Dell XPS M170

Summary: After working 3.5 years on an Inspiron 8100 with an upgraded M9 ATI 9000 card (an excellent machine, sans the very creaky case and funny LCD connector that would corrupt the LCD screen and I’d have to “twist” the case to get the display back to “normal”. Heck, Far Cry was even playable! At the lowest settings mind you… 10fps during heated battles), I decided to get a M170 from Dell Canada. $2800 Cdn with a 2.13Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 80GB HD, 6800 Ultra and XPS brand backpack (I found a flyer offer for the discontinued Gen 2 for $2999 which they matched with the M170 (basically the same machine as the Gen 2) and a $200 coupon… always dig for Dell coupons to save a bundle).

I mainly program database applications and develop web sites but wanted a machine that could handle modern games with a bit of future proofing. The machine with (shockingly HUGE) power supply and 3rd party laptop bag (Tracer Brand) weighs about as much as my 8100 did (16lbs) in the APC bag I recently bought for it (APC makes an excellent laptop bag BTW, but way to small to fit the M170. I Picked it up at a discount store for $25Cdn… cried when I had to abandon it).

The M170 is a BIG laptop, but the 17” screen is well worth the size. I tried and returned an ACER Ferrari 4005, which is an amazing machine in every way (speed, weight, screen, build quality), except the keyboard was very rubbery and drove me crazy when I typed (which I do a lot of). If the ACER keyboard was better I would have kept it happily. But the Acer is in a different class than the M170… the Acer is a powerful machine that’s reasonably light (Acer 6.5lbs vs. Dell 8.6lbs not including power supplies… and the M170’s supply is like 2x heavier than the Acers) and very trim for its screen size. But the bulk of the M170 is a fair trade off for the large high resolution screen and the performance. The M170 actually runs quite a bit cooler while doing office type work. Also, the fan, which runs all the time (as did the Acer), is quieter than the Acer. The Acer’s exhaust from the fan was quite warm, even when the system was idling; the Dell’s exhaust isn’t warm at all when idling.

The glossy screen is a bit of a pain in an office environment (but fine in my basement home office). It reflects ceiling lights and the windows, but if you tilt it just right, it livable. When I ordered the M170 I didn’t clue-in the screen was Glossy… TruLife = Glossy, d-oh. I may not have actually ordered it knowing that… but now that I have it, I’m happy to put up with the reflections. I’d have given it a 9/10 if it had a non-glossy screen at the same resolution 1920 x 1200 (from an office work perspective).

The keyboard is the same layout I’ve had on my previous two Dell laptops and its feel is excellent. My 8100 keyboard was very well broken in with a lot of the letters worn off the keys and the space bar worn smooth. One complaint I’d have about the M170 keyboard and funny enough about the Acer Ferrari keyboard is both keyboards bezels below the space bars are too high and your thumb (ok, MY thumb) bumps into it when typing. Maybe I have some genetically misshaped thumb in that it doesn’t curve down to meet the keyboard before hitting the bezel, but my 8100 had a nice sloped bezel that was a millimeter or two lower than the space bar… thus avoiding contact when typing. I can live with the problem, but it makes me wonder what the two manufactures were thinking when they designed the bezel keyboard relationship. It almost feels like they thought, “Hey these are game machines… not for work… maybe we don’t even need a keyboard?… oh, maybe I guess we should put one in just incase…” But the Inspiron 9300 has the same bezel keyboard relationship as far as I can tell… I think the 9300 is meant as a work computer, could be wrong though.

The build quality of the M170 is excellent… no creaking unlike my old 8100 that creaked if you even looked at it the wrong way. The LCD does leak some light along the bottom, doesn’t bother me… as I don’t notice it when using the machine for office applications. I don’t see any of the dreaded “sparkles” people talk about in the LCD; not sure of the brand.
The dang-headphone plug has a nasty hiss when you’re using headphones. I’ve read about this problem on the Inspiron 9300 also… and it’s a shame, must be a physical design flaw as they haven’t seemed to solve it. When I’m listing to music or playing a game with headphones it’s not really noticeable. But if you’re listening to the headphones without any sound, it’s quite a loud hissing sound. I’ve tried turning off line-in and other sources but nothing helps except selecting “PC Spk Mute” under advanced settings… which isn’t much good of course since that disables all the system sound. Fingers crossed they may be able to solve the problem with a driver update (not holding my breath).

The LED lights on the case that light up are “neat” I normally have them off, saving the LEDs for a special occasion like Christmas or something.

I stretched the life of my old 8100 with a new Hitachi 7200RPM 60GB drive (replacing a 4200RPM drive). It made a big difference in performance (booting, starting applications and database work) on the 8100. I transferred the 7200rpm drive to the M170, mainly so I didn’t have to reinstall all my applications and settings (man, I HATE doing that). The transfer was easy… just set the BIOS to boot off the CD, move the hard drive over, boot off the Windows XP CD (purchased version, NOT OEM) and select “Install Windows” (not the repair option on the first page) it will find the existing version of windows on the swapped HD, select “R” to repair the existing version. Windows will reinstall… activate with MS, install drivers from Dell and bam… you’re done! Did it three times no problem (8100->Acer->8100->m170) but I digress.

I ran HDTach on the original hard drive that came with the M170 (a 80GB, 5400RPM drive) and on the 7200 after installing it. Both drives performed roughly the same. The only big difference was the 7200 drive had a slightly lower seek time of 14ms or so vs. the 5400’s 16ms. But I wouldn’t hold much credence in the results given I didn’t go out of my way to shut down every task possible. But it does sort of suggest that the 7200 drive isn’t much of a benefit over the 5400 in normal use; still nice to have though.

So all in all I’d give the machine an 8.5/10. It’s an amazingly powerful machine with tons of screen real estate for business apps at a reasonable weight/performance ratio. Far Cry is the only high-end game I’ve tried on it, and it runs amazingly well, very smooth. Its minor glitches (hiss, spacebar bezel proximity, Glossy screen) are livable. Nothing is perfect, but I'm pleased.