Question for E1705 owners...

My keys are solid, but not clicky. Fits my taste, and I usually only type on an IBM Model M.

Batterylife is about 2:55 browsing the web with wireless (CD 1.66, 2GB, 7900gs)

New ram is a sinch. Take off coverplate. Remove old, put in new, replace coverplate. System might whine. Go into setup, and pretty much just exit/save again.

Reformatted with the Dell OS recovery CD.
There were two bloatware things I had to kill. One of them was named Otto. Can't remember the other. Besides that, it was clean as a whistle. REALLY needed a defrag though.

Have not tried media direct and don't plan on it. Can't answer you there.

Performance is also something I can't speak to, I dropped in a new hard drive and 2GB RAM, so it's about 2x faster by my eye :-P

Keyboard is ok. The feel is alright, but there is a bit too much space between/underneath the keys. I got a finger in between and popped a few of the keys off. They snapped back on, though. The feel is otherwise very solid (no flex).

I get about 2:30 on my battery, doing normal stuff. About 2:10 watching a movie from HD. 1:30 or so playing a game.

RAM is simple. Both slots are accessible on the bottom.

I didn't have too many problems with media direct, but I waited a while before formatting to read what others had done. To quickly sum up: 1) repartition/install windows 2) install QuickSet 3) burn and run the Media Direct repair from Dell 4) restart windows 5) reboot PC and press F8 to repair MediaDirect 6) done.

The performance after a fresh install is about the same as just removing the bloated software. I reformatted so I can dual-boot with Vista, otherwise I wouldn't have needed to. And to get a "fresh" install, you need your own copy of windows, or the OS CD from Dell (not automatically shipped with the laptop - must be requested/purchased)

Things I DON'T like about my 9400:

- Excessive light leakage on the screen (solved by using an external monitor, plus it slightly lessened after age)
- Very underclocked 7800 (but still nice and fast! 7900 is much better)
- No 5.1 analog audio outputs
- White baby buggy bumpers (a snap-on cover goes a long way)
- Sub-par DVDRW (try to get an NEC drive, or replace with a philips slot-load)
- Rather big and heavy (but not much so for a 17")

The cons are extremely minor compared to the value and performance you get from this laptop (and it CAN be used as a laptop, as I sat in the airport for over an hour playing NFS: Most Wanted)

I concur on the DVDRW - it is very cheap and rickity. I would like to upgrade it to a slot load (anyone have any advice on this?).

Also, the screen is less bright than other brands' glossies. My leakage is minimal.

Will do a more thorough review later.

As for a slot-load, word is the Pioneer DVR-K06 (sorry, said philips earlier) model is the best at the moment. It can be had around the web for about $75. It's easy to replace the one in the lappy: just one screw on the bottom, pop the old one out and the new one in.

I have the same config, and I can attest to all of those points, except the hard drive (my config is in my sig). Pretty decent battery life for this size laptop, just under 3 hours as mentioned.
As far as things I don't like, besides the bloatware (read-mcafee), the screan is not the greatest... it looks good don't get me wrong but there are dark spots in the bottom left and right corners and quite a bit of light leakage from the bottom and some from the top on dark screens. It doesnt bother me too much but just enough to notice it. Also I wish there was a switch for the wireless and the bluetooth but thats just a preference. If you can find a good deal on one i think you will really enjoy it all in all.

I like the keyboard. I have big hands. I have not had a problem with them popping off. The spacing is fine with me. It would be nice to have a number pad though with the size of the computer.
I stay on AC at all times. I can't comment on the battery.
Ram is very easy as already said.
The screen on mine is great. It is an LG. I would have sent it back if it had not been like this. I must have a good screen.
I am going to upgrade mine to a dual pipe 7900GS. I hope to get it tomorrow. It is coming USPS priority. The dual core processor is great. No slowdown with my use. I do use more than one program at the same time.

I formatted mine. It is easy, as long as you have an OS disk. I used my XPS 600 disk. I downloaded the network driver before, I did it for DSL internet accesss. I downloaded the rest of the dell drivers from the webstite. I could care less about media direct. I have not messed with getting that back.
No cons with me, except for the non number pad. That would have been nice.
I did not get a burner. I do not need it at this point. I may get one sometime. I am waiting on the format war.
I will get a new drive, if I can that is compatible.

It's big, and low battery life.

I don't like the glossy screen. I have a Sharp LCD, and the damn thing is a mirror. I don't know if brand LCDs have the same issue, but I assume they would. My matte (external) VX2025 is great.

That's the tradeoff for a bigger screen and a real graphics card.

The keyboard is pretty nice on this series. The layout is smart (probably only second to the Thinkpads) and has a nice travel and responsiveness feel to it. There isn't much room for a number pad, so I don't blame dell for leaving it out. Battery life with the nine cell for me has been three hours with wifi/internet and about two for a dvd or mpeg4 playing back off the hdd. Ram is pretty easy, although I didn't see much of a performance leap going to two gigabytes.


The Samsung SEC5557 lcd is horrible. Of course, it won't be as bright as a Sony GRxxx series since it uses only one CCFL instead of two, but thats no excuse for the grainyness of whites and the sparkles... I did finally manage to convince the Dell outstanding resolution response team to ship me an LG, so this problem should be fixed when it arrives monday.

Oh, and I hate the heat it generates. Doesn't matter if its running a game or just browsing web at processor throttled back all the way. Its still hot as heck.


I have reformatted and gave up on the media direct. After getting a clean install I can resume from a hibernate and get into vlc or itunes just as fast anyways.

I didn't notice a difference in gaming performance however. The 91.31+ seem to be the best. CS:S and oblivion used to have some minor lag at 1920x1200 before I switched from the 80 series.

It's true these don't dissapate heat passively very well. But with I8kfanGUI running max, it literally drops my temps 25-30F - if you can handle the noise.

what about the hard drives? are they OK? or should they be replaced for... lets say these... http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=101599 (what brand of hard drive is dell using on its 1705?)

I dabbled with a few of these types of programs a while ago, but in the end decided that if the bios wasn't smart enough to ramp up the fan's when I start a game (or it gets hot in general) then I had no business owning that laptop. The Acer 1694wlmi I had before performed quite well in this regard, even though the ATI x700 chip is in a completely different class of thermal spec.

I'd post my review, but it's WAY to long to fit in one post... Check it out on my site in the sig.

- The keyboard is ok but I am so use to having a seperate keyboard that I bought a color matching light weight usb keyboard (Aopen S500)....really nice .

- Battery life...well I cant really comment on the 9-cell cause I dont have one. I always us AC power. I will say this though....E1705 is a power hungry biach ...I love it

- Ram installs are a no brainer. 2 screws cover a plastic plate on the bottem, easy access. I am currently upgrading to 2 GB 667 MHz

- Cons: My laptop came with a Sigmatel sound integrated ...it works, I guess but I dont like it at all. I wanted to buy a Audigy2 PCMCIA but DELL had to put that STUPID ASSSS Express Card garbage instead of a PCMCIA slot . freakin dumb assses . Also, the kooling solution for the CPU and GPU are ok but I think they could be better. Proof would be all of the people on this forum complaining about over heating video cards. I have a Go 7800...I use that BAD ASSS little utility to control the fans called "l8kfanGUI" HIGHLY recommended. I over clock the GPU to 367/872 when playing fear the GPU hovers around 86C. Before with the Dell temp settings it would reach 90C and start to lock up and throttle down...without overclocking.

-Formatting? MUHAHAUH !! I formatted the shit out of my laptop. I mean I used fdisk and wipped out all of the dumb Dell garbage. Easy as pie . Reformatted with a clean install of XP Pro SP2...works great! I did it this way cause when I started my laptop I saw a bunch of "Hey try this out" , or "this is the trial version of such n such software". I really hate it when I buy something, like a PC, and I get ads. That's bullshit. After installing XP the only Dell logo I see is from the bios at POST

-7900GsS, is on order I am swaping it out ASAP. That is another thing that sucks about this laptop. You have to take it apart just to upgrade the CPU or GPU It's not really hard to take apart, it's just time consuming. There's like a million screws . I will say this though with the Go 7800 overclocked I can play Fear on high settings..minus AA and soft shadows. OMG, softshadows in fear brought my lappie to its knees All in all because of the upgradability of the GPU and CPU this is probably the best Laptop I have ever owned. I have only had 2

Systems specs: 2.16 Duo Core, 2 Gigs 667, Go 7800(upgrading 7900GS), SigmaTel Sound, 80 Gig 5400 rpm, DVD DL, 10/100 NIC, Wireless, 17" High gloss screen, XP Pro.

Is the prolem with the lcd in all dells 1705s? or just on those wit a spesific lcd(wxga/wuxga?)

Do a search under "leakage" and you'll see lots of threads. This one is Dell 17"-specific and has a poll. It really is random whether yours leaks or not. I have the Samsung and it has some, but minimal light leakage. Others say the Samsungs are the worst, so I think it really is rolling the dice.

IMO, for most screens, the only time you will notice it is on boot (total black screen).