XPS 730x General Hardware Discussion thread

Chris,

I currently have an XPS 600 and am looking at the 730x.  I'm in Canada and can purchase the H2C TEC cooling option instead of the standard cooling.  Since the 920 represents the best bang for dollar due max OC, do all 730x's permit OC'ing and will there be any benefit in spending the extra $ on the cooling option?....Thxs 

Is it possible to load XP onto a new 730x ? How about Vista32 ?  Several of my key apps won't run properly on Vista64.

Thank you.

I have the same question. Can one purchase the base model with the 2.66 i7 and then overclock it in ROM to maybe 3.2? I've read that i7 can be reliably overclock with air cooling. 

[quote user="hbk123"] Also is there is an upgrade program the we should be entitled to the extreme Core i7 for free considering the QX9770 (£1000) is worth more then the extreme version of the Core i7 (£850)

I would like to no this as well, as i am not very happy as the 730 h2c was not cheap. 

[/quote]

This seems very silly.  You always have to expect that there's going to be newer, faster, better and cheaper computer hardware available within minutes of buying something.  If you always wait for a better deal, you'll never end up buying anything.

Also is there is an upgrade program the we should be entitled to the extreme Core i7 for free considering the QX9770 (£1000) is worth more then the extreme version of the Core i7 (£850)

I would like to no this as well, as i am not very happy as the 730 h2c was not cheap. 

Is it possible to load XP onto a new 730x ? How about Vista32 ?  Several of my key apps won't run properly on Vista64. Thank you.

It looks like they have XP drivers available for quite a bit of the components, including the bios updates. See the link below.

I went back to check the configuration tool.. I could have sworn when I ordered mine you could pick from XP and Vista 32-bit, but now it just has Vista 64-bit listed.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WW1&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=XPS_730X&hidos=WV64&hidlang=en&TabIndex=

What I do not understand is that the Dell Canada site will let you configure a XPS 730X with the H2C (for $500 Canadian) as an option with any configuration, yet the US site only allows the configuraton on the most expensive Core i7.  Why would they have a better configuration options?

Hi all, i just received my XPS 730x a few days ago and been having trouble with it ever since. Haven't been able to pin down cause.

Its stock standard i haven't overclocked anything. My specs are XPS 730x, i7 940, 6GB PC-8500, Radeon 4870x2, 300GB WD Raptor. All using standard drivers that came with the 730x (eg Catalyst 8.522, etc i never upgraded any drivers)

The problem is the whole system consistantly just crashes and reboots itself after i try to run the following

• 3DMark Vantage 1.01 (can be anytime in chapter 1 - never got past chapter 1 the Jane and speedboat scene)
• 3DMark 2006 v1.10 (against never gets past scene 1 the invasion attack scene)

I haven't got a chance to load any games up yet so can't see if it is crashing in games will do that when i get time over next few days. I suspect it will crash as well...

I did run Prime95 and it has run 7 hours+ stable.

It is a pain after spending so much money on the system. There has been various posts on the internet around 4870x2 that indicates power supply problem to the card can cause such reboots. Has Dell or anyone had any issue with 4870x2 on a i7 XPS 730x?? I am guessing it is the 4870x2 but can't be sure could be motherboard, etc. What can be done? Any suggestions? help..

I ordered mine on 11/24 and the webpage finnally reported it shipped yestersay. I got the midrange 2.93, 300gix x2 10k raptors in raid 0, blueray reader and one gtx 280, no sli. The 27inch ultrasharp is still pending which is surprising.  I figured they'd have those in stock.  I shipped mine to germany where I'm based out of so it should be there in 2 weeks when I redeploy from Iraq!!  For anyone that already go theirs, does the add in Creative Labs X-Fi card have an optical or coaxial out??

I ordered mine on 11/24 and the webpage finnally reported it shipped yestersay. I got the midrange 2.93, 300gix x2 10k raptors in raid 0, blueray reader and one gtx 280, no sli. The 27inch ultrasharp is still pending which is surprising.  I figured they'd have those in stock.  I shipped mine to germany where I'm based out of so it should be there in 2 weeks when I red?  For anyone that already go theirs, does the add in Creative Labs X-Fi card have an optical or coaxial out??

Personally, I would try updating the drivers or see if there's a firmware update from ATI.  Then I'd check to see if you have the latest chipset driver for the motherboard.  You might want to do some searching to see if there's ideal bios settings for that configuration, too.

It also couldn't hurt to just stick your nose inside the box and try reseating the PSU connection to the graphics card (I'm kind of assuming it has one)

So get this... Now there's someone who ordered on 11/26, 11/24, 11/21 and 11/20  (I also ordered on 11/20) who have all had their system ship or already arrive.  At least one of them was configured the exact same way as mine.  Mine hasn't shipped.  I called support again asking why mine hasn't shipped if all of yours have even though I know at least one of you had the same exact components as me.  The rep just continued to tell me that they're all built in the queue order and couldn't comment on that.  Mine still shows a ship date of 1/12/09 and that's all she could do for me... no explanations of any kind.  Nothing in my order is holding things up, supposedly... yet somehow even though they go in the order they receive the orders, newer requests have gone first.

Dell seriously has the worst and most frustrating customer support team I have ever dealt with in my life.  They don't have access to any information beyond what's already available on the web site.  They are the definition of untrained first level support... which isn't too big of a deal except they have no way to escalate calls to a higher level.  Or if they do, they are unwilling.  I've now spoken to multiple reps on the phone and had email dialog going and have gotten ZERO answers.  I don't think it's unreasonable to want to know how other orders were obviously expedited (relative to mine) even though they have "no possible way" to expedite orders.  Or .. at least give me an updated estimated ship date based on what part of the build phase the system is in.

When I ordered an Alienware, they updated me on every single step along the way.  I knew exactly when it was being assembled, when they were installing the OS, loading drivers, memory burn-in, stability tests, etc.  This was great.  Dell's "order/build/ship" status updates are absolutely worthless.  I understand that Dell probably ships more systems than Alienware, but ... this is just extremely frustrating.

I cannot speak as to why you  specific order seems to be delayed.  My order probably came when it did because I was told that the XPS 730X was coming out in October and we were just waiting for the formal release to order the computer.  Mine is an exchange for a series of XPS 730 models that never worked.  I am now recieveing the exchange for the first XPS 730X that did not work when delivered today, and I am very curious if I am going to get an actually fully functional computer this time.  I will then be shihpping the fourth and fifth computer back to Dell and maybe this nightmare will be over.  I personally would be not too terrible disappointed in waiting, as obviously there is some things they still need to work out with the 730X.  If I was not so far down range with this whole computer purchse with Dell that began on 9-13-08, I would just purchase a Falcon Northwest and be done with it.

I wouldn't be surprise at the delay.  Didn't someone mentioned that Dell was using a foxconn board or something like that (could be a parts shortage).  Considering how fast Dell jumped on the x58 chipset you would expect that there would be manufacturing delays of some sort.

I placed my order 11/22 and it arrived yesterday. So far so good. Only gripe so far is it did not come factory over clocked like advertised, plan on calling today to see what the deal is. Got the i965 with 1TB raid 0. I also was told it would come with the XP downgrade option which I have not seen yet. I will have to setup a dual boot since my most important software only runs on xp. So far I like it better than my 730 with the QX9650. I do like the dell dock application so far. I paid the extra for the your tech team option, I hope it works out to be money well spent, we all know how thing can be on the phone with dell.