-->*OFFICIAL: Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge*<--

Uk always gets stuff late!

 

100% agree

 

I looked at this but it weighs over 5 lbs. Anything leather is heavy. Here is another one:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=3047244
I used one of these for three years with 17" Toshiba Qosmio and liked it. But M1730 is heavier so now I opted for this one:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=3047244
It is not flashy at all. Future Shop had them in stock not too long ago for... $80 Can.

 

It's not available in the UK, I said the US .

It may be better for overclocking, as I have heard taking the X7900 to 3.4Ghz makes the fans have a hard work out.

For the same money, the X9000 is faster / cooler and has new instructions. It should be a good thing

 

I recon new X9000 is gonna be available in Ireland on the 13th of March. Dell always seem to add new stuff to the laptops, when their promotions end. For example yesterday their 150 euroes off deal ended and today we see new T9300 available I suppose it should be the same for UK.

 

Do you think people will be able to buy the X9000 on its own through Dell parts?
I dont think I will upgrade to it TBH. The X7900 is more then enough for now. Plus, the actual upgrade is a complete pig. If you thought the GPU upgrade was bad, with the CPU you need to remove everything, and I mean Everything! The card reader, the RAM, HDD, Optical drive, Wireless Card, everything!

You then have to remove the entire mainboard, so that you can get to the CPU heatsink and pipe, which you remove, and THEN get to the CPU! lol

 

LOL, A few minutes ago I check the UK site, and the X9000 was there, it isn't anymore :S

 

nah, i don't think it will be available through Dell parts. I'm not sure if you will be able to get them at all on their own. From what I know, Intel is planning to cut the production of Santa Rosa CPUs by 60% by the end of Q2 2008 in favour of it's new platform. And is gonna to reduce it to 10% by the end of 2008. So, if you wanna to upgrade your CPU, it is time to do this

lol Just realise, that you get 300 eoroes discount now on Dell web site and I also just found 10% discount coupon! So my system, with 4GB RAM instead of 2GB will cost me 400 euroes less. Feel like cancelling my order now. But not gonna do that...my ETA is 1st of April, don't wanna wait even more than that.

 

I wouldnt bother cancelling either TBH. If it was a major increase, like the GPUs were, then I would say cancel it now! But its really not worth the extra hassle IMO.

 

Jeez, im back! What a day. Sorry about not posting for a while there. It turns out we opted for a new broadband plan, they said there "might" be a service outage, I said fine. We did this a few days ago, thought everything was fine. Of course, I get my new machine today, frantically playing around with it, installing things, setting things up etc... When my internet dies!?!

My internet is down. ISP couldn't say how long for, could be tonight, could be upto 2 weeks?!?! Not happy. Especially when im in the throes of trying to setup a brand new laptop. Hopefully it'll be back on tomorrow. Spent a frantic couple of hours trying to find the iinet dial-up backup number, and then remember how to setup a dialup connection! Jeez, been a while! Im back now, but we only have one phone line, so can't connect that much unfortunately. Plus the connection is dog slow, so downloading ain't going to happen.

Ifti, I just double checked again, for some reason Australia doesn't get a configure option for RAID setup when configuring the laptop. I never spotted this... just assumed it would come in RAID (I know, ingnorance is bliss though!). I would watch your youtube video and watch how you configured your RAID, but I won't be doing that till I get broadband back.

Also, Internet Explorer is still being randomn. Sometimes its jerky and nasty when scrolling, other times its fine? I checked, im not running on battery! If I was, thats one big battery in there! I'll double check the settings, I couldn't find the "scroll smooth" option someone mentioned earlier.

I installed Crysis, it looks and runs beautifully! Res set at the 1440x one with all settings high, no anti-aliasing, ran smooth as silk. Might get a few jerks when heaps of stuff is happening on screen, but overall, im amazed. Plus watching it on that big beautiful screen is awesome.

Was going to download Fraps to try getting some FPS scores for you, but my internet died around abouts this time. One thing guys, the machine does give off a fair amount of heat, more so than the 8700's, which is understandable! But its nothing alarming, once again, when internet is back, will download a temperature monitoring program to give you some better info. I will definetly be picking up a Zalman cooler when I get back to Perth in a couple of weeks.

Did you guys all get a little remote control that pops out on the right side of the machine, closest to you? I saw a video with this, thought it was awesome, was looking forward to it. When I pushed the little button, only a cradle popped out, no remote. Are we meant to get one?

Lastly, I can't seem to get my little camera in the top of the screen to work... When I open up the Dell app to take a picture or video, it says no device detected, please plug in a camera... What am I missing here guys?

 

@ Pommie

I have no idea why IE is doing this. I would suggest you to use other browsers like Opera or Firefox. IE is crap in terms of security and speed anyway. I'm not a big fan of Firefox niether, so I stick with opera and very happy with it.

As for camera, I remember seeing some application for it on Dell's driver download page. It's 6.43Mb. Probably it will help.

 

Quick guys, lets all put large pictures in our posts to piess Pommie off!!! lol.
Im jus kiddin!

Good to see you are enjoying your laptop - well as much as you can!!

The remote should have come seperate in the accessory box. Take another look through the box and see if you find it. If not give Dell a ring since they must have forgotten to pack it. Im pretty sure it comes as standard.

If you havent got it, and cant get it through Dell, gimme a shout. I have one spare

 

Introduction
Hello everybody! Darkwolf is the name and computers are my game!
And the M1730 from DELL seems to have just that, especially since the 8800M GTX's became available.
Believe it or not, but I have spent last week and this week reading the thread from page one.
Biggest thread I have ever read LOL!
I like doing my homework before I buy something and make sure I don't ask stuff that has been asked already (more then once).

The plan
I currently own a desktop machine powered by the 8800 GTX and the DELL XPS-2 notebook (powered by the GeForce 6800 Ultra).
Selling both, I am going to get the M1730 making it my one and only big work horse.
"Why ditch the desktop?" one might ask.
Well, I am moving on the 14th of April to my new house and a PC will only fit in one of the little rooms upstairs.
I want a machine that is mobile so I can sit in the living room with my girlfriend and then put it away when needed since there isn't permanent spot to stack a PC or notebook.
From time to time I also attend to LAN parties or take it with me to work, friends ect.
Hence this strategy.
(This is going to feel weird though... I owned PC's since I was 11 years old and I am 25 now.)

The beast
I have ordered the Core 2 Duo 2.4 with the 8800M GTX's.
Configured with 2 GB's of RAM and 320 GB's in RAID 0 @ 7200 RPM.
Since I will be lugging it around more often then most people, I did opt for the back pack from DELL.
The financial thingy is done and the Comfort Card company told me that DELL should contact me shortly.
This was yesterday... tomorrow I am going to call myself, just in case.

The forum
I am from Holland and they have a nice big huge well known tech forum called "Gathering of Tweakers".
But alas, it seems that the M1730 is not such an interesting machine in Holland because the thread up to now is no longer then three pages haha!
So I am glad I have found you guys and I'll be reading and posting regulary myself.
Many kudo's to Ifti, whom I actually "met" on YouTube first.
He is almost a celeb to me and found it very cool to find him back in this thread lol.
Thanks for the video's man! Very pro made, clear and helped me a lot!
I plan to make some video's (on request) for the M1730 as well as it's my opinion that there isn't enough out there yet.
Lot's of short fuzzy clips of what it can do but mostly just lot's of talking and camera panning around the machine itself.
I plan to change all that and make some pro looking non camera shaky gameplay video's so one can see this power horse in action.

Until then... I am still waiting for the whole process to actually start heheh.
They expect to ship the machine on the 20th of March, by the way.

Once again... happy to have found you all.
Very active, very informative and friendly owners lounge you people have here!
Hope to be an official owner myself soon!

 

Its annoying because I actually quite like IE7! Have been using it since its release, I find it simple and usable. Yes, I know it can't do what FF and Opera can do etc... But I like it. Its not the end of the world, just gets under my skin every now and again.

Is this app on the Dell website for the camera there for a know camera issue? Or is it just an update? My last machine, the camera started up automatically, this one, it won't, can't seem to find it. I'll try troubleshooting some more when I get my proper internet back.

Once again, anyone with this machine, do you have a little remote included that pops out of a port on the right side of the machine closest to you?

 

Pommie - Think you missed my post about the remote...

And welcome to the forum Darkwolf!
wow, Im semi-famous!!! lol

 

Welcome to forum Darkwolf wow! looks like ifti becomes extremely popular...probably will see him on TV one day

@ Pommie

Just checked it on Dell's web site. It says Creative Labs - Driver for integrated webcam. Also says, that it's optional. But it says, that video driver is optional too, so wouldn't rely on that Here is a straight link to it, cause i remember how ennoying it is to try to find it on modem speeds.

Oh, and link is for 32bit Vista version

 

Hahaha, sorry Ifti, thats dialup for you, I missed your post there somehow...

I seriously must be going blind in my old age, looked through my box again, couldn't find a remote... Ifti, I know it was a loooonnng time ago for you, but do you by chance remember where the remote was located in the box when you received it?

Oh and welcome Darkwolf! NBR people are amongst the most friendly and knowledgable people when it comes to notebooks. Any questions about your new machine, just ask (try doing a search though beforehand to see if the Q has been asked before!).

 

Mate thanks for the help, btw, I have XP as my OS

I'll have another play around with the camera tomorrow, there's probably something stupid and simple im forgetting to do here. Did it work first time for you DDT? Or did you have to install the drivers?

 

For me it was just loose in the accessory box - where all your CDs etc were, the remote was just loose in the box along with them.
If you havent got it give Dell a ring.

Did you get a DVI to HDMI cable???
I didnt get one, not sure if you are supposed to or not, but I rang them up since I didnt get my PPU card, and at the same time I told them I didnt hav ethe cable, and they sent that to me also. Maybe it was a gesture of goodwill for leaving my PPU card out, but if you phone for your remote, try it! Just say you havent got the cable either, and you never know, they may send it out

 

In regards to the camera - I just used the drivers that came on the resource CD. After installing them, I get an error that pops up every time I start the camera program, but when I click OK it opens the programs and works perfectly anyways!

Try reinstalling the software from your resource CD....

 

haha, sorry about that pommie, thought you have vista

I don't have the laptop yet

 

Oh and Darkhorse - dont trust the estimated shipping date. You'll probably get your system well before that!

What spec did you go for?

 

I've just come across some great vouchers that will work together, so i can get a M1730 with T9300 and 8800M very cheap right now...so im seriously thinking of putting an order in..

One question I have is - i've never used a laptop with 1920x1200 screen - how does it scale to lower resolutions in games? Any experience I have of running a game at non-native resolution (on my 1440x900 M1530 for example) it just looks terrible, very blurry and out of focus.

Is this the case with the M1730, or is the res so high that lower resolutions like 1440x900 look quite clear on it?

 

I play most of my games at 1440x900 - you cant hardly tell the difference between that and 1920x1200. You'll be fine running games at 1440.

 

My order still in preproduction,Toying with the idea of asking Dell to swop the x7900 for a x9000.

Not sure what to do lol....Always something better around the corner!

 

I sometimes play Wheel of Fortune on the m1730 with the wife. When we run the game, the resolution changes itself to the specific game's setting (and in the case of wheel of fortune it's on the lower end). Game looks just fine and is still sharp.

 

Im the same as Ifti, run most of my games at 1440x900, looks outstanding. I run Sins of a Solar Empire at the native res of 1900x1200, eveything is so small its amazing, again, I need my glasses

Ifti, im not worried about them not sending out a remote if I don't have one. I remember reading someone posting about their XPS M1330 and how it was luck of the draw if you got a remote or not. Dell when you bought it couldn't tell you if you'd get one either. If you got one, awesome, if you didn't, tough luck. This might all be false info, but I was a little worried either a) we weren't actually meant to get one or b) the XPS M1330 remote issue would be the case here as well... Stupid, yes I know

The error I get when I open the Dell webcam app is "No supported camera detected. Please plug in to continue..."

 

Thanks for the reply and info.

Is there a reason why it looks fine though? When i run my 1440x900 display at anything other than native, it looks quite blurry and indistinct. Is it just that the 1920x1200 panel is so hi-res that it scales better?

 

And yes, I did get a DVI to HDMI cable.

 

VC, maybe its the quality of the screen you have? Is it getting old? What type of panel is it?

 

@ VC

It's just that some screens are good at scaling and others are crap. And i suppose thx to Dell for putting good displays into M1730.

 

It's an 1440x900 LG display on a M1530. Not old at all Even lowering it by a small bit to 1280x800 makes it quite blurry....I just don't like it at all. I would prefer to turn off some eye-candy or lose some frames rather than have a blurry picture.

But anyway, I will take you guys word for it. If i can lower the settings to 1440x900 on the M1730 and still keep everything clear and sharp, that's great. Thanks

 

I sent Dell an email asking if I could swop my x7900 for the x9000.I'll keep you guys updated.

UK store btw

Seems the price has droped a bit, About a 100 pounds so if I have to cancel and reorder it will still be worth it as I can go for the x2 200GB instead.

 

Veggie, how much do you think that'll delay your order by?

 

Dell aren't even offering the X9000 in the UK atm

 

Regarding shutting off the lid lights ; I know about the Quickset etc. to change the lights of the touchpad and speakers, however I have not seen a button in there to shut the lid lights off, hence why I wanted to check for it in the BIOS. I will try looking in the BIOS tonight. Has anyone else out there tried shutting down the lid lights ?

 

What's the great voucher???
How much???

 

I just see now that Dell US isnt even offering the X7900 its all X9000 now.

Does anyone on the off chance know how much faster that one runs over the 9300, I know I saw some benchmarks somewhere were an OC'd X7900 was running just barely better than a T9300.

 

http://www.intel.com/performance/mobile/extreme/

It's with the T9500 (which is a minimal 100mhz over the T9300)

 

2100euro (1600GBP) all in, including shipping and taxes, for the M1730 with 2x8800M and T9300. All other specs pretty much standard (2gb ram, 320gb HDD). I don't know how it compares to other markets, but anyway, it's a good deal for me right now.

 

Thanks for that link Flam3h I never even thought of going to intels own site hehe.

 

Ordered the M1730 with a T7700 3 days ago and now I see the same xps with a T9300 for £100 less...
I don't know what to do , is it worth canceling my order? is there a huge difference between the T7700 and T9300???

 

I'd cancel and re-order. The T9300 is faster with more cache plus you'll have £100 in your pocket and just be 3 more days behind - makes sense to me

 

+100mhz + 5% improvement over the last gen mobile CPU.I would cancel and reorder tbh

Either keep the extra 100 or put it towards bigger HDD/Better CPU

 

3 Days lost for less money and a better processor is def. worth it imo

 

are yall saying that the HDD's dont come in raid set up alreay? Im getting 2x200gb raid performance which should be raid 0 but will i have to set this up myself?

thanks for that info i just called yesterday and they gave me and unoffical release date of may 15. only a little off and i was about to order my laptop without it. I know its not a performance increase but i want the heat and power usage decrease

welcome back then lol
when i order i get an option on the tv tuner screen for a remote but this is only when im signed into my members account through my college. otherwise i dont have the option for a remote.

I use opera web browser but sometimes I have to use IE because active X and a few other applications dont work with Opera do you know naything i can do to fix this. Its on XP and Vista this happens

welcome Darkwolf yea you must have been reading all week. I have trouble cathin up when i get on in the morning.
And ifti has become somewhat famous. I also watched it his vids before i seen him on here.

 

I have exactly the same issue. But this happens very rearly for me. And most of those website I trust, so I don't mind using IE once in a while.

 

I think what vasvas was asking was what's the actual code for the discount or the web link to where it can be found.

Could you post either - preferably the later, as it would be very handy for myself.


72oo

 

Yea if its a site i dont trust i wouldnt be playing a game on it or whatever it is im doing. I play games through ijji.com sometimes and you have to me on IE for that and also when i want to run in game videos or chats like igoogle.
So the protection issue isnt a problem its just anoying sometimes to have a second browser up.

 

Either I have a sensitive eye for detail or the panel rescaling has upped the ante since the XPS 2, which also has a 1920x1200 screen.
Sure I can play on 1440x900 (and bellow), but it's not native and I can really see the difference.
When my girl used to turn the desktop resolution (bad eyes) on 1440x900, I decided to go for lower DPI instead since it looks so crappy and fuzzy.
If I have to game on a lower resolution 1920x1200, sure... but when a game runs fine on 1920x1200 I wouldn't think about lowering it for a second.
Even if it means the game runs on an average of 30 FPS, which is the acceptable mininum for me.

On my 2,4 Ghz Core 2 Duo PC with the 8800M GTX, it's perfectly playable with the ULTRA HIGH mod under DX9 (recently installed XP on it again).
This on a resolution of 1280x1024, 16x anisotropic and 2x FSAA.
I am very sure I can make it playable at an average of 30 FPS on the M1730 on it's native res AND good details.
My desktop struggles to pass the 10K barrier in 3DMark (I know, it's a synthetic benchy, but still) and the M1730's 8800 armada has a 10K score as worst outcome (of what I read here).