The M70 is awesome! - Page 2

have someone check the headphone port, who owns a m70 or a d810?

is there whine like putting your ear close to a sea shell, or is that noise from touchpad activity or even both: whine and noise?

tell me exactly what you heare at headphones. much thx.

( compare with the tread about the latitude d610:
http://notebookforums.com/showthrea...8380#post708380

No whine, connected to a D/Port, D/Dock & standalone.

but without docking you have, huh? should i take the d/port always away???

While undocked (standalone), no whine either.
Try disabling the "PC speaker" from the Control Panel's Sounds applet.

hey wait a moment, what you talikin?? can you explain step by step, note i havent a d/station or a d/bay either or whatever.
much thanks

Can you tell me what the battery life it like. I am considering getting one, and would like to know how long it can go.

Also, have you tried it in games yet, or can you do a 3DMark test on it?

Thanks.

I'm not sure what to say about this laptop...or rather, whether it's going to satisfy my needs or not. I ordered the M70 with Quadro 1400 graphics before knowing anything about how much the 6800 Ultra card blows the Quadro away. However, the XPS2 is probably just too big and heavy for as much as I'm going to carry the laptop around.

So the M70... it's a very nicely built machine. Being a previous M60 owner, I can say that the M70 is MUCH more solid, mainly due to the improved base. I guess someone said it is metal like the lid. It's hard for me to tell, but I guess it feels kind of metalish heh. The machine is definitely fast. I put EverQuest II on and the machine is able to handle it at 1920x1200 resolution with full settings without jerking at all. I would guess that it is running at around 25-30 fps with full settings. I haven't tried HL2 yet, maybe this weekend.

Battery life--I'm not so sure about this yet. I've only had it off battery once, and from a full charge the machine estimated about 2.5 hours, even with "Max Power" settings. I think I got about 3 from it. That was with the nVidia PowerMizer set to Max Performance on battery.. I have since set that to Balanced so I'll see if it makes a difference with 2D graphics at all somehow. I'll be doing more testing with battery life in the coming days. I would like to note that I used to get close to 4 hours out of the M60 with the "Max Battery" Dell Quickset option...so this battery life decrease seems to be across the board with the Sonoma chipset.

The screen is the same as the M60. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful screen, but after looking at some of the Sonys in person I wish it was a little brighter. I turned on the Digital Vibrance in the graphics settings and that has helped some.

I'm going to be using the machine for Photoshop work and other graphics design and this is the main reason I wanted a machine with WUXGA resolution as I loved it on the M60. Other than that, it's main use is for simple web browsing and occasional 3D work when I have time to learn the applications.

I'm also a gamer...but with the workload I have in college, I don't even think gaming is an issue with what laptop I get right now. So I'm thinking of getting a thin-and-light (Sony FS series maybe?) and a really powerful desktop.

I'll let you guys know more later, but these were my first impressions.

it only "blows it away" if you're comparing games.

and if u do mostly photoshop/2d work and gaming, the 6800 ultra would be a better choice... i would not recommend the quadro strictly for 2D work.

the 1400 on the m70 is actually clocked relatively low compared to the 6800 ultra (prob for battery/stability), but i've been able to clock it up to 350/740 (!!!) with no lockups.... over 3000 in 3dmark2005 (much faster than the 9800 in XPS gen1).

if u use MAYA or other DCC apps, the quadro rocks. i've been using MAYA for over 4 years now (since version 3), and the quadro versions have always been better --- speed AND stability. the 3D viewports in MAYA for opengl apps are SIGNIFICANTLY more stable with no visual anamolies under QUADRO compared to their gaming cousin chips.

and yes, because of the NV41 chip, the battery life is a lot less than the m60.

i have a quadro 980XGL (cousin to Ti4600) on my desktop with a dual 2.6ghz xeon, and the M70 is roughly 3-5 times faster using the exact same 3D MODEL file in MAYA... it's great.

i know there's a lot of buzz about the XPS G2... but the more i use the m70, the more i love it. it just boils down to what you plan to use the lappy for.

Game play - perhaps the XPS-2
Game development - M70

my 1st dell notebook was a return a few yrs ago & looks like this will be a 2nd return (damn dell & their dells which is sometimes irresistible). the m70 is a much better built then my last DTR notebook from dell. the screen is nice & the feel of it is good tho it does like a few features that would be convenient. anyways, sadly this notebook is crashing on me while gaming & its been over a week now & still no response from dell on whats up. any1 else playN americas army or rise of nations w/out problems?

if you're a gamer, return the m70. get the XPS G2. it also has a magnesium base and lid, and a much faster video card for gaming.

i just wiped out the HD and the dell XP install, and did a clean reinstall on my M70 (media player was having some issues as well as some funky OS quirks... everything is running a lot faster and smoother now). if you're getting lockups and whatnot, try a wipe and clean install. dell puts a lot of unwanted crap on there.

but again, if you're a gamer... the m70 is not your best choice.

Have you tried running any WMVHD files on it yet? The 1080 version of Step Into Liquid seems to be one of the most difficult to play without stuttering.

I like the M70, it's a sweet laptop. If they didn't release the XPS2 with an Ultra or if the M70 had DDR3 I would be keeping it. Since it doesn't I will be returning it. It is solidly built though. I do have a fair amount of backlight leakage from the bottom though. I don't know if this is normal or not.

America's Army on my M70 for several hours with zero problems here.

well im not a serious gamer but do like to ocassionally play america's army & a few others. the main reason i got this notebook was cuz of the 15in lcd & the vid card. i thought the vid would be able to handle games even tho i knew it wasnt as fast as the go6800 but was fine w/ it. anyways i am getting blue screens of death & havent found an answer. the xps2 is a lil too big & i needs some kind of mobility so it looks like the acer 8104 here i come

damn, of all ppli gets the lemon

wipe the HD and do a clean install... don't put too much stuff on it yet (XP install, all drivers, all windows updates, directX9c, your games) and try to play it... if it's still getting bluescreens, yeah... you probably have a hardware problem (most likely memory).

Bluemonkey,
About the statement below:
"if you're a gamer, return the m70. get the XPS G2. it also has a magnesium base and lid, and a much faster video card for gaming"

Are you sure it has a mag base and lid? I didnt find it spec'ed anywhere, and from the photos it looked like it had a plastic base.

The lid on the 9200 (same chassis) is definitely magnesium alloy. I think the base is too, but it's been so long that I've had my system opened up that I'm no longer positive. In any case, it's very rigid, strong, and light. And cold to the touch, unlike plastic.

it's a shame dell doesn't advertise that more.

but yes, i am ABSOLUTELY sure. the 700m, 9200, D810/M70 and the XPS G2/9300 all have a magnesium base (palmrest is still plastic on all of them).

the D810/M70/9200/9300/XPS G2 also have a magnesium lid (not sure about 700m though). the base may look plasticky (is that a word?!) cuz of the way it's painted, but when you take the lappies apart (i have many times), you can tell it is MG alloy.