Dell XPS 17 (L702x) Thread

[adi9]

My system came with the single 640gb hdd...Anybody know why its only showing 581gb free....Surely there is not 59gb of bloatware

1.640 GB is unformated capacity.Formated is less.
2.You have also a hidden recovery partition with the OS, a few GB for sure.

[adi9]

whargness/adi9,

Thanks to both of you for your responses.

I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & Adobe Premier Elements 8 so based on what you are both indicating, they are both the 32 bit versions. I'm very happy with these programs; I can't even imagine how much better they would be using the 64 bit versions.

You will see a difference when you manipulate big pictures.Bigger the picture ( more megapixels) more memory required.The 64 bit version can use all memory available in your sistem.The 32 bit can use maximum 2 GB. For bigger photos it will start swaping to harddrive, which will slow you. For video editing (Premiere) the difference is bigger as you start to run out of memory soon. It depends of how much memory you have in the system. If you only have 4 GB the difference is not very big but with 8GB or 16 GB , and big photos or clips there is a major difference. In general , the major diference in performance for native 64 bit apps is because of the use of the memory. If the app does not need a lot of memory you hardly can measure any difference between running a 32 or a 64 build.There is still one additional layer in the OS itself when running 32 bit in 64 bit OS,( let's call it "emulation") but from what I see this layer is very optimized and I can not really see a measurable difference comparing with native 64 bit code.



I think the "Elements" (stripped down versions) are only 32 bit.

As a note, Internet Explorer is also installed i both 32 and 64 bit versions but default is the 32 one as Flash and other plugins do not support 64 bit (yet). I did not feel any difference in the speed between the versions.

[whargness]

My system came with the single 640gb hdd...Anybody know why its only showing 581gb free....Surely there is not 59gb of bloatware:eek:

This situation comes up a lot and it comes down to how companies list their storage values. This involves some math so be prepared.

The listing for your HDD is 640GB (gigabytes) where the OS reads the total storage in GiB (gibibytes) which is a system used as a denomination for digital information. People are under the false impression that data is measured in the metric system (kilo = 1000*base unit) but it is much easier to quantify data in a power of 2 (kibi = 1024*base unit) which, in this case is 1024 or 2^10. Note that the base unit for both these systems is the byte, so the key is to convert into the base unit and then convert to the other system.

Going through the math, we change the denomination from giga to gibi by:

Convert gigabytes into bytes.
640 GB * (1000)^3 bytes/GB = 640000000000 bytes

Convert the bytes into gibibytes.
640000000000 bytes * 1GiB/(1024)^3 bytes = 596.046... GiB

So the OS, in total, can only find about 596 GiB on your HDD no matter what you do. Now that 59GB discrepancy is a matter of 15GiB, which is indeed taken up by the OS and some bloatware. Mostly the OS.

If you're wondering why they do this, it comes down to how the hard drives are made. Data is written in bytes, and the clusters that file systems (such as FAT32) read, are multiples of sectors, which are in turn, multiples of bytes. As such, it is impractical to list data using the metric system.

Sorry for the long-windedness. I like giving really complete answers.

[JK!]

1.640 GB is unformated capacity.Formated is less.
2.You have also a hidden recovery partition with the OS, a few GB for sure.

Cheers

This situation comes up a lot and it comes down to how companies list their storage values. This involves some math so be prepared.

The listing for your HDD is 640GB (gigabytes) where the OS reads the total storage in GiB (gibibytes) which is a system used as a denomination for digital information. People are under the false impression that data is measured in the metric system (kilo = 1000*base unit) but it is much easier to quantify data in a power of 2 (kibi = 1024*base unit) which, in this case is 1024 or 2^10. Note that the base unit for both these systems is the byte, so the key is to convert into the base unit and then convert to the other system.

Going through the math, we change the denomination from giga to gibi by:

Convert gigabytes into bytes.
640 GB * (1000)^3 bytes/GB = 640000000000 bytes

Convert the bytes into gibibytes.
640000000000 bytes * 1GiB/(1024)^3 bytes = 596.046... GiB

So the OS, in total, can only find about 596 GiB on your HDD no matter what you do. Now that 59GB discrepancy is a matter of 15GiB, which is indeed taken up by the OS and some bloatware. Mostly the OS.

If you're wondering why they do this, it comes down to how the hard drives are made. Data is written in bytes, and the clusters that file systems (such as FAT32) read, are multiples of sectors, which are in turn, multiples of bytes. As such, it is impractical to list data using the metric system.

Sorry for the long-windedness. I like giving really complete answers.

Well that certainly does answer my question thanks very much whargness

[mpalandr]

USB 3.0 port behavior

I have had no problems with USB 2.0 devices on the USB 3.0 ports in Windows 7, but there’s been some odd behavior in WinPe.

I have some USB flash drives configured to boot to WinPe, primarily to capture and apply ImageX images. When inserted in a USB 2.0 port on a box that supports USB boot, WinPe boots, then runs a utility called PStart.exe, which is a small footprint launcher that works well from flash drives. It presents a GUI menu that offers a handful of utility programs.

Because you never know how many drives will be present in any PC, you never know what drive letter will be assigned to the flash drive after WinPE starts. This batch file finds the drive letter of the flash drive by looking at each possible drive letter and selecting the one that contains a folder known to be on the drive.

wpeinit
for %%p in (a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do if exist %%p:\PStart\ set w=%%p
%w%:\Pstart.exe

The result is that %w% contains the drive letter assigned to the USB flash drive.
This works fine when the drive is plugged into a USB 2.0 port.

When it’s plugged into a USB 3.0 port, the L702X boots to WinPE and the command file runs, but the flash drive is not assigned a drive letter, and it contents is not accessible. I actually tested each drive letter in a command window.

[adi9]

USB 3.0 port behavior

I have had no problems with USB 2.0 devices on the USB 3.0 ports in Windows 7, but there’s been some odd behavior in WinPe.

I have some USB flash drives configured to boot to WinPe, primarily to capture and apply ImageX images. When inserted in a USB 2.0 port on a box that supports USB boot, WinPe boots, then runs a utility called PStart.exe, which is a small footprint launcher that works well from flash drives. It presents a GUI menu that offers a handful of utility programs.

Because you never know how many drives will be present in any PC, you never know what drive letter will be assigned to the flash drive after WinPE starts. This batch file finds the drive letter of the flash drive by looking at each possible drive letter and selecting the one that contains a folder known to be on the drive.

wpeinit
for %%p in (a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do if exist %%p:\PStart\ set w=%%p
%w%:\Pstart.exe

The result is that %w% contains the drive letter assigned to the USB flash drive.
This works fine when the drive is plugged into a USB 2.0 port.

When it’s plugged into a USB 3.0 port, the L702X boots to WinPE and the command file runs, but the flash drive is not assigned a drive letter, and it contents is not accessible. I actually tested each drive letter in a command window.

This is a software problem and has nothing to do with DELL per se. Don't forget, USB3.0 are not on the chipset they are using an addon board bith a NEC host controller, which require a manufacturer driver to work.Windows does not have drivers for it, build in. I think your problem is related to this as I don't think WinPE has the required drivers ( not sure if you can add them as I don't play with WinPE).Most likely the BIOS however can work with the controller, this is why you can boot on it ( if you plug a mouse on USB3.0 and it works in Setup (BIOS) means that BIOS supports it.

[mpalandr]

This is a software problem and has nothing to do with DELL per se. Don't forget, USB3.0 are not on the chipset they are using an addon board bith a NEC host controller, which require a manufacturer driver to work.Windows does not have drivers for it, build in. I think your problem is related to this as I don't think WinPE has the required drivers ( not sure if you can add them as I don't play with WinPE).Most likely the BIOS however can work with the controller, this is why you can boot on it ( if you plug a mouse on USB3.0 and it works in Setup (BIOS) means that BIOS supports it.

Forgot to mention, a USB mouse does not work on the USB 3.0 ports in WinPE.

As far as I can tell, neither touchpad nor mouse work in BIOS.

[dustin1706]

Great Thread.

After a lot of research and reading, I just got myself an L702x.

2D 1080p - 2820QM - 555m 3GB w/ tuner - BluRay - 8GB ram etc. I immediately replaced the main HDD with a vertex 2 120GB and did a fresh install (not from the dell recovery disc).

I wanted to buy one quite a while ago, but I waited until they had a 1080p screen available. I also wanted 3D, but I opted for Optimus instead. I figured that the extended battery life was a better choice than having 3d that I'd likely never use. I love the feel of the keyboard, and the backlighting is a nice touch. I have been reading about people complaining about keyboard flex, but mine seems to have very little at all... Maybe 1/16 inch in the center. I personally hate glossy screens, and that was one of the reasons I chose the XPS17. The viewing angle and color is pretty average compared to mid range monitors It is very bright though. The multi touch pad also seems to work particularly well, although I almost always use a mouse anyway.

I do have two questions though:
Is it possible to have the keyboard back light stay on longer? And also, I find that in warm ambient temps the fans kick on and off and on and off pretty quickly.
I used Speedfan on my old laptop to set custom fan profiles, but Speedfan doesn't seem to recognize any fans..... Anyone know of anyway to set fan profiles? I've become accustomed to my almost dead silent Desktop - liquid cooled with sub 1000rpm fans. So this is really starting to annoy me.

[RoosterRed]

Great Thread.

After a lot of research and reading, I just got myself an L702x.

2D 1080p - 2820QM - 555m 3GB w/ tuner - BluRay - 8GB ram etc. I immediately replaced the main HDD with a vertex 2 120GB and did a fresh install (not from the dell recovery disc).

I wanted to buy one quite a while ago, but I waited until they had a 1080p screen available. I also wanted 3D, but I opted for Optimus instead. I figured that the extended battery life was a better choice than having 3d that I'd likely never use. I love the feel of the keyboard, and the backlighting is a nice touch. I have been reading about people complaining about keyboard flex, but mine seems to have very little at all... Maybe 1/16 inch in the center. I personally hate glossy screens, and that was one of the reasons I chose the XPS17. The viewing angle and color is pretty average compared to mid range monitors It is very bright though. The multi touch pad also seems to work particularly well, although I almost always use a mouse anyway.

I do have two questions though:
Is it possible to have the keyboard back light stay on longer? And also, I find that in warm ambient temps the fans kick on and off and on and off pretty quickly.
I used Speedfan on my old laptop to set custom fan profiles, but Speedfan doesn't seem to recognize any fans..... Anyone know of anyway to set fan profiles? I've become accustomed to my almost dead silent Desktop - liquid cooled with sub 1000rpm fans. So this is really starting to annoy me.

Nice review!
to answer one of your questions you can go into your windows mobility center(top strip, one with the cogs) and click on the backlight button and choose "never off" and that should fix your problem.
as to the fan question, I've never used that prog so I am no help to you there...
Welcome to the club!

[ray4jc]

Nice setup!

I wonder some times if I should have gone with the TV Tuner & Blu Triple Writer (BE-RW). The idea of being able to make Blu-rays interested me but I did not know how much I would use that option.

I have a tv tuner on order...from what i understand it comes with everything to install it....you just have to completely disassemble to get it in there.....and you can always purchase a blu-ray writer if you want ...i've never had one until now