HDD (SATA II 7200rpm)

Dead_Assassin · 21 Dec 2011 at 20:32

G-MAN2004 said:
i7-2670QM
4gb RAM (will be upgraded to 8gb shortly)
3gb 555M
720p screen as I'll be wanting to run games as smoothly as possible
500gb HDD (SATA II 7200rpm)

Cool , my XPS 17 has just died :mad:

getting replacement spec plus new CPU upgrade free from Dell