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

^^^
Thats pretty strange. I put 167.45 on and my 3DMark06 score went from 8348 to 8896!

Im gonna be reinstalling my system with RAID 0 later, so I'll stick the driver back on and try again

 

I have a Samsung screen and have a little light leakage at the bottom, nothing that really bothers me though TBH.

 

thanks for the quick update, my leakage seems quite visible, more than I have seen with any other laptop. Only at the bottom though, but it is visible in an area the size of the taskbar x3 so to speak.
Any way I can find out what panel I've got?
EDIT: the screen sometimes seem a bit blurry as well, especially in the NVIDIA control panel screen.
Have updated to the latest Dell 8700 GT drivers from the Scandinavian Dell site

 

are you using high res (1900x1280) or something lower? Lower res will tend to be blurry.

Unless you have the LG screen, you'll probably see some light leakage...

 

hehe. What HDD did you buy? Did you get the 2 200gig with the system an upgrade to something better?

As for my comp, the 167.45 rivers worked perfectly in both Arma and Supreme commander. Lot of work getting SLI running well

Got a question. Everyone is fairly confident we'll be able to get an upgrade to the 8800 later down the track, what about a processor? When i bought my PC it was an extra 1grand for the extreme processor which I chose not to buy.

I am under the impression that upgrading the CPU would be doable and easy. Like the Penryns are ment to have better thermal managment so that wouldn't be an issue. Only thing that you would need is a bios update. What are peoples impressions on this? Think it could happen?

 

^^^
I got it with one 200GB 7200rpm drive, since I didnt know which drives Dell used. Turned out it was a Hitachi - which are louder and run a little warmer.

I always use Seagate Momentus drives since they run a lot quieter and cooler - so I purchased 2 of them. I'll sell the 200GB Hitachi in a few days. I also have 2GB 667MHz RAM to sell (single stick), so I may sell them together or somet.

Luckily I went for the Extreme processor. But the one thing I liked about this laptop is that almost everything is upgradable - unlike most other laptops. Im pretty sure you can upgrade the processor without changing the entire mainboard - whether you can upgrade to the Penryn I dont know!

 

Crysis Patch 1.1:
Significant imrprovement on my system playing SLI.
Maybe maximum fps is about the same, but the average is higher.
Seems to be more stable.

Driver 169.04, which is not optimized for Crysis as far as I know. Thinking about 169.25 but not sure (if someone is using it - what do you say? stable enough?). Dell 167.45 gave me an hard time with SLI (SLI wasn't kicking in with any game...) time ago, Otherwise I'd consider it.

 

Someone Please Help me haha...

I have had my XPS M1730 for 3 days now..
Stats:
2.4ghz
4 gb Dual Channel 667 Ram
Vista 32 bit Home Premium
2x160gb 7200 rpm Sata HD
17"WXGA
2x256mb Geforce 8700's

As some of you would also have..
My problem is SLI doesn't seem to increase performance whatsover, and it some cases it actually reduced my frame rate..

With or Without SLI in UT3 with Res at 1440x900 and AA and all other effects off I can manage 30-60 fps usually sitting between 35 and 45...

In WoW after changing the colours to 16bit, 1 multisample I was able to get around 120 fps SLI disabled (1900x1200) and that only increased by maybe 10 fps with SLI Disabled, Yet now and then SLI Actually slows it down...

I have driver version 167.45

When I check the System Info on my Cards the only noticable difference is IRQ on Card 1 is 0 and IRQ on card 2 is 16 (in SLI mode)

Even after requesting Hotfixes from Microsoft I still seem to have no performance increase using SLI Mode... can anyone help? Or is this Normal?

Update: I just installed UT3 Benchmark Tool.. Results

SLI Enabled: Average FPS (1920x1200) 51.8
SLI Disabled: Average FPS (1920x1200) 52.8
SLI Disabled: Average FPS with Details set to 5 (Highest) 29.49
SLI Enabled: Average FPS with Details set to 5 29.78 (Over longer period of time)

WTF? I thought SLI Mode was meant to make it faster?

 

Thank you, I've enabled SLI now from the control panel. Do I only have to do it once w/the dual video cards? There are a lot of 3D settings, hopefully as I'm reading the remaining pages I'll find some pointers on settings to enable.

As for on my lap, after I logged off and went upstairs I looked at my thigh and realized it was pretty red and a bit sore/scratchy. So probably would not recommend it for long term use on your lap (especially for men). That's the only part now making me question if I should've looked at a 15" and decked that out instead.

Thanks! I'm very excited about this club . I had the option to get Vista ultimate, but I have no idea if that was the 32bit or 64bit version. I think I'm just a bit miffed that they didn't give you a warning message about it liked they did when I tried to add a sound option that is only supported on Vista.

I changed the drop down to Hardware ID and I don't see any LG or anything else in there (see screenshot)... all 3 show the same. Ooops strike that out, when I went to take the screenshot it looks like now I have a fourth item in there that says Plug and Play monitor. (Must have appeared from when I rebooted to make SLI effective.) In Hardware ID now it says LPL0032. I'll have to scroll back a few pages to see which one this is. Can I delete the other 3 Default Monitors now?

My husband wanted me to stay w/XP as neither of us have heard good things about Vista. Is it working out for you? I have no idea what the free fall sensor does, time to hit up google I imagine. Are you swaping out Seagates for Hitachi already? I really wasn't sure about which HD to get, I just stuck w/it as I figured more storage would be the easiest thing to get when I fill this up.

Thanks, that makes sense!

----

Is the power supply plug in to the laptop a bit loose to everyone else? I feel like it pulls out a lot and my screen goes dim on lower power mode when I'm moving it around from desk to lap or just around my lap.

Thanks all for the replies and suggestions!
Amy

 

(Update on my Last post)

This was UT3 Benchmark Tool results with 167.46 driver
(average FPS)
SLI Enabled: (1920x1200) Details on 1 - 51.8
SLI Disabled: (1920x1200) Details on 1 - 52.8
SLI Disabled: (1920x1200) Details on 5 - 29.49
SLI Enabled: (1920x1200) Details son - 5 29.78 (Over longer period of time)

and with 169.25 Driver
SLI Disabled (1920x1200) Details (1) Average FPS 42.04: 2nd Test 44.83
SLI Enabled (1920x1200) Details (1) Average FPS 24.25: 2nd Test 22.96
SLI Disabled (1920x1200) Details (5) Average FPS 25.41
SLI Enabled (1920x1200) Details (5) Average FPS 16.63

SLI Mode is dropping my performance considerably. Someone please help.. or I'll have to send this piece of crap back

 

Amy, you have an LG display, which a lot of people like and consider the best out of the three Dell sells with M1730. I would not delete anything from Device Manager even if the purpose of it is unclear.

 

did you choose the performance 3d settings? SLI can be used to increase performance or quality inversely, so you want to experiment to find the right balance for what you intend to achieve.

I'd suggest "single display performance", "alternate frame rendering", "mipmaps - bilinear", "antialiasing transparency - multisampling", etc... then there is "texture filtering - performance"

see if any of that helps. If you look at the descriptions for each option at the bottom of the panel, you can make an informed decision.

 

The 1.1 patch made a good improvement in performance on my system so i thought i would try it along side the 169.28 driver like it sugguests and it made a hugh difference i would very much recommend upgrading drivers, havent tried the 169.25 but the 169.28 is very stable for me havent had any problem aside from the freeze up in the nvidia control panel when enabling sli which i also had with 169.09, 169.28 didnt change my 3dmark06 score but had a hugh inpact on crysis.

 

how do i figure out what monitor i have?

btw i like the 169.25 whql drivers as they enable me to play games smoothly and run blu ray.

Lavalys Everest Ultimate 4.20 is great if you want to monitor core temps and stuff like that. They have a special setting where u can enable the LCD screen on the laptop. I Put my core 1/2 and gpu 1/2 along with the cpu volts, MHz, and gpu clock speeds so i can monitor the **** while playing games. I can post the setting file if anyone wants it.

Anyone know how to manually turn on the fans in the laptop when i think my gpus get too hot?

 

Yeah I already changed all Those.. HERE are All my settings for UT3

SLI MODE SETTINGS

Anisotropic Filtering - Off
Antialiasing - Gamme correction - Off
Antialiasing Mode - Off
Antialiasing Tansparency (Multisampling)
Conformant texture clamp - Use Hardware
Error Reporting - OFf
Mipmaps - Bilinear
Multi-display/mixued-GPU Acceleration - Single Display performance mode
SLI Performance mode - Force alternate frame rendering 1
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample - Off
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias - Allow
Texture Filtering - Quality - High Performance
Texture Filtering - Trilinear optimization - On
Threaded optimization - Auto
Triple Buffering - Off
Vertical Sync - Off

Results in SLI Mode
(1920x1200) Details on 1 Average FPS 8.32
I can't figure out why it's even slower tonight compared to this morning
(1920x1200) Details 1 with Dx10, Sound and Window mode Disabled: Average FPS 10.2
(1920x1200) Details 1 with Dx10 on, Sound on and Window mode Off. Average with SLI mode 10 fps, SLI disabled 54 dps average....

 

Vista is working out fine for me. Ive been using it on my previous laptop and its always been stable etc. Ive only just installed Ultimate on my M1730 with SLI enabled last night, so havent had a chance to fully test it yet, but seems fine so far..... Im not a massive gamer, just the odd game now and then, so I dont really need to go back to XP for anything

Im sawpping out my Hitachi for Seagates (well I just have done!). The free fall sensor in a Seagate drive basically mean sthat the drive knows when its in a falling state. ie. if you drop the laptop the drive knows its falling, so it will park the disc head straight away so that it doesnt damage the disc surface itself.

Seagates are also quieter and cooler then Hitachi's - my main reason for swapping.

 

I reinstalled my system last night with my 2 new HDDs. I went for a RAID 0 setup.

Installation went through fine. It was pretty late, so all Ive managed to do so far is to install my system drivers etc and enable SLI.

Ive not had any crashes yet, but I did have to restart the system when I enabled SLI - not something I had to do before, even though Im using the same driver as before (167.45). Anyways, that didnt bother me too much.

After restarting, the Device Manager only showed 1 GPU, and the Nvidia CP showed no SLI! Went into BIOS, which only showed 256MB video RAM instead of 512MB!! I thought a GPU had gone, but after a couple of restarts it picked up the second GPU again, and I enabled SLI again and all was well.

Installed the rest of my drivers, and things seemed OK. Not installed any programs or done a 3DMark06 test, but I'll do all that tonight.

However, one thing I did notice.......

Initially I was running Windows Vista Business, which gave me a windows rating of 5.0

Now Ive enabled RAID and installed Vista Ultimate and I only get 4.1?

CPU - 5.6
RAM 5.0
Graphics performance for Aero - 4.1
Graphics performance for 3D apps and games - 5.5
HDD Performance - 5.9

The question is, why is the performance for Vista Aero at 4.1, when the graphics performance for games is at 5.5?? All other results seem fine, its just the Vista Aeror performane one. I never got that before RAID. I dont know whether its because Ive set up RAID, or whether its Vista Ultimate edition?

Im gonna try a 3DMark06 test tonight, and if I still get around 8800 like I did before, and everything is stable, then I guess I'll be happy and ignore the 4.1 rating, since Aero is working fine etc......If not, Im gonna disable RAID and try a re-installation again.....

 

you might want to try Split Frame Rendering instead of Alternate Frame Rendering. None of these settings are universally applicable. Since you're getting poor results, give split frame a shot? And if that doesn't improve things, try single GPU, which, incidentally, doesn't mean the use of only 1 card...

Also, try installing another driver... 169.04,169.09,169.25,169.28. I personally use 169.25

 

With SLI Mode Disabled, I gradually Enabled ALL Settings and it ranged from 54 to 50 fps, running quite smoothly, but with all settings enabled without vsync it will stay at 53 - 54....

But with SLI it runs at 10 fps

Update: I just tested SLI With Split Frame Rendering and Same settings as above and I got AVERAGE FPS of 5.1

5.1 It's Getting slower?????

 

^^
Im gonna disbale SLI and see if I get a better Vista rating.

Security Steve - are you using Vista? If so what are your ratings?
Look slike you defo got somet wrong with your SLI setup....

 

I feel the pain Steve. Took me a day or 2 getting my Sli working properly again. Are you uninstalling the video drivers properly, using driver cleaner etc?

I formatted about 5 times in the 2 days trying different drivers for chipsets etc. What ended up working best for me was.

* Install Vistsa
* Update Windows
* Download and install Vista SP1 RC (first time I've used it since i don't like using betas, its worth using btw)
* Download and install all drivers from dell for the XPS, installing chipset first, direct x, sound, physx, etc.
* Rebooted and installed the 167.45 Dell performance.

I just tested the game straight away without sli, ran fine then enabled it. I didn't touch any Sli settings right away, just gave it a chance at default and it ran fine.

 

Mate, Ill try it, I have gone back to 156 drivers and SLI disabled is 54 fps average, SLI on is 10 fps average...

What driver cleaner?
Vista Came preinstalled should I format and start over?

 

I uninstalled the Drivers completely, one card said Standard VGA Adapter, and the other one went to unknown device, when I installed the dell drivers on ONE of them it installed on both cards...

 

oh and my vista Ratings Are:
Processor 5.3
Memory 4.8
Graphics for Aero 5.9
Gaming Graphics 5.6
Primary hard disk 5.2

 

A little off topic but Alienware have launched the m-15x recently with the 8800M GTX GPU, hopefully this will bring the M1730 closer to having the 8800M's, given Dell's ownership of Alienware.

Fingers crossed anyway !

 

Is that with SLI enabled?

I dont understand why my graphics for Areo are so low at 4.1.
Do you think it should get me a higher score if I disable SLI?

 

Yep I would format if you havn't since getting the PC from dell.

Get Driver Cleaner Pro from here.

Driver Cleaner Pro Download

Read the help file in that to see how uninstall drivers properly, works really well. If you format you won't need to use it right away though.

I reccomend installing windows how I mentioned above.

* After install run windows update.
* Download and install Vista SP1 (i think its worth it) from here : Vista SP1 - its the 548meg file at bottom. (This takes about an hour to install).
* Install all the Dell system software, chipset first, directx, etc.
* Install Dell performance driver 167.45

Yeh i just repeated what i said sorry Worth a go.

Edit: Just saw your Vista ratings steve. Same as mine except I get a 5.9 HDD score.

 

^^^
Did you run the Vista rating with SLI enabled or disabled?
Also are you using RAID?

 

Ran with SLI enabled and I am using RAID.

 

^^^
exactly what I did, but my graphics performance for Aero wont go above 4.1

 

Ok, even though my Vista rating for graphics performance on Aero is not what I expected, I still get around 8890 in 3DMark06 with no overclocking etc. So Im happy.

However, Im deciding on whether to bother sticking with RAID 0 or not.

How much of a performance hit does it give you, since it certainly not hugely noticable over a standard 7200rpm disk.....

Im wondering whether to keep RAID or not. My agruement against it is that it doesnt seem to be a massive performance boost, and by keeping both discs seperate you have the flexibiliy to upgrade the second disk to a larger one later on, since the second disc is where I would put my multimedia files - photos, video, etc.....

What do you think?

Also, would I see any performance boosts if I overclock my CPU to 3.0GHz? Is it worth it? I personally dont think it would be.....also if you overclock the CPU does the fan stay on all the time?

 

Alright Thanks for the Help guys, I didn't reformat or Get that driver cleaner as I was busy working on the Problem before coming back online, I managed to Uninstall the drivers completely and Install the 169.25 drivers and it APPEARS to me that SLI is giving me some extra leg room now..

I did many tests with UT3 Benchmark.. Here are results:
UT3 Benchmarking
(Vista Home Premium 32 Bit, 4gb RAM/3.25 available, 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo, Sata 7200 rpm HD x 2)
Dual NVida 8700M GT 256mb (512mb)

Driver version 169.25
Graphics Card Core Clock 675
Core Clock Shader Domain 1350
Memory Clock 799.20

UT3 benchmark Settings: DX10 YES WINDOWED NO SOUND YES
" " settings: Sotfware 12/60
Level: CTF-Coret_fly

*NON SLI // SLI FIRST, RATINGS ARE IN NVIDIA PERFORMANCE MODE*

(1920x1200) Texture Detail 1 & Level Detail 1 - AVG FPS = 54.47 // 72.67
QUALITY - AVG FPS = 3.75 // 4.05 (Looks like Quality Mode is out the window)
BALANCED - AVG FPS = 26.53 // 46.82

(1920x1200) Testure Detail 2 & Level Detail 2 - AVG FPS = 41.67 // 68.74
QUALITY - AVG FPS = N/A //
BALANCED - AVG FPS = 21.38 // 42.17

(1920x1200) Texture Detail 3 & Level Detail 3 - AVG FPS = 32.58 // 62.07
QUALITY - AVG FPS = N/A //
BALANCED - AVG FPS = 18.98 // 38.60

(1920x1200) Texture Detail 4 & Level Detail 4 - AVG FPS = 32.05 // 60.47
QUALITY - AVG FPS = N/A //
BALANCED - AVG FPS = N/A // 32.47

(1920x1200) Texture Detail 5 & Level Detail 5 - AVG FPS = 30.45 // 56.28
QUALITY - AVG FPS = N/A //
BALANCED - AVG FPS = 16.41 // 30.61


(1920x1200) Texture Detail 5 & Level Detail 1 - AVG FPS = 53.25 // 70.38
QUALITY - AVG FPS = N/A //
BALANCED - AVG FPS = 24.78 // 41.94


(1920x1200) Texture Detail 1 & Level Detail 5 - AVG FPS = 30.93 // 57.29
QUALITY - AVG FPS = N/A //
BALANCED - AVG FPS = 18.62 // 37.94


------------------------------------------------(CHANGE OF RESOLUTION)----------------------------------------------------

(1680x1050) Texture Detail 1 & Level Detail 1 - AVG FPS = 68.87 // 84.62


(1680x1050) Texture Detail 5 & Level Detail 1 - AVG FPS = 67.54 // 77.36


(1680x1050) Texture Detail 1 & Level Detail 5 - AVG FPS = 40.02 // 69.87 (For Some reason the Benchmark Utility stopped at 47 seconds instead of 60)

(1680x1050) Texture Detail 5 & Level Detail 5 - AVG FPS = 40.01 // 69.62 BALANCED SLI



-----------------------------------------------(CHANGE OF RESOLUTION)------------------------------------------------------


(1024x768) Texture Detail 1 & Level Detail 1 - AVG FPS = 118.35 // 111.93 (Glitching half way through on SLI mode for approx .5 sec)
QUALITY - AVG FPS = // 81.54
BALANCED - AVG FPS = // 89.52

(1024x768) Texture Detail 5 & Level Detail 1 - AVG FPS = 114.33 // 105.06

(1024x768) Texture Detail 1 & Level Detail 5 - AVG FPS = 74.16 // 84.49

(1024x768) Texture Detail 5 & Level Detail 5 - AVG FPS = 73.84 // 84.82
QUALITY - AVG FPS = // 75.32
BALANCED - AVG FPS = 26.53 // 78.97

For a Laugh
(640x480) Texture Detail 1 & Level Detail 1 - AVG FPS = 142.14 // 126.81


It appears that at low resolutions SLI makes it a little slower but at higher resolutions it helps a bit, and at middle resolutions ADDING Details doesn't effect it nearly as much as it does in NON SLI Mode..

What do you think of these Results? TO be expected or below average?

 

And With regards to my Windows Experience Score I just tested it again with SLI mode and nothing changed

 

my Aero assessment also bottomed out to 4.1 after SP1 RC... dunno if that's the cause tho...

 

Its not SP1 RC - I dont even have SP1 RC and got 4.1! lol
Im gonna go reinstall now without RAID, since I dont see much of a performance increase with RAID, and it gives me the flexibility of upgrading the second disc to somet bigger in the future, when bigger 7200rpm drives are avalable.......

 

Thanks for this info.

It does make sense that there would be diminishing returns at lower res and that at higher res you get somewhere in the vicinity of double FPS... at least that's how the theory goes.

There must be some overhead for SLI relating to lower FPS at lower res too, which might explain why NON-SLI wins in that case.

 

But are these Results I am getting Excpectable or is this not cutting it for these laptops? If it's not cutting it then Something might be wrong with it..

Or am I expecting too much from the laptop?

 

I think you might be expecting a bit to much Steve, those are pretty good results for these cards.

Remeber, ut3 is a brand new game and has a bunch of eye candy to deal with even at lower settings.

The 8700M GT is quite a mediocre card tbh. The 7950M GT still beats it by a margin. Yea itll run most games moderately well, but its also a mobile version which is less powerful than the desktop versions and you're only using 256m which I think is pretty low for all these newer games at high res.

Finally SLI sometimes does NOTHING whatsoever to increase performance. Apparently the game has to be able to take advantage of SLI for you to benefit, its not as simple as every game will get a boost from having it enabled. As you have found out, in some instances it actually can decrease performance.

Personally I am waiting to buy a 8800M GTX. That really has a nice spec and a full 512 to take advantage of. If you have seen the video online of the ROCK laptop with a 8800M GTX running crysis next to an identical laptop with a 8700M GT in it the difference it quite staggering.

I will happy swap out both 8700Ms for a single 8800M when the time comes! And Ill do it myself if I have to

ten

 

Yeah I am leaning towards the Upgrade to 8800 when it comes out, Because I like Power hahahaha

Anyway Ill look at that video sometime
Also I Have UT3 Running quite nice, very easy to play so I can even add some detail or higher res.. Im happy now after 3 nights straight of trying to figure out what my SLI prob was...

Here are some final tweaks I was playing with
TRIAL AND ERROR TESTING SLI MODE
(1680x1050)
Details 1
Performance mode
Base score 80.92

Condition
No Sound = 83.73
NO DX10 = 83.10
No Sound and NO DX10 = 86.95

Condition
(Sound and DX10 ON)
Split Frame Rendering = 83.93 / 82.85
Alt Frame Rendering 1 = 85.56 / 81.84
Alt Frame Rendering 2 = 81.01 / 85.31
Alt Frame Rendering 1 and Single Display Performance Mode = 81.88 / 82.27
Alt Frame Rendering 1 and compatibility performance mode = 82.17 / 84.79
AA Gamma Correction off = 81.99 / 81.95
Anisotripic x 16 = 86.36

(SINGLE GPU, MULTIPLE DISPLAY PERFORMANCE)
Anisotripic x 16 and Gamma correction off and AA Mode Enhanced and AA 8xQ = 80.95
AND Texture Filtering Trilinear Buffering OFF and Triple Buggering ON and Vertical sync = 59.08 (Vertical Sync Reduces FPS Greatly.. Max out at 62)
All of above MINUS Vertical Sync = 80.77
PLUS Texture Filtering Quality HIGH Performance = 85.42
PLUS Threaded Optimization = 84.65
ANISOTROPIC OFF, AA OFF = 80.55

ANISOTROPIC ON 8x, AA OFF = 84.91
THEN Force Mipmaps Bilinear = 86.05


(Nvidia States normal GPU Settings is 625/800)

OVERCLOCK to 674/853 = 88.43
Hopefully this info may come in handy to others...

Cheers
Steve

 

You can clock them to 750 without problem for a few more fps boost Mine have been running at that fine since I got it.

 

I'll be upgrading to the 8800 sli when its released for the M1730 like a shot!

 

what temps do yours run at when gaming at that overclock and does anyone know what temps are safe to run these at?

 

yeah, that's some great work Steve. Cheers.

 

I have a new problem!

Ive reinstalled without RAID - so 2 seperate discs. The first has the OS etc and a few other partitions. I have also created a partition on the second disc.

Both discs are seen in BIOs. Both discs work. However, every time I reboot my system, device manager fails to see the second HDD. I then have to manually go into Device Manager and rescan for changes, after which it picks up my second HDD and everything is fine from there!!

Any ideas?

 

Hi,

Using Ntune they idle around 45-48 and under load (UT3 maxed out) they dont go over 55 overclocked to this. Apparently safe temps for the 8xxx range is 90 (and possibly higher.)

ten

 

Have you installed the Intel chipset drivers and matrix manager software? This fixed a similar problem I had when I first used mine in a non-raid situation.

ten

 

Had the same prob when i tried going back from RAID. Windows set-up could only see the one disk, so i just re-enabled RAID and left as is.

Thanks to whoever recommended Everest too. I dloaded it after hearing u could use the LCD display. Love how you design it yourself too.

 

Hey
Hmmmm Everest and rivia tuner say mine are idling at 68-70 and fans arn't kicking in to 74 , how come yours are so low compared too mine, should i be worried? what driver are you using? is there a way to choose when my fans kick in?
thanks for the help

 

my temps are high - my UT3 FPS is roughly 60 maxed out WITH SLI ENABLED and my vista Aero score is 5.9 - gaming 5.6....

Raid 0 is very fast on a laptop - it helps it not feel like a laptop as the HD is usually always the limiting factor - hence why they are pushing solid state drives in laptops more. I wouldn't dream of going to a single drive setup and I am a paranoid freak with data loss - so I have an external HD that I do a full vista backup too every night. Problem solved.

A single 7200RPM drive with 16MB cache probably wouldn't be terrible, but looking at the smaller form factor, the mobile power draw, etc etc doesn't make it equal to a 7200RPM desktop model HD... even those aren't really FAST now-a-days.

Gosh I love how weird we all are... no wonder we bought this notebook

Also - this laptop really doesn't come with any crap on it except google desktop and toolbar.... the rest of the stuff is either uesful and takes little memory or required. I personally enjoy the quickset feature which seems to be the most memory intensive app with the exception of the logitech LCD (MAN THAT THING IS A HOG!!)... if it weren't so cool - I'd ditch it

Remember, that one person having a prob doesn't mean everyone should assume they have the same problem...

 

Ok guys you've convinced me - RAID setup, here I come [again]!!