Dell Studio XPS 16: the Eyes Have It
by Jarred Walton on April 2, 2009 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Upgradeability and Internals
We like to dismantle our laptops, just for fun, so we pulled out our screwdrivers and started in on the XPS 16. A single large cover on the bottom provides access to everything you might actually want to upgrade. If you want to continue dismantling the XPS 16, you will need to remove the two covers on the sides of the battery compartment. They slide inward and then back - no need to remove any more screws.
Upgrading the processor is relatively simple compared to other notebooks. After removing the bottom panel and the plastic piece that covers part of the cooling heatsink, you can remove the system fan and heatpipe and replace the CPU. There's not much need to actually do that, however, as it is unlikely Dell will support anything faster than the current T9600 CPU option. (Adventuresome individuals could always try one of the quad-core mobile Penryn chips I suppose, although with the system already running warm I wasn't willing to do so.)
The hard drive can also be upgraded with relative ease. Changing out the optical drive requires quite more work, since you will have to remove the keyboard. You will also need to find a slot load optical drive, which isn't quite as easy as finding regular notebook drives. Some people love slot load drives, but they seem to be a case of aesthetics winning over functionality, since you can't use nonstandard discs and the eject mechanism is quite noisy. Those are minor concerns, of course.
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JarredWalton - Sunday, April 5, 2009 - link
I don't have updated scores with new drivers, but you can see the http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=324...">original XPS M1730 3DMark scores - including scores with the CPU overclocked. I didn't have 3DMark Vantage at the time, so those scores are also missing. Basically, the scores are relatively close to the Clevo D901C laptop.Hrel - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
I have a Dell Studio 15 Series laptop T8100 320GB HDD X3100GMA... it's okay for the most part; wish it had some kind of useable graphics, but I couldn't afford the upgrade. Anyway, the slot loading DVD drive is a pain in the but! It quirks out sometimes when you hit eject and just keeps trying to eject the disc even if it's already out until you restart the whole thing; one time even after doing that it just wouldn't take discs for like 5 days at all. Then randomly it started working again. Not to mention if it ever DOES fail I'm gonna have to pay more for the replacement than I would if it was a standard cd tray drive; I REALLY don't like that choice of DVD drives.Also, on a 16" 16:9 Chassis they really should include a keyboard that has a dedicated num pad. Asus includes a full numpad on their 15.6" 16:9 chassis. On that note though, the keyboard on my Studio 15 is well laid out and pleasant to type on.
QChronoD - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Where the measurements for the screen done with the out-of-the-box settings, or was it calibrated first?JarredWalton - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Calibrated. As best as I can tell, there's no truly reliable way of testing the color accuracy without calibrating. I tried to do it in the past, but I became suspect of my results. Besides, if you need accurate colors there's generally no way around hardware calibration utilities.DigitalFreak - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Windows Vista Hope Premium? :0)JarredWalton - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Truth in advertising? :-DLingyis - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
bad news--i was just gonna get one of these babies and Dell told me Studio XPS 16 no longer comes with an RGB LED option.i want a good laptop display--i'm deciding between the Studio XPS with a regular WLED vs the Precision M4500. The precision M6500 appears to have RGB LED but it's 17 inches which is too big.
so what to go for--the RGBLED-less Studio XPS or the Precision M4500?
brock5 - Tuesday, September 28, 2010 - link
Eyes are the most sensitive part of our body and all <a href="http://rjneyeinstitute.org"> Eye disease </a> are equally capable of harming the eyes, as they are very delicatebrock56 - Saturday, November 13, 2010 - link
Eyes are the most sensitive part of our body and all <a href="http://rjneyeinstitute.org"> Eye disease </a> are equally capable of harming the eyes, as they are very delicate