SimpsonFan
04-13-2004, 03:13 PM
Well it's been almost two weeks with my XPS so I felt it was time for my review. This is the third laptop I've owned, my first was an Inspiron 8100, and then an Acer 803ci, now this monster.
Other than the long wait for the machine, I've been thrilled with the machine so far.
1. Screen: the WUXGA is simply awesome. I was worried about the text being too small but I've had no problems at all. I use Mozilla for web browsing and you can just resize text to whatever makes you happy best web browser ever in my opinion. From dvd's to games this screen has been perfect.
2. GPU : Another perfect score for this as well. I've thrown everything at this thing from Far Cry, Unreal 2004, Battlefield Vietnam and 1942, and Rise of Nations all without a hitch. Well that's not entirely true one night after playing Unreal 2004 for about an hour I did get a weird fuzzy artifact that started in the game and was on the desktop as well once I exited the game so I shut down for the nite. The next day I ran the hell out of the thing Unreal for about 3 hours, 3dmark03 8 loops, and a bunch of Battlefield without a single problem. I did the bios update the other day just to make sure and this machine has been rock solid.
3. Size look and keyboard: Everyone has seen the machine in pictures. It's no Alienware on the outside, but like that guy or girl depending on your sex and or sexual preference you met and thought damn their not that good looking but after a few weeks they became much better looking after spending some quality time with them, that's how this Dell is too me. The machine has won me over the look combined with solid build quality and great keyboard has made me quite happy. I just wish the damn thing had some Alien eyes flashing on it.
4. Noise and sound quality: The dvd drive was the only noticeable noise distraction I had initially, but after contacting the XPS support line which was also a great experience, a new one was overnighted to me, problem solved. Speaker and subwoofer are also outstanding, although I do find myself wishing it were a little louder. But thanks to some posts in these forums I found the Sennheiser 497's and my dvd watching and gaming has become that much better not to mention listening to music on this thing.
5. Benchmarks: I've really only run 3dmark03 and I didn't OC my score was right aroung 3348 on default settings. The only thing I have to compare it to is my Sony desktop which is a 3.2 with a gig of 2700ram in it with a Radeon 9800 pro I put in it myself and that machine scores on average 5700 give or take a few frames. Actually right before I sold my Acer I did run it on that one which was a 1.3 Centrino with a Radeon 9000 64 meg card in it and it scored I think 978.
6. Cons: The only ones that come to mind were the long wait for the machine, which I believe has been solved recently. My other issue which is minor is the XPS backpack while the thing holds the laptop firmly, it doesn't really hold much else. I'm really considering researching a different backpack down the road.
:banana: :banana: :cheers:
Other than the long wait for the machine, I've been thrilled with the machine so far.
1. Screen: the WUXGA is simply awesome. I was worried about the text being too small but I've had no problems at all. I use Mozilla for web browsing and you can just resize text to whatever makes you happy best web browser ever in my opinion. From dvd's to games this screen has been perfect.
2. GPU : Another perfect score for this as well. I've thrown everything at this thing from Far Cry, Unreal 2004, Battlefield Vietnam and 1942, and Rise of Nations all without a hitch. Well that's not entirely true one night after playing Unreal 2004 for about an hour I did get a weird fuzzy artifact that started in the game and was on the desktop as well once I exited the game so I shut down for the nite. The next day I ran the hell out of the thing Unreal for about 3 hours, 3dmark03 8 loops, and a bunch of Battlefield without a single problem. I did the bios update the other day just to make sure and this machine has been rock solid.
3. Size look and keyboard: Everyone has seen the machine in pictures. It's no Alienware on the outside, but like that guy or girl depending on your sex and or sexual preference you met and thought damn their not that good looking but after a few weeks they became much better looking after spending some quality time with them, that's how this Dell is too me. The machine has won me over the look combined with solid build quality and great keyboard has made me quite happy. I just wish the damn thing had some Alien eyes flashing on it.
4. Noise and sound quality: The dvd drive was the only noticeable noise distraction I had initially, but after contacting the XPS support line which was also a great experience, a new one was overnighted to me, problem solved. Speaker and subwoofer are also outstanding, although I do find myself wishing it were a little louder. But thanks to some posts in these forums I found the Sennheiser 497's and my dvd watching and gaming has become that much better not to mention listening to music on this thing.
5. Benchmarks: I've really only run 3dmark03 and I didn't OC my score was right aroung 3348 on default settings. The only thing I have to compare it to is my Sony desktop which is a 3.2 with a gig of 2700ram in it with a Radeon 9800 pro I put in it myself and that machine scores on average 5700 give or take a few frames. Actually right before I sold my Acer I did run it on that one which was a 1.3 Centrino with a Radeon 9000 64 meg card in it and it scored I think 978.
6. Cons: The only ones that come to mind were the long wait for the machine, which I believe has been solved recently. My other issue which is minor is the XPS backpack while the thing holds the laptop firmly, it doesn't really hold much else. I'm really considering researching a different backpack down the road.
:banana: :banana: :cheers: