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

Ok, my account manager has just got back to me and has told me that he has been told we cannot order the card seperate from the laptop. He has requested a reason as to why, and will get back to me.

Doesnt look positive.

 

Theres definitely something fishy going on here - you know what - I think they've changed the motherboard or something else in the 8800 based machine, i.e. if I slap the 8800 card into my 8700 built system it wont work.

I got the same "fob off" ifti - Account Manager gave me a load of rubbish saying:

"You must talk through your specification with technical support before we order the part".

And no matter how many times I said to him - "I just want to buy it right now" he wouldnt have take my money - and those guys love to sell you **** like theres no tomorrow.....

 

^^^
I dont think they've changed the mainboard in the newer machines, I think its just a matter of waiting for enough stock of the 8800 cards to meet demand, and just taking advantage of new orders for now.

We've been promised an upgrade path so I dont think they can 'dumb down' the card to make it work with the current mainboard etc, I think its just a matter of taking advantage of new XPS sales before allowing the original customers an upgrade. They already have our money from the system, and probably want to make more money by offering the card in a new system overall, rather then as an upgrade - which TBH they could start at any time they want. We are still here and waiting, and cant go elsewhere, so Dell can make us wait longer with little impact.

 

Kinda sucks doesn't it! Especially for us who dived in there early only to find out the 8800 was comming out in 3 or so months. I'm not holding against Dell though, its just bad timing for us that's all.

 

I see your point ifti, but I see no value in doing it, it's not like the initial takers of the 8700 based model are all going to buy a completely new machine, and on the stock issue - they must have "some" in stock - I don't know anyone in the UK thats managed to source one of these cards yet - you would think they would release some - even if its purely to boost the reputation of the machine....I still smell fish...

 

Hey guys I sent mine back, had only had for a week and I´m ordering a new one now with the 8800m GTX in SLI instead and 4GB ram which didn´t cost so much. They have a great deal now here in Sweden for the M1730 with the dual 8800M GTX.

 

Well Im looking to order a second M1730 for my boss. It has the 8800GTX card in it, so we'll see if the mainboard is different or anything soon enough ..................
I really dont think it is though. As I said above, I think its just a good business decision by Dell, to keep us waiting, eager to upgrade, while they sell new systems, and refine an upgrade program that is also profitable for them.

 

Sorry but the above makes no sense at all to me, you don't see car manufacturers release version 2 of a car, and hold parts from it back to owners of version 1 - it doesnt matter whether or not we upgrade now or later - in fact - later is worse because the card will be worth less as time goes by.

And if the upgrade plan isnt ready yet then account managers should be instructed to tell existing M1730 owners exactly that - and not fob them off between sales and tech supp....

I just got through to the tech supp guy as I was instructed to by sales and said to him:

"Sales told me to call you to talk through my spec before I buy the card"

he replied "Ermm - what do you want to talk about?"

He then went on to say we didnt need to talk about anything and that I should talk to the account manager.

lol...nm i'll call the account manager later on

 

Ive met the same frustration as you have, and cant find any explanation either. I dont know why Dell are holding out and TBH Ive given up ringing etc. Even my account manager cant find out why they wont sell the card seperately.

All I know is that previous owners have been told that there will be an upgrade option at some point. Why its coming out later I dont know. But it will come eventually. If the mainboard needed to be changed, they wouldnt have offered an upgrade program whatsoever, since they cant upgarde entire mainboards etc - it wouldnt be cost effective for them.

The bottom line is, no-one knows why Dell are holding out on the upgrade program. My guess is that they are refining it and figuring out how its gonna work etc, but its anyones guess at the moment.

Just need to sit tight I guess.
Im just gonna order another M1730 with a very basic config for someone at work, and ask them if I can swap the cards over when it arrives. Im pretty confident the mainboard will be the same and I should be able to swap cards straight over.

I do agree that tech support/sales/account managers should have a note on their system. There are bound to be hundreds of people ringing them asking for the new card. If they could at least acknowledge the fact that there is an upgrade program but it hasnt begun yet, at least thats something!

 

Ok I have more info. The 8800GTX card is in short supply. Thats why its not been offered as an upgrade yet. Even in a new system with the 8800GTX, apparently orders being put in now have a delivery date some time in March!

This does certainly explain the lack of the upgrade program though. It makes sense for Dell to hold back on the upgrade plan in order to satisfy its demand for the system overall, with the 8800 installed. With delivery times being so long, seems like they need all the 880's they can get!

I think the upgrade program will be released once the demand for the M1730 reduces a little, and they have a larger supply of the 8800 cards. For now, their priority has to be their new customers!

 

By that time, I suspect, we will be looking at penryn upgrade, which should be especially effective in this size of a machine. And a new nVidia 9000 graphic card is not very far away.

 

I'll be happy with the 8800GTX card TBH. With the amount of time it took for the 8800, an dthe upgrade program still not in sight, I dont even wanna think about a 9000!

There will be no processor upgrades to the Penryn for the M1730 - thats alreday been confirmed by Dell. The only upgrade they will do is the graphics card.

 

M1730 is my 7th laptop, and while not the cheapest one, not the most expensive by far. I try to keep them at least for two years but it is not easy since they become obsolete fairly quickly. This is all I expect from M1730. If it survives that long it will be used for other duties than gaming, or sold at a quarter, perhaps the fifth of the purchase price.

In current configuration M1730 plays the newest games, incl. Crysis. Obviously not with the highest settings on and not in the native resolution but it performs well enough. Most of the people finished it or gave up on Crysis by now anyways.

For a lot of us upgrading to 8800GTX is purely theoretical. It certainly would be nice to have but the price tag seems quite steep for the pleasure.

And around Christmas time we will have a new slue of the killer games and possibly a new hot nVidia graphic card to drool over.

 

Very true. Completely agree.
I'll probably stick with the laptop for a few years. I only want to run a few of the current games that are out, Gears of War being the main one. When it cant run the latest games any more I'll use it for other duties also, and buy a PS3 (or even a PS4 by then?!)

 

It's rather irritating (though inevitible) that the cost of a new M1730 with 2.4GHz CPU and 2x 512MB 8800GTX's is about the same as I paid for my M1730 with 2.2GHz CPU and 2x 256MB 8700GT's.

Dell even offer XP as an option now (which I would have gone for).

It's interesting to note that you can no longer configure the M1730 with draft-N wireless networking, yet I have the Intel-based b/g/n wireless card in mine.

Dual 8700's are fine for me, for now. I will make the upgrade to 8800 at some point, but the price erformance ratio is somewhat doubtful. If Crysis represents the beginning of a new swathe of GPU-intensive games, then the upgrade will be worth it.

With Half-Life 2, Prey, Jericho and BioShock all running at acceptable frame rates already, it will perhaps be this time next year before I would feel the overwhelming urge to spend between £300 and £500 ($600-$1000) for an upgrade.

 

A good business decision would also involve informing your current customers as to when we will be able to upgrade, how the upgrade will be done and what it will cost. You have to look after your customers, the XPS m1730 with 8800GTXs will sell itself, based on the reputation of the Dell XPS line.

 

^^^
Very true.

I hear the 8800's are on back order? Not sure as to the validity of that, but looks like stock levels are low....

 

So the person that was responsible for my case, not the manager, but the one under him, just sent this:

The thing is that, I am now under his managers choice... I hope he can match it with this one... From my personal research I came up to the conclusion that the 8800GTX is way better than the FX3500m....

Not much backorder when they offer a swap with 8800GTX knowing I need it asap.

 

"...I was thinking that maybe the best option here is to swap the system out and replace it like for like with the exception of the graphics card in it. We could try a system with the new graphics card in it, does that sound good ?"

Congrats sergiop, that's a really good news! Let's hope they can do this within days now.

 

I've had a problem getting onto the Dell on-line chat on the Irish website - it says it in down time since the 9th of Dec. Does anyone know a work around for this other than just using the dell.co.uk site?

 

Sh*t!!!! I was so waiting for it Are you sure of that 100%? Cause if you are, i`m ordering one right now

Yes. That's true. Nvidia has told that before Christmas... That's why Alienware hasn't released m17x yet.
So as soon as stocks levels will be high enouth, the upgrade programm will start.

 

Use any other web site. Unless your question is about something that only irish department can answer...

 

In regards to the Penryn processor, from teh Direct2Dell Website..........

However - remember this means no UPGRADE to the penryn processor. That doesnt necessarily mean the penryn wont find its way into the system as a new purchase. Thats not been said anywhere, but not completely ruled out.....

 

Thx for info Going to order mine machine today then
Dell might put penryn processors in other systems, but i doubt, i won't be a gaming lap top...

 

I still need to speak with the manager about this, since he sent me this email without knowing that I contacted his manager... And he said that his wife was due on the weekend or it might get delayed till monday... so it might be the case that I have to wait for another day for this.

 

I was going to ask what screens are shipping with the M1730 at the moment.

If its Samsung (which I had and returned) I won't be ordering, but if they can whack a LG into it happy days.

What I really don't want is wait 4 weeks for delivery and find another Samsung and then have to wait another 4 weeks to get a LG, after re-ordering.

I might phone them at the weekend - that usually works better.

 

Samsung, LG, Sharp. It's been those 3 for a long time and don't think it will change anytime soon.

 

Can they tell pre-production what screen is going into it?

I had a rep tell me they were using Sonys (trying to make the sale as ever.)

I wonder could I put a rider on the order that if they only have Samsung's to cancel it... maybe I guess I'll talk to the rep again at the weekend.

 

No you can't. You can get the info as soon as you get your service tag though.

 

"Microsoft has confirmed it has released to manufacturing (RTM) its service pack 1 update for Windows Vista, along with the new Windows Server 2008. However, even users already running Vista will not be able to download the software until mid March at the earliest, while Microsoft tries to address problems with some drivers.

The RTM of Vista SP1 means that the code is finalised, but Microsoft said it will be made available online via Windows Update at roughly the same time it ships with new PCs and is available in retail, expected to be mid March."

Full article is here: http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2208796/vista-sp1-windows-server-2008

Perhaps this also means a better support for Sli 8700M GT...

 

That's great news, lets just hope that it gives us some useful improvements.

 

Just further proof that Dell reps and even techs have no idea about their own products.

 

This is the response I got from my account manager regarding the 8800M upgrade:



My manager received a response from the XPS product manager:

"Not good news. I'm sitting in a room right now with Mike H. He is telling me there are delays with this program. He has no ETA at this time. There are some engineering delays with the upgrade process. Mike said he will have an update this week."


Pretty much all I have for now

 

God I'm glad I just re-ordered a new system then keep my old one and get a coupon for 500 off the 8800 upgrade. I can thank the poor negotiating skills of XPS customer support for that.

Just sent my old one back today. I was really hoping to get some benchmarks with it before sending it back, but my zalman ZM-NC2000B notebook cooler didn't arrive in time.

Guess I'll have to wait until the 25th before I get my new one. I'll definetly be posting tons of benchmarks with it once it arrives.

 

Where did you get your Zalman cooler from? I have been looking for it and can't seem to find it.

 

This is where I got mine:

http://www.quietpcusa.com/Zalman-NC2000-B-Quiet-Laptop-Notebook-Cooler-Black-P384C0.aspx

Not sure where'd you go if you're overseas (quiet pc delivers to anywhere in north america).

It's a tough product to find, just released 2 weeks ago and a lot of vendors aren't carrying it yet. I originally bought the ZM-NC1000B and it was too short for the XPS M1730, so be sure not to buy this one.

 

I want to buy a Zalman cooler, but i want one that will fit this size laptop, not a short one. Are there any available??

Also, whats the best screen for the M1730 then? I have a Samsung and I didnt think it was that bad. Is Samsung supposed to be the worst??

 

some short, bit urgent questions for you guys:

- Is it worth around 240£ extra for the 2.8Ghz X7900 processor, instead of the T7700 2,4Ghz processor?

- Will the X7900 create more heat/fan noise (out of the box, without overclocking?

I have an option of upgrading while getting some problems fixed you see, the price has dropped a bit on the X7900 so am considering.

I want to be able to use the XPS for 2-3 years so would have been great on some feedback on what areas this upgrade would be noticable.
- especially if the processor will help the 8800GTX SLI in any way as well

 

I would upgrade. Its not as easy to upgrade the processor later on, and Dell probably wouldnt even sell you the part knowing them. Especially if you are keeping it for 2-3 years - I would take the chance and go for it now.

Then again, its also about how you will be using the laptop. Do you need the extra processing power? Ive seen people running the newest games in a 2.4GHz perfectly fine, so I don tthink it makes a major difference. The main advantage with the X7900 is that its overclockable, but if you have no interest in that whats the point??

Which graphics card do you have? If its the 8700, my first port of call would be to use the money and upgrade that to the 8800. You will see much more of a benefit in doing that then by upgrading the processor.

Personally, I get laptops for myself quite heavily discounted, since I deal with Dell all the time, and I tend to get the highest spec I can possibly get. Hence the reason for my spec below! I'll be upgrading to the 8800 pretty soon as well, and since I'll have the highest spec possible, I'll probably keep it for at least 3 years or so since I also use it for my development work and testing etc.

My point is, if you really need it go for it, if not sav ethe money for the 8800 upgrade program...

 

Thanks ifti, I am getting the 8800GTX once they are available, the only choice I have to make right now is the CPU.

How is heat/fan noise with the X7900 compared to the T7700 and it what areas would this upgrade be noticeable?

Cheers

 

Ive not had the 7700 so I cant say, but all these CPUs throw out a lot of heat. the fan does come on occasionally, but I wouldnt say its any more then normal TBH. It really depends on what you are doing.
I have the back of my laptop propped up by about half an inch, and have noticed that not only is the keyboard more comfortable to use, but the fans come on a lot less.
If you overclock the fan is on almost constant I hear, but Ive never had the need to overclock.

 

Oki, with the T7700 cpu the fan does not come on very often and is pretty silent anyway. Important note is that the machine really never gets hot at all, this is a feature I appreciate very much so.

As long as the X7900 does not produce more heat than the T7700 when running normal windows tasks (ie. everything but games) this should be ok.
Bottom line - as long as they both clock down their cpu usage when necessary they should both be well off when it comes to heat.

 

Yours doesnt get hot at all??
Mine gets pretty warm to the touch - in the area by the LCD just above the keyboard, near where the CPU is.
Maybe the X7900 does give out more heat then! Im not really sure since Ive not had the 7700 at all.....

 

Im about to order my 8800gtx !!!!!!!!!

 

That's funny, my T7500 gets pretty hot in idle.

 

On its own? or in another system?

 

On its own

 

The machine should really not get hot in idle, the underside of the XPS is built in magnesium which is done to help with heat dissipation.
Mine has yet to get really hot even after a long time on a normal table with no additional support under the machine, when playing games it gets hotter but nothing compared to previous laptops I have owned.

How is this compared to you X7900 owners?

 

I wouldnt say mine gets really hot, but it does get rather warm.

 

same in all cases Ifti?

that is:
- idle
- running several windows applications at once (browser, Office etc..)
- gaming