Dell XPS M1530 v. M1730

I am about to buy a new XPS laptop from Dell. My main purpose for getting a computer is for gaming/graphics applicaitons that my current Inspirion 1100 can not even think about handling. However, my budget gets in the way of purchasing the maxed out m1730. So my question for all of you is:

Should i buy the maxed out m1530 or the baseline m1730?

 

As much as I love my m1530, I think the best move for you if your into gaming is to get the baseline m1730. You can always upgrade the m1730 later.

 

What kind of games do you like ? although there's no doubt the M1730 is Dell's Ultimate Gaming Laptop a Maxed out M1530 is nothing to sneeze at. I have a High End desktop and although my M1530 is not in the same league it continues to impress me.

 

The 1530 is a great affordable yet portable gaming laptop. It does not have the same power as the 1730, however it is pretty good for its size. The 1730 is just the best of the best. Its much larger, heavier, battery lasts much less, but it is the best performing you can get out of a laptop right now.

 

M1730 is defenately better, than M1530 in terms of gaming. But it is not portable, so if you are going to move it around a lot, then 1530 is the way to go, otherwise, baseline M1730 is better. I don't know how tight your budget is, but if you are able to get SLI 8800GTX with baseline CPU, RAM etc, than you will get an ultimate gaming lappy, which will be able to run any game for a loong time

 

The games that im looking into getting with my new computer are: COD4, FSX, NFS: ProStreet... and all those kind of games with graphics turned up super high and smooth game play. I know that the m1730 would be the best, but a budget of around $2,200 gets in the way. I guess another two questions that im wondering about would be:

Is it possible to add an aditional 256mb graphics card to the m1530, via the card slot or some other way so that when my budget provides, i can upgrade it??

and....
What is the main factor that is increasing the cost about $1000 from the m1530 to the m1730??? i mean the processor and RAM are virtually the same. Is the graphics card the deciding factor on these two machines and how much does that affect your game play/ graphics designing???

 

The M1530 is fine for those games, allthough you won't be able to crank COD4 and FSX to max and still expect 60 FPS.
You cannot upgrade the GPU of the M1530.
The SLI Graphics of the 1730 make a HUGE difference when it comes to games and graphic designing

 

If you want the High End experience M1730 is your huckleberry.

 

if you're gaming or graphics designing...maybe xps 1730 will do better..
maybe its just me, but i can't stand staring at a small screen while web designing or playing games, its just so short....i don't know the size of the xps 1530, but i was using my cousin's 15" HP pavilion last week and it looked pretty small

 

To be honest, you can't expect those games to run on M1730 with 8700/SLI 8700 with all settings on max niether. SLI 8800 runs it perfectly fine on all max.

M1730 costs more, cause of GPU, even single 8700 is faster, than 8600. Also, you are paying extra money for all that useless stuff, like sfx lights, logitech screen and PhysX card. Also 17" screen costs more, than 15". And the main reason why you pay extra money is because you can upgrade every single part of this laptop by yourself without voiding your waranty

Another option for you is to go for the basic configuration, with single 8700 and then get SLI 8800, when Dell will introduce an upgrade program. But from what I've heard, that upgrade program is gonna be a rip off (around 800 baks).

 

Ok so basically what you guys are saying is...

The XPS M1730 @ $2,773 with the following specs:

PROCESSOR:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM:
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition - English
MEMORY:
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE:
Speed: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) Free Fall Sensor
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE:
CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
VIDEO CARD:
NVIDIA®GeForce®8700M GT graphics
WIRELESS CARDS:
Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card


Is better than the XPS M1530 @ $2,198 with:

PROCESSOR:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9500 (2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM:
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition
LCD AND CAMERA:
High Resolution glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1680x1050) & 2MP Camera
MEMORY:
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
HARD DRIVE:
Speed: 120GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE:
Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
VIDEO CARD:
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
WIRELESS CARDS :
Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card


Because i can supposedly upgrade the m1730 to higher specs (processor and GPU) where as the m1530 is stuck at it's max processor and GPU? Is that what all of you are saying and recomending that i do?

 

I don't like your total price for what you are getting.

Are you a student? or work for an organization that uses dell? If so,
you might want to go here first:

http://www.dell.com/content/product...m1730?c=us&cs=2236&l=en&s=eep&~tab=bundlestab


I would scrap the 4GB of ram and keep 2GB. You can always get it cheaper from some place like newegg

You miss the $400 coupon they had for any order over 2998

 

Yes, exactly. You can also buy second hard drive at any time and set them up in RAID0 I also recommend you to get only 2GB of RAM with the system and buy 4GB kit yourself. Did it myself. It is cheaper and I got a faster RAM as well Here is the link to the RAM I got myself http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_pc2_6400_ddr2_sodimm. Works perfectly with M1730.

Oh, and if you need to get a bag for this beast as well, I suggest you get the one from Dell. It is quite big, but you will have a hard time trying to find a bag, that will fit this notebook

P.S. you brobably want to take a look at these videos . They prietty much cover everything to do with M1730.