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

ifti nice idea i already though of some of those things for the laptop that i have now. Anytime i play a game on it whatever it is this laptop over heats really bad and sometimes shuts itself down.
Ive set up a vent under my laptop from the central air unit to help cool it down already.

And yea i think your idea with the desk drawer will work pretty good. Or you can make you a cooking unit like in the link you posted

 

For those not lucky enough to get the coveted LG display and received the Sharp display...I did some tweaking in the Nvidia control panel and now the display looks amazing! Out of the box, the brightness and colors were on par with what others have said about the Sharp (bland pastel looking colors / low brightness ). After running the optimization wizard though, this screen is mpw very vivid and bright! Probably not as good as the LG (although I have not seen the LG in person) but it still looks great.

 

Hello guys, i just got my new Dell xps 1730 2.4Ghz 8800GTX SLI 4GB ram 2x160gb raid 0 and im getting 10800~ points on 3dmark06, isnt it a bit low?
Im using the last drivers i found on dell website R175522 with windows vista home premium.

second question, my notebook have 2 DIMM slots of 2gb but it says i have 3262mb everywhere, is it weird?

and last question, what notebook cooler do you advice?

 

Your 3dmark06 score isn't incredibly low. Your processor will keep you from getting top marks. 3dmark06 puts a lot of value in processor speed vs 3dmark05. The only other thing I would recommend is do a clean install of Windows (if you haven't already) and keep all the garbage software off.

You most likely have Windows Vista 32 bit edition installed, which is limited on the amount of RAM it can utilize. 4gig won't be used. It's capped right at 3.2gig or so.

The Zalman NC2000 seems to be a popular choice, but could be in short supply depending on what part of the world you live in.

 

Thanks for the advices

 

LOL, me too, ill get back to you

 

The shop next to my office in Amsterdam has lots of the Zalman coolers in it... think I'll pick one up on Monday!

I'll see how many they have and if anyone else wants one let me know.. of course you'll have to pay for shipping etc. yourself

 

hi dude. I use the 174.12 WinXP Drivers from lv2g.com. And have overclocked the GPU`s to 750/925. New score is 10350 with CPU @ 3.4Ghz.

 

Hmmmm, thats a great idea!!! lol

It does get very hot, hotter then I expected!
I will probably get the Zalman cooler, AND cut a vent on the desk drawer as well. That way the cooler gets lots of cold air and just distributes the air across the bottom of the laptop more evenly....

 

The 3DMark score sounds about right with your particular processor.

Any 32bit Operating System will only see around 3.25GB of your RAM.

Zalman ZM-NC2000 - fits the M1730 perfect - but as someone else just said, its hard to find at the mo!

 

Alienware is late with the 17" system, and I got a cool deal from my Dell account manager. I saw the 15x prices and thought the 17x must be ridiculously expensive. This is how I see things:
Dell:
+ On site support
+ Price
+ Great performance
+ Better panel (even if you only get the samsung that's still brighter than the Alienware's panel)
- Only the design, but actually it seems to get to you.

Alienware:
+ Cooler Design (thinner, slick)
+ Better Audio (7.1 instead of 5.1)
- Price!
- Pick up Support (repair is off site, so you lose your computer for some time)
- Thex grant 0 (!!!!) discount
- I trust the Dell's cooling system better. The thin design doesn't help here.

Overall Alienware sounds and looks good on the paper, but Dell just offers the performance, reasonable price and security.

 

Just found today the specs and prices of next gen intell CPUs. Eh....i would love to have one of those extreme, but not gonna bother waiting for another half a year

 

Hello All. Sitting here with my new "Beast" just catching up on the forum. I benchmarked mine at 8787 right out of the box. Surprisingly it didn't come with a ton of bloatware. Whether that is from the Vista Business edition or whoever had it before cleaned it out before returning it to Dell I do not know. I am big on refurbs because of the pricing. I have two children in college so money is always a huge topic. lol

The wife bought this for me because she got a coupon for 20% off any refurb. Saved 669 U.S. Dollars on this puppy ( I meant Bulldog!!!!!) so I am not going to complain.

I got the Sharp screen on it and notice some blochiness to it when it is booting up. Mayhaps I will keep it for a bit and then complain to Dell and see what happens. They have always done me right so I have no cause for complaints.

Tried running a very easy game but had some problems. Updated immediately to the 169.55 drivers and thought maybe that would help but it does stutter. I watch the CPU Meter in the little LCD panel and it hits 100% at times in the game. Tried running it in 1900 X 1200 and then dropped the res down to 1680 X 1050 and still occurs. I didnt feel Fable was that intensive of a Game, at least not compared to the likes of Crysis and such. Any other tweaks reccomended?

I read one post that this would nbot be a machine to bring to a company meeting. Hehe I disagree totally!!!!!!!!!!!! I would love to walk in and place it down on the table. "Gentlemen, I mean to do business!!!!!" This is a serious machine and one not to be taken lightly. Hey take your little pansy Mac Book Air and show me what you can do with it. Other than checking emails and surfing the internet ther is not much left. Want to do a serious presentation. That little thing has no guts to do it. Lets see how you stack up against this bad boy.

Love the looks of this Beast so much. Heck I even went to the extreme and waxed the cover already. Yes I know I am a bit anal but you would not believe how much it helps protect against light scratches. Just make sure to apply the wax to the softest cloth you can find first and then apply to the machine. Use a good quality wax and then buff lightly to really bring out the shine. This puppy pops now when you look at it.

Well sorry for the book. Think I will sit down and shut up now. lol

 

QX9300.....

/borat

I like, how much?

/borat

Will these new ones work on current hardware with the fsb downclocked to 800 or will we need to move to centrino 2 for them?

 

Hey Spiderich. And congratz on your beast! Just in case if you didn't know, there is a new GPU out for M1730 8800GTX, which easily beats 8700. But if you are not going to through newest games on high settings to it, it will suit you. But you can always return it to Dell within 30 days and upgrade to 8800GTX

As for game performance, the problem doesn't seem to be GPU. lol! I run this game on my current celeron 2400 Radeon 9600M 1GB RAM on nearly max settings
So, you have some application running, which uses a lot of CPU power. From my experience, i know, that vista indexing files for a first few days (at least that's how it was with my friend's laptop) and works very slow during that time. Also, in vista by default automatic defragmintation is turned on....so prolly it is running, while you are trying to play.

Or it might be some kind of virus....make sure that you have antivirus installed. Firewall would be nice too (not vista firewall tho )

 

lol. Don't even wanna think of the price....over 1k for sure! I don't know about new CPUs' compability with Santa Rosa. But it just sounds too good to be trough

 

Sweet DDT5. Thanks for the input. I will look into that immediately. I am running Areo and wonder how much that affects the performance aspects. I really want both asthetics and gaming performance but of the two I will opt for the perfomance. I am looking forward to the upcoming release of Age of Conan and want to be ready to rock and roll.

Also an update on the panel. According to the hardware id on the monitor it says LPL which I believe is LG. I could be wrong.

Also I do know about the 8800's and would love to invest but for now will sail along with what I have. Upgrades for the future will be another 200g 7200 RPM drive for raid 0 array as well as the 8800's and also Microsoft Office that I need for work and personal. Then I should be riding this beast to the end of the gaming world. lol

 

Ooooo they look nice. The Extreme's are 1066FSB - is our current board compatible? Since Im sure we are at 800FSB at the moment....


Note for Spiderich - the system comes with SLI disabled by default. Have you enabled it???

 

Aye, it is LG monitor. The best one, congratz

Yep, Aero affects 3D performance quite a lot... It decreases performance by up to 20%. And i don't like Aero anyway...it looks good and stuff, but after a while all this animation just starts to ennoy.

 

@ ifti

yep, our motherboard supports only 800 FSB unfortunatelly

 

Ok so my wife made a great choice then. She always says I never buy anything for myself and she is right because family concerns come first. But I am more and more glad every minute she purchased this as a pre 21 year anniversary gift.

I will get right on looking into losing Aero and making the other changes and then run Fable again and see what happens. Wonder how much of a bad person I am going to be in that game. lol

 

Yes, I couldn't agree more. I find the design of M1730 quite OK for what sits inside, though. What I really hate is the size and weight of the power brick. The cable from the brick to computer does not bend easily and I am afraid that in time it will loosen or damage the power socket. I carry this laptop around a lot, plug and unplug twice or three times a day and that whole power supply arrangement makes setting it up in confined places very challenging.

Dell's technical and customer support is not perfect but much better than Toshiba's, which I know best, and much more convenient. Of course we all pay for this but I was pleasantly surprised when the technician knocked at the door to replace a part. And he had to travel 100 km to get to where I was at the time, in different country than the country of purchase. I did not have to mail the lappy and be without it for at least two weeks.

So, yes, performance, price and a piece of mind. As a matter of fact I think of also buying a 15 inch XPS machine from Dell because of all that. Just will wait for a better processor and, hopefully, a stronger graphic card.

 

@ Spiderich

Ok, let us know how you are getting on with it

 

Thanks to ifti I had known immediately to turn on the sli feature as well as upgrade to the latest drivers. Now with your help DDT5 I have taken care of Vista, defrag and indexing. Lots of good information here in this forum and lots of good peeps also.

Just a note to many who compared this Beast to an AW. I did a lot of comparisons myself and found that that there were a ton of problems with both AW motherboards and their tech service. Even though AW is now owned by Dell I believe Dell just uses them for their previous knowledge and capabilities and is building from there. I do know that after two years there are not a lot of Dell 1710s that are just being used as door stops. Reliability with price is still a hugh deal to me!

 

does anyone have any ideas when the new x9000 will be offerd on the xps m1730 in the uk?

 

I don't think anyone knows that. I wouldn't expect it for another month. But i could be wrong.

 

they are selling it in the alieware ans shippig it people are getting theres in the next week would of thought dell would be offering the new cpu as they own alienware dont they?

 

Dell ownes Alienware on paper, but Alienware still operates fairly independantly. Meaning they have their own suppliers, order processing, manufacturing, etc. Just because Alienware is offering the x9000 in their machines doesn't mean Dell should have theirs.

Dell will most likely get theirs within the next 2-4 weeks.

On a similar note, the US Dell site is now advertising the Alienware 15x, and the 15x is being displayed as a buyable option on Dell's site. The link directs you to the Alienware site, but it's still interesting.

My hope is that this isn't the first step in fully integrating Alienware into Dell as their specialty gaming machines. Meaning they're going to drop the XPS line (support included) entirely. That's just me being paranoid, I'm sure

 

hope not that wuld be a shame

 

So lets talk cooling...

Im planning on getting a Zalman NC2000 cooler. Below the cooler I will create some large holes in my desk (since its a keyboard drawer anyways so can easily be replaced later if need be) where the fans are located. That way the cooler will have a clear path to air directly beneath it, rather then through the sides of the cooler.

If I feel the above is not enough, I then plan to create some kind of exhaust to hide behind the laptop, using a desktop fan at the end of a channel, which will suck out the hot air from the laptop exhaust area.

Hopefully that'll all keep it nice and cool

What are you guys doing for cooling? Im interested to know whether you actually use anything at the moment, or plan to do anything in the near future??

 

my m1730 has been shipped

some one pinch me.....

im all hyper now

could someone tell me how you can check if ive got an lg screen at this time?
cheers

 

scradge. Not sure you can tell until you actually get it. My invoice posted with a Sharp screen so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the screen was actually an LG. Here's hoping for you.

 

A very simple way of looking at this would be to look at the science behind it.

Thermal radiation is dependent on a few things, most of which you can't really change - like the material being used to dissipate the heat.

But one of the most striking things is that the rate of heat transfer is proportional to the difference in temperature between 1) "the laptop" and 2) "the air" to the FOURTH power!

So in a round-a-bouts kinda way what I'm saying is that one of the best ways of cooling your laptop is turn down the heat in the room by 1-2C - it'll make a huge difference.

Also I wouldn't go cutting holes in a desk - that sounds a little much. Especially given the Zalman's excellent design (have one myself) there'll be little/no improvement in cooling by cutting air holes, as there's already plenty of clearance afforded by the Zalman - AND DON'T FORGET if you really really need to you can prop the Zalman up even further by extending the little feet.

72oo

 

Oh yes, I forgot about the extending feet! Im going to try the cooler alone first and see how things go before I think about starting work on my desk - that was just an option.

Do you think helping suck the hot air out of the exhaust and away from the system will help though?? Ive read reports that this does make a large difference....

 

Yeah sure I guess it would help.

The thing I'd keep in mind though with all these things would be:

performance -v- trade-off's

So, if you were to have a system to duct the hot air away that would help with the heating problem, but do you really what to be looking at that system on your desktop the whole time...

The other thing that I was getting at earlier is that if you could lower the heat just ever so slightly it'll have a much higher magnitude effect that blowing/sucking more air. (Also as a side note:colder air is denser - more mass and therefore better at taking heat away).

I guess the ideal solution would be find a way of cooling the air just before it enters the Zalman cooler.

Actually that gives me an idea (maybe a good one!):

If you were to get a cooling device, a nice thin one and place it under the Zalman with the feet extended that would cool the air before it goes in and shouldn't be too visually offensive!

I think I'll do a quick Google search and see what I can come up with I'll post anything I find here later.


72oo


EDIT:

I guess the best best results would be gotten with the following;
(Warning; Danger of desk damage! ;-) )

This is the best way of cooling a laptop and it's probably on the invasive side, but if you've a wreckless disregard for your furniture this way should work a treat!

1) Purchase Zalman Cooler, and a small portable A/C unit.
2) Cut holes in desk over where Zalman is to be placed.
3) Place A/C unit under the desk with the vents aimed at the holes.

- Enjoy sub-zero computing!

Like I said initially this is pretty invasive but you'll be hard pressed to find a colder laptop around!

But getting back to the whole performance -v- trade-off's thing...
1) Your right hand is going to be frozen - if you use an external mouse
2) You've an A/C between you're legs! And legs frozen!!!
3) You've just wrecked your desk!

Personally I think you'll be fine with just the Zalman!

72oo

 

Didn't you say it was a refurb?

Prior owner must have gotten a LCD replacement if that was the case.

 

Since you are so intent on cooling, I don't understand why you are so little intested in getting the X9000 Perynn processor...You should have around 30% less heat development (65nm-45nm)/65nm = 30,7%.

 

Will the X9000 really put out that much less heat?
im still trying to find out when dell will put it as an upgrade option for the m1730

 

Doesnt bother me TBH because it would be hidden.
My laptop is on a pull out keyboard drawer - so the rear of the laptop, and anything coming out from it, is hidden by another panel at the top of my desk. Hence if I was to make anything to fit on the rear it wouldnt be seen at all - thats why I considered it. If it was anything ugly that would be easily seen I wouldnt go ahead! lol

This is exactly what I was getting at - without using the AC cooler. I was thinking of cutting enough away under the desk (hence it wouldnt be seen anyway) under where the Zalman cooler fans are. This would allow them access to plenty of cooler air.

At the moment, the way I saw it, is that the cooler sucks air in mainly from the rear of the unit, where there is space for air to be sucked in. But the back of the unit is also where the laptop exhaust is - where the hot air is ejected from the laptop. Hence the Zalman wouldnt have access to clean cool air, rather it would be warm air from the laptop being recycled to a certain extent.

Hence by cutting into the desk, the cooler would be getting direct cool air from below, rather then recycled air from the laptop exhaust.

I also thought of inserting some desktop fans, running from AC power, into the desk itself, so that air would be pushed directly into the Zalman, and the cooler would then redistribute this air across the bottom of the laptop.

Since my lappy is on a keyboard drawer, I may get another piece of wood the same size as the draw, and experiement with that to see if my laptop runs cooler. If not I will not have messed my desk up!

Here, this is where my laptop is right now...



See what I mean about the dawer the laptop is on?
I could cut into it pretty easy and give the cooler some clean air directly from below.....

Not necessarily. My second M1730 had the LG screen on it when it arrived from new. Hence i swapped the screen over with my old Sammy

 

Achilles. Yes I did say it was a refurb so that could very well have happened which makes it even better for me.

 

Why not buy a second Zalman Cooler and place it under the first one? If it not enough propping, it up a bit should help. But then it might be better to by a third Zalman Cooler and place it under the second one. After all, it should still be cheaper than a portable A/C unit. And finding a suitable backpack to carry the portable A/C unit could prove difficult...
Sorry, couldn't help it.

Get serious guys or buy yourselves a desktop. The contraptions your a talking about would make your laptop totally not-portable anyways.

 

Yes, but the GPU will produce the same, so the overall improvement should be around 15-20%

 

ROFL. Imagine that. A stack of Zalman coolers, from the floor up, with the lappy on top! lol

Nah just 1 will do me. And I'll make a clearence hole through the bottom so it has access to fresh cool air. That should do the trick

 

I actually use my beast on my lap and so far no problems with heat. Not that I have played anything too intensive yet on it. Been playing Fable but that doesn't demand too much at this time. Looking forward to Conan which looks to be an MMORPG that will push my system to it's limits. Then I might need the Zalman and wondering if it will work ok on my lap.

I eventually intend to get the Seagate drives ifti purchased to help also with any heat issues. Running anything inside to help lower or dissipate heat is definitely the way to go. I am still amazed at how bold ifti is to take his machine totally apart. I have done this myself before on a lesser model laptop but I would be a bit uneasy to mess with this machine. Time will tell though especially when I want to upgrade to the 88s. Thanks to ifti's vids it just might be worth doing myself.

Fable is running superb now DDT5. 1900 x 1200 with everything full on. Thank you for the suggestions and help.

 

Bear in mind that all intake fans for your lappy are on the bottom of the unit. So the fan for the CPU, and both for the GPU, are all under the laptop. If the laptop is on your lap, it makes it a lot more difficult for the fans to draw cool air in to blow onto the components in order to cool them - and the fans will be almost useless if your leg is covering the section of the intake grill they need to suck air in!

Also, doesnt the beast give you dead legs with its weight?? lol

After taking apart the laptop, I can safely state that the screen, or the laptop lid, is much heavier then the laptop itself - a LOT heaver!

Anyways, I tend to take things apart pretty early on. In fact, when I got this laptop, before I even switched it on, I had taken off the back panels to check out where the RAM and HDD's go etc! Just the way i do things I guess! As long as you know which screws to take out (which I made sure I clearly mentioned in my videos) the laptop comes apart pretty easy. Oh and dont forget where they go in!

Basically, there are 4 sets of screws that need to be removed to gain access to the inside of the laptop. They are:

1. The base
2. The Keyboard
3. The LCD hinges to remove the lid
4. The palm rest / top cover of the laptop.

As long as you keep the 4 sets of screws together you're pretty safe.

To be honest, I was working off of carpet when I changed my GPU card, which you can see in my video, and I rarely ground myself either! lol. Not recommended though!

A dell technician once tole me working inside this laptop is a pain in the butt - but i think its a piece of cake now.

One thing I really like about this system is the way it can be stripped down and a single component changed - like the CPU, or GPU etc, without having to swap out the entire mainboard. Its pretty awesome. dell did a really good job with this one IMO.

Once you take the laptop apart the first time its really easy after that. In fact, if it wasnt for the fact I had to take it slow to make the video, I could have had the GPU swapped out within 15 mins flat. Im certain of it! Very impressed with the inside of this machine.

 

@ Spiderich

No problem. I'm happy for you

 

Good news for 8700 owners.

Quote from Dell.

Lionel Menchaca, Digital Media Manager said:
Ashe and Natoar: I just weighed on this topic in IdeaStorm here. My apologies for the lack of updates. Still working through some details...

When I have more information to share, I will.

February 21, 2008 3:42 PM

 

so yet another fob off!! lol
Oh well, I dont care no more

 

I have a request - could someone with the Zalman NC2000 cooler post some pics - preferably of the underside of the unit? The pics I find from the net show the fans etc, but not the whole underside.
Thanks in advance

 

Me neither, but I'm just providing the info!

I can't wait til my new system gets here!