Dell XPS Question

1. Do anyone of you uses coupons when buying DELL XPS? Where do you get it?

2. What is the XPS 15 Battery Life with 9 cell when you upgrade to i7 740? what about i5 460/560? if there is any data with the 6 cell, that will be great (I need a laptop with 5 hours of batt life at least)

3. Is there any tangible difference between those two(three) processors) i5 vs i7?

As for the graphics I guess everyone recommend to get the FHD version... its pricey sadly

4. If you buy the 4 gb? can you upgrade it to 8 gb (do they have slots) what about 6 gb to 8 gb? I have been reading this forum that its cheaper to do that yourself rather than let dell do it for you...

5. Last Q, what is the difference between N 1000 and N 6200? I am going to use wifi a lot in college, does it help?

 

For 3, here are the four processors you can get with the XPS 15 with the specs and price differences.

i5-460M (2.53GHz, Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 3M Cache, 35W, DDR3 1066MHz RAM, Integrated Graphics)
i5-560M (2.66GHz, Turbo Boost up to 3.20GHz, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 3M Cache, 35W, DDR3 1066 MHz RAM, Integrated Graphics) +$90 from i5-460M
i7-740QM (1.73GHz, Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 6M Cache, 45W, DDR3 1333 MHz RAM, No Integrated Graphics) +$175 from i5-460M
i7-840QM (1.86GHz, Turbo Boost up to 3.20GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 8M Cache, 45W, DDR3 1333 MHz RAM, No Integrated Graphics) +$500 from i5-460M

For 4, yes you can upgrade it, but the 15 only has two memory slots, so you will have to replace the 2GB modules already installed with 4GB modules. Fortunately, all you need to do to access the memory is take out one screw and remove a panel. The HDDs are also under the same panel.

 

Will there be a lot of difference when you are actually using it? Like the speed?

 

I would say as long as you won't be using it for long periods of time away from a power source, go with the i7-740QM. Doubling the number or cores and cache will give a good speed boost and it's only $175 extra. There's no way I'm paying $500 extra for that last one though. I will be able to check battery life on a nine cell once I get my laptop.

 

1. The only coupon I know of gives $100 additional off but only if your using an EPP or Student Discount, doesn't work in Dell Home Segment.

2. I haven't gotten mine yet but I have heard about 3 1/2 hours more or less in that area for a ballpark.

3. The i5 vs i7, well the i7 is quad core so doing any intense multimedia tasks or playing games yes you will most likely notice the difference. Also the i5 has much better battery life due to using integrated graphics and switching to nVidia graphics on demand.

4. Yes, but you have to buy both modules.

5. I don't recall all the small differences but I do know the 6200 supports the 5GHz band as well as 2.4GHz where as the 1000 is only the 2.4GHz band.

- Dan

 

Not sure it's really that much better?

 

I am not sure either as I have not experienced it myself yet, plus I ordered the highend i7 in mine.

I do have an HP Touchsmart tm2 Tablet which I am getting rid of but that has ATI switching graphics similar to that of the XPS 15 with the nVidia graphics and there is a decent battery life difference.

- Dan

 

I think that may be the case for the XPS 17, but when I was looking at the XPS 15 service manual even though you can access the memory modules easily from the access panel on the bottom, to access the hard drive Ii believe you have to remove the top panel (the area where the track pad is). I don't have mine as I yet, I ordered but its still being built so I cannot verify that, but I am sure I read that in the XPS 15 service manual.

 

It all depends on what you use the laptop for. If you have the i5, but only use it for graphic intensive things, then the integrated graphics will never be used and you won't get any better battery life from the graphics.

 

The only place I'v seen coupons is through email updates from when you sign up to Dell. I got 10% off (on top of the -£174 already offered) two weeks ago on a week only deal.

 

i7 740QM + 425m + 9 cell gives me 4 hours of battery with wifi on, and 6 hours with it off.

 

That's pretty impressive

 

About the same for me with i5 460 + 420m + 9-cell. I get ~ 4.5h with wifi on, and maybe 5.5-6h with it off. Depends on what I'm doing. Most of the time I had it with me with wifi off was when I was doing some Java programming with Eclipse, and compiling often does use some CPU, but not extraordinary amounts. If it was just note typing, I'm sure it could last much longer.

 

Why are XPS 15s with i5 and Nvidia 420gt and Optimus getting almost the same battery life with one single full charge? What would be the use for Optimus anyway if that's true?

 

That's so strange for me also... Maybe optimus does not turn on where it should?
One more idea is that i7 has different architecture to i5:
Core i7-7xxQM is Clarksfield
Core i5-5xxM is Arrandale
No matter what i7 has TDP 45W and i5 has TDP 35W whatever this means.

Another thought:
Either integrated GPU and discreet 420 are not so different in power consumption or they don't get switched wisely

 

Maybe he's mainly utilising the 420 rather than integrated graphics?

 

No, I was using integrated graphics the entire time wifi was off. I'm using BatteryCare to measure the battery life, it's a little more accurate than windows' approximation. That might be the difference. Plus, BatteryCare gives the time until 8% (the point where the laptop will force itself to sleep mode). So I guess you can add ~10% to the time I gave you.

 

ok, gotcha. Still, even adding a further 10% doesn't take it much past Snapdragon's i7 & 435.

I wonder if it's an Optimus driver issue? If not, Optimus seems a bit of a damp squid.

 

Well I'll correct myself. I got 5h25m with wifi on about an hour ago at 97%. It stayed about the same with wifi off a few minutes later.

 

Part of the blame goes to B+RG LED if he has one. Remember in SXPS the RGBs were responsible for bringing the battery time down to 2.5 hrs from 4 hrs.

 

Not really. The RGBLED screen has 3 LEDs, the B+RG screen has only 1 LED, just like a regular WLED screen (which it is). The power difference between screens should be fairly minimal.

 

I have the 1080 screen and get close to 6 hours with wifi on, 6-8 tabs of firefox and outlook checking for email every 15 mins.