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

Once I get my laptop (it'll be running Vista Business), I'll do a stock 3DMark06 test.

I'll then uninstall the bloatware and crap, and do another 3DMark06 test to see if there is any difference.

I'll then upgrade the drivers to the Dell Performance drivers and do another 3DMark06 test.

Finally, I'll reinstall the entire system to Vista Ultimate, with the manually installed 169.25 drivers, and do a final test.

Should be interesting to see what ll the results are like. I'll keep you guys posted

 

Asking a bit of an unrelated question but do any of you notice a lot of background noise when using the included EP-630 headphones on the two headphone sockets? Also, it seems to be "synced" with the hard disk activity. Strangely, there is no perceivable noise when the headphones are plugged into the mic port and set as rear speakers.

 

Where do I go for the new nVidia drivers, can't find them on the site, and how should I spec out rivatuner? I don't want to blow my system so what are the major things that I should alter to make things run batter.

 

Nobody really did say if there was ANY performance gains to using Vista Ultimate over Vista Home? I can't really see that there should be.. but then again I'm very used the Ultimate.. Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

I dont think you will get any peformance gain. Its the same platform overall, Ultimate just has extra components etc that Home doesnt. Other then that the architecture is the same.

 

I´m about to order a XPS M1730, how´s the performance in Crysis with overclocked dual 8700GT´s? Also can Gears of War be run in 1920x1200 at around 30+ fps?

 

I hear Gears can run in max settings in 1920x1200 fine.
I dont think any spec is capable of running Crysis with settings maxed out, but at medium it should run nice and smooth

I cant be for certain, since mine doest arrive until tomorrow

 

ifiti no problems I run Crysis on my desktop rig, though my current XPS M170 runs Crysis with medium settings though only at around 20fps so this XPS M1730 will run it even better with tweaking of course like I have done for my go 7800GTX

Nevertheless I am really happy to have bought the M1730 even if it has dual 8700M GT´s instead of 8800m GTX, now the 8700GT´s are really good cards in my opinion It´s good to hear about Gears of War since that is my currently favourite game. I will play it through again at the hardest level this time the Insane setting. I can imagine how good this game looks at 1920x1200 display at maxed settings. My current laptop XPS M170 can run Gears in 1920x1200 with some options on medium and some on high and the game still looks good

 

Has anyone tried upgrading their BIOS from esupport.com? Their claim is that they scan your system and provide updated BIOS that is not OEM-branded, so that you can access all the custom/advanced features. It's not free, but it sounds like a neat idea...

 

What custom or advanced features could it include??

 

I was talking software wise. I have the Standard Blue Ray Burner here in my 1730. Just wondering what the general consensus is on DVD burning programs. Nero vs. Roxio; et al.

Cheers!

 

^^^
Theres another thread somewhere on the forum that talks about the differences.
My view - I used to use Roxio a lot, still do - but now that Windows takes care of most of the data/audio burning, I just use Roxio for the Disc copier and Label Creator.

EDIT: Heres that thread

 

The oem provided bios does not have an advanced settings view... things like adjusting dram timings, for instance

 

Thanks! Love the help! More comments guys?

 

Well my M1730 has finally arrived!! The box is heavier then I imagined!!! lol
Cant wait to get home!

 

Congrats ifti - don't work too hard on all those tests LOL !

 

The very first thing Im gonna do is open her up and see what HDD is inside, so that I can get my Seagates ordered!

 

Nice chap from Unisys came and swapped my Sharp panel for an LG one today. Much MUCH better. It is so much brighter I cant believe Dell are actually shipping the XPS with the Sharp panels at all. I mean the Sharp had no dead pixels, no back light problems and very nice colours but damn, even on full brightness and tweaks in the Nvidia control panel it was still dark.....then again, maybe I had a duff panel?!?.

Anyway, the LG is awesome, bright as hell, great colours and lovely to use with games......just thought I would let you all know Quite interesting to see the insides of the 1730 also, sli 8700s look pretty cool (and easy enough to swap out.)

ten

 

Great news Ten regarding your panel, how do you find out what panel you have BTW?, Lets hope the 8800's will be a straight swop and drop straight in.

 

Yes, hopefully!

To check the model go into device manager, monitors, propeties, device ID. Should be LPsomething for LG, SAsomething for Samsung and SHsomething for Sharp IIRC The full ids are back at the beginning of the thread if you want to know.

ten

 

How is the .28 driver working for you tenikis? Any problems installing it?

 

Earlier in this tread you can find information on three monitors:

SEC5443 - Samsung
LPL0032 - LG
SHP13D9 - Sharp

 

Now that Penryn is out, does anyone know if it's possible to upgrade from the current Santa Rosa chip?

 

SVA, no problems....Had to use the modified .inf but all running fine here with .28

 

So I keep reading about people having dim monitors. I checked mine and it says this:

DISPLAY\SHP13D9\7&14066721&0&UID280

So I am guessing this is a sharp? Are most people seeing the sharp as dim? I mean every time i turn on my computer I feel like I should be hitting the brightness up, but it is already maxed. Do people like the LG or Samsung as alternates... and how good is DELL about giving you a new monitor just because you feel it is not bright as it should be? I have my 170 since October, but always figured this is just how it is supposed to be. Now I am not so sure.

 

Are people swaping out the stock RAM that comes with the 1730M for more performance?

 

zw: I was wondering that myself and after some reading on the net most people seem to think it will require a board change and not just a bios update. I have yet to hear that confirmed though by anyone actually in the know. Saying that though the performance gain penryn based chips are getting over the current range isn't that great to warrant the upgrade imho. The Nehelam stuff out later in the year sounds MUCH more interesting.

wb: Yes, you have the Sharp and if its like mine was then get it swapped out. Its not a bad panel but you don't want to be disappointed every time you boot up a £2500 laptop because of the brightness.

Dell have always been stella with me for hardware problems. Call the XPS tech line and explain the problem, they will have someone out next business day to replace the screen, hopefully with the LG All I said was it will on full brightness in the bios, I was running off AC and also tweaked the OS gfx settings to to try and compensate but it was still dark. That was pretty much it.

I have a 3007-HC also from Dell. The first one had some back light issues and the second had a power button problem. Both times I called Dell tech and they had a new one out to me the very next day, no quibbles, no sending back for repairs. Awesome service, not many companies offer it at this level.

banton: I did swap my 4gb 667 for some crucial 800 stuff in the hope the ram would run at the higher speed. Unfortunately it does not. Maybe a bios update can make it so or hopefully someone adds the pll to clockgen so I can use it to clock this baby higher than 3.4

ten

 

Hi all

Finally received my XPS and had a quick play with it. Not done too muc with it since Im waiting for my dual Seagata Momentus drives to arrive so I can re-install the system with Vista Ultimate.

What I can say is.....wow! The system looks stunning. Awesome looking laptop. Big and heavy though, but that was expected.

Looks like I have BIOs version A03, and the Samsung screen. The screen brightness seems OK to me for now, I do have it at full though. Nevertheless it looks spot on.

Ordered my drives, so just waiting fo rthem, and then I'll rebuild the laptop over the weekend and start using it properly

 

Quick question, was just looking at the BIOs - when I insert dual HDDs, where do I set up RAID 0??

 

I think you need to install the Intel Storage Matrix Manager

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101

 

Should be after the BIOS Post.

 

I have 2 160gig HDDS in mine, should I set them up for RAID? Is there a noticable performance increase? My machine is primarily used for gaming.

I know little about RAID and setting it up. Can someone please go through setting it up step by step? I'm aware I'll have to format etc.

Next question. I have the Audigy HD cd but it doesn't seem to install. I put it in and it does the self extracting and then launches the Creative Sound Blaster Advanced MB setup. This is about to install but is stopped by this message 'Audio Drivers not found, please install your Audio Drivers before running this setup program'.

Now I've installed all the drivers that came on the Dell drivers cd, as well as going to the Dell website and installing the audio drivers from there. But I still cant run this SB HD setup. What am i doing wrong?

One last thing I'm looking at my Dell Media direct cd. Is this worth installing at all? What does it do thats worth it? I've also not installed any dell utilities as I don't want bloatware. Are there any dell utilities that people find worth having?

Thanks for reading.

 

With 2 HDDs of the same size etc, and especially when used for gaming, I would suggest you set up RAID 0. With RAID 0 data is read and written across both discs at the same time.

Think of it this way. You have a 100MB file. When reading or writing the file to the HDD in RAID 0, the PC will write 50MB to disc 1, and 50MB to disc 2 - without you even noticing, hence things should be much faster since both discs are working simultaneously.

The downside being, if one disc fails, you lose all data. But if you have regular backups this shouldnt matter anyways.

RAID 1 is slightly different. Its more for fault tolerance, rather then performance, since it just copies all the data from one disc to the other, which leads to a drop in performance since the PC has to write the same data twice etc.

I've also been wondering about Dell Media Direct and whether to install it when I re-install my system. Im gonna test it out tonight to see what it is. From my understanding, it allows you to watch movies, view your photos/videos, play music etc - in other words all the multimedia stuff, without having to boot into windows. It loads its own software program which runs off of DOS, so it should be quicker to boot etc and use less system resource.....

 

I thought I had to put the RAID controller drivers onto a flash drive???
I assumed the process was....

1. Change a RAID setting in BIOs to enable RAID.
2. Install OS, and press F6 to install RAID driver.
3. Install OS as normal.

But I cant find the setting in the BIOs for RAID 0 etc?

 

Here, it says to select the Advanced option in the BIOS...

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-021701.htm

Too bad the DELL bios doesn't have an advanced option. The Dell version of the phoenix bios hides the advanced options. Not sure what to do... will keep an eye out.

 

For those who are interested.....

(video guides for the M1730...)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206068

 

Ah k, Ill give it a go. Is there anything else I should know? Im about to go into bios and set it to RAID then format the comp. Will this force RAID 0?

 

^^^
Thats what I trying to figure out as well!!
May be best to give Dell support a ring.......could you let me know how you get on as I'll be doing it as well soon! Just waiting for my HDD's to arrive.....

 

There is a RAID option in the BIOs that I saw, it just switches RAID on I think, but then how do you get into the Matrix Storage Manager to configure the RAID level, before you actually install the OS?

 

When you enable raid on (middle option) it adds a new post screen where you can configure the drives.

ten

 

^^^
Ok cool, I'll try that out

 

according to the intel link article,

"When the Intel Matrix Storage Manager option ROM status screen appears during POST, press the Ctrl and i keys at the same time to enter the Intel Matrix Storage Manager option ROM user interface."

 

^^^
Excellent, Ii'll give it a go when my drives arrive
Thanks guys, much appreciated

 

I set about connecting my M1730 to my 1080p TV today, I have a DVI to HDMI Cable, so the video is all sorted, now for the audio.

How can I hook up 5.1 channel audio to my Amp from the Laptop, I read it supports 5.1 audio out, but can't work out how to do this.

Reading through the manual, I'm guessing I'd need 3x 3.5mm to Phono cables, perhaps someone could confirm this ?

I must say, I'm really supprised that a digital audio out was not available, but I'm interested if anyone else has sucessfully hooked there laptop up to a 5.1 channel amp, and what cables you used.

 

How can I tell if I have the Ageia PhysX Processor installed? I cant see it in Device Manager?!

 

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

 

You Should see it as AGEIA PhysX adapters in Device Mangler. I have seen a couple of people who received their units without the card installed. You can try installing the drivers from their site. If it does not work call Dell XPS Support and they will verify and send out a tech.

 

Look at page 80 and 81 of your manual. S/PDIF

 

I think I have just installed RAID now. Enabled in the console, then did CTRL-I and set it to RAID 0 (for some reason i thought RAID 0 would half the size of the disk space ). I set up Windows Vista on it, 2 partions a C and D and now I have everything running.

I think I've done it right? I see on the Dell drivers cd that there is a RAID software file and it explains that u should do Load Driver on the vista install and install the RAID there. What's the point of doing that when u have the ctrl-1 way?

 

RAID 0 splits files across disks for high performance and does not halve your physical storage, whereas RAID 1 is redundant and thus does halve your storage... but seeing how you wrote that comment, you probably already knew this