Should i buy a Dell XPS M1730, pros and cons ?

At the min i have a 17 inch AR series Sony Vaio and i`m considering a change to a Dell XPS M1730, can you convince me to buy one ? I want one with the CORE 2 EXTREME X9000 processor, a bluray read and write drive, minimum around 620GB storage which would be 2 x 320 GB @ 7200 rpm and 4GB etc.

The size and weight won`t bother me as this will be a desktop replacement that will rarely leave the house.

I have a couple of questions if any M1730 owners could answer them ?

1. Can you tell me how quiet the XPS M1730 is when its just being used for general use, are the fans quiet etc ?

2. How much heat do they give off ?

3. How good are the bluray drives ?

4. What are the pros and cons ?

Thanks, any input you can give me will be appreciated.

 

Please fill out this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=29271

Until we know what you intend to do on it, there is little I can do.

 

I appreciate what your saying, i know which laptop i want. All i`m after is some opinions from XPS M1730 users as to how quiet it is, what the bluray drive is like and whether its worth changing from an AR series Vaio to an XPS M1730.

Ive found the link you have posted is mainly for people that want other members to recommend them a laptop, like i said i already know which laptop i want which is a M1730 hence me posting in this section. That link as far as i can see is a "What should i buy form".

I can post their if you like, its no prob.

 

1.Its very quiet, more so than other gaming laptop of such power; so quiet its un-noticeable in normal windows mode. Fans kick off in the games, then its still manageable.

2.Its not something you want on your laps... The rear heats up... afterall, there are two 9800m GTs in there.

3. Havent used bluray myself. Though the screen is one of the best around, after Asus G7x's dual lamp, and other RGB-LED screens; thats all that matters.

4.pros:

Damn powerful
Dual HDD
Awesome screen
Gaming LCD
Backlit keypad

Con

Not portable (6kg+ with powerbrick in backpack)
Last gen technology (no quad/M1730 support)
Expensive form dell, for your config, your looking at nearly £3k.

There is a Alienware laptop coming up, unless you really need a M1730, I'd hold until 1st of June. That laptop will probably be replacement of M1730, spending sp much on M1730 just looks unreasonable, especially its near end of its life cycle.

 

Go for it. I ordered mine last wednesday, shipped today.. I decided to not wait for the allpowerful because its most likely going to be overpriced. I got my dell m1730 with 2.5 ghz, 320gb 7200 rpm, dual 9800 1gb, 4gb ram all for $1900. Seemed like a reasonable price, so I got it . I bet you the allpowerful will be in the $3-4k range.

 

But str4ktt, here in the UK, M1730 is still very expensive. The setup he wants is:

X9000+4gb RAM+9800m GT+640GB

The spec I can find is

X9000+4gb RAM+9800m GT+500GB

With just only one year warranty, its going to cost him roughly equviliant of $3665, which is almost twice the amount you paid. Still go for it?

That X9000 really costs alot directly from dell.

 

I got mine last week, a great deal from Dell through what turned out to be a online marketing error. Like said above it's old tech, Santa Rosa, and 9800m series will be the last gpu for this machine.

But in my shoes, I paid $1095 shipped + $300 for an x9000 off ebay, and I had the ram & hdds from my previous laptop. So $1395 for dual 9800m GT / x9000 a machine that can still hang with the big boys is a steal IMO.

So if you can get this at a great price I would go for it. But if you have to pay full price for it, I would get a newer machine. Something with quad support, ddr3, and GTX280 / SLI

Also about your questions, If you are used to DTRs then the fans will not bother you. It does idle a bit warm for my tastes 68-72c, I'm going to apply some thermal compound on the gpus soon and see what that does. Illuminated keyboard and Logitech game screen are great. Screen is nice, but not sure about color definition. Overall I'm happy with the M1730 so far, It is heavy though, seriously, and I'm used to DTRs

 

Whats the difference between an X9000 and a X7900 processor, both seem to be 2.8Ghz as standard and both seem to be over clockable to 3.4Ghz.

The ones with the X7900 processor are obviously a bit cheaper, i was just wondering why ?

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...faster-mobile-processor-core-2-extreme-x7900/

 

Well, it's the whole lay out of the processor and date.

X7900 = 2.8 ghz@800mhz, 65NM die tech, 291 Million Transistors and only 4mb L2 cache first gen Xtreme Processor

X9000 = 2.8ghz@800mhz, newer 45NM die tech, 410 Million Transistors, less heat, also 6MB L2 Cache Latest and best Xtreme Processor for Santa Rosa line up! (Higher Benchmark)

 

Thanks for the replies.

Just a quick question, does anyone run a Samsung 256GB SSD in their XPS M1730 ? If so how does it compliment the system ?

If you had the choice would you go for a Solid State drive in your XPS if you had the oppertunity over a normal hard drive ?

 

If money is no objective, then SSD for sure.

You might want to see the Dell Latitude, Vostro, and Precision section, quite a few have even used those Samsung 2nd drives in RAID 0, in their M6400.