m1730 recommended for school?

Hi everyone. I begin university in September and can't decide on a laptop. Would the m1730 be recommended for school? I have classes that are 3 hours long...will the battery last that long? Also any horror stories?

 

I wouldn't recommend a 17 inch beast for class usage. And it wouldn't be exactly convenient to have to haul it to class every day. 3 hours would be tough to make especially w/ the gpu in it. I'd suggest 15 inches or below. 1530 may be a good fit. (with extended battery)

 

no, the m1530 or m1330 will last longer with the battery. the m1730 is a portable desktop in most cases. it has high power parts which need tons of power so bye bye battery life. the m1530 however with the powersaver setting and the 9 cell battery has been known to do about 4-5 hours on charge with max brightness on the screen and undervolting on the cpu.

 

i just wish dell would do something like a 15" xps with a 8800 or better in it.. for me the 1530 would just not cut it due to lack of gpu power. but then the 1730 is rather huge!! so there is no in between with them..

kinda sucks.. maybe look at the alineware m15x.. almost the power of the 1730 but a single 8800 and far more powerful than the 1530 is.. im tempted to pull the trigger on one myself.. i just really wanted the dual 8800's

 

If they put an 8800M GTX into the M1530, its battery life will be reduced form 2+ hours down to about 30-45 mins. With its feature to switch to integrated gfx.. it lasts an hour. Not worth it.

8600GT is already a decent gaming card already.

 

It isn't going to last 3 hours. You should look at the M1330 or M1530.

I don't think the 8800 would be able to go in the M1530. It just doesn't have enough space to meet the thermal needs of that card.

 

17 inch is enormous, HUGE all you want is a laptop a mobile computer, if you want hardcore gaming then get a powerful desktop and pay less bucks. Dont get anything bigger than 15 inch for school.

 

If you're not gaming, go with the m1330 (keep integrated graphics...horror stories to the max with the 8400GS).

If you're going to do mild-medium gaming, go with the m1530 (great all around computer at a great price).

The m1730 is, as mentioned, far too much, unless you want to play crysis on high. But with an m1730 you won't make it through a 2 or 3 hour lecture.

 

you dont wanna bring a 17" notebook to class.

 

Forget the 1730.......just over 1 hour is about all it gets with 1 GPU disabled,screen brightness turned down,doing word processing.

Like the others say,a 1530 is a much better option....plus the 1730 is about twice as big,not including the massive cables and power supply.
A portable its not

M15X is nice,but doesn't exactly inspire confidence as far as reliability goes,from reading these forums

 

Like others have mentioned, the XPS M1330 and M1530 would be the best choices for you.