$600 Inspiron 5402 14" - A wolf in a sheep suit

Because my 1st two threads on tweaking became a bit trial and error, I cleaned them up and created a new thread based on actual facts and the steps to make it function.

First the real specs...

Inspiron 14 5000 Series ( 5402 )
Dell Cinema Color ( 74% effective colour reproduction )
Silver Palmrest With Fingerprint Reader
Stereo speakers professionally tuned with Waves MaxxAudio(R) Pro
Wireless Driver for 9462/AX201
65 Watt AC Adapter
Silver Backlit Keyboard
4-Cell Battery, 53WHr
Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 2x2 (Gig+) and Bluetooth 5.1 (2.4gbps wifi)
14" FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-glare LED Backlight WVA Display (300nits)
*512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD ( Option - 2x Samsung 980 Pro 500GB )
*8GB, 1x8GB, DDR4, 3200MHz ( Option - 2x 8GB DDR4-3200 )
Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics with shared graphics memory ( New firmware and driver 8GB / 64MB - 16GB / 64MB )
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
11th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.2 GHz)
2x N.2 PCI-E 4.0 ( both slots have adjustable mounts from 2230 to 2280 lengths )
2x USB 3.2
VP1 Codec Built in ( runs cool and quiet and energy effecient )
HDMI 2.0 built in to CPU/GPU - HDCP 2.2
Thunderbolt 4 USB-C

Optional uparades
1x8GB Crucial Memory DDR4 3200 SODIMM $32.00 online direct
The Samsung 980 Pro 500 SSD card was a Monday sale item on Amazon, $120.00 free shipping

Basically Dell configured and falsely stated specs for the laptop, to be limited in performance, in not competing with higher priced yet similar lines offered as higher level markets.

I chose the Inspiron over the Vostro for its price and being of the same build, components can be swapped. After all both use the same BIOS, and I plan on mods, so why pay extra, when the extra money can be put into performance enhancements, which makes it even better than laptops costing $250.00 + more.

Memory is easy, just double the amount you have, it's not necessary to have 16GB or 32GB. It's all about using memory wisely. Mixing sizes only gives you more memory, and does nothing for speed. 2x 4GB chips is faster than one 8GB chip, that is shipped in the base configuration. Fortunately all you need to do is add another 8GB, or swap out the 4GB (with 12GB i7 systems).

As for the OEM SSD, toss it, and replace with the fastest NVME you can afford. Do not obtain a 256GB SSD, the minimum I can recommend is 500GB. Not just for size, but it's efficiency. Also don't look at PCI-E 3.0 compatible upgrades. Your PCI-E subsystem system is actually 4.0. Blame it on marketing not engineering.

Note, because the PCI-E 4.0 within the Rocket Lake architecture, Thunderbolt 4.0 is part of the design, that also is misrepresented in the documentation. Though I have a sneaking suspension it's not true 4.0. As the requirements have high current capability at the port. Over 10A of current. I bet the design is not 4.0 spec on that. Probably 4A at best, which is a carry over on 3.0 spec. The bus speeds should still be 4.0 compatible.

Now for the fun of tossing your new SSD as far as your arm can heave.

In the BIOS, change these settings.

Set AHCI
Disable Secure Storage
Disable Dell's OS Recovery

Save your settings, and shut down.

Place your new SSD in slot 1. It is the only slot that has the mounting kit pre installed. If wanting to add another SSD, order as secondary port tray kit. I made my own, because I had the resources.

I found a cheap $13 USB 3.0 external DVD enclosure, and swapped out the DVD with my old laptop's micro ATA Bluray. Just so happens to be a Panasonic. The only trouble with doing the swap was removing the face plate from both drives and swapping them. I noticed the mini USB connection was loose at the time, and fixed it by compressing the shell a wee bit. I may cut and solder the cable directly for long term reliability. It's nice to have the ability to disconnect at the interface but it's not the best for clean trouble free connections. It works well on the right side single USB port, as it's open around that side for my working area. Even though the unit was sold as a DVD player enclosure, the new laptop does properly identify the Bluray and new Bluray writable media for auto play feature.

You can down load MS Windows ISO boot media maker, to obtain a new build of Windows 10. I use imgburn to create all my ISO images to DVD, but you can let the utility do that once the image is downloaded. Or use Windows 10 to create a DVD from iso image, just by double clicking the image.

Beware, if installing windows 10 for the first time. You may think it's not working, if use to earlier NT, 7.0, and Vista... it's basic in letting you know what's going on. Before you know it, you will be given some options as to where to install. The bios gives all the details for partial oem setup, even though you have no recovery partition. Once Windows is loaded, the system will pull updates after a few moments of settling down from booting. Blame some of the bare looks of booting on Dell.

The only things I had to source from manufacturers is Intel's driver manager, which installed two drivers after windows update completed with all the updates.
Samsung drivers for the 970 Evo plus, Magic Manager and Data Migration if you plan on installing from an older system to a new secondary ssd, if using samsung devices in your build.

If not going with any pre 980 Pro devices, no drivers are released as of yet.

The only dell driver I manually added was listed on the auto detect from their support site. It imstalls a small application to assist with detection. That's pretty much all I had to do on any updates. Windows update takes care of most all the drivers and updates from Dell and Intel.

As for configuring windows 10, I recommend searching for performance tweaks for SSD on Windows 10. Some have mostly the same tweaks, but also have variances to look at for your own needs.

I suggest moving temp folder locations to a secondary drive if you have opted in your upgrades. Along with moving the swap file. Remember to remove the original by disabling it. I always set my swap on a custom sized partition just big enough for its size. Also my swap file is set with min being the same as max.

If ever needing to create a trouble ticket, use the bios to pull the info from. I have no guarantee that the clean installation will migrate the bios info about the Dell system. There is some tweaks you can do to add support info in the system info of your laptop. I am vague as it was done away back on 2000, and never had to replace that info since. I do believe it's a matter of creating a text based oem info file in the system folder.

Of all the windows build installs the Windows 10 variant was more like Android than Windows setup. Good or bad, it was more of a nuisance, than an OS installation. I hope Linux has not changed, it's usually straight forward, and no bs to deal with.

Will add features and options to set to this thread once I am set on what works and ease of emplementation.

All I can say for now. The difference in how the system runs over stock, is amazing. The big thing about it is the hidden PCI-E 4.0 capabilites. Which helps games, and video streaming and editing. This laptop could actually run as a mini streaming server for high bandwidth needs.

I guess if one wants to they can swap out the Intel wifi 6 for the Vostro Killer wifi 6 if wanting maximum speeds. The bios is the same for both, and the black list is shared on the wifi options.

 

I have been saying this about the lower end dell units for years. My 2 inspirons punch well above their weight for what I paid for them both. I expected nothing less when you started posting about your new dell! Awesome to see they still have it.

 

Yep, I have dealt with Dell for many years as well, for both buisness and educational stand point. Inspiron Series is no less than Vostro, just businesses that don't have much tech support to rely on choose Vostro. HP use to be pretty good, but the Compaq buisness side was much better in the 90s. Well until they kept sending us miss configured UPS line Conditioners that exploded when the mains became hot. Being in an enclosed tempature controlled server room, behind the lab computers, techs had no idea what what fright would beset upon them. Actually had an engineer from Compaq fly out with a unit in hand on the third attempt. The second attempt he heard over the phone, when reviewing the installation procedures, as they took place. Needless to say, if it were not for his quick thinking, and decided to check out the internals before making the circuit live. He found that the units were mislabeled as 230v, when they were 120v configured. He saved his skin and another unit. Luckily he was there to change the wiring and get it installed.

I bet some people still talk about it internally at HP. Even though it's about 20 years ago.

Even though I talk about this unit in particular, any mid level system can be made better, and more cost-effective, when obtained as a base to build apon. Many businesses will order a base build of a mid range system, and add to their specific needs. Especially when there are needs for variances in hardware requirements. I had a USGS engineer go as far as use what ever means to remove a Compaq system because it was inferior to the IBM he wanted. Mostly in his mind. Overly adjusted contrast and brightness to show raster lines was one method and overly tightening the serial and parallel cables on the ports with wrenches, as to show the standoff Hex nuts the cables are screwed into would distort the card plate. This is stuff that goes on even to day with people.

 

Careful. Put your flame suit on. It will be coming fast and heavy at you claiming that our inspirons are just as good as latitude or vostro systems.

I have been throught that one before. My wife has a latitude system for her work (work supplied), and it's no different build quality than our two inspiron models. The only difference is her machine is newer and has a USB C port, where our inspiron systems don't.

 

Ha

Ha! About fire protection. I know better... supported every manufacturer at one time, by a major reseller. Yep, some main boards have different layouts, but like cars, the parts don't know they are IBM, Dell, or HP, let a lone where they were made.

Since the 90s I always relied on drivers made by the companies that make the chip sets, not the main board and system manufacturers.

Too much tweaking for the manufacturers to limit or make hardware work for their programs. You can make most all hardware run the same in real world conditions, with the proper driver, being not customized by the vendor.

Truth be told USB C is just a connector. It is used for simplicity and force change. Though like micro USB, it is weak in design. I just yanked the connection end off my cable, not thinking . I have broken more than my fair share of micro USB, and even seen one smoke by weak wires. I have yet to break USB A, or B. And now there are issues with USB C cables since most are Chinese.

Oh you overly stated no Inspiron has USB C, well as of Oct they do.

There are a lot who argued with me about PATA drives being slower than SATA. 4 channels compared to the new 2 channels, and speeds did not change on the bus. There are techies and then there are review reader techies. I don't start fires, I put them out. Thus my thread on hidden features. I would not have stated them before obtaining my laptop, if I did not know the CPU capabilities, and form factor. It appiers that you can directly control on board ram without a controller between the CPU. But you can also use a controller for SODIMM. Like I said before, SODIMM can be made up of any ram configuration as long as it fits on the board.

As for USB, PCI-E and Thunderbolt, the CPU can probably drive them without controllers. I was not going as far as to say that, as I had no knowledge of the system design. Until after looking deep into the hardware in device manager, and the fact Intel did not provide drivers for a chipset, most likely no controller boards are setup to drive any of the new hardware brought on by the CPU design. This is the first Intel system I have seen run Windows without any need for Intel drivers to allow for full functionality, which lends me to believe it's raw hardware design. Noticing there is no provisions for back to back read write on the Thunderbolt. I assume that is one reason no controller for pci-e interface to Thunderbolt, other than its connection to the CPU. Though I swear I read in the CPU data sheet, that there is back to back capability. Without mention to any specific chip set. Possibly dell has not made the inspiron driver to enable it. I may have to look into using an Acer driver for Aspire with Thunderbolt, and try that. It would not be the first time I had to use another manufacturers driver, when hardware was limited. But that was with Ralink, not Intel.

 

No, I said MY two inspiron models don't have it.

 

I was considering the 980 pro after seeing your benchmarks, but in random 4k it gets beat by the much cheaper sk hynix gold p31 and adata sx8200 pro drives. These drives are better for most consumers as 4k is what matters for most daily tasks.

 

Hi,

Yes your correct on that. Though I did not see any sale on the Gold, and them bench marks rarely ever show a major real world advantage. I did say the 980 Pro was to be for work and swap on an expected PCI-E 3.0 bus, but had 4.0 invisioned, originally.

Knowing now I have the 4.0 bus, the speeds of booting and overall operation since all the updates have been applied, has shown no noticable impact of Samsung's missing drivers for the 980 pro. Once the driver is released, the 4K issue should be corrected.

Now for my fix... reformat the 980 Pro to 16k and test, format to 32k and test. I bet 32k should alleviate the issues with 4k. Since I pan on video editing the 32k format should help out on large files.

As for system update on operation. The boot times are between 8 seconds and 15 seconds with the 980 Pro, and no driver.

System is cool and quiet running on battery with 75% of the CPU, and 100% video and wifi set.

Still working on tweaks... need to disable Windows secondary caching system. Which overrides the swapfile when active. Verify NVME has no sleep or hibernation mode active. Setup maximum performance with MTU and other network settings.

Cleaned up the system from MS partner loads during windows install. One was an Intel data collection program of sorts. Another Dell's support tie in with os recovery. The leaner I got the system the quick and responsive it became. Most programs load around 1 second from click to active screen. Pretty much like running from preloaded cache. And this is from rebooting and quickly logging in and selecting word from a full installation of office 2013, which was part of my work discount program. If I go any faster with its performance, it will be only noticed in video conversion times. RAM speeds are the bottle neck here, not SSD cards. Just saying for the price I paid for the 980 Pro, it is running circles around the 970 Evo Plus. After all this is a system that was sold and speced with less capabilities. I am thinking Xmas came early with releasing a bonus feature that most tweakers and overclockers would die for.

Go a head and grab some Gold, I am not stopping, just saying benchmarks look good but numbers on top are usually not seen unless you are running at a particular limit, which is an unknown with applications and the system's setup.

Only if we had LDDR4X SODDIM, crossing fingers it may happen late next year. It would remove some bottle necks, and make gaming light weight fun. After all the 11th gen systems are fairly light for their abilities and very efficient.

I keeped up with Intel's drivers... now I have 1GB set for Video ram. Also the system supports 4 monitors. Thus the 1GB worth of RAM set within the shared memory. The LCD screen, HDMI, and two 4K monitors from Thunderbolt.

Going to see if I can test out and verify HDMI 2.0. Options are limited now, probably next year. I only have 1.4 at home.

I noticed the WiFi 6 throttles connection speeds according to useage. Even though I set it at maximum power use. So I get random connection speeds depending on bandwidth consumption. I will be getting 300Mbps speeds soon. Changing from one carrier to another. Right now I gone to basic since I have no idea when they will call me for activation. I am on a waiting list for now.

 

How did you set 1gb of ram to video? I would love to be able to do that.

 

Easy, I have stuck with Intel drivers mostly. There was a recent update to the graphics driver last night. My Intel driver manager gives updates quicker and better than Dell support. Once I started configuring the video, the updated driver GUI, polled 1GB allocated to the video. Also I need to look up a capability that I am not familiar with, or is named differently than what I am familiar with. I think it is part of HDMI 2.0, which Dell also is hiding away in the laptop specs.

I can imagine great deals on this laptop in two years. People not so techie, will dump these in going for newer tech thinking they only have the older stuff. Almost makes me want to pick up another when time comes in a few years. I don't see a reason to get anything newer, as it it's robust enough for me, unless the 14th gen intel chips become super battery saver friendly.

Problem is I see more tech leaning to limit memory upgrades. Forcing any memory upgrades to be external. Who knows we may see a new connection for super compact SSD or DDR6x dongles on thunderbolt 5 using a different connector standard. USB C is just a weak hand held friendly connector. We need a more robust version that is sturdy and can't be damaged by yanking a cord or placing too much strain on the connecter plug in. USB C is too small for proper plug in dongles, let alone cabled connection. Maybe properly spaced USB 4.x pairs with the new drives to plug in as a parallel channel option. It should be fast enough to add more storage space that can keep up with demands. A SD card is too slow now these days. Going dual channel is always faster when clock speeds remain limited. This is why Intel is kicking AMD back side. Too many cores can't push data fast enough, without doing something to split the data streams without delays. I assume video will eventually be integrated into the CPU like Intel did with 386 math co-processor. Now we don't even think about the beginings of the co-processor as an external option. Now we take it as a given. Intel will be the first to do such a thing for ultra efficiency. Leaving AMD in the dust.

 

Hah Intel better do something considering the beating they've been taking from AMD. I'm glad because it's time Intel stops resting on their laurels...

 

Well, I think mostly Intel has been very quiet about their future designs. Seeing the two chip manufacturers go two differing thoughts.

Intel taking on thunderbolt as a means to bring high rates of bandwidth within a workable clock speed.

AMD is pushing faster PCI-E speeds and RAM, while trying to undo bottlenecks with so many cores on a bus.

Both has their plus and minus, but in reality more parallel data channels tops speed though a given bus.

Parrallelizing GPU and CPU with the ability to use multiple Thunderbolt channels to feed 3D or even 4D memory banks without controllers could put an end to discrete video cards all together.

If you look deep enough Intel will put an end to chipsets making a 1st in single chip modular design platforms. Severs being without the GPU, like how Celerons are gutted core processors. While desktops and mobiles will have their own CPU/GPU platform.

Intel in my opinion can let AMD live in the sun for a few years, making them complacent. While Intel fine tunes the morf into a reliable and robust platform built upon energy efficiency and high data through put without extra costs.

For AMD to do so, they would end up change their stratagy more so to keep up.

Thinking back at a time when Diamond had thought of parrallelizing video cards to crush ATI without having to add costs in redesigning their own budget friendly graphics cards. They just popped in two graphics cards after tooling their BIOS and drivers to parralize the video, as each card would do half of each frame. Putting less effort on the GPU to keep up with the enhanced details. The only limitation was a 33Mhz data bus, and the limits of how many ports could be used, as the video cards were Daisy chained by a y spitter. Each output was half of the raster information, with one card to do the upper half and the other to do the lower half. It showed you can do more with less. It was a concept that was limited by the rapid technology change as the nighties had its own shift to bring on 64 bit systems into pushing out 32 bit systems.

 

I tested with formating the 970 Evo Pro with NTFS 64K cluster size for large files on the secondary port. Most video editors will do large cluster sized formats for work storage. The random writes and reads increased quite well. Also the SSD that was mentioned was only a whisker faster than the Samsung. hardly anything to write home about. I will post the results next time I reply.

Did more tweaks and boot times are around 12 seconds. no hibernation and disabled the system background cache service.

the latest bios and update to power control is a wee wonky. you dont have much options to configure outside of a slider.

 

Note with system on best performance, tested with 3D mark with no throttling in the graphs, and all the cache turned off in the system. Both read random and write random numbers are much better for both the Evo and the Pro. Though the Evo has been formatted with 64k cluster size in stead of default at 4k. Also after a bios update, my ram to the GPU is now 64mb in the BIOS, but the Intel GUI shows 4GB. Since there has been multiple updates since testing, it looks like Intel is sorting out some improvements. I will need to do the same format to the Pro to get even more better results.

 

After a bit of testing. I decided to redo my system over again. Mostly because I am going to go custom with partitioning on both disk 0 and disk 1. Microsoft Windows will not boot with any cluster size greater than 4K. So I will do some building of my disks using the Windows install DVD, and select repair, and boot to command. Once there is can clean the disks and start from scratch.

Waiting on another 500 GB 980 Pro to be shipped, decided on not using the 970 Evo Plus in this laptop. Dual 980 Pro disks set at 25% over provisioned by magic manager, will be a wee boost without loosing too much capacity.

Here is my configuration of each disk.

Disk 0
Partition 1 Boot Sector/MBR 100 MB letter Z label Boot attribute Hidden cluster size 4K
Partition 2 Raw letter C label Windows cluster size 8k
Partition 3 Recovery 400 MB letter X label Recovery attribute Hidden cluster size 8k

Disk 1
Partition 1 Raw 225MB letter Y label Swap (to be set as hidden after moving swap to Y) cluster size 32k
Partition 2 Raw 500MB letter V label Temp (to be set as hidden after moving swap to Y) cluster size 16k
Partition 3 Raw letter D label Media cluster size 32k

All the above will help in how the system will perform both in games, media and work productivity.

I am impressed with how the laptop performed on the 3D Mark test app. Without any changes to the settings, the video was clean without much jitter from dropping frames. Yes the score was low and FPS was low, but my graphics was set for production level, not for playing games. Most gamers would set bit depth lower and optimize for game playing. Seeing how good the embedded video panned out, I would have opted for the i7 if I was a gamer, since Xe graphics has a boost with added features of being paired with the i7. I assume next year's Rocket Lake design will be really something when available. For me this is more than enough, just I have dealt with optimizing systems for so long, I can't help but do so for myself.

 

I updated my partition setups. Forgot to add a few things, and adjusted. I figured the easiest method to build partitions is by a forced clean, before creating your partitions. It takes a wee bit longer, but it cleans the drive as if new.

If you messed up with MBR and recover your partitions, for a proper boot. You can use the advanced troubleshooting from CD to delete the MBR and Recovery partitions and recovery install windows. The installer will build the MBR and Recovery partitions properly even though you have only your OS partition. The OS partition will not be reformated.

Update, my 980 Pro is delayed. I guess there has been a great amount of sales for xmas. So I may not have any new information until xmas or around there. I did change up my second m.2 slot mounting for 2280 sized cards. I noticed a good deal of room to glue in a threaded insert. It works just as good as a modified bracket, and does not need any tooling... just careful gluing in place.

Since there is ample room under the card. I am going to try out a upside down mounted heat sink for desktop SSD storage. I noticed the slot runs 1° C cooler than the primary m.2 slot. After all the primary slot has very little room for air cooling. Also there is no air being pulled from any front or center areas. The fan only circulates air from CPU section only. So it is wise to place your OS drive in the primary, and work/swap/temp file drive on secondary slot, if you want performace loss due to heat minimized.

Hopefully when I rebuild the partition layouts on the dual 980 Pro drives, the latest drivers will be released, as I noted Intel had been updating for better video performance, as I had been testing and comparing earlier.

I expect better improvements all around with my optimization of the drive usage with optimized cluster sized partitions. This is similar to unix/linux environments. Just Microsoft makes the windows install a bit too simplistic for the masses.

Hopefully I may be able to disable write back cache to see added performance. Since testing with os cache limiting random reads and writes. The write back cache on SSD could be limiting as well, or I should say expect it to. If I get a real boot up time from post to desktop in 10 seconds, I know there is not much I can do to improve speeds, outside of a miracle of LPDDR4X-4267 SODIMM being released some time next year, along with Dell not limiting the CPU's built in capability to drive the memory, without BIOS limitations. Many scoffed at the systems PCI-E 4.0 capabilities, so until proven wrong, I will jump on the ram option of it becomes available. But I am not holding my breath for it to happen. Unless we start seeing 111th gen systems with the RAM modules, instead of onboard ram only.

 

Ok, I figured I left many wondering a bit on $600.00 price being over $850.00 after all said and done. Mostly it's just the extra addition of the 500GB 980 Pro that kicks the price up near the top level laptops around $900.00. But that's apples and oranges. First thing $850.00 is with taxes. Stripping away the taxes and the additional SSD, we are talking $666. That's including the $75.00 resale on the OEM 2230 512GB drive. You may sell yours higher, but to actually sell it within a reasonable time frame, it's about average.

Yes, an Aspire would be a bit better with LDDR4X - 4267 RAM, but limited with dual M.2 slots. To me dual full sized M.2 slots are worth more than a wee faster RAM. Only if there was the dual full sized M.2 slots on laptops with onboard memory within a proper price range, I would be on it. I don't see the on-board ram worth the added $250 price tag. In fact not one laptop offered with on-board ram is any better for the price. Unless you want a 15" or bigger screen size. Oddly enough the bargin laptop has potential over the competition. Start basic, and mod away to your hearts content.

Oh, as for some real mods... I did modify my desktop m.2 heat sink to fit slot 2. Slot two has enough room to add some heat sink under the SSD. Right now it is in development mode. As i will work on a custom copper backing plate, and underside plate to sandwich between the SSD. There is room to modify the frame between the battery and ports, to allow a wider open area for maximum cooling for the work load SSD. As for the primary SSD, it's mostly OS and programs. So it is not used as hard as a work load drive, and will remain cooler, by idle times, and Windows OS sleep cycles when not used. Oddly enough the heat sink mod on the secondary m.2 slot looks pretty cool... pardon the pun. Probably the 1st and only problem looking mod for SSD cooling on thin and light weight laptops. I wonder how much different the 15" and 17" are for available room to work with. It would be interesting on the possibilities.

 

Give this one a try.....
Dell Inspiron 17 3000 Laptop | Dell Canada

 

Ah, I am only interested in 11th gen Intel. All older Intel chips do not have VP1 decoding built in. Uses less power to decode the popular video streams used today. I assume all the 17" laptops have more room to use a custom heat sink on the m.2 drives. I just made comment on modding for SSD cooling only, not of any interest on 15" and 17",as they are too big for me, plus I am spoiled by centered touch pad, and having full sized keys. Not many home and general use laptops now keep a standardized layout.

 

Here is my desktop m.2 SSD heat sink mod. I used a thermal pad under the backing plate to allow the backing plate to absorb some of the heat. Under the SSD I have mounted a few GPU memory heat sinks and more thermal pads to transfer heat to the frame.

 

What is the bottom cover made out of? If it's aluminum you would be much better off doing thermal pad between the controller of the SSD and the case (leave those memory chips alone as they are more efficient when they are hot)...

 

The backing plate is stamped metal, fairly thin. The thermal pad on top is full length. The back side of the drive is facing top. There is a significant improvement of heat dispersion having the extra metal to soak it up. As for the bottom the heat sinks are offset from most of the memory chips, and are using the Samsung heat transfering label to help pull heat from the settling on one side.

I used the square segmented thermal pads to help make a contact between bottom of board that has no heat sink to frame, and the wee gap between the heat sinks and case.

I did the Dell advanced test to burn in my new 8GB module and test the SSD. The SSD, really heats up the top and bottom, as before, it was more spread out and less noticable.

As for heating up ram to make it more efficient, that's a misconception. Cooler is more efficient, both in speed and power usage.

I have done just about everything to mock up a proper heat sink design to fit the Dell 5400 series, secondary m.2 slot. Now to order some copper plate, and make an upper backing plate and lower plate for the bottom portion without heat sink attachments.

I could cut the length and grind down the heat sink not used in the kit, for the bottom, as it is cost-effective, and copper would not make much difference. To me silver, copper and aluminum are great heat conductors, and to choose one over the other, is skinning teeth for consumer use. Oh by the way, I have used stacked pre 1980 pennys back when I needed to heat sink mother board back sides to a chassis (back when computers had steel panels, they are copper and pretty much every where. Ha! A hidden hack to maximize cooling efficiency when overclocking.

 

I'd love to see some proof that cooling the memory is better. Every thing that I've read shows that keeping the memory warm increases lifespan and performance (albeit at the expense of data retention)... Again it's the controller that gets hot, not the NAND itself. Also having a heatsink on your SSD with no airflow isn't going to do anything for long writes/reads, just help with short bursts.

 

Ahhh I thought you said you wanted to try a 15-17" version. Yes about the 11th gen, and also yes about the 13" dell inspiron layout. I love mine. Even the my 11 3000 is laid out the same way. Typing on both my notebooks is pretty much the same.

 

After a few attempts with burning in my new RAM, I noticed there is a temp difference between bank 0 and bank 1. My new RAM seems to run cooler than OEM. I assume like many reviewers who push numbers don't bother with ram temperature differences between various manufacturers on oem timing and speeds. After all its not overclocking. I did notice I ordered automotive grade RAM, which have wider temperature ranges, and use less current than commercial grade. I may end up ordering another one, and dump the oem RAM. I assume if oem generates heat more, it will consume energy more. Law of conservation.

You may think I am trying to optimize speeds, but you can't optimize by just plugging in components. Adjusting thermal qualities by using efficient components helps performance as well as energy efficiency. I think going with bare minimum and replacing ram, with matched pairs, along with better SSD, and cooling mods to keep the SSD temps stable, will improve all around performance.

I will try doing a thermal reading of my modules at the ram chip for comparison between oem and aftermarket.

For reference the aftermarket is Crucial (Micron) , the oem is RAM is SK Hynix.

Correct... but there are areas where heating will throttle, especially with Samsung 980 Pro and other variants. I am placing a sweet spot of temperature not to cool, but to maintain a temperature range. In perfect conditions iron substrate, though it would take a considerable amount of time to meet operating temp, but once there, even after a moment of low through put, the temp will still be high enough to keep speeds from falling. Enough on that, as it explains my heat sink and full length on both sides heat transfer.

Samsung purposefully made the labels heat conductive. This allowing temps from the controller to be spread out along the length. By doing so the controller gets added cooling, while keeping temps shared to the rest of the board. Also the Samsung SSD will heat throttle if the controller gets too hot. By building a heat block to spread and store heat equally will allow the best for both worlds.

My concern is the lack of cooling, to eliminate thottling. With some of the contact on the frame and platics, some of the heat build up will be leached, while keeping temps stable.

There is no room to properly isolate the controller with a proper heat sink thus I am using the label and backing plate to assist with keeping heat build up from being isolated at the controller. In some ways beneficial to the memory, but not enough to warrant on just ram speeds alone. It's all to keep the controller happy.

The last thing I would recommend is to heat the ram to speed them up. Unless you want to see data failure or shorten their life. I don't live on the edge anymore. I find optimizing within limits to be more fruitful in the long run.. especially when the laptop being used is thin form factor, and light weight. The last thing I want is a blue screen in the midst of pumping out 45GB video conversion.

Had new bios and drivers to install. So things changed up on me quickly. I did a wee server config. Instead of a 16k allocation size, I did an 8k allocation size. The 8k did better than expected. So I will adjust my settings once I finalize my tests.

As for heat... without any heat control in the slot 1, I get about 55° when peaked at constant data through put. With heat sink mods to level out chip temps evenly, I get 50°. So my plan is working out as good as I expected. As for speeds, no big difference. Though the updates have bumped a slight improvement in io. I also disabled write-cache buffer flushing for the SSD. While leaving the write cache enabled for the drive.

Here is a comparison between temperature control. The bottom bench mark is hot, the top is normal activity.

 

I found a great tool made by a developer who has been given co-rights to use a name associated with a popular tool with techies.

It's called PCI-Z which only detects hardware, and downloads and updated list to associate with the most currently available information.

Here is my screen shot, with redacted system info that's not pertinent to the device list.



After noticing search engines pointing to my thread, I assume many are not techies, so I will explain the obvious techie points to understand, when looking at the details shown in the above screen shot.

Notice no additional chipsets to control memory, and other ports. Unlike many earlier designs, both Intel and AMD, used some sort of chipset as a go between for IO functions.

Also one may see USB 3.2 2x1 host controller being a hindrance when Thunderbolt 4 requires USB 3.2 2x2 capabitlities. As long as Thunderbolt 4 is shown as a device, it don't matter what USB host version is used on the USB port A configuration. They are known separate controllers, working independently from each other.

Also notice that Tiger Lake is part of most all IO. Like the spec sheet states that the internal controllers are built in. If there was an external chipset, they would have something other than Tiger Lake be their designation.

One thing I did not state earlier that can be a giveaway on Thunderbolt 4 is Services. Scroll down to you notice a few services that have VT listed within their names. VT is a requirement of Thunderbolt 4, and Windows installer will add the services when detecting the hardware. This is with October 2020 build of Windows Home. I cannot say if prior releases have the ability since Thunderbolt 4 is fairly new on non Apple products.

To many who have seen and deal with motherboard configurations, the screen shot goes beyond what most consider a standard. Only a few system boards don't use chipsets as we understand them, which may make some wonder when looking at the list of devices.

In fact if you look at the details from Dell on the chipset driver for this system. It only gives Windows inf files to use when Windows detects hardware. No drivers are loaded, and allows windows to control what drivers are used. I assume it will be on the next Windows update release, when Tiger Lake CPU drivers will be introduced, instead of using a chip set driver.

As for the information given about video ram, I see too many details that are contradictory to each other.

Some of it is nomenclature. Like the BIOS will state UHD video, when Xe should be stated. Along with RAM being 64MB shared, and a variance with Intel video GUI stating 1GB. Because the system is fairly new, drivers, bios, and proper specs are behind. This is nothing new to me. Example, way back when Pentiun was released, hardware and os was behind. It took a few hardware changes and os updates to show what the Pentium was capable of, as most would see the 486 still a viable option as a work horse.

In the Tiger Lake design, Windows 10 still needs to catch up and manufacturers need to catch up as well. I wonder how long Dell will allow the BIOS to show UHD video when the GPU is not of the system build. I never liked mixing and matching components under the same product line. As engineers become lazy, making universal drivers, BIOS, and form factors to make just about everyone question what do they really have. Blame it on cost cutting and stupifying the general public.

 

Thats not exactly redacted, its fully legible.

Was not really a fan of the 5400/5410 systems, but I found that the keyboard is much better with the backlight. Not because of the light of course but there is more travel in the keys.

I work with uhh, maybe 10,000 of these units and the other larger brothers 5500/5510 along with many others for my client to whom I am contracted. I think they are nice machines but I would never pay what my client pays for them, 1300/1500 USD.

Personally prefer my t440p still but these machines do have their merits/ strong points.

 

Well, just about every laptop has a strong and weak point. I rather have a 15" but they cost around $850 or more for the keyboard and touch pad layout I like. Then there is m.2 slots. Some just have 1 slot or 1.5... meaning 1 is not full sized at 2280. I was only left with one option for over all low cost and performance.

I cannot justify spending $700 + on so called better, for no upgradability. Sure I spent up to $850 all said and done. But for all the bells and whistles no other new laptop comes close, without spending a lot more money.

I can't personally say these small and light weight designs will hold up in business work, even though they are portable. Not enough strength and durability. though for home personal use and college work, its just find. I have had many more durable machines to pick from, even 90s Inspirons for professors and graduates. times have changed, and being on a budget, and with all the different designs and manufacturers, one can actually pick and choose the layout that fits their needs and budget. For me, I am a bit picky, and more careful with how I handle laptops now that I am not as busy with travel needs.

A good padded backpack or brief case should keep these small and light weight laptops secure from damage. If it were a Think Pad I'd just toss it in with anything, and be done with it. Sure they look like a brick and have hardly changed style in 15 or more years. But they are fairly tough.

I admit now, with all the updates being pushed now, better performance and seems quieter even when in AC plugged in mode. THough temps can get high in games, while testing.

My main concern over all, is the lack of proper specs for the system. IMO its highly under rated on its specs, and performance. Hopefully a good review will be done early next year.

 

I beg to differ on our budget dells not being up to the task for durability. My two devices have been slung into planes, the back of my jeeps going camping and off roading, on boats, in our kayaks etc and just travelling around on locations everywhere. My wife has a latitude that her employer provided her, and our two inspirons are just as well built as that machine. My machines are USED for documenting travels, photo and video editing on locations and this year coming up, will be used for producing a docuseries I am shopping around to major TV networks here in Canada. I have NO issue taking my inspiron anywhere with me on location.

 

I never intended to make mid range laptops to be inadequate. When the reply was about real world findings with end users. Mid priced laptops don't hold up as well. Though my wife's G6 being budget friendly has had a few drops in its day and is a great survivor. I doubt my new 5402 could last through such abuse. Mostly the G6 has an awsome hinge assembly. Even some higher end newer models are not hinge robust. I see more laptops go to the way side because of hinges.

As for the shell build and keyboard few budget keyboards are to my tastes. As pointed out by the reply earlier. This one is livable and I am happy for that. Hardware is hardware, high end or not. Most of the time it's build quality that hinders service life. No question a ThinkPad is worth its price. Until you hold one in hand, it's a notorious brainer. Though I am not comparing build quality, as it was not oot my intention, just has been side tracked by various replies and giving my honest opinion back.

I could say this intentions the best laptop ever for the price, but it's too new and all to say what will last, as for finish and durability. I worry about hinges, especially on thin models like this. Comparing 2 in 1 is much more different from the hinge design. Though one big thing Dell has done, is to make the hinge soft enough to open just by lifting with one hand. The body weight being what allows the hinge to open. The G6 and others are not so soft to open,. I think it. Aye allow for longer hinge life. Less stress at the mounting points.

Anyway, long life goes by how well anything is taken care of. The ThinkPad is a tank, the 5402 is part tablet in design. Being that there is less structure to keep it from damage. I think that is the main point given by the reply I answered today before yours.

 

I am closing out on any more updates, as this is my final. Had to rush, since UPS, did the runaround in delaying to my post office, which had been super slow at doing what they are to do. I could have had the 980 Pro held for pickup and had more time to write up my findings with the laptop. So here is what I found in a nut shell.

I had been busy with keeping up on all the updates. Some added performance and functionality. The recent BiOS update, was poo!

Just like Android firmware, you can't go back, even if you have so called ability. Not sure what to make of it, as the system is new, and now waiting on another BIOS update to fix the new BIOS. Hopefully they will get the nomenclature right, this time around.

After my quick run through of 9 various installs, with 1 and 2 NVME disks, with 980 Pro and 970 Evo plus, defaults work out just fine with either drives, for speedy boot to desktop and running applications. No matter how I try loading up memory, either with rebooting and quickly launching Office apps, Firefox and Edge, nothing seems to phase the system, as each launch takes about 1 or 2 seconds. Now when I mess with tweaking here and there. The Office splash screens for each application, are just wee blips, even during multiple launches with various other applications being ran simultaneously. It was not big on the tweaks, just 8k allocation during format works better than moving the page file.

Sorry it sounds like I am reviewing NvMe disks. But I figured it can be interesting to see a laptop max out with upgrades, not just be open box comparison with like system.

To be honest many like systems are not as like as they seem. The closest laptop right now to this model is the HP 14. Though you really have to dig deep to know what your getting. If you want a screen as bright as this one, it will have touch capability. Also oddly enough HP actually has proper silk screen nomenclature for Thunderbolt and Superspeed USB. Though their service manual sucks, and is a bit confusing. There are two m.2 ports, but you have no clue to the size and their locations. The chassis looks to be the same as Dell, when looking at the skin and form factor. The price on the HP 14 is a wee less expensive, and will save you, but something about it seems cheaply built, and too much leaving one to question, on the more they dig. Only a 3 cell battery, which won't last as long as the 4 cell the Dell 5402. Though you will have a 400 nits display with touch capability. To me it's more or less which company you like better. I admit Dell has a lot better service and keeps up with drivers and updates. One big turn off is the lack of support the HP 14 has and it is a wee older model.

Originally this laptop was perky but limited by the meager ram and slow NVME. With the upgrades, it's like a whole new laptop.

Now for the issues I found with it. Not many but they are sort of expected. The main issue about this laptop is, that the plastic along the front is a wee thin, mostly because of design and limited area behind the touch pad. Even after a few very careful removals, of the bottom cover, the front seem will not close snuggly. The wee plastic tabs are too thin and warp or get damaged. It's just a wee .25mm gap, but the touch pad seems to be effected by it. As it locks or becomes unclickable. So if you are like me, in opening up and adding faster disks or more ram, you better order a replacement bottom cover or have some smarts about you as to fix the loose fit.

It's fixable, but it's not what I expected in the short time of working on the laptop.

Second issue... you cannot close the lid when doing things in bsckground, while on performance mode. I did not realize it until I looked at its construction up close. The lid will close off the top vents when shut. Unlike most other laptops, the vents are behind and below the screen, I am use to closing the lid on my laptop, when connected to my 65" Front projection screen DLP, or just playing audio when moving about in my daily tasks at home.

Those are the two issues I can think off, though this laptop can get hot on one's lap, but with care, it's managable. It's the quietest laptop I ever had, even when plugged in to AC. Though if anyone ordered a discrete video option, there are two fans, compared to one. So that will be noisier.

All in all for the price it's no slouch when you want a light and speedy laptop.

 

Since I complained about the Dell firmware update, and had no option but to upgrade once a new firmware was released... I have updated once more, and found a wee improvement but MS ruined any way to verify in depth. I now have some odd changes from MS updates with NVME drivers. Before I was using windows default drivers, as there was no Samsung driver for the 980 Pro. The new stornvme.sys driver seems to make benchmark apps have slowness with read and write performance checks. Even though I see no degradation. Maybe a wee enhancement, but I have not put my finger on any real world benifits as of yet.

Since updating my firmware, I am at the mercy of forever updating until I find reason not to. I think the original release for November was the best all around, but that is no longer an option for me, at least.

I am awaiting for MS to deliver more updates this month, in hopes more Tiger Lake updates are issued. At least at this time, MS Windows knows there is Tiger Lake hardware. Just many of the UI features on both drivers and system, still are using ID info not pertaining to Tiger Lake. The only option is to use PCI-Z, and update the database. There is a PCI ID hosting site which it grabs from, which does a good job at updating monthly, as new hardware ID information is introduced.

I think any laptop with Tiger Lake should have Thunderbolt 4 and the PCI-E 4.0 standards. Just manufacturers have been quiet so they can sell higher tier hardware at higher prices, for little differences between abiltities and performance outside of options and looks.

 

This is true for anything. Every car should come with all wheel drive, heated seats and wheel, and full 12" screen entertainment and all the bells and whistles. but they sell higher teir cars for more money.

 

Your taking a bit further than I intended. The so called better systems running the Tiger Lake are reskinned with little differences. Like my title says, differences are what skin it's wearing. A lot of misinformation both by manufacturers and paid reviewers. In a way treating Tiger Lake as an abortion for Rocket Lake to prevail for upcoming sales. Like why bother even trying to sell. That's what I see in it. Even HP has its own issues, having specs contradict what is actually there. Like what happened, did real technical writers moved over to Acer? Some of the technical writings on late year Tiger Lake Systems is just trash. The 14" ips display rocks, pci-e v4, and dual 2280 m.2 sockets are rare in a mid range laptop. If they put it in a carbon fiber looking shell it would be priced 2x as much. That's what I am looking at. Who cares about looks, it's what's under the hood that counts. Look at all the over priced used laptops that are avaiable now. Why spend $600 on a used 2 year old laptop when you can spend a few hundred more on something so much better. Wait til rocket lake comes out. I am sure a lot would contemplate moving away from pci-e 3 to the much better v4. I probably am the only one who has proven the specs on these laptops are greatly underrated. As for 15" displays and keyboard setups, I am not sure about. Bigger does not mean better. Displays for instance are much easier to make evenly bright and vivid below 15". When I see a difference below $50 between 14" and 15" models I wonder, how much lacking that 15" really is. I think the 14" keyboard layout, saved me from finding out. The extra $250 invested could not be bested by any laptop below $1000, which makes the investment in upgrading a laptop comparable to upgrading a pc. Which is a rare thing now these days, if you own a mid range laptop.

 

Higher end laptops typically contain other features like bigger batteries, smaller size, better display, dedicated GPU, etc. The CPU/chipset stuff has always been similar, sure you didn't used to get thunderbolt on a mid-tier laptop...

 

Maybe i see it differently... Hp and others have smaller batteries. Not that i want to stuff a 64wh battery in this 14" laptop. But 54wh is standard for this model. As for dedicated gpu. It's been verified there is not much difference in going with one using intel's integrated graphics. Though the soldered ram boards would be a benefit by the faster ram. Again I stated the smaller display has a benefit over the 15". Just saying if it was a wee less expensive... Which will happen soon... It would be a budget laptop. It's been years since to see a budget laptop rank so high in all around performance and versatility. Really i can't see paying for any other tiger lake laptop. Unless it is specific to gaming. Though i might as well glue a 22" LCD display on a PS5 and strap on 3 car battery jumper bricks and an inverter. It would cost just as much as a gamer laptop and run quieter. Ever hear gamer laptops? Like it's really not a laptop at all. We techs would grab Compaq lunch box pc, and gut it. Install a mini ATX pc and display so other goodies. It was not a laptop but it was portable.

 

Here is a image of what the MS NVME driver is like with two 980 Pro drives. Dont know why the second m.2 port is still driving 3.0 standards. I assume BIOS still trying to keep some SATA compatiblity. Note I am able to get nice results on sequential reads. But the new driver seems to be not so good with random, as before, since it was using AHCI drIvers. I assume there will be another update to correct it. The only other thing that may cause some random speeds to drop is from Windows Defender. I could revert to using Eset as it is fast and very lightweight protection. Just Defender has worked very well for my use.

 

You mean low level entry GPUs, sorry your integrated graphics isn't as fast as a 1650ti or above that can be found in an XPS. And yes battery size is a major selling point for "higher end" laptops, dell has always done it this way. You didn't touch on the screen either, there are typically large differences there as well (especially in Lenovo's line up, lol).

 

After some testing with my tweaks to old school boost Windows NT, I found that I was cooking the 980 Pro on the PCI-E 4.0 soon after the sequential read was performed. The random read caused the fan to kick in sooner and a bit more than it should be. So I will need to customize a heat sink plate for the limited gap for cooling. Only if the two m.2 slots had been the other way around, the secondary 980 Pro does not get as hot and does not need extra cooling, because it is on the limited 3.0 port. I assume that port is shared with the WiFi card. Mostly because I have yet to see a PCI-E 4.0 Wifi card, and you cannot mix 4.0 with 3.0 as the channels detect the slowest speed and will not allow any higher.

Here is my tweaked settings NVME test...

 

Note, the tweaks I introduced are done after all my applications have been installed. I am no longer testing with a removed back cover, on a bare bones fresh install. That was all done prior, to make a base line, as to start from, or to shoot for.

Here is a wee list of applications running on my laptop currently.

Setup media player for audio files
Installed Any Player to run Blu-ray disc and flv files.
Movies & TV is now reinstalled, as it plays and edits most of the video codes
Installed Dolby DTS:X 14 day trial for both speaker and headphones (To enable decoding 7.1)
Enabled all the Windows Defender protection settings and enforced Vitualization, with Secure Boot enabled
Manually installed Group Policy Editor and all Virtualization Packages
MS Office 2013 (Business/Corporate Edition) One Click can't be disabled, like in my Windows 7 system
ZOOM... Yes I know, I have Meeting, but schools & colleges are ignorant and cheap, so ZOOM it is. (Mannual launch and exit)
All of MS Media Extensions and Graphics tools
NET framework 3.x, 4.x and 5.x
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video (Disabled background operation)
Dell Mobile Connect (Running)
Intel Buisness Graphics Manager Beta (Running, and less bulky than standard, but the same)
Samsung Manager (Running)
XBox Game Bar (Running)
XBox services (disabled)
Intel Driver Manager (Running)
3D Maxx Audio (Running)
Chrome and Edge (Disabled autoloading)
Canon Print Tools and Applications (Print and Scan managers running)

Forced removal of MS applications and disabled them from reinstalling :
Cortana
People and People Experience
Mail & Calander
Phone
All preloaded games
MS adservices (hidden system applications)
Skype
Music
Spotify

As for the second part.

I have yet to start tweaking Graphics, both in a full Colour calibration and performance increases. Though I have adjusted Brightness, Saturation, and Contrast levels to remove the showroom demo look, and be close to my ISF calibrated 65" LED DLP RPD HDTV On its own merits the laptop display seems to be as good as my old Samsung gamers 22" flat panel display, though around 26ms instead of 22ms. It seems more able to give better contrast, without the dynamic capabilities of the Samsung display. Even though the laptop is not a gamer build, the display panel is worthy of being matched with the new Intel GPU. No eye strain day or night, nor overly blue, and more colour / grey scale neutral, with a slight lean to red. All adjustments were done with Windows built in colour adjustment setup, with Intel display control panel adjustments, switching back and fourth between setup pages. Fairly easy, without need for a DVE Colour Calibration tool and software. Though it's to get you in the ballpark for further fine tuning. What test people do online fail to explain... when you setup proper brightness, contrast and grey scale, the colour gambit is less an issue. You can't properly preproduce colour with out that being done firstly. It may not be a production display, but you can get it to be very close to one.

Did a bit of testing with most all video codecs... VC1+DTS fails... had to use any player from MS store and Dolby DTS:X from MS store to play back. Also FLV video would not play without the addition of any player. As for Codec playback HVEC played very well with very little fan kick in. VP8 was a wee bit hard on decode, but VP9 with extension played like HVEC as for CPU and GPU decode running about 24% and 7% paired up with each other. It was nice to see very quiet fan use in movies and clips. Not one Codec caused a lot of strain. Though I did boost video performance a wee bit. Still haven't tweaked a lot as of yet. All my tweaks are with full colour 1080 with enhancements for best video playback.

My laptop was chosen for multi-media and audio in mind. Games are last if not unimportant. Just amused about how well some demos and tests playback without the issues many speak of.

 

I completed a nice set# of tweaks on video for both gaming and editing. Was not sure how well it would go until I ran a good bench test. I am comfortable with leaving it as is, though I am curious as to see how much of an improvement it would make to push a wee more. Heat generation and noiselect levels. I was running just below fans highest speed, on some of the offscreen tests.

As it stands, the Nvidia GTX 1050Ti and GTX 1080Ti are nice competitors, until DirectX is compared. There has been documented findings about the Iris Xe being hindered by DirectX drivers. So it was not a surprise. I figured it would be limited compared to the tweaks AMD users do, and my settings are for best graphics reproduction at no less than 1080 @ 60fps 48bit colour depth. It's a bit more challenging than tweaked 720 @ 60fps 24 bit and lower colour depth.

I also have a feeling Intel is still catching up on its drivers, as DirectX is a road block. Vulcan and GL seem to be very good considering I am in the 60fps range without skips or hicups.

To be honest I am not playing the numbers game, since the Ti cards have strong numbers, there are times the Iris Xe is 10% lower or higher, and there are time they are near equals, then there is the 60% differences, on both Intel and Nvidia. So in the real world you probably would not care being video quality settings being the same. Just my two cents. Since I am not a gamer, just saying mid priced laptops can be just as good as higher level laptops costing 2x as much of 1 to 2 years ago.

To sum it up, if I wanted to prove gaming on a pure Intel chipset, I would have ordered an Acer with soldered 16GB memory and an i7 with Evo Iris tech. Since most bench marks done by reviewers are slanted on AMD and Nvidia tweaked drivers, and really don't Dive into Intel tweaks, let alone make sure the systems they are testing are well setup as equals, outside of video card drivers. Plus there is the Intel driver issue with DirectX.

 

Xe is the first time Intel is taking gaming truly seriously so there are going to be growing pains. That being said, Vulkan runs faster across all GPUs. You can compare it to OpenGL directly with Doom 2016.

 

Well I was generalizing more than being true comparison in details. Yes Intel is changing how its road map has been with graphics in general. It may not be something to brag about against tried and true dedicated GPU offerings. But it is something to think about with shared memory graphics. I am still in a quandary about how the memory is actually used as the system, bios and gui all contradict each other. I now have 8GB of my 16GB available for graphics, within the Intel GUI. Though it seems that Intel is no longer allocating the memory to be segregated from the system, like it use to. It grabs and gives back when needed. I assume the 8GB is required when multiple displays are used.

One thing that sets the intel iris gpu above the Nvidia is ALU performance, which is not effected by display characteristics, when all parameters are set by the data throughput not what the display settings are. So, when I am comparing between known offerings, it's a baseline to expect on what the Iris Xe is capable of without need for an i7 with EVO for basic gaming. If you want top gaming experiences with complex game graphics, don't go mid range on laptops. But you can get by very well with new tech mid range laptops. Last year's systems are toast when Rocket Lake rolls out. There is too much good under the hood to ignore. I am impressed with the a ability of cooking my main board without dealing with a lot of fan noise. Even when cooked it is more manageable than my 6 year old HP G6, which is heavier and a more robust build.

My original thread was to show Tiger Lake laptop specs before the end of 2020, don't mean jack. At least for me, as I have the hardware in front of me.

One thing I did note with Intel GUI gaming management, it does add some hidden tweaks to help with gpu speed ups. I took them a bit further along, as for it messing with daily real time use... there is no ill effects, with lockups, or hangs between page swapping between video and documents, nor any issues between multitasking applications in and out of background when various tasks are running. As for battery, it's up in the air now, I need a good week to settle with give or take on performance vs loss of battery time.

One thing I did do was revert to enabling some system services that most disable when not of use. Before doing so, the idle state of the CPU and Disks, was around 2% utilization. Now it's 1% bumping to 2% when Disk is being bumped by the system. I figure like Android, MS has baked some system services to be polled for use, whether or not they are active. It may not bring up an event, but it will cause the system to poll for a loaded service, which may be disabled by the user, which will cause unnecessary CPU usage. Android is easier to notice by logcat, allowing it to run after boot and idie taking notice of how many events populate and what triggers them. Windows hides a lot from event viewer, thus you must use performance logging to identify key areas. Just because you run a clean event log, does not mean you have a clean and effiecent OS.

Mostly 1% idle time about 1 minute after rebooting into desktop, is pretty darn good, with active apps in task bar and explorer active.

 

Well, after a few days, I am happy to say I am keeping my tweaks, and for some odd reason boosting them to maximum actually keeps things a wee cooler. I think by tests, there was some bottle necks with Intel's tweaks, which caused a mismatched polling between GPU and CPU. Or something changed since updating. windows update and a firmware update by Dell.

I may do another update if GFXBench shows any major change once these updates settle down. Seems every week now, I am doing a major update on drivers and firmwares. Now as of recent Windows.

Here is my current GTXBench numbers. Funny thing, 11th gen i7 and i5 numbers posted last year suck! I really mean suck! Also offscreen numbers don't mean jack, unless your AMD fanboys.

After reading about OEMs reserving the right to adjust clocking, not all OEMs will have the same results... I have yet to overclock, though why would I for 10% at best numbers. I never seen 10% a worth while investment, just wastes battery time mostly.

Note, I am running settings for Video editing and PhotoShop editing, at full HD reproduction.

 

I use both Intel and AMD, they both have their applications and scenarios where either makes sense now. Both "teams" have their unreasonable members which can be put in a box and shuffled off to the side.

Seems this thread is complete, congrats on the machine, unsubbed

 

You keep mentioning AMD fanboys in your posts although there is no one here targeting your setup or anything. Just curious if you have an actual reason for that?

 

Yep, though I think them drivers and updates have more to do on performance than my low-level tweaks. Its mind boggling on what is thrown out there with numbers. To see real performance they should work more on real time through put with highest level video processing. It makes it so much easier to see how strong a video card is. It sets video cards into segragation between true 1080 @60 capable and limited 1080 or below capable.

If one is willing, they can see Intel has some specs no different between Evo and Xe, other than CPU being used. Not many specs mind you, just I find old drivers are more limiting than new. As i had some numbers beat out late last years Evo numbers, or match very well, around 1 to 2%. I guess one could assume to get with all the latest updates a 50% increase from late last year's numbers on many areas, with Evo.

I am surprised not many have had any comments, as to being surprised, or validating my assessments. I expected a bit more from all the hits on my threads. Though I am use to such things like that. All I was trying to show is don't be fooled into the lower specs. Rely more on Intel design, as it would be too costly to emplement lower spec interfaces to limit Intel's capabilities.

On a side note... you dont need to blow the doors off the competition on mid priced laptops, just make them livable with portablity and performance. My feelings about tiger lake mid range laptops, are a no brainer, in choosing between older CPU options that are cheap on the buy. Too much goodness to pass up, than to live with the limited capabilities of what you have known. I am confident to say the 5402 14" is a budget friendly XPS wannabe. Until a reputable review comes along, you will have to trust me on that. You are not going to find a laptop to be perfect, but it's perfection not that it is perfect, it's that it has its limits are mostly on design expectations, rather than a not so good surprise.

I have proved that the design is only limited by its newness, and the hardware choosen, and drivers. I have pushed and seen m.2 pci-e hit its limits and shown a 980 Pro can go beyond 6700 on a bench mark, which nobody has shown, even on desktop machines. In fact the benchmarks do not prove maximum speed achieved. If you want that, just use performance counters. 7000 is hit easily on this laptop, it's just what the os does or is doing in background effects the average through put.

This is the first mid priced laptop I ever owned that did not place a cap on bus architecture. Can't say if any other OEMs follow suit. But it's is more common to see a cap done to allow for higher on battery ratings.

With newer faster ram coming about, we should see some impressive numbers coming from the next generation laptops both coming from Intel and AMD. Rocket Lake will be the stepping stone for Intel, Tiger Lake was just a taste of what is to come.

 

Targeting... no, just a friendly warning. Everyone has their jaded comments, just don't want them. I ignore them, and it make me seem lIke I am more arrogant than they are. Just don't like shooting matches.

Comparing down to the last bit, is not my game. Once the comparing starts, my thread is not mine anymore, let alone what I started with.

I had one comment about XPS and video card reference, and it was pushing onto comparison. I did not need that, as I made my thread perfectly clear on new mid range laptops and what is given to the public for specs, both oem and by reviewers.

IMO, I doubt we will see any assessment that is as fair, about the 5402, than I have given. Something I feel reviewers may learn from in making judgment. But then again, they are paid, where I am just giving facts on what I see.

I have nothing against AMD or gamers, but it seems that's all I see.. sorry if I make myself out to be a troll with esp, but I have no clue to who is who here, if there are any fanboys commenting, take note, I don't see them, and won't comment on what I don't see with my blinkers on.

 

The tone and length of your posts say otherwise. Just use your laptop and enjoy it.

 

You constantly talking about AMD fanboys invites more of the back and forth than you just talking about the laptop itself. And my uses before when talking about the XPS were to prove the point that higher end laptops come with different options and that's why they are higher end, not because they have different CPUs...