Good From the Factory? The Dell Studio XPS 7100
by Dustin Sklavos on July 7, 2010 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Dell
- AMD
- Radeon
- Studio XPS 7100
Dell Studio XPS 7100 User Experience
The performance of the Dell Studio XPS 7100 is mostly an amalgam of known quantities; we've run some cursory benchmarks but performance generally falls in line with what we know of the Phenom II X6 and the Radeon HD 5870. Suffice it to say, if you're going to be doing any gaming or media work, the XPS 7100 in this configuration is more than up to the task.
Well, almost. It may very well be the SB750 attached to the single Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drive, but the system just doesn't feel as snappy as a machine with a faster storage subsystem might. Anand is a major proponent of using an SSD for the system drive and a large mechanical drive for storage and that's probably a wise investment here. Also consider that for heavy video work, it's extremely wise to use two separate drives anyhow: one to render from, a scratch drive, and one to render to, a project drive. The storage subsystem remains the slowest component of the modern PC, and anything you can do to mitigate that will help.
What's a nice change of pace from not too long ago is the lack of bloat the XPS 7100 ships with. Windows 7 already does a great job of obscuring bloat (between hiding icons in the system tray and just plain running well), but there's very little here to obscure. The included Dell software is mostly useful, offering driver updates, online support, and use of Dell's “DataSafe” online storage service. If there's an odd outlier it's Dell's dock software. The dock offers sets of shortcuts at the top of the screen not totally dissimilar to the dock in Mac OS X. It's attractive and was probably more useful when Vista was shipping, but the revised taskbar in Windows 7 renders it somewhat redundant.
There are really only two troublesome apps that come bundled with the XPS 7100. The first is, ironically, Dell's own update software. Dell's software is certainly useful, but it has a habit of just randomly popping up whenever you're doing something else, right in the middle of the screen. So if you're, say, running benchmarks all day, you might find your run completely ruined by this random interloper. Likewise, the bundled McAfee Security Center isn't at all unusual to see in factory machines, and remains one of the most obnoxious and least useful PC security suites on the planet. It nags you to complete the setup and register it just to be able to uninstall, though you can force-kill via task manager and go into the Control Panel for the uninstall process.
Overall, the experience of using the Dell Studio XPS 7100 was surprisingly a joy. The system is definitely high performance, the factory install was very clean, but most importantly and probably best of all, it just runs coolly and quietly. One might expect a factory computer to be fairly noisy – especially given the 125W Phenom II X6 processor and the 187W ATI Radeon HD 5870 – but even under load the XPS 7100 is actually remarkably quiet.
To give some sense of just how wonderfully quiet the XPS 7100 is, consider this: I have my own custom built desktop running in an Antec P182 case. I use an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650, overclocked, under a Xigmatek S1283 cooler. Hanging out below that is an ATI Radeon HD 5870. All the fans in my case are on low and the processor cooler is configured in the BIOS to run silently and only spin up under extreme load. My case produces the softest of hums, and that hum actually drowns out the XPS 7100. Some reviews – including our own – suggest the Radeon HD 5870 is pretty loud, but I honestly haven't heard it.
Of course, none of that would matter if the insides of the XPS 7100 were marinating in their own succulent juices, but lo and behold, the card and processor run surprisingly cool. Just putting your hand under the bottom vent on the face you can feel a quiet intake fan, and the clean cabling and spacing inside the case likely contribute to the excellent thermal characteristics.
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Operandi - Thursday, July 15, 2010 - link
Delta makes very high quality PSUs, far from "generic" and better than 95% of the trash that has a "brand name" with a fancy label and LED fans.Normally you'll find Deltas in high-end workstations and servers, not menial desktops.
HOOfan 1 - Sunday, July 11, 2010 - link
Umm...Delta usually makes excellent PSUs.385W on the 12V rail is more than enough for an HD5870
strikeback03 - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
I was wondering the same thing. From the Anandtech review numbers for the CPU and GPU it seems like this PSU would be running well above 50% under load, wonder how well it would hold up to that.Alexvrb - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
Probably will run fine, at least for a good while. They lose money if they have lots of failures, so they certainly wouldn't choose a PSU that can't make it past the 1 year warranty - at least not on purpose. It's not the best PSU in the world, I'll give you that, but I think it will be OK in the vast majority of cases (I wouldn't recommend overclocking)My dad has a lower-end XPS 7100, and it's actually been a pretty good machine so far. It's equipped with a lowly Athlon II X4 2.6Ghz, 4GB of DDR3 1333, and a 5450. He doesn't game on it, and it's plenty fast for Office, H.264 content, etc.
Also, the mainboard may not be cutting edge, but it actually supports 16GB of DDR3 1333 and hex core processors. A lot of the cheaper OEM boxes tap out at 4GB or so. So if you opted for a more basic XPS 7100 configuration, you can toss in a better PSU yourself, and upgrade it a decent bit down the road.
I used to hate Dells with a passion, but that probably stemmed from my experiences with their lowest end series, that were (and probably still are) junk. This machine is not bad for a mainstream OEM box.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
FWIW, I have a Dell XPS 410, and it has been running happily (and powered on) for the better part of three years. The XPS line is a big step up from their standard Inspiron in my book, and while the Delta Electronics isn't likely to be the best PSU around, the one in my old XPS is doing fine. In fact, the GPU fan (on an old 7900 GTX) is the only part that has started to get a little louder over the years.strikeback03 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
Sure, it might be fine, but in this class of system you are probably getting some users who actually know what is in the system. I wonder how much more a Seasonic OEM PSU would add to the cost ($10-15 maybe) and whether it would be worthwhile.HOOfan 1 - Sunday, July 11, 2010 - link
Why should they go to Seasonic? Delta makes excellent PSUs...many of Delta's PSUs are better than competing Seasonic PSUs.johnsonx - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
lol, obviously some sort of spam comment that should have a trick-link in there somewhereaoskunk - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
I laughed when I read this as I found it spot on. In november I built a new rig for the first time in 4 years. I had considered buying a comparable system as this however I decided to experience the fun in building my own. However since I had not been reading this site daily like I do now, it took a good amount of research to get caught up to date with all the latest tech, hardware trends and current hardware manufacturer reputations. I had a budget of about $1200 and was going to reuse my Lian Li case that had cost $300 and still listed at about $100 and my dvd-rw. So it took a lot of research to make sure I got the absolute best bang for my buck. Ended up with a Quadcore i7860, 4890, 8gig ram, modular corair 750 power supply and a 1 gig 7200 which i just upgraded to a vertex2. Beautiful system, bios take longer to load than windows. I love it. Runs WoW at make settings without a hiccup, ever.... NOW.HOWEVER. the
"hair-pulling frustration as parts that “should work” don't. Bad RAM, faulty motherboards, and other potential problems can mar the DIY experience". Computer worked great for the first 3 days. Then i got a couple random BSoD. Then the dvd isnt recognized. I buy a new one and it still doesnt work. Then it freezes one time and never starts back up. Asus tech support informs me its a bad motherboard. Get that after 3 weeks and it boots up. But that first day I get a BSoD. I reboot and there doesnt seem to be any problems so I dismiss it. Fast forward 6 months and I've had prolly 6 BSoD with them becoming more frequent and I don't know why. Then one week it snowballs into everytime I start the computer and then I start up to find that its claiming my win7 pro is not authorized. I scratch my head as this was the first time I actually paid for an OS since i got it for $30 by using an .edu email account, right from microsoft. I read up, run memtest+ and get 30,000 errors on a stick. So i take it out and everything runs great. I currently have to RMA the G.Skill 2gb stick still but everything is finally stable and running mind boggling fast. This took until just recently though.
That's 2 main system components that were defective brand new shipped from New Egg. Exactly the concerns listed in this article. The rig years ago I built i realize in retrospect likely had the same exact 2 problems based on the symptoms i had with that one. That motherboard had to be replaced after 3 months and the ram was prolly what caused the BSoDs that i got every now and then.
Now do i regret building my own PC? no i happen not to, though if i hadn't been able to diagnose the problems and had to bring it to somebody and pay through the nose then YES i would regret it. I feel i'm a better techie now having overcame the problems. Now they really werent any big deals but its a pain having to wait for RMA hardware. Something to consider when deciding to DIY or not.
Before you say anything, NO i did not cause the problems I'm certain it was just coincedence. I know how to handle and install the mb and ram. How often do you guys get defective new hardware when building a new rig? 2 bad components has to be sort of rare yes? I used to think that not building a rig yourself was crazy because you could save yourself money and all dell and acer and such do are fill your system up with bloatware. I know give them some credit for testing their systems to make sure they actually run. Now i don't know how well they do that but they must do it decently well. To those that build a lot of systems in the manner that I did how often do you get bad parts?
TGressus - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - link
The only real issue with DOA equipment is the trip from the distribution warehouse to your home. You have the couriers to thank for that.The first level tech support at the vendors would rather you RMA than return the product to the retailer. It is also rather difficult and not cost effective to diagnose via phone/email.
BIOS configuration is more complex than ever, and most default settings are for legacy compatibility. Proper BIOS tuning seems to be taken for granted anymore, and requires continuous exposure through frequent system building or a lot of reading. The RAM probably required manual configuration just to work without error.
Rather than slander, I'll reserve judgement on the OEM and vendors you chose. Newb Egg reviews are riddled with good intentions and epic failure like this. I applaud your effort, but I am disappoint.