Tag Archives: xps

Computers, dell

XPS 17…sad good bye

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Well, I had the XPS 17 for a few weeks, however I must say good bye to a very nice performing laptop.

Why am I returning it? Well here are few reasons:

1) Being a gamer, I wanted something nice, fast, but cheap. The XPS 17 fit the bill nicely, so I tried it. It played well, but when it came to FPS, I felt it was lacking. Granted there are ways to overclock it, but stock wise IMHO it didn’t do well.

2) I didn’t like the screen too much. Granted you will have different opinions all over, but to me I felt like it was a bit washed out. I possibly could of corrected it via a ICC profile, but I didn’t have experience making them nor could I find any for the 3D screen at the time.

So there are my reasons. The main reason, for gaming, was the biggest overall reason.

Other than that, it was solid built laptop and it would work well for many people. However, sadly, it wasn’t for me.

Computers, dell

Dell XPS 17 Mini Video

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Well, I finally got it – and here is a short video 🙂

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIfZ2L_rlrM]YouTube – XPS 17 Box Opening[/url]

All and all, I am pretty happy with this laptop. I made a few mistakes in the video though. IMHO, the top and the palm rest seem to be made of a metal of some sort. Not sure if its aluminum, but its something like it.

The keyboard is interesting to type on. The keys are nice, kind of reminds me of the MBP. However the space bar is kind of hard, like a older style KB. Guess since the KB takes the most abuse, so its probably better that way.

The mouse pad is decently responsive. It has two finger scrolling and etc which I kind of miss when I gave my older MBP a few weeks back to my one of my family members.

The fan is not bad. It is loud when at full blast (prime95, picture at the bottom), but if you have a pair of headphones or maybe watching a movie, you shouldn’t be able to hear it that much, if any.

The sound I find to be pretty darn nice coming from a laptop. I’m no audio expert, but it sounds more than decent enough for pretty much anything 🙂

The LCD is nice, and more than enough area. However I have a slight issue… it seems the LCD is a bit washed out. Maybe it could be me, or my lighting (CFL 500K daylight), but I don’t see why a color profile or some adjusting won’t fix it. The LCD model for me is LGD02C5 – I think thats the same one they used in the M17XR3 as well.

The design is nice, easy on the eyes and is pretty solid. However we have one slight exception, the LCD lid. Its solid, don’t get me wrong, but its feel a bit if’y especially when you grab both sides at the top (while open) and try to push one side and pull the other. I know people will say, well its a 17 – and yes I know – but it feels a bit too easy in my opinion.

Any questions – let me know!


dell

Dell XPS 17 – **updates**

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**Updates on bottom**

Well, it has been several days since I placed my order, and I have nothing new to report besides the waiting. I will update every day till shipment 🙂

4/11/2011 Pre-Production/In Production
…
4/22/2011 Finalizing Production
…
4/24/2011 Shipped!!

Delays for 4/23/2011:

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics 10 days
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics with TV Tuner 10 days
1.28TB (2 x 640GB 7200 RPM HDD) 22 days
640GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD with 256GB SSD Dual Drive 2 days

The forums I follow:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/

Quick update(s):

4/19/2011…
I called my epp rep and he stated everything looks ok to go.

4/21/2011…
I just received an email and it looks like the 3D glasses were shipped! I should get them pretty soon!

4/22/2011…
Looks like my XPS is in the process of being shipped!!! I called the rep and he verified, plus I was given a tracking number. Nothing on the tracking side yet, just “Shipment information sent to FedEx.” Interestingly enough though, its being shipped from NJ – so it appears I could get it in a day. Maybe tomorrow?? We will see while I keep checking tonight.

4/23/2011…
The glasses came – there is a mini unboxing in a another post. However the XPS is still in the fedex limbo – “Shipment information sent to FedEx”. I hope to get it pretty soon!

4/24/2011
It shipped!!! I will have a video on when it arrives!!

dell

Dell XPS 17 on the way…

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Well, after debating about what to get, I think I found what I looking for….the Dell XPS 17.

Here are the specs:

225-0587 XPS 17
317-6215 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz
317-6203 6GB,DDR3,2 DIMM
331-1414 Backlit Internal Keyboard – English
320-1986 17.3in FHD WLED TL (1920×1080) 3D
421-3642 Basic Stage
421-3874 Camera Software 2.X, Factory Install
320-2335 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 3GB graphics with TV Tuner
342-2251 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2
318-0432 Elemental Silver Aluminum
421-1737 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
421-0757 Skype VOIP Application
420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp
330-6222 Windows 7 Label
420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
420-6576 DELL WELCOME,Software Dimension/Inspiron
421-0092 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
420-9876 Cozi-Calendar
421-2086 eBay Webslice
318-0392 Windows Live Wave 4
331-1416 Resource DVD (L702X)
421-4118 WHITEPAGES.COM,Webslice
421-4289 Dell Support Center Software 3.0
430-4038 Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
410-1883 Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 Multi-Language
318-1064 Tray Load Blu-ray Triple Writer (reads and writes CDs, DVDs, BDs)
318-0434 Roxio Creator Starter, FI
421-4550 Power DVD 9.6, 3D
318-0138 JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
317-6214 Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0
410-9452 McAfee Platinum, 30 Day, MUI
312-1182 92 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
410-0487 Microsoft Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word and Excel with ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
939-4150 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty, Initial Year
939-4160 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis, Initial Year
994-3700 Accidental Damage Service, 1 Year
950-9797 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
412-0358 Soft Contracts Consumer Accidental Damage Agreement
420-8878 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement
933-0410 Warranty Support, Initial Year
988-0099 To activate your online backupaccount, go to Start, Programs, DataSafe Online
927-2357 DataSafe Online 2.0 2GB
421-4356 Software, DataSafe Online 2.0 2GB
430-3893 No Mobile Broadband L501X
421-4600 Recovery DVD for Windows 7 Home Premium OS, 64bit, English
906-3539 3rd Party Guaranteed buy-back program Dell customer’s Notebook for a guaranteed percentage based on time and condition
466-8143 Plant A Tree – Workstation Offset
462-3235 Thank you for choosing Dell

I originally placed another order, and it had the 640 GB HDs, however cause of the delays, I cancelled that order and did the 2x 500GBs.

My EDD is 5/10, but we will see when it ships.

dell

Dell Exchange

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Thanks to my dog and water – my XPS 730 finally kicked the bucket and having issues. Since I have complete care on the system (a must have by the way), they agreed to replace the system with “a like or better” model. Now since they don’t make the XPS 730 any longer it either had to be a Alienware (recently bought out by Dell) or a Studio XPS desktop. I was very worried thinking I could actually get “worse” (a lot of times they don’t go by the model, just GB, MB, or GHz). Well after waiting around 2 weeks to hear something from them I noticed a new order in my list. It was for a Alienware Aurora!!

Now compared to my XPS there are few draw backs…1) The video card is less powerful (260 vs 280), 2) the PSU is less powerful (1000w vs 875w), 3) no built-in bluetooth, and 4) the motherboard is smaller in regards to open slots. I could cancel this and get my money back from the XPS, or I can keep this system and be happy with the upgraded features of this system. Its hard choice since I need the money right now, like anyone else, but since I don’t have a desktop I most likely will keep this one.

I will follow up once I get the system with pictures, and maybe a video… 🙂

Here are the specs:

1 224-6493 Alienware Aurora Desktop
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8322 Cosmic Black, Alienware Aurora Chassis, 875W PSU
1 313-8750 AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue
1 313-8767 Dual Drives: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (BD-ROM; DVD/CD Burner) and DVD-ROM
1 313-8948 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
1 317-1886 Overclocked Intel Core i7 975 Extreme (3.6GHz, 8MB Cache)
1 317-1891 6GB Triple Channel 1067MHz DDR3
1 317-1904 Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling
1 317-2818 Accessory Kit, Aurora, Eng
1 320-0862 Single 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
1 320-7810 No Monitor
1 330-4769 Dell Resource DVD with Application Backup
1 330-6348 Automatic Updates:
1 330-6517 No Mouse
1 330-6518 No Keyboard
1 341-0436 300GB – SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 10k RPM, 16MB Cache HDD
1 410-0312 McAfee VirusScan Plus 15 Month Subscription (English)
1 410-1867 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANG
1 420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp 2.0 Basic
1 421-0974 CYBERLINK PDVD 8.0 ANW
1 421-0975 NERO 9, ANW
1 421-1424 Alienhead 3D
1 421-1721 Soft Contracts,Banktec Care,Alienware
1 421-2064 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 430-0637 1505 PCIe WLAN card with11n mini-Card & external antenna