Did I win a good deal on ebay for gaming ?

Hi won this on ebay did I do ok ? ie good price , specs etc

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=230270524415

thanks

 

sorry, how much is that in american lol?

 

about $1000

 

meh, you did ok, you could have gotten a slightly worse GPU with better overall specs with an M1530.

 

but for 100% gaming purposes the M1710 beats the M1530 doesn't it ?

 

If M1710 has Go 7950 GTX GPU, then it can beat M1530 easily in gaming purpose.

 

Yes the 7950GTX is better than the 8600GT DDR3

 

BUT its more power hungry, doesn't have a LED vibrantly bright display with excellent color reproduction, has lower processor that you cant switch to Penryn because of different chip architecture and socket type. You also can only use 2GB, so dont even think about multitasking as well as playing a game. It puts that 1920x1200 resolution to shame since the best part about it is being able to mutitask and have more screen room. It doesnt have HDMI so you can't output in HD if you were to game on a TV or watch a movie in HD from your laptop to your TV. Its also very heavy and gets hotter than the M1530 so gaming is more comfortable on the M1530 and the M1710 because if you were to just play on your lap, your lap will feet hotter and get numb from the weight of the M1710 compared to the M1530 that is very light and equipped with LED screen makes it 100 grams lighter. Ha!

Sorry, I just had to say something when I read:

I like my M1530 as you can probably tell.

Though yes, it is great for gaming, you will want to upgrade your processor to one with faster clock speeds if you want to try to play more newer games that are more processing intensive.

 

cant I just buy a fan mat to cool the bottom of it then overclock it from 2.16Ghz to around 2.6Ghz with out any issues ? for latest games.

I have a very powerfull PC at home but I am going a way for 3 months so it would be nice to game while I am way.

just to add as well can you upgrade the CPU and GPU on a M1710 ?

 

Yes you can buy a fan mat to cool the bottom of it.. but no you will not be able to overclock it to 2.6 ghz without any issues....

If that were the case, everyone would just buy the 2.0ghz processor, stick a cooling mat under it and add liquid cooling and OC it to 2.6ghz so they don't have to pay the extra money for the higher end processor.

What would happen is it would not work from the start, or even if you overclock it and then downclock it, there will be damage to the processor so even if you get it to run at 2.6 ghz, once you downclock back down to 2.2 ghz, (or if you choose to stay at 2.6ghz) you will notice the performance of your computer will gradually degrade and you will end up with a nice pile of BSODs of frequent occurrence and you may damage the motherboard and well... despite only having to pay about $1000 for it in US... the deal doesn't become so sweet anymore when you have to pay an additional $1000+ dollars for a new one and additional time in having to wait for such an offer to come by.

Yes and No respectively. You cannot upgrade the GPU to any of the new cards like the 8600GT or even downgrade. Your GPU swapping is limited by what Dell makes your that particular model. Since you already have the 7950GTX, which is the best option available for that particular model, you will not be able to upgrade to any newer DX10 card.

The CPU is swappable, but you can only use the standard Merom Core2Duos and you cannot upgrade to any of the Penryn processors. You will can only stick with the T7xxx series.

You should be able to run most games fine though, though obviously not at best performance. Buy a new processor to upgrade is the best option, though it will add some $.

 

Excellent information ! thanks

 

it might not be the perfect gaming laptop as the ram and cpu are a bit of a let down, i mean the m1530 has a t9300 which is great, but you can upgrade ram from 2gb to 4gb?
i would say the the graphics card is better then your other specs.

although for £500...
i mean the worst m1530 isnt for that much.... so a good deal.

it comes out over £1000 on the dell site

 

Yeah, the graphics card is the best component. If you upgrade the processor, it will beat out an M1530 in terms of gaming performance. Though the same can't be said for heat, power endurance, efficiency, mobility... though it will still be kick arse for gaming.

 

You did fine. Personally Id take a 1530 over that as Penryn and DDR3 can perform pretty well compared to the 1710 with the right drivers and tweaks.

But you will still be stuck with a 667 FSB and 65nm CPU. But dont get me wrong the 1710 is no slouch, but a properly setup ddr3 8600m GT/Penryn laptop will be just as nice.

 

That XPS 1710 would stomp all over any XPS M1530 in terms of gaming.

 

With a faster CPU and the right drivers and game settings the difference is not that great.

 

Well with drivers being the same version on both the 7950GTX and having the same in game settings is the only way to fairly compare the two.

The CPU is not really gonna make a difference in most games today. It's really not gonna matter whether you have a 65nm Core 2 running at 2.16Ghz or a 45nm Core 2 running at 2.4Ghz. The difference is minimal at least in games. A 7950GTX in a M1710 gets in the low 5000s in 3DMark06, a 8600M GT GDDR3 in a M1530 will get in the low 4000s in 3DMark06. That's a pretty solid advantage and that is with the M1530 having the CPU advantage. The GPU makes much more of a difference in games then the CPU.

 

using it for 3 months id say you did fine. long tern wise i would have spent more to get a better system like the clevo 570ru or 570tu.. but yeah especially if its temporary its fine you just may not be able to play everything on high but it will play everything

 

Dont sweat your purchase. You did fine. Before I received my new 1730 I had a 1710 with the exact same specs except for a smaller HDD (100GB). Your CPU is newer than the one I had (T2600 - same speed though). RAM wise I was running 2GB and had the 7950GTX card. I loved that lappie. It performed fine.

As for OC'ing the CPU - NEGATIVE. Not going to happen unless you fork over the coin for the 2.8Ghz CPU they offered for the 1710.

For a performance boost, up it to 2x2GB sticks or drop in 1 GB stick for 3. Remember, a 32-bit OS will only address about 3.25 GB of memory.

Drop in a faster HDD and be sure to use the latest drivers. Give the 175.19's a go. I can't remember what I was using in mine but the 175.19s are working for me just fine with my current rig.

Congrats and enjoy!

 

Those arn't major. Having a 45nm CPU only gives you more benefits in reducing heat, power consumption, and efficiency. Sure the FSB matters, but the majority of the processing for games comes from your GFX card. Processor-wise, the M1530 crushes it, but gaming wise, the card that you will have with your 1710 has beats out the 8600M GT with the exception that it doesn't have DX10 support. Though even still, games are not relying alot on DX10, so you'll be playing Crysis at higher graphics settings than the M1530 can with its 8600GT if you upgrade your processor.

GTX is a whole new level and a whole different class. It slaughters nearly everything.

Don't buy more RAM. 2GB is the max you can use because the 1710 does not use the Santa Rosa chipset. The Standard Merom can only support up to 2GB. Putting in more won't do you any good. Though like Batboy said and I have mentioned, it will not be a slouch!