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Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 review - Page 5

post #81 of 109
2/26/05 at 2:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smeggy
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2342&p=7

Even with dual channel and faster Ram it'll still trail a 3.6 or 3.8 p4 by quite a margin
Here are some more benchmarks

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_cont...esktop&page=11

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2356&p=8
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post #82 of 109
2/26/05 at 12:39pm

XPS Gen 2 video

With all the new XPS threads popping up I did not want to make a new one, so thought I would put this short video of the XPS Gen 2 here.

http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-1541-x-x-x
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post #83 of 109
2/26/05 at 4:55pm
The video, game and synthetic benchmarks are all very impressive but I'm not a gamer or a business app user, I'd be using mine for 3d work and rendering. There have been precious few benchmarks that address pure Floating point speed and the ones that did show the P-M trailing fairly badly against the AMD's and P4's. If I were to get another P4 it would most likely be a 3.8 which would soundly crush a P-M 2.13 for render and other calculation stuff as the GamePC tests show. My renderer is what's known as a brute force renderer which basically means it doeswn't use cheats to achieve it's final solution but calculates everything as spectral space. A method which can literally take days to render a scene, over that time period the P-M would maybe reach 2/3 of the solution compared to the P4.

The P-M is a fantastic chip and the 6800 Ultra is awesome but the P-M just isn't ideally suited to my particular needs by the look of things. Otherwise I'd be all over this machine like flies on poop.
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post #84 of 109
2/26/05 at 9:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smeggy
The video, game and synthetic benchmarks are all very impressive but I'm not a gamer...
...
The P-M is a fantastic chip and the 6800 Ultra is awesome but the P-M just isn't ideally suited to my particular needs by the look of things. Otherwise I'd be all over this machine like flies on poop.
That's why the XPS is marketed as an "Extreme Gaming" notebook. I recommend you take a look at the Sager 9860 or 4750 for your rendering needs.
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post #85 of 109
2/26/05 at 11:27pm
I already have a 9860 which is about to go back on Monday as it's faulty. It's also very loud and hot which is why I was looking at alternatives but it seems I may have to put up with the noise and heat to get the speed. It would be nice to have the Ultra card though, or even the Quadro but no such luck with the 9860 at this point.
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post #86 of 109
2/27/05 at 12:28am

iXPS2

Does the iXPS2 have a swapable hdd??? It looks like theres a hdd caddy that slides out but I'm not sure. I have an i8500 right now with swapable hdds. Nice for optimizing your lappy to do different things.

i8500 1920 x 1200
P4m @ 2.4ghz
512mb pc2100 266mhz ram(buyin second stick 512 soon)
40gig 5400rpm hdd + second 12gig 4500 hdd (swapable)
20gig iomega hdd usb
24x cd burner/dvd rom
Sony DL dvd burner (usb/firewire)
NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 Go 64mb
Audigy2 NX usb
T7700 7.1 speakers
Adadptec usb tv tunner
Logitech MX1000 laser
DELL 20" CRT
(14 usb devices including 3 hubs symotaniously running, lol)
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post #87 of 109
2/27/05 at 1:00am
There are two screws that hold it in, but, yes, you can buy additional caddies and swap drives if you want.
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post #88 of 109
2/27/05 at 2:04am
Looks like I need to change my name on this forum...

aBout to be XPS Gen 2 Owner.
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post #89 of 109
2/27/05 at 2:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smeggy
I already have a 9860 which is about to go back on Monday as it's faulty. It's also very loud and hot which is why I was looking at alternatives but it seems I may have to put up with the noise and heat to get the speed. It would be nice to have the Ultra card though, or even the Quadro but no such luck with the 9860 at this point.
Smeggy,
Does Dell Precision M70 fit your needs? It should be same price range, with the professional equivalent of the 6800. Only thing is it is 15.4" and Pentium M.

The difference between M70's quadro FX 1400 (i think) and normal 6800 is in some forums, and its quite technical too - so you might find them useful in making your decision.
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post #90 of 109
2/27/05 at 3:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ankurg
Smeggy,
Does Dell Precision M70 fit your needs? It should be same price range, with the professional equivalent of the 6800. Only thing is it is 15.4" and Pentium M.
Actually the M70 was my first choice but again it's a P-M. I'm still thinking about it though as the Quadro would be the ideal card for 3d. I guess it's a choice of either working faster or rendering faster, It seems I can't have my cake and eat it
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post #91 of 109
2/27/05 at 4:25am
Apparently the Sager 9860s will be releasing a Quadro option soon. I think Hypersonic has already advertised the availability of this, so this could cover both of your needs at the cost of battery life.

Cheers
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post #92 of 109
2/27/05 at 6:32am
Yup, looks like for rendering the full-scale Pentiums are always going to be the best. Thats why it puzzles me why you want this to be in a laptop.

It is nice to be able to move you work around. If you dont need the power savings, then by all means, go with something that has lots of power, such as one of the new HPs with P4 and great screens. The P-M just isnt what you want, as you know.

Its quite likely that less and less laptops will have these P4 CPUs, so get one while you can!!!
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post #93 of 109
2/27/05 at 1:38pm
I wonder how the speakers will sound on the xpsGen2. It looks like they took up some speaker room with disco balls and neon stuff. I know nobody has probably heard sound from it yet, but I would bet it will be sub-par in comparison to a 9860 (although I've read some remarks about tinny sound at the amplifier from the 9860).

I guess it will be time to invest in a quick dock and some good speakers
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post #94 of 109
2/27/05 at 1:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dma550
I wonder how the speakers will sound on the xpsGen2. It looks like they took up some speaker room with disco balls and neon stuff. I know nobody has probably heard sound from it yet, but I would bet it will be sub-par in comparison to a 9860 (although I've read some remarks about tinny sound at the amplifier from the 9860).

I guess it will be time to invest in a quick dock and some good speakers
Speaker sound really isn't even a consideration when I'm buying a laptop. 90% of the time I'm using headphones, and I'm not that big of an audiophile.

I would have to agree though, I bet the 9860 will sound better when you compare built-in speakers.

IF the sounds bothers me I'll probably just wind up getting the Creative Labs PCMCIA sound card.
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post #95 of 109
3/6/05 at 8:19am
Question about the 6800 Ultra:
Can it produce 1920x1200 resolution in an external monitor like the new 2405 wfp?

I'm aware that the built in screen of the xps2 has this resolution, but according to the Dell Europe site the 6800 non-Ultra isn't able to do 1920x1200 externally although it can do it for the built in screen...so I'm wondering whether the Ultra can do it (can't find any info on nvidia or dell usa site.
Doesn't make sense to at all, since even my radeon 9800 pro can do 1920x1200...

btw, cool forum, first time post for me.

Mykal
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post #96 of 109
3/6/05 at 3:57pm
so your saying the 9300 can't output to that res on the 2405fpw
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post #97 of 109
3/6/05 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mykal
Question about the 6800 Ultra:
Can it produce 1920x1200 resolution in an external monitor like the new 2405 wfp?

I'm aware that the built in screen of the xps2 has this resolution, but according to the Dell Europe site the 6800 non-Ultra isn't able to do 1920x1200 externally although it can do it for the built in screen...so I'm wondering whether the Ultra can do it (can't find any info on nvidia or dell usa site.
Doesn't make sense to at all, since even my radeon 9800 pro can do 1920x1200...
No, it can, but it may not include built in support for it. You can add configuration support for it using a utility like PowerStrip.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mykal
btw, cool forum, first time post for me.
Yes, we know. Welcome to the forum and helping to make it all that much cooler.
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post #98 of 109
3/9/05 at 5:40pm

just ordered mine!

*WOOT*

Just ordered the following on Dell's website:

Inspiron XPS Gen 2
Intel® Pentium® M 760 (2.0GHz/533MHz FSB)
17in True Life™ Wide Screen UXGA Display
1GB DDR2 at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800 Ultra
60GB HD (7200)
1 GB Network Card and Modem
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
Wireless 2915 Internal(802.11 b/g)
Dell 350 Bluetooth
Ships: April 07, 2005

I have a Inspiron 8200 too which i used to DEATH! I am very happy with it, but holy snikies, this XPS gen2 is faster then my desktop (3500+,1GB RAM,6800GT,etc).

-Zabulon
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post #99 of 109
3/14/05 at 5:22pm
Just ordered an xps gen 2 is two batteries enough if i go to my favorite cafe and play a game?
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post #100 of 109
3/14/05 at 5:43pm
Depends on how long you plan on playing the game It'll probably get you 2.5 - 3 hours worth of play time.
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