Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, *Part 3*

Oh, he's got the 9800m GTX specs. I hope this is a sign of improved replacement cards to come.

Anyway, Hikkoo's card did indeed miss the TV/SPIDF port, so that's a strong indicator of these new ones being 9800m GTX. So, is this whole 'back order' situation now coming to an end?

 

Yeah been trying to get onto Hikkoo but he has PM's turned off.

The cards in someone elses system not mine. (Mines about to be replaced).

The strange thing is the part number. GPU-Z recognizes it as 9800gtx but Dell says it is a "new improved" card. I'm betting it's BS. Another Dell fob off.

 

I think it is just a 9800m GTX without the problems. I believe, in my analysis of experiences, that certain 9800m GTX cards were actually more stable than the 8800m GTX and 9800m GT cards. Perhaps they're doing what Dell did with the M1710 - replacing the defective 7900 GS and GTXs with slightly stable line of 7950 GTXs.

Dell techies are known to put great spins on very basic concepts. I think the 'back order' issue is about to come to an end, and the answer isn't replacement 8800m GTX and 9800m GT, but a straight forward 9800m GTX that has been tested right. Y'know, I'm actually in favour of this because at least it'll bring some peace of mind to other M1730 users who may be worried about their GPUs dying.

Edit:
Slammin, this is a scoop, man. Get this dude from Oz who got the 9800m GTX to share his story on the forum. Sounds very interesting!

 

I have both XP and Win7 64 bit. Win7 is the default in boot.ini ...
How do I make Xp the primary boot partition ?
I know its a noob question but I`ve been known to have messed up partitions before so I`d rather get some input.
Also, I`m going to do a fan cleanup this weekend, see if it helps..

Btw, what is the most recommended video driver now for gaming ?

 

eleron911-
I like to use this program, it is very easy to use and setup; easy BCD:
http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

 

GadgetBoi,
For the knowledge of other members, and fellow X9000 users, would you mind posting your standard CPU temperatures when your system is fully overclocked to 3.4 GHz?

 

Kade - I have been running my x9000 at 3.4Ghz for 2 years and also use RMclock to undervolt it to 1.235v and it usually idles at 35c and under load it never goes above 72c but hovers around 68c while gaming.

 

Thank you for sharing that information, Jesse. Your temps, I assume, are good. Naturally, they're higher than the standard CPUs, but that is very natural. I was looking for this information in order to establish a standard for myself.

How are your ACPI temps?

 

At extreme full load (Prime95 in place FFT), mine goes up to the low to mid 70s at 1.3875v. "Normal" full loads are usually in the mid 60s.

Be sure to tame that voltage with RMClock, the default 1.575v is awful.

 

You'll get a rep for that, later on, Nm88. Thanks.

 

Well MW2 runs as expected, never dips below 65 fps with everything maxed and 2x AA, however the game is pants in my opinion, not a patch on Modern warfare 1. I don't like the gameplay either in MP.

I haven't tried SP yet as i'm so dissapointed with Multiplayer I gave up.

It's obviously a straight console port, flat graphics it just doesn't look as good as the previous MW.

£29.99 wasted, but others may enjoy it.

Bring on Battlefield Bad Company 2,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vepiJznvvY0

Looks awesome from this game foootage.

 

I'm not sure why but my cpu temps are really low & 3.2 and just finished a 5 minute game of COD.

 

Dude, I'll get back on the temps.

However, Modern Warefare 2 is another story. Seriously, we all knew the MP was going to bomb - end of dedicated servers. For this game, I think it's the visual candy and the campaign story, which ain't half-bad. Give that a shot, and then sell the game.

 

Well have you played through the whole game? The game surely dips below 60 fps later into the game. I have almost played through the whole game and even in Fallujah the first scene when exchaning gun fire over the river it dips below 50 fps.

On the other hand I haev 80+ fps in other areas, but in very intense scenes with lots of soldiers, explosions etc it can´t keep a steady 60 fps.

 

Magnus, keep in mind, he is x9000 at 3.2 GHz.

Ever since I got the upgrade, at anything above 3.0 GHz, I notice that all those 'dips' in intensive games that I used to have, are--for the most part--gone.

 

@Kade

That guy is from this forum in oz.
Whirlpool

 

Ah yes that explains it

However I noticed I didn´t have SLI enabled in the config. So I did enble it and now it barely drops below 60 fps

 

Right on, Mangus! I had a feeling that even with your CPU, you should absolutely ace this game.

Heh! C'mon! So you had it running in single GPU mode and thought both your cards couldn't own this game? Ha ha! That only proves just how fierce the beast still is; over 30 FPS at beyond HD resolution with just a single GPU. HELL YEAH!

 

Hey Kade if I ain't mistaken, according to your sig, I presume you have upgraded to an X9000? Haha, well congrats on a cooler sysyem!

Wow, so many posts, its been a while since I came... Good to be back.

 

I just went through over 300 posts on Media Direct (MD) and I can tell you that I am even more confused. I was able to filter out the final solution but I want to touch base with on any updates. I am planning to update my XPS m1730 Gen2 with a X9000 CPU, 8800m GTX, and a new hard drive. I just got the Media Direct 3.3 iso image. I want to make sure the procedures involved to get my system prepared properly with Media Direct, all the buttons working, and drivers updated before I do any of my hardware upgrades. I remember doing this with XPS support when I was still under warranty. Back then I had to create a 2 gig partition and the recovery partition. Then I went and installed MD, OS, and drivers. But I do not remember what order and which specific Dell drivers. I understand Win7 has a lot of drivers. Does this include the Dell specific ones? Is there some documentation I can reference while I do the rebuild? Also if I install Win7 64bit will the same motherboard take more memory than the maxed out 4gig?

 

If you are going with MediaDirect 3.3 you will need to boot with the MD3.3 media prior to anything else. Follow the prompts - basically, it will create the partition for MD and then prompt you to install your OS. Once the OS is installed, reinsert your MD3.3 media and complete the MediaDirect install.

Once this is done, you can proceed with driver updates.

 

Hey everyone, been a while been up at college not much time to check the forums lately, part 3 really..., but anyway recently got borderlands and i was having trouble running it untill i got the new beta 195.39 drivers that seem to make SLI work better for borderlands. I was wondering if anyone else has the game and knows the best SLI settings for it yet. I'm also getting weird FPS situations. I will run fine in crowded open areas but the second the fire effect from my gun is put on some enemy thats close i start to feel decent fps lag, turning the game detail down didnt change much, neither did the texture detail, resolution seemed to help a bit but im not really sure due to the lack of an ingame console to track my FPS. If anyone knows anything let me know.

Thanks.

 

I have finally nailed it, a fix for the lightFX lag. If you go to task manager whilst running the lightfx application through winamp WHILST PLAYING A SONG, you will see WmiprvSE.exe under the processes tab. IF YOU RIGHT CLICK ON IT AND GO TO "SET AFFINITY", DESELECT ONLY ONE OF THE TWO CORES AVAILABLE AND THE LAG WILL BE GONE or reduced by a HUGE extent (depending on what power setting), PRESUMABLY BECAUSE THE LIGHTFX APPLICATION HAS ONLY SINGLE CORE SUPPORT. YOU MUST FIRST SELECT SHOW PROCESSES FROM ALL USERS IN ORDER TO SEE WmiprvSE.exe in task manager.

PLEASE RESPOND FAST, ITS BEEN A REVELATION FOR MY SYSTEM AFTER NEARLY 2 YEARS OF OWNERSHIP!!!!!!!!!

THANKS FOR YOUR THOUGHTS IN ADVANCE?

 

I was talking about multiplayer Magnus, I haven't bothered with SP as I was so gutted with MP that I lost heart in the whole game.

@ Kade, have you any idea why my cpu temps are so low mate, is it a wrong reading with HWMonitor?

21-25c seems unusually low at idle.

 

codmw2 is pretty fun, so is borderlands, but i am stuck with these pile of junk 8700's...

 

I heard MW2 was going to have horrible gaming servers for PC, so i went with the xbox version and im very happy. Some games just are better on a console...

 

This is slightly off topic.

Can anyone tell me how this laptop would compare against my old M1730 which had an X9000 Extreme processor and 9800M GT cards in Sli.

How good is the Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6 - 2.8GHz compared with the X9000 or Q9300 ?

Basically i need a stop gap laptop for about 6 months as i want to see what Clevo bring out as their next models for next year and something like this would tidy me over until then.

Here is the full spec

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/12089...t-Laptop-Notebook-PQX33E-00N006E/Product.html

 

@BatBoy

Will Win7 have all the Dell drivers I need or do I still have to get them form the support site?

 

Steve,
PC online support was always leaps and bounds ahead of consoles because of dedicated servers. The fact that Modern Warfare 2 is now peer2peer on the PC, makes it the same experience as Xbox Live and PSN, which by PC gamer standards, is a downgrade. This is why so many people are crying foul, because they feel that they're now playing a console experience on superior hardware. So no, the Xbox/PS3 version isn't actually better in any way shape or form.

Honestly, with your hardware, you paid--possibly more--for a game that will look inferior to how well your PC could've managed. Not to mention, online experience is about just the same, minus all the 'children' from Xbox Live.

A break down of the experrience:
- 1024x600p resolution with very little anti-aliasing. (1200p native on PC.)
- Low-res textures, furthered by the low resolution. (High res textures on PC.)
- Lower polygon count on consoles. (Much higher poly/body count on PC.)
- Peer2Peer multiplayer gaming, which used to be a handicap restricted to consoles. (Now also on PC.)

So in short:
PC version was not condemned because it was inferior. It was condemned because PC multiplayer always had potential to be leaps and bounds 'better' than consoles, and with Modern Warefare 2, it is the same as consoles. I'd still rather have this title on my PC.

And Chief,
Your temps are rather low, but mine have been there as well. It actually depends on locality as well. Keep in mind, we live in cold humid England! Not to mention, it also depends on the games. Some of them churn more out of the CPU, some of them don't. Modern Warfare - not so much.

To SomeForumOfHuman:
Indeed I have attained the upgrade, and thanks! It is great to have a cooler, faster machine!

I can't even get it to run in SLi mode, yet. However, that can help me prove or establish one thing - your lag is SLi-related. With a single GPU, my game stays steadily over 40, but rarely, just rarely dips to 30, regardless of effects and crowd. It's pretty obvious that the game is not demanding at all, it's using a very streamlined version of the Unreal Engine 3.0, and hardly seems to tax anything. I am willing to bet this is related to a bad SLi profile, and during certain effects, the SLi performance drops to below 30%, which is worse than having the game run with a gimped single-card.

Magnus, perhaps you can help us out with this issue.

 

You'll have to wait and see what is not recognized. I believe there are a few owner's who have already went to W7 so hopefully they will see this and post details.

Dell has not officially (nor will they to my knowledge) support W7 on the XPS M1730. So, I wouldn't hold my breath hoping for a W7 Driver category specifically for the M1730.

 

Sunnah,

Im on win 7 and use *ALL* the drivers batboy has on his site listed for Vista, they all work fine infact I also use them on the 1330 and my wifes 1530 which are also on win7.

 

now heres the problem with that, PC controls are more suited for FPS then a controller, its honestly a fact and IW started COD on PC. For them to just say we said we are releasing this for all multiple platforms but then not develop the game for PC at all... and use lame excuses like: They didnt balance the game for lean, so you cant lean in the pc version. IW was one of the few devs left that did not suffer from the money syndrome, just porting games and not developing the game for each platform. Now they are on Notice. Only true PC devs left are Valve, Blizzard, Dice and a few others.

 

The only driver you need from Dell's site is the Sigmatel one, and you can use the Vista version.

I downloaded all my other Windows 7 drivers from the manufacturers' sites, as they are much better/more recent than what Dell offers. In most cases they're the same as the XP/Vista drivers, but others are Windows 7 specific.

 

Do any of you guys have this bag? I have an M17x now which is a little wider, a little deeper, and a little heavier than my old 1730, but I'm wondering if this would fit well...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5512669#post5512669

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=468-4242

 

The M1710 bag was bloody huge and rugged; you could carry dead-hobbits in that, but the new bag's a bit more tamed. I got two of those, and I don't know, I think they should be okay for the M17x, although the compartment for the laptop is specifically tailored to fit the M1730.

 

Yeah I ran Modern Warfare2 with a single GPU Still pretty good considering it was single mode and still managed to keep at lowest 30 fps fully maxed except AA at 1920x1200 Yeah an X9000 is the only thing I want now, will save up some money for one and this beast will kick

Borderlands I tweaked actually and it runs really good in SLI mode on my XPS M1730. Here is the config + nhancer profile for it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=430312

 

Damn didn´t think the 4870 mobility is slower than the 8800m GTX. Look here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=424518&page=57

8800m GTX on mine overclocked ones.

Pixel Fillrate 10.0 GPixel/S
Texture Fillrate 35.0 GTexel/s
Bandwidth 60.8 GB/S

4870 Mobility

Pixel Fillrate 8.8 GPixel/S
Texture Fillrate 22.0 GTexel/s
Bandwidth 56.8 GB/S

Although mine are overclocked I don´t think the difference should be that huge especially on the Texture Fillrate.

 

Trust me performance is way better on the 4870's compared to my x9000 with 8800M gtx sli. Whatever those numbers mean, it flies. Whats the max a x9000 can get on 3dmark 06?

 

Depends you can´t compare a Quad Core CPU to an Core2Duo in 3D Mark 06 since the benchmark loves Quad Core CPU´s. It´s better to check in game benchmarks instead like Crysis for instance. Of course there´s many games that likes Quad Cores too, but if you have an Core2Duo in that M17x then maybe we should compare to another XPS M1730 user with an X9000 CPU.

Else just test games that doesn´t benefit quad cores a lot like Crysis for instance.

What I mean is that the GPU´s alone isn´t a lot faster than the 8800m GTX, since those numbers should prove it. Just look at the texture fillrate it´s damn low compared to the 8800m GTX, it´s lower overall. Sure the whole M17x laptop of course performs better than the XPS M1730 but that´s mostly due to better CPU, faster RAM.

 

I've forgotten how to change the quickset options... where's that again?

 

NickBarbs,
Dude, I will say this myself, the ATi cards are better.

However, 3dMark06 and Vantage are the worst contentions of argument for the case.

A majority of ATi cards, simply due to their design and very high shader count, simply score very high in Vantage benchmarks. Even 3870s do amazingly well, and 4800s absolutely own those benchmarks. In comparison, the 280m SLi would even lose out badly.

Now when it comes to real gaming, things get different. Have a look at the Crysis CPU and GPU results at 'DX10 high' for the 4870s; they're actually lower than Hikkoo's, but that's because Notebookcheck.net were using older drivers, and then there's the slower CPU clock - obviously, there was a flaw in those tests, but you see how these so-called tests can mislead, especially vantage and 3dMark. You get the idea though. . . these next gen cards are far from next generation, and in reality, they all come quite close, the Nvidias even use the same old core. The only real reason why I give the proper edge and advantage to the new Clevos and Alienware - better CPU, motherboard and RAM, which in turn better exploit that dual power. Look at some of the older Clevo benchmarks of the 9800m GT SLi, running on the desktop core2duo design.

 

Yes, though would be nice to compare if it would have been possible a Quad Core XPS M1730 along with the 8800m GTX SLI.

Now remember the 280m GTX and the 4870 is marginally faster than the 9800m GTX. Since both 280m GTX and 4870 is pretty equal in performance.

Also it has a lot do with how you optimize your system from drivers, to profiles, to tweaks etc etc.

 

I'm running a dual core T9600 @ 3.3ghz on the 3dmark tests, so thats comparable to an x9000 @ 3.4.

They're close and maybe the better ram and higher FSB make all the difference, but the framerate is very good.

However, can't overclock which is kind of sad.

Kade whats the 3dmark score on your system? can it hit 15k?

 

Thanks for the response. When you say specifically tailored to fit the 1730, can you specify how specific? I read one review about there being a strap that you use to secure the laptop, so it seemed like it would fit any laptop...

Do you have any pictures? Can you take some? I'd especially like to see some pics with the 1730 in the sleeve you mention so I know if the M17x will fit it or not. Please do this ASAP if you can, as I want to be able to cancel the order if it doesn't look like it will fit.

Thanks!

 

Indeed, the DDR3 RAM and superior CPU will help those already powerful 4870s hit a whole new apex.

As for my score. Yes, I broke 15k. What I want to break is 15.5k, which I'll take a crack at when I get the time.

However, this is the score with older, crappier drivers. The drivers I prefer to use--and currently use--give trouble with 3dMark06. For example, at the moment, 3dMark crashes before even starting. So. . . yeah, sucks.

Magnus,
You should check out the Clevo benchmarks on the older models. I think there was one guy that ran QX9300 with dual 9800 GTs. His machine owned!

Also, my friend's Qosimo SLi 9800 GTS with QX9300 and 6GB DDR3 RAM - his Crysis benched stable at 'very high'. Obviously, it wasn't ground-breaking faster than the M1730, but it was much more 'stutter free'. I think the average FPS-rating at very high DX10 was around 25-28.

To Lord Zath,
It is hard to explain. I think I could get slightly bulkier laptops to fit, but that's just a thought. Personally, I was willing to put an 18-inch Clevo into the zip-section, instead of using the actual internal pouch of the M1730. I mean, so long as it fits in the bag, it does the job for me. Anyway, I'll get you a picture. Give me a little while. . .

Image attached.

The piping around the mouth of the sleeve is in fact elastic, but even then, it seems to fit rather firmly around the M1730, meaning that the elasticity is probably near its limit.

 

Thanks for the pic it helps. One final request - could you do me a favor and measure the opening in the backpack? The dimensions of the M17x are:

12.5" deep
16" wide
2" tall

 

XPS m1730
11.5" deep
16" wide
2.2" tall

 

It fits fine, my friend uses his M1730 bag for his new M17x.

 

Perfect thanks!!!

 

Glad I could help,
I also have one for my M1730. It is a great bag, with lots of room.