XPS M1730 - CPU upgrade and warranty - where do I stand?

Hi Folks,

I've had my 1730 since the 11th of March - with a T9300, 2GB RAM, 2x200GB 7200's and SLi 8800's with 1 yr Complete care and 3 yr XPS Premium warranty.

The question I have is this:

Where would I stand if say - I upgraded my CPU to a X9000?

I have already upgraded the RAM to 4GB of Corsair.

And more recently I saw on ebay a lot of 5x X9000 CPU's - for £390 each. I made the guy an offer for his last one (£350 inc. postage) and he agreed, so now I have an X9000 on it's way

I'm probably asking a question based on common sense here - but I thought I'd ask you lot because your 'in the know' - would I be better off keeping the old parts, just in case of a warranty/accident?

Or, am I safe to sell those parts?

Would it invalidate the warranty if I upgraded the CPU? if so, would Dell upgrade it for me under the warranty?

And finally, who's running what OS on these machines?

I bought mine with XP Professional - but I have tried Vista32 with SP1 and didn't like it based on slower performance and general instability. Do you think it's still a wise decision to stick with XP, or should I re-install Vista and make a proper go at it?

 

replacing the CPU you have will without a doubt VOID your warranty. Dell will not honor it for you, and they definately wouldn't install the CPU.

I'm not sure why you'd even need a more powerful processor, the T9300 is ridiculous as it is!

 

Are you sure that upgrading the CPU would void the warranty?

If that were the case I dare say I could keep the old CPU and install it if I ever needed a warranty call.

The reason I bought an X9000 is:

1) I wanted it originally on my Dell, but at a cost of £770 extra, I simply could not afford it at that time, plus if I had have waited any longer I would have lost out on the great deal that was going at the time, therefore I'd have been paying £3000+ for a laptop, when I got the spec I got now for just a shade over £1900.

2) The chip was (at £350) a steal! - I made the offer thinking it would be rejected, but I was surprised when he accepted it!

3) The chip has the best feature to someone like me - unlocked multiplier, which means I can do what I did all those years spent with desktops.....

OVERCLOCK

Not that I'm a big overclocker - those days have gone for me I think (he says when he's got a E2160 running @ 3GHz beside him!).

But there were times (before 2002) when I went completely nutty overclocking, buying peltier coolers etc etc.

I got 120MHz out of a P75 in '98, then 250 out of a K6-233 in the same year (AMD's were **** overclockers back then!) then I got a K6-2 333 which was just as bad (350 max)

Then I moved to intel........

Celeron 300A @ 450, then 504MHz
Celeron 400 @ 570, then 600Mhz
Pentium III 500 @ 750 Mhz
Pentium III 700 @ 1002 MHz (Using Peltier)

Then back to AMD:

Athlon 1000 (AXIA) @ 1333 - pencil trick
Athlon XP 1800 @ bog std (calming down now)

Then sold my desktop rig and bought an Inspiron 8200

Then in summer 2004:

AMD Mobile XP 2500+ @ 2.2GHz on modded NF7-S
AMD XP 3200+ @ stock

2006:

A64 3500 90nm @ stock

Late 2006, back to intel:

P4 640 @ 4GHz (water cooling)

Then my (supposedly) last desktop :

Core2Duo E6600 @ stock, replaced by Core2Quad Q6600 running @ 2.88GHz (std air)

Sold the last rig for £1000 to help pay for the 1730.

But more recently I built myself a cheap downloading rig:

Pentium E2160 @ 3Ghz
AW9D-MAX
2GB Corsair XPERT (from my other systems)
Silverstone TJ07 case.

You could say, I like to have a play around with things.

 

I am not sure about it, but on my Toshiba X205-SLI1 I upgraded the cpu to the T7700 and thought it would not be covered under warranty and 2 weeks ago my video cards took crap and I took it in to a Toshiba certified service center and they replaced both video cards under warranty. I simply did not even mention that I had upgraded the cpu and since most of these are 3rd part service centers they really do not care as long as they get paid for their work by Dell, Toshiba, or whoever is paying.

 

If you do have any problems with it, just replace it with the T9300 before sending it back to DELL for repairs.

 

I would definetly hang on to the T9300 chip just in case you need to have warranty service performed on the system. As hypdotspec mentioned, usually replacement of the CPU will void your warranty.

 

is it just components like upgrading hard drive and ram that doesn't void warranty then?

I notice Ifti has upgraded the video card on his 1730 - I wonder if he's voided his warranty?

 

Technically, the replacement of any non user-replaceable part (note Dell defines what user-replaceable is and I am almost positive that the processor is not one of them) is grounds for Dell voiding your warranty. Although many advanced users often do replace parts, its always wise to hang on to your stock components in case you need to send the system back for repair or replacement.

 

Replacing parts like CPU will not void the warranty.

I've done it in the past. It may be because of the fact that I have complete care, but I can certainly say that my warranty is still good in all my systems.

If you purchase parts from Dell spare parts, some parts will come w/ system warranty (it will say 90 days, or system warranty, whichever is longer), and it certainly doesn't come with installation by Dell field techs.

 

Achilles,

Have you ever required a system exchange? Since you don't have Return to Depot warranty, there is no real way Dell will find out that you replaced the processor so long as you just swap the orignal back in. If they were to discover that you changed the processor, I am pretty sure your warranty would be voided.

 

I thought we were talking about CPU upgrade here?

I was saying upgrading CPU via Dell spare parts won't void the warranty. You can even buy the CPU from 3rd party, it just won't be under Dell warranty. If you were to upgade CPU from Dell, just make sure the invoice says something about it carrying the system warranty (there is really no point upgrading from Dell if you don't need system warranty since Dell spare part's CPU price is extremely higher than the ones from other vendors)

As for swapping parts; as long as you return the same parts that was in the original system, dell will not care, and won't be able to tell if it was original or not unless you do something extremely obvious.

 

Thanks for the info, rather coincidentally someone has PM'd me about my T9300.

I suppose I could sell it, and if I needed to call for warranty support - buy a T9300 and refit it.

 

No coincidence .

 

UPDATE:

Ok - CPU arrived this lunchtime........

Stripped notebook down - removed mb, fitted new CPU + Arctic Silver 5

Took my time doing the job, so as to make sure every last screw went in the right place.

Took me about 90-120 mins in total (I told ya I took my time)

Anti-static wrist strap too - which is unusual for me, but better to be safe than sorry with £2K laptop.

Powered it up - worked perfect.

I use 3DMark03 as my yardstick here is my scores:

@ 1280x1024 no AA

with T9300, 4GB RAM and XP:

48500 marks

with X9000 same spec:

@2.8GHz = 49500 marks
@3.0Ghz = 49996 marks
@3.2Ghz = 50505 marks
@3.4Ghz = 49405 marks (was getting errors on windows startup at this speed)

Prior to running @ 3.2Ghz I would have disagreed with reviewers comments about the noise level - but @ 3.2! - fans are full on - although not as noisy as my old D900T it's not far off.

But on a positive note about fan speed - when running below 3.2GHz and running general 3D apps - GPU temps are around 75C dropping to just below 70C at idle.

Bearing in mind that the notebook is silent when operating at < 3.2GHz

The CPU @ 3.0GHz idles at less than 50C and on full load no more than 60-63C

When running @ 3.2GHz - graphics cards idle @ 62-63C and CPU idles @ 42-44C due to fans been full on - very comfortable to the touch above the keyboard when running at this speed. Noise level tho' that's a different matter.

@ 3.4GHz as mentioned earlier - she's coming apart at the seems - ran 3DMark03 ok, but corrupted my LCD manager software for example.

Will have another play later - with 3DMark06 - let you know how it goes.

 

I have a business account manager with Dell, who will always get someone out to me no matter what I do with the laptop, as long as its still in its warrenty period.

How will Dell know you have upgraded the CPU?? Sure, the technician would know after opening the laptop, but Im pretty confident most of them wouldnt cross check the system with its original spec anyway.

The problem only arises when you have an issue with the upgraded part. If the upgraded CPU stopped working, for instance, then its down to you to buy a replacement and fit it. However, if the GPU went, then they would come and replace it, since it sthe original one that came with the laptop - they wouldnt know about the CPU upgrade in the first instance, and what they dont know, wont hurt em

 

Yeah - I figured as much.

Well it's all working well so far - running at 3GHz so that I can have a bit of piece and quiet.

I have it sat on a Zalman NC-2000 cooler and will be measuring temps all night doing a mixture of things from browsing to getting my arse kicked on Tournament tower map on C&C3

With a bit of benchmarking thrown in

 

So now having upgraded Andy, what do you think? Worth it? Since I am in the same boat (M1730 w/2x200GB7200, 4GB, 8800M-SLI), short of SSDs the CPU is the part with the most upgrade potential for me. Would you do it again, both from the investment perspective and the perceived gain perspective so far?

I play (try to play) Crysis (still having issues with 1920 being playable, been reading the Owners Lounge thread to fix that. BTW, JEEZ is that thread long, who idea was that anyway to put all of that junk in one thread?? Lots of great info and unique threads going on there at the same time, it is hard to follow. Anyway I have been following Magnus' advice, but still half the frame rates he gets, maybe upgrading the CPU will help? I don't think so because the logitech meter doesn't show me being CPU bound... but not sure.

I do a lot of encoding (I plan to rerip my entire CD collection, in the thousands, to high res mp3s to distribute amonst my mp3 players).

I want to rip/encode a bunch of my DVDs to DiVX for my daughter to be able to watch on her PC without screwing up the originals, (dunno how she does it), etc.

I know these are all CPU intensive tasks, but I don't know if I am going to gain 3 seconds per rip or 10 minutes, know what I mean?

The fact that the CPU doesn't run at 3.4 is depressing, especially since you used AS5 and did everything I think to myself people didn't do when they complain of heat or OC problems . I thought that these mobile chips had more headroom than that, were you seeing abnormally high temps at 3.4? You mentioned at 3.2 that the temp was actually lower because of 100% fan... what were you seeing @3.4 under load?

 

So now having upgraded Andy, what do you think? Worth it? Since I am in the same boat (M1730 w/2x200GB7200, 4GB, 8800M-SLI), short of SSDs the CPU is the part with the most upgrade potential for me. Would you do it again, both from the investment perspective and the perceived gain perspective so far?

It depends on your perspective - I think £350 ($700) was cheap enough for the CPU, and I've seen ppl, particularly crazies on the Sager/Clevo forum overclocking their graphics cards, which is extremely risky given that they are so much more expensive than CPU's

Even when I'd owned desktops - I hardly ever cranked the graphics cards, but the CPU's saw no mercy because 1) They are exceptionally cooled and 2) They were and still are cheaper than graphics cards.

Overclocking CPU's is a way of life to me, when I found out about the Dell's ability to overclock I knew that was penultimately what I wanted to do, even if it was to only gain a few FPS in my favourite games or a few thousand 3DMarks.

I personally think it was worth it just for that, and the fact that it won't run at 3.4 doesn't bother me that much as it is running at a comfortable 3GHz right now and is quiet as a mouse. Anything more like 3.2 and it's stable, but noisy, which reminds me of the heady days of the late nineties when I was running Peltiers on Alpha PEP66's


I play (try to play) Crysis (still having issues with 1920 being playable, been reading the Owners Lounge thread to fix that. BTW, JEEZ is that thread long, who idea was that anyway to put all of that junk in one thread?? Lots of great info and unique threads going on there at the same time, it is hard to follow. Anyway I have been following Magnus' advice, but still half the frame rates he gets, maybe upgrading the CPU will help? I don't think so because the logitech meter doesn't show me being CPU bound... but not sure.

I also have been using Crysis as a test bed, I would say that upgrading the CPU has made a difference albeit not enough of a difference to make me want to run 1920x1200 on high - I ran FRAPS and was averaging 28fps whilst playing the game (with the T9300), which some might call playable, but I don't. I haven't tried updating the game yet tho' and I've heard that makes a difference.

With regard to the 1730 Owner's lounge, YES that thread is big - if I started reading it now - I would still be reading it by next XMAS lol! - I think it should be divided into separate topics, as it is so difficult to find the info/advice that you need.

I do a lot of encoding (I plan to rerip my entire CD collection, in the thousands, to high res mp3s to distribute amonst my mp3 players).

I want to rip/encode a bunch of my DVDs to DiVX for my daughter to be able to watch on her PC without screwing up the originals, (dunno how she does it), etc.

I know these are all CPU intensive tasks, but I don't know if I am going to gain 3 seconds per rip or 10 minutes, know what I mean?

Well someone on here said that I was daft enough upgrading from a T9300 to a X9000, as the T9300 is very fast anyway - but it was the overclocking flexibility that did it for me.

If your CPU is a T7xxx series then the upgrade to a T9300 would probably be well worth it - as it will not only run faster, but will run cooler considering it's based on 45nm technology

The fact that the CPU doesn't run at 3.4 is depressing, especially since you used AS5 and did everything I think to myself people didn't do when they complain of heat or OC problems . I thought that these mobile chips had more headroom than that, were you seeing abnormally high temps at 3.4? You mentioned at 3.2 that the temp was actually lower because of 100% fan... what were you seeing @3.4 under load?

@3.2 the idle temps are around 42C and on load about 53C due to the fans running full whack - but at 3.4 it was running 50+C @ idle and over 60C on load - with fans on full again. From what I saw, under CPU-Z the laptop automatically increases the core voltage when overclocking excessively - i.e. 3.2+ - running at nearly 1.5v under load

if your still interested in the chip PM me.

 

Thanks for all of the reply, very helpful! I also do indeed overclock almost everything I run, but I admit I have also been overclocking vid cards (in desktops) since probably the 9700 pro days when people started figuring out that the different cards were only different by firmware, then rivatuner and atitool came out to overclock as well. I actually have seen some fantastic gains with overclocking/flashing vid cards that I have had (feels fun when you buy a 9500 NP for $150 bucks or so and flash it to get the performance of a $350 9700 pro card ). You can get great cooling for vid cards now as well, I still have a X800GTO that I upgraded to an X850 XT PE with a nice Zalman 700 cooler... just displaced by a $170 8800GTS G92 I could not pass up . Vid card overclocking even seems better because you can update the firmware and that vid card pretty much really is what you made it in any system. With CPU overclocking, way more complicated with all of the voltages, bus vs. multipliers, motherboard settings that make a difference but no one knows why, etc.

Heck I used to try and overclock my modems (from 28.8 to 33.6, then trying to mod to 56k). For the time spent, probably cheaper and easier just to buy the right part, but overclocking is fun .

I am not sure about doing that with the laptop vid card, but I may . As long as it seems safe... I can set alarms with the OC software for certain temps, heck I think that the card will automatically downclock it if hits a danger zone. That may be the only way to get 1920x1200 playable on high (as Magnus has OCed with his 8800M using Rivatuner I think, I believe he has hit 40+fps ave, which is good enough for me!).

Thanks for the info, I am pretty sure a CPU upgrade from the [email protected] to Penryn [email protected] GHZ could not possibly hurt, that is like a 25% Ghz upgrade, 45nm and more cache just a bonus .

I have been checking eBay too and it looks like x7900s go for around $400 USD or so... that is a pretty good price for the upgrade from 2.0 to 2.8->3.2(3.4?) as well, that would HAVE to help!

 

Where did u get the X9000 from, does anyone know where i can get one from?

 

get it from ebay for 250$