FINALLY - willyb311's m9700 review

Well, after a very rocky start - which you can read about here:

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread162682.html

Things are up and running pretty smoothly. I have the notebook set up and running all of my productivity programs. I have unfortunately only only gotten to play doom 3 once very briefly and so far it runs great. I am probably going to pick up some oblivion this weekend and then I can really put this machine to the test.

Here are my opinions so far:

This machine is sleek, well built and has a very elegant layout. Everything is easy to use, easy to get to, and easy to understand.

The touchpad for the mouse does take a little getting used to. I have owned several dell laptops and they all have a coarser feel. The problem is that the m9700's pad is glossy (which matches the rest of the lappy) and if your fingers are damp (from the insane humidity in Texas) they have a tendancy to stick from time to time. The mouse bottons are very easy to use.

The screen wuxga rocks, ignore all the bs you read about it being a "downside"

The cameral works great and is very nicely integrated so that it doesn't stick out like a soar thumb.

Heat is not really a problem - SO FAR. I will have to edit this once I spend some hardcore time gaming.

There are very few things I don't like, one of them being that when you are on battery power, the yellow light flashes on the power button constantly. Having used dells for so long, I am conditioned to worry that my battery is getting low because of the flashing.

The other aggravating thing is that it honestly doesn't seem to be running as well as it did yesterday (before the reformat/reinstall of windows) If I am lucky I can get 9800 on 3dmark, but mostly I have been coming in around 9600-9700.

I have tried overclocking, but 3dmark locks up every time I try to run it overclocked. If anyone has any advice for me, please let me know. Any would be appreciated...

Anyways, here are some pics, let me know if you have any specific questions


The pics suck, but then again, so does the camera that took them


















updates to my review...
I have had it up and running for several hours under a light load (no games, just web surfing and productivity) I noticed it was begining to get hot, so I elevated the back of the lappy off the table, and in about 10 minutes the entire unit is running very cool. The air coming out of the back vents is very warm, almost hot, but nothing else is even warm.

I continue to get sparatic 3dmark scores. Everything from the low 9000's up to my max which was just above 9800. I am having trouble getting my processor drivers to work correctly after my reformat. I am going to try uninstall and reinstalling them and see what that does.

I am about to crank up a long session of oblivion (just installing, haven't ran it yet) I will let you know how that goes.

later

sorry, I haven't had the chance to move the pics over yet. I will do that this afternoon.

Yes, the pics are blurry, when we got back from vacation, I put the camera up and didn't look at it until I was gonna take these pics. It looks like the camera has been stepped on, the LCD is shattered and the focus isn't working right. I figured I would give it a shot since I don't have any other camera around right now...

I should have the blurry pics up soon...

I don't think so...

Well, here's an update - I have re-installed the processor driver and discovered that my amd tools driver is not working correctly. I am going to try to update that.

However, after the last re-install of the cpu driver, my 3dmark scores are back up in the high 9800's.

After several hours of doom 3, the lappy still hasn't even gotten hot. It gets pretty warm, but it is totally managable. Plus, the thing I love the most, is that the machine itself is absolutely quiet. It makes very little noise, even with the fans and hdd's running full blast. That took some good design and engineering skill.

I still haven't gotten to play oblivion yet, but I have played quite a bit of doome 3 and and I getting some (I am not sure of the technical term) lines across the top half of the screen that, when I make turns or fast movements, I get lines of squared off images, like the gpu isn't working fast enough. I have only noticed it on the Top half of the screen and not on the bottom...

Does anyone have any clues has to what is going on. I should have a chance to finally play some oblivion tomorrow, so I intend to see if it does something similar, that should help me determine whether it is a game problem or a hardware problem...

as always, you are a life saver marker01. Thanks for that advice!

What games does that happen on? I have an xbox 360 and an hdtv and I have never gotten anything like that.

If that is what it is, you are screwed because you can't adjust any settings such as that on the xbox...

Oblivion Update

Ok, I finally got the Elder Scrolls IV: oblivion up and running and after three hours of gaming this afternoon - I must say, this 9700 is freakin awesome!!!

When I installed and set the game up, it scanned my system and suggested the settings be set to ultra-high, so I went along with it. I didn't adjust anything much, but I did move some of the settings up a little.

I am sooo amazed at how this thing performs. I believe with a little tweaking I can smooth out the few very minor hic-ups.

As far as heat goes - There is none. My machine actually does seem to be getting cooler and cooler the longer I play it. Except for around the back vents, and directly under the gpu's, I don't notice any heat at all, well, maybe just a little on the left, bottom side of the keyboard but not enough to really take notice of.

Gentlemen, despite my inital troubles, I have to say this is a superb mahine. Everyone that has one coming, you won't be disappointed!

I think I might get what you are talking about superkdog, but only on the dashboard, when I am changing panels. It doesnt ever happen on any of the games I have(call of duty 2, burnout revenge, prey). Those are all pretty graphics intenes games.

You my try to xbox forms on xbox.com and see if anyone there has any experience with the same situation...