XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

[CowboyCoder]

I7 3517u
8 GB DDR3
Samsung 830 128 Gb SSD
Nvidia GT630M + 1 GB GDDR5

CPU 7.1
Memory 7.1
Graphics 4.5
Gaming Graphics 6.6
HDD 7.9

Struggling to explain that.

Maybe it's because it's a new card and the Windows ratings haven't been updated. Try running a free benchmarking tool such as PassMark on both machines and see how they compare.

However, if gaming is your priority then is an Ultrabook really an appropriate choice?


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[Handsome Rob]

Maybe it's because it's a new card and the Windows ratings haven't been updated. Try running a free benchmarking tool such as PassMark on both machines and see how they compare.

However, if gaming is your priority then is an Ultrabook really an appropriate choice?


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It's not, just found it really strange. My 4 year old desktop card scores better than that. I know it's not the best of measurements but still...

W7->W8

CPU 7.1->7.1
Memory 7.1->7.1
Graphics 4.5->4.4
Gaming Graphics 6.6->6.1
HDD 7.9->8.1

Running off the mSATA, more measurements that make no sense. Love the xps though.

[racertim]

I don't see any profiles there, but I can switch between "Generic color" and "Splendid color" from the mobility center (Win + X).

I was going to say the screen looked like a badly compressed JPEG image at the edges of things, but switching to Generic color seems to have fixed that. I no longer have little bright halos around dark objects, or if they're still there, they are much less noticeable now.

Wow, great tip! Display is SIGNIFICANTLY better now!

[Idolon]

I can think of two possible explanations for the low graphics score:

1. The Nvidia driver might be slow. I believe it is a version 29x driver, while Nvidia is on 30x drivers now. Unfortunately, they don't appear to have 30x drivers with Optimus support, so we can't upgrade.

2. (and I think this is more likely) the desktop graphics test isn't enough to make the machine switch to the Nvidia card, so that score is based on the performance of the integrated HD4000.

[hylton]

I don't see any profiles there, but I can switch between "Generic color" and "Splendid color" from the mobility center (Win + X).

I was going to say the screen looked like a badly compressed JPEG image at the edges of things, but switching to Generic color seems to have fixed that. I no longer have little bright halos around dark objects, or if they're still there, they are much less noticeable now.

Yep, that was the ticket on this display guys. Excellent find and thanks for sharing. I'd buy you lunch if you were around

Went back thru full calibration (colors, clear type, etc) and this display now looks pretty awesome. Still not a MBP, but so close to my Latitude E6510 1080p display that it's hard to tell the difference, probably b/c of the Gorilla Glass. Anyway, better than acceptable display now, vs marginal w/ this set back to Splendid Color.

This pretty much fixes 1 of 2 issues for me. The second being the terrible reception on the wireless card. I attribute it to the aluminum case and only 2 antennas. But I'm going to try another router (years on my current one and time for an upgrade) and see how it does.

Good stuff!!!

[Handsome Rob]

Thought I solved this but I guess not.

Replaced spinner with Samsung 830, vanilla install of Win7.
Put Win8 RP on the mSata.

BIOS see's both drives just fine.

Win7 doesn't see mSata at all. Diskpart, computer management, whatever, just not there.
Win 8 boots off mSata just fine, and sees both drives just fine.

Metro sucks more than I thought it would, but want to put it back in service as storage for now. Wondering what I could have done wrong?

[CowboyCoder]

Hmm sounds an odd one. Boot up from your Win 7 USB stick and select Install - then select the mSATA drive but instead of installing just use the install procedure to format the drive. Reboot and Win7 should be able to see it.

If not, see if it's listed in Device Manager - if so, right click and select uninstall. Then reboot and see what happens.

Agree re Metro. What a sack of ...


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[Handsome Rob]

Cheers, that's what I figured.

Weird that Windows 8 booting off mSata took over the bootloader, put in boot manager and added windows 7 sata to the list. Formatting the drive nukes MBR and of course USB based install's don't support recovery. Just ended up reinstalling all to save the hastle of trying to create recovery media.

I could probably get used to metro but they didn't even do a good job of it. IE: Installed "apps" is different from "programs and features?" Application can be present in one or both.... Lot's of duplicity is the most annoying part for me, that and the lack of windows key plus first three letters of application name, enter.

[CowboyCoder]

Not to mention the hidden shutdown button! At least Alt + F4 still works.

It horrible and one reason I bought a new laptop now rather than in the Autumn. Windows 8 is to 7, what Vista was to XP. Roll on Windows 9..!


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[satchmobob]

Thought I solved this but I guess not.

Replaced spinner with Samsung 830, vanilla install of Win7.
Put Win8 RP on the mSata.

BIOS see's both drives just fine.

Win7 doesn't see mSata at all. Diskpart, computer management, whatever, just not there.
Win 8 boots off mSata just fine, and sees both drives just fine.

Metro sucks more than I thought it would, but want to put it back in service as storage for now. Wondering what I could have done wrong?

Just put my 256GB sammy in, installed windows in AHCI mode. Same problem: No msata drive.
Here's the fix: Your msata drive is still part of a raid volume so you need to press f2 during post, go to sata operation or whatever and set it to intel smart response tech.

Now you need to save and restart. You'll now get an option to press ctrl I to enter the RAID setup menu.
So press ctrl I, go to convert drives to non raid (or something like that) select your msata drive which should be the only one anyway. Highlight it by pressing space and then hit enter to remove it from any raid config.
Exit your raid config.
Restart machine and go back into the bios with f2.
Reset sata operation back to ahci, save and restart.
Now when you get back into windows your msata drive will be discovered and installed.

Job Done!