M1710 on the way!

I just couldn't resist! Ordered a M1710 today:

Things in the works:

Merom Upgrade
More RAM
Bigger HD
Hopefully it will support nVidia's newest GPU cards
etc...etc...

Review of course

1 1 222-1714 XPS M1710, Intel Core Duo Processor T2400 (1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
1 1 320-4755 17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA with Black LCD Cover, for XPS M1710
1 1 311-5891 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 677MHZ,2 DIMM, for XPS M1710
1 1 320-4758 512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX, for XPS M1710
1 1 341-3344 60GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive for XPS M1710
1 1 420-4768 Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English
1 1 420-4928 Windows Media Player 10
1 1 463-2282 Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access
1 1 313-4210 Dell Resource CD with Application Backup,w/Tools for XPS M1710
1 1 420-4830 DELL SUPPORT 3.0
1 1 420-5477 Dell Direct Download
1 1 430-1277 Integrated 10/100/1000 NetworkCard and Modem for Inspiron
1 1 430-1048 Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0, for Inspiron
1 1 465-2590 8X DVD+/-RW Drive, for XPS M1710
1 1 420-5783 Sonic Cineplayer
1 1 420-5791 Roxio Creator Basic/MyDVD Basic
1 1 313-4218 SoundBlaster Advanced Audio for XPS M1710
1 1 430-1661 Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps), for XPS M1710
1 1 412-0850 Network Associates McAfee 7.0,English,90-day Trial
1 1 312-0422 80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1710
1 1 412-0586 AOL BSD/SMB
1 1 420-3224 Broadband Icon for Inspiron
1 1 412-0687 NETZERO ISP
1 1 412-0845 Paint Shop Photo Album 6.0 Starter Edition
1 1 412-0803 Corel WordPerfect 12 plus Trial of Quartro Pro and Presentations
1 1 950-9057 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
1 1 950-3820 Type 7 Contract - Mail-In Service, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year
1 1 960-8710 Warranty Support,Initial Year
1 1 983-2207 Thank You for buying Dell
1 1 465-2411 Thank you for choosing Dell
1 1 420-5136 Quickbooks 2005 Special SimpleStart Edition

Worth $3200 off of www.dell.com


A side note:
I might have a M170 review, might not

Bare with me

 

No one cares

 

How is the laptop?

 

Dont have it yet

Its in Boxing now

 

Interesting.

1) Tell me this, aside from the 7900 GTX, and the fancy case, how is this machine different from a similarly speced 1705?

2) What did it end up costing you?

 

Difference:
Better screen (brighter)
lights
very powerful video card (main reason i wanted it)
i get XPS support (i believe you get to talk to an american)

And my specs on Dells website shipped to me, is $3200

I got this for $2350

Not bad eh? I had a M170 before, and once you get a XPS, you cant go back. I love them

The reason i got a discount: I ordered through the Small buisness...got $450 off, and got the rest off since i know a few people

Other than that, i wont say exactly how i got it at the price

 

Very, very nice.
Just out of curiosity, when did you order, and what was your "expected ship date"?
I'm just curious because my "expected ship date" is 6/6, but i've heard it may even show up earlier than that? any idea what to expect? (sorry if i'm hijacking your thread, nickspohn)

 

Nobody cares about your XPS nick.

JK, it's gonna be awesome man.

 

Zimm your a noob


I dont care guys, ask/say anything you want

It's your thread

I ordered on 5/19/06..the T2400's are shipping quicker than the T2600's by far.

And for the estimated delivery date, yes, that is way over estimated. I would expect to get it by the end of this week, or Monday of next week

 

Congrats. When you get it in, let us know all the differences. I also wanna know whether or not you think this upgrade was worth it (once you've had some time with it).

 

Congrats on your buy nick! Although, you're not the only one with good tech support - go DellOnCall!

 

I will

since i had my M170 for 5 weeks, ill be able to notice some differences and what not

will post pics upon arrival (cant find many black M1710 pics yet)

 

Well, I don't mean to "one-up" you but I just ordered a M1710 with the same specs as you (including the 512MB 7900GTX) but got 2GB of RAM and an 80GB7200RPM HDD, and OFFICE 2003 for $2428!!!

Ya gotta love those Dell 30% off coupons!!

Now, I love my E1505, so I may just check out this XPS M1710 and sell it off again. Who knows...

 

Nick what are you going to do with your M170? 5 weeks then you upgrade... WOW! And I thought I was bad selling my m140 4 months after purchasing and hoping to upgrade to an Asus W3j within the next month.

 

Explain to me please how you were able to use a coupon with a XPS lappie...

 

Well, Dell has 30% off Inspiron, Dimension and XPS coupons (I got mine in my email, but ebay has them) good at the Dell Outlet, and this morning, there were half dozen M1710's, two of which had the 7900GTX and were "Previously Ordered New", not refurbs.

So, in essence, I have a new M1710 with 30% off. W

Within a couple of hours, the supply of Outlet M1710's had dwindled to 1.

Seemed like a good savings to me!

 

wow nick...but what a load of junk software. A Reformat should do the job....

 

You don't need to reformat. Just uninstall the junk and clean it out as per previously posted threads. Pay attention to the Corel Photo uninstall directions, there was a recent thread about this. There's not really that much stuff to remove.

Also, the screens are the same between the 1705 and 1710. I am sitting right next to my girlfriend's E1705 and am typing on my M1710 and there is absolutely no difference in brightness (my color saturation is very slightly tweaked, as is gamma, brightness and contrast).

Enjoy your new M1710 - it's a monster of a system and I love mine. Don't feel bad, I paid $3400 for mine. (Lancorp, I hate you)

 

Good deal, although i could have gotten the same deal almost, but said to myself, why just go cheaper, and get the RAM somewhere else. Plus, i was going to ugrade everything.
Right now i can get a Specced out (T2600, 100GB HD, 2GB RAM, 7900GTX, for $2750)
I also didn't use a coupon, i was able to get a discount on my own

I complained to dell, there were some things that would get me mad (touch pad would lock up, and it had the sparkle effect noticable on a black screen.)
I was lucky they took it back, and i got the full price.

Ah, that makes sense. Id still feel better ordering brand new, straight from dell, but that is just me.

Indeed, i want to do a reformat. It brings up the performance so much than just uninstalling things. Im worried about the MediaDirect installation though.

You have a good point, but i need to. I need to install MCE, since it is coming with XP Home



wish me luck, so i get this thing on Friday

 

Trust me, I didn't want to spend anywhere close to what the M1710 cost! But, it looked like a great deal, and basically had everything I needed for a decent price. Sure, a faster chip would have been nice, and there was even a model at the Outlet that was "Previously ordered new" with a 2.16 CPU, but it was almost $400 more...no thanks.

I think for this price, I got a great deal, PLUS, mine ships the same day I ordered it and I get it tomorrow!!!

In any case, I may wind up not keeping it. I've had a few 17" laptops in the past, and they are just too big to be portable. But, I wanted to test that out (again) for myself and get the feel of what the fastest notebook model in the world is like!!

Have fun. We'll both be playing with our M1710's on Friday!

 

It has shipped! Its in Transit now

samething my M170 did

should get it friday

 

UPS Has it! I get it tommorow for sure!

 

Where is it shipping from?

 

Tennesee

UPS got it last night

 

Nice. I bet you're excited to get it...
What are you gonna do first? Fire up a game, reformat?

 

I am, i wanted to work out, so i have it before the weekend, and it did!


First, im going to take some box pics, etc.

Try out media direct, and then reformat. Im just worried if i cant get Media Direct to work again.

Then, im going to just install some stuff, transfer things, then tests!

 

Plan to write a review?

 

Of course

I might just do a M170 too for the heck of it

 

Nick, I wouldn't sweat the MediaDirect too much. I was able to get mine back my just booting from the service and utilities disk, typing cd\md2, then repair. Works great now. Although, I don't see a use for it anyway.

 

So did you get yours? I got mine (from Dell Outlet) today, in just one day! I'll be playing tomorrow!!!

 

You should just compare the M170 with the M1710 in your review. No need for 2 reviews.

 

Wow, you still haven't gotten that thing yet nick??! I got all the bugs worked out of mine. Dell sent me a new screen, and I have to admit, it is noticably brighter than my m170 screen (and I had a good one). I'm definitely happy with it. Have a small overclock on it right now, I am gonna boost that up when I get a chance, since it's running smooth, and tomorrow I am gonna order 2 gigs of ram, since bf2 is really feeling the decrease. Hope you're happy with yours too!!

 

subime did you overclock the GPU or CPU or both? Any 3Dmark scores? And yes, Bf2 is one of those games that really benefits from more RAM. Some games you will only notice 1FPS difference between 1GB and 2GB's.

 

Yep, i get it today! I have the 3 day weekend to mess with it! It would have been bad if i got it Tuesday (whole weekend to wait)

Anyways, it hasnt been a long time. I ordered a week ago (Last friday) and it is here within a week. I had to delay so long to make sure Dell got my m170, and after 2 days of them getting it, i ordered this one. Strangely enough, my credit went back in 2 days, instead of 15. I lucked out

 

I got mine (from the Outlet, "Previously Ordered New") yesterday!!

Anyway, i'll leave the review up to you, but I have a couple of things to note about the M1710.

1) I have a bit of light leakage along the bottom of the screen. In a darkened room, it is noticeable.

2) It looks like an E1705/9400. Except for the glitzy LED's, the stylish top, and the white keyboard, i'm almost sure it is an E1705. I hope I didn't pay a > $1000 premium for some LED's and a slick top!!

3) I also noticed a DOCK PORT on the bottom, but don't see any docking stations as an option. Is there a dock station available for this?

Considering that there are some fully loaded E1705's going for $1200 right now, I'm wondering if there is VALUE in the M1710? I'm not down on the M1710, but just wondering if the M1710 is worth twice what I can get an E1705 (7900GS instead of GTX) for?

Now, on to loading up my new M1710!!!

 

Just the GPU. Unfortunately, there is no way to OC the CPU on these laptops. But I believe my 3dmark05 score was a little under 9300, and 06 was somewhere around 5200. I didn't get around to saving them, I've still been tweeking my computer right now. I will post some good results later

 

Hey Nick this is Tech,

I helped him get it at a great price. if anyone else wants help send me a PM

I can get Black T2600 LOADED with 3yr Complete Care for $2800 out the door.

 

Light Leakage is almost inevitable with notebooks. I have seen some screens that are beautiful, but almost all screens (especially 17") on notebooks will have some. Although, I will agree that my Samsung screen on my M1710 has a bit more than I'd like. It's decreased a bit since I've gotten it, however.

The body is actually quite different than the E1705. It's obviously a different bottom shell, as it has the docking port. The palmrest is also completely different; as the silver trim is IMO a lot nicer than the white on the E1705. The touchpad is also obviously different with the LEDs in it. The hinge cover, obviously it just has XPS | M1710 where it would say E1705. The motherboard has to be different as well, with the support for the docking station, the LEDs, and whatever else. What I'm saying is that the M1710 has more improvements over the E1705 that you'd think. Dell realized their mistake with the m170 and the 9300, by making it possible to have a 9300 as good as a M170 much cheaper. They aren't going to make that mistake again, and they have made some significant things in the M1710. At this point, it is impossible to get a 7900GTX in the E1705. If you're ok with the 7900GS, I'd probably just get the E1705; as you're right, it is much cheaper. I was lucky enough to get the M1710 through a lot of trouble for much, much cheaper; but I won't go into that.

The other thing as I mentioned is the docking port. I have never used a docking port before, but since getting the m1710 I have ordered one off of ebay and I love it. After much research I was able to find that there are two options for docking ports for the M1710. You can use either the D/Dock or the D/Port. I just bought the D/Port since I don't need an external PCI card, or a D/Bay. If that's the kind of thing you would like, then by all means, get the D/Dock. But it has been confirmed that both of them work with the m1710. If you get the D/Port you will need to use a 130w adapter with it, as the 90w that comes with it can not supply enough power for your computer. You can use either the D/Port or D/Dock with the D Family monitor stand, but that's only useful if you have an external monitor. I haven't even tried mine with an external monitor though, so I can't tell you how well that works. As far as price, Dell sell the D/Port for $200, I got mine for $25 shipped on ebay. It was used, without an AC adapter, but it works great and I would have had to replace the AC adapter with a 130w one anyway. Dell sells the D/Dock for over $300 I believe, and they can be had on ebay for less than $100. Either way, they are nice to use, and IMO a huge improvement that the M1710 has over the E1705 or the M170. If you don't use one, however, it's not worth upgrading, once again.

 

Exactly what zimm said

 

The reason I was speculating on the use of E1705 parts in the M1710 is this...the exterior ports all around are EXACTLY in the same place on the E1705 as the M1710. Nothing more, nothing less. That leads me to believe the motherboard is the same. With regards to the docking port---the pictures I've seen of the current model Dell Inspiron and Latitude MB's, all the MB's have a spot for a dock connector, but those that don't incorporate it, don't solder one on. In other words, the solder pads are there, but the connector isn't installed. So, my guess is on the E1705 MB, there is a place for a dock port to be installed, but it isn't. The colored LED's are almost certainly a part of the design of the MB, and are probably, again, just not installed on the E1705. The chassis is a different color, though. I might explore this a bit further just to appease my curiosity!

Thanks for the info on the D/DOCK and D/PORT. I had just asked this question in a different thread, and now you've answered it here. Time to go shopping for a D/PORT!

 

I got it!

So far:

NO Light leakage...this is amazing

 

I just finished GHOSTING my E1505 drive to my new XPS M1710...I put a lot of time into the E1505 getting my apps and data setup, etc.,etc...

It booted right up, needed to load a few drivers (video, LAN, WLAN, smart card reader, etc.), but all-in-all, it was a success!!

Saved me a whole weekend of reloading AGAIN yet another laptop (something I have become very good at, but don't look forward to!).

Everyone have a great weekend!

 

Wooow, Nick enjoy

 

Tech, this is amazing

i have no issues...this computer is perfect

 

man OC it, create a USB boot drive, it flies with the tweaksRus stuff

 

Can you elaborate a bit? What do you recommend?

 

Im using the latest Tweaksrus drivers

www.tweaksrus.com