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#1 Dell XPS M710
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:58 pm
by darkmast2
Hello all I was wondering if I could get some advice. I have the chance at the moment to purchase a Dell XPS M170 Gaming laptop (Currently at a lan party). The seller is looking for £250 for it.
Anyone think this is a good buy. It has a 2.16GHz processor, 2gig ram 75gig hdd and a 6800gt go graphics I believe. It wouldn't be my main gaming rig but would come in handy for crunching and wireless gaming/working.
#2
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:45 pm
by Nightlord
Seems like a good price.
Things to check: COA, battery life, dead pixels, HD performance (errors, bad clusters etc), stuck/dead keys and all I/O ports functional.
If you get a chance, put it on a soak test for a while to test the thermals.
Lastly, laptops are prone to the effects of gravity induced inertial damage, particularly when coupled with the dulling effects of alcohol and a hard floor. Check for obvious signs of carbon based stupidity
#3
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:22 am
by darkmast2
I've had a little play about with it and there are no dead pixels on it. The battery life is a little short when gaming on it but then if I were to do any gaming it would be on a mains supply anyway.
There are scratches on the cover on the top but I'm not really fussed about that as it's cosmetic only and the top bit can be changed anyway.
There's firewire on it and plenty of usb ports and it even has an hdmi port so I could stick a tft on it.
#4
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:51 am
by Megacruncher
At £250 & working well I'd probably buy it.
A few factors qualify this advice:
Firstly, if he'll take £200 then that would be better.
Secondly, what else is competing for that £250? If it's your last chance to cloth and feed your babies and stop them being given up for adoption, then I'd personally vote for kiddie welfare; others might have other priorities.
#5
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:46 pm
by darkmast2
It's been a while but that laptop deal didn't go ahead - it went and died before the end of the event so just as well I held off buying it. I've now been looking into other alternatives.
Code: Select all
Base: XPS M1730 CORE 2 DUO T7700 2.40GHz
CD/ RW: Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Hard Disk Drive: 160GB (7.200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Hard Disk Drive: 160GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
MISC: MS Vista Premium Logo Label NB
MISC: Primary 9-cell 85WHr Li-Ion Battery
MISC: Bone White
MISC: Image Restore - Vista
MISC: Uk/Irish Internal Keyboard (QWERTY)
MISC: Integrated Stereo Sound
MISC: Mini Express Card Remote
MISC: Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-PCI Card EUR
MISC: 8 in 1 Multicard Reader, PC Express Card Slot
I/O Port:
4 USB 2.0 port, Firewire1394 port, DVI, S-Video, RJ45 Ethernet port,
Headphone and Microphone connector
MISC: Integrated 2.0MP Webcam
MISC: Ageia PhysX Processing Unit Card
Memory: 4.0GB 667MHz DDR2 Memory (2 x 2048MB)
Network Card: European Dell TrueMobile 355 Bluetooth
NoteBook Screen: 17" Ultrasharp Widescreen WUXGA TFT Display (1920x1200) Truelife
Video: Dual 256MB Go 8700M GT graphics NVIDIA SLI Technology
Operating System: Windows Vista Business SP1
I'm looking at the sort of spec above with maybe slight variation in the OS and amount of RAM - Might end up putting XP Pro on it if drivers play nice. I can get this for around a grand which isn't too bad for a gaming laptop.
#6
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:27 am
by Buster Gunn
Nice laptop. You're right, get rid of Vista.
#7
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:22 pm
by darkmast2
I went ahead and bought the laptop I was looking at so it should hopefully arrive later this week.
Does anyone know if MS will easily let you downgrade from Vista Business to XP Pro ? I've read some information that you can phone them up and get a key for XP Pro but not sure if this is right.
#8
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:58 pm
by darkmast2
Laptop should arrive tomorrow or Friday. I've looked into downgrading and Microsoft allow you do downgrade Vista Business to XP Pro - seems a straightforward process.
Might give Vista a bash to see what it's like - I've not used it much.
#9
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 11:17 pm
by Nightlord
Vista is not as bad as many Microsoft basher's would have you believe. Like all things, it rather depends on what you want to do with it.
In my opinion, for the average "man in the street" purchasing a new PC or laptop, Vista is a better choice than XP, offering enhanced security and a "better" experience.
I freely admit it's a different matter for a power user though, but then Linux comes into the equation for that bracket too.
#10
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:42 pm
by darkmast2
The laptop arrived today and I've been having a little play for the last hour or so, getting the internet connection set up with the wireless network and uninstalling some of the gump that comes with it.
I'm gonna do some benchmarking to see what score it gets compared to my desktop but running the windows score thing I get a 4.8 - I would have gotten higher but the RAM only scored this. The rest was 5.3 cpu / 5.9 graphics / 5.5 gaming graphics and 5.2 primary hard disk.
Once I've got the benchmarking done I'm gonna get BOINC setup. What project do you think I should start ? Not sure if I should stick with SETI/Rosetta. Also which client should I install for running on Vista Business (Gonna keep this on for a bit to see how well it works).
#11
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:07 pm
by Nightlord
How about GPU grid?
I can't find too many spec's on the 8700 series, but assuming they are somewhere between the 8600 and 8800, running both cards in non SLI, you should get two WU complete in around a day, yielding around 6500 RAC.
Trouble is this will work your cards very hard and they might get a wee bit hot
#12
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:32 pm
by darkmast2
That could be a little too much unless I get a cooling pad or something as the laptop already generates quite a lot of heat as standard. I could give it a go though to see how it works out.