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- My rating: 0 stars
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Best gaming system I have ever had"
Pros: High-end gaming in a mobile system, SLI, upgradeable video cards, PhysX, configurable LEDs, backlit keyboard, runs cooler than expected, affordable considering specs and competition, Logitech LCD
Cons: Power brick is huge, A/C adapter plug to system seems to pinch at non-standard angles - needs right-angle plug, XP and Vista need BIOS changes to boot to each, limited software choices, bloatware
Summary: I'm not sure what combination of luck and inexperience caused Annette so many problems, but that seems like an absolute worst-case scenario. Now, I'm no veteran on these boards, but I do use CNET a lot. Annette was a newly created profile with no other reviews, so take that for what it's worth. I'm not saying her experiences were false, but generic "won't boot" issues are not specific to the M1730. Also, why would someone buy a high-end gaming notebook for "business use?"
I do know that in order to boot XP you have to make two changes in the bios, changing ATA to emulation mode, from AHCI, and toggling a flash cache setting. To boot to Vista you have to change it back. Linux doesn't care what setting this is in, it boots fine. So I can tell the difference between poorly written software (Windows) and hardware issues (which I have had none).
Yes this is a beast of a system. Not as portable as most other notebooks, but that's not the point. I consider it "Relocatable Gaming" in that I can move to different rooms in the house, or using the broadband modem play games anywhere, go to LAN parties, etc. I only use this system for gaming, though, and it does what it says, and does it good.
My only gripe is the limited choice as far as software. I didn't want all the bloatware (but who does), but also didn't want anti-virus (I use avg), or even Windows. After battling Vista's endless issues (this software is not ready for prime time), I ended up putting XP and Linux (Fedora 8) on it. Since your choices are limited, I would recommend XP. However, 64-bit Fedora 8 runs WoW, and all my Steam games perfectly, so I'm extremely happy.
The price is very competitive, while not "cheap," it certainly won't require a second job. I do wish I could use a Fn key combo to turn off all the LEDs, but that has to be done in software. The backlit keyboard can be toggled with Fn+right_arrow, however. Lastly, I must say that the system running at full resources doesn't get near as hot as I would have thought.
