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

Hi all,
I'm in the UK. Got mine delivered yesterday. Took 3 weeks for order.

Thought I'd post a comment for all those waiting around:

First impressions were "its big!" I mean, I wont be carrying it around on the train to work or sitting in cafe.
Looks very stylish. All shiny and black. Screen quality and size is brillliant.
I couldnt afford to go for the full monty, so I just got:
CORE 2 DUO T7700 2.40GHz
with 2gb ram.
250gb drive.

I loaded up GRAW 2 last night and play for abit. Then upped the resolution to the top one, which it seemed to handle fine. (oh yeh, Id previous had to enabled SLI). Although the texture problem is true, i need to google about changing the xml file to increase texture quality. But still, very enjoyable.

Initial startup takes a few minutes, I guess Vista doing all its preparation, etc.

LCD Panel: I think might be abit of a novelty. Its cool playing around with for abit, but then after awhile I completely forgot about it.

Power pack that I got is massive, the size of a brick. and the weight of a brick too. cable from power pack to laptop is quite thick aswell. I thought the lights might dim the first time I switched on.

MediaDirect is cool. The laptop can be switched off, you press it and it'll load up. gives you a graphical interface to select music, video, pictures etc.

You also get the default Dell junk software installed. Some of it ok, some of I'll probably never use. you know, like Support, etc.

A trial version of Norton Security was already installed also. I hate that so much. Had so much trouble in the past trying to uninstall it.

Lighting is very cool, the default was Red (btw I got the smokey gray base). So I changed them to light bluey colour. You can make them flash and stuff.
keyboard looks very cool lit up.

Partitioning is wierd.
Its currently setup like this:
partition 0 - 10gb Healthy - (EISA Config)
partition 1 - 10gb Drive D - called Recovery (NTFS)
partition 2 - 220gb Drive C - called OS (NTFS)
partition 3 - 2.50gb - nothing

I assume the partition 0 is the MediaDirect stuff.
Drive D seem to has copies of program files, windows folders. 6gb already used out of 10gb.

Which brings me to a question. I want to setup the following, and wondered if anyone knew if it were possible:

I want to reformat, create a partition of say 100gb for Vista home.
create a second partition of 100gb for data.
create a 3rd partition of 50gb to be used for imaging.

I read before that you can use software to image your drive, and store the images on the separate partition. Then at bootup, by pressing some key, you can easily select to restore an image.

Two products Ive been looking at are Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image.
Has anyone got these and know whether this can be achieved?
Or recommend?

One other thing for anyone thats got it already. I didnt have to activate Vista. Is this an OEM license? Does that mean I can reformat and reinstall Vista as many times as I like?

 

hey i have a small Q for anyone, i only got it with a standard 160 GB HD, i only want to play games and have a desktop for pictures and movies, will this be enough space? thanx in advance.

 

hmmm......
I was presuming that newly released game will be large capacity so i selected the 200GB HDD.
More than 40GB(?) were taken away already when i received mine.
The Crysis needs like 12GB? and if your thinking of playing demo and if youre a hardcore gamer, you shud definately get more HDD spaces.
Maybe you should consider of gettin a external HDD


I also have question for everyone.
Im having trouble with inserting the memory sitck duo pro.
The insert jack is too deep and once i put in the memory stick, it is ver very hard to pullin it back with your fingers.
Does any know how to face against this trouble?

 

whats an external HDD and is it big and expensive? at one time i dont think i would have more than 5 games installed as i will uninstall when done with ones i dont play multiplyer on.

 

Been playing Doom3 for the last half an hour. (yes I know it's over two years old now) On the highest resolution and AAx2 I'm getting a solid 60fps (it won't let you get higher unless you enable it in the console).

I also setup my Outlook to recieve emails from Gmail. And I setup Yahoo Messenger with the inbuilt webcam no worries.

Oblivion seems to be the only game now that freezes when you exit. That's enough for me today, I'm off to bed.

 

Wildog, it all depends on what you're going to be doing with it.
Think about it. Say a basic install of Vista and some other small apps comes to around 10gb maybe.

GRAW2 is a 5gb install. To be fair this is quite a big install, but not unreasonable in todays gaming industry. Assuming most games are around that mark, you'd be able to install almost 30 games.

And like you say, you'd probably only have a few games installed at a time anway.

Pictures, depends how many you've got. I dont know, maybe 4 or 500 pictures are going to be around 2gb.

Video, again depends what you've got. If you're importing video from a DV video camera, an hours uncompressed footage in avi format is around 13gb.
A compressed movie, maybe around 4gb.

These are all assumptions, and not meant to be accurate. But from this, I'm sure you can work out how long a 160gb HD is going to last you.
Quite awhile I'd imagine.

And of course, backing up stuff is always vital. and can also free up space.

 

Really?? That sucks! Hope a similar driver will be out for the 8700m GT, because it really will help it a lot.!

 

Nice!!

I received mine also, one question. Which bag did you purchase? cuz I can't seem to find a 17" laptop bag that'll fit that monster.

 

Mr. Bubbles: Take a look at this. A guy made the 167.26 work for a single 8700m GT: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=171671&page=17

Should be able to work. Which OS are you running?

 

I bought a Targus Backpack for 17" screens. Simply because I liked the design, so hope it will fit

 

I never got a bag, wasnt really bothered as I dont plan to be constantly mobile with it. apart from around the house!

 

Yeah I got the Swiss Army 17" Silver-Blue and Black backpack hopefully mine will fit in there too!

 

Oh man!! NOT ME! I just check mu ESD, and it's been bumped till the 15th Nov. I ordered on the 8th oct. I called support sooo many times to make sure that it would make it for the 30th oct ast it should, and they all said: "Yeah sure, no problem, you're only missing a few parts, should go into production very soon", and now this?? I called support again right after, and all she could do was to confirm it And the weird thing is that she said that I wasn't missing any parts on her screen. So if we're not waiting for any parts, GET ON WITH THE PRODUCTION!

 

Man that SUCKS... I'd be pretty mad... it seems like they always run out of parts. If they knew their new product would be so popular then why didn't they order more parts in the first place?

 

Thats what low self-esteem can do to a company I guess. I'm riding on that it's all a fluke, and that any day it WILL go into production. But if not I guess I'll do what all good men do with too much time on their hands. I'll invade a country Just kiddin', no offence!

 

Hello anyone listenin to my post about the Memory Stick?
Ill say it agen
I dont know quite how to put ini the memorystick pro into the slot
once i put it in, it is extremely difficult to get it out with my fingers.
is there a tip to gettin the memory stick out of the slot once its in?
or do i have to buy an adpater?

 

I order mine on the 2nd Oct, est. del date was original 19th Oct.
It sat on Preproduction until 17th oct, then received email saying it wasnt going to be ready until Nov.
Then suddenly on 19th oct, it was produced, packaged and dispatched, all in a day.

I was still reluctant to believe it would turn up yesterday, but then it did!
result!

I feel for all those who are still waiting though. Its torture isnt it.

 

yes think you need an addapter to make it into the size of the old sony memory stick the new memory stick pro duo will slot inside it and that shud sort your problem out

 

Yeah I really hope that will happen!

 

my you all have been busy just had to read from page 56 lol a read that someone in the uk has recived ther laptop what screen do you have pleas tell me its the lg!!!!!! im stll in pre production and have been from the 5th im nearly sure its the blu-ray drive that is holding things up so can someone do a vid so i can share in your joy im getting fed up of waiting!!!!!!!!

 

Uhm, not sure actually.
Order just says:
17.0" UltraSharp¿ Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife

tbh, I am very impressed with the screen though. I'm not an expert, but first impressions were "wow"

Dont have it with me right now, will check tonight.
I dont remember any sticker saying which screen it was.
However I do remember seeing in device manager, it said Generic Monitor?!
So how do I confirm?

 

Well I have the 167.62 drivers. I get 35 FPS on 1920x1200 with everything turned up. i dont really like the game though.

2.4Ghz
200GB HDD 7200rpm
8700 GT SLi

How do I find out what screen I have?

 

You mean 167.26, right? Good that it works on the m1730!!
I rememer many pages back someone writing about how to see what screen you have. Think it was something like: Right click on desktop -> Device Manager. Should be there somewhere.

Oh, and do you have AA turned on? Anyway thats pretty damn good results on 1920x1200 res!!

 

oh ya 167.26. AA is turned on. 2x if I remember correctly. At 1680x1050 I get 55 fps.

This game isnt as action packed as COD:4. Its almost like a simulator whereas COD:4 is an arcade kinda thing

I just get generic pnp monitor???

 

Wow thats amazing! Can't wait to give it a go. Yeah I agree with you on that. I'm really looking forward to playing COD4!

Hmm don't know about the screen. Guess you'll have to wait until somebody writes how to do it.

 

But if you try and right click on "my computer" --> press on the hardware leaflet --> device manager and under moniters it should say.. Sorry if you've already tried that.

 

From an earlier post;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by puremind
Linkin_Parker-San

What panel do you have on your XPS M1730 (you can check the reference in the device manager if you click on the pug & play device?

So far the following models have been reported in the US and French forums as M1730 panels:
SEC5443 (light bleeding on 2-3 centimeters, irregular lighting)
LPL0032 (minor light bleeding)
SHP13D9 (so far no feedback on quality)

Which model do you have and how do you rate its quality?

Aligato gosaimas
Laurent

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

There's also that Dell utility I noticed last night, give you lots of hardware info, etc, including Service Tag which doesnt appear to be stuck on the base of mine.
I'll check that tonight for the monitor make.

 

can someone tell me a few must have game titles that i shud get for the 1730 i have a ps3 and this laptop when i evenualy get it! will be used for gaming i mostly play fps and love online gameplay

 

I just figured it out. I have the SHP13D9. I dont know who makes it, but it looks good to me. No bleeding in complete darkness with black background so far as I can tell . Brightness makes using the m1730 under flourescent lights good. Cant see the reflection if theres something on, obviously if the screen is blank youll still see a reflection.
if I dont put vertical sync on the image tears, if I put it on though, it doesnt reduce my fps unlike in my previous desktop with a 8800gtx.
Quality, is great. I think. But then again this is my first gaming notebook, so my frame of reference may not be all that accurate.

 

Ok cool. Thats a Sharp screen. The first I've heard of. But really good that you like the quality. At the earlier stages of this thread, people were afraid of getting that, but maybe it isn't bad at all Where are you from tgchiriga?

 

Are the new drivers the stock version or those with the modded INF from laptopvideo2go ? Also, do the support SLI ?

 

Im in New York

I got them from laptopvideo2go.com. The INF is modded, and yes it does support SLi.

 

glad to see someone has the sharp screen i remember someone saying they were good no as deep colours as the LG but everyone who got a sharp on the old 1710 did not complain or send it back!

 

hear it is

 

Cool. So this is how the new Sharp screen is like.

 

i want mine so bad, over a month in production, and still only 4 little vids on youtube........I WANT MY COMP >:{

 

Guys, can we start posting the links to any new drivers? I can't seem to find the 167.26 driver that works with the 1730 xps. Thanks.

 

Is it this one?
http://www.tcmagazine.com/forums/index.php?automodule=downloads&showfile=298

 

Yep thats the one.

 

Wohooo!!! My m1730 has gone into production!! YEHAA It still says it will be delivered 15th nov (for ppl who havn't read about it i was delayed ½ month) but theres no way I'm believing that!

 

im getting solid 30 fps at 1920x1200 in GRAW II. AF in game is set to trilinear everything else is set to high.

clock 725
mem 1005

drivers 167.26

Sli Alternate rendering 1

 

I live in the US - Maryland and I love the LG screen. I have not seen any bleeding. I need to install the new drivers and I overclocked it to 3.2 last night and now it seems blazing. Haven't finished moving some things from my old laptop to this one but it definitely is a noticable difference. My old laptop was a Sony Viao FRV27.

 

Have you considered trying to give the two 8700m GT an overclock? Would really like to see how high the m1730 can score in benchmarks when it's overclocked. Also the processor can be OC'ed to 3,4Ghz without temp increasing.

Thank you very much by the way!

 

Yeah I know it can go to 3.4 but I just did it to 3.2 to see how it would react. I have not OC'ed the cards yet but I will be in the future. I need to do more test though when I have some time to play with it more.

 

I completely understand I'll be doing the same, also patiently to make sure I don't scratch anything

 

... dangit... I wish mine would ship it's been in boxing for 2 days now so far lol!
Oh well... I'll live!

I'm so excited! I have so much to do with it!

So to my understanding, GRAW II comes with the M1730 standard, right?

 

i said this alot in the last 2 days but
I WANT MY M1730!
for the record this makes a month in production

 

That's ridiculous.. really!

 

seriously, if i dont get it by the 3rd ESD ive gotten....i dont wanna but i will cancel the damn thing