So yeah.. I went ahead and bought an M17

So I have a few questions. I'm going to be using this as my work laptop and to game on. I'm on a Dell M1710 right now thats been a ROCK SOLID work/game machine for about 2 years now.

Hows the build quality compared to the M1710?

I ordered mine with only one hard drive and 2gb of ram. I figured i'd upgrade these after I got the laptop, somthing I usually do to save a bit of $$.
I'm a windows XP user because of... well because i think Vista sucks... or maybe it doesn't any more.. haven't tried it in about 3 months or so.
My question is about dual booting. Can i pop in a second drive and dual boot from switching the drive boot sequence? Is there a F key that allows me to choose the bootable device? I just really thought this might be easier than setting up partitions ect...

Better gaming perfomrance on Vista or XP?


So i ordered this thing LAST YEAR and i'm only in on phase 3.

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Design & Display: Black Ripley Design
Chassis: 17-Inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology
Keyboard Options: Non-Illuminated Keyboard – with Numeric Pad - No color options available
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (32-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 160GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless b/g (Full Mini-Card)

 

probably xp still, but not by much.

looking at xp vs 64 bit vista and a 64 bit game, it might be a tie... maybe.

 

Though I own a different model that's based on the same chassis as the M17, I can tell you that in terms of build quality, it is extremely well built and solid. Compared to the M1710 (which I used to own), the hinges don't wear as quick and are a bit sturdier. You should also be able to pop in the 2nd hard drive and use F12 to access the boot menu if you want to dual boot via that method. The only issue though is that there will be compatibility issues with the M17 and Windows XP, mostly due to driver support. There are some XP specific drivers slowly popping up for the OCZ whitebook, which can be applied to the M17.

 

My M1710 didn't have hinge wear. Just the video card died twice on me and not repair parts left for me to repair.

The build is about the same or better than m1710. Using it in vista is fine. I am using it in Windows 7 which is fine as well. There is no need to use windows xp even if there is any performance difference.

 

To be honest, people make Vista look worse then it really is.

-You should really get Vista 64-Bit, it'll future proof your laptop and you can use 4 GBs!

 

Its 2009, I am sorry everyone should be mandated to be using a 64bit OS by now.

Windows 7 was gonna be 64-bit only (which is what Microsoft should do) But they have bended and will probably ship a 32-bit version.

You really need a 64-bit OS to get everything out of a Quad Core or the new Core i7 and DDR3 RAM.


its just game developers refuse to put in the added Extra work to go 64-bit

 

Yup, there will be performance hit for games that are half baked 64bit converted, unless they really make use of the 64 bit words in full and change their develop environment for 64 bits.

 

I tried vista on my desktop gaming rig about 3 or 4 months ago.. took a 10-15% performance hit on games it seemed. Definately saw it in my 3dmark06 scores.. which of course mean nothing compared to real time gaming.. but it does mess with your head!

So now i'm debating changing my order to 64bit ultimate. Is AW like dell? meaning if you want to change one little thing they cancel the order start from scratch?

thanks
helm