Hey everyone, for you new people, this site is the bomb
and for you illiterates and lazy bums who don't want to read all my hard work, i've summarized this whole review in a series of emoticons
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for those of you who have made it this far, congratulations, and thank you for reading.
I bought my laptop from this site, in the "for sale" thread, from bluedevils (go look, he's there somewhere). in the end, i got a pretty much maxed out M1710, and i saved about $2000.00 CDN (for you others, http://www.xe.com/ucc/
So, first, the specs
T2600 at 2X2.16GHz
Geforce Go 7900GTX w/512MB + a 1920 x 1200 WUXGA screen
100 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
2 GB DDR2 667 ram
Thats it :P
This review will be short on stats and benchmarks, since those are all over the net anyway, and i'm lazy. if ur gonna spend this much, you can do a little late night research. Also, i'll spare you the description of the obsessive box opening ritual (though i did it
). In short, i'll tell you why i bought this laptop, and how i like it.
As i said, i bought this laptop from BlueDevils, who was great, talked me over my online buying fears, and was even able to accept payment by credit card. In the end, he did a perfect job of getting the laptop to me, and held my hand the whole way. LoL
Now cost. as i'm still in school, Cost is the ugly little demon that slaps you in the face every time your eyes glaze over in sheer joy. And any laptop in this price bracket has one of these demons, but some are nastier than others. In the case of the laptops from alienware or falcon northwest or voodoo, the bundled cost demon is as mean and horrible as they come. Now the standard demon from dell is no slouch either, and can compete in nastiness quite easily with its competitors. However, unlike the other vendors, you can buy dell laptops without such a nasty demon if you buy it online from someone who gets good deals. in fact, the one bluedevils sent me was gruff at first, but once you got to know him, the demon was a really nice guy.
What i'm really saying is this: if you look around and buy from guys like bluedevils or stake out dells website, you simply CANNOT find better value. you just can't. and trust me, after spending 2 weeks researching this, things like RAID or SLI or a tatooed laptop are just not worth $500 - $2000. tatoos are just silly, and RAID and SLI are pretty much pointless.
The M1710 makes an impression, like rolling up in an expensive sports car. Now most high end laptop do this, but i want to describe this one. Alienware marks you as a gamer, and they look really cool, but if you whip that thing out at a conference, i can promise you all that they'll look at the entire time is that creepy little alien head. Falcon NW or voodoo, they'll be wondering what kind of cult you belong to or if you are going to kill them at the end of the presentation.
This thing will stand out anywhere you go, but its not over the top. its classy, like a really nice BMW sedan with rims and smoked windows. I don't think the red is as nice as the black, but hey, whatever. It looks high tech, sophisticated and professional. If james bond or neo had a laptop, i think it would look like this.
Now the M1710 (in black, with the lights set to blue) is just plain elegant and, to use this metaphor for the first time on a machine, drop dead sexy. closed, its black with the silver highlights and blue accents, while open, its a more bad@$$ but less geeky Mac. i love the lights, they arent over the top at all, and they look so cool in the dark.
its lighter than my old I8200, and the body is very strong. some reviews i read mentioned a flexion of the plastic part below the screen, but from my own all over push test, you have to push pretty hard before you notice anything. heck, my mouse bends if you try hard enough. the point is, don't drop it, step on it or hit it with your cat and you and your pets will be just fine.
in all seriousness, treat it well, and it'll last. its really solid. go to your local sony store and pick up a vaio. its about the same.
at the same time i got this, i built a desktop with a massively overclocked pentium D 805 and a 7900 GTX for my brother, and i have to say i don't notice too much of a difference. this thing is top of the line, and it know it.
performance wise, i run doom 3, fear, WOW and hitman blood money at pretty much the highest settings, and it runs flawlessly. when i say pretty much, i mean that at 16x Anti-alias you'll be hard pressed to build a desktop that'll run smoothly for this amount of money.
The keyboard is no trouble, and its a good transition from my old laptop. As far as screen is concerned, i own a brand new 19 inch sony LCD monitor, and honostly they are about the same.
The touch seriously rules. i played a good bit of doom on it, and to be able to use a touchpad at all in an FPS like doom is an acomplishment.
battery life is pretty good. i mean, this is a 17inch widescreen here, with a monster GPU and CPU, so being able to watch "The Rundown" from start to finish on full speaker volume is good enough for me. the speakers are truely amazing by the way. and built in bass?!?!? yeah! plus the batteries are pretty small, so get two and double your battery time.
ports: all you could want, and you get bluetooth, which rocks.
integrated media buttons for dvds and music are simply brilliant, and very useful.
also, don't wait for merom. buy this now, while its a middle aged product at a middle age price, and then upgrade to merom (because you can
) if you wait for merom, everything with merom in it will be more expensive.
I think, in my rambling way, i've pretty much said it all. i use this thing for business and recreation, i travel all the time and i'm rough with it. i game, i do some graphic design and data crunching. I love this thing, i really do. I looked and i looked, and it knocks the socks off most everything else, and when it only manages a close tie, then it costs half as much. I highly recommend a case from Pelican Products, which can be purchased at tiger direct.
If you need top level performance and features, with style and quality on the side and your uncle ISN'T a saudi prince, then i'd say this laptop is for you.
feel free to PM me with questions.
and for you illiterates and lazy bums who don't want to read all my hard work, i've summarized this whole review in a series of emoticons
--> --> --> --> --> --> for those of you who have made it this far, congratulations, and thank you for reading.
I bought my laptop from this site, in the "for sale" thread, from bluedevils (go look, he's there somewhere). in the end, i got a pretty much maxed out M1710, and i saved about $2000.00 CDN (for you others, http://www.xe.com/ucc/
So, first, the specs
T2600 at 2X2.16GHz
Geforce Go 7900GTX w/512MB + a 1920 x 1200 WUXGA screen
100 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
2 GB DDR2 667 ram
Thats it :P
This review will be short on stats and benchmarks, since those are all over the net anyway, and i'm lazy. if ur gonna spend this much, you can do a little late night research. Also, i'll spare you the description of the obsessive box opening ritual (though i did it
). In short, i'll tell you why i bought this laptop, and how i like it.As i said, i bought this laptop from BlueDevils, who was great, talked me over my online buying fears, and was even able to accept payment by credit card. In the end, he did a perfect job of getting the laptop to me, and held my hand the whole way. LoL
Now cost. as i'm still in school, Cost is the ugly little demon that slaps you in the face every time your eyes glaze over in sheer joy. And any laptop in this price bracket has one of these demons, but some are nastier than others. In the case of the laptops from alienware or falcon northwest or voodoo, the bundled cost demon is as mean and horrible as they come. Now the standard demon from dell is no slouch either, and can compete in nastiness quite easily with its competitors. However, unlike the other vendors, you can buy dell laptops without such a nasty demon if you buy it online from someone who gets good deals. in fact, the one bluedevils sent me was gruff at first, but once you got to know him, the demon was a really nice guy.
What i'm really saying is this: if you look around and buy from guys like bluedevils or stake out dells website, you simply CANNOT find better value. you just can't. and trust me, after spending 2 weeks researching this, things like RAID or SLI or a tatooed laptop are just not worth $500 - $2000. tatoos are just silly, and RAID and SLI are pretty much pointless.
The M1710 makes an impression, like rolling up in an expensive sports car. Now most high end laptop do this, but i want to describe this one. Alienware marks you as a gamer, and they look really cool, but if you whip that thing out at a conference, i can promise you all that they'll look at the entire time is that creepy little alien head. Falcon NW or voodoo, they'll be wondering what kind of cult you belong to or if you are going to kill them at the end of the presentation.
This thing will stand out anywhere you go, but its not over the top. its classy, like a really nice BMW sedan with rims and smoked windows. I don't think the red is as nice as the black, but hey, whatever. It looks high tech, sophisticated and professional. If james bond or neo had a laptop, i think it would look like this.
Now the M1710 (in black, with the lights set to blue) is just plain elegant and, to use this metaphor for the first time on a machine, drop dead sexy. closed, its black with the silver highlights and blue accents, while open, its a more bad@$$ but less geeky Mac. i love the lights, they arent over the top at all, and they look so cool in the dark.
its lighter than my old I8200, and the body is very strong. some reviews i read mentioned a flexion of the plastic part below the screen, but from my own all over push test, you have to push pretty hard before you notice anything. heck, my mouse bends if you try hard enough. the point is, don't drop it, step on it or hit it with your cat and you and your pets will be just fine.
in all seriousness, treat it well, and it'll last. its really solid. go to your local sony store and pick up a vaio. its about the same.
at the same time i got this, i built a desktop with a massively overclocked pentium D 805 and a 7900 GTX for my brother, and i have to say i don't notice too much of a difference. this thing is top of the line, and it know it.
performance wise, i run doom 3, fear, WOW and hitman blood money at pretty much the highest settings, and it runs flawlessly. when i say pretty much, i mean that at 16x Anti-alias you'll be hard pressed to build a desktop that'll run smoothly for this amount of money.
The keyboard is no trouble, and its a good transition from my old laptop. As far as screen is concerned, i own a brand new 19 inch sony LCD monitor, and honostly they are about the same.
The touch seriously rules. i played a good bit of doom on it, and to be able to use a touchpad at all in an FPS like doom is an acomplishment.
battery life is pretty good. i mean, this is a 17inch widescreen here, with a monster GPU and CPU, so being able to watch "The Rundown" from start to finish on full speaker volume is good enough for me. the speakers are truely amazing by the way. and built in bass?!?!? yeah! plus the batteries are pretty small, so get two and double your battery time.
ports: all you could want, and you get bluetooth, which rocks.
integrated media buttons for dvds and music are simply brilliant, and very useful.
also, don't wait for merom. buy this now, while its a middle aged product at a middle age price, and then upgrade to merom (because you can
) if you wait for merom, everything with merom in it will be more expensive.I think, in my rambling way, i've pretty much said it all. i use this thing for business and recreation, i travel all the time and i'm rough with it. i game, i do some graphic design and data crunching. I love this thing, i really do. I looked and i looked, and it knocks the socks off most everything else, and when it only manages a close tie, then it costs half as much. I highly recommend a case from Pelican Products, which can be purchased at tiger direct.
If you need top level performance and features, with style and quality on the side and your uncle ISN'T a saudi prince, then i'd say this laptop is for you.
feel free to PM me with questions.
