i9300 Query

Hello,

I just received my i9300 and I was wondering if other owners of the model have the same issues I have.

1. There appears to be no inbuilt microphone. I actually used the inbuilt mic on my old i8600 from time to time. Anyone else got a mic? i.e. is it just that mine is not wired up?

2. The 1920x1200 ultrasharp truelife screen when all black has some backlight emissions. Additonally these emissions are most noticeable as a small square in the top left quadrant of the screen, and only visible when viewing the screen roughly 45 degrees on the left side, but not the right. Is this just a property of the screen or do I have a problem?

3. I kept the 65watt travel auto/air adapter from my old i8600 because I was told that the auto/air adapter for the i9300 is the same (as opposed to the primary 90watt AC adapter shipped with the i9300). Is this true? i.e. Does anyone have a 90watt auto/air adapter? The only reason why i ask is that when you plug the 65watt in, the i9300 CPU is knocked down to 800Mhz from 2.0Ghz because it does not supply enough juice.

But besides all this, the i9300 just plain out rocks. I was getting a healthy 65fps on the Half Life 2 Stress Test with recommended settings for the Gforce 6800.

533Mhz FSB Pentium M 2.0Ghz Inspiron 9300
256Mb Nvidia Gforce 6800 GO
1920x1200 Ultrasharp Truelife WUXGA 17" TFT LCD
1 Gb RAM
100Gb Fujitsu HDD

 

well none of us in the states have recieved our 9300s yet. however, could you tell me if the screen has a glossy finish and how nice is it? much appreciated.

 

You would make a LOT of people here in the states very happy if you could tell us what clock speed the 6800/Memory is running at. It should tell you in the video display properties.

 

AdamMD, the screen is glossy and very nice (don't listen to my picky comments about the backlight emissions)

It's exactly like a flat screen CRT in terms of it's look.

ixian, where do i look exactly for the 6800 speed? I'm looking in the display properties but it's only telling me there is an integrated RAMDAC thats it.

Is there another way I can tell? Any test utilities Nvidia provides etc??

533Mhz FSB Pentium M 2.0Ghz Inspiron 9300
256Mb Nvidia Gforce 6800 GO
1920x1200 Ultrasharp Truelife WUXGA 17" TFT LCD
1 Gb RAM
100Gb Fujitsu HDD

 

Very interesting results. What resolution was you running it at?

I have a comparable desktop to your 9300.
YOURS
Pentium M 2.0Ghz
256Mb Nvidia Gforce 6800 GO
1 Gb DDR2 533 dual channel
stress test resolution??? I assume high settings
65fps

MINE
3.2 P4 (prescot)(Very close gaming wise)
Bfg Gforce 6800 128Mb OC 350/350 (effectively 700MHz) ddr1
1 Gb RAM DDR 400 dual channel
stress test 1024x768 high settings 4x/8x 103 fps
stress test 1280x1024 high settings 4x/8x 78 fps
stress test 1600x1200 high settings 4x/8x 35fps

So I am guessing if you were running wide screen or at 1600x1200 (kinda defeats the purpose of having the WUXGA if your resolution is any lower)then may it could be DDR3 the NEW 6800 GO 330/500 (effectively 1GHz)DDR3 not to be confused with the ultra which is 450/550 (effectively 1.1GHz)DDR3

Lower resolutions would probably denote one of the slower 6800 GOs
275,300/300 (effectively 600MHz)DDR1.

Any more info would be GREATLY appreaciated. There seems to be very little info on the 9300 and the Gforce 6800 Go thats in it. We are all very eager to know!!!

 

Well I just read in another forum that the speed is 290/590 DDR1. I'll take it! Should play ANY game very well anyways.


http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=67948

 

As far as I know you will have to download COOLBITS from guru3d.com to get the clock speeds to show up, plus it allows you to overclock the GPU but I don't recommend it.


http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=201

 

I don't see any reviews?!?!

You guys can't just sit there with your nice, new i9300's, while the rest of us want to know all about them [ ]

What's the battery life?
What kind of framerates do you get (include settings please...)?
How much noise does the thing produce?
How hot does it get when used for non-gaming tasks?

 

OK, coolbits installed and it says it's 3D core clock is 290Mhz, and the memory clock is 590Mhz.

Screenie at http://home.iprimus.com.au/simon_chipperfield/6800_go.jpg

I'm not too keen to try and overclock these things[8D]

Hope this has helped.

In regards to HL2 stress tests, I might post these separately in another thread.

533Mhz FSB Pentium M 2.0Ghz Inspiron 9300
256Mb Nvidia Gforce 6800 GO
1920x1200 Ultrasharp Truelife WUXGA 17" TFT LCD
1 Gb RAM
100Gb Fujitsu HDD

 

If you click on that "detect optimal frequencies" button, it should give you some idea of overclockability.

And congrats on being one of the first to get this puppy!

 

I concur with our friend from Denmark. Pleeease let us have some more details.

How does it feel put together, floppy keyboard as some earlier Inspiron models. Do you feel performance upgrade from the Sonoma chip, more more more comments. Mine in pre-production (for almost a week) and cannot wait.

 

Can you please do the 3DMark 2001 and tell me the score? You download it here:
http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark2001/

Please do it!!! I get 11 000-12 000 points with my Ferarri!

 

Sorry to bombard you with questions here Chip. Just wondering how the UXGA display is, any really glossy problems? Also hows the weight and the battery life? On my 9200(which im about to ship back) the battery can run a good 4 hours just surfing the net and such. About 2hours and 30mins watching a DVD, but i turn up the brightness and use headphones. On the weight, my 9200 weights about 8lbs. How does the 9300 compare? Also, does the system run hot at all? My 9200 can run warm if im playing a graphic intense game for a while (IE: UT2K4) Sorry for all the questions bro, just excited to upgrade to the 9300 and get rid of the I9200 that i payed more for than my I9300.... [8)]

*Dell Inspiron 9300, P-M 1.86ghz 533mhz FSB, 1GB DDR2 533mhz ram, 17inch UXGA+ screen with TrueLife, 256mb Nvidia GeForce 6800, 60gb 7200rpm drive, XP Pro SP2, WiFi*

*Sony MDR-G74SL Headphones for music and gaming, best 40 dollar pair i have ever bought!*

 

Hey deathmojo, don't know if you are experiencing the same thing as I, but my scheduled ship date is the 18th. I called em up and they say they were waiting on parts, specifically the bluetooth module and some piece of case hardware (they weren't specific). overall though, the phone call went well, i'm surprised.

 

OK, just to answer some of the questions:

1. WUXGA Ultrasharp Truelife Screen. Very nice. Has a glossy finish which at first I didn't like (I prefer a matte finish like the i8600 I have), but it's suprisingly not that bad for reflections. The screen is very bright compared to the i8600 Ultrasharp WUXGA screen when compared side by side. It looks as good as a flatscreen CRT.

2. Battery life is not as good as I wanted. I have 2x 9cell 80Whr batteries and even with speedswitch on max battery and the Gforce powermiser set to max battery, I am lucky to get 2.5 hours of use per battery. Compared this to my i8600 where 1 72whr batterly easily lasts 3.5 hours doing the same things. The fans seem to be on all the time, but the CPU/GPU temperatures are only 35-40 degrees (i guess thats roughly 100 farenheight) so perhaps a BIOS upgrade could fix that problem later. Each battery takes the best part of 2 hours to charge unlike the i8600 which takes 1 hour.

3. I like the chassis - very sturdy - seems more solid than any notebook I've used - makes the i8600 seem "rickety". The weight is not that bad too - roughly the same as the i8600. I was worried before I got it that it could be a real chore to have sitting on my lap browsing the net wirelessly for an extended amount of time, but it's great.

4. I was surprised that despite the battery use, the unit does not run hot at all - the underside is a little warm, but the keyboard is cool. Perhaps this has someting to do with the fans running all the time.

Hope this helps.

533Mhz FSB Pentium M 2.0Ghz Inspiron 9300
256Mb Nvidia Gforce 6800 GO
1920x1200 Ultrasharp Truelife WUXGA 17" TFT LCD
1 Gb RAM
100Gb Fujitsu HDD

 

Chips,
Thanks for the feedback! I figured the weight would be about the same as the I9200(which i sent back to Dell via UPS today!). Sad to hear the battery life is worse but i figured that since the Nvidia 6800 is a more powerful card the ATI 9700M. Can't wait to get this system! Knowing that this system will last me a lot longer than the I9200, atleast for my gaming needs!

Adam: Thats good to hear, i just got a little nervouse due to the "glossy" UXGA display on the I9200 that so many people had problems with it. I didn't get the bluetooth this time because i realized i really didn't need it. Also went with the 1.86 over the 2.0 processor to save 200 bucks. Were they specific on the parts they still needed? Im pretty sure my system won't ship until around the estimated date, since its a new model and the deals they are running, im not suprised to see the shipments taking a while due to part needs. I still have a desktop to old me over until this one arrives!

*Dell Inspiron 9300, P-M 1.86ghz 533mhz FSB, 1GB DDR2 533mhz ram, 17inch UXGA+ screen with TrueLife, 256mb Nvidia GeForce 6800, 60gb 7200rpm drive, XP Pro SP2, WiFi*

*Sony MDR-G74SL Headphones for music and gaming, best 40 dollar pair i have ever bought!*

 

Could you run some benchmarks for everyone? 3dmark 03 and 05. Thanks

 

Folks,

I have configured my Inspiron 9300 and was virtually about to hit the Submit button when I read this:

"The fans seem to be on all the time, but the CPU/GPU temperatures are only 35-40 degrees (i guess thats roughly 100 farenheight) so perhaps a BIOS upgrade could fix that problem later."

This is a BIG problem for me as I quite often work while sitting in boring meetings and conferences, and I hate annoyng other people by the sound of my laptop's fans. I am not a gamer, but just a power user, using Windows in parallel with Linux under VMWARE, developing in Java, etc.

How bad is it? Are the fans really loud? And what are the chances to fix this problem? Sorry, I am not very technically advanced, so I can not judge on this BIOS thing. Any opinions?

 

There is a program to control dell laptop fans:
Should be updated soon to incorporate i9300 and xps2.

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/

 

It's not that the fans are loud, it's just that it's a waste of battery to have them on all time just idling in meetings and the CPU/GPU are not that hot. I have used that fan control tool as a workaround and defined my own ranges for off-slow-fast and it works great - but it would be good if Dell fix the problem in their BIOS.

533Mhz FSB Pentium M 2.0Ghz Inspiron 9300
256Mb Nvidia Gforce 6800 GO
1920x1200 Ultrasharp Truelife WUXGA 17" TFT LCD
1 Gb RAM
100Gb Fujitsu HDD

 

So finally received mine today
Apart from the usual problems with getting MS products transferred all is well.
It is indeed the best built Dell I have seen since my first I7000 (which still runs well). Screen (I have the lower end of the scale) is fine, could be brighter but in truth is as bright as it needs to be and no more. For my purposes no problem. I have more or less the same setup as on my I8500 and the speed difference is mindblowing, I would expect this to be due to the Sonoma chip.
Very happy and can recommend this laptop warmly. Note however that tech supports is as useless as ever, still awaiting my call back "within 20 minutes" after some 5 hours, and am giving up - long since resolved my issue myself anyway.

I9300
2.14GH
1gig ram (ordered 2x512 but they shipped with 1 stick, no complaints)
60G 7200 rpm hard drive
128 X300 NVidia Graphics

And first time with a Intel wireless card, faster even that my Linksys card on my Linksys router.

Happy as Larry as they say