Dell XPS 17 L701x Thread

[Dynamicallyhosted]

Hello.

Someone with the XPS 17 with i7 740 processor and GT 445M graphics card can tell me if it works in Linux?

A test with a Live CD distribution (Ubuntu or Kubuntu 10.10 prefered) are wellcome.

Thanks.

I will be setting up dual boot 7 and Ubuntu 10.10 this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

[simmyrit]

Dynamicallyhosted could you tell us what was your original order date and estimated day of delivery?

[n0x1ous]

anyone notice a bit of a "whir" sound every couple seconds.....its very quiet and i only notice it when its idling and there's no noise in the room.....can't tell if its the hard drive??? I thought i remember some others hearing something similar but those people had dual hard drives? I only have the standard 500gb single drive.

Its not the fan....more from the upper middle/right side.

[Dynamicallyhosted]

Dynamicallyhosted could you tell us what was your original order date and estimated day of delivery?

Order date was 11/23/2010.

Estimated delivery date was 12/13/2010.

Shipped on 12/05/2010.

Received 12/09/2010.

Keep in mind, I'm in Canada, and the unit was shipped from the US; not sure why this is, as I deal with Dell Canada regularly for small business stuff, and most if not all if it ships from within Canada as the shipping origin.

[Dynamicallyhosted]

anyone notice a bit of a "whir" sound every couple seconds.....its very quiet and i only notice it when its idling and there's no noise in the room.....can't tell if its the hard drive??? I thought i remember some others hearing something similar but those people had dual hard drives? I only have the standard 500gb single drive.

Its not the fan....more from the upper middle/right side.

That sounds different than the noise I'm experiencing. Mine's upper middle/left side, almost positive it's coming from the fan vent... which lead me to believe the fan blades are contacting something when the fan spins up to the higher RPM's.

[Stales]

Any views on the TOSHIBA Qosmio X500-149 as an alternative to the XPS17? £1499 Never seen an 18.4" laptop in reality, is it too big? Appreciate any views as Dell can't deliver my XPS17 order for xmas so need to look elsewhere.

Processor Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Processor
- 1.73 GHz (2.93 GHz Max Turbo)
- 2.5 GT/s DMI
- 6MB Smart Cache
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM - 8 GB DDR3
Graphics card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M
- 1.5 GB dedicated video memory
Screen type LCD widescreen
Screen resolution - Full HD
- 1920 x 1080
Screen size 18.4"
Screen features LED backlit
Hard drive 640 GB hard drive and 64 GB SSD
Optical disk drive Blu-ray RE
Memory card reader 5-in-1 card reader
USB 3 x USB 2.0
1 x USB 2.0/eSATA
FireWire No
Modem/Ethernet 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth Yes
Video interface VGA, HDMI
Audio interface Headphones out
Microphone in
TV output VGA, HDMI
Sound Harman Kardon stereo speakers
Webcam 1280 x 800 resolution
Battery - Li-ion battery
- up to 3 hours battery life
Accessories included AC Adaptor, User manual, Quick Start Guide
Software included Microsoft Office H&S Trial, Nero, Bing, McAfee
Size Height: 442.6 mm
Width: 294.2 mm
Depth: 41.5 mm
Weight 4.6 kg

[santiscle]

I will be setting up dual boot 7 and Ubuntu 10.10 this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks Dynamicallyhosted.

It seems that not Nvidia GT445m drivers exists for Linux, but works with the drivers of GT435m...

At this time, the only information I have found of XPS 17 on linux are on these ubuntu and nvidia forums:

[ubuntu] Problems with Ubuntu on Dell XPS17 - Ubuntu Forums
[64 bit] Nvidia GT445 on 64bit - Ubuntu Forums

GT445 and Ubuntu 64Bit - NVIDIA Forums

[Gloomy]

anyone notice a bit of a "whir" sound every couple seconds.....its very quiet and i only notice it when its idling and there's no noise in the room.....can't tell if its the hard drive??? I thought i remember some others hearing something similar but those people had dual hard drives? I only have the standard 500gb single drive.

Its not the fan....more from the upper middle/right side.

If you leave a disc in the optical drive, it turns on intermittently, even if you don't access the contents. I've yet to ascertain what wakes it up-- it seems to be random, and it's rather irritating.

[woodyth]

Ok, well I am joining the XPS 17 crew since Dell is exchanging my 1 year old 1640 for the XPS. I get the i7 and 3GB Nvidia, I am pleased. I will miss my 1080p screen but from what I have read, I will be ok. My question is, will RAM that I had just bought for the 1640 be usable in the XPS 17? the frequency is 1066MHz and usually the i7 has 1333MHz correct? so I am guessing the RAM will not work. Thanks for the help

I just put my old stuff from my 1645 in my new xps 17 so I am at 16 gb of ram LOL I don't know what I will use that for but I guess just to say I got it lol!!!!!

[killaz05]

I just put my old stuff from my 1645 in my new xps 17 so I am at 16 gb of ram LOL I don't know what I will use that for but I guess just to say I got it lol!!!!!

I did put the 1066MHz 4GB in the XPS 17 and I find that 10GB of RAM is working nicely for me. I have used as much as 7GB so far running various CAD programs at once and I am very pleased. Makes life just a little easier. Now I want to upgrade to the 16GB max