Anyone order 9100 in the UK?

I would be surprised if it takes that long. Expect a email advising of delivery much sooner. Thats how it happened with my 9100.

Hi Chrissybaby,

I ordered my 9100 from Dell.co.uk on September 21st, and they said my ship date would be 1st October, which was spot on. I will take delivery of it tomorrow.

Here's my spec:

P4 3.4GHZ
15.4" WUXGA
1GB Ram
60GB 7,200rpm
8X DVD-RW
256MB RADEON 9800

One thing I did notice a couple of days ago was that on Dell.co.uk the RADEON 9800 was not an option on any of the configurations. Only 128MB RADEON 9700. Strange

May be they have a stock problem. I would get in touch with Dell and enquire what's going on. That way you have peace of mind.

Eagerly waiting for my powerbrick....I'll let you know how it is.

Cheers,

Capslock -There's only one!

Only the best for us eh, Chrissybaby?

Like buying a car, I want top of the range...hehe, but the trouble is that I can't afford a top of the range car, so laptop will do...for now.

Oh, I also got those speakers with it and a Dell leather bag, not that it's going to do much travelling if I can help it.

Hi, I ordered mine on the 24th September and it arrived today!

I do know there is a serious shortage of MR9800 cards. I ordered mine on the phone and had the email address and phone numbers of my sales agent, which came in handy. Dell initially said I would have it delivered on the 30th September, then it changed to the 29th October, so I rang up the sales agent and complained. The result was they "fast tracked" my order and it arrived today (4th October).

So far so good, I've wiped the drive and reinstalled XP-SP2, loaded the latest 4.9 catalyst based DNA drivers using the "Insane FPS" option (www.dna-drivers.nl) and run Aquamark with a score of 44,000 (give or take a few points).

This laptop is awesome

Hi Arereal,

Another Brit with the same spec

Mine not arrived yet. Could be waiting all day. I have taken the day off work just for the occasion. So you nuked it completely? I take it you get all the Windows XP discs with it?

Not sure if I'm gonna nuke mine. It's not absolutely necessary, is it?

What's the Radeon 9800 256MB like? I currently have an Radeon 16MB adapter in my lappy, so it's going to be a huge difference.

Hope you have fun with it.

I'll let you knwo how I get on with mine, Hopefully today. It better be!

Cheers,

hi mate i got one from dell.co.uk
have to replace my HDD 2day....

It's not absolutely necessary but I would recommend it, I nuked mine very soon after I turned it on You do get all the CD's but I had my own legal copy of XP Pro anyway. When you first get the machine the icons and the text are all huge (probably easy enough to change) and the sound was very quiet even though I had all the sliders maxxed out and selected the correct speaker setup in the control panel. The screen and audio looked and sounded great after I reformatted and reinstalled XP and the latest drivers from Dell.com (for some odd reason dell.co.uk does not recognise the service tag!).


Simply put... Stunning! I had a nVidia FX5600 Go in my last laptop that gave me an Aquamark of 12,000 unclocked and around 14,000 clocked and that machine was a top of the range HP ZD7000. With the i9100 using what some people are calling medium OC settings (see sig) I'm hitting nearly 47,000. The HP did not run Doom3, it was unplayable. The i9100 runs it with no trouble, trust me, thats an understatement.

My advice would be to grab those DNA drivers I mentioned in the previous message and select "Insane FPS" - Also grab ATI Tool if you want to experiment with OC'ing.



Oh I am! You just keep looking out for that courier

Sorry to hear that, If you don't mind me asking, what happened and what type was it?

just damn clicking noise for 10 days and last night the xp cannot find the hard drive and even the installtion cd.... today i got a new hdd replacement and with firmware A53A , it seems ok but i will test it tonight ....
BTW my hdd is 80GB hitachi 5400rpm

Nasty... Mine is a Fujitsu 5400 60GB, very quiet with no clicking noise, so fingers crossed.

Hi guys,

Finally, I got it yesterday at 11:30:34 (forget the seconds bit heheh) I honestly wasn't lookign at my watch.
3 boxes in total:
1 x lappy
1 x leather case
1 x Speakers with Subwoofer.

Ok, I've not had too much time with it yet, as I was out for most of the day.
I've not nuked it yet. Maybe I'll sort it ina few days, but i really just wanted to get it up and running to inspect it.

First impression
It is a huge Mo Fo, as you already know, but I wasn't shocked at all by the weight of it, as some owners have stressed. In fact, It doesn't feel much heavier than my Lattitude C610. But I love it. It makes other laptops seem anorexic.

15.4" WUXGA screen
Checked for dead pixels. Not a spec! Which I'm glad about. I was worried that I might find just one, which would bug me forever. I do have light leakage though - at the bottom and near the top. I think I can live with this, as I can only see it when XP starts up. I've checked it out with a DVD too with some dark scenes from Lost in Translation, and I'm glad to say that it is not visible.

RADEON 9800 256MB Graphics WUXGA
One word -Awesome I'm so used to having a slightly blurred pisture of the test and icons generated form my measely 16MB Radeon. It was like I could see clearly again. I must admit the text size was a bit small, but i jhave no difficulties reading the text. I have noticed that on some websites or in some apps like Mcafee Virus scan, the text is so small that some users may have difficulty, but I don't. I have tested it with Far Cry and The Sims 2 so far. Jesus! The quality is unbelievable. On The Sims 2 I have it set at the highest quality and resolution possible, and it flows beautifully. As for Far cry - my god. just like watching a movie! Big thumbs up for Radeon 9800


60 GB 7,200rpm HDD
I have noticed that under properties. I only have a total of 52GB and about 45 GB free. What happened to my 60GB? I know that you never fully get the exact figure specified. Anyone else with a 60GB get this?

Dell A425 Speakers with Subwoofer
The sound quality is excellent just from the laptop itself, but with these external speakers plugged in. The sound is faultless. Good purchase.

Fan noise and heat
The fan noise is not that bad. I hardly notice it with my speakers turned up. The fan operates in normal silent mode during normal day to day use, but as soon as you slap in that 3D game, the turbines kick in, and boy can you hear them, but like I said with sound turned up, it's not that noticeable.

One thing I did notice was the amount of heat that was generated at the back of the laptop. It really gets hot back there. I 'm thinking of getting some kind of laptop cooling device...anyone got any goodbuys or suggestions?

Battery life

Simply put, it's appalling, but the Mo Fo was designed to be plugged in most of the time, so noe worries there. I don't think I will be using it on batteries that often anyway.

Conlusion

Overall, I love this laptop. It suits all my needs as a desktop replacement. My only gripe is the amount of heat it can generate when playing 3D games.

Arereal, Do you have any recommendations to push my lappy to to it's full potential? like Drivers, etc, etc?

Cheers,

I can only recommend what I did, download the latest DNA Drivers for the MR9800, select "Insane FPS" when running the installer. Download ATI Tool and create a second profile, the best thing to do is search this forum for various OC settings. I'm using 400/350, which has been described by some on here as "mild overclocking" I can tell you at 400/350 the machine is stable, it runs cooler than my i8200 and my old HP ZD7000 and it gives me an aquamark of around 47,000.

I love the build quality of this beast, so much better than my last i8200

dell trying to do the same to me at the moment, orderd on saturday the 2nd and quoted was 7-10working days now theyre saying estimated delv is 9nov!

not impressed.

checking status online says its in production so they cant even say items are out of stock.

been in touch with my sales agent and she states she will get it fast-tracked but still waiting to hear more.

Seriously though BIG complaint letter brewing if it does turn out to be nov before i have it.

um, to be honest, I doubt a laptop cooler would help with what you describe. Do you understand why it's hot back there?

On the bottom of the laptop, there are 3 fan intakes. The left rear pulls in air that blows out the left rear, over the Heat Pipe fins for the GPU. The Right Rear fan blows out the right rear over the Heat Pipe fins for the CPU. The center front fan pulls air from there and blows it back toward the CPU as well, and seems to also disperse some air over the Dimms and other parts internally.

the only part of the underside that even gets warm is the dimm door, and you are not feeling that heat in the rear. The heat generated from the GPU and CPU aren't felt on the bottom of the 9100/XPS, but might be felt on the keyboard if cooling isn't up to snuff. Since Dell used Heat Pipes, all the heat is at the rear as you noticed. The only benefit I've seen from raising the laptop off the desk is possibly better airflow underneath into the fans. I've used a couple of cd cases under the rear, or eventually, I found a peice of plastic about 1/2" thick, almost the width of the laptop, and maybe 2" deep. I use that to prop up the rear which sets the keyboard at a comfortable angle similar to a normal keyboard.

Something like the oysterdock is nice not because it does some amazing cooling trick, but for how it sets the display for easier viewing and is a nice central place for an external keyboard and mouse etc if you want something like a docking station.

The other problem is, this darn thing is too big for just about every cooler thing out there

There's a slight improvement from a cooler, some here have posted about their experiences, but none have been exceptional. The oyster seems to be liked the most for how it positions the screen.

but don't worry about the heat in the rear, just make sure there is room in the back for the heat to dissipate and there is ample fresh air available to the underside where the intakes are

ok really am gonna cry.

been emailing back and forth with the sales rep all night. best there gonna do at this stage is refund £50 to me and i just have to sit on my backside and wait 5 weeks for it.

The thing that really cheezes me of is that there saying its do to the demand of the 9800, fair enough but why does the order tracker have to always be taunting me and saying that my system is in production.

how the hell can it be in prodcution if they dont have the parts!

surely that would still be pre-production still where they clearly state all parts and componets are gatherd.

Oh well im taking it farther up with Dell as i feel mis-lead but mostly its just because im really disgruntled about having to wait over 5 weeks for a laptop that im dreaming about at the moment.

My apologies for going on and on,suppose i jsut want to voice my misery.

/rant off

thanks for the sympathy, but yeah as i stated what really annoys me is their order tracker its blatantly mis-leading.

if from day one i knew the 9800 was out of stock i would of excepted it, but dont like being told one thing when its really completly the opposite.