Wow checking out the 1730 again. NICE!

Wow the price starts at 1/2 of what it did a year ago. Some questions.

1) I want 800mhz ram, what should i buy from newegg(only confused becayse dell offers nothing like that onlly 667)? I want at 6gb, but would take 4gb if it was more cost effective.

2) can I buy the blu ray drive off ebay or somthing, how much would i be saving?

3) Can the 9800mgt max:

world in conflict
fallout 3
etc
basically any non "omg that is a system killer game"

what do those puppies run crySIS, gta 4, and Farcry 2 like?

as long as they can look as good as the console versions, and i can run crysis with the highest level in the triple c pack, im good.
XPS M1730 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
System Color Sapphire Blue
Memory 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA
Video Card NVIDIA® SLI™ Dual GeForce® 9800M GT 1GB GDDR3
Hard Drive Speed: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) Free Fall Sensor
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
Combo or DVD+RW Drive Blu-ray Disc Combo (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
Sound Options High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Networking Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) No Productivity software pre-installed
GAMING LCD Logitech® GamePanel Display
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee 15 month
Primary Battery 85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9-cell)
Carrying Case Dell XPS Notebook Backpack
Warranty & Service 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Datasafe Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Dial-Up Internet Access No ISP requested
Dell Digital Entertainment No Entertainment software pre-installed
Processor Branding Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Label
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium
Dell Remote Access Dell Remote Access, free basic service
TOTAL: $1,909.00


Freee shipping

tax will cost some, then the money for the ram upgrade, also does anyone know of anyone working coupon codes on this system as of now?

 

DDR2 @ 800Mhz is not supported by the M1730 Intel Chipset - 800Mhz sticks will run @ 667Mhz. You wont perceive any difference though - so don't stress over this.

 

1) Dell only sells 667mhz memory because that's all the Santa Rosa platform (P965M chipset) supports. 4GB is much more cost effective than 6GB. Much much more.
2) Yes, you could. You'd save a decent amount, but might not be worth the hassle trying to get one that will fit the bezel from the old one properly.
3) I'd say it should max any of those games without a problem, assuming you've got a good CPU in there as well. My desktop gets about 13K 3dmark06 marks, and can max out those games, and plays Crysis and Far Cry 2 fine on high-max settings. The XPS 1730 can score about 13K as well with the 9800GTs in SLI and a high end CPU. Have not played GTA IV but they do reccomend a quad core CPU, which you cannot get in an XPS 1730 (also not supported by Santa Rosa).

 

So dell is selling 6GB @ 800 mhz, that pretty deceiving imo. Yeah I was wondering if ddr3 ram and clock speeds and all was even a big deal. I would only use this a movie computer and heavy gaming, this would be replacing my 360 and my awful 8600gt boot-camp solution on my macbook pro.

 

i guess it is 800mhz memory, it would just downclock to 667mhz.
ddr3 is no big deal now, at least not untill it get's to current ddr2 price.

 

You could've gotten that spec for around 1k a week ago.

 

yeah man one week ago an u would be saving around 1k... but as long as u r happy that's fine

 

my friend has 4GB DDR3 1066MHZ ram, and he keeps bragging lol

NOOOOOO! Im going to wait it out for awhile till I can save money. Im kind of deciding between.

macbook pro(in sig)+ this

or

imac with ati 4850 mobilty. (a worse card than in this dell or course but it would be an all in one device for me)

 

Looks to be a decent config for the price, although I haven't kept up tabs on M1730 prices recently.

You can pick up 4GB of RAM for about $45-50 off of Feebay, and that'd be the first thing I'd do, that and an x64 OS. After that, purchase the HDDs of your choice and you should be well set. If you're familiar with installing hardware and have $450, you can even get an ES X9000 if you really want to bump up the ante; otherwise your T8300 should serve you just fine.

You can find a Blu-ray drive off of Feebay as well, although make sure you match the connector on the back of your DVD/R drive to make sure it'll work correctly. The Feebay drives won't have the correct front bezel to fit the M1730; you can replace it with the one off your 'current' drive to get a flush fit. Expect to pay around $150.

As far as gaming performance, you'll definitely be happy. I haven't personally played Crysis(still need to get it) but from other 1730 owners it plays well with a few tweaks. GTA4 with the latest patches runs well; so does Far Cry 2. The most 'potent' thing I've played on mine is Bioshock, and it handles that flawlessly with max DX10 settings and silky smooth framerates.

 

If you're willing to go desktop, definitely go desktop.

As for macbook pros, I currently own a 17" unibody and I'm selling it. Performance isn't good enough for the amount of money I paid. Plus you have to manually crank the fans super high in order to get temps acceptable. (Acceptable as in not annoyingly hot at bottom left palm rest area) If you're looking at an older one it's cheaper, but I'd still recommend the new unibody if we're talking strictly mac. LED backlit screen is SO SO nice.

 

Yeah this confing was orginally 2499 (insane for 8600GT, etc) i waited till the unibodys came out and bought this brand new for about 1700. It stinks because I love OSX and I need final cut, but the 1730 is obviously 100% better performance wise.

I hear you, I owe ebay like 60 bucks in unpaid fees. I was under the impression paypal fees= ebay fees I got owned.

 

Speaking of final cut, why not try out sony vegas or adobe premiere? They might not have as many fancy text features but in the end, professional movies/films don't use fancy effects that scream "amateur!!!" Wipes, cuts, iris, fades, that's all you really need. Plus sony vegas is very small in size, and it does what I need to do, no problems.

 

Its just that i have taken several FCP classes already. I know it pretty well by now. Its the industry standard (low end usually , they still use AVID in hollywood. I just am not sure if i can give up OSX. No issues ever, windows vista has proved stable, but I dont think i can get used to it again.

 

ok, what you need to do is go to Dell.com,mouse over home and small office or w/e it is, and click laptops and mini's. ok, under the laptop's and mini's dropdown menu, go down to as advertised. on the left side of the screen is a shop the dell e-catalog., there should be an XPS m1730 option in there for 999. I just ordered one with a T9300, 4 Gigs of ram, SLI 9800 GT's, a 128 Gig SS hard drive in sata (i think) with a 250 Gig 7,200 RPM drive. I also upgraded to the intel PRO n wireless and bluetooth. Total price came to $2,074 before tax, and i'll look it up, but i used some online coupons and got a dell preferred account and got an additional 3% off that (like $75). so it was right at 2150 after taxes and 3 day shipping. hope that helps some if you decide to go that route and to keep the costs down.

 

Thanks! I could not find it though. do you happen to remember the code?

 

If you have access via your employer (check with Human Resources) or school, you should look into the Dell EPP program. Can save some additional funds there as well.

www.dell.com/epp