Curse

cebalrai · May 04, 2008, 01:43 PM // 13:43

I didn't purchase Office, Norton, etc, and I went with the 1-year repair deal instead of the 3-yr, so my purchase was only $1950. Your deal was like $3050, which is a big difference. So almost an $1100 difference. If it was less than that, I'd jump on that Dell 1730.

I think the system I ordered is a pretty good deal for under $2k.

It's not too late to cancel my Gateway order as it shouldn't ship until the 12th or 13th of May. After that I can return it if I want for 21 days.

Gateway doesn't sell the 64-bit version of Vista on any of their machines for some reason. So going that route isn't possible without buying from a whole different company.

I called Gateway to ask what's up with no 64... They said they had way too many tech support calls that boiled down to poor support for 64-bit drivers, etc, so Gateway is only selling 32-bit presently. The guy said they'll go back to selling 64-bit in the future but there was no word as to when....

cebalrai · May 04, 2008, 01:54 PM // 13:54

I've been sorting through the dell refub pile for a couple days now and haven't seen any of the 8800 SLIs. The filter doesn't help much in picking them up... Any tips on the filter?

I see HEAPS of 8700 SLIs which, from what I understand is a poor option. A single 8800 GTS (much less a 8800 GTX) beats SLI'd 8700s handily in every bench I'm reading. Wonder why there are so many of these 8700 SLIs laying around? Not only that, but they look way overpriced even S/D...

lord_shar · May 04, 2008, 04:07 PM // 16:07

The $2511 price in my quote came with a 1 year factory warranty... with my local 8.25% sales tax, that comes out to $2718 without the 3-year on-site accidental damage warranty. If I were to order your current Gateway at its current $1999, the total comes out to $2164. Difference = $554, or about 20% price difference, as opposed to $1100. This is a more accurate figure given just the base unit prices + my local sales tax -- unless Gateway sells tax-free.

As far as navigating the Dell Outlet inventory page... it does take time. I spent a few days waiting for the right system, even letting a few good units slip by, before punching the purchase button. My recommendations on the inventory filter: set the notebook model to the XPS M1730, then the video memory filter to 1gig. Sort by processor speed descending order if there are more than 1 page worth of 8800m-GTX-SLI's (not likely though). Refresh the web page every 15 minutes or as frequently as possible once you see the bot cart-returns starting to appear. This will maximize your odds of getting the right unit. Once you see any M1730 even remotely tempting, add it to your cart immediately! Then you can examine the system specs more carefully after you've locked it in your cart. Regardless of cart-activity, that unit will return to the inventory pool after 15 minutes of idle time or 1 hour elapses.

I just found this on the Dell Outlet at 9AM PDT:

View Details

Z2RGM96A Select - Certified Refurbished
$2,859.00 XPS M1730 Bone White Intel Core 2 Extreme - 2800 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 17 200 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM (7200);200GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM (7200) 2nd Drive 4000 DVD/RW NVIDIA SLI Dual GeForce 8800M GTX with 1GB GDDR3 Memory;AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator Intel 4965 802.11a/g/n Dual-Band Mini Card Laptop

That 2nd HD drive does add to the price, but if you can find another unit without it, then you'll be set.

Good luck with the hunt.

cebalrai · May 04, 2008, 05:10 PM // 17:10

How do you know if they have 32 or 64-bit Vista Home Prem? Cant seem to find it.

Snograt · May 04, 2008, 05:47 PM // 17:47

Unless it says otherwise, it's 32bit. Almost undoubtedly an OEM version, which means no 64bit version on-disc. Which leaves you to do the same as I did - buy a damn expensive retail version :/

cebalrai · May 04, 2008, 05:55 PM // 17:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

Unless it says otherwise, it's 32bit. Almost undoubtedly an OEM version, which means no 64bit version on-disc. Which leaves you to do the same as I did - buy a damn expensive retail version :/

Wouldn't I need to fiddle with a 64-bit motherboard driver though? If they make one?

Strangely, Gateway does, even though they only sell 32-bit.

cebalrai · May 04, 2008, 06:01 PM // 18:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord_shar

I just found this on the Dell Outlet at 9AM PDT:

View Details

Z2RGM96A Select - Certified Refurbished
$2,859.00 XPS M1730 Bone White Intel Core 2 Extreme - 2800 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 17 200 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM (7200);200GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM (7200) 2nd Drive 4000 DVD/RW NVIDIA SLI Dual GeForce 8800M GTX with 1GB GDDR3 Memory;AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator Intel 4965 802.11a/g/n Dual-Band Mini Card Laptop

Good luck with the hunt.

I went ahead and sprung for one of these. Looks like it was the exact same one.

Like you said, if I get it and I want to return it - if I feel it's not worth the cash, has a defect I can't get over, etc - I can. I like that Dell gives their refurbs the same warranty as new machines....

It's a lot of money, but meh, I want a machine that will be very nice for the next 3 years.

lord_shar · May 04, 2008, 07:57 PM // 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by cebalrai

I went ahead and sprung for one of these. Looks like it was the exact same one.

Like you said, if I get it and I want to return it - if I feel it's not worth the cash, has a defect I can't get over, etc - I can. I like that Dell gives their refurbs the same warranty as new machines....

It's a lot of money, but meh, I want a machine that will be very nice for the next 3 years.

Glad to hear it. That model I found this morning does have an X7900 CPU as opposed to an X9000, but primary difference with that chip is the 4MB L2 cache vs. 6MB, and no unlocked multiplier. However, you shouldn't be OC'ing a laptop CPU anyway

Since Dell Refurbs are pre-assembled, you'll probably be seeing your order some time this next week.

As with most gaming laptops, the M1730 doesn't last long outside AC-power -- perhaps 90 minutes with minimal power settings. The one exception is the Alienware M15X, but you're looking at an easy 4k+ with that set-up. You can price it out at www.alienware.com just for comparison. It won't come close to the XPS M1730 in terms of features, but it is a 15.4" that can switch from the NVidia 8800M-GTX to the integrated video as needed.

Anyway, I'm still under the effects of new-laptop smell with the M1730. Its SLI performance is pretty sweet, even with very GPU-intensive games like UT3, Hellgate London, etc. It should have no problems running GW2.

EDIT:
Other useful links...
Dell's Total Satisfaction Guarantee: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=150450

User forums on www.notebookreview.com: http://forum.notebookreview.com/

Regardless of which laptop you ultimately settle with, I hope you find the best laptop for the given price (I'm pretty sure both of us did well).

Quaker · May 05, 2008, 12:37 AM // 00:37

Let me re-phrase what I said before - hopefully it will be "helpful"

Yes, the Ram is "wasted". But the RAM is cheap, and may be used in the future.

There is no practical, or significantly less expensive, way to get that much RAM (3+gigs). If you try to use 1x2gig RAM and 1x1gig RAM, you will end up with 3gigs (but less than the 3+ gigs), but you will also screw the dual-channel configuration of the RAM and get lower performance (if the laptop even lets you do this). At today's prices 2x2gigs of DDR2 costs at most, $12 more than 1x2gig + 1x1gig. It's not worth worrying about the wasted RAM.

Vista SP1 now reports the full 4gigs of RAM, but it still only uses 3+ gigs.

No, no matter what some techie geeks will tell you, you won't see any significant performance increase by using expensive "overclocker" RAM. Some people like to overclock their rigs, and/or squeeze every drop of perf they can out of it, and/or pimp it. That's what they enjoy, (and there's nothing wrong with it) but, just like "pimping your ride" doesn't get you to work any faster, faster RAM doesn't make GW work much better either.

cebalrai · May 05, 2008, 02:35 AM // 02:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord_shar

It was encountering the same RAM count problem you mentioned above until I stalled Windows Vista SP1. Now it reads 4gigs system RAM available.
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How much RAM did it read before SP1?

The dude at Dell said it would read about 3.5G. But he didnt sound 100% sure. And yeah, Vista SP1 just makes it say 4 GHz. It doesn't actually access that much though.

lord_shar · May 05, 2008, 02:55 AM // 02:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by cebalrai

How much RAM did it read before SP1?

The dude at Dell said it would read about 3.5G. But he didnt sound 100% sure. And yeah, Vista SP1 just makes it say 4 GHz. It doesn't actually access that much though.

I believe it read 3.25 gigs before I installed Vista SP1, though please don't quote me on that. Do you have a specific app that needs all 4gigs visible? I've never used any such app myself

Also, I did make an error above: The X7900's multiplier is unlocked just like the X9000. However, the X7900 is a 65nm chip, while the X9000 is a 45nm chip. Otherwise they're pretty close in performance. Either way, you can overclock the CPU in your incoming M1730, though I don't recommend this.

Here's a useful processor ID link if you want more Intel CPU-specifics: http://processorfinder.intel.com/

EDIT: The maximum addressable memory for Windows is 4gigs total, including video memory. Therefore, the more video memory you have, the less RAM you have available. My system should have read 3.5 gigs RAM if my video card was 512MB. I don't know how this works once SLI enters the picture, but if I had to guess, it would also cut into the 4gig RAM's total and drop the maximum addressable RAM to 3gigs. Hope that makes sense.