Dell screwed my gaming with the e1720 from my 1705!!

Sooo, my ram in my e1705 melted... again (lawl), and dell decided to just assemble me a new machine saying that it had cooling issues. This musta been like, the 5th time it's happened.
Shortly after that, my g/f's e1705 with vista (mine has xp pro) had alot of video card over heating issues (althought we're waiting to tackle that issue now that mines gone so badly. funny still how it's always over heating).

I was told that the replacment would arrive in like, a month. So I waited, and one poped in. I figured it was just a working e1705 that I could swap HD's with so I wouldn't have to reinstall crap, and went to do it excitedly (fyi, I loved my e1705, even though it melted. lol. The thing still kicked ass in games).
I opened the box to pull it out and was pretty suprised with what I saw. My e1705 was apparantly not made anymore! lol
Instead I found myself holding an e1720!

I serioulsy thought for a while "OMG THIS IS AWESOME!!". Hah, was I wrong.
All the specs on the paper looked great, and I was so excited to have a dx10 card.
Figured the 8600 gt HAD to be an upgrade! (rofl on me, amarite?)

Welp, I got everything installed, and went to get into my raid in wow because it was that time of the day.
I didn't really notice the diffrence in power right away, because even on my e1705, loading areas in wow for the first time caused a tad of chugging.
The game may be old, but it takes alot of resources.

I got into my raid zone, and my fps was... well, HORRID! I went from 40ish with my e1705 and it's 7900 to 10-15 with my 8600.

I figured a few things at this point.

1) maybe it was because of vista
2) coulda needed real drivers
3) maybe dell was dumb enough to make a new line of laptops that were actually substantially weaker graphics wise.

I went with 1 and 2 first. lol

I updated the drivers with their site ones first. Nothing changes.
Then I went for some of the modded desktop ones, and still saw no improvment in my fps rates in games.

Mind you, the games I speak of atm are UT3 (which couldn't even load into 1400x900 res with this card before the thing auto rest back to 800.600, when with my e1705 could play in 1920x1200 eventough it lagged a bit), and WoW (which SHOULD run flawlessly at max settings in a machine of this dollar value).

So the drivers wern't to blame It seemed.

I then went to benchmark my 3 systems.

For some better insight to the systems btw, here are the specs.

The two e1705's both have the same.

- 2 ghz core 2 duo processors
- Geforce 7900go GS 256 meg
- 2 gigs of (I think) 667 mhz ram
- 17 inch ultra bright 1920x1200 res monitors

The only diffrence between the two is that one has vista and the other has xp.

The E1720 has the same almost, except for it's 8600m gt video card, and the ram is 800 mhz instead of the 667mhz ram, and runs on vista.

I ran the 3dmark06 test on all 3 laptops a few times with the updated drivers, and I kept getting almost the same results. I'll list them below, not counting the minor diffrences (like 2's and 4's).

E1705 xp- 3550
E1705 vista- 3510
E1720 vista - 3100

Pre driver updates, the benchmarks looked like this.

E1705 xp - 3340
E1705 vista - 3300
E1720 vista - 2900


Soo, as you can see, there was a clear performace diffrence in both graphical benchmark testing, and in performance during gameplay.


Now, after I finally came to realize that it was infact option 3 that was the real deal, I called dell about it. I explained to them that they didn't quite send me a system that was "as good as" my e1705, and they infact cut me down quite a bit on system power.
Needless to say, they gave me the run around on it.

Dell keeps trying to say the e1720 is the better system, and blah blah blah. Even the SSR people that call you were not only defiant on the matter, but rude as **** about it, and refused to help with the issue.

It didn't matter what I explained to them. I told them about bottlenecked resources, about how they gave me a dx10 card that can't run dx9 or 10 games in decent quality, and how they gave me a montior with a nativ res of 1920x1200, but a card that can't run a comp in that res.
A card with NO DVI adapter to use my external monitor on (so im stuck with this reflective peice of crap that the card can't even handle), and all I got in return was an extra 200 mhz of ram speed and 80 gigs more of HD space.

That's sorta like saying you're gonna buy someone a new car, and getting them a worse one but adding in a cd player and some cup holders then saying LOOK! ITS BETTER! lol

I've been goin at it with them for a week on this now.
They were supposed to call me back again 3 days ago but I heard nothing, so I called them yesterday.
Turns out they closed my case on me and said that I wanted to return the laptop for 30% of my money back, when I said nothing of the such.

So I called a lawyer about it, and warned them that I was documenting everything that goes on.
Apparantly I could have a real case here, as long as I have ways to prove the lack of performance between the two laptops.
Dell now knows that, and they rushed to get a guy on the line for me from the SSR department.
He I filled him in on all the details, and he's supposedly calling me back today around 5pm.


You gotta be forcefull with companys like dell sadly.. My friend had to resort to slandering them on some tech blog thing that the dell guys actually watched to get his laptop repaird. Someone from the business department saw it and got freaked out by it and through only knowing him from that artical, tried to contact him.
He got ahold of him after 4 days, and told him that if he took it down he would fix everything.

After a month or two, everything was resolved with that issue thanks to this.


I don't like what you have to do to get through to dell, but you gotta get it done if you don't wanna be ****ed by them. :/

Anyways, yeah.

Don't be fooled by this 1720 guys, it's a peice of trash. The only laptop they have with comparable graphical power atm is the xps gaming machines with the 8700's.

If you wanna buy a laptop that can run games decently at all, get that or go to another company.

And on one last side note, don't let the other xps laptops fool you! that x1800 is utter garbage!

ALWAYS! and I mean ALWAYS check the tech specs and performance ratings of the video cards in these laptops before purchasing or even thinking of concenting to anything dell offers you!
Chances are, they're trying to trick you to rip you off!

Seriously, I don't even wanna have to get into the price diffrence on these two video cards here. it's f*kin disgusting how cheap dell got.

*edited for typos*

 

thats a long post!!

 

isn't it?
I didn't want it to turn out that long sadly, but there was alot to be said on the matter. :/

 

The 1720 has 667 DDRII not 800 DDRII - the 965 chipset doesn't support 800, have to wait for Montevina.

I find the 8600m works well if you give it a kick - running mine at 600 on the core and 440 on the memory and it performs well with very little extra heat (never really goes above the high 50's °C with fans forced to high).
Course I dont have anything else to make a comparison with.

 

Yeah, I heard the same too. but when I asked about it in the guru3rd forums, they said not to do it and to just get dell to give me something else. Apparantly, if they notice that it was OC'd at all, then they'll void my 4 year warrenty.

We don't want that to happen sadly, because I only went with dell for a 4 year warrenty, knowing how laptops can break and be a ***** to fix as opposed to desktops.

..I wish i got a desktop now. lol

*edit*

I did read on a forum somewhere btw that they got their 8600m gt to reach 4k on the 3dmark06 test with OCing it, pushing it to the point of an 8700 (because apparantly 8700's are just glorified 8600's anyways).
That, and using the modded drivers I got for it that is.

I doubt it's worth risking my warrenty over though. Espically with what I paid for it.


*edit..again, because im retarded apparantly*

And they said it had faster clocked ram then my e1705, but im guessing it dosen't. So in the end all they did was downgrade me. gay!

 

i say you run with the lawyer thing. lets see how far you get.

 

I hope it dosen't have to go that far. :/

After hearing about them just closing my case without even telling me about it though yesterday, I wouldn't doubt if I had to.

I was so pissed when I heard the dell guy say that the only thing on my case was payment information about returning a laptop. lol
I almost screamed at the guy >_<

I stoped myself though. Those lower lvl tech guys are pretty nice and they try their best to help, even with their limited knowlege and abilitys within the constraints of dells policys.
It's the people at the SSR department that need to be slapped around for their attitudes with the customers.

 

wow. Check this out! They called my friend instead of me, and then my line in my house that's disconnected, when I never even gave them those numbers.

I gave them one number to call and only one, and it was my cell, and this is like, the 5th time they've screwed up because they NEVER F*KING change the numbers in the system, no matter HOW many times I've called and told them to.

I think I've literally done it 4 times(5 now), and they always revert back to the same ones each time, then have no record of me ever telling them to change these numbers!!!!

Looks like I probably won't be hearing from them today now. lol

*EDIT*
Called dell about it, and once again the numbers didn't take. Then they said dI wasn't supposed to be getting a call today, but then they said I was, but then they said I was gonna get one tomorrow, then they switched again and said today, then they told me it turns out not today but tomorrow...

I'm so confused!
Guess im just gonna sit by the phone again for another day or two. lol

 

Keep pushing Dell. Chat with them, call them constantly. I know you should,'t have to. I JUST went through nearly the exact same thing. My 1705 crapped out, I was offered a 1720. I explained the reasons why it isn't comparable (DVI) and still nothing.

I was always polite and professional, and in my case it got me nowhere. Once I got a warranty manager on the line, I was forced to raise my voice. The outcome? Special exception REFUND. Push for that. This was just this month BTW.

 

Yeah dude. They aren't getting their way this time. I'm either getting a laptop of equal graphical power, or exchanging it for a desktop of equal dollar value, or just getting my money back (all of it).

I'm not gonna accept any other options.

 

New side note to my case! Richard is a badass.

That's all there is to be said on the matter. lol

 

People are Gay, situations/circumstances are not.

 

Not very helpfull, but still true. lol

 

I wasn't trying to be helpful. I was trying to politely express that I was offended by your comment.

 

Good to know.

If it seriously offended you though, then sorry. lol

 

Ok. Situation resolved.

I got my full refund for my e1705, and im now building an 1800 desktop with the money.
Here's the specs on it, with vista from my friend.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017

MSI P6N Diamond LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130080

Memory: OCZ Titanium XTC 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227270

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM

CD/DVD Drive: LITE-on DVD RW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106072

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171024

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133021

Monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824255001

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130072


The small HD is because I have alot of external memory thanks to usin laptops for so long.

So yeah. All done.

Also, on a side note, the community rep richard really is a cool guy. I got to chat with em on the phone for a few.
You can trust this guy, and enjoy gettin to work with em.

Peace out laptop hommies!

 

calling 250gb hard drive small....?

I guess nowadays it is.... Hell my old desktop has a 160gb, and used to have an 80.... I guess I need to get with the times eh?

BTW, good work on hassling with Dell.

If i had more time I'd be getting myself a better laptop myself - I can't get rid of this Vostro 1400 crappy screen issue...

 

If ya need help with something, PM richard man. He's the dell rep on these forums. Good guy, and he'll beable to help you out alot.

*edit*

Also, about the HD.. the original plan was to get a terabyte of space on a raid setup, so that would be two linked 500 gig HD's combined to look like a 1 terabyte HD on your comp, for faster read speeds.
Decided against it though. I don't need that much space atm, and the speed is hardly noticable.

Not to mention it woulda been 300 extra from what I bought there. Didn't wanna waste that cash on a HD. I'd rather put it into other parts that matter more, like getting that GTX over just a GT.