***OFFICIAL*** M1730 news thread - Page 11

It looks like they're still working on it, so far I can't configure a single 8800 or get a T9500 (2.6 GHz) Penryn. I'm not paying six grand for a Dell or any other notebook, 4K tops. I'm still on the fence for a blu-ray burner. They should just drop the crappy 8700, making the single/SLI 8800 the only options.

Anyway, at least it's finally available.

Agree 100%, except for the price thingy...I'll pay any amount of money since I need the tax write off. It may be hell trying to explain a 'gaming computer' to some IRS nerd during an audit since I'm a psycholgist, but I'll take that chance in exchange for complete relief of boredom during all those nights I have to stay in hotels (at least 1/week). Whores are illegal in my state, lol, but Crysis isn't, last time I checked...as long as you have a system capable.

Just tell the IRS that you were planning on getting EMR software and were told you should get the most powerful laptop you can afford

That is some ownage advice right there.

Emr?

Electronic Medical Record... also can be referred to as EHR (Electronic Health Record)

I'm new to this forum, but I've been reading some of the posts because I was buying a new laptop. To make a long story short I'm a hardcore IT guy, but I got that way from hacking and gaming.

As I was typing this my new laptop arrived..YES I HAVE IT!!!!....although it's not quite as bad HAMMERMD's unit it's no dog.

M1730, X7900, 2GB RAM (did this on purpose I want 4gb of 800Mhz as soon as I can find), XP Pro (had to because of work), 120GB 7200rm drive, BT, N card, and of cours 2 X 8800M GTX 512MB SLI !!!

I will post REAL 3dmark06 scores as soon as possible.

One thing that I would like to mention is that I really don't like the term "gaming laptop". Although I have to admit I love knowing that this has the best graphics solution in the world for a notebook... or in this case it's more like a dictionary than a notebook, I chose the m1730 is because I needed the most powerful desktop replacement that could handle both cpu and graphic intensive apps . I need a portable office basically. Battery life doesn't mean squat to me, but having a big screen and full keyboard do.
I'm old school and I've always had the opinion that nothing requires more computing power than games, so I go after the "gaming laptops", but I use them to do things like virtualizing servers and process a lot of video.
I think I made the right choice and I think it's cool that I can load up a game or two to play on my down time without worrying about system requirements, but I did not get it for gaming....I got it for work.
The only thing I can say after owning it for 15 minutes is that I don't like how "flashy" it is, I would much prefere a plain black case with no lights in the speakers.

All that said I would welcome any opinions on the subject.

Also...I'm downloading 3dmark06 now from Majorgeek with the oct patch. As I said earlier I will post score as soon as done.

Thanks,
Len

For good or bad here are the numbers. System was turned on, with automatic updates off, I downloaded 3dmark06, installed it, and ran it. No OC'ing, No updaes, No nothing, these are straight out of the box numbers. All bloatware and apps installed.

System is:
Dell m1730
XP Pro
x7900 2.8Ghz
2gb 667 mhz mem
120GB 7200 rpm drive
8800m gtx sli video

3dmark06 SLI turned off: 9472
3dmark06 with SLI turned on: 12353

Although I'm going to slow it down....I JUST COULDN'T RESIST.

Logitech Display off
AntiVirus off
All patches and updates
CPU @ 3.4 Ghz
SLI ON

13864 COUNT IT!

I only got 9963 on my setup with 8800SLI. Just installed it today. I am waiting for my income tax return to get 4gb of DDR2 800 and another 120GB hd for raid.

Download latest (only drivers for 8800m), make sure you go into the nvidia control panel and turn on sli, don't forget that just because you put the cards in that it doesn't come up in sli. You have to have set it up in nvidia's control panel.
I forgot to mention that I also updated my bios from ao5 to ao6 and had my wireless turned off.
My 13.8k score was done on a "clean machine" with x7900 cranked to max and almost nothing running (I might be able to squeeze a couple more numbers by turning off services that aren't getting used)....and I don't know if this makes a difference, but I was also in my computer room (constant 61 degrees F with A/C blowing right on the m1730)....
Computer never got warm, but WOW did it get hot at home on my desk!

I'm very curious as to what were you getting with your 8700's?

I did turn on SLI and I think when I got that score I was running 174.12 drivers from laptopvideo2go as I had just updated them. My cards also got up to 81 degrees with the system controling the fans. I have since downgraded drivers to the 167.59 and I used I8KFANGUI to control the fans at max speed and the cards only got to 79 and I got 10,017. With my 8700SLI running at 750/1500/1025 I was getting 8863. I have not reinstalled my OS as I am waiting to get raid.

That's really strange...there's no way one guy should get ~12,000 and the other gets ~10,000 with identical hardware...there's got to be something holding you back, there, McFly...

There is a huge difference between a 2,20GHz CPU and a 3,20GHz CPU. @lenreis/McFly: Try 3DMark06 at 1920x1200. You should get a considerable result. Cheers Dr. Doom

I've kept the stock 167.57 drivers...they are also available from dell.com 50mb download. I see no reason to play with anything else for now and open myself up to problems.

I can't increase the res on the tests because I'm using the free version of 3dmark06 ...so whatever the numbers are they are...The screen was set to maximum but the test runs at a lower res. I have it in my bag right now so I don't remember exactly what it is, but it can't be changed in the free version.

As I mentioned earlier... I got the version of 3dmark06 from majorgeek.com and it had the oct patch.

I've given all the info I can think of for anyone to compare apples to apples for baseline testing .

I am very intersted though if there is anything out there that will display cooling/temp info or FPS on the keyboard lcd.

I can tell you that I played COD4 last night for about 45 minutes @ the stock 2.8ghz setting with sli on and all COD4 settings max including trilinnear textures and it looked unbelievable, super smooth, but boy was it hot when I was done.

Any info on the LCD stats would be greatly appreciated.

fraps,if it is running when your playing a game should display on the gamepanel....it did on my 1730 I returned.

Ordered another one last night w/8800 sli.

lenreis: what kind of temps are you getting on your 8800SLI? the hightest I have seen so far is 81 and it likes to idle around 67-72 and thats with the fans on max speed.

Running fan on max speed doesn't mean it will run cooler. Let the bios run the fan, and just monitor the temp using i8kfan. It just may be your place too warm, and fans blowing hot air into your system also.

Whats up with the 3dmark score though?

I thought it was supposed to get around 13k w/ extreme cpu, so w/ yours I was thinking atleast med 11k?

Achilles
You will get over 13k...actually almost 14k if you have the processor fully overclocked to 3.4.

Haven't checked temps yet, but achilles makes an excellent point. When I ran this thing in my office with A/C it barely gets warm, but when I run it at home it gets hot.

I keep a tight schedule so I haven't had much time to srew around with it, but hopefully this weekend I can provide more info for you guys. One thing I think was a joke was I showed it to a kid I work with that plays COD4 and he told me that the graphics were the same as his PS3 with the high def cables....I've never seen it on the ps3, but I have trouble believing that, but it may be possible.

Jerry, thanks for the tip on fraps, I'll try it over the weekend, anybody know of anything else that shows stats on the lcd or anything that lets you customize the lcd?

Note: I ran 3dbenchmark again after loading up some more stuff and I can say that I consistently get over 12k at stock settings with stock drivers. Antivirus, LCD, Wi-Fi all on with bios a06.

I'm tempted to get crisis and run it on this thing, I just don't know if I want to drop $60 to find out what it's capabilities are. I rarely play more than one game at a time and right now I'm still doing COD4.