Got.. My.. 93000!!! yay.. but...

finally got my 9300.. they're sick.. love em.. runs smooth, spent an hour deleting and making myself comfortable... great overall.. only complaint I would have is the fact that the cd drive vibrates a lot when reading a disk (seems like the drive is too small for the casing) If i figure out how, i'll tighten it.. there's a bit of leakage.. nothing serious.. can't think of any other problems.. .. quiet (other than when it's reading a cd), stays cool.. played games for a few hours still wasn't hot ... awesome buy overall

thanks dell, thanks guys for helping me make my purchase

my i9300 rating = 9.3/10 aha..hahaha.. hah

 

I just got my baby 9300 with the bad boy Nvidia 6800 yesterday as well and after several hours with the machine, I am happy to report that it is one incredible machine. This is my second 9300, replacing my first because of 128 ATI card. This new graphic card (6800) kicks major you know what. I tried hooking it up to my 2 month old external Dell 24 inch LCD and the video card shines. As a simple test, I put in the Microsoft High Def DVD “Speed” and the 9300 and 24 inch simultaneously looked awesome at FULL screen.

I then tried the same thing with my, soon to go back to Dell, other 9300 with 128 ATI card, and it was still nice but stuttered a bit with some fast action sequences and the screen did not look as crisp and smooth.

I then put both machines side by side and just browse around the web, watched some videos, and did normal things and see if I had wasted my money on the bigger video card, and the answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT. Still afraid of being bias about the 6800, I then called my wife in and asked her to sit down at both machines and she picked the one with the 6800 card. Still didn’t believe her, I called my neighbor in and asked him to pick which machine and he again picked the big boy 6800.

So, just to let you know first hand, on my sophisticated  complex tests  on the 9300s and know that I made the right decision going with the big boy Nvidia card.

Also, the new 9300’s fans seemed much more quite then the other 9300s. I guess, Dell did something about the fan noise, not that was an issue for me. They were super quite already.

I am still NOT a gamer.

 

I too just received my beautiful baby yesterday.

My first impressions of it was... wow this thing is quite big, but i love it!!! And it's not that heavy for its size. I love the overall looks of it and think that the white bumpers are especially cool.

I couldn't do much to my laptop in terms of gaming and testing out the video card because my 1 gig of Kingston RAM is not coming in until tomorrow. I did however, reformatted my hard drive and set up my own partitions. And I even took it a step further and installed my beloved game World of Warcraft .

I downloaded the XtremeG drivers from Tweak R Us and it's a great tool to use to overclock your video card. Can't wait to install my RAM and test this baby out!!

As for the screen, I got the WUXGA Truelife screen and I loveeeeeeeeeee it!!! I do not mind the reflection that ppl complain about one bit. It's not even that bad. As for the font size, once you adjust stuff it's not bad at all. But then again I'm 25 years old with 20/20 vision so I can't speak for those with vision problems. I absolutely love the viewing angles on the Truelife screen. I can't imagine my laptop with anything less.

I have to admit, I had buyer's remorse after I clicked on Submit during my purchase... but after I got my baby in my hands I'm all smiles.

One thing that annoyed though was that the damn :centrino: centrino sticker was placed kinda crooked on the bottom right hand side of the laptop. I know its not a big issue, but ppl who are symmetrical like I am won't help but look at it everytime.

 

sammieboy, could you comment a bit more on the UXGA screen on your new 9300:

Any light leakage?

Any so called sparkle effect that others have reported?

Are you happy with the brightness of the screen?

Any shimmering or unevenness in the backlight?

How about the vieiwing angle? reasonably good in your opinion?

Your response will be highly appreciated.

 

congratulations!!!...i gave my 9300 a rating of 9.4/10...lol

 

I just got my i9300 on Tuesday and the screen is beautiful. I don't have any dead pixels or do I notice any leaking.

 

Shootingstars, is yours a wuxga screen? How would you rate it against other wuxga screens like Sony's for instance (if you have seen the sony's that is)?

 

same thing for mine when i got it...and it isn't with trulife!!!!

 

hey guys, i'm just about to order my 9300 in a few hours. how does this setup look to you guys (any suggestions for improvement?):
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 730 (1.60 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife
256MB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 1 Dimm (upgrade via newegg later)
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive (note the rpm, its going to be better for games right coz i'm paying like $100 extra over an 100 gb for it!?)
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability
2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr Technical Support (good enuf right or should I get the 3 year for another $110 extra (-40% = $66)?)
total cost: $2185
40%off + 2% off dpa + $35 off coupon(ebay): $1250.48
shipping+handling+tax: $95 (goddamn!)
total cost: $1344.51
what do you guys think? please let me know asap coz i got to purchase by tonight. thanks.

 

s1mon, I did alot of forum reading and research before I decided on my purchase. Originally I ordered the Widescreen XGA+ screen, but after paying the Dell Kiosk at my local mall a visit and saw the difference between the XGA+ and WUXGA Truelife, I absolutely had to have the Truelife.

My reasons are:

1) Viewing Angles - This is very important to me and was the #1 factor in my decision. I wanted to use my laptop to watch movies with other ppl so viewing angles had to be very good. My girlfriend has a Dell Latitude with the XGA screen and it has a very poor margin of brightness if you move away from the "sweet spot". The viewing angle on the TrueLife screen is awesome, well worth the extra 125 dollars. I had to call Dell to reconfigure my order after my visit to the Dell Kiosk to compare the difference between the two screens. I suggest you do the same. Goto Dell.com and then search for Dell Stores and they should have a listing of locations for you to see in person.

2) Brightness - I love this screen. Very bright even on medium brightness settings. If you turn it all the way up, this thing is blinding and extremely glows .

3) Dead Pixels - First thing I did was check the screen for any signs of visible dead pixels. I could not find any by just using my set of eyes. However, I refuse to use a program to check for dead pixels. If it's not there when I look and does not take away from my computing experience then I would rather not know about any hidden microscopic dead pixels that may exist. I highly doubt that there are any and again, the quality of this screen is excellent for a Dell system.

4) Light Leakage - There is a very very very small, petty, minor light leakage if you sport a black background. But this is normal for an LCD. Don't even let this affect your buying decision. Again if you're not convinced, I suggest you goto a Dell Kiosk and check it out for yourself. If they dont have a 9300, look at the XPS2 screen, they're the same.

Final Thoughts: I love this screen and wouldnt have it any other way. If Viewing angles is of importance to you, then there is no other alternative but the Truelife screen. It's worth that extra 125 dollars. I almost let the small amount of forum posts that complain about the screen convince me other wise to get the XGA+. But I am glad I paid Dell a visit and saw it first hand. I recommend you doing the same and forming your own opinion. I almost made the mistake of listening to other ppl's gripe about the screen.
:glossy: :glossy: :glossy:

 

I also got mine yesterday. I was messing with 3dmark05 last night to see what it would score, I got 29xx at default speed and OC to 350/800 I got 36xx. I'm going to try some more tonight to see just how far it will OC. The WUXGA screen I got with it is nice, no dead pixels, but there does seem to be a problem. I'm not sure if it is leakage or just uneven backlighting, I'm not sure what the leakage looks like, but when the screen is completely black I can see light at the bottom of the screen. Also, at the bottom corners it is slightly distorted, almost like the it is being pinched in those corners.

 

sammieboy, many thanks for the indepth comments.

One last thing on the very very very tiny amount of leakage you talked about. Is it from the edges? I have never noticed that with other lcd's. In fact today i was at a computer shop setting the lcd screens on laptops to black and checking for any light leakage but couldnt see it with toshibas, sony's or hp's etc.

Anyway thanks for your help.

 

Blargh, your's too? We should sue Dell or something, it's crooked on about 95% of their notebooks! Irritates the heck out me. What's worse is that removing it would leave a sticky mess.

Ah well, overall the I9300 just can't be beat in value for money, so I'm happy. Good luck! :750:

 

Yeah, if you put a black background on you can barely see hints of white light from the very bottom of the screen. But as far as I am concern, I can live with this because no other laptop out there can give me the incredible under the hood performance for the price that dell offers if you use a 40% off coupon. I guess you have to take the good w/ the bad..... The screen doesnt bother me one bit. I love it!!! :dell:

 

I attached a picture I took of the screen with it completely black, the light is coming from the bottom edge of the screen.




edit: the screen doesn't really bother me either and the price/performance of this laptop is insane. I haven't calibrated the screen yet either, so that could help. I just hope dark movies and games don't look like crap.

 

lol...it's crooked on mine 2!!!!!

 

Ha, mine is straight. Just got finished OC the 6800 and the sweet spot seems to be 370/800 which gives me a very nice 4006 in 3dmark05.

 

whoa.. tell me how well that goes... if it runs stable for a long period of time or not. If so, then I might be tempted to follow in your footsteps.

 

are there any free versions of 3d mark out there?

 

well there's 3dmark01 which i think is free and 3dmark03 and 05 are free trials