XPS 730x General Hardware Discussion thread

Not quite sure actually :), truth be told is that the Area-51 is fast and smooth enough it's more of a case to see whether I can achieve the same overclock levels as my other self built PC's - ie 3.5Ghz at the least with no voltage changes - and you do see the difference in games, but not so in everyday uses ....

Yes and Yes to both of the above, the lighting in the ALX and non-ALX is identical and both does have active venting.

And yes in the non-ALX you have FULL control over the lighting - fully configurable right down to advanced options which I haven't even touched yet!

Hello Primetime you might be surprised to know that many mobo's record their voltages improperly. There is a chance that the alienware board is more accurate about it's voltages and they are significantly less than some of your other systems. I have seen systems post 1.4 in the bios but are actually outputing 1.8 to the core... meaning overclocking would go further without a voltage change because the volts are already high.

OK, I've got an update, Dell support in the US has now released a bios update A03 for the Alienware which added OC Profile 1 for a i7 920 - basically allows you to overclock the 920 by just loading the said profile.

So now I can run my Area-51 at 3.2ghz easily.

It must be said that I think the OC profile makes changes in the BIOS that we can not see. I've had a look at what the profile changes and it's not much, BCLK and CPU Volt up .20mV and that's about it, everything else left to Auto - there must be more to it though as I've tried similar settings in the past with no success.

Too all those that were sucessful in getting a swap for their 730x, did Dell match your parts exactly? Did they cheat you on anything?

Did you guys get better parts? (faster proc, video card) I would think so, because some of our parts in the 730 x are old.

Did they place a bluetooth/media card reader in your Area 51? I know our 730 X has this.

How did the exachange itself work out? Did they send you a box for your 730 X to send back?

Did you have to gather everything that came with your 730X (XPS Beenie cap, XPS laser pointer, tool box, manuals, CDs) Or did they give you a list of exactly what they want to be sent back?

I am curious because my 730 X is still having a POST issue. I am considering selling it and just build my own system. Dell told me they can send a XPS 9000, which I dont want.

Thanks to all that reply,

Joe

Joe, my new system replacement Area-51 is supposed to be delivered Tuesday 12/15 and according to the order, I'm getting an upgrade.  I would like more of a graphics upgrade, But, I guess an upgrade is an upgrade.  I have had good experience with system replacements, although before  I see the  order, I am always very apprehensive.  When the box comes I will update you what else is in the box -JayDD

Here is my upgrade path:

Current : Dell 730x 965                                                        New: Alienware Area-51 (NOT the ALX)

965  O/C'd-3.73                                                                     975 O/C'd to  3.83

3GB Multi-channel DDR3 @ 1066                                     6GB Triple channel DDR3 @ 1067

Dual GForce GTX 280 1024MB-SLI                                   Dual GForce 285-SLI "enabled" with a 3rd slot available for Triple SLI

1TB Raid 0 (2x 500GB SATA-II,7200PM                            1.2TB Raid 0 (2 X 640GB SATA-II,7200RPM, 16MB cache

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cost of original 720 H2C 1/4/08=$6800

Cost of System Replacement 730x-2/3/09-$5318            Alienware Area-51 Upgrade-12/15/09-$4431

Thanks Jaydd for responding. Keep me updated, I am interested.

Anyone else, have any stories about their exchange from 730 X to Alienware?

Actually Jaydd I have another question, Will your Area 51 come with Windows7 or Vista? I would think Windows 7. Also, what is the model number for the new Area-51? Everytime I try to research it on google, I find the old Area 51.

I am trying to see how it compares to our 730 X? I love my case on my system and read somewere else that the non ALX has plastic case instead of the Aluminum. I am also trying to see what type of power connectors the Area 51 has. I want to make sure it has the 8pin molex power connectors for the GPU.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Hey Joecrab, hope this will help you:

The non-ALX does have aluminium side panels - rest of the panels like front panels, active vents little skirtings are of course plastic.

Also the non-ALX has enough power connectors to power a quad-SLi config - it has 8 (eight) six pin PCI-E gpu power connectors WITH two little additional power connectors - making it effectively 8 x 8 pin PCI-E power if you should ever require that much!

And yes it comes standard with Win7 - I got mine config'ed with Ultimate x64

Yes there is no reviews / very little out on the new Alienware ...

Also check out the Alienware thread on the Dell General Hardware discussion forum.

Joecrab, I'm running V64U but they are sending W7-64HP. I had no say in the config so I will upgrade it to W7-64U when I get it.

The item number off the Order Details sheet is 224-6948 (Product code APA51H) , description "BASE, PHOBOS, ANW-DT, AREA-51"

 Primetimex has some good info.  Quad SLI?  I'm reaching for my checkbook!!  The problem I foresee is that the PSU is I'm getting is the 1KW, which on my 730x wasn't strong enough to power TRI-SLI-GTX 280's ,so I added two VIsion Tech 450W's to power two of the GTX 280's i the Tri SLI.  I think I read the GTX 285's don't require as much power, but my two VisionTek's are standing by for action.

Order sheet: (format went kaflooey ,sorry)

1 224-6948 BASE,PHOBOS,ANW-DT,AREA 51 $100
1 317-2484 Overclocked Intel Core i7 975 3.6GHz (8MB Cache) $2946
1 317-2494 6GB Triple Channel 1067MHz DDR3 $0.00
1 330-6518 No Keyboard $0.00
1 320-7810 No Monitor $0.00
1 320-1114 Dual 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 - SLI Enabled $550
1 341-9966 1.2TB RAID 0 (2x 640GB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs) $100
1 313-8661 Cosmic Black, Alienware Area-51 Chassis, 1KW PSU $0.00
1 421-2064 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English $0.00
1 420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp $0.00
1 420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp 2.0 Basic $0.00
1 330-6443 Resource DVD, MLANG $0.00
1 330-6444 Accessory Kit, Area-51, Eng $0.00
1 313-8750 AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue $0.00
1 410-1867 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE $0.00
1 313-9202 Single Drive: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Burner (Writes to DVD/CD/BD) $200
1 421-0974 CYBERLINK PDVD 8.0 ANW $0.00
1 421-0975 NERO 9, ANW $0.00
1 313-8947 Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium $75
1 330-6348 Automatic Updates: On $0.00
1 421-1426 Alienhead Chrome Blue $0.00
1 421-1435 Alienhead Chrome Blue $0.00
1 330-5817 Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling $0.00
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install $0.00
1 330-5780 Alienware TactX Mouse $99

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Jaydd's current rig:

 XPS 730x 965 H2C liquid cooled Windows Vista SP2 64-bit Ultimate
Intel X58 chipset
CPU-Intel Core i7 965 extreme @ OC 3.85 MHz
Dell CPU Liquid/TEC Cooling ATX Unit
Triple nVidia GeForce GTX280 1024MB-SLI, no OC
6GB Multi-Channel DDR3 at 1866MHZ (3x2GB DIMM) running at 1700MHZ 9-9-9-24-C1, no OC
(4)-  300GB WD 10,000 rpm Velociraptors-Raid 10
(4) - 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 drives in Sans Digital eSaTA tower
Dual DVD Drives: 6x Blu-Ray Burner(BD/DVD/CD) + 16x DVD-ROM
Creative X-FI Titanium sound card
Creative Turtle Beach gaming headset
Logitech Z 5500 5.1 speaker setup
Power supply-1000 watt
Auxillary Power Supply-Visiontek 450 powering one of three GTX 280's
Dell HD SP2309W monitor
Samsung Syncmaster 2233RZ 120hz 3D ready 22' LCD monitor 1680X1050
Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D

Thank you Primetime for your info on the non ALX version.

Thank Jaydd for giving me your details. I should hopefully be able to google these part numbers.

That looks to be a sweet system you are getting. Hope the Alienware systems will stay in support longer than our 730 X systems were.

Keep me updated on your exchange process. I am curious on what they want you to send back besides the tower.

 Too bad they did not include a media card reader on your Area-51.

thanks,

Joe

Jaydd,

How is your new Area-51 working out? When Dell decieded to send you an Area-51 exchange, how long was it in production till it was ship to you?

Hope it as fast or faster than you expected.

Will you be Overclocking the Area-51 in the future?

Cool man, I am happy for you. That is a nice Vantage number:emotion-5:

Will Dell allow you to take out the bluetooth/media card reader and put it in your Area51? Or are you going to do this on your own and see what happens? ie dell charging you for the missing parts.

What is dell asking back on the XPS? Does dell require you to return your XPS laser pen, beenie, tool case, ect...?

Once again, thanks for keeping us updated on your exchange.

Joe

Joe, my new system came a day early!  The box it was shipped in is the same one that I use to return the 730x.  When we used to call dell support, I felt we got preferential treatment being owners of the top of the line computers.  Not so Area-51 owners!  When you call in you are asked if you are an ALX owner, if not, you go in the "all others" queue, the ALX'rs get the "Special"  ??!?? treatment.  The new Area-51 came as promised.  I'm still setting my applications up, my plan was to simply move my raid 10 10k velociraptors over to the new machine, but when I ran Disk Mark on my new Raid 0 620GB 7200 rpm array, this "Slower" array in the new Area-51 blew away my four drive Raid 10 (which some reviews said were bench marked in some circumstances even faster than a Raid 0), old reads: 131.1, 41.51, 0.300 vs new: 149.9, 37.40, 0.496.

No bluetooth/media card reader,  but I could just take it out of the old machine, before returning and install it in the new case.

Received: Alienware baseball hat, no beanie cap, no XPS laser pointer, no tool box, great manual even with instructions how to mod the BIOS!, critical new CDs.

So I'm very happy with my new 975, fac o/c to 360MHz & the dual SLI 285's with an extra slot for a third.  I wonder, can I add a 280 as my third? Good 3DMark Vantage numbers, P26214, CPU-50425, GPU 22598.  I will see how the numbers decline as I add software. Oh and I plan on swapping out the 6GB 1067MHz ram in the Area-51 with the Corsair 1866MHz that I put in the 730x and see how that affects the numbers. 

The lighting is complex and very cool -JayDD

JoeCrab, the time from when (10/31) the support rep said "I will have my new machine in 7-21 days" sounded aggressive but good.   Well, checking the web page listed it almost immediately as being in "Pre Production" which is where it stayed for ~two weeks.  On the 22nd day I called Dell support who said it was 7-21 BUSINESS days which I wasn't told.  I called back after 21 BUSINESS days and the rep said that he had no idea what was happening and was unable to find out!  He recommended that I call Cust Svc.  One month later with the status flipping between pre-production and production, I called cust svc again.   She said well the system exchange wasn't approved until 11/16 and the day counter didn't start until then.  On the 29th the web page said order "canceled", well that was very scary.  I called again 12/7 and the rep said they just canceled the first order for some unknown reason and generated a new order number and the day counter would start, 7-21 business days from zero!  I was getting very unhappy feeling powerless.  Then on 12/14 it magically showed up!!  One and a half months of uneasiness.

 Much faster than I expected, see my last message.  I'm so excited now that for now, I won't even be thinking about overclocking.  (Let's see how long that lasts)

One disappointment, our 730x single ESATA port has a 5 port replicator on it allowing me to attach a five drive tower, the Area-51 has two ESATA ports (that sales doesn't seem to know about the second one), but they do not have any port replication on them.  Oh well.

I'm just doing the media reader swap on my own, I will call first to see if it is supported on this MOBO.  I have a laser pointer that I can send you, if I can find it.  I'm only sending back the 730x tower. - Jay