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Sell M1710 or Upgrade?

post #1 of 8
7/22/08 at 3:09am
Thread Starter 
I wanted to get some information before I make the simple decision of simply selling my M1710 and upgrading to a M1730.

I love my laptop but it simply can do exactly what I want, which is record while I game with 0 framerate drop. It struggles to do that and refuses to dual box. I only play Final Fantasy XI on this machine.

The game runs beautifully on the maximum resolution possible but not perfectly. I take the game pretty seriously so I'm trying to get the best possible experience out my machine as well as start recording videos of my group.

Memory is easy enough so I guess what I want is some direction on the processor, HD and possibly the video card.

Current parts I want upgraded:

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr><td class="gridCell">
</td><td class="gridCell">PROCESSOR, 80539, YONAH, T2400, 1.83, C0</td></tr></tbody> </table>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr><td class="gridCellAlt">
</td><td class="gridCellAlt">HARD DRIVE, 60G, Serial ATA, 9, 72, SEAGATE, M72, V2</td></tr></tbody> </table>
Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS Video card.

So I have a few questions.

First. Is it cheaper to selll and rebuy or to upgrade?

If I can upgrade for less what are recommendations out there for those three parts.

Lastly, how does upgrading affect the warranty? Its been awhile since i got this, I know some of the more exclusive XPS warranties are probably out of date, but I know I had some 3 year general warranties IRC. (Im going to look this up tomorrow)
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post #2 of 8
7/22/08 at 6:40am
You are probably better off getting a new laptop considering you are wanting to replace most of it! Hold off for a little bit and we should see what new releases dell has for the new Intel processor line just released. Then you should be able to get a good deal on a current m1730 or a whole new beast.

You could upgrade for less money, but ultimately when you are wanting such an extensive upgrade you may as well go with something newer that has better chances of further upgrades in the future.

Stu
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post #3 of 8
7/22/08 at 3:34pm
Right now the hot spot for gaming comes from Toshiba and Gateway. the 6861FX from gateway.com comes standard with a Geforce 8800 GTS and the Toshiba G50 series comes with Geforce 9700 GTS cards. Both will run u under 1400 for gaming vastly superior to most systems available.
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post #4 of 8
7/22/08 at 3:41pm
Or hunt around and try to Land a M6300 with the FX-3600 GPU, it going to cost more than the Gateway but Dell's Warranty is better if you get the CC

They P 6831-FX seems to be no longer for sale at Best Buy, but the 6860 is a slightly better version for the same price as BB, (Note they put the 6860 on sale every few weeks, - last week was on sale for $ 1099.00 which is a bargin for a laptop with a 8800GTX card in it.
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post #5 of 8
7/22/08 at 5:51pm
Thread Starter 
Well one thing I can say is that I really enjoyed having Dell's XPS warranty. I had a pretty bad experience at first but in the end they took care of me and I ended up getting a brand new computer. I also realized I enjoyed talking to someone who not only spoke English, they wanted to help me out.

I checked some of the stickies with parts I can find to upgrade this, and yes it looks like Im better off selling this machine and getting something new.

What seems to be the best for gaming atm? I'll be looking to get 900-1000 for this and only want to spend at most another 500-600. What I want for sure is A: 17+ inch monitor with the same resolution. The same graphics, and the ability to dual box/record without any drop in framerate.

The thing about XI is the video card really isnt that big of a concern. A nice 256 seems to show off the game just fine. (Hell the game caps out FPS @ 29) It seems like the game is a real processor hog and thats what prevents dual box situations and recording.

When I first got this laptop portability was a huge concern. Now that I'm more settled, I'm even considering builidng a desktop.

Kinda torn atm on what to do lol...

Finally I want to know these three thing: Whats the best Laptop now in days for my standards (I shopped for this laptop @ this site a few years ago)

What are these M1710s worth now? I've seen about 950-1000. Is that still a good assumption? (If thats the case, could i build a better desktop with $1000 cash in hand from this?)
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post #6 of 8
7/23/08 at 3:51am
I would definitely upgrade. The 7950s 7900s video cards had terrible gpu and memory problems. You will have to replace the card every 6 months. Just sell the notebook for what its worth and go to the dell outlet and pick up a cheap m1730.
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post #7 of 8
7/23/08 at 5:55pm
what i did:

1. sold my 2 years old inspiron 9400/e1705 (t7200@2ghz, 7900gs, 120gb hdd
5400rpm, 2gb 667 ram) on ebay and got: 700 euro.

2. added 800 more euro and got the m6300 (from my sig) with 3 years international
customer care.

upgrading brings few benefits (7900 vs 7950 is far away fom 7900 vs 8800)
is expensive and you have no warranty.
if you go for a really fast quality laptop go for a dell, the cheapest solution for
gaming is building a desktop (1/3 of the price, better performance), though.
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post #8 of 8
7/23/08 at 6:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tekki View Post

What are these M1710s worth now? I've seen about 950-1000. Is that still a good assumption? (If thats the case, could i build a better desktop with $1000 cash in hand from this?)

on german ebay you'd get something between 500-800 euro for this pc.
a new m1710 with the exact specs of my former mentioned inspiron
costs 1200 euro (new from dell's site) now.


and a new desktop is cheap & fast. there is a site in germany (alternate.de)
where you can build your pc and they ship it to you (in one piece or in parts).
recently i built one for a friend:

- 3.0 ghz core2duo cpu (1333mhz fsb, 8mb l2cache)
- ati radeon 4870 gpu
- 2 gb dr2 800 ram
- 500 gb 7200rpm hdd baracuda seagate
- asus mainboard
- pioneer dvd burner
- card reader
- 550 watt psu
- wlan & network card
- etc, etc (the whole thing)

price was 700 euro. (you can save something by using up parts you already have)

then you can ad around 250 euro for a nice samsung/lg/viewsonic 22" lcd scren.

if i wouldn't need a laptop (travel much) i'd buy one myself, too.
you can also add a few bucks and get a gtx 280 card.
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