I got the latest XPS 17 aka L702x last month to replace an HP Pavilion dv6. The specifications are,CPU: i7-2630QM
DRAM: 6GB DDR3-1333
Screen: 17.3in FHD 3D
GPU: GeForce GT555M 1GB
Hard Drive: 640GB
Optical Drive: Blu-ray burner
Battery: 9-cell
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium.
My first impression is that the XPS is huge compared to the HP, even though the screen is just 1 inch bigger. The weight is also substantially greater. The 9-cell battery protrudes from the bottom, making it even harder to fit into tight space. Although the 9-cell is supposed to extend the battery life, I get just under 3 hours in mixed usage. So, the XPS is a desk-top replacement through and through. If mobility is an important consideration, the XPS 15 can be had with the same CPU and screen resolution, and will be a much better choice.
In terms of computing power, the XPS does not disappoint. The i7-2630QM is capable of 8 threads simultaneously, and I have not experienced any slow-down so far due to CPU overload. The GT555M can run all the latest 3D games if the graphics is set to low quality, but it gets really hot and loud, not to mention the quick battery drain. For gaming, a good desk-top remains the best option. The XPS comes with a pair of 3D glass, but I have not had the urge to try it out either for movie, because of the lack of interesting media, or for games, due to the heat and noise the GPU generates. I intend to use the computer for numerical work, and the CPU, the memory system and the hard drives are the key components.
6GB of memory and a 5400-rpm drive do not match well with the high-performing 2630QM, and I had planned to upgrade them right after the purchase. Once the machine arrives and gets its belly opened up, however, I am shocked to find just 2 SODIMM slots. Dell is advertising "up to 16GB RAM" in 4GBx4 configuration, and this is clearly not the case. After some exhaustive research, I finally find the explanation in an obscure Dell customer forum. It turns out that, to save literally a few pennies, Dell has used two different motherboards in the same model: one with 4 SODIMM slots and 3GB of GDDR RAM, the other with 2 SODIMM slots and 1GB of GDDR RAM. I had noticed and got puzzled by the $170 price difference when one stepped up from the GT555M 1GB to the GT555M 3GB. This kind of explains Dell's thought process in the pricing hierarchy. Still, I am upset that Dell fails to explain any of this on its website because there are customers like myself who do not care about the graphic RAM but do want to have the potential to upgrade to 16GB of system memory. I had paid $300 extra compared to HP dv7 for Dell exactly because XPS was supposed to be a premium brand without too much corner-cutting, but I under-estimated Dell's capacity for taking advantage of their customers. In the end, I can only replace the 2GB SODIMM with a 4GB module. The swap costs me $30 after the old SODIMM is sold on ebay, still much less than what Dell would have charged me to upgrade to 8GB memory in the factory.
Upgrading the hard drives, on the other hand, is something that the designers of XPS obviously take into account. The XPS comes with 2 drive bays, with the 640GB drive occupying the first one only. I have a new Crucial RealSSD C300 Solid state drive 64 GB internal 2.5" SATA-600 ready and just have to move the 640GB drive to the second slot before replacing the SSD in the primary drive bay. Unfortunately, these drive bays are covered with aluminum shields that are attached to the motherboard with tiny screws. I strip one of the screw heads by using a driver a little too large. This necessitates some drilling followed by the application of a screw extractor. The whole process is extremely scary because of the danger of breaking the motherboard, and should be avoided if at all possible. In the end, I have to say that installing the SSD is quite straightforward if I had not had the accident with the screw. Once the hardware is in place, I reinstall the OS with the DVD which had cost me $19 extra, and wipe the 640GB drive to use for data. All the drivers are either included in a free DVD or can be downloaded from Dell's support site easily. The applications such as PowerDVD, however, are nowhere to be found. I have to call Dell support line and have the DVDs shipped to me, but they are at least free of charge. All together, the pre-installed softwares including the OS take up 30GB, leaving 29GB of usable space ("64GB" drives really have only 59GB of usable space in another case of misleading vendor advertisement.) on the SSD for other applications.
Once the upgrades are done, I am very happy with the performance of the machine. The SSD really makes a big difference. Windows 7 boots up at under 15 seconds and shuts down in 10. For this alone, I am willing to endure the bulk of the XPS 17 for the dual drive bays. Overall, however, I am somewhat less happy with Dell than HP for three reasons:
1. The HP dv6 just seemed more tightly put together;
2. I did not experienced misleading feature descriptions with HP;
3. I miss the fingerprint scanner on the HP notebook.
========================== Added 9/2/2011 ==========================
I replaced the boot drive on another PC with an SSD recently. This was an older computer and the drive had been cluttered with various files and programs. Reinstalling everything seemed impractical, so I went looking in download.com for a drive-cloning software. I tried Acronis first, but it was extremely buggy and the trial version did not allow downsized cloning. Eventually, I found EaseUs Todo Backup Free 3.0. It worked very well and, as the name suggested, was totally free. If I have to do it again, EaseUs is the way to go.
========================== Added 3/20/2012 ==========================
Although Intel does not officially support 8GB SODIMM modules with the HM67 chipset used in this Dell, intrepid users have tried them and generally found the new denser format to work just fine. As the price for these new SODIMM comes down, I give it a try as well and it works! Now this XPS sports 16GB of DRAM even though Dell has seen fit to equip it with only two SODIMM slots.
In every way possible they replaced my computer with inferior components.
I immediately called Dell and proceeded to be put on hold and bounced around for over 6 hours trying to get the issue resolved.
As I write this I am on hold yet again with a Dell representative who is completely unable or unwilling to assist me.
I cannot speak to anyone in the United States for support without paying an additional $250 for some support packageI bought this computer in 2011 and have had nothing but trouble with it. Almost every piece of it has been replaced at least once. I have had three keyboards, and I still have trouble with typing. I have had to reformat the hard drive three times, because Dell techs couldn't figure out what was wrong. I decided recently that I wanted to upgrade the hard drive from 500gb to 750gb, and I thought I would be getting a faster hard drive. Dell gave me the specs on one made by Samsung that they said would fit. I ordered it from Amazon, and it didn't fit into the laptop. So I ordered one from Dell and was told it would be delivered on June 5. It wasn't. The email they sent said to check for a tracking number, so I tried that and couldn't retrieve one. I called Dell and got two different answers: one, it must be in stock or we wouldn't have sold it to you; two, it isn't in stock, and we don't know if or when it will be, but we will find out. Today I get a third answer; it isn't in stock, but the expected delivery date is June 12; since it isn't in stock we don't know when it will ship, but you have to wait until June 12. One suggestion a customer service rep offered today is to buy a hard drive from Walmart or Staples who he assured me would know which brand and model would fit this computer. I don't trust either place to have the right answer. One option is to just buy a new computer, but this one was too expensive to discard after little more than two years. Besides the OS is Windows 7, and I've read too many negative things about Windows 8 to even try it.PROS: Display is nice, weight not too bad, keyboard is good, speakers are awesome
CONS: Extremely unreliable, battery not great, track pad not good, and some serious hardware issues
OVERALL: This product is not worth your money.
When I bought it, it wouldn't play dvd's. Had to waste hours of my time dealing with completely lame customer service to get it fixed. Even after that, problems continued to pile up, conveniently right after the warranty ran out. USB ports will stop working randomly. The track pad, which isn't good to start with, sometimes will turn permanently on, making typing difficult, or not work at all. Last of all, using Photoshop makes the graphics card (which is supposedly good) crash my computer on a daily basis.
CONCLUSION: I will never buy a Dell again after how I was treated as a consumer.The Specs Listed in the title aren't the Specs being sold by Hayley. The laptop Hayley is selling is a Dell XPS 17 but more beefed up then what the product name says it is. Its listed as "Dell XPS 17 Laptop, i7-2630QM, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 17.3in FHD WLED AG (1920x1080) Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus, 500GB 7200 RPM HD, Tray Load CD/DVD Burner, Windows 7 Home Premium".
The seller Hayley is is offer the Dell XPS 17 with in the following condition and specs, "From Dell, never used or opened" with specs that include: " Genuine Windows® Home Premium 64-Bit English, 2nd generation Intel® Core(tm) i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz, Memory 8GHz Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory, Standard Keyboard English, "17.3" HD+ (900p) LED Display with 2.0MP HD Webcam, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus and TV Tuner, 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2, Color Elemental Silver Aluminum,Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card, Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9, CD ROM/DVD ROM Blu-ray® Triple Writer (reads and writes CDs, DVDs, BDs), JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3, Wireless Plus Bluetooth and Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000, Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed), Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook, Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 30-Day Trial
Battery 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, Hardware Support Services, and very importantly 1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty (Mail-in repair in 10-14 business days Shipping not included), Data Safe DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year.
When I clicked on the link to the XPS 17 to check it out I was skeptic because it didn't seem to be much from what i could see from the specs listed on the site. When I did click on the link I was wasn't let down by the specs listed because I knew this was a laptop that that had the potential to be beefed up. If it wasn't for the good things I've herd about the XPS 17 I would have never clicked the link, and after I did I saw the specs listed in the title weren't even as good as I hoped, but when I checked the other new XPS 17's by other users, which was Hayley's because she was the only person that had some listed for sale, The specs blew me away and came with a Dell one year warranty, I was shocked. The equivalent XPS on the Dell site was selling for more but the specs listed for the XPS Hayley is selling here on Ebay, but the specs reflected what I thought a High Performance Dell XPS 17 should be.
I highly recommend this laptop if your looking for a great overall high performance laptop and the warranty it comes with can be renewed.
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