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

Got rid of Works and installed Office07.

 

My system is due to arrive tomorrow.

DELL support offered me 3% of the total value of the laptop as a refund for the issue with the Sound "Software". Which seems more than fair, since they didnt actually say they wanted me to send it them back either...... (so thats like +£70 if you count the software that i didnt want).

On the 8800 thing i get the feeling that DELLs staff really dont know when the 8800's are due (or if) so the only thing ive been offered is to cancle my order and re-order when they arrive.

I don't really want to sit around waiting till the 19th of November, to find the 8800 "slips" to a later date, or it turns up, but only to see DELL not have them equipped on the M1730's ~ OR them being sold with the M1730 as an extra (over the 8700s) but the stock being so limited that shipping dates are late december or even january.

Yeah so im going to keep it, and hopefully sort out that 8800M business when it comes to it. I was hoping that the M1730 would be able to push enough frames to enjoy Crisis in all its glory, though i never intended to run the games at native resolution... a bit too extreme and ive never understood the need to go to such high resolutions, after all isnt that what AA is supposed to be for.

I have a quick question to people with the M1730.... does it come with restore CD's? In case of critital OS failure. It's not shoved on a hidden partition is it? Do you also get the original VISTA CD so you can install without the bloatware (should i wish too)?

 

My XPS specialist now tells me the 8800 won't appear on the M1730 until 5 or 6 months (Q2 2008) because they need to do a lot of testing. This seems to confirm the news obtained by someone else in this forum that they have issues with the card. It may be Vista or it may be their proprietary MXM.

Clevo and potentially Alienware are believed to be the first to integrate the 8800M chip this month, but if this is the case I find it hard to believe Dell won't be on the starting list. Nvidia need Dell for their Christmas business. Maybe they haven't started largescale production yet and are happy with a low volume start?

The SSD Raid0 has just appeared in the US, so I will have a good reason to return my notebook (next to a probable Samsung panel...) and reorder anyway, allowing me to get the 8800 chip assuming a start in January at the latest.

If it comes out later than January, I am not sure I will ethically be able to keep returning my system indefinitely until the chip finally ships...

 

Has anyone got the bone white version and if so would you mind posting pictures/videos? I couldn't find any besides the very artificial ones on youtube.

 

It is a common scenario with hardware and software. I was bitten a couple of months ago being one of the first to get Tiger Woods 08 and it's a decision I regret (it's TW04 with a small lick of new paint!). Fortunately my decision to be one of the first to get a XPS M1730 in Aus wasn't a bad experience. The only issues have been Vista related and very minor.

Hardware wise, I don't think it's going to matter about the dual 8700's for the next 12 months. That is probably when an upgrade will be worthwhile (hardware costs and updated drivers ).

Give it time, even my vista bugs are disappearing on their own...

 

That's because they are sending out all their stock as replacements for people who already got theirs and have complaints

 

I finally received mine yesterday! I LOVE IT!

Everything is working perfect!

Just a tip for those who want to install XP and/or Vista (with dual boot) like me, you have to turn RAID off and remove your hard drives from the RAID array if you want to be able to install XP at all... because SATA/RAID drivers can only be loaded from a floppy unless there's a way to specify in the BIOS to make a USB thumb drive act as a floppy (drive A). So, I simply turned my RAID array off giving me 2 separate 200GB hard drives, and installed XP Pro after that successfully.

I am now installing Vista Ultimate on the other hard drive to get that setup for DX10 gaming and general Vista usage. I mostly want XP on here so I can play DX9 games better and because there are things about XP like better...

About bag talk ... I have the Swiss Army Pegasus as discussed probably in the 70s or 80s of pages. My M1730 fits just fine in there. Seems a tag tight, but not to the point where it doesn't fit. It's perfect!

Also, plenty of room for other stuff, however, I couldn't find a decent place to put my power brick because I have all my other books and stuff for school in there too, so it's hard to find some good room for other stuff. I do realize that taking this to school everyday might be a pain, but it's nothing I can't get used to really.

I enjoy bringing my laptop to school and messing around with it when I have freetime or when I need it to type something up. Everyone's reaction in a typical highschool is (WOW nice computer dang! That's cool! How much did that cost you?!?!)

So yeah, it's fun!

I played Portal on it today at 1920x1200 everything high 8xCSAA, 16xAF running around 30-40FPS. I decided to lower the resolution to 1440x900 with the same settings and it jumped back to 40-50FPS, sometimes 70. It varies. Haven't tried SLI because I haven't had a lot of time to play around with my new baby ... darn school.

I'm having a blast! I'll try to get some pictures taken when I feel like it and have time (yeah right, I never have time for anything sometimes).

 

price dropped to 2699 in us many more options

 

WHAT???? I want a price adjustment. They added the 2.2Ghz, but even if I put the 2.4 I got and all else the same, Its still 180 bucks cheaper. Also now you can choose which color you want with the base model. Im sending mine back. I want the price adjustment, and I want a white one.

This is the second time with this sh**. First I got punked by Apple with the iphone at 650, then three weeks later, 399. Now with this m1730. Im not buying new release products anymore!!!

 

try for a price adjustemnt I did and got cash back .the are 120 7200hd drive instead off 200 7200 hard drive . no intergrated soundbaster, no remote control and no free advanced warfighter 2

 

What brand hard drives did u guys that ordered 7200rpm drives get?
I got a Hitachi 7k200

 

Rob,I don't live in the US but mine came with all the reinstall cd's,mediadirect,drivers,etc.I use XP.
I ordered mine with 2 x 160gb 7200 hardrives and formatted it to RAID 0 config as soon as I got it,was a very painless experience,but then I did have the dell training manual for it which made it a piece of cake to change.

I bought this as well for the option to upgrade to next top end graphics,but the dual 8700's are not that disappointing,performance wise for me at the moment playing bioshock and stalker,I guess that will change when I try Crysis

 

FYI...i am in South Africa and have 2 order via a dealer in USA.He let me know on Monday that my XPS M1730 was ready for shipping to S.A.I asked about the 8800M graphics and what he would recommend.He then let me know that he already has several such systems on pre-order and recommended i wait until 12 Nov.

So, he refunded me immediately and now i am waiting..this is not the first time he has helped with graphics upgrade advice.Hope this helps

 

FYI...i am in South Africa and have 2 order via a dealer in USA.He let me know on Monday that my XPS M1730 was ready for shipping to S.A.I asked about the 8800M graphics and what he would recommend.He then let me know that he already has several such systems on pre-order and recommended i wait until 12 Nov.

So, he refunded me immediately and now i am waiting..this is not the first time he has helped with graphics upgrade advice.Hope this helps

 

Another reason I've been waiting, it seems like they structure the configurator in order to get money out of people.

Awhile ago in US, the only way to choose a color besides blue was to get the "Better" or "Best" configuration, which forced you to either buy an included Blu-ray or an included Extreme processor, respectively.

And now it seems to have mostly opened up, since I can configure a "Good" version identical to a "Better" identical to a "Best." One thing to do is configure your laptop on all 3 versions: right now for example, my ideal configuration is $10 cheaper if I pick "Better" instead of "Best."

I'm still hoping they'll eventually make the PhysX card optional. I wonder if they had a deal with Ageia to sell a certain number of cards?

 

The Physx card is optional in Australia, but I don't know of any where else.

 

I ordered mine before the price was dropped as well. I called customer care and they told me that my laptop at the time was built using higher quality parts compared to the 1730's that are produced now.

/shrug

 

Yeah that was me, I was also told again again yesterday by two different account managers at Dell that the 8800 is some months away (and not weeks as speculation might suggest) - and also that despite NVIDIA (potentially) releasing it on 19th November - Dell have yet to successfully implement and test it in the M1730...

I'm just going to carry on with my order now, and deal with the 8800 issue when it comes along, i cant be arsed with worrying about it, and I need the machine for my work - so as long as it doesn't show up with a Samsung panel, then i've got just under 3 weeks to go

glad you like yours docmars, what panel did it come with mate? Oh and feel free to post pics

Also really interested to see what panel yours comes with RobHague...

 

Of course they are...

 

The Samsung panel is not bad, the light leakage is only noticable if you have a totally black screen, the rest of the screen is excellent. Anyway, it is up to you if you don't like it but people are making it out to be really bad when many of us think it is fine.
I'm happy with mine but i'm going to get it replaced because it has dead pixels, even though we apparently only get Samsung panels in Australia I have heard nothing but good things about the LG panel so I will se what I can do to get me one

Either way you wont be dissappointed with the machine, apart from maybe the poor performance in some of the games that are coded crappy, ie. anything on the Source engine runs great but any other games don't run as well as they should.

 

Thanks for the info wogstaa - im particularly interested in VALVe games for some of the work I do, so it's nice to hear the source engine works well.

I just got off the phone with XPS Support in the UK, and had a chat with one of the engineers about the LG panel.

The internal LG specific panel part number here in the UK for anyone thats interested is YU282 - although it is not specified as an "orderable" part, and at the moment the engineers here in the UK only have stock of the Samsung screen for replacement.

They also are not getting many calls for the M1730, so he doesnt expect that stock level to fall much - the end result being all UK replacements in the immediate future will be Samsung panels.

I said I would forward him the link to the "light bleed" posts in this thread and he'll take a look.

wogstaa - can you post some decent res pictures of the light bleed you're talking about - combined with leebaldocks' pictures they might take some action regarding the panel....it's worth a pop i spose.

 

I will upload my photos and videos tomorrow when my bandwidth is reset to high speed.
What is a good program to read the temperature of the CPU and GPU, I tried speedfan and it doesnt report GPU temps and says my CPU is 25 degrees celsius and the fans are going full speed and the weather is really hot at the moment so I think the temps arent accurate for the CPU.

Thanks

 

Unfortunately, I don't know what I got ... and I was interested to know too! I was quick to format my hard drives and install XP and Vista on each 200GB HDD... so I'll see if I can find out for you! I will hopefully get a few good pictures and post them when I get some time here... I'm off work tonight and have nothing to do so I'll probably end up posting some tonight!

(Sapphire Blue back panel lighting included!)

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the Samsung panel... mine is glorious!

 

Hi everyone!
This is my first post from the m1730 which I got last night! I am pleased to say that at the moment I am very pleased about the system, even though I havn't tried any games or have done any benchmarks (YET)! I will unfortunately have to have it replaced, since there is a blotch of dead pixels a the top which I just don't think is right, so I'm gonna get it replaced. I'll do some benchmarks for you as soon as I can, have been at work. A few questions:

How do you see which panel you've got? Mine has slight light leakage, but nothing I couldn't live with.

Which bloatware have you guys uninstalled? I can't really find very much :S

Any hints from ppl who own it (and ppl who don't) would be great!
Will be in touch very soon!

 

Good to see a few more UK posters have been getting their M1730's, I have started to calm down a bit from my initial freak out at the weekend and just want the shiny, shiny thing to turn up, oh well just over 2 weeks longer to wait!

Looking forward to seeing some hands on reports from the UK owners, specially looking for COH and Bioshock in DX10.

 

I shall get onto this as soon as I'm back home... Unfortunately had to come to work in Holland without it as I didn't have a bag

I've not got Bioshock on the PC though, so I can provide CoH feedback. Also just so you know, PES 2008 runs at 1900 x 1200 on high like a dream

That's all I had tried before I came back over here

 

Can anybody help me?

 

You go to the device manager and click on the plug and play device to see the details of your panel. There you should be able to read the model name
SECxxxx= Samsung
SHP319D=Sharp
LPL0032=LG

 

Hmm it doesnt say anything. There isn't a plug n play slider

 

it is not a slider, it is just a device from the huge list of devices...

 

Well I've just got home to check my mail to see any updates on my order and.....
5. Dispatched Wednesday, October 31, 2007

this is then followed by:

Estimated Delivery Date (on or before this date): 10/12/2007
Status of delivery: Your order is currently with the carrier and a detailed status on your delivery should be available shortly.
Packing Slip (Electronic Copy)


Your order has been dispatched as of 31/10/2007


Erm...wtf, it's been built and is being shipped and that's going to take two months?!?!?!

Original date was set for the 2nd of Nov, 10th of Dec is taking the ****ing ****. Considering what stage it is at now.

I don't know what to do, is it going to arrive on time or is it going to arrive on the 10th? I'm this far from cancelling my order. <->

 

You shouldn't cancel. It will be there soon. Mine did the exact same thing.

 

But m1730 owners: Any bloatware I should get rid of? Anything hogging computer power?

Oh, and where do you control the lights? Can't seem to find that either :S Sorry for the hassle!

 

would love to see some picks as iv only seen bad samsung screens cheers!

 

sva998 - do the following:

. Click Start -> Then Control Panel

. In Control Panel Click -> System

. In System on the left side under Tasks Click -> Device Manager

. In Device Manager expand the Monitors section by clicking the + icon

. Then Select/Highlight the Generic PnP Monitor Item

. Right click the Generic PnP Monitor Item and select Properties

. On the Properties screen that pops up Click -> Details Tab

. DROP DOWN the property Box that currently reads "Device Description"

. Select "Hardware Ids" From the list of items.

Then post here the text that comes up in the Value Box - for example - mine on my Inspiron 8500 reads:

MONITOR\SEC3155

 

i'll second that!

 

Thanks Blinder!! Great description!
MONITOR\SEC5443 <--- so guess I got the Samsung.

Anyway I promised some benchmarks. Just dl'ed 3dMark06, and even though I got a really good score (I think) something really weird struck me. In the CPU test I got just under 1 fps and in the analysis instead of X7900 Extreme it said Intel Core 2 Duo E6850. Why is it so slo in the CPU test? Here are some pictures. Can anybody explain. Wouldn't you guys agree that in spite of CPU prob, its a pretty good score when not OC'ed?

 

I can't comment on the bloatware as i did a fresh install when i got mine. As for the lights they can be found in the QuickSet application under the Gaming section.

 

You can remove all the bloatware you don't need. I usually only keep Quick Set because it helps with Text fonts in such a high resolution and also allows to control the LED lighting.

I don't think you need anything else. On a clean install I would usually install the drivers I need +Quickset and that's all (of course have my own set of favorite applications:
Gnumeric (=best cost-free Excel Replacement)
Windows LiveOneCare
Windows Live Mail Desktop
Windows Live Messenger
TuneUp Utilities
K-Lite Coded Pack
WinRAR
Video Lan

I also turn off the Vista UAC service in order to get rid of all the pops and ask for the security centre to never show messages in the task bar. Finally I change the authentifaction method in the registry to LMCompatibilityLevel 1 to allow the mapping of network drives (it is the only way in Vista Premium) and activate the real administrator account in the DOS command line (no need to do this if you have ultimate).

I unfreeze the task bar modules, show the "quick launch" tool bar, untick "show only active elements" and "group same program windows together".

 

This is perfectly normal, as the processor is not designed to show inensive 3D graphic, so on its own the low result is normal...

E6850 is the name for the Intel infrastructure of your processor.

 

Got mine ordered tonight and will have it by the time I get home from Iraq:


223-1650 1 Dell XPS M1730, Mobile Intel 2.4GHz, 4MB, 800 FSB Merom
310-9525 1 PERSONALIZATION SHIELD, LCD COLOR WING OPTION,GRAY
311-7446 1 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm for XPS M1730
320-5788 1 17 UltraSharp TrueLife Wide screen WUXGA for XPS M1730
320-5790 1 NVIDIA G84 in SLI, for XPS M17
310-9519 1 Multi-Media Cables for Inspiron Systems
341-5482 1 Serial ATA RAID 0 with Dual 200GB Hard Drives
420-6813 1 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English
420-7100 1 Media Direct 3.3
420-5769 1 Internet Search and Portal
420-5924 1 Icon Consolidation Application
420-6436 1 Vista, PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
463-2282 1 Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access
420-7401 1 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,XPS M1730
412-0946 1 Dell Travel ExpressCard Remote Control, IR
420-6995 1 DELL SUPPORT 3.4,DIM/INSP
420-7468 1 ADOBE ACROBAT READER 8.1 DIM/INSP
313-5591 1 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
420-6464 1 Roxio Creator Basic
313-5014 1 Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
430-2582 1 Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) Mini Card
320-5789 1 Logitech Gaming LCD
412-0959 1 Norton Internet Security 2007 15 Month
312-0603 1 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1730
412-0148 1 No Internet Service Provider Requested
412-1397 1 No Productivity Software requested
950-3339 1 3 Year Limited Warranty
960-7391 1 1 yr Automated PC Tune Up
420-7273 1 Dell Support and PC Tune-up 1YR
420-7095 1 DataSafe Online 20GB for Dim/Ins/XPS
420-7091 1 DataSafe Online Dim/Ins/XPS
960-3652 1 Warranty Support,2 Year Extended
960-8710 1 Warranty Support,Initial Year
986-5859 1 Thank you for choosing a Limited Warranty and Service Contract
987-7459 1 XPS,Datasafe 20GB,1YR,DHS
412-0359 1 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
988-0318 1 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Extended Year
983-2552 1 Type 15- Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Week ends, 24x7 Technical Support, 2 Year Extended
988-0317 1 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year
983-8460 1 Type 15- Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Week ends, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year
986-3557 1 LoJack Theft Recovery Service - 1 Year
430-2655 1 Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)
320-6171 1 AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator
310-9516 1 You have chosen a Vista Premium System
310-9348 1 Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
464-9572 1 No Preinstalled Software
988-0089 1 DataSafe included with DellCare Service bundle
310-5408 1 Free Recycling Kit
310-9521 1 Backpack Carrying Case

And you gotta love this, all that for $2827. Incredible...


sid

 

I don't know the new Samsung model but the previous one (SEC 3155) was not bad at all. It is just you really notice the light leakage when you watch movies in the dark because there are black bands at the bottom and at the top and the bottom band looks really grey...You completely lose the cinema feeling.You would notice this more with higher backlighting of course.

Also although the colors are sufficiently saturated at 40-50 brightness, as soon as you increase brightness they tend to wash out much faster than on the LG. This means the screen exhibits an incorrect gamma tracking.

Strengths against the LG were a warmer feeling overall, with less agressive whites (slightly yellowy, when you compared to an LG panel), which is nicer for reading (but arguably not so good for films).

The black levels of the samsung are also slightly better than the LG's.

 

good to know. I thought something was wrong. could a quad core 3.4GHz run at higher frames?

 

I will take some pictures upon returning home... as I've said before there is a very small (tiny) bit of light along the bottom but the image, colour, gamma etc. is superb!

Certainly nothing bad enough to send back!

 

This sounds like an LG. The main issue with the samsung was the light leaking, which was 1 inch thick (0,1 inch in the LG), and the gamma tracking, with bright colors not enough saturated (in particular light greys were difficult to see on a white background...)

 

Yes, but it the CPU is not making a lot of difference in the final 3DMark score...the GPUs are the key scorers.

 

Well, here i am, posting on the forum from my M1730 at last.

So far so good, im still testing out games performance since ive not had it that long. I tried the included game (GRAW2) but was a bit disapointed, it appears that i cannot change the Texture Detail from low to High (or even Medium) which makes it look quite poor graphics wise. I checked around on the net quickly and it appears to do this for 256MB cards.... so i guess its ignoring the SLI's combined memory.

I also noted that for some reason SLI is disabled by default in the drivers, so i had to turn that on.

Im just in the process of downloadng some demos (Bioshock & UT2k3). I intend to crank up the detail and see how well it fairs. I did get the "Bone White" version but i have no way to take pictures of it or i would (for the people that were asking).

 

The texture detail in GRAW2 is a non issue. Check the forums on how to manually change it. I can run mine at 1900 res at medium fine.

 

I am exchanging my system due to bad lcd panel, does anyone know if they exchange your 1730 with a new one? Or is it refurbished? I need to know, as if it is refurbished, I just want to get a refund, as I did not pay $3k for a refurbished laptop. Thanks in advance.