Dell Studio XPS 16 - Should I buy it??

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>It's a beast - i7 processor, 640 gb HDD, 8gb RAM, and it comes to be right under $1900. </p>

<p>I have no major issues with price, but I am worried that the laptop will become sluggish and old very quickly. I want to buy something that will last me a while, as a GOOD laptop. I realize that it will inevitably slow down sooner or later, but I don't want to buy something that will reduce in performance and speed by 80% over 2 years. </p>

<p>Also, it has about 4-4.5 hours of battery life. Is that enough? Will I be away from an outlet for more than that long in college? </p>

<p>Help is muchly appreciated :)</p>

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<p>Get a customized one like a Sager or Asus. Screw Dell, I would’ve recommended Alienware but now they are under Dell.</p>

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<p>^This. While functionally they’re all the same, Dell has horrid customer support. Both Sager and Asus offer better return/repair policies than Dell. I had to deal with them once for a friend, and it wasn’t fun at all.</p>

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<p>I find it hard to believe that you can run a Core i7 under load off the battery for 4+ hours. I have two Core i7 systems and they aren’t know for sipping power. The Core i5 systems generally have lower performance requirements. It may be that those ratings are at idle. The Core i7 does shut stuff off when not in use.</p>

<p>The Core i7 has four cores and eight threads. On average, my i7 desktop shows about 2% CPU utilization. It’s never seen 100%. I don’t even remember if it’s seen 50%. It has more processor power than most will need unless they have multithreaded applications that perform big workloads like HPC, gaming or video editing and conversion.</p>

<p>You might be better off with a desktop/laptop combination. The desktop would be in your dorm for gaming and other things that require CPU horsepower and you’d use your laptop for more mundane things like web browsing, email, and homework.</p>

5

<p>I second the desktop/laptop advice, but many people I’ve talked to say that they don’t want the hassle of two computers or they don’t want the bulkiness of a desktop in the dorm room.</p>

<p>Personally, I run a Core 2 Quad-based desktop for gaming, photoshopping, and long work projects (a 24" screen helps majorly) and an Asus UL30A for a school laptop. It cost me about $1000 total (bought the laptop and the majority of my PC parts used, but they work fine and I put it together myself).</p>

<p>If you do go the laptop/desktop route, here are some tips:</p>

<p>-Read up on mATX (micro-ATX) builds. Shuttle Form Factor cases, like the Silverstone Sugo SG02-F or the Langear Da Box are my personal favorites. They’re much smaller than typical desktops, yet you can pack the same powerful components into those cases.</p>

<p>-If you want to go even smaller, try going mini-ITX. It’s even smaller than micro-ATX builds, and cases are usually tiny. Personally, I’d prefer a Silverstone Sugo SG05 case with a Zotac S775 motherboard w/ onboard wifi for the ultimate portable desktop.</p>

<p>-Know your needs. If you plan to have a powerful desktop, there’s little use in having a powerful laptop as well. Instead, why not buy a light, mobile laptop and save all the hardware-intensive tasks for your desktop?</p>

<p>-Lock your desktop up. Replace all your thumbscrews with normal screws, and lock your screwdriver up in your dresser if needed. You’re not the only one in the dorm halls who knows how to work with computer hardware.</p>

<p>-Budget. One of the biggest problems with DIY PCs is you start off thinking you’re only going for a moderate build, but you keep adding on more powerful parts as you come across them. After you check out, you’re $500 overbudget because of all that fancy gear you thought was “necessary”. </p>

<p>-Know your computer parts. If all you do is game or go on the internet, you won’t need a Core i7 CPU. If the most intensive game you play is World of Warcraft or Counterstrike, you won’t need a GTX 480. It’ll just result in extra power you will never use, and therefore, a larger hole in your wallet.</p>

<p>-Don’t be afraid to ask questions. There is a good number of knowledgable people on this forum if you ever need help. Beyond us, there are also many other tech forums out there to try. Overclock.net, anantech.com, and techpowerup.com are just a few of the ones I go on.</p>

6

<p>I second the advice. People say they don’t want the bulkiness of a computer in the dorm room, but keep in mind that you can always get a case that’s “small”. Place it in the right corner, and it’ll disappear like a large binder. Eg. I was relatively agressive in using a small form factor for my Core i7 desktop, and with some coaxing, it can even fit in my backpack! This is a mATX build, by the way.</p>

<p>You can go much smaller with a mini ITX build. If you’ve ever seen a Mac Mini, that’s essentially what it is. PicoPSU + MiniITX case + LGA775 miniITX motherboard = Core 2 Quad desktop that’s much cheaper than an equivalent-powered laptop but easily fits in a backpack.</p>

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<p>@ExcelBlue: I’m guessing you run an i7 920 with an Asus Rampage Gene II, right? There’s no other way to run an i7 mATX build :)</p>

<p>@Shark75: I should also add that by going with a smaller system, you are by no means sacrificing power. A smaller motherboard is simply smaller; if you choose the right parts it’d be just as powerful as a full-sized ATX desktop if not moreso. I personally run a mATX PC in a Silverstone Sugo SG02 case myself with a Core 2 Quad and GTX 260, and despite its small size it can still max out almost every game (GTA IV and BF: Bad Company 2 excluded) on my 24" 1920x1080 monitor.</p>

<p>So, in short, don’t be afraid that you’d be sacrificing power for mobility, because you simply won’t be :)</p>

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<p>@r31ncarnat3d: I acutally did an i7 860 with a Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H (the board was on sale). Benchmarks show that it performs right in-between the i7 920 and i7 930. However, the lower TDP and newer chipset translates to less heat and higher non-OC’ed RAM speed. As for upgradability – forget about that :)</p>

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<p>@excelblue: I stand corrected! I’ve been thinking about an i7 860 build myself. I currently have a Q9550 in a Sugo SG02 mATX SFF case, but with all my photoshopping I’d like an i7 to speed things up, and the cost of an i7 upgrade and the cost of Adobe CS5 (which supports GPU acceleration) are about the same, and I’d rather take up the hardware :)</p>