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

My 1730 was shipped today according to dell and is on next day shipping, so fingers crossed it comes tommarow, ill post some benchmarks if i can for 3dmark CoD4, ut3 etc

 

You're just repeating what Ifti stated, and Ifti is saying this because he really needs it not to require a mobo swap .

Seriously, do some research, every single other manufacturer has had to perform a mobo swap for this upgrade. The form factor of the new 8800M cards is such that it won't fit (it's larger then the 8700) in the laptop containing 8700's. Now it is entirely possible that dell has gotten around this by having their cards reverted to the old 8700 form factor, or maybe they designed the laptop with extra room for this upgrade.

Either way, unless you've gutted an 8700 and an 8800 there's not really any other way to tell. I guess you could compare the bill of materials on the delivered laptop as well (the one they supply on the order confirmation is inaccurate, it has to be the one they issue with the invoice).

Anyways, as I said, when Ifti does his gpu swap we'll no without a doubt at that time. Until then it's all speculation, as even the XPS tech supports don't seem to know either...lol (granted they should of all people)

 

Nice man!

I can't wait to get mine, I got a taste of the XPS M1730 last month for about a week. It's been killing me to go back to my crappy 3 year old desktop.

 

When I was consdiering pruchasing a new laptop, I didnt even consider a dell 1730 because everywhere in this board except the dell section mentioned only bad things about the 1730. So I only considered an AW m15x and a Sager 9262.

But then I started to do research on my own and found out it was a nice system. Personally I like the black look of the system, I would get it in smokey grey, and I like the fact that the 1730 has a glossy finish all over.

Now considering the power thats packed in this baby, its not so bad with weight, 1 gig of video memory, overclockable duo core 2 extreme processor, and 4 gigs of ram, its not bad for being 10 lbs.

After comparing it against the sager 9262, it looks much better, a little ore portable and dell has great customer service (with my experainces) + accidental damage coverage

So my question is, why does everyone hate on the Dell xps 1730, its a great machine, looks great and a lot mroe portable than its competition the D901c models (I know the clevo is more powerful because of the desktop cpu, but the Dell 1730 is the worlds most powerful mobile DTR)


So why all the hate on this system?

btw if I decide to get it over the M15x, I will have maxed out specs including a blueray player/burner



=DDDDDD

 

it's a love / hate relationship L O L !

we wouldn't be here 400 pages if we didn't love it

 

I'm getting an m1730 in the next few days. Just looking for some guidance from existing users on the best setup once it arrives?

I've read in a few threads that the pre-loaded Dell software is a bit bloated and unnecessary and that a reinstall of XP is recommended. Would others agree?

 

Ask for it without an OS. That would have got me $250NZ off the 1720 I was pricing, but only got me $50 off the 1730 my wife made me buy.

Sean

 

I'm not just repeating anything anyone said. I'm just saying what's been a fact over a month.

http://www.notebookforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=153

above forum has a guy who actually have it installed over a month, and yes, I did my research before I jumped into my M1730. Dell isn't any other manufacturer, and learn to do some own research before telling others

 

You too Kermit, now I don´t have a crappy desktop system. But still it was nice to sit at the 1730 and I did it for only one week too before sending it back and ordering a new one

Maybe the Clevo/Sagers users want one themself, but they don´t admit it. I say a Quad Core desktop that is designed for just that desktop systems with good cooling gets more hot than a mobile Core2Duo. They don´t admit it themselves but I think it is so. Or the fans is really loud, since they need some big fans to cool that one down, this also puts more heat onto the GPU´s. We have higher chances to reach higher clocks without artifacting than a laptop with higher ambient temp. The cooling in the M1730 is really good and now Sager/Clevo don´t have any superiority in this area.

I was considering ordering a blackhawk with dual 8800m GTX. But why do that when you get a lighter notebook from Dell that has the same performance, except the Quad Core which not many games at all uses in the first place. I have always thought the M1730 looks really nice, and looks even better when you have it in your hand.

 

Holy crap. Mine is already being prepared for shipping today!! It took them 1½ day to go from Prodution -> Shipped!

 

Well after two weeks of fighting Dell is sending me a "replacement" unit with a 8800 in it. Since they told me there would be an upgrade program in January and now there are "engineering" difficulties with the upgrades, they are just replacing it.

Works out well for me but lets see how long this takes.

 

Listen man, I am 100% sure that no mobo swap is needed.
Not only, as Achilles is saying, has it been done before, but I have checked my current 8700m system against the new 8800m system for part numbers.

EVERY PART NUMBER IS EXACTLY THE SAME excent for the GPU. This INCLUDES the motherboard. The part numbers are EXACTLY the same. If the mainboard was different for the 8800's, this would have a different part number - they cant have 2 different mainboards with the same part number.

Add to this the fact that if Dell needed a new mainboard for the 8800, it would definately have been noticed and announced by now - just like it was with the Clevo/Sager. There are enough Dell haters that would have blogged about this mistake - just like they did with Clevo etc.

Trust me, Ive done my research - its just the GPU swap thats required. If not I wouldnt have ordered a second system and would have waited for the upgrade. Ive had lengthy talks with my account manager, who knows exactly why I am buying the second XPS. He in turn has had talks with both production and the technicians, who also confirm the same.

Remember the M1730 was made for the 8800's originally, but since the 8800's took longer then Dell thought, Dell released with the 8700's instead - thus the reason why they stated at release that users would be able to upgrade. The form factor etc is EXACTLY the same as the current GPU.

If a mainboard is required, I swear to you, that I will give you my high spec M1730 for nothing! Thats how confident I am.

Either way, as you said, we'll know hopefully next week. I'll make a video to confirm it even.

 

on dell's website they have updated their processors to penryn......I could have gotten Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache) [add $125 or $4/month1] and gotten the 8800GTX card! I feel like cancelling now and re-ordering.....i have been waiting for 4 weeks now for a new laptop.......I can't play anything on my basic 1000 .....should I re-order?

 

I would - yu may have to end up waiting a little longer...again! But at least you get the system you want, and you wont have any regrets later.

 

We checked...

My order (new machine with 8800) had the same part number for the motherboard as Ifti's had with 8700

cheers

 

Definetely YES. Go for it. You have been waiting for 4 weeks ok, but think how you will feel about it when all of us will have, at your same price, Penryn and 8800GTX. No way!!!

 

I would say defo get the 8800mGTX - no question. You'll kick yourself later on if you dont.

Im not so bothered with the Penryn processor, since the performance gains from it are not as good as I expected at this early stage. Im not looking to upgrade my processor any time soon, at least for the next year or so. Penryn needs time to settle in IMO, and once it does the performance gains may become better then where they are now...

 

I really dont understand Dell's online order status system.

I placed my order on the 8th Feb. Up until yesterday it stated that my item was in pre-production as of the 8th Feb - even though customer care, and my account manager, comfirmed it was actually in production since it had been prioritised.

Ive just checked online again, and only now is it saying its in production - but it says its been in production since the 8th Feb also! lol

Maybe it just took a few days to update! lol

Im pretty confident I'll get it by the end of next week. Today is exactly 1 week since its been ordered, so if I get it at the end of next week, that will have been a 2 week turnaround, which isnt so bad. When Dell usually ship an item to me, I usually get it within 2 days or so.

Only then can I prove to everyone, once and for all, that the mainboards are the same

 

Nice, mine was ordered on the 7th, and i was told it was also prioritized, yet I check now and it says its still in preproduction... and because I live in the netherlands but my client number is spanish I have to call spainish customer care, which means doing an international call, and if it takes 1h like in the xps support line IR/UK... it will cost A LOT of money. So im just gonna stay tunned to see of any improvements...

 

I wouldnt worry if I was you. I was told by my account manager, that once an order is placed on the system, its given a default estimated date - just like the 29th we both got. Notice how it says 'On Or Before This Date'.

It now seems Dell are able to push these systems out quicker then expected. I was told mine was in production 2 days ago, yet it only updated on the site status page today. I wouldnt be at all surprised if yours also ended up getting to you some time next week.

 

Hey ifti need some help,

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

 

I wouldnt get the HDD's through Dell TBH.
Personally, what I did was to buy a single HDD, which I replaced with 2 new HDDs I purchased myself (mentioned in sig). Although another reason was I wanted Seagate Momentus drives, rather then Hitachi, since they are quieter and cooler IMO.
It works out cheaper to upgrade the RAM and HDD's yourself, and they are very easy upgrades to perform (as you've probably seen in my vids).
Nevertheless, you've ordered now so I wouldnt bother changing - unless you want to wait an additional week or so!

5400 and 7200 rpm - Im sure I saw some benchmark tests on the speeds etc. 7200rpm drives are quite faster then 5400rpm - and in a RAID 0 config they are easily comparable to desktop HDD performance. However, the largest drives you can get in 7200rpm are currently 200GB - so if you want more storage you have little choice. Nevertheless, as you said, you have them in a RAID 0 config, so you will be getting better performance anyways. I think you'll be fine with them TBH.

 

Interesting review

Extreme tech review of dual 8800 with x9000

Not that I think I will ever get one now....

 

Ok thanks mate, yea I build my own desktops and had a Toshiba Qosmio G45 before this, I have 4gb OCZ PC-6400 ram which I bought to upgrade the tosh, thats why I didnt bother wasting 70 quid on the 4gb upgrade from Dell . If I wanted in the future I will just buy 7200rpm drives anyway so, not that big of a deal tbh.

 

Yeh someone posted that a few pages back.
So have you cancelled your Dell order altogether? You not getting one now??
Its a shame Dell messed you about so much! If I was you I would ring, complain, and ask for more discount because of how much you've been messed about. If they refuse to give you anything further for the trouble, tell em your not interested.
then leave it a week and re-order from scratch
lol

Im secretly hoping the person Ive got the second M1730 for at work doesnt like it, or says he wants somet more portable (which he probably will say TBH), and so I can have it as my work machine to replace my current work D620 - which I could give him instead

TBH I think you've done Ok with the order.
Now just sit back and wait for the excitement to brew while you keep checking your order status 10 times a day
lol

 

haha, thats exactly what I keep doing, I was just thinking of phoning up to see if they had started production. If they delay me I was thinking of waiting for the Alienware m17x, but this does have a few extras which I like e.g the exclusive physX ppu, the logitech lcd display and it looks alot nicer in my opinion.

 

From what i have read the 320gb drives are almost on par with the 200gb 7k2... they are still slower, but on raid the difference is about 10% increase in performace... I think that I would rather have 240gb more instead of that 10% increase which im only gonna see when moving big files or when ripping...

 

Huge sigh....

Don't know where to start.. let me give you a timeline

31/Jan - ordered system with no discounts etc..

4th/Feb called back - renegotiated a deal, original order cancelled, new one placed, all happy.

5th/Feb place a click to chat, try to ask about backback, get nowhere person takes my email, promises response... never hear a peep

6th / Feb send an email online via customer service to ask same Q, never get a response.

7th/Feb check tool - order cancelled by mistake (someone else trying to cancel theirs, they cancelled mine)

Ring up, cool calm collected, really p*ssed off

Promised a response/call back - nothing

9th Feb called by my sales person asking why I cancelled? promised new order placed, can't give me a ref number, please call Monday

11th Feb call, finally get through discuss situation can't give me order number promise call back in next 15 minutes.... no call back, no ref number, no idea what is happening

Tried calling 3-4 times left messages

Never heard from again

11th Feb 17:00 call CS asking what the h*ll is going on, do I have an order etc.. basic answer is no I don't....

12th Feb new sales person calls, very sorry £50 quid off new customer number, new order , set as priority blah blah

Order appears can see it in system , straight into pre-production

hey hey !! hooray going to get a system.....

13th Feb late in evening, get call from original sales person.. Explain situation tell her it is all sorted and to do nothing

13th Feb 1 hour later, feeling nervous, check system ORDER IS CANCELLED !!!!!! icy calm email to both sales people WTF !!!!

14th Feb email from new sales people very sorry escalating with manager, another £50 quid off, priority sort it asap blah blah..... tell them I must have delivery no later than the 25th or don't bother......

Not heard a peep since.... sent email this am to sales person and her manager asking for status confirming I will be unable to accept any kind of deliver from the 26th of Feb to the 11th March so if they don't ship it in time it will be returned as undeliverable....

Silence from Dell....

I think I should just give up and take my money elsewhere.......

I was going to buy my daughter an M1530 . yeah right.. she will get a Sony or something else now...

You lucky thing.... I can't even get 1 machine out of them.....

what a flippin nightmare its been

Dell suck its official....

 

Bloody hell man. What the hell is wrong with Dell. That is really crappy customer service. How the hell can you cancel the wrong order, and several times? lol. Sorry but you gotta laugh at the stupidity!

Im assuming they havent taken any money from you yet?

I would be a pissed off as you TBH. May be an idea to cancel altogether, but over the phone, to see what they say. Woudlyou wait if they knocked more money off??

Also if you are ordering 2 systems, how about placing the order for both together and asking for more of a discount and an early delivery date? Tell them if they dont deliver you will take your business elsewhere.

Personally, like Sulzero said above, i do prefer the looks of the XPS over the Alienware M17x, but after going through all that I dont think anyone can blame you for having enough! Dell put through hundreds of orders a day successfully, why cant they get this one right??!! lol

If you do continue with the order, ask for one customer service rep who will be responsible for it throughout.

 

I agree, I prefer the XPS over the M17x also.

 

Im still struggling on where I can buy the Zalman NC2000 cooler from! It seems to be out of stock for the next month everywhere! The only place that has it is MicroDirect - who have crap reviews for customer service, and later deliveries!
Really wanted to get it before I fit the card!

 

For me they cancelled the order 3 times before sending the 1st one... and when I got it, the base wobbled... got a replacement order... cancelled bc there was a game missing, so they made a new one... arrives home, and it crashes more than a windows 98 first edition... getting another replacement on the way...

first order 3rd november 2007, last order 7th feb 2008...

In the mean time, when I had no computer bc it was cancelled UPS came to my house to pick it up, bc there was a new order... for 3 days the driver came to my house to pick up something i was suppose to have but I didnt.

Moreover, bc I have a spanish client number, but I live in the netherlands, NL customer support sent my complaints to spain, and spain to nl...

long story short be patient, I feel your pain... XD

 

Notebook coolers = waste of money, and sometimes even does more harm.

Just raise the base of the laptop using a couple of bottle caps, and the system temp should drop around 4-5C.

 

Oh I didnt realise that. How do they do more harm by the way?
I have it raised at the back by about half an inch - would you say my cooling is therefore adequate?
Thanks, I'll use the extra money for games instead lol

 

I didn't like this review. It really irked me to see them comparing the latest greatest M1730 w/ 8800M GTX cards to the old alienware toting 8700's.

I would've preferred they compared similar laptops (IE sager 9262, or the latest alienware m15x, both have sli 8800). Comparing a hot off the line laptop to a 6month old one comes off as desperate and inaccurate.

 

I plan to do something similar, I went with the 7.2k raid 0 (2x200gb) for now, i'll upgrade this summer/fall to the mtron 6000 sdd's in raid 0 when the prices drop down the the 350ish mark per drive.

 

I've seen some reviews where the cooler actually raised the idle temp 4-5C.

 

I'd really like to know how they're a waste of money when they drop all your component temperatures by ~10C or more. Also, it really doesn't make any sense how it would do harm....

Can you provided references to this please.

The zalman notebook cooler claims a 15C reduction in temp, which results in not only cooler operation, but also quieter operation since the notebook fan's don't throttle as high to cool the system.

I didn't have my cooler with my first laptop since I had some shipping issues. I will run tests next week and monitor temperatures with and without the notebook cooler.

 

Ifti,

Regarding the upgrade program, you do realize that 2 identical parts can be different right? If they simply made revisions to the existing engineering drawings for the mobo, it would come up as the same part number but as a different revision. This revision number would be transparent to the end user.

This is standard practice in the engineering world. They simply would never use the initial rev of the mobo since the new one would accomodate both types of graphic cards.

I'm an engineer, so I can tell you right now that this is standard practice in the manufacturing world.

The only way to be 100% is to gut 2 laptops and compare the notebooks side by side or be one of the engineers working on this project.

As I said, once you do the gfx card transfer from your bosses laptop to yours we'll know beyond a reasonable doubt. In the meantime everything people are stating is rumor and nothing more.

 

Sure, fair enough, but that's a poorly engineered laptop cooler then.

I don't think it's fair to assume that all notebook coolers are bad and cause damage because some crappy third party vendor made a bad notebook cooler.

I'll definetly run some tests on mine and let everyone know how well the ZM-NC2000 works. It's one of the few notebook coolers that actually fit the XPS m1730.

 

That beast is gonna fly!

I'd be interested to see the temps with and without the cooler - keep us posted!

I understand what you are saying, and its a valid point. I just fail to see why Dell would state that the M1730 was made for the 8800 initially, and then put the 8700 in it, only to make revisions later on for the 8800. If this is so, then the upgrade kit will need to include a mainboard, and will be far to expensive to consider as a good upgrade for many customers. A lot of pissed off customers would therefore make their voices heard. After promising all customers a direct graphics card upgrade, and make the card upgradable itself, why would they then make revisions to the mainboard - this falls back on their initial promise. I fail to see how Dell would not look into all this with their initial R&D.

I also feel that, just as was recognised with Clevo/Sager, if there was a revision it would have been noticed by now and people would have been made aware through leaked info on web sites.

Finally Ive had not only my account manager, but also a XPS guy at Dell (then again, XPS guys dont know much themselves!) both confirm there have been no more revisions to the mainboard - only the card has been introduced to the M1730 inventory - no other changes.

But, as you say, we'll know as soon as I get the second laptop, as to whether I'll just be swapping the cards, or the entire mainboards!

 

I have contacted Dell Spain, through the Chat BS, and they said that its in production, but it doesnt mean it will ship monday, it only means it is starting to be built... XD

 

I guess since you are an engineer, you can just ignore zyb's upgrade on his M1730 huh? Yeah, you can easily ignore other's did since you didn't see it, but if you followed Dells XPS systems since generation 1, it never required to replace mobo for GPU upgrades.

Dell always introduced XPS laptops with inferior cards, and then issued better cards down the road without requiring mobo swap. I guess Dell's engineers are better than you common engineers

 

crazy isn't it..

Just chased via email as I have had no contact. It appears they haven't actually placed an order for me....

Just sent the timeline into customer services and the sales folks and copied the unresolved issues folks as I did log a case on the 7th.

Pretty much had it with them really think I do need to look elsewhere....

 

I understand how you feel, and TBH I would feel the same.
Thing is, will you be happy with another system?? You dont want to spend loads on another system, but still want the M1730 at heart......

 

@miprs4
What a sad tale of inefficient bungling, I feel sad for you as this sort of service is unacceptable. A couple of years ago I had a similar problem with Dell. They had a brand new theft cover insurance which I took out on 2 new laptops I had bought. Lucky I did as 2 weeks after getting them they were stolen from the office (painters redoing the office I think) Anyway I tried to get the insurance to pay and get newones. Dell CS knew nothing of this cover and I mail virtually everyone in Dell with the link. It was a mnth of frustration spoke to everyone I could in the UK, France, India, Pakistan and anywhere else they have call centres. After a month of frustrations I had given up and was looking at other laptops, Dell was definitely off my list by now.
Then out of the blue some fella phones me up asking about the laptops, I bent his ear for about an hour (he phoned me didn't he?) about the crap service etc. He listen to my complaints asking the odd pertinent question and once I had finished he asked me for the delivery address confirmation, I gave it to him and 2 days later two brand new laptops arrived. There had been some sort of mix up along the line but finally it came out in the wash and they jumped about to get things sorted. He phoned me back a week later asking if everything was fine and gave me his personal number if anything needed doing.

So I hope that you will fall into this category and suddenly they will see the light and get you your long overdue computer. Don't give up, I know it is difficult but the 1730 is worth it.

I have just sent my first one back as it was damaged in transit and am now awaiting a new one, in pre production and hope to have it soon. Have faith sport, but give them hell and something will break, and when it does they do jump around.

 

I read someone look the for the Zalman Cooler.. Here is the link to the website that i purchased it from.. They have it IN STOCK!!! Here is a direct link to the Black cooler. Couldnt imagine anyone wanting a silver one for the M1730 haha... Fast shipping even on standard which i used, they conduct business very well... http://www.quietpcusa.com/Zalman-NC2000-B-Quiet-Laptop-Notebook-Cooler-Black-P384C30.aspx

 

I'm gonna stick to standard cooling first...then see how hot it gets, when gaming and if it gets uncomfortably hot, then i will purchase this cooler.

And also, skillhouette, this web site seems to be for US and Canada. Not sure if you can order anything there from Europe

 

Ahhh.. Sorry about that... haha

 

just got confirmation that my 8800M gtx SLI card is being sent out as a replacement to my old 8700.