XPS 630 General Hardware Discussion thread

I don't believe that the stock 750W PSU will be able to handle the 280 in sli. I've heard that to run two of these you'll need at least 1K PSU, but can't know for sure since i don't have a pair of those.  Now if you had a pair of 260s then you should be fine with the stock PSU.

The limitations are not that big of a deal yet.  (Especially if game developers continue to water down PC games so that they'll run on consoles.)  What the 630 currently has is 2 PCIe x16 slots that have only 8 lanes instead of 16.  Which means that a single card solution, performance will be reduced because it has only 8 lanes to move data through instead of 16.  But currently we are only starting to see GPU and software use up all of this bandwidth.  Probably by the time the next wave of GPUs come out in the new year.  The 8 lanes won't cut it anymore and you'll need to upgrade the motherboard.  So with that said, the 280 is the start where we see this limitation in the bandwidth.  Chris M from dell put together some benchmarks showing how SLI performs better than a single card in the 630 for various set ups including on with the 280.  So that is why i say you should run things in SLI to get the most out of this machine until it is time to upgrade.  By that time the i7 will be cheaper and the new intel architecture will be mainstream.

As you probably know allready the GTX280 requires one 6 pin and one 8 pin gpu power connector. The 630 is currently shipping with a single GTX280 which has a 6 to 8 ping adaptor pre-installed. The two gpu power plugs are also required to run the GTX260 but thats all you have, so you won't be able to install 2 GTX260/GTX280's simply because there are not enough power plugs. You could of course insatall a gpu only power suppy that fits into a spare CD/DVD bay, or infact upgrade the existing power supply to a 1K model as player8 suggested.

All the above though would be a little pointless, again as player8 quite rightly says, as the 8 lanes would hamper both 260 and 280 even in sli mode so you would be looking at a mobo upgrade as well. So cost of the graphics cards, mobo and PSU would make it possibly a better choice to simply buy a new system altogether.

These and many other issues with the XPS630i are being discussed over at www.my630i.com

In my opinion the upgrade limit without too many upgrades for a 630 would be a pair of gtx260s.  This should require no other upgrade, maybe just a 6pin y splitter or some sort of adapter.  And for performance wise i think this is about the best you are going to get.  But with this upgrade though it should last well into mid 2010, i hope.  :emotion-6:

These cards are getting cheaper each month.  Down to $219 for the 192SP version.

I appreciate the two replies so far.  I am going to do a factory reset using the Dell Image.  I did this once before, just after I got the machine as there was a conflict with the MacAfee and the ISP proprietary software I had installed. 

I came up with the idea to use Windows Easy Transfer to transfer the couple of gigs of photos and videos I shot this summer as well as all the settings for the accounts I have set up.  Is there any reason I should not do this?  I checked all of the check boxes and there is no reference to the video drivers in there, so technically I should be able to have all my settings back and then reinstall the game giving me trouble and start over again.

Thanks for your help.

Thanks For All The Information You Guys Have Been A Great Help!!

Yep, those items have been covered to death.

Would have been nice though if Dell came out with a 750i mobo upgrade path for cheap. :emotion-1:

Yep, those items have been covered to death. Would have been nice though if Dell came out with a 750i mobo upgrade path for cheap. :emotion-1:

Hmmm...well, it seems that the post that I replied to has disappeared.  And yes, it would be nice for an upgrade.

Is it possible to install a new bios and then go back to an older one?

I want to install the 1.0.12 bios but in case it causes problems for me, i wanted to jump back to 1.08.

The reason being none of my OC settings are working.  Even for a 100MHz boost.  It can't be that my system is a lemon.  (though i guess it is possible).  I think it might be a conflict with some other software but still haven't pinpointed it to what.  I figure that the 1.0.12 bios might help things.

I'm having problems installing the 9800gt drivers from dell's drivers page for the xps 630.  I keep getting an error message saying the driver can't find compatible hardware.  The installer then exits.

I'm using the ones from nvidia 180.48 but i have a feeling they are causing me to have sli issues.  Any reason why I can't install the dell recommended drivers.

Thanks

I can no longer erase bios files I have downloaded in the past.  My computer came with version 1.02.  I have since downloaded version 8 and 12 and updated to version 8.  And I have version 2,8 and 12 on my desktop.  But now when I try to delete the bios files I get an error message that says can not delete the file as it is open in another program.  It is not a major issue if I can not delete the files but I am afraid to update to bios version 12 since it says the file is opened in another program.   ( This all started when I called tech support when I could not use more then one flash drive.  Tech support said vista has a problem recognizing more then one flash drive.  The support tech changed something in the registry and now the computer recognizes all my flash drives but as stated above will not let me delete bios files off my desktop.  Also it will not let me delete bios files I have backed up on my flash drives.  I have also tried downloading the bios files again after they changed my registry and it will not let me delete those files either.)  I have called tech support back and they can not find a way to get the computer to let me delete the files.  What I wonder is the tech support guy downloaded bios 12 while he was opening up files to work on the flash drive problem.  I am wondering if he somehow got the files tied to some program?      As I said above my concern is not that I can not delete the files but I am afraid to update to version 12 while it says it is opened in another program.  Is this something  to be concerned about?  I guess I could reset the computer to factory settings but this was one of the earlier 630's and it took forever to get all the updates installed plus I will be back to not being able to use all my flash drives. 

player8,
I would run Driver Sweeper first to remove the older driver, then install the newer driver.

Larryhog,
Boot into safe mode and see if you can delete the files.

I'm having problems installing the 9800gt drivers from dell's drivers page for the xps 630.  I keep getting an error message saying the driver can't find compatible hardware.  The installer then exits. I'm using the ones from nvidia 180.48 but i have a feeling they are causing me to have sli issues.  Any reason why I can't install the dell recommended drivers.   Thanks

I would install the latest release from Nvidia.  The Dell drivers tend to be a little old.  Use driver sweeper to get rid of any of the old driver files.

I tried deleting the bios files in safe mode and got same message that the files are opened in another program. (From what i remember the tech guys tried this plus numerous other things to delete the files).  I guess back to my main question-  would I be safe in opening the version 12 bios file and updating it while it says it is open in another program or am I likely asking for trouble if I do this?  Of course this is assuming it will even let me open it to update it.

Well, even with driversweeper i can't install the dell drivers so i went with nvidia's latest.  180.48. 

As for the bios, i haven't tried deleting the one i just updated to 1.0.12.  But try installing it and see if it complains about being opened by another program.  If not then i think you should be ok.