Tips to improve your experience with Dell XPS 7590 and other Dell laptops.
Disclaimer: all these instructions are written for Dell Vostro 7590 which is (almost) sharing the chassis with Dell XPS 7590 and Dell Inspiron 15 7000. Repository name says XPS for clickbait reasons since it's a much more popular model. Most (if not all) instructions are applicable for Dell XPS 7590 and many other Dell models as well.
Use hibernate instead of sleep
Alternatievely you can allow PC to spend say 5% of battery in standby and go to sleep after that: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/power-settings/adaptive-hibernate
Use following commands to troubleshoot battery drain and wakeups:
powercfg.exe /energy powercfg.exe /sleepstudy powercfg.exe /batteryreport
Use Throttlestop to check the C0 value. IDeally it should be around 0.5 while computer is idle. Otherwise you need to find what softrware has too bad background activity.
https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/142867-missing-advanced-power-options-2.html
Here's the target state for Dell Vostro 7590 (core i7-9750H with RTX 1650): https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/53174711
Can be acheived with undervolting, cleaning and removing bloatware. See notes on undervolting below.
Undervolting and underclocking using Throttlestop https://www.ultrabookreview.com/31385-the-throttlestop-guide/
MSI Afterburner for undervolting GPU
On Windows 10 with disabled virtualisation requires Bios 1.5.1 or lower. On Windows 11 with virtualization enabled, it requires more steps - see here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/throttlestop-dead-on-windows-11.284102/page-3
https://github.com/tianocore/tianocore.github.io/wiki/Getting-Started-with-EDK-II https://github.com/tianocore/tianocore.github.io/wiki/Windows-systems
https://www.reddit.com/r/XPS/comments/sh02yr/undervolting_my_9510_11800h_with_windows_11_and/ https://brendangreenley.com/undervolting-2020-dell-laptops-like-the-vostro-7500-and-more-tips-to-improve-thermals-battery-life-and-speed/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/kpaouc/g7_15_7590_uefi_unlock_undervolting_and_remove/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/7byhjq/disabling_intel_dptf_for_good/dpm6ln9/
https://github.com/AaronKelley/DellFanManagement
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/power/pbt-apmsuspend https://superuser.com/questions/1329203/how-can-i-schedule-a-task-to-run-on-pbt-apmsuspend
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/g2qbco/xps_15_custom_heatsink_solution_to_overheating_to/
Only major differences are shown
| XPS 7590 | Vostro 7590 | Inspiron 7590 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | FHD 500 nits or touch UHD 500 nits or OLED UHD 400 nits | FHD 300 nits or UHD 400 nits | FHD 300 nits or UHD 500 nits |
| Weight | 1.8 Kg | 1.9 Kg | 1.8 Kg |
| Material | Aluminium with carbon-fiber | Aluminium | Magnesium |
| Keyboard | 80 keys | 101 keys | 101 keys |
| Top CPU | Up to i9-9980HK | i9-9880H listed on site but not seen on the market | i9-9880H listed on site but not seen on the market |
| Chipset | CM246 | HM370 | HM370 |
| Card-Reader | SD | microSD | microSD |
| USB type A | 2 ports | 3 ports | 3 ports |
| Wireless (upgradeable) | WiFi 6 | WiFi 5 | WiFi 5 |
| M.2 Storage | 1 slot | 2 slots | 2 slots |
| security-cable slot (wedge-shaped) | yes | no | no |
| Support | https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/xps-15-7590-laptop/xps-15-7590-setup-and-specifications/dimensions-and-weight?guid=guid-7df32f47-45cf-4a08-ad99-b01eec4f3ce6&lang=en-us | https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/vostro-15-7590-laptop/vos7590_setupspecs/dimensions-and-weight?guid=guid-5c33f917-293a-4bb4-a06c-f72cc5f41548&lang=en-us | https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/inspiron-15-7590-laptop/inspiron-7590-setup-and-specifications/dimensions-and-weight?guid=guid-7df32f47-45cf-4a08-ad99-b01eec4f3ce6&lang=en-us |
Make sure to choose option without HDD - it comes with big battery
Dell provides great instructions on assembly/disassembly: https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/vostro-15-7590-laptop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf You can upgrade storage (2 slots M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3.0x4 NVMe, up to 32 Gbps, no limit on capacity), memory (2 slots SODIMM DDR4 2666 MHz up to 64Gb), wireless module (1 slot M.2 2230, upgradeable to WiFi 6E and beyond)
Since only PCIe Gen 3 is supported, there's no need to invest into Gen4+ SSDs. Ideal SSD must have speed close to PCIe Gen3 saturation and be efficient in terms of temperature and power consumption.
Good choise: SK Hynix Gold P31 (up to 2Tb) - https://ssd.skhynix.com/gold_p31/
RAID-0 while possible won't give you any speed improvements due to saturation of PCIe bus as well - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWBvDt96ZTc
While laptop has 2 M2 slots, it makes sense to use single SSD unless you need a lot of storage - it would allow to minimise power draw, heat and weight. If you plan to install new Windows on new drive while having the other one connected (like I did) Windows would reuse existing UEFI partition. Make sure to disconnect old drive while installing Windows and connect it back for transfering the data.
Even if Dell states that 64Gb is only supported on certain models, in fact it does work not only on XPS series but also on Inspiron / Vostro series.
DDR4 SO-DIMM 2666 MHz is supported. Any casual CL19 memory would work, however you will face issues with low-latency "gaming" memory. For example Patriot Viper Steel memory with timings 18-18-18-43 would not work, while Corsair Vengeance with timings 18-19-19-39 will work just fine. If you want to squeeze maximum performance out of your laptop, check carefully if memory would work and make sure you can return it if not.
People on reddit collated a table of supported RAM for the 9570 (previous) generation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/8r55ys/9570_working_ram_kits/
I don't have enough expertise to comment on it but it might be possible to hack the XMP support by flashing the custom bios or updating the UEFI vars. See https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-REWARD-REQUEST-Dell-G7-15-7590-bios-mod for inspiration.
Update to WiFi 6 is possible. No details yet
Bluetooth in "Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560 160MHz" adapter has some intermittent issues on Dell laptops - sometimes bluetooth becoms unusable until you restart Windows. Upgrading wirelesss module might solve these issues.
Default barrel-connector charger is quite bulky. You can use any USB-C compact charger with 65W+ as an alternative. Please note that laptop will draw only 65W from non-DELL chargers. Please note that if you charger outputs says 60W your laptop will only charge while it's turned off.
USB-C monitor recommended since it can both provide power and output video. Look for monitors with power output over 65W
If you go for Dell monitor, your laptop will be able to draw over 65 Watts
While addressing certain security issues, most recent BIOS updates disable undervolting. Make sure you're using BIOS version 1.5.1 if you want to do undervolting.
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwkH-8urcGm6rxc99tk75eZq_veJe0SUq
- https://github.com/AaronKelley/DellFanManagement
- https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/product-support/product/vostro-15-7590-laptop/docs
- https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/191045/intel-core-i79750h-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-50-ghz.html