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61 out of 63 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"WONDERFUL! (please read review)"
Pros: Merom Ready,Gaming power is Amazing, System Preformance, Screen Image Quality, Build Quality, Connectivity and Wireless Abilities, Light for a gaming Notebook, Stays rather cool.
Cons: Less Battery than ThinkPad (But expected), If i had to really complain, Size and Weight is a little more than usual.
Summary: I am a Certified Tech. for HP, Dell, Apple, Toshiba, and Gateway. I have had all of those computers and i decided i would take a risk with the Dell product and I was nothing short of shocked to receive a product that was so well rounded in abilities.
Here are a couple things that i have noticed when using my Dell M1710.
The Dell Media Direct feature I am still deciding what i think of it, but I have to admit it is very nice and ultimately does do the job if you are looking for a Multimedia feature.
GPU is utterly amazing, i have upgraded to the NVIDIA Geforce Go 7900GTX. I can?t say that it is anything short of EXTREMEMLY FAST. While playing Battlefield 2 and The Elder Scrolls IV the frame speed is more than fast enough to support the games even at 1920/1280 (native resolution) while being scary fast for a laptop.
The weight is a little shocking for a laptop but realizing what is packed inside, and also that the lid is a solid sheet of Aluminum and the bottom case is all extruded magnesium. The top of the LCD panel is extremely strong; it gives no flex at all and is stiffer than at Lenovo ThinkPad.
The Notebook is extremely thermal efficient. The fans always run but are almost never heard. When running games, it runs very cool in temp, and produces just a slight hum. The overall experience here is amazing for the components that are smashed inside.
The Build Quality is extremely good for a notebook; there is almost no flex when the computer is lifted with one hand on one side of the notebook. When you apply an extreme amount of pressure on the backing of the LCD panel there is no "stress bend" that shows in the style of shadows and ripples in the screen.
The Wireless is great if configured with a A/B/G wireless card. The connectivity range is excellent and allows for extreme distances of roaming while still allowing it to connect to the way point.
There are SOOO many ports, to the extent that I don?t really know what to do with them. That?s pretty much enough said.
When Dell talks about the Xtreme Preformance System. They really mean it, it is extremely fast for both system use and also gaming use. Loads are almost instant and often doe not show slow downs.
The Battery Life which i am sure everyone is worried about is not bad at all. When gaming i can get close to 2 hrs away from the power cord which is not that bad. When being portable and moving around and with the Wireless Off. I can defiantly say that you can get around 3 Hrs if you are careful in what you do. This is great for a gaming system.
The negatives of this notebook are to a limit and i say that directly as an owner rather than a Tech. I would recommend this notebook if you are a gamer and go to a lan gaming sessions and are mobile while gaming. Overall i am extremely satisfied, and I have no real complaints for my purchase.
My System Specs are as Follows
Core Duo 2.13 GHZ
(THE CORE DUO SOCKET IS READILY REPLACABLE WITH THE 64 BIT MEROM PROCESSOR)
512MB Nvidia Geforce Go 7900GTX
2 Gig DDR2 667Mhz Memory
100 gig 7200 Rpm HD
Hi-Def Sound Blaster Audio(extra when built)
Dell 350 Bluetooth
4 yr on Site next Day and Complete Care Warranty
OOO and don?t forget they will move prices around if you call on the phone if you need to say under a certain price. For me they took off 500 dollars for the same system as I wanted and even upgraded the warranty for free.Updated
I made a mistake on the native screen resolution and would want to make sure i dont mislead anyone by my mistake. The native resolution is actually 1920x1200. I am sorry for my original mistake and want to add on thing. I checked my screen maker and i have a LG screen. While it is brighter than the old screens of the Last Generation M170 (Which i did own). The screen is very very clear but is not as clear as the Fujitsu screen for example. The contrast of the Fujitsu screen seems to be higher, but dont get me wrong the screen is nothing less of amazing and in my situation is better than my desktop LCD panel. I do not have any dead pixels on my screen so i am very happy. Please send me a comment if you would like me to clarify anything.Updated
As i have recieved many comments that questioned my pricing, i ended up looking back at the sales reciept. I want to appologize to people for being slightly off i stated that it was 500 off but that was partly due to my rushed math, and not really paying attention. The actual reduction, was 325.90 and was listed under rebate for "Manager & Company Agreement". Sorry for any inconvienence that this may have caused, as i appologize for misleading everyone. I hope this helps to solve some worries of people.
I would also like to say, that due to the current replacement of batteries and recalls, that have been placed, i have also recieved comments about my battery, i would like to state, and i was lucky and my battery is totally fine, but i will soon be buying a new battery as i pretty much have used its life cycle up. I hope that in total this helps to clarify all questions, and best of luck you everyone.
- 23 replies to this review
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i recently bought an xps m1710. I found the native resolution to be too little for my taste. I wear glasses, and the fonts are extremely small. How can i change the fonts while conserving the crispness of the native resolution?
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Thanks for your helpful observations. My small Fujitsu got beat up too much and the power source died. I'm looking at this as a business replacement, but the 5 lbs and maybe even the 12" screen of the Dell XPS M1710 scares me. Another reviewer said it "runs hot", but maybe a 1.83 version would run less hot than the 2.13? I need something as durable and reliable as the M1710. Would you get this if you fly once a week or would you get something smaller? If so, may I respectfully ask for your top 2 or 3 recommendations for ultrportables under $2,000? Thank you.
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I have been looking very hard at this laptop for a while now with a view to buying for use in a very graphicaly intense University course. In Australia the price for 2.16ghz core duo, 2GB ram, 100gb 7200rpm hdd, 512 graphics etc is up around AU$5800 with the best possible coverage plan (online quote). In email communications with a Dell rep I asked if the price could come down by any means as ASkandalaris suggested. To quote her response "we do not offer discount on this premium laptop". Not really fair considering that they'd make a fair old profit on such an expensive unit and that we Aussies get screwed by the exchange rate to boot.
I have had to save around %80 of the money that I have earned in the past 5 months in order to get my self set up for uni and every little bit counts, especialy considering that my work hours will be hugely reduced when I begin studying.
Any other suggestions that you have for convincing them to be more reali$tic would be much appreciated.
?eter -
Watch out though, I hope you don't burn your self to a crisp! All these reports about Dell's battery going up n flames scares me.
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We called Dell to ask for a similar configuration and had to wait 2 days until we got the stiff arm. You would think that a customer with 4 Dells would get a break. I seriously doubt that your post is credible and might be overselling Dell. The arrogance of their supervisory sales staff was telling of a company who is on the path to bigger problems. Even the Dell rep didn't believe your post, and stated Dell does not believe CNET posts. If you got your Dell at a great price, you should prove it so we can show it to Dell and ask for the same deal. Bottomline is that your post suspicious.
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How were you able to have dell lower the price? I tried talking to them and they wouldn't lower the price for me.
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How do you get dell to lower the price? I tried calling them and had no luck. Any tips.
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I note from your initial post of your Dell tech expertise.
I recently purchased a "grey market" Dell XPS M1710 (2.16 MHz Duo Core, 80 Gig SATA, 1 Gig RAM).
I had a modify the registry so that the computer could detect the CD-DVD drive. I've loaded some utilities and MS OFfice fine, but I am now having difficulty loading some games (War Craft).
Advice? I'm thinking that this may not be a Dell but rather something that someone has thrown together. It looks like my friends Dell.
Thanks -
Intel just came out with Core 2 Duo chips, which are much faster and very efficent. Would it be possible to upgrade to Core 2 Duo in this laptop, or any Core Duo laptop for that matter. I have a 2.0 ghz Core Duo in this laptop, but would also like to know if my 1.6 Core Duo E1505 has the ability to upgrade in the future. Thanks for you help in advance.
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Hi ASkandalaris,
First off, thanks for the awesome review.
I have a few questions. Would you recommend going with XP Professional or the Windows Media Center? Also, if I were to go with the 512MB video card, would I be okay with either the 1.83GHz or 2GHz chip?
Thanks! -
Hi!
I have read your opinion about the system and really it's very nice that everything work wondefull !! Especilly because you said that is Extremally fast !
So now please I would like to know if there a big difference between a processor of 1.83Ghz and 2.0Ghz because I think there are $200 dollars just by 200Mhz or $299 for just 330Mhz, so I would like to know if there are a big difference about the speed.
Also about the Graphics I think that 256Mb is enough memory because now a days there are no games that need more memory, and about the memory DD2.
I would like to know if the system will work fast with just 1Gb and of Memory DDR2 667Mhz and with processor of 1.8Ghz
Just this is the difference, all the other configuration is the same.
Really your review is nice and I hope to heard from you. -
Hello,
I'll be using one of these for both gameing and video editing (with Avid Liquid 7) - Do you recon it's up to the high-drain on hardware. With my job, I'm going to be editing most of the working day!
Dan -
Hi,
Great review and very informative.
You seem to know your stuff and soi might know the answer to my question. I have heard the Pentium D processors have DRM built-in which I am not keen on.
How exactly does DRM work ?
Do you know if the Core Solo/Duo processors also have DRM built-in ?
Also, will the new Core2 Solo/Duo processors have DRM built-in ?
If the answer's no, then I think I've just found my new laptop
Thanks in advance! -
RE: "Core Duo 2.13 GHZ
(THE CORE DUO SOCKET IS READILY REPLACABLE WITH THE 64 BIT MEROM PROCESSOR)"
Hi!
Please tell me: Was this a requested Dell Factory upgrade? I'm very interested in x64. ALSO is your screen a FULL 17" (& not like 16" v.i.s.)?? Need to know! I've been studying several laptops but have my choices boiled down to the XPS M1710 & Alienware 17" Aurora or mALX 19". Tough choices! I've yet to learn what Alienware's TRUE MINO is about...plus their screen res on the 19" is considerably lower than Dell's 17" M1710. Dell's site lists the processor speed's 2.16Ghz but, hey, who's counting
!!
Your review was just what I was hoping to find---so thanks so much for taking the time to share a solid, clear, educated reflection. Your qualifications really matter as well. Look fwd to your reply to above---& any further opinions are certainly welcome!!
Pceebaby -
I just wanted to know, in your opinion, is the Dell M1710 that much better than the M170? Is there a huge difference in gaming, and pretty much everything else?
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Very good review. Your system specs are exactly what I looked at on the dell australia web site. The uprgrade calculator brings that out to AUD$5300+ but maybe cheaper on the phone. Either way i'll be saving for a while.
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I have similar system as yours (except 2GHz processor). I should be getting it in 2 days. I will post my impressions here.
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Enough Said thankyou very much but dont forget the system can handle 4 Gigs of memory
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I would say this is one of the most detailed reviews i have read. Thanks soo much for all the detail.
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