Ordered a Dell XPS 17 L702X

So I ordered one yay )) I got it as a referb for 729 dollars after tax
It came with only 4GB of ram so Im gonna take one 2GB stick out and put in a 4GB stick so 6GB of ram


I didnt feel like typing so im gonna paste haha
6 Cell Primary Battery
Processor: Intel Core i5-2410M processor (2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz)
-- Processor Label
-- 17.3 inch HD+ (900p) WLED Display
-- 4 GB DDR3 ECC SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
-- Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000
-- Elemental Silver Aluminum
-- NVIDIA GeForce GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus
-- Wave Systems Software
-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
-- 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

So I have some ?`s.

Is the hard drive that comes in this good? I know its 7200 But I got a 320GB 7200 in a Vostro 3450 (which I shipped that back today) that 320GB 7200RPM hard drive sucked!!

Also there is only 2 ram slots on this one right? from what I read I think

And also about the graphics card/ I guess I wont be able to disable the intel one right?

And My most important ? how do ordering referd works? I was supposed to get it the 5Th well they bumped it up to the 8th now cause they said"they needed to order parts" Why would they need to order parts for it? and how well of shape do the refereb models come?

 

The hard drive could be one of many brands. Mine is a Seagate, but others have gotten Toshiba and other brands.

Yes, 2 RAM slots on anything not-3D screened. You can put 8GB RAM in it though.

Graphics: you CAN force it to always use the Nvidia one to compute frames, but the display is still routed through the Intel. Honestly, the Intel graphics on Sandy Bridge are pretty decent and can handle anything short of modernish games with no trouble. I let mine use the Intel unless it needs more power, then it turns the NVidia on and uses it. This means less power consumption and heat when you are just web browsing, typing, etc.

I can't comment on the condition of the refurbs, but it sounds like most of them might just have a small scratch or two at worst. Sometimes they are just returned systems from mis-orders so they may not have even been ever opened.

As far as needing parts, perhaps there was a DOA component responsible for the return? Enjoy the system when it comes, hopefully you like it. The 550m card is pretty strong.

The rest that you have is fairly basic, but still solid. The CPU is theoretically upgradable if you can find a good price on an i7 if you like, but unless you are gaming heavily or doing CAD/heavy rendering, the i5 will be plenty.

You got a nice price for that system though.

 

In my experience with refurb computers it's usually just a part that failed. Good price on what you got.

 

Very decent price! I paid 1600 for one not much different from yours!

 

So the order delayed and I got bored so I called them up and asked about expiditing my shipping well the woman Gave me free next bussness day shipping so From my order status it says I`ll get it the 30th so Im guessing they will ship it out today. (hopefully)

Im not at home so im stuck using a Inspiron 4100 lol

This is the best laptop ive owned so far

My last laptop was a Inspiron 14r Core I3 1st gen. 2.53 ghz 4GB of ram. Intel R HD graphics so this is much better.

I usually dont play much games but sometimes I do so it might help a little

How much would it cost to get an i7? I know someone who could put it in. How much would an I7 cost me? or could u give alink? and so is the Intel core i7 1.8ghz faster than the one I got now? I`d perferable want 2ghz Core i7 atleast like a 2nd gen one

 

Well, you could upgrade to a i7, but unless your using a lot of intensive programs or gaming a lot, I PERSONALLY don't believe a i7 would benefit. But that's just my opinion.

To get you on a sandy bridge would be pricey, but your saving money by going the refurb. route in the first place, but it's your call.

Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-2720QM Sandy Bridge 2.2GHz (3.3GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket G2 45W Quad-Core Mobile Processor Model BX80627i72720QM

 

Chase is right on all points. Unless you are doing heavy gaming or heavy-duty work like rendering or CAD (in which case you likely aren't getting an XPS, lol), you don't need it. I do a bit of both which is why I got the quad. And the Sandy Bridge CPUs leave the first gen mobile i-series in its dust. And their turbo boost is far more aggressive and can get up to some pretty good clock speeds on lower core counts. The 2720 that Chase linked can hit 3.0 on all 4 depending on thermal loading though, which is pretty sweet. But yours will hit 2.9 on a single threaded application which is very good too. 2.8 in dual-core, and a 2.3 base. Very nice honestly.

Perhaps if you tell us what you are using it for we can tell you better if you need a quad, but chances are no.

 

I guess the i5 should work for me. I have been into computers and computer repair since I was 13 lol. But I do webdesign and have a server in my house that I run a World of Warcraft Private server and a few of my websites on.

The only time I use high processing power would probly when I convert videos for youtube. Cause My Camera just for a 5min video is a few GB

 

Yea, only for the video encoding would you see a real help/difference. And the i5 will still handle it nicely, especially with these Sandy Bridge chips being optimized for that type of thing.

 

Honestly, you already have a great computer that you picked up at a great price. For me and what gaming I do, I even think the i7 is overkill for my needs.

I don't know much about WoW, but from what I think I know, it's not too demanding. Feel free to jump in and correct me and my ignorance if we're wrong.

If you want to go for the i7, just do yourself a favor and pick up a tube or Arctic Silver while your at it. But if you are still considering it, here's what I would do... Use your XPS as you would normally. Make sure it is efficient in the tasks that you throw at it and that your are happy with it's performance. If you're happy, save yourself a few hundred and just leave it as is.

You will have the opportunity to pick up a new i7 SB for a good while, so don't be in a hurry and jump the gun. If your i5 starts to lack with new programs in a year or so, the option to upgrade is still there.

Just give it time to prove itself to you.

And BTW, welcome to the forums! Remember if you ever need advice or suggestions, this is the place to be. There are tons of members here with a substantial amount of knowledge and experience that are more than willing to lend a few extra brain cells and point you in the right direction!

 

Okay thanks )

Also I have a ? I have wondered. When I ordered my 14r the dell partion sucked! even the Windows experance index was low. So I restored it using the Dell windows 7 disk and installed drivers and everything was faster!

Also with the Vostro 3450 I had before I sent it back. It was slow. So I restroed it with the disk it came with which already had win7 SP1 on it. And it still kinda sucked.

Then I used my old Win7 without SP1 and installed SP1 manualy and everything was faster and my grapfic scores went from 4.6 to 6.2 for gaming.

How is the stock Already installed dell stuff good? or would it be better just to format everything and start from scratch?

 

Matt, after looking at Newegg again, I'm a little surprised that a Clarksfield i7 was still 389, only 10 less than the SB.

I thought they would of been a lot cheaper by now. What about you?

 

Well, I have two 500 gig drives and I'm happy. I have never had anything that ran RAID or an SSD so I'm used to these drives.

I don't know the specifics, but apparently Dell doesn't think the XPS needs or is capable of RAID 0. Personally, I think they're stupid. But then again, I'm just a stupid consumer that helped donate to their light bill this month.

I forgot what type or hard disk you are getting. More specifically, if your just getting one or two. I'm too lazy to back up and look. Too lazy to back up a page and look, I know, sad right?

Anyways, back on topic.

But if you're only getting one hard disk, pick yourself up a SSD and load windows on it. SSD's are wickedly fast, or so I'm told.

Just remember, your processor isn't much of a bottleneck these days, it's your system's other components, so upgrade (within reason) what you can or believe you will benefit from. An SSD would be the only thing I would add or upgrade.

 

Hopefully today it will come. well its supposed to anyway

 

Yea, there has been pretty much no movement in the price, the same is true mostly with desktop ones, there has only been a small price decrease the last I looked. There is no reason for people to get the Gen 1 i-series if they are building a system today. Sandy Bridge is superior across the board when it costs the same...people are going to be holding onto stock for a loooooooong time...

The XPS motherboard IS capable of RAID, it is integral in the chipset on these systems. Likely all Dell needs to do to permit it is a simple BIOS change. After all, the Alienware uses the same chipsets and has RAID...Now I honestly don't mind not having RAID, an SSD+HDD is the best combo in a 2-bay laptop anyway. But since they are selling up the dual 500/750 drives, they ought to enable the RAID. But Dell did a few things with these new systems that makes no sense (like only putting half the RAM clips on some of the boards).

 

Got it today yay!!! Now just restoring it with plan windows 7 Professianal. ANd downloading drivers while I wait. I managed to load up world of warcraft before I did and on ULTRA settings everything set to high I got 60fps )

 

Also does it not have a backlit keyboard?

 

It's an option. Mine does, but I selected a backlit keyboard.

 

Yea, I've got twin 500's in mine. RAID0 would be nice. But whatever, I'm happy none the less.

Matt, do you think we could ever see the option to run RAID in future Bios updates?

 

Here are some pictures

Took with my Phone

http://filehostonline.com/files/1/website/IMAG0119.jpg
http://filehostonline.com/files/1/website/IMAG0118.jpg
http://filehostonline.com/files/1/website/IMAG0117.jpg
http://filehostonline.com/files/1/website/IMAG0115.jpg
http://filehostonline.com/files/1/website/IMAG0113.jpg
http://filehostonline.com/files/1/website/IMAG0112.jpg

 

hyelton, please resize the images, now I and everyone have to side-scroll, even on FHD. I think this forum requests 600px max width anyway. Plus they will not look so grainy...

Chase, I'm not sure. If Dell was smart they would update the BIOS to have RAID, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

There I just linked it

 

That works too, thanks man. It also helps out the people that have slower internet.

Enjoy your system!

 

How do I get windows expeance index to use the Nvida card? cause I have even tried making it the default and it still shows up as INtel HD on the WEI.

 

For the Aero subscore? The only way I got mine to was when I upped my RAM to 8GB. Then the score went from like 5.6 or something like that to the 6.9 it is now...Even setting it to always use NVidia GPU didn't work...

 

Well, I have a confession. I went to Fry's today and saw the M17. Not gonna lie, the M17 looked sweet and I loved the screen.

Now I'm tossed up thinking about ordering a M17. How does the 6870M stack up next to the 555M?

Ohhh lord, I know. I need to make up my mind. But that was a sweet looking laptop.

 

The 6870M is a high end card, the 555M is a mid range. Looks like it cost $1599? Sounds about right...



3DMark06 Scores

6870M 14,396
555M 10,590

In the 555M OC thread I've seem some pulling 14,000+

 

Yeah, I'm one of those that gets close to 15k with mine. I'm sure with more proper tweaking, I can hit 15k or greater. People have me believing I have some of the best OC scores for a XPS 17.

But I'm sure a M17x with proper overclocking can pull close to 17k, if not more.

 

But do you want a real battery life? That is the major trade-off. You get ~6 hours on the XPS with 9-cell, maybe 2 hours on the AW. And personally I hate the chassis on the Alienwares, it screams "steal me, I am expensive".

But it is always your call/money. If I was getting an AW, I'd get a better GPU than the 6870 though, maybe a 6970 or GTX 485 instead.

 

All I had to do was build an AW and see the price to change my mind. I love my XPS though. I a) need to stop looking and b) make it past the 21 day mark.

 

Hehe yea that'll do it. Get to 21 days.

Sager seems to be a better value for gaming systems btw, but still a fair bit more $$ than an XPS 17.