Vostro 1700 owners....

hello everyone,

Im new to notebookreview.com.

recently, i ordered refurb dell vostro 1700.

t7100 cpu
160gig 5400rpm HD
17" WUXGA true life
bluetooth
wireless lan
web cam
8600m gt 256mb
2 gig memory

$780

I have been researching and i thought it was ok to pay $780, but
i heard there 8600m gt might have some issues...

i don't know if this laptop is worth $780.

any suggestions?

i want to get gateway fx laptops, but they're too expensive..

my budgets are $900~$1200 (cheaper the better)

hope to hear from yall!

thx in advance!

 

also does 1700 vostro has 8600m gt ddr 2 or ddr 3?

 

8600mGT is DDR2.

Have to wait for input from across the pond re: price

 

No worries as the 8600mGT in the Vostro is not an affected unit. As for the DDR question it is DDR2. For $780 you got a sweet deal! I spent $1300 on mine several months ago, and I couldn't see myself with another laptop at this point, or any other PC to fill the spot of my main rig.

 

The 8600mGT in the 1700 is not showing problems but is likely to have the same defect (all the G84 and G86 chips are thought to be affected). Just the better cooling and generally larger design means it's less likely to become a problem. May start showing problems in the future.
Dell should be making a statement soon ensuring any customer affected by this issue will be covered.

 

i been using my refurb vostro 1700 for about a week.
everything is great, but i have few problems.

while i play world of warcraft with max settings, my laptops pulls hot air from lefthand side air vent.

this is my first laptop, so not sure if this is ok.

my desktop never had this hot air.. maybe warm..

also i play wow without plug, it slows down my gpu and i get lower fps.

i might have to return this laptop, cuz i kinda worried about this heat.

 

Download hwmontor and tell us your temps, krazyatom. Then, we can determine if your laptop is okay.

 

Everyone is gettin' the 1700's off the outlet! Mine just arrived yesterday afternoon (just got done putting XP on) - T7250 (2.0Ghz C2D, only 2MB L2 ), 2GB, 250GB HD, 8400M GS...17 inches of jet-black lappy! This thing is friggin huge!

You guys have to reassure me that the 1700's are pretty non-problematic...I always get nervous when I get a new computer.

It is strange - the 1700 seems far better built then my venerable (but dead) Inspiron 5150, yet I actually think it is lighter. Where the 5150 creaks and bends whenever you moved it, the 1700 is totally solid, but I think I was expecting it to be heavier than it is - I don't want to accidentally bang it up on the rare occasion I take it with me somewhere.

Oh, and Krazyatom - you'll want to check out those temps with the software, but if you are gaming, you're likely to get some heat out of the exhaust vent...and with Speedstep, when it is unplugged your CPU is running at a much lower speed, so that may affect you, and I don't know much about the vid card, but maybe that throttles down on battery, too??

 

They are built like a 1980's Mercedes Benz 300D diesel sedan. They're both tough and rugged.

It's one Dell's better laptops. It's one of my favorites and I snatched one up when Dell had the $500 off sale a few months ago. I couldn't be happier with the laptop.

 

I downloaded hwmonitor and here are the results i get.

highests cpu temp about 67+
gpu 62+
HD 50+

this is while i play wow max settings with battery life setting to high performance. (1900 x 1200 game setting)

I think it might go up higher, if i play more intense games.

is this normal?

sometimes, when i switch game screen to window it gives me little beep sound.

any idea?