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

A thought on that i had earlier was that DELL might delay any 8800 upgrades until next year for that very reason, Christmas...

1. They are already "very busy" with orders on the 1730, so i dont think it would help their situation if people start contacting them about returning their laptops for new builds - because newer graphics cards appeared shortly after they shipped.

2. What about all that 8700 stock they have? Now (Christmas) is the perfect time to offload it. NVIDIA might not want to have to deal with returned 8700 stock either so may delay it shipping until after 2007?

I think 2 is a main consideration. DELL could offer the 8700 and 8800 as options though.

Hopefully i will get a decent reply (the the email i sent), im not cancling my order unless im sure. The Sound Card (or lack of) issue is something i want resolved, but i will keep my order even with the treat of the 8800. If, by the time the 28th arrives, there is no sign of the 8800 then fair enough. However if it turns up then i should be able to just ship the laptop back to them and get another updated. With the M1730 popularity (and status) i am hopeful that DELL will give people some sort of option should the 8800 turn up.

 

a point well made puremind again lol

 

all i know is iv been waiting that long that i dont care about the 8800 cards anymore i just want my 1730 ill upgrade when the new cards come out weter thats this year or next i just want to stop sitting in my bedroom with my crapy desktop have to play crysis on low settings

 

Well mine has just moved from pre-production to production, so I'm happy as it seems it will arrive on time.

 

Regarding 1- Luckily for Dell paranoid/demanding forum-reading early-purchasing customers are a minority. Returned systems will barely cause them a sweat. I think the issue is not with them being busy, it is them waiting for parts (mainly Bluray and SSD drives) to arrive.

- We have some precedent to judge from with the XPS M1710: 7900 GTX was out, it didn't prevent Dell from bringing out the 7950GTX before christmas.

- Microelectronics are a cyclical business. Miss Christmas time and you financials are really messed up. The impact is huge. I work with a lot of High Tech companies in my job as a consultant. Winning hardware companies never miss Christmas for key product inceptions. That's why Nokia and Samsung dominates Motorola in the mobile phone market even though Motorola brings as good if not better products to the market. Bad supply chain mangement. Motorola are the first to admit this being their main problem.

- It is not only Dell. Nvidia will also be pushing for the XPS M1730 to ship with their new chip before Christmas (Dell probably represents at least 80% of their revenue on those high end laptop chips). They wouldn't have chosen an introduction date in November if there were no business to be done during that period. If they chose November, it is because they are expecting business with Dell to happen in December at the latest.

That's why Dell always magically matches Nvidia's timing. The Nvidia folks are just glued to Dell for their chips to sell (when did Sony/Acer/Lenovo/HP integrate the 7900/7950 GTX in their laptops?).

Regarding 2
- The 8700 will still sell. Not everyone has a limitless budget, and there will be more than enough buyers of the 8700-based systems. When Dell offered the 7950 GTX on the XPS M1710, they kept selling the 7900 GTX at a lower price in parallel for some time.

- Dell are more than capable of adapting their purchasing to future product inceptions. Any decent company knows how to do that, let alone online retailing companies. I don't believe Dell "forgot" to integrate the new Nvidia in their supply chain strategy.

 

I hope your correct. i will be sure to post any info i get from my email (assuming its anything helpful). Hopefully i will get a response by tomorrow evening.

 

is it me or are things getting a bit heated:twitcy:

 

After having read a magazine review of the 1710 I can now put a name to the problem I experienced with the 1730 Samsung screen I had. It's called the "Curtain" effect. Bands of light and dark running horizontally or vertically on the screen. Combined with the light leakage. Dell are going to let me know when the LG screens are available for Australian customers.

 

No, it's just me overusing bullet points. I guess that comes from my consulting background.

 

Something I noticed with my 1730 over the past few days, it does run hot.

The air blowing out of the back is extremely hot and so is the desk below it, this only happens when playing games though. I have solved the build-up of heat by placing a small piece of balsa wood underneath the back end of the laptop (~1cm in height). This allows air to circulate around the back and underneath. This made a big difference. (don't know the temps sorry)

Does anyone know why they don't design adjustable feet to do this?

 

guys, where do you access the vid cards to upgrade them. It looks like the case is sealed where the cards are.

 

the cards are on the same board.... they just slide out.

 

lee, i have the samsung lcd screen however there is not a significant lcd light leaking as in your picture.

mine has no light leakage, and it could be my eyes, however if there was light leakage on mine, it only 1cm widge, and goes along the bottom of my screen. however i dont think it is light leakage.

only photos i can do right now at best is from my phone. 2 meg pixel to show you, is that ok?

 

Dell won't give u a replacement with an 8800 gpu. The card is upgradable by Dell and they will most likely have the option of 8700 SLi and 8800 Sli for new purchases and hopefully a decent price on an upgrade for us existing 1730 owners.

 

Mine's delivering tomorrow! So EXCITED!!!

 

will upgrade be a kit or can you send in laptop to havew dell do upgrade

 

Yeh absolutely OK.

 

I want a real gaming rig. Im selling mine.

 

Ok - the guy I spoke to at Dell who talked about specific problems with the 8800 and the M1730 CPU is called Raj Ashekar - his details are:

[email protected]

0870 907 5128 ext 71444

Im going to lob him a mail today and see what info I can get.

 

I dont know about the feet MrBubbles, but I've had my Inspiron 8500 for an awful long time now, this year i've been using it every day (working in Holland) doing MS dev on it all day long (.NET, SQL Server, and Virtual machine bits as well) - and it got really really hot underneath and the fan started going nuts, so I started looking at notebook coolers - I tried the Antec one but it was crap as you had to bend your wrists to get to it, then I bought this one:

http://www.quietpc.com/nl-en-eur/products/audio-and-laptop-products/zm-nc1000-notebook-cooler

And this is gonna sound like an ad but it's the best piece of kit i've bought all year - the underneath of the laptop never goes beyond luke warm now - the notebook fan comes on about once or twice a day, the cooler is both adjustable and really quiet, and you dont lose a USB port (Ive only got two so...) I'm sure it's prolonged the life of my poor old Inspiron by at least six months

 

Thats a nice cooler blinder. I'll have to investigate a possible solution there!

 

what are you selling your 1730 ??

 

You need to talk to Sales in order to get it, not customer service. Customer service can only send you a same-config replacements, whereas Sales can arrange replacements in another way:

• they make a new offer
• they liaise with customer service in order to arrange the pick up of previous system
• the new sale is financed out of the refund

As I mentioned in previous posts, this is what they did with me on 3 occasions:

• Bluray addition
• Overclockable 7600G addition
• Nvidia 7950 GTX addition

In my case I didn't have to pay for the extra components because Dell were trying to make me happy after I had so many bad panels, and also the prices were constantly decreasing on the Dell web page.

If you are willing to pay for the new components, then you can be sure that your Sales Representative will jump on the occasion and increase his/her year-end bonus through selling several times out of you.

 

Yea. Im gonna build a desktop. I have the parts on the way. I realized im one of those people that want to play games at 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 with all the settings inclu AA and AF turned to max. Unfortunately the m1730 cant give me that. The system im going to build can.

Have fun with your systems guys

 

will do mate enjoy your monster desktop lol

 

What are the specs of your desktop going to be? Dual 8800 ultras would perform the job nicely

 

well iv just got off the phone with one of alienwares reps and there is defiantly a new gaming laptop on the way in the next couple of months hmmmm this is making me think about my order I know there is always something new round the corner but I do like the way alieware do their thing and tend to build amazing gaming laptops I’m really unsure what to do now it’s all up in the air any input would be appreciated

 

Unfortunately i have the same problem as Lee. only got mine last week bit disappointed to say the least for the cash it cost.Will let you know what dell have to say. About a inch long band across the bottom of the screen very bad in crysis 2 and movies ect .Also not real happy that the ram scores so low in the vista rating.
Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz 5.3 4.8
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 3.18 GB 4.8
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT 5.9
Gaming graphics 1631 MB Total available graphics memory 5.5
Primary hard disk 89GB Free (136GB Total) 5.2
Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate

 

Havent really got anything to add except you've made me think twice about my order as well now!

Did the rep give you any details at all regarding spec?

 

The RAM score is processor sensitive:
- 4,8 is normal for 2,4Ghz.
- On the M1730 you can go up to a 5,2 score using an Xtreme processor overclocked at 3.4 Ghz.

 

Don't worry, as I mentioned in another post, there is no hardware that Alienware has access to and Dell doesn't.

Unless they come up with a system that uses 4 graphic cards with a revolunionary nitrogen cooling system, I don't see how they would top a 8800 based Dell. Even assuming they get slightly superior scores using the same high-end hardware, I think you should still chose Dell for they support and leniant replacement policy.

 

2560x1600? No LCD TV will give you that resolution and you need an LCD TV to get the kind of panel size required to enjoy 2560x1600. With a screen size of 46 inches or less you can forget about 2560x1600. Because of the seating distance you won't be able to see a difference.

To give you an idea, you theoretically need a seating distance of less than 2 meters in order to perceive the difference between 720p and 1080p on a 46 inch screen. In order to perceive the difference between 1080p and 1600p you would need to sit no further than 1,3 meters away from your screen, again on 46 inches. But have you tried seating 1,3 meters away from a 46 inches screen? The kind of resolution you want to play at required a 52 inches screen to be perceived under normal viewing conditions.

Unfortunately, that size doesn't exist at the moment for LCDs (panels or TVs alike). What size will your panel be?

Having said that 1920x1080 is the only resolution that makes sense for me, as I need the frame rate improvement and 3D mode from my 46 inches 100hz Sony X3500 LCD (allows a minimum 100 frames per second on all games, even if the computer reaches less than that, so for me the frame rate drops are not a real issue, if ever they happen on even the more mature drivers)

A M1730 with dual 8800 will should be able to cope with 1920x1200 and maximum detail just fine anyway so I can't be bothered with a desktop system.

 

Dell is in it to make a profit my XPS700 shipped with a 590 chipset when a newer one was avaiable. Apparently Dell hadn't had time to fully test the 680 chipset and therefore we lost out. They have now booked me an engineer, brand new top of the line motherboard and fitting worth $280.

I'm not saying a video card upgrade path will be free but you never know. At least they've made the system in such a way that they WILL be supporting an upgrade path.

As for Crysis, runs fine for me at 1680 x 1050 medium settings. It does frame out in some places but this is more the game than the machine. (it defaults to medium on 8800GTX's!) PES 2008 is running at 1900 x 1200 on high and it's a dream to behold!

As for people waiting for the Alienware machine, why bother? - We all know technology moves at a rapid pace and you'll wait for that and then dell will do an SLi 8800 upgrade option or someone else will release another system and so on... it always happens!

Alienware couldn't make me a spec machine for the price I paid anyways, so I'm happy!

 

I totally agree. And Dell are cheap. The official price is not what you pay with Dell. The real (negotiated) prices are up to 20% lower (some XPS forums negotiate 20-22% discounts for grouped orders, and even as a private customer you can genereally get 10% or more), in some cases down to 30% lower if you count all the upgraded replacements.

Can you negotiate prices with Alienware, and what kind of discounts do you get?

On the paper Dell seems a bit more expensive, but in reality their cost structure gives them more freedom to offer massive discounts and the value they bring to their customers is second to none.

 

Well put!

Also...

I don't understand why some people are now saying they gonna make a desktop instead and sell their laptop etc.

Surely you've got an idea if you want a laptop or desktop before you order!?

They're very different setups!

Also, if you're not happy then why not just send it back for a refund instead of selling it at a lesser price... let's face it you're not really gonna make your money back... used XPS1730 or brand new one for the same?!

I'm not being funny with people here, I'm just making an observation.

 

You guys that travel a lot with your M1730s - what cases do you keep them in? - i'm not sure which case to get...any tips are welcome.

 

haha, that's a good question!!

I'm in Holland and my baby is back in the UK because I couldn't find a case in the 'high street' stores!

There was one Tech Air series 5 for 59.99 in PC World which was a really nice bag, I just wanted a less obvious colour

http://www.techair.co.uk/store/productdetails.asp?ProductId=106

Therefore I was left with no bag big enough and had to leave it at home

I think the Dell 1730 backpack seems a good option now for it's money!

 

I think only the 3D business people only carry them which are just a small pinch of people.... while all of the majority will be playin games at home without carrying them.....

i think Targus would be a good brand to carry them

 

Am i right that the 1730 backpack is the old 1710 one? when i ordered mine i was told that they had no pictures but he was sure it would look the same.

So far no update on if my hard drive is in. Has anyone in canada gone with the ssd option and recieved theirs? As if I am forced to cancel and reorder from Dell.ca i don't want to make the mistake of have to wait till after christmas.

 

I work in Holland during the week too and it'll be my work machine so no choice but to find a bag - theres a guy here with a Targus bag, his notebook is 17" as well - so I'm thinking about one of those I reckon - that or this techair one:
http://www.techair.co.uk/store/productdetails.asp?ProductId=128

Top loading makes life easier for airport security i've found.

 

I now have a Dell 1730 XPs backpack at delivery prep... should ship tonight fingers crossed!

 

I wrote up a long rant/review upon receiving my XPS M1730 last week but it gave me a BSOD before I could post so I'll keep this short. After waiting nearly a month to get my hands on the machine, they shipped me out a lemon. Makes me wonder why it sat in the testing process for 2 weeks??? Upon initial boot, I got a BSOD (Always a pleasant experience after spending nearly 5 grand). SLI does not enable, Screen blanks and my Ageia PhysX processor is missing? I figured this was just a freak of nature and somebody on the Dell test bench needs to get off the week night partying. I’m a patient and understanding guy. Dell has been really helpful so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I will re-evaluate the replacement I will be receiving tomorrow.

Here is my Windows Experience Index:

 

Yeah, that's the one thing I'm worried about... the don't call this thing The Beast for nothing... it's massive and thick!

Basicaaly a desktop machine in a laptop body

I can imagine security thinking "WTF!?"

I work from an office in Holland so I do have a work machine, will be using the XPS for work and play at the hotel / soon to be apartment!

 

I'm using the Targus Jade bag. It fits the 1730 perfectly and then some. Plenty of compartments and space to house the power brick, mouse, cables, extra battery, XPS CD binder and another 1" binder. Obviously, you’ll look like a hunch back after loading this bag up over your shoulder.

 

jesus klubjunkee thats harsh - I hope your replacement is top notch to make up for it - thanks for the bag info thats really useful - it's good to know that the brick fits as well - god knows its big enough. We have an apartment in Hurdy Gurdy land as well HardTimesUK, we can battle UT3 Dutch style

 

Indeed!

Hopefully will be moving into the apartment on Thursday and going home for the weekend to get The Beast!

Just waiting to hear whether the broadband is plumbed in otherwise it's gonna be a 6 week wait or something!!

 

It is the same one, or at least i got the same one when i ordered my 1730. While it is a tight fit there is still plenty of room in the other pockets for anything else you may need to carry around.

 

Well, I don't know what the old one looked like so I'll just let you know what this one looks like when I get it

 

This is the wrong thread so I wont keep posting about it, but get some of your facts straight dude.

1. 30" monitors have native resolutions of 2560x1600.
2. the desktop im building has 2 8800 ultras SLi

 

Here's mine...