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Steve's XPS review

post #1 of 4
4/19/04 at 3:15pm
Thread Starter 
Well I've had the notebook for a couple days now, so I'll go ahead and give it a review:

Inspiron XPS P4 3.4Ghz, 60GB-7200RPM, 1GB MEM, ATI m9700, 33Gigs of files
loaded.

-Build Quality: Overall I think the notebook is built very well, and solid as a brick.

-Look: Kind of strange but you get used to it. Ordered the plasma quickcover, but don't like it. Will change to Skullz.

-Performance: Ok, so the notebook does run well however it does have some faults. Windows performance is good, but could be better. Compared to a desktop, the system seems to chug a bit some times unexpectedly. It is especially bad if you leave powerplay enabled in the display properties and run with only battery. Fans do stay on quite a bit, but they are very quiet. Games do run well, (16x12) however there are some hiccups sometimes during gameplay and games could run smoother (Halo is a good example)
I got my first frozen screen/game lockup in Star Trek Elite Force 2, however 3DMark 03 doesn't seem to have any issues (looping for 2 hrs no issues).

Screen: This 1900x1200 screen is amazing. no dead pixels.
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post #2 of 4
4/19/04 at 5:10pm
steve, will you be keeping your xps?

overall are you happy with it? on scale of 1 to 10 (highest), how would you rate the xps?

thanks
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post #3 of 4
4/19/04 at 7:17pm
Thread Starter 
For now I would rate it at an 8.0

I think overall the windows performance could be improved, and I did have that issue with ST elite force 2 locking up. I will try the 1.1 update and see if it goes away. I still also have to test Call of Duty, UT 2004, Halo and a couple more programs.

It's going to take me about a week to test this machine out and run it hard.

Also I think the last 2.0 points will show up, when we get the next graphics upgrade. I think the machine needs another 2-3k 3dmark03 points to hit a solid game playing level at 1600x1200.

It's definitely a power users notebook, but for what you get I think it is worth it.

Also I don't know why everyone dislikes the backpack, I think it's awesome. It protects the laptop very well, and has very convenient compartments. It fits great over my shoulder. A big 9.5 on the backpack!

And lastly, my palms feel cool, to compare I also have an Apple Powerbook G4 and the palmrest get so hot I can only type for a couple minutes...

Steve
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post #4 of 4
4/19/04 at 9:14pm
stevecc sounds like you'll enjoy it for a while

Out of curiosity, have you replicated these glitches with a clean install of the OS?
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