Dell XPS15 R2 (L502) Thread

[siquadri]

Hi,

Just got my XPS 15.

I have to go out now.

Will explore in detail once i am back.

Let me know if you guys need me to test anything.

[[-Mac-]]

Hi,

Just got my XPS 15.

I have to go out now.

Will explore in detail once i am back.

Let me know if you guys need me to test anything.

I can suggest this thread to test heat production.

[LoganK]

Is Lojack a deal breaker for you?

I can vouch for LoJack's effectiveness in recovering the laptop in at least one case. It took the police working with the LoJack people only a few days to recover a laptop that had been stolen almost a week prior.

He had already order a replacement system and it took a bit longer to have the equipment returned, but if you live in a high-crime zone and like to know the thieves will be caught, then go for it!

Good evening,
I'm a new user of the forum and I'm Italian, so sorry for my bad English.
I'm going to buy an XPS and I've the possibility to choose an XPS 17 with i5 2520 (2.5 GHz) or i7 2630QM (2.0 Ghz) at the same price of the notebook.

Should I choose the quad-core o the dual-core, considering the overheating problem of the quad?

First, there isn't necessarily an overheating problem. People here are just uncomfortable with the decisions Dell and Intel have made.

Second, quad-core if you are going to be doing anything with video editing or encoding, dual-core if it is much cheaper. In this case, the dual-core being faster is going to be more noticeable than almost anything else on the processor.

[orange193]

Second, quad-core if you are going to be doing anything with video editing or encoding, dual-core if it is much cheaper. In this case, the dual-core being faster is going to be more noticeable than almost anything else on the processor.

So sir you are suggesting to get the dual core ones? I have been thinking of getting this Laptop cause I wanted to do x264 encoding using MeGui and getting confused if I really want this or not because there's thread about this laptop that it has Temp issues. Enlighten me and sorry for my bad english.

[lego99]

Just got my XPS 15 and uploaded a short comparison to my old Vostro 1500. Also, when I checked the battery it had 75% remaining and 2 hours and 41 minutes showing. I got the 56W battery. I'm thinking I will get more out of it with a full charge. Also my Vostro is heavier. The XPS feels a bit lighter which is great for the lap.

YouTube - XPS 15

cool video... looks really good. I have a vostro as well looking to upgrade soon to the 502.

I'm interested in how word, excel, various web pages etc look on that awesome 1080p screen ... at 100% dpi, 125% dpi. Viewing angles as well would be great.

[DepthOfField]

Second, quad-core if you are going to be doing anything with video editing or encoding, dual-core if it is much cheaper. In this case, the dual-core being faster is going to be more noticeable than almost anything else on the processor.

Yeah, I will use it to encode videos, export a lot of RAW files, work with 3DS Max and make renderings...
With programs that use all the available CPUs I'll got advantages from the 4-core configuration.
I've made two quotes (price predictions?) with the XPS 17: the i5-2520 version, adding 9-cell battery, Centrino N6230 and 2-year warranty service comes to cost more (circa +49€) than the i7-2630QM version (again with 2-year service and the Centrino N6230, and the 9-cell battery is price-included; also a more capable 500GB HDD is included).
But because the i7 2630QM doesn't support AES and new Intel Vt-I/O technology (that the 2520 has) I hope I won't be disadvantaged buying a processor without these new instructions if they'll be necessary in the future.

[DakkonA]

Is Lojack a deal breaker for you? I don't know much about it. Seems like you may be better off without Lojack than without a computer, which wouldn't help you if you didn't have Lojack, but wouldn't help if you didn't have the computer either. Funny how that works out.

No, it isn't a deal-breaker. Just a nice addition, considering the area I live in. The irony is apparent though .

[DakkonA]

Yeah, I will use it to encode videos, export a lot of RAW files, work with 3DS Max and make renderings...
With programs that use all the available CPUs I'll got advantages from the 4-core configuration.
I've made two quotes (price predictions?) with the XPS 17: the i5-2520 version, adding 9-cell battery, Centrino N6230 and 2-year warranty service comes to cost more (circa +49€) than the i7-2630QM version (again with 2-year service and the Centrino N6230, and the 9-cell battery is price-included; also a more capable 500GB HDD is included).
But because the i7 2630QM doesn't support AES and new Intel Vt-I/O technology (that the 2520 has) I hope I won't be disadvantaged buying a processor without these new instructions if they'll be necessary in the future.

Don't forget that you can upgrade the processor later on in the laptop's life, if that's something you feel comfortable doing.

[NoSlow5oh]

Yeah, I will use it to encode videos, export a lot of RAW files, work with 3DS Max and make renderings...
With programs that use all the available CPUs I'll got advantages from the 4-core configuration.
I've made two quotes (price predictions?) with the XPS 17: the i5-2520 version, adding 9-cell battery, Centrino N6230 and 2-year warranty service comes to cost more (circa +49€) than the i7-2630QM version (again with 2-year service and the Centrino N6230, and the 9-cell battery is price-included; also a more capable 500GB HDD is included).
But because the i7 2630QM doesn't support AES and new Intel Vt-I/O technology (that the 2520 has) I hope I won't be disadvantaged buying a processor without these new instructions if they'll be necessary in the future.

If I were in your position, I would drop the 9 cell and the extra warranty, to pay for the i7 2720QM. That way you get your encoding done faster and you have the Intel VT support, just in case you might need it later down the road.

[LoganK]

So sir you are suggesting to get the dual core ones? I have been thinking of getting this Laptop cause I wanted to do x264 encoding using MeGui and getting confused if I really want this or not because there's thread about this laptop that it has Temp issues. Enlighten me and sorry for my bad english.

For me, the price difference was USD$300. Since I don't have a pressing need to encode video faster, the dual-core was the flat-out winner.

There are no temperature "issues" just yet. The new processors run faster than the old ones, but they also run hotter (but still within the allowable specification). This makes people uncomfortable because it is different than what they are used to.

But because the i7 2630QM doesn't support AES and new Intel Vt-I/O technology (that the 2520 has) I hope I won't be disadvantaged buying a processor without these new instructions if they'll be necessary in the future.

Don't worry about the AES support. I don't believe there is any reason for you to care about it in a laptop.

As for VT-d support in running virtual machines, you have two things to consider. First, are you planning to run any virtual machines (VirtualBox, VMWare, etc.) where performance a concern? Second, VT-d provides up to about 10% better performance within the virtual machine, so will the difference in clock speeds alone make up for this?