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

Was wondering what is Free Fall Sensor....a lot of people have on their laptops? Is it a damage protection system or something? And how come we don't have this option in Ireland?

 

Nah, you will be able to install XP on your lappy. Just don't forget to download XP drivers from Dell website first

 

From what I've read, if the HD detects it's moving past a certain rate of speed, it assumes it's been dropped and will halt all moving parts within the HD to prevent damage.

Not sure why you don't have it in Ireland. Maybe they assume the Irish don't have slippery hands?

 

Hi all

With a new M1730 on the way to be delivered in the next few days, can anyone offer any advice / links to threads which give guidance on dual boot setups for the m1730? I opted for Vista Ultimate 32 bit at point of order with the intention of installing a dual boot set up with XP 32 bit (Vista for DX10 gaming & general use / XP for DX9 gaming), but recently read some user comments on Dell's website about possible conflictions with the 'Media Direct' function:

"Dual boot issues: Don’t even consider trying to set the system up dual boot, the Media Direct 3.5 included with the machine has an HPA hidden partition which typically results in trashing of the MBR boot record. Acronis Disk director 10 does not support the HPA partition and seems no one does. You will have to wipe the entire drive clean and reinstall. Only problem is that then pressing the media direct button will over write the MBR and trash the system even after you get it working."

I was equally dissapointed to read the following, as this was the main reason for opting for Vista Ultimate:

"Vista Ultimate includes bitlocker encryption but the M1730 doesn’t include a protected storage area which bit locker requires. So the hardware is incompatible with Vista Ultimate bit locker."

Would appreciate any views / comments.

Cheers

Buckeroo73

 

:rofl: good one joe. thx for info....i don't carry lap top around, while it's on, especially this one (~10kg)

 

I've never heard about conflict of media direct with dual boot (doesn;t mean, there isn't one tho). But in your post you said, that you are going to use XP only for DX9 games....that's just a waste of HD space. Vista will run DX9 games just fine and with your config (unless you got single 8700GT), it will be able to run ANY DX9 game in vista.

 

Can anyone recommend a nice Bluetooth mouse? The only ones I've been able to find so far are small notebook mice that I guess are handy if weight/space are a concern. Personally, I can't use the small notebook mice. They're too small to use comfortably. I'm going to be using it primarily for gaming, so reaction time and precision are very important. Would I be better off using a standard USB wireless mouse for that sort of thing?

 

why not use wired mouse? It's much better for gaming. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/&cl=gb,en# Big choice here. I don't know a much about wireless mouses, so would just reccomend Logitech G5 as a wired option

 

DDT5, I think thats debatable about a dual boot being a waste of space - there are plenty of test results to prove that some games run quicker on XP than Vista (many DX9 games) and some run quicker on Vista than XP (like Stalker - Shadow of Chernobyl). There is also the rumoured performances which are inbound with XP SP3...I guess I'll soon find out though...

 

what i ment is that you will be able to run ANY DX9 on max settings on SLI 8800GTX no matter what OS you are using. And as XP is gonna be used only for DX9 games, it becomes a waste of space, cause vista will run it as smoothly on max settings...

 

This is what you get with Seagate Momentus drives.
Basically the drive/s detect when they are in a free fall state, ie. when they are moving very rapidly, the disc head will 'park' itself so that it does not hit the disc surface, causing errors and bad sectors on the disc.

I was thinking of this, but then heard that such a mouse puts itself into 'standby' rather often in order to save battery power. Also the mouse movement is sometimes choppy. It wouldnt be as precise as a wired mouse IMO, especially for gaming.
I'd have no problem with recommending a Bluetooth mouse for normal desktop use, but for gaming I would say stay away!

 

My 8800mGTX machine has been scanned into the delivery hub, so it looks like it'll be with me tomorrow!!!!!!

 

Man dell suck.. I ordered mine before you...

More discussions , deliver by Monday or forget it..

Answer tomorrow....

NOT happy as you can imagine....

 

Sorry man, I should stop the excitement on here and think of you guys!

Has yours entered production etc? If it has, and its dispatched by Thursday latest, you will get it on Monday I reckon.....

 

I have a few questions that yall may beable to help with

1. Does anyone know how long I should expect to wait till Dell offers vista 64 bit. I talked to a customer service guy and he said they wont be offering it for home use untill more of the bugs are worked out, but apparently they will offer free upgrades when they do.

2.Does opening the system to upgrade it yourself void your warrenty with Dell. Because i plan on getting 2GB ram and adding more myself since I have a few RAM cards already (plus 300 bucks is a bit steep for an extra 2 gigs ram. I can get 2x2GB for 100 buck)

3.Does anyone know when Dell will add the X9000 to the m1730 and will they still have the $599 discount when it comes out. I know its as early as the 21st but will they wait a week or 2 before they give the option or not.

 

Don't forget this is without overclocking and with stock drivers.

In this forum someone reported 10FPS with Dual 8800 GTX SLI and Core 2 Duo 2,4 Ghz, so 15 FPS @ 2.8 Ghz make perfect sense.

If you get other benchmarks, please post.

 

1-I wouldn't take any word from tech unless it's in writing which Dell will approve later on.

2-adding ram does not void warranty.

3-donno.

 

1. Dont know.

2. Opening the system up does void the warrenty. Im not sure if that includes adding RAM or the HDD though, as you're not actually opening the system up to upgarde them parts - they are just in panels under the laptop. To my knowledge upgrading these does not void the warrenty. See the vdeo here about the underside of the M1730 and where the RAM and HDD are located:

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

If you actually open the laptop up, then it does void your warrenty - but as long as you dont break anything, how will Dell know its been opened up??

3. Not sure about the discount, but Penryn will be available very soon. In fact I think in the US its already available....

 

1. You can get 64bit systems pre-installed you just pay more. (I don't know what country you're in but they do in US, UK, AUS etc)

2. Upgrading the RAM does not void your warranty.

3. No clue, but expect to pay a pretty good premium.

 

1 yea thats why i been trying to find out if anyone else knew anything
2 what about changing the harddrive and GPU if i decide to upgrade later on?

 

Im in the US but the guy i talked to at Dell told me i wouldnt be able to get them to pre-install 64bit on my system

 

This is not entirely correct. Each component can be seen as individually guarranted, so by opening your computer you only void the warranty of the components you damage + any other component indirectly affected.

For Example
Assuming you damage the cooling system, you would void the warranty of the cooling system as well as that of the processor, hard disk drive, GPU...

But

If you damage the hard drivre or the bluetooth module by opening up your computer, the guarranty is not void for any other components.

Obviously you also do not have any Dell warranty on any components you installed yourself (even if you ordered them from Dell).

There are only 2 exceptions: DDRAM and the DVD/BLuray drive. You can purchase them from Dell and install them yourself and still have the warranty on those components.

 

Just went through the forum and found a post by some lucky guy, who recieved his M1730 already and got 12,978 in 3D Mark without overclocking what so ever...nice

 

Now im on Stage 4!!!!! preparing to ship!!! hoooray!! maybe i will be lucku enought to get it this week!

 

With the X9000 oceed to 3.4 and the GPU oceed just a 10% more you will hit 15k no problem!

 

Cool. Just checked on my system, its in the depot! Which means it'll defo be out for delivery tomorrow

Im thinking of removing my 8700 graphics drivers etc today before I go to bed, since I will be at work tomorrow so wont be using the system. That way, as soon as I get home tomorrow i dont have to mess about with anything, I can just stick the card straight in and install the drivers

 

This was run under Windows XP, so it is not valid for comparing against the X9000 results under Vista, but I agree it is a nice figure.

What I would like to see is more Crysis benchmarks on the X7900 @1920x1200and lower. Yo Yo said he wanted to buy Crysis and test this for us, but no news from him so far.

 

I agree. And with some new drivers probably up to 16.843.

 

I WANT 8800's !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COME ON DELL !!!!!!!!!!

 

nice, playing random XD!!!The thing is that, it is not how many points you get but rather how well does it perfom compared to the 8700SLi??

 

can you maybe take video of what you do and post it on youtube to confirm that a mobo revision is not required?

we are all waiting for you!

after clevo screwed over it's customer base (once again) i am very curious if dell is able to deliver on this upgrade without a mobo revision.

 

Ifti, you will video the upgrade of your graphics card won't you?

Please do, I'd find it very interesting to see.

I just pulled the trigger. Unfortunately Dell wouldn't give me the Blurray burner, had to pay an extrea $600, and I don't even want one.

So paid $3600AU including 8% defence force discount for the following:
T9300 2.5ghz
4 gig RAM
2 x 200 gig HDD 7200rpm
8800 gtx SLI
XP OS!
2 year XPS premium service
+ Accidental coverage
Free wireless bluetooth headset (Can't see any point in this!)

Im quite happy with this price, maybe should of argued a bit more for the bluray, but oh well

Should be delivered in 7 - 10 working days, and last time they were very quick, only took about 6 working days. So yeah, looking forward to it. Will be annoying you guys about what drivers you're installing etc.!

 

Wow, that's a good price. How do you get such a good price? I have the 8% EPP discount too, but it's still almost $150 more than yours with the same configuration.

 

I'm looking at the online Dell store now and have to agree that the Bluetooth headphones are a waste. I'd rather you could option the 8800's on the base package - then you could use 160G drives, take the T9300 processor upgrade bonus and get a system similar to that listed above for perhaps $3,900 (without the 8% discount of course).

 

You can actually do that now, but if you try to customise it similarly to match the other, it will end up costing you more. I don't understand Dell's pricing system at all.

 

Yeah their system for pricing is weird. I think if you go the ultimate system package, you get better value for money.

When I ordered it yesterday, there was the offer for the 2 year warranty for free. Thats finished though, one of the reasons for me ordering over the phone yesterday evening. I think due to muddle up on their website I might have got a slightly better deal. Dunno though.

I reckon the $3,899 setup is still excellent value. Plus you get dual 8800 gtx SLI setup. Similar Metabox (Clevo/Sager equivalent out here in Australia) setups are alot more expensive for the same system. Plus I really like the warranty and support you get with the Dell system. There's always the more portable and stylish Alienware M15x, but out here in Australia, once again, it costs $4300 for a similar setup, and that has a lesser processor, only one HDD and one 8800gtx. Bloody rip-off over here Alienware are!

 

I can assure you no mobo replacement required.

Here's a guy who got a 8800gtx from troubled 8700GT SLI.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread212687.html

 

Major development in drivers guys! I just put the 174.12 and my Crysis perfomance has increased from 20 fps to a solid 40 fps @ 1920 x 1200 (everything on low except shadows and textures which is medium). On the older drivers I had to have the resolution on 1280 x 800 to get this performance.

 

That sounds too good to be true.

I'll try it out this weekend. Damn tax season!

 

so ive spend teh weekend fiddling around trying to improve performnce and such.

Defualt drivers
Crysis - All High, no AA, 19x12 - 10-30fps decently playable overall
CoD4 - Everything maxed : 4x AA : 19x12 60+fps perfectly amazing

169.61 drivers
Crysis : same as above : 20-40 fps amazing !

3dMark06 - Default Drivers
10,748

I cant seem to get anything better then this with the default drivers, even 169, and 170 series dont really improve this, and I lose blue-ray playback with these.

Assuming decent drivers come out, that I can Overclock I can see this score MAYBE getting into the high 11k maybe 12k range.

I dont see how its possible to get into the 13k-15k range without the extreme processor.

Speaking of blue-ray does anyone with the 8800m gtx's have blue-ray working with dell media direct? I get a no dvd in the drive error, and it only workson pwerDVD ultra.

Edit: Almost forgot my system shipped with a Sharp screen, over the crappy ass samsung that ive had in my other 8700 machines witch so far is alot better, anyone else get the sharp screen with there 8800m's?

 

You gotta clean install or something. Your score isn't up there where it's supposed to.

 

Does anyone know when the 8800 upgrade will come to Australia??

I want to play Cod4 on everything setting full at 1920 by 1200 at 60 frames per sec.

Right now I have every setting on at full at 60 frames per sec on 1400 by 1000 settings.

 

OK I just spent hte last hour quickly reading the last 30+ pages...

Is there a method to obtain the 8800M SLI's via upgrade? I saw a few people say they knew someone on the inside or that they spent a lot of money on business machines in the past... yadda yadda - can you get the part as an upgrade? Is it possible? Or do the motherboard revisions play a part?

Has anyone had confirmed luck getting the 8800's without buying a whole new system? I don't want to return my machine it's perfect Just missing the 8800s

 

Uhm... I can play COD4 maxed out EXCEPT AA... get 90fps standard... ? 19x12

I want that in Crysis

 

DNA2008, the 8800gtx SLI has been released in Australia. If you have problems with the Dell website, just give them a call.

 

Ifti, are you running XP? Or Vista? I forget...

 

Yeah I see that now you can 'upgrade' the $2,899 package to the 8800's. But you're nuts if you do. You'll pay $100 more and have smaller hard drives. Something is definitely wrong with the pricing on the base package. Oh man, I want to pull the trigger on the $3,899 package with support upgrade, but damn those headphones. Think I'll hold out till Friday when there might be a better bonus =)

 

Well, I got mine, can't pick it up until friday though

Quick question, I wan't to take advantage of my 4GB og RAM and I'm thinking about installing Vista 64-bit. How much performance will I lose by installing 64-bit? Anyone knows?

 

Ifty cant answer cuz he is too excited to type XDDDD


BTW, my computer is awaiting the pickup of UPS!!!! yeeees!!

 

Someone said something about a delay out here in Australia due to Dell not having enough Penryn processors... The Dell rep told me 10 working days max though... I hope she's right!