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

Be sure to stop by now and then Chief. Happy Holidays!

 

Dang, Magnus and I will be the last 1730 users

 

Ah, well. Sorry to hear that, Chief. Well, at least you left Dell on your terms, mate. All the best with your new machine.

And Eleron. . . What the hell?! You and Magnus the only ones? What am I? Chopped liver? I actually got a full refund and had the chance to go for the M17x. Yet I remained M1730 with a new machine. Hahahaha! Blah. My machine won't die soon this time. I just got a feeling about this situation.

 

And don't you, forget about me!!! LOL.

 

Jebus - there are others!

 

Magnus and Eleron -Yeah there are others ok!!!, I am one of the few remaining M1730 users too. Over 2 1/2 years with zero problems to boot.

 

Might be at least one more XPS 1730 user lurking around here... 8800 GTX version. Bone White.

I just upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit after a complete dis-assembly and meticulous cleaning. The thing is running faster and cooler than ever.

2+ years and zero problems.

 

Interesting. I was thinking of doing a complete clean / de-dusting (of the hardware) these coming holidays, but I'm afraid I'd damage something and the benefit would be very minor. Still not decided if I'll do it or not though.

 

It's worth doing on a regular basis. You don't have to take the whole thing apart each time, just spray air thoroughly through the bottom vents and back vents (with the fans blowing it back out) and you'll clear up a lot of dust. It can make a big difference depending on how dusty the area is.

 

Oops

 

Aaaah, there you`ve been hiding

 

One year and four months here, with no problems so fare.

 

Bought this 1730 since May, no problems either.

 

Hell yeah!

Nm88, Magnus, SomeFormOfHuman, Eleron, Ernstig, 72Hundred, Jesse, Metalman, Zergslayer, Dark Wolf, perhaps even Hikkoo. . . we got numbers!

And 72hundred, I would absolutely recommend cleaning out the system. If you're worried about taking it apart, then Nm88's got a great solution.

 

I was using an air can to spray air in/out of the vents like this on a regular basis, every 3-4 weeks. When opened the thing up though I pulled out half a dozen dust bunnies - like hairballs about the size of a large lima bean in diameter. One was about as large as a nickel. They were way too large to blow out so the only way to go was open surgery like this.

My GPU temps dropped 5-6 degrees under load after the cleanout, and it seems like the fans aren't chugging as much...

By the way, there are at least 156 screws holding the 1730's case together. And a few are hidden... It was tricky.... The other pitfall was that the cords that attach to the LAN card are attached ever so slightly and generally tricky to attach.

 

Make sure you force all the fans to high when you do this. That way, most of the dust will blow out the exhaust instead of settling inside the laptop.

Mine is still reasonably clean although I've done it the lazy way for months. It's not as perfect as a real cleaning but it's far, far better than nothing.

And it only takes one minute instead of half an hour (plus a lot of desk space for a billion teeny tiny screws).

 

Almost two years here.
I remember reading the first thread, which had already close to 200 pages.
Started reading from post 1 as I had yet to receive my lovely machine.
This is my third laptop and I think it's good enough to run me another 2 years *at least*.
All games are still perfectly playable at 1920x1200 with everything cranked up with the exception of the wonky GTA 4 port.

Oh... and Dirt 2 runs like too. But that should be solved when SLI is supported like with most games. If it isn't already by now (haven't looked into it for a while.)

Other then that, it's just a joy to look at and a joy to work on.
I love the LG screen and also the "feel" of the keyboard as you type / game on it.
After almost two years the keys still feel "soft" when you press them instead of clunky/hard as you press the them down. I love it!

 

I miss my XPS M1730 keyboard at times. This keyboard tends to be a bit squeaky on some of the keys.

I wonder who ended up with my old M1730. I like to think it made it across the pond but realistically its most likely still sitting in the refurb pile in some Indiana Jones type warehouse.

 

Wow, Darkwolf. Good to see your're still breathing.

I have to say, as a current m17X owner, this is my biggest regret losing the XPS - the keyboard was absolutely gorgeous. The m17x's keys are kinda' clunky, and I have to double or triple press keys, especially when I'm typing out big responses like on here. With the XPS, the keys were sensitive and precise. Of course the keys respond well when gaming, but I'm a sensitive typer using both my hands and nine fingers in my arsenal, and that keyboard is still a thorn in my side of an otherwise seamless experience.

I also miss being able to turn on the keyboard backlight with the FN + -> macro.

 

OMG!

Just ran OCCT (the overclocking / stability tester) (quick question; is that program safe).... anyways temps below. Had to stop the test early because they keep rising and rising.

I think I might indeed take the beast apart this christmas for a clean. Its been 18 months since purchased (one gpu replacement too).








What I plan on doing is running several OCCT's prior to and after a clean. Hopefully make this as scietific as possible and standardise the envoriment both physical and software wise. It'll be interesting to see if a clean actually drops temps / delays rise / does nothing / makes it worse.

Open to suggestions on how to do this apart from those already mentioned...

 

Double check the temps with GPU-z. IT's a small .exe that doesn't even need an install - it runs in real-time. I don't know anything about OCCT, just thought I'd mention it to verify temps. With the fans on at that level there's no way they should be in the 90's.

 

I'll redo it later with GPU-z for temps. Everest was showing GPU fans at 3000RPM (the second highest setting I think), tbh I wasn't happy to let the system continue as I don't think gaming comes close to putting it under that kind of pressure and if I damaged the cards with a stability test I'd be pissed.

 

Yep nice to see more XPS M1730 users still going strong.

 

I've done this and have seen differences of several degrees C, with only moderate dust.

If you really want to test your CPU / GPU to the limit, run Prime95 in-place FFTs on both cores. This will generate maximum CPU heat. Then simultaneously run Furmark in stability/extreme burning mode. This will cook the GPU. Both together will test your system to its limits.

 

72Hundred,
I can offer some input as I did both OCCT and Fur Mark tests on my machine, overclocked.

My temps never exceeded the 85 mark after twenty minutes. I do keep the system clean and keep the back raised a bit. Without raising the back, the temps did rise up by 4 degrees.

 

I`m due a fan cleanup some time this weekend, thanks for reminding me.

 

Yea, thanks for the advice. I used a Prime and Furmark combo when setting up the now defunct XPS wiki external cooling pages, I seemed that OCCT was more stress full to the laptop. I guess I can do both and then see how it gets on.

 

Deleted. Wrong Topc

 

So little update for ya guys.

Well half my usb ports ended up deing, and I have always had a crappy headphone jack. Well im super happy i extended my warranty cause im getting a new motherboard in a few days.

Also bought a nice dell 24" monitor and i must say im having alot of fun with it.

One question tho, does the speedfan program give us any extra fan control yet?

 

Which program is that?

 

the program speedfan, or is there a different one?

 

Speedfan does not let you control the fans.

There was a recent beta version that let you only read (not control) the fan speed, but even that feature disappeared in the final version.

I wouldn't hold my breath for an M1730-friendly version of Speedfan. Right now i8kfangui is the only software option (for non-SLI users) and it will probably stay that way.

 

Seems that one can't anyways. - http://www.almico.com/forummotherboards.php?man=257

I'm always slow to try those programs out. I mess around with ik8fan (or whatever its called) for a while until I realised it had disabled my second GPU fan!!! So had to do a system restore to get it back. So proceed at your own risk.

 

Does speedfan even control the fans.. i do not think so. Also, anyone ever get the fan go into some "fast mode" at times... it happens to me everytime i use photoshop for a few minutes. Not sure if the cpu load goes crazy or what. I thought it could handle photoshop with no worries.

 

My runs from september 2008 . No problems so far . I'm still on XP .
Good news to XP users / is there anybody ? / - powermizer works fine on sli with 195.65 nVidia drivers .
And there is no grafic issue in Crysis and Call of Duty 2 wich I mentioned a few months ago .
By the way - Marry Christmas and Happy new Year to all of You .
Regards
Pit

 

Well, I don't have any complaints. I am very happy with the beast.

However, it's kind of weird that this change takes place at this point in time, just when I had deemed this machine worthy and stable.

I got a very good deal on an M17x with dual 280m GTX cards in SLi. Granted, I'll have to do some CPU upgrading, along with warranty extension, but the overall package was good. It was a 'take it and think later about what you'll do with it' kind of deal.

Obviously, I am not going to be able to keep both machines. So, if the M17x doesn't impress me much, then I have ideas. However, if it does seem like a signficiant step-up from my current setup, then I'll probably have to sell off the M1730.

As of right now, I am not too impressed with the M17x benchmarks. Vantage seems to show some promise, but I want to see how well the cards handle real world gaming on demanding engines and the DX10 API. I have seen some people churn out quite a bit of power out of single 280s, but then, I've also learnt that a majority of that 'stability' is actually coming from the larger VRAM, which even the 9800m GTX has. So yeah, I am going to be doing some thorough benchmarking at the start of 2010 and then consider my next move.

Sad times indeed.

 

The second you open the m17x packaging and touch the cast aluminum chassis that's ice cold to the touch you'll never turn back.

Start making the best of your last days with the 1730

 

I appreciate the aesthetic 'wow' over the M17x's aluminium. I personally like the touch, but you guys need to know that I had an aluminum case with my Y2K Compaq Presario, as well as a follow-up Acer laptop that my old man purchased for me a year later. Needless to say, I got over that novelty a long time ago. What I care about is the internal cooling and dynamics, which I am certainly looking forward to as a buyer. Note: I will like the fact that it won't be a finger-print magnet - matt/satin for the win!

I certainly hope I am marking those days for the M1730, Hankaaron. I just hope that I am not putting unfair levels of expectation into the machine.

 

20 degrees cooler at idle. 'Nuff said.

 

Do you get say, 45 degrees with the laptop sitting on a flat surface, no back raised and no powermizer?

 

M1730 OL folks... BTW, congrats Kade.

 

. . .thanks, buddy.

So, anyway.

I have to say the 182.46 drivers, paired with an up-to-date version of Nhancer and SLI updates is by far my favourite combination. Excellent frame-rates on the beast, people.

 

So the 190.40 xfastest driver has been toppled by the 182.46 on the M1730? I miss my M1730 and testing...

 

Hi I had my 8800m gtx SLI cards fried three times now and they are sending me the m17x replacement with one 260m I believe. Although Im not sure if its just one or not. After stating to the tech rep about going from 2 8800m to one 260m he stated that Dells exchange policy declares that they have to give me equal or better for what I purchased. So Im not sure what to do if I receive the single 260m and it doesn't satisfy me.

 

Reallove,
Go to the following thread and post a summary of your situation.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=426693&page=107

You are in a perfectly good position to argue for SLi. Simple: SLi for SLi. So if your computer arrives with one card, simply use the unresolved issue link and lodge a complaint about the missing second card. A bit of chat with Dell should result in a tech coming over to your place to install the second card. Make sure they add the heatsink and fan when installing.

BatBoy,
I wouldn't say 190.40 was always the fastest. It was good with new games, but actually quite sore with others. My FarCry 2 benchmarks declined gradually with these newer drivers, but going back to the earlier and mid 180s really showed what they could do in hindsight. We even have guys like Magnus, using the ancient tweakforce 180.84 driver with Nhancer and getting very good results. He has managed to run all the new games with the updated profiles, and churn out blistering speed! I basically adopted the same concept with the 182.46 and I'm happy. It might not always be the fastest with -everything- but generally, it is very stable. Hell, it's even good for benchmarking, and you know quite a bit about that business.

 

190.40 was great in terms of what I was playing... TF2 and L4D at the time. It was solid and everything was working perfect - temps, etc. Then again - it did fry so... lol

I'm sure if I still had the beast I would be using one of the 18x series drivers now...

Glad to hear all is smooth in the driver department!

 

Well, I still have my beast and it works pretty good. Only one unsolved issue with the left speaker (dead), and that's it...
I still have 2 years and 4 months of warranty, maybe it will blow until then, lol.

EDIT: I see that the latest versions of HW Monitor and GPU-Z can show pretty much everything about the hardware, HW Monitor is showing from the speed of the fans to about all temps. of the hardware (chipset, dimm, cpu (not only it's cores), etc), and GPU-Z shows even the usage level of GPU, memory used, shader clocks and etc.

Sorry for my bad english.

 

Indeed, BatBoy. They had some good potential. My RE5 benchmark ran properly. But you know me, I've got 320Gigs of HDD space that is full of games. I tried 'em all - Half-Life 2 [ Ep. 1 and Ep. 2]; Left 4 Dead; Mass Effect; S.T.A.L.K.E.R. [Both]; C.O.D. 4 and WaW; Crysis and Warhead; Dead Space; Resident Evil 5; Street Fighter 4; Prey; Doom 3; Quake 4; F.E.A.R.; The Witcher; Lost Planet; Far Cry 2; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Devil May Cry 4; Fallout 3; Borderlands; Gears of War; Obscure 2; Prototype; Watchmen: The End is Nigh; Chronicles of Riddick: Assault in Dark Athena; Bioshock. . . and quite a few more.

Yeah, I got way too much crap. Point is that the 190.40, or rather the general trend of the 190s, gave me quite a bit of stuttering and difficulty with some of these games. 182.46 with Nhancer and profile updates helped find a decent common ground between the aforementioned plethora of CRAP!

No wonder I can't finish a single game.

 

@Kade - LOL, Unable to finish the game would not make me happy.

@Time - Yep, HWMonitor certainly shows a bit more than it did last version. Nice to see. Great to hear you have fan speeds on the M1730 showing. I don't see those.

GPUz produced a nice lockup for me, however it could've been the driver I was on. I reverted back to the .36 version and havent bothered trying the current one again.

 

Hell yeah. So much for having a lot of crap. My only real complaint with these older drivers it the lack of PowerMizer. I've tried reg-edits and all that jazz, but I just can't get the powermizer to function properly.

Nice temperatures, by the way. Now that's the stuff! I can't wait till the 1st of January, to be really honest. Then again, I can, for a lot of other reasons.

So that's a thermal reading without system fans, but with powermizer and on flat surface, yes?