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

I'd say its more likely the middle and upper management don't distribute the info about the 8800M's to the guys answering the calls.

Of course this is to presume that there actually is any info about the 8800M's worth talking about, which is doubtful.

EDIT: One reason why the info isn't passed on (to the guys answering phones) could be that the sales would hit the floor until the 8800M's release date if the customers knew it. -They'd all just wait for the 8800M's!

 

If they dont offer it they need to offer better drivers that let SLI both perform and remain stable!

 

How long did it take with the XPS gen1? And what was the upgrade procedure like?

 

Jeez, I can't even remember what year it was, but when I initially bought XPS gen1(paid 3k, no discount lol) w/ ATI radeon 9600(I think, not sure though), they did mention 9800 will be available in near future.

I can't even remember how long it took for Dell to roll it out though, but I do remember the upgrade was offered, and they would say "installation free" but had to pay about 4-500 bucks for 9800 radeon card. I passed though.

They upgrade would carry system's warranty back then also. I remember the tech I spoke to saying something about upgraded part becoming the part of the system, there for it would carry system warranty.

 

I read somewhere, maybe here that the release date is Feb 10 2008. Anyone else here this? This is for the 8800M?

 

Have you checked the Sager/Clevo forum, people who ordered the PC Microworks Blackhawk XR5 with 8800m SLI did only get one card, since the SLI bridge isn´t even manufactured yet for the 8800m´s. Maybe it is because of that it takes time for Dell to release the 8800m for their XPS m1730. Though they could still release a single 8800m but that would kill their SLI XPS M1730 with 8700m GT in peformance, this could be why. Just speculating

I´m recieving my M1730 this month, it can´t be that bad. Besides I´m used to hack and trix with drivers and computers overall. I think I will get this machine to run like it should. By the way I will use XP mostly, Vista still has issues with games I run dual boot on my desktop comp in sig and have problems with some games in Vista. Also peformance problems. So it has nothing to do with the 8700m GT specifically. Vista is still a new system and it takes time for it to catch up to XP performance

 

Found out I was running Crysis in DX10 mode. I'll try w/ DX9 when I get back home!

 

Ok Ive updated the driver to 167.51 now. Ive enabled SLI and games do run much better - well UT3 does anyway.
I still get the occasional crash though. For example, I know I cannot use Movie Maker until I disable SLI, as otherwise it will crash. Not sure why this happnes?!

 

Vista isn't new any longer. XP didn't have these amount of problems when it came out. MS just has a lot of work to do with Vista, and I think its about time we, as consumers, saw some results.

 

Same here, I was wondering if this causes our SLI issues.

 

Well, Im glad to report that Im a LITTLE bit happier with the laptop now.

Ive propped up the back of the laptop so it has easier ventilation, so the fans dont come on as often now. Strange how somet so little can make a difference.

More importantly, I download some demos. Ive enabled SLI, which still crashes every time I try to use Movie Maker, but i can always disable SLI when using that. Otherwise its been OK so far - at least it isnt crashing every time I enter sleep mode or shut down, like it was doing before.

And I have to say, with SLI enabled, Im impressed a little.

UT3 ran fine with a single GPU at about 30-40 FPS. With SLI enabled it now runs at max settings and max resolution at 60 FPS.

CNC3 Demo runs at over 60 FPS on max settings.

DIRT Demo runs with high settings using SLI. Didnt run well at all without SLI.

Call of Duty 4 runs at 60 FPS with SLI enabled. All settings maxed.

Bioshock runs at around 40 FPS, all settings maxed.

The only game Im not too happy with is Gears of War. It runs at 40 FPS, which is fine, with SLI enabled. Most settings are at Meduim. However every now and again it stutters for a while. Im not sure its because of the loading as you go through the game etc, and its still playable, but gets on my nerves.

At least all games run and dont crash etc.

So Im assuming that if I can run the demo, I should be able to run the full game the same, right?

As I said, a little happier with this 'beast' now, but would be even happier if SLI was a little more stable!......

 

The full games should run better since you can get patches to improve the performance with the game.

 

Excellent, now I feel as though Im taming the beast
Still want the 8800 though !

 

Can someone try running Movie Maker, import a couple of videos, stick them on the timeline, and play about with viewing them in the sample window within Move Maker?
I do this and when viewing the video back in Movie Maker, and jumpting between clips etc, its very jerky, not smooth like it should be. Then it crashes the whole laptop when I try to exit.

Otherwise Im no longer getting any more crashes etc

This is only when SLI is enabled, when SLI is disabled Movie Maker runs perfectly fine. Im beginning to think maybe its not optimised for SLI?

 

Yeah Ifti that ventilation thing is huge, it slows down the whole system if it gets hot.. I noticed a huge difference getting a laptop cooler. I also want the 8800 as my desktop running a slower processor and the 8800 single GTX out performs my laptop. My desktop also only has 2Gb Ram.. so those cards should really make a difference.. I hope they come out soon.. and I hope they don't **** us to hard on them.

 

Its quite worring reading some of the problems on here people are having with the 1730.

Ive had it almost a month now and I can happily say I have never had a program crash, BSOD or game fail to run decently (apart from Crysis which was always to be expected.)

As soon as I got it I took out the stock HDs, put in 2x200GB Segate Momentus, formatted them, enabled raid 0 and installed both Vista64 and 32 in a dual boot config. I then installed all the updates from windows update and all the absolute latest drivers I could find for every component and enabled SLI. I then overclocked the CPU from the bios and the vid cards using Rivatuner.

That is pretty much it tbh. I dont notice any difference in stability or performance using the machine with SLI enabled or disabled (I use the machine mainly for high end audio production and of course games), moviemaker runs fine without crashing (just spent 30 mins playing around in it with SLI on) and all my games run like a dream at pretty high settings.

It makes me wonder if something else is not going on here? User error? to much arsing around with different drivers/settings causing conflicts? / small hardware differences between machines? other? I just hope mine doesnt crap out in a similar way!

tom

 

Which laptop cooler are you using?
Ive just propped up the back of my laptop by about half an inch, makes the keyboard nicer to use as well

 

I also stuck in 2 Seagate momentus drives and set up RAID. Im not using any overclocking whatsoever.

The crash only ever happens in Movie Maker, otherwise SLi now seems pretty stable for me.

I assure you, its not user error. I am a Network Manager with a network of over 600 desktops, 200 laptops, and 13 servers at work. I know what Im doing with setting stuff up and optimizing for performance and stability.

Ive not really messed about with software that much. At the moment I only have basic software installed (Vista, Office 2007, Fireworks CS3, Flash CS3). The only drivers Ive used are the Dell ones, and am now on 167.51, since they are all WHQL certified - which I need in order to make full use of my Blu-Ray drive. Whenever I change a driver I enter safe mode and use Driver Cleaner to delete all entries in the registry that get left behind. So my driver updates have alsways been pretty clean also.......

 

Oh I am not singling you out ifti or trying to say you don't know what you are doing. I am just relaying my own experience and trying to figure out why others are having such issues...

tom

 

http://www.quietpc.com/ie-en-eur/products/audio-and-laptop-products/zalman-notebook-coolers

one i found - very nice looking one 17"

 

moved up to 171.16 (not WHQL tho)... so far so good. BTW, I've been disabling all the nvidia related startup items in msconfig and have not gotten freezeups since... anyone else try this?

 

I have 4 NVIDIA items, did you disable all but the driver one?

I list (NVIDIA) :
Driver helper service
Driver itself
Media Center Library
Hotkey Service

 

Gears of war stutters a lot for me as well, it seems to be the game that crashes my system more than any other games i have played as well.

 

i disabled them all

 

I put a cd case under mine so its raised at the back by about half an inch as well. Makes such a big difference to temps, over 10 degrees cooler.

They should put what they have on keyboard at the back of laptops. The little pull outable stands to raise the back, itll be cheap and effective.

 

Apologies, maybe I wrote my response slightly harshly, I didnt intend it to come across that way.

I thought they had to be running for the driver etc, I will try disabling them later when I get home and see if that makes any difference

That would really help, them little clip things you can pull out and raise the back end by half an inch or so. Consideringthis laptop is more like a desktop replacement, they should have included it!


I just purchased UT3, hopefully it will run as good as the demo, if not better.
Was going to get Call of Duty 4 as well, but Im gonna buy that online instead

 

Im keen to stay with 167.51 due to it being WHQL as well for my Blu-Ray drive.

Im going to disable the startup Nvidia items you mention above, but have you disabled any of the system services as well?? I may go through and change a few of the less required ones to manual instead of automatic, and see if that makes any difference......

 

Circuitcity has em for 40 bucks.

 

Im glad Im not the only one. Its runs pretty nice at places, it just seems to happen when its loading the next section I think....

 

Just thought I'd let you know, I switched to the 167.51 drivers, and managed a 3d Mark '06 of 10,014 using RivaTuner @ 750/1500/900

Best I've achieved previously was 9,892 using the 167.45's

All running well, no issues at all.

 

How does OC'ing work?

I mean does games run smooth or what?

 

Wow... what CPU did you get and how much RAM do you have.

 

also if u have links to convert it to play on PPC
thxs

 

Cant find the link in my favs no more - I'll track it down again in a bit though

OK I have a silly question here...
On my LCD display, when I have it on the clock, next to the clock face I have a pic of an envelope with 'x4' next to it. What does this mean??
I dont have any new emails etc (I use the POP3 manager) so Im not sure what the icon is trying to tell me?! Its been there for quite a while now, and Ive refreshed the POP3 manager which is correctly tellin gme no new emails...

 

Weird, mine is accurate in telling me how many emails i got in msn account. Maybe it just cant connect to your email now so its at the last email count it saw?

 

i disabled many services... I startup at a total of 40 processes.

 

M1730s are available at Dell outlet - See some good prices compared to new price there!

 

I have the Core 2 Extreme X7900, and 4gb of memory

 

How does Crysis run on your machine?

I can only play DX9 @ 1200x800 if I want decent frames.

XPS can OC any X7900 CPU right?

 

Its connecting and telling me that I have no new emails when I go into the POP3 Monitor on the LCD screen, yet on the clock screen it tells me I still have 4! lol

 

Does anybody have problems with MSN messenger disconnecting and reconnecting on its own?

 

That sounds like your ISP/Network problem...

 

I run Crysis DX10 1024x768 on Med settings for best performance.

The X7900 can be OC'd to 3.4Ghz

 

I followed suit and improved my idle temp 7-10 degrees. I have also noticed with 176.51 drivers that the fans are kicking in a lot more at different speeds depending on load and temp. Game temps are still going to about 74-78degrees C.

I OC'd to the same settings and got 9024 compared to 8285 stock.

 

Try the dx9 settings.

It certainly looks better with shaders @ high, and some other options @ high.

 

How are you forcing DX9? I am using nhancer and if I try to deselect DX10 I get a meesage about NVIDIA not allowing 3rd party tools to modify this setting with certain driver versions. I could created a new game profile in nhancer to get around it but wanted to know if there is an easier way.

THX

 

Right click on the short cut-Crysis will play dx10 by default. If you right click on the shortcut(Crysis), you will see DX9.

 

Which program are you using to monitor temperature of components?
Does is display on the LCD Panel when you game? If not where does it display?
Also, what are the safest temperatures for the GPUs to be running at??

 

hi all! i'm new. i finally decided not to be lazy and register. i've been lurking about this thread since it was made.

if anyone needs some help on tweaking crysis i could try to help. i get around 40 fps with most settings on high with res 1280x1024.

as for gears of war i get frequent crashes and framerate stuttering sometimes. i have the fix though but i never used it so i'm not sure if it works.

oh and lastly could anyone tell me how much they paid for the upgrade from 2GB ram to 4GB ram? because here it costs SGD 1600+ and i just refused to pay for it lol.

edit: uh. for crysis i get 80fps when looking at the sky, 40 when running about, 20 when shooting at the sand. all those particles seem to make it lag.

i'm running on 2GB ram, 2.8ghz, 169.28 drivers with sli without the 1.1 patch

 

Sorry Dude I am missing it, if I right click on my Crysis short cut. I do not see any DX9 selction. Here's a caputre. Hopfully you can make it out. I didn't notice ,are you running Vista or XP?