Two quick questions about XPS M1330

Since there is the 30% off $1699+ coupon available, I was thinking about getting an XPS M1330. In the configurator, I noticed that for the default optical drive, it doesn't say that it is a slot loading drive, while the third option is but also makes you pay a lot more for an external burner that I don't need. I was under the impression that this laptop comes with a slot loading drive by default. Can someone clear this?

The other question I have is whether or not it is still a good time to get an M1330, considering it has aged quite a bit. Is there going to be a refresh coming soon?

P.S. What is the situation with the faulty Nvidia GPUs now?

 

You can only get an M1330 with a slot loading optical drive.
Personally, I would wait for the Studio XPS 13 to come out rather than buy a 1330 now. The 8400's are faulty, and though a new XPS should be "fixed" I wouldn't take my chances. The Studio XPS 13 won't be much different aesthetically, but will likely be a new chip platform, as well as better performing and more reliable ATI graphics (though this is pure speculation).

 

Yes, There is only a slot loading drive (no other options are available). And the 8400M GS issue is not fixed. DELL released few BIOS versions to have the FAN run more frequently and faster; maybe nVidia also made changes to their drivers to clock down the card when idling, but none of them are real fixes.

 

The GPUs on boards manufactured after August 2008 have been packaged differently and should not die at such alarming rates. But again, not sure if I'd trust it anyway.

 

Mine is manufactured in September. And temps doesnt cross 70-71 degrees. Even after playing games like WoW, Bully, COD4 etc. for hours.


*touchwood*

 

How do you find the GPU manufacturing date!!

 

It really frustrates me that Laptop companies ship products that are faulty. We pay a lot of money for these things, at that price you expect it to be pretty much perfect.

Thats not to say I dont appreciate how difficult it must be trying to bring together all those different components and get them working with very definite parameters.

 

my motherboard was replaced on fist week of October 2008, didn't notice any difference in idle or load temps. maybe the new manufacturing/packaging method has no impact on operating temperatures, instead has better thermal properties or whatever, but I don't trust NVIDIA anymore..

 

Replaced October 2008 means nothing about manufacture date.... well, except that I can say almost for certain that it was manufactured before the fix. Dell replacement parts are refurbished, so what's the chance that you got a refurbed part less than 2 months after it was produced?

And the high temps on the M1330 have NOTHING TO DO with the faulty GPU. Though the faulty GPU + high temps are the reason for the abysmal amount of GPU deaths we are seeing, the sole cause of the insane temps is because the cooling in the M1330 is very poorly designed.

 

I know, that the " issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations". However, I don’t know whether NVIDIA fixed it or not, didn't see any credible reports supporting this theory.... Anyways, overheating is still a big issue. Therefore, getting back to the original point: I wouldn’t recommend a M1330, especially right now when a refresh is about to come.

 

I was just wondering how you guys were able to tell when you're boards were manufactured ?

thanks

 

Me too! I would be interested in knowing when mine was manufactured as well.