NEW XPS 730x Owner's thread March 15, 2010

(1) Disconnect from the network jack. Put it to sleep. Does it wakeup? (2) List every peripheral plugged into the PC

Disconecting the Network jack sems to solve the problem? So why does that happen.

You have to set the NIC to sleep as well. Open the Device Manager- Network adapters. Double-click the NIC, click Power Management. Check Allow the computer to turn of this device, uncheck Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby.

I do not see the wisdom of using as storage two conventional HDDs in a raid array - if this indeed is what you want to do. Should on of your raid HDDs fails, you will loose all your data stored on both. I am using Micron's 256gb C300 SSD in my 730X with an Asus U3S6 SATA III adapter card in one PCIe X 16 slot. In my case, set up was straight forward. Perform a clean W7 install and tweak the operating system for your SSD. 

Mitch     

I do not see the wisdom of using as storage two conventional HDDs in a raid array - if this indeed is what you want to do. Should on of your raid HDDs fails, you will loose all your data stored on both.

That is incorrect. You will only lose your data if you have the drives configured in a striped array, meaning RAID 0.  If you configure them in a RAID 1 mirrored array, one drive mirrors the other and in the event one drive happens to fail, the other drive will still be running and your data will be safe. It's called fault tolerance.

For more information regarding the different levels of RAID, see here - http://www.sohoconsult.ch/raid/raid0.html

Although I did not specify Raid 0, this is the mode that was indicated in the initial post and what I was responding to. But this is as good a time as any to highlight the difference between raid modes

Thanks.

Mitch

Need help with my 730x....I'm having slow bootups...or at least it seems slow compared to my 430 and 420.

My current bootup time is 40 seconds. This time covers from the time I press the power button to the time the bios finishes booting and the screen goes black to finish the bootup process.

Just to make sure everyone understands my issue.....involves the bios bootup part of the bootup process.

Where I see the Dell logo with the model # of my pc and model # of the bios with a progress bar in between.

So from the time I push the power button to the time the above progress bar finishes and the screen goes black is 40 seconds. Way too long.

Changes I've made:

I've installed new ram and made several manual adjustments in the bios to try and get the ram to run at 7-7-7-20 with no luck.

I've gone back in the bios and set everything to optimal defaults and now I have a slow bootup time.

So if anyone could help me fix this issue would be greatly appreciated.

I think I just need to know what settings to change and what to change them to after resetting bios to optimal defaults.

Thanks for any help.

I feel the same way.

We haven't heard from Chris yet about it. The 980x has been out for months already. I feel like we are locked out to the 975 only. I want  get any 6 core processor that Intel releases and also fix all the bios issues that we all have. We all paid a pretty penny we just need some answers not dead space.

Hello Chris

I would like to know if the 730x can be upgraded to Intel 980x or We have to wait the new Bios.

Thank  you

Gino

I see nothing on the roadmap after A05.

Posted this in the main forum before I came across this thread. Figured I'd repost since this one seems to get a bit more 'action.' :)

==

Long time XPS owner (420), and about to pick up a 730x this weekend from a mate (price too good to pass up). Had a few questions for the experts on here who've been living with the system for some time.

My main goal is a tri-SLI rig, as his system has 2x GTX280s, and I have another I'd like to stick in. I am aware of the 16/16/8 lane configuration, and of diminishing returns on such a setup. I have run a similar system before with good success, so I know the limitations. However I am concerned about a couple things in respect to the 730x specifically:

- Does the PSU have sufficient power to run the 3rd Card? These are stock clocked 280s, so 1000W should be *loads* for this system, but you never know how OEMs actually spec their power ratings. (If anyone knows how the rails are spec'd, that would be fabulous).

- Does the PSU have extra PCIe connectors to hook up the 3rd card? I suspect Dell did not validate Tri-SLI on this system, and as such there aren't any more PCIe connectors on board. If anyone can tell me what connectors are available, that would be great (ie 4x 8/6pin or 2x 8 and 2x 6 pin, etc).

- Does the Dell motherboard have standard 1366 mounting holes? For obvious reasons, I'm planning on an HSF replacement.

In regards to power usage, I won't be running much internally - 2 SSDs, a single 1.5TB drive and a Blu-ray drive, plus the regular Dell complement of fans, card reader, bluetooth, etc. This is not the H2C system, so 1000W should be enough, but if anyone has specific knowledge or experience with this setup, that would be great.

Your help is much appreciated!

Cheers from Canada XP

Does the PSU have sufficient power to run the 3rd Card? Does the PSU have extra PCIe connectors to hook up the 3rd card?

1.) Yes, the PSU is sufficient to run 3-GTX280s in TRI-SLI.

2.) NO, there aren't enough connectors. The PSU only has 4 of the 6-pin PCI-E connectors and it takes 2 of the molex connectors to provide the same amount of power as ONE of the 8-pin PCI-E connectors. There are supplemental power supplies for doing what you have in mind, however, my suggestion is you stay with SLI because unless you have a DELL 3008WFP such as the one I use, you won't see any increase in performance other than when running a benchmark. In other words, TRI-SLI is usually done for bragging rights because the increase in performance is minimal at best. Your money would be better spent elsewhere.

Does the Dell motherboard have standard 1366 mounting holes?

Yes.

In regards to power usage, I won't be running much internally - 2 SSDs, a single 1.5TB drive and a Blu-ray drive, plus the regular Dell complement of fans, card reader, bluetooth, etc. This is not the H2C system, so 1000W should be enough, but if anyone has specific knowledge or experience with this setup, that would be great.

I run everything you see in my signature with no problems.

I'm also using a 3008WFP, so the extra rendering power is essentially mandatory...

4 of 6 is alright, provided the psu has the juice to run the 3 cards. I can adapt 2 molex to 6pin for the tertiary connectors to make it work.

If someone could quote me the amp rating on the 12v rail, that would be great. If Dell is specing these legitimately, it should mean 1000W/12v = 83A, which is pretty tight for an overclocked GTX280 setup. GTX285s draw significantly less power in SLI/tri than 280s, which have a much larger overhead, particularly in tri-SLI, where there is ~50w extra draw due to controller load.

3x GTX285s would draw roughly 550w (~46A) in such a setup, compared to GTX280s, which pull close to 710w (~59A). An stock i7 system pulls roughly 18A - and an average overclocked one would probably draw 20-24A depending on cooling and peripherals, so we're now at 79-83A, which is the max the PSU can theoretically provide. Seems like pushing my luck, if you ask me.

As for differences with 3 cards vs 2, there is a significant improvement in both real world FPS and particularly metric based benchmarks when adding the third card. The rig I just sold was a tri-SLI rig, and the 3rd card was equivalent to about 7500 points in the GPU-only score in Vantage. Not insignificant by any means.

This is really a big help for me - thanks. Can you tell me if the PSU uses seperate 12v rails or a single, huge one? Do they quote the amperage?

Thanks again! =D

It is with disappointment that I have found the Core i7-980x is incompatible with the DELL XPS 730x. The PC would power on but wouldn't POST (power on self test). It would power on but wouldn't get to the BIOS screen. Therefore, it looks as though we 730x owners are confined to the Core i7-975.

Bob, I need you to list EVERYTHING connected to any USB port on your tower, keyboard, or monitor.

How long does it usually take from the time you see the BIOS screen until it gets to the desktop?

How many programs do you have running in the background when you boot your PC? This will greatly affect your boot time.