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

My account manager just told me that when people ordered their XPS M1730's the system just gave a default date of 28th-29th Feb. This is so that they had some extra time to build with the new batch of 8800's.
However, it seems they are on top of things, and even though my order says its estimated delivery is the 29th, its actually in the last stages of production and should be with me much sooner. This should be the same for many others - you'll get your system a lot sooner then you think.

 

Yeh I had it on the 360 and played it online for months! Its quite addictive.
Never played using Windows Online though - I just want it for the single player campaign and the extra levels etc. Ive got rid of my 360 now as well, but Gears was one of my fav games. That and Assassins Creed

You defo need the backpack then. Its a pretty nice bag. Although when you hav ethe system in it, its pretty damn heavy, yet its still comfortable etc when you get it up on your back

However, I dont think you'll get it from eBay - there certainly werent any when I last looked.
I should stick mine up on there, Id make a mint!

 

Guys, just noted on the Australian Dell website it looks like they've released the new Penryn processors.

Still no sign of the 8800's though... Grrrrr.

 

Penryn processors for the M1730??

Didnt think it would be so quick TBH, not that Im interested in changing my processor anyways. Well spotted though

 

Kept one of my 360 wireless controllers back to use with the laptop, so just about to buy the wireless receiver now - does anyone else use a controller?? I want to use it with Gears as Im used to using the controller to play it, and for and racing games I may get. I tend to just use the mouse for strategy games mostly.....

 

Yup, on the US web site both processors: T7500 and T7700 are gone and replaced with T8300 and T9300. X7900 is still there as an upgrade from T7700 for $625 US.

 

How much extra are the Penryn over the X7900?

 

Out here in Australia you can get the T8300 as standard at the mo. But still no 8800's.

Hopefully soon.

 

Technical support sent me an email saying that they have contacted production to speed things up, yet im still on preproduction and EDD 29/02

 

I was in preproduction for 10 days. Even though it was a priority order. Fair enough though, since if theyre missing a part, theyre missing a part - priority order or not. Still, I frequent the order status page several times a day, and after 10 days of the same phase you get a little irritated

 

I wouldnt worry about it. Their site details arent always updated very frequently since it estimates the delivery date from when you place the order initially.

I have been told by customer care, and by my account manager that my order is in production and should be shipped towards the end of this week. Yet when I check online it still shows pre-production and a EDD of the 29th as well!

Ive been checking the online page so much Ive even stored the link into my favourites! lol Even though its not properly up to date!

 

You are correct. I ordered mine on Feb 5th and it showed pre-production until this past Monday. I called Dell and the automated system said my order is in the boxing stage even though it says it is "in production" on the website with a delivery date of 2/28.

 

nice, I hope then ists delivered for next week...

 

I think I may wait until some kind of 9000 series card comes out to upgrade...

 

Upgrade from T9300 to X7900 is still $625US.

 

Don't do it. You might as well just get the laptop now. Don't wait for a technology, caus once it's availible a new one is announced. It's always like that. It's a vicious neverending circle.

 

You may aswell forget ever buying any laptop / PC ever again, because as soon as the 9000 comes out for laptops (in many many months) the 10000 series will be on the horizon, and then the 11000 series...

You get the idea!
Just buy the 8800M's with 256 architecture are a solid solid cards and will for along time to come handle most stuff very very well.


72oo

 

carrying that thing around would make you buff in no time lol

 

Does anyone have any tips for getting a discounts off dell?

I'm a third level student myself.
-Does that entitle me to 5% off? I've heard that before.

Also this is the second time I'll be ordering a M1730 for the second time, so essentially its a re-order. Given that I've given Dell a second chance so to speak should I try to use this as leverage when phoning?

Anything that might help?

Any tips would be appreciated.


72oo

 

I got a discount from EPP progam and an adjustment due to my balance which saved me a few hundred dollars. However, if I had opted for the 8800GTX card the discount wouldn't have been much. So in short, I think its difficult to get any real discount on dell's gaming laptops

 

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2260174,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

There we go, a review of M1730 with X9000 and SLI 8800GTX.....
Not bad at all, even tho im a bit disappointed, that you won't be able to run Crysis on very high Anyone here run it on 8700GT? Are you getting playable framerate on high and at native resolution in Crysis?

 

Thanks alot for the link! Some reading while I wait for mine

Also, give the drivers some time to come. They can GREATLY improve the SLI-effect in games like Crysis.

 

lucky i don't play crysis......I don't even know what type of game it is lol

i am more into UT3, gears of war, and assassin creed

 

looking at the overall performance of the 8800GTX card compared to 8700GT card, I am thinking about cancelling my order and spend the extra $700

 

Those games are in my list as well It's just that Crysis has the most stunning graphics out the at the moment.... There will be no other game out with that kind of graphics for another half a year at least (except Far Cry 2 ) And assasin's creed has prietty much the same system requirements as Crysis (recomended ROM 3 gb (!)). But lets hope that as Poteen says, further drivers will improve the performance

 

Well Very High on all options don´t even desktop SLI systems run at that high res. But you bet using tweaks to make it look like Very High will be possible to play it at 1920x1200

 

I suggest you really should

 

Exactly the types of games Im into

Nice find, gonna give it a good read now........

 

Take a look at this thread as it shows what I was able to get with the 8700M GT Sli setup for Crysis perfromance
http://www.dellcommunity.com/suppor...id=Tech_Talk_XPS_Laptop&message.id=4234#M4234

Running it with DX9 was the biggest boost, which came from this thread.

 

Woo hoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My computer has been shipped out today. I should get it either tomorrow or no later than Monday! I think I'm gonna need to take a vacation day Monday.

 

It looks like the reviewer did not have the SLi on when testing 8700M GT cards.

"Almost 13,000 on a notebook—that's pretty impressive. The large disparity between this new Dell XPS and the Alienware is due in part to the CPU, but mostly because a pair of GeForce 8800M GTX cards beats a pair of 8700M cards any day."

3DMark06 score for 8800M GTX is 13000, which is expected, while 8700M GT should be around 8500. But then the reviewer does not state the resolution he has the 3DMark06 set at either.

 

Heya fellas! Been reading this thread for quite a while now, and the info thus far is pretty outstanding. Been putting off ordering this laptop for a bit, and now I'm glad I waited! The 8800s are fantastic cards. I did have a question on the processor options.

As of very recently, the new base line processor is the 2.4 Core 2 Duo T8300 (instead of the 2.2). The price jump to the x7900 Extreme processor is a little too much for me. How significant of a performance decrease is it to stick with the 2.4 over the 2.8/3.4 OC'd? And to specify what I'm using the laptop for, it's mostly for gaming and 3d modeling/animation with Maya.

Thanks in advance!

Additional info: Here are the three (yeah, there are three now lol) processor options with more details:

1. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache
2. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache
3. Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X7900 (2.8GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache

Thanks again

2nd Edit: Hey hey, is the T9300 processor the new Penryn processor I keep reading about?

 

Games are run by GPU, 2.4 should be more than enough IMO.

 

Just managed to pick up the bag brand new off eBay for £39.88 delivered!

 

Do you guys do a clean install when you receive your laptops?

 

I'm certainly going to. I think I read that it doesn't come with all that much bloatware, but I'd just rather have a clean slate to start with. I complete reinstall shouldn't take all that long anyways.

 

How do you set-up the RAID 0 when doing a reinstall is it a bios thing or something else?

Also I guess all the drivers that are needed come with the laptop on a CD/DVD or something..

72oo

 

Oh, well done! I didnt see any online (UK site) !!!!!

Always!

Take a look at the video I made on RAID setup in this thread....

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

Its video 4. Hope that helps - any more questions then ask away. Oh and teh RAID drivers are the Intel Matrix Storage drivers - stick them on a USB stick and you can install them from there when installing Windows.

I'll try make a video on the video card upgrade once it arrives next week

 

I am planning on getting dual 320GB as soon as the computer arrives, how does it work on XP, also with the drivers before installing or what?

 

It'll work fine with XP. RAID is handled by your mainboard and the RAID manager - not by your operating system. The RAID manager will just let the OS see it as one big drive, and handle the read/write across both discs.

Stick the drivers on a USB drive. When installing XP, near the beginning when you are at th eblue screen with the files being loaded down the bottom, it will say 'Press F6 to load third party SCSI or RAID drivers'. Press F6 as prompted, and install the RAID drivers. Only takes a sec. Once installed, all done. Complete the installation as normal, and in Windows you will not see two physical drives - just the one, which you can partition up etc as per normal.

With Vista its even more simple - when you come to the screen where you can create partitions etc before Vista is installed, simply click on advanced to open up the advanced options, then click on the link to load drivers. Simple.


Hey man, I hope you guys are givin me good ratings in Youtube
lol

If you want an more videos etc gimme a shout. As I said I'll try do one of the video card upgrade if I get enough time, but if you want any others in regards to hardware, gimme a shout

 

Thanks, one less problem, thumb up!

 

Hey guys I am new, I ordered my XPS M1730 X7900, 4GB Ram, 2x8800GTX's on the 12th, its in pre-production as of yet. I just wanted to ask if it was wise to go with with 500gb raid 0 configuration. I could of went with the 7200rpx 2x 200gb's but I prefer the extra storage as I am doing 3d modelling, photoshop and all the adobe family pretty much. Is their much difference between 5400 and 7200rpm? Or was it worthwhile because of the extra 100gb storage :S

oh btw, my estimated delivery for the xps is 4th March, and Ifiti Ive watched all your videos of the 1730 on Youtube, lol

 

Thanks that clears it up. :-D


72oo

 

page 400, man this thread just keep growing lol.

 

I'm glad to see the dual 8800s finally in this notebook, but for all of us that have the dual 8700 solution (early adopters we are/were), where is our upgrade?

I don't care what the cost is, I need it NOW!?

 

you have been denied, lol....the people with 8700 duals are not important

 

i would like to know this as well, especially if any motherboard modification is required to make this happen!

 

Haha, I hope not, I spent 7.5 K on this notebook

I need the 8800s yesterday as far as I'm concerned.

 

Consensus seems to be that no mobo swap is necessary, but it may still be required.

Either way, it will be bundled in the upgrade price if it is needed.

If Ifti gets his new M1730 with 8800's and swaps them into his old M1730, that'll answer our question right there.

btw, 2 days until my laptop ships. i was told yesterday 2-3 days, today it was 2days, which mean it won't ship until monday now.

Ah well, either way i'll have it by next friday.

 

No mobo change needed.

GPU swap is only thing that's required, and it is same form factor, plug and play. There's a guy who done this about a month ago, who's gotten the 8800 SLI from his personal dell connection.