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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

I have a Dell XPS, which has been running too hot, and limiting the CPU. Like hitting 25% and it throttles. I replaced the thermal paste today, and it went from a LOW of 70 Celsius to the mid 40s. It tends to hover higher than that when doing almost anything, but the fact that it ever gets to the 40s is nice. Noticed the watts it's willing to consume, as well as the turbo GHz are much higher as well. It still won't go 100%, but it gets closer. In theory this CPU can take 135 Watts, but I've never seen it get above 100 now. (About 45-50 prior to replacing the paste).

Dell sucks. This laptop cannot run 100% because of how they built it.
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Post by GORDON »

They skimp on $.01 of paste and it reduces the thing to half its value? Someone should tell them about that.
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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

Dell's business line is the shit. I've worked with thousands of their desktops, laptops, and servers, and rarely ever have hardware issues.

Their home line is not as impressive, by a long shot. I bought two of their premier XPS desktops years ago. They were "top of the line" gaming rigs and supposed to be worth the money. Nope. Nothing but problems, including overheating issues, them being poorly configured, etc.

I rarely ever hear complaints about Dell, but when I do, the letters XPS are always included.
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TheCatt
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Leisher wrote: Sun May 23, 2021 3:59 pm the letters XPS are always included.
Yeah, XPS 15 supposed performance laptop. It is sadness.
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

TheCatt wrote: Sun May 23, 2021 2:10 pm I have a Dell XPS, which has been running too hot, and limiting the CPU. Like hitting 25% and it throttles. I replaced the thermal paste today, and it went from a LOW of 70 Celsius to the mid 40s. It tends to hover higher than that when doing almost anything, but the fact that it ever gets to the 40s is nice. Noticed the watts it's willing to consume, as well as the turbo GHz are much higher as well. It still won't go 100%, but it gets closer. In theory this CPU can take 135 Watts, but I've never seen it get above 100 now. (About 45-50 prior to replacing the paste).

Dell sucks. This laptop cannot run 100% because of how they built it.
Definitely running dramatically better, but it still cannot hit 100%. A lot of people reduced their CPU voltage to improve things even more, but Dell took that away 12 BIOS versions ago. It made it to around 112.5W out of 135W this morning.

I tried a cooling pad (cheap plastic with some fans) and that barely did anything.
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

TheCatt wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 9:45 am
TheCatt wrote: Sun May 23, 2021 2:10 pm I have a Dell XPS, which has been running too hot, and limiting the CPU. Like hitting 25% and it throttles. I replaced the thermal paste today, and it went from a LOW of 70 Celsius to the mid 40s. It tends to hover higher than that when doing almost anything, but the fact that it ever gets to the 40s is nice. Noticed the watts it's willing to consume, as well as the turbo GHz are much higher as well. It still won't go 100%, but it gets closer. In theory this CPU can take 135 Watts, but I've never seen it get above 100 now. (About 45-50 prior to replacing the paste).

Dell sucks. This laptop cannot run 100% because of how they built it.
Definitely running dramatically better, but it still cannot hit 100%. A lot of people reduced their CPU voltage to improve things even more, but Dell took that away 12 BIOS versions ago. It made it to around 112.5W out of 135W this morning.

I tried a cooling pad (cheap plastic with some fans) and that barely did anything.
This laptop is dumb. Intel advertises a TDP or 45 watts. OK, that's not so bad, surely this laptop can cool that. But, it turns out, under max power (turbo frequencies), it can consume 135 Watts. Wtf? That's triple the TDP. I can only imagine the beast of a laptop you'd need to dissipate that much heat. I've seen mine peak at 112.5 Watts since the change (but only briefly).

Lesson learned for next one.
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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

That sucks.

Seriously, I don't know why Dell even keeps making any of their XPS line.

Buy a business laptop, you won't have any issues.
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Post by TheCatt »

Leisher wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 4:01 pm That sucks.

Seriously, I don't know why Dell even keeps making any of their XPS line.

Buy a business laptop, you won't have any issues.
Apparently I should have bought an Alienware according to reddit. will try that next time. I also emailed "Michael Dell" so we'll see if anything happens.
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Post by Leisher »

TheCatt wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 4:05 pm I also emailed "Michael Dell" so we'll see if anything happens.
Copycat.
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Post by TheCatt »

Leisher wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 5:49 pm
TheCatt wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 4:05 pm I also emailed "Michael Dell" so we'll see if anything happens.
Copycat.
Turns out Michael Dell is Indian.
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Leisher
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Yeah, when I wrote him I got a return from an underling as well.
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Post by TheCatt »

Dell thermal expert - tldw - "It's hard so we gave up"
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Post by TheCatt »

I found that guy on LinkedIn, and was tempted to msg him, but refrained.
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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

Admits that PC buyers don't care about AI.

The world's leading supplier of hardware is publicly stating that consumers don't give a shit about AI. Just interesting at a time when people are looking at the AI bubble and waiting for it to pop.
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Post by TheCatt »

AI is growing. The hype is excessive, but the value prop is growing, even if not large at the moment. Admittedly, when AI is right the AI overviews are nicer than google results.
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Post by Leisher »

The amount of money being put into AI does not translate to ROI by a long shot at the moment. I do not disagree that it has value, but its value is grossly overstated at the moment.

I think AI's biggest market will be inside the robots that Boston Dynamics is building.

And as someone that uses AI daily, you are correct. When AI gets it right, it's a MUCH nicer breakdown than random Google results. However, it is wrong sooooo much. Plus, it's really, really limited still. It has no ability to really understand what the user wants.

It's a long, long road before we get to anything like in the movies.
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Post by TheCatt »

Leisher wrote: Thu Jan 08, 2026 3:07 pm The amount of money being put into AI does not translate to ROI by a long shot at the moment. I do not disagree that it has value, but its value is grossly overstated at the moment.
Agree. But if it keeps getting better... who knows what's next? Some expert think LLMs are inherently limited. But what about LLMs paired with other technologies (expert systems, etc)? Who knows.
Leisher wrote: Thu Jan 08, 2026 3:07 pm I think AI's biggest market will be inside the robots that Boston Dynamics is building.
That would be sad.
Leisher wrote: Thu Jan 08, 2026 3:07 pm When AI gets it right, it's a MUCH nicer breakdown than random Google results. However, it is wrong sooooo much. Plus, it's really, really limited still. It has no ability to really understand what the user wants.
yes.
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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

One thing I've been toying with lately is having Co-Pilot (which is just Chat GPT 5) code a program for me. There's a visual element and that's been one of the toughest parts. Getting the AI to understand what I visualize is really hard. It would be so much better if it conceptually understood what I was trying to accomplish.
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Post by TheCatt »

Yeah. My coding projects (non-UI) still have failed when I go beyond basic stuff.
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