NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Home (Inspiron, XPS, Studio) › Getting E1705 soon. I have a few questions tho
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Getting E1705 soon. I have a few questions tho

post #1 of 8
12/10/06 at 1:06am
Thread Starter 
So I'm getting my E1705 in a few weeks. Specs are in sig. But I do have a few questions that I need answers to!

1. Is the RAM from the Precision M70 compatible with the Inspiron E1705? Because my friend has an M70 with 2GB of RAM, and all he does is use the internet and play WOW. So he said that he would trade my 1GB for his 2GB (and i have to give him a little bit of cash), but I need to know if the RAM would work.

2. Is it rare for the video card to **** up from overclocking? I have never overclocked in my life, but if I have to for future games, I just need to know how common it would be for my video card to mess up on me.

3. Is the Intel Core Duo T2250 still fast for a Core Duo? I mean, I'm on a Pentium M 1.8 GHz, 1GB 333 MHz RAM right now, and im lagging quite a bit from multitasking a little. I just need to know if I will lag AT ALL or by how much with a Core Duo?

4. Has anyone tried Flight Simulator X on with a 7900 GS? I really want this game, but have heard that it's the most graphical demanding game on the market right now...and want to know if my E1705 will be enough to handle it.

5. Is Microsoft Vista RC2 good enough to be used as a main OS? Are there any 7900 GS drivers for it, so i won't see a loss in performance? I really want to use Vista as my main OS, but if there are too many bugs in it, then I will use the MCE 2005 that comes with the E1705.

6. Anyone know if the 7950 GTX is compatible with the E1705? Probably in a year or so, I will upgrade to either the 7900 GTX or the 7950 GTX (if it works).

I may have more questions later. Thanx in advance for anyone who helps.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 8
12/10/06 at 1:18am
1) It should be compatible...M70 comes with DDR2-533 mhz ram.
2) Video card's usually don't die immediately from overclocking, but rather from prolonged exposure to excess heat and temperatures. The 7900GS is an excellent overclocker, and many on the forums have overclocked it safely with no problems at all. Just make sure you keep an eye on temperatures, and give the lappy good ventilation.
3) T2250 should be significantly faster than your P-M 1.8 ghz in multitasking. It should be fine with general Windows usage...although I'm sure a faster Core Duo would help in games and in other more-demanding Windows programs.
4) Havn't tried Flight Simulator X, but the 7900 GS should be able to handle it without any problems. If you do end up OCing the GS, it should be able to play the game at pretty high resolutions. Having 2 gigs of ram of course helps.
5) I've read a few messages/posts on some pretty major video card performance loss when switching to Vista with the 7900 GS...If you want the best performance, stick with MCE2k5 as it is fully compatible with all the drivers out there.
6) I'm not quite sure if it is, although the 7950 GTX is essentially a factory-overclocked 7900 GTX. The 7900 GTX fits fine in the E1705 with a minor mod, so I'd assume the 7950 would work fine as well.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 8
12/10/06 at 2:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swordmaszter
4. Has anyone tried Flight Simulator X on with a 7900 GS? I really want this game, but have heard that it's the most graphical demanding game on the market right now...and want to know if my E1705 will be enough to handle it.

I have FSX and it runs on about medium settings with my 6800GT. You should have no problems running it but don't expect to get 30fps with the sliders maxed out. There is no system right now that can give that kind of performance with this sim. There are a lot of complaints about it on the flightsimnetwork.com forums but honestly it's no different than when FS2004 came out. Systems need a couple years to catch up before you can run full settings at a decent frame rate.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 8
12/10/06 at 8:11pm
I'll take a shot at a few of the questions:

2) The 7900gs in the i9400/e1705 has locked clockspeed and memory speed. The only way to overclock it is by flashing the GPU's firmware. This is significantly riskier and more time consuming than overclocking with CoolBits/RivaTuner/etc. I'd caution against it unless you really know what you're doing

3) For a CPU in an i9400/e1705, it's pretty slow. Dell has the option of the Core 2 Duo at up to 2.16GHz in it now, I'd highly suggest you get at least some form of Core 2 Duo rather than the old Core Duo. As to the original question, in single threaded apps it is likely slightly faster than your old Pentium M, but pretty close. In multithreaded apps you'll get a big benefit. But really, you should look at getting a newer CPU. According to Dell.com, the upgrade to the Core 2 Duo T7200 costs $160 USD, and is seriously worth it.

5) It's *VERY VERY BAD* to be using a release candidate of an OS that has already gone RTM. There is absolutely *NO* reason to be using Vista RC2. Your notebook comes with a free upgrade to Vista, wait a month or two for the actual retail version to arrive rather than using an illegal pre-release OS. As a tip, Dell charges the same for WinXP Home as it does for WinXP MCE2005 ($0 for both), except WinXP MCE2005 gets an upgrade to Vista Home Premium (WinXP home only gets Vista Home Basic), so it's the better deal.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 8
12/10/06 at 10:56pm
The other guys have done a pretty good job at answering the other questions, but...

3) The T2250 is not really that bad. Of course there are faster processors available at this time, and if you can afford them then go for it. However, as I have some personal experience with it, even the T2250 will blow you away after switching from a P-M... even with the lesser of the core duo FSB speeds, its rather impressive. I am still waiting to swap out for a T7400 or T7200, just because I love speed ...
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 8
12/11/06 at 9:38pm
Thread Starter 
Thanx everyone for the help.

I had actually forgot that I was getting the free upgrade to Vista, so I won't even bother with RC2.

And also, I'm not getting the T7200 or the T7400 from the start...but I will be upgrading to either one later on. Probably Q2 or Q3 of next year.

And does anyone else have an answer to the first question? That's probably the most important right now, cuz I'm dying to have 2GB of RAM.

And one more question...

7. Is there a big chance that my WXGA+ screen will be horrible? I mean...I have heard some horrid stories around here about the WXGA+ screens, and not every many about them being good...but I just really hope I'm one of the lucky ones cuz I need my screen to be almost perfect.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 8
12/11/06 at 10:14pm
Not sure, I personally got one with my replacement and the light leakage is pretty bad, about 1/4th of the screen up from the bottom. That'll be replaced along with my x1400-7900GS and dvd/cd drive
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 8
12/11/06 at 10:15pm
As far as the Memory goes, you can swap the memory in those two systems without issue. When it comes to screens, well your luck is as good as anyone elses really... My 9300 came with a gorgeous WXGA screen, but when my E1705 arrived, it had a very awful looking WXGA... Dell has since remedied that for me... you will really just have to wait and see what you get. You may get a really nice screen, it just depends on what bin of parts they are working from that day...
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Home (Inspiron, XPS, Studio) › Getting E1705 soon. I have a few questions tho