4k and life span

[kundas1]

It's a workhorse for sure, call it what you want, a laptop or a notebook, but at the end of the day the dell xps m1530 has had a heat problem like no other notebook I have ever used.

I have a Dell XPS 15z and you can put it on your lap without a problem.

Have you tried vacuuming the vent ports where the air blows out? Did that on an old laptop that my buddy gave me because it kept over heating... and it was good as new!

 

[ipaq_101]

Have you tried vacuuming the vent ports where the air blows out? Did that on an old laptop that my buddy gave me because it kept over heating... and it was good as new!

I have cleaned it out, replaced the thermal paste, put in a ssd, etc. This model was just plagued with heating issues. In any case it has become my third computer.

Desk duties: Dell XPS M1530
Media/ Tv duties: Dell XPS 15z
Daily Driver: SP3

Moral of the story, don't buy dell, took me 7 years to figure that out.

 

[kundas1]

Sorry but I have owned 4 dell laptops and they ALL ran perfectly... sold my Inspiron d620 to a friend 4 years ago and it's still running to this day! And I owned that laptop for 3yrs before I sold it to her!

 

[bkydcmpr]

I can't speak to the 4K TV question, because I don't have a 4K TV. Darnit.

But, I'm curious: why would you think you'd have to replace the SP3 after a year? I mean, it's not engineered to disintegrate after 12 months, or anything.

Seriously, I don't see the SP3 as being any different from any other machine. In fact, given its versatility and the industry's transition to touch-centric platforms, I'd say the SP3 has far MORE longevity than your typical notebook. And, it's built to last as far as I can tell.

I'm thinking the same as @halon, because of the poor performance of sp3, I may need to replace it to render 3d scenes for vr like oculus rift (coming next year).

 

[ipaq_101]

Sorry but I have owned 4 dell laptops and they ALL ran perfectly... sold my Inspiron d620 to a friend 4 years ago and it's still running to this day! And I owned that laptop for 3yrs before I sold it to her!

I guess I just have had rotten luck with dell, I never bought inspirons, only xps machines, maybe the high price of xps' and being underwhelmed led to my not liking them anymore. Oh well, I doubt I will buy anything other than Surfaces going forward.

 

[hughlle]

I guess I just have had rotten luck with dell, I never bought inspirons, only xps machines, maybe the high price of xps' and being underwhelmed led to my not liking them anymore. Oh well, I doubt I will buy anything other than Surfaces going forward.

Its not just you. My family all had dell laptops, inspirons and one latitude, and they all failed. The inspirons all had their GPUs fail leading to nothing but a lovely white screen, 2 were repaired, both failed again with the same issue not long after. I'd certainly never buy a dell again.

 

[Seneleron]

My work used to issue us Dells. I absolutely *HATED* them, would never buy one of their stripped down pieces of junk with overly marked up upgrade options.

I do have to grudgingly admit though. . they both still RAN at the end of 7-8 years [both were used hand me downs]

As for 4k, I haven't personally used as there's virtually no 4k content and the price is WAYYY too high for the no content you receive in return.

As for lifespan on the SP3, I guess we'll all see, but despite the fear mongering about temps and fan noise the SP3 is really conservative with it's temperature profiles.

 

[Arizona Willie]

I have a 4K TV being delivered this afternoon. I have the Original Surface Pro 1 which is now somewhere near 18 months old and still working fine. Would not trade it for the Surface 3.

I will let you know how well it works to stream from the Surface Pro via my wi-fi network to the 4K TV as soon as I get everything up and working and figured out. I'm hoping it will work OK.

I'm thinking of getting the SP3. Has anyone used it connected to a 4k TV and streamed Netflix? Also. My laptop lasted almost 5 years, I wouldn't expect Surface to last this long. But is it something I would HAVE to replace after a year?

 

[DanL]

I have a 4K TV being delivered this afternoon. I have the Original Surface Pro 1 which is now somewhere near 18 months old and still working fine. Would not trade it for the Surface 3.

I will let you know how well it works to stream from the Surface Pro via my wi-fi network to the 4K TV as soon as I get everything up and working and figured out. I'm hoping it will work OK.

If it's a 2014 4K TV you can just use the Netflix app built in to the TV. Right now Netflix is the only service streaming any 4K content.

http://www.cnet.com/news/netflix-begins-4k-streams/

 

[Arizona Willie]

Yes it is a 2014 TV and we had Netflix up and running last night. Love the new Sony. Magnificent picture and it upconverts regular HD to 4k automatically and does a pretty darn good job of it. It would be interesting to see a demo with a show in regular HD one side of the screen and in 4k on the other so they could be compared side by side. Also a demo with regular HD upconverted next to real 4k.

The surprise to me was finding out that you can tell it to convert regular HD programs into 3D!!
Works pretty darn good.
Maybe tonight I will order a real 3D movie from On Demand on our cable system and check out real 3D.

I'm not in love with the glasses that came with it, but there are lots of different glasses available.
I was a little surprised that when streaming Netflix there was no buffering pauses at all. Came in just the same as watching regular tv.

 

[DanL]

Glad you're enjoying it. I'm usually an early adopter with home theater gear but I haven't gone 4K yet. Hopefully more content will start coming out soon. I'd like to see 4K OLED start rolling out as well....just wishful thinking for now.

 

[Arizona Willie]

I doubt 4K OLED will be very common very soon. Although I have heard there is one set on the market. But unless dropping over $10 K is no big deal I suspect you will be waiting a long long time

The Sony simulated 4K is really pretty darn good. Can't really tell much difference between it and streaming 4K from Netflix ... at least for me. But then my vision is a shade off of perfect.

I hope the cable company starts sending 4K soon. But the hang up there will be buying new transmitting equipment that can handle the codex. I don't think bandwidth is a problem because Netflix can stream using the cable companies cable and the cable company has, maybe a couple hundred 3D movies On Demand and if they can stream 3D they could surely stream 4K. The compression codex is reportedly very good and would take up almost no extra room, but unless their transmitting equipment can handle it ( which I don't know if it can or not ) they will have to get new before they stream 4K.

But with simulation as good as this it really isn't too big of a deal whether they do or not.
Don't know how well Samsung or LG simulation is but Sony seems to be really good.

But you need to see it in someone's home to judge.

This set plus a new stand came to the same price as my 2004 Mitsubishi projection HD that just got hauled away. Poor thing still had a good picture but not as good as the Sony Bravia in the bedroom or this set ---- by a mile --- they have really done well with the HD and 3D.

Oh yeah, another surprise, this set will convert regular HD to 3D and they don't even mention that and it works well. But my owner doesn't like 3D so it will only be of use to me when she isn't watching .

Glad you're enjoying it. I'm usually an early adopter with home theater gear but I haven't gone 4K yet. Hopefully more content will start coming out soon. I'd like to see 4K OLED start rolling out as well....just wishful thinking for now.