So 1710 owners can just downgrade to the A0 bios and all is well?

well, the M90 is different than the m1710, so there isa good chance it will wok perfectly for M1710 users on A01

Newbie question here I guess...

What models support core duo? 9400 and up?

Almost every laptop model that Dell offers. Now if you're referring to the Core 2 Duo that's a different story.

The M90 is the business version of the M1710. The motherboard is pretty much identical. The only changes are:

1. No comedy LEDs on the M90
2. Slightly different screen on the M90
3. 2500M rather than 7900GTX, but these graphics cards are actually the same too

In all other respects, the Precision M90 and Inspiron XPS M1710 are identical.

I have a T7200 on order and will be here in a couple days. I may be able to get another T7200, but I know I can get 1 or 2 T7400's. If anyone is interested I will see if I can get a few more. Just PM me and I will give you the price.

Thanks.

Good luck with the chip - it's an amazing CPU.

On a similar note, for any UK residents, I have a few 2.16GHz T7400s right here. Drop me a line if interested.

I'd still like to know if the A01 BIOS on the M90/M1710 can be downgraded to A00.

Does the A01 Bios in the E1705 recognize the full 4MB L2 Cache? I've been hearing some claims that the current E1705 motherboard will not recognize the 4MB cache in the 7000 series Meroms.

The BIOS itself doesn't recognise *any* cache on the set-up screen, it registers at 0K. However, obviously the cache is being used otherwise we would not be seeing the massive performance increase versus the Yonah chips. CPU-Z recognises the full payload of cache too.

If this means that a later BIOS revision will see an even bigger improvement in speed, I'd quite frankly be staggered If there is a tool out there that reads the amount of cache available and tests it, please let me know.

Well, no go on the T7200. When I install the CPU the system doesn't boot. The power comes on but the video never initializes. Can someone who has this working give me the specs on their machine? Possible bad CPU?

I have the A01 BIOS and I drop the original T2300 back in and it boots right up.

I'm going to say shens on that, because... What company wants to have to redo all their motherboards! A bios update is the MAX that I see impeeding us E1705/M1710'ers from doing this, which for those of us here itsn't anything to stop us!
Though, I'm not upgrading anytime soon, but just lettin' ya know, most likely it won't stop us!

Sounds like a possible bad CPU.

My system, for what it's worth:

T7200 2.0GHz ES Merom (upgraded from T2400)
2GB 667MHz RAM
Radeon X1400
WUXGA TrueLife
100GB 7200rpm SATA
8x DVD-RW

BIOS A00, upgraded to A01 because it's locked at 1GHz on A00. BIOS upgraded with the T7200 inside.

The A01 BIOS is extrememly similar indeed to A00 on the XPS M1710 and I've just upgraded one of those with no problems either.

okay, not to be a tard here but I've gotten confused and have a few questions, sorry for the leaking stupidity on my part, try not to get it all over yourselves. LOL

1. What BIOS would I need to run this MEROM processor? Is there a downside if I have to regress (so to speak) my bios. I think I'm using A01 right now, if I'm not mistaken. (Just got my M1710 XPS this past Thursday if that helps)

2. What's the difference between Merom and Yonah chips anyway? Why would I want to upgrade to a Merom?

3. Where can I find a place to purchase these Merom chips? Newegg?

Thank you for any answers.

I'm going to be very upset if this means that I can not have a Merom popped into my brand new M90. I just upgraded my BIOS to A01 last night actually.

One of the reasons I decided to buy now instead of wait until winter is because I knew even if I waited until winter, I still wouldn't be able to get a DX10 card or Vista out of the box, and I could just upgrade to Merom in an M90 when it comes out. If this proves to be untrue, I'm gonna send my M90 back. That is complete and utter bull****. Dell is not deserving of my LARGE amount of money if they try to pull this.

1. You need A00. There is no performance difference compared to A01, it's just that A01 locks out Merom support.

2. Merom is clock for clock up to 30% faster. See the quad core blog entry here for a comparison of performance using a real life multithreaded application rather than a nebulous calculation of Pi or whatever.

3. In August/September yes. Right now, you would need to buy from people with access to engineering samples, such as myself