4 ms·

The Dell XPS 15 9560 is just amazing with the Intel Core i7 7700, upgraded to 32GB of ram, and a 1TB SSD and the best part an NVIDIA GTX 1050. Ubuntu and Windo

The Dell XPS 15 9560 is just amazing with the Intel Core i7 7700, upgraded to 32GB of ram, and a 1TB SSD and the best part an NVIDIA GTX 1050. Ubuntu and Windows 10 runs great on it. It is 4 lbs. I use it as my primary workstation with the thunderbolt docking station and a 4K monitor. It is thin, light and strong.

JohnTHaller 9y ago
The only downside is that the Thunderbolt port on the 9560 is two PCIe lanes instead of 4. I'd wager it's because of the GTX 1050 inside using some of them. Oddly, the only XPS laptop with 4 lanes to the Thunderbolt port is the XPS 13 9365 2 in 1. If you ever want more oomf graphics-wise at your desk, grab the Gigabyte Gaming Box with a GTX 1070 inside. You get HDMI, DisplayPort and two DVI ports to keep permanently connected to your desktop displays as well as 4 USB 3 ports (one with QuickCharge 3.0) to keep connected to your keyboard, mouse, external drives, and other peripherals. I'd wager you're doing most of that with your docking station now, but the Auroros Gaming Box is a crazy deal at $599 for anyone that wants more GPU at the desk or doesn't have a discrete card in their laptop but has TB3.
- Rjevski 9y ago
  If you've already got the GPU you can also get an enclosure without an embedded GPU - lookup "Akitio Node". It still feels expensive for what it is but less than the Gigabyte one assuming you already have a GPU.
- Kudos 9y ago
  I think you meant Auros instead of Auroros, link for the lazy: https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#kf https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#kf
  - tonetheman 9y ago
    God I am old. How does that thing even hook up to laptop?
    - jamiek88 9y ago
      One single thunderbolt 3 connection. I love thunderbolt, now it's been opened up hopefully it'll be in a lot more chipsets.
aorth 9y ago
How is the coil whine? I hear "Dell XPS" these days and all I can think of is coil whine...
- pvdebbe 9y ago
  Heh. My Dell, not XPS but something-something whines in such a manner it sounds like it had an HDD trashing inside. I got fooled quite many times before gotting used to it.
- bhouston 9y ago
  I did not notice this and I tend to be a fairly heavy user.
enraged_camel 9y ago
Interesting. I've always been a fan of the XPS line. How much does it cost with that configuration?
- bhouston 9y ago
  I got it on sale for $1,599.99 CAD. That was for the 7700HQ CPU, NVIDIA GTX 1050, 16GB ram and 256GB SSD and the Full HD screen (not 4K as I used an external monitor for that.) I after market upgraded ram to 32GB and the SSD to an 1TB and then bought the docking station for another $299 I believe.
olegkikin 9y ago
It's not i7-7700, it's i7-7700HQ, which is slower. 3.60GHz vs 2.8Ghz, 8MB vs 6MB cache.
crdoconnor 9y ago
I got the XPS 13 9350 and I was pretty disappointed. The wireless card sucks and after 8 months the monitor simply gave up and died. Dell support is not abysmal, but it isn't great. It took me a few days to convince them it was actually a hardware problem rather than a driver problem. I'm very lucky it died within guarantee. If it waited 3 more months and I'd have an overpriced brick on my hands.
djsumdog 9y ago
I have a similar Dell XPS 15 (2016, i6700HQ) with the 1TB SSD and 32GB of Ram. It replaced my development desktop. I like the hardware in general, but I've had some issues. There's no hardware limiter for the speakers. I run Linux and switched in PulseAudio once from a bluetooth speaker to the laptop's and didn't realize it was over 200%. When I reduced the volume I still heard the buzzing. Turns out I blew out my speaker. :( The built in buletooth also can't detect a single one of my devices. I'm a bit nomadic at the moment, so I can't really ship it in for its warranty. I do have a spare Intel laptop 802.11ac/bt card though, so at some point I'll probably open her up, replace the wireless adapter and try to glue the speaker back together (and maybe solder in components to keep it from blowing again).

JohnTHaller 9y ago

The only downside is that the Thunderbolt port on the 9560 is two PCIe lanes instead of 4. I'd wager it's because of the GTX 1050 inside using some of them. Oddly, the only XPS laptop with 4 lanes to the Thunderbolt port is the XPS 13 9365 2 in 1. If you ever want more oomf graphics-wise at your desk, grab the Gigabyte Gaming Box with a GTX 1070 inside. You get HDMI, DisplayPort and two DVI ports to keep permanently connected to your desktop displays as well as 4 USB 3 ports (one with QuickCharge 3.0) to keep connected to your keyboard, mouse, external drives, and other peripherals. I'd wager you're doing most of that with your docking station now, but the Auroros Gaming Box is a crazy deal at $599 for anyone that wants more GPU at the desk or doesn't have a discrete card in their laptop but has TB3.

Rjevski 9y ago
If you've already got the GPU you can also get an enclosure without an embedded GPU - lookup "Akitio Node". It still feels expensive for what it is but less than the Gigabyte one assuming you already have a GPU.
Kudos 9y ago
I think you meant Auros instead of Auroros, link for the lazy: https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#kf https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#kf
- tonetheman 9y ago
  God I am old. How does that thing even hook up to laptop?
  - jamiek88 9y ago
    One single thunderbolt 3 connection. I love thunderbolt, now it's been opened up hopefully it'll be in a lot more chipsets.

aorth 9y ago

How is the coil whine? I hear "Dell XPS" these days and all I can think of is coil whine...

pvdebbe 9y ago
Heh. My Dell, not XPS but something-something whines in such a manner it sounds like it had an HDD trashing inside. I got fooled quite many times before gotting used to it.
bhouston 9y ago
I did not notice this and I tend to be a fairly heavy user.

enraged_camel 9y ago

Interesting. I've always been a fan of the XPS line. How much does it cost with that configuration?

bhouston 9y ago
I got it on sale for $1,599.99 CAD. That was for the 7700HQ CPU, NVIDIA GTX 1050, 16GB ram and 256GB SSD and the Full HD screen (not 4K as I used an external monitor for that.) I after market upgraded ram to 32GB and the SSD to an 1TB and then bought the docking station for another $299 I believe.

olegkikin 9y ago

It's not i7-7700, it's i7-7700HQ, which is slower. 3.60GHz vs 2.8Ghz, 8MB vs 6MB cache.

crdoconnor 9y ago

I got the XPS 13 9350 and I was pretty disappointed. The wireless card sucks and after 8 months the monitor simply gave up and died. Dell support is not abysmal, but it isn't great. It took me a few days to convince them it was actually a hardware problem rather than a driver problem. I'm very lucky it died within guarantee. If it waited 3 more months and I'd have an overpriced brick on my hands.

djsumdog 9y ago

I have a similar Dell XPS 15 (2016, i6700HQ) with the 1TB SSD and 32GB of Ram. It replaced my development desktop. I like the hardware in general, but I've had some issues. There's no hardware limiter for the speakers. I run Linux and switched in PulseAudio once from a bluetooth speaker to the laptop's and didn't realize it was over 200%. When I reduced the volume I still heard the buzzing. Turns out I blew out my speaker. :( The built in buletooth also can't detect a single one of my devices. I'm a bit nomadic at the moment, so I can't really ship it in for its warranty. I do have a spare Intel laptop 802.11ac/bt card though, so at some point I'll probably open her up, replace the wireless adapter and try to glue the speaker back together (and maybe solder in components to keep it from blowing again).