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Well after a few weeks and a replacement system I have returned my XPS M1330. The system was great, it had some minor build quality problems that I could live with, but it also had a severe CPU buzzing problem. Whenever the computer is idle the CPU goes into the C3 and C4 power saving states. When it does this the computer started to emit a high pitched whining sound.
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Well after using my new M1330 for a week I am pretty pleased. Everything is great, except for the noise coming from the CPU area, but that is for another post. This post is about my initial experiences installing Arch Linux on my new Dell XPS M1330.
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Well it has now been a full month since I placed my order for a new Dell XPS M1330, their new flagship mobile system. After all that time I still do not feel much closer to getting my system, and on top of it all I still have not received the other items I ordered from them. There is a lot of discussion going on over at notebookreview.com right now about the lead times on these systems, but the biggest problem is the complete breakdown of communication.
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Recently Vladstudio released a great new wallpaper and tutorial. The new wallpaper uses denim textures to make a really interesting looking effect on screen. I liked it so much I decided to take a shot at the tutorial. The follow are my results.
After following most of the steps in the tutorial, and improvising a little, I came up with something I was pretty happy with. I decided to take a slightly more clean cut and artificial look that Vlad did. That clean look basically means no stitches for now.
Obviously these wallpapers are a lot more simplistic that the Vlads, but I actually like the simplistic look and just enjoy the texture of the denim on screen.
Anyway, hope some of you enjoy it. (Note: Read the entire post to see the attachments).
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After two and a half weeks of waiting my laptop has finally moved into the build phase, where Dell will begin to assemble the laptop for shipping. This delay and the fact that next to no one online has received their M1330 yet, it makes you wonder if Dell ever intended to start shipping systems on the launch date.
Over on notebookreview.com some people have theorized that the delay can not really be due to unexpected demand, because we have not heard of any units shipping at all.
If it was a parts supply problem due to unexpected demand then they would at least have been able to ship several thousand initial units before they started running short. So I agree with them, that it’s more likely that Dell did a “paper launch” (as chuck said) where they begin taking orders early with long lead times.
If this is true it’s not all that surprising, just a little disappointing.
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Well after a lot of shopping around and reading reviews I have decided to take the plunge and order a laptop. The laptop I finally settled on was the brand new Dell XPS M1330.
Buying a laptop has been in my mind for quite a while now, but there always seems to be a good reason to wait. Wait for the prices to drop, wait for the new processors, wait for LED screens, wait for new chipsets, etc etc. With the recent release of the Santa Rosa platform from Intel, and now the new XPS M1330 I believe now is the best time to buy.
