I'm getting ready to do just that ... I can let you know how it goes.  When Dell doesn't provide drivers on the site for a system, you can usually find drivers for the various devices at the manufacturers site (Broadcom, Intel, etc.).

Please do keep us posted.  Or is you find anything elsewhere, if you could post links.  I am finding it hard to come by much info to date, as they are quite new.

If these machines run smooth with windows 7, I would bet they rage on XP.  I do wonder about full support for the multithreading and multicores on XP, though.

Just an update ... I ended up returning mine and getting a different model.  I got a bum machine - kept getting BSOD and 60-second screen hangs ... before I ever made any changes to it!  I tried fresh reinstall of 7 with no change, so I know that it wasn't a problem with running XP - it did the same thing with everything I put on it.  Anyway, I got as far as installing XP to the Desktop and installing the Chipset driver before I decided I didn't have time to mess with the locking up.

So, getting XP on was easy ... just didn't get around to finding/loading all the drivers.

Good luck.

I got a 1764 with the i5 did the same.  I initially had trouble when trying to load xp, was getting the blue screen of death, until a changed the hard drive setting in the bios from AHCI.  After that XP loaded fine, I currently have xp pro x64 loaded.  I tried to download intel 5 series chipset for mobile, but even after loading the OS did not recognize them.  I also loaded the intel HD video drivers, which were not recognized either....  I did not get much more time to mess around with much more.  I may try and load xp pro 32 and see what kind of results I can get.  

Let me know if anyone is able to get the dell drivers for the volume control and system control (F1 - F12 keys) working.  

I found some interesting articles comparing xp and windows 7:  My initial thinking is it that is indeed a bloated memory hog, but it does look like it may be worth it memory use in performance.  

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/20878-my-speed-tests-xp-sp2-vs-win7-ultimate-32bit.html

http://gizmodo.com/5133771/why-you-should-go-64+bit-with-windows-7

I may entertain the idea of leaving windows 7 with pro or higher, but would like to get xp running to see for myself the pros and cons.

i have completed all drivers but .. explorer is hanging only i think its sata drivers problem.. My laptop inspiron 1564 i3

WINDOWS XP

i have completed all drivers but .. explorer is hanging only i think its sata drivers problem.. My laptop inspiron 1564 i3

Usman Can you please send the Links from where you Downloaded the Drivers for XP........

I need them for my my Inspiron1564 i3. Thanks in Advance.

Thanks for posting the links.  Are you running xp x64?  How does is it running?

@fvnktion

I have just Installed the XP x64 on my inspiron I got yesterday. Now I am going to install the drivers.

Uptill now I have noticed the performance of XP is low on it. It took me 1 hour for windows installation. The windows startup is also quite slow.

I will tell you about the results after installing drivers.