A lifeline for XPS M1730 customers

In October 2007, Dell debuted an ambitious laptop known as the XPS M1730. It was a gaming laptop meant to cater for the hardcore gamers; people who craved a fast CPU, lots of RAM and loads of GPU performance for a reasonable price for gaming, or who wanted to use it with demanding applications like Autodesk Maya. It was also among one of the first Dell laptops to incorporate a backlit keyboard, 8GB RAM, a PhysX game processor and an “LCD Game Panel” from Logitech. At first this product seemed like a godsend, but then the problems began. While many had issues with the overall weight of the machine, thousands of people who bought it experienced huge problems with the graphics card (in the beginning, the NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT in SLI configuration). Graphics were so intensive that it overheated its chassis, leading to data corruption and frequent replacement of components every six months. Even some webpages and the Windows desktop caused fans to spin at full power all the time, when users were not running any programs at all! Following this the 8800M GTX, and then the 9800M GTX, were released to provide better performance to customers. The GTX model for the 8800 still experienced issues yet weren’t as severe and kept systems going for about a year before maintenance, but in truth, the 9800M GTX with two fans and its 2GB-variant of onboard memory was what stopped the overheating.

Unfortunately this card also had a drawback of its own – by increasing overall power needs by 174%, it meant the laptop’s battery life and power supply longevity were significantly shortened. Then sometime in 2010 the production line was cancelled, users of the XPS M1730 were left holding their breath, and the question became how to support existing users.

However, lessons have been learned by both Dell and NVIDIA. Shortly after the failure of the laptop, the graphics manufacturer also mothballed the GeForce 8 & 9 series that suffered from the design flaw, examining how to augment cards with software that could properly control battery use without sacrificing GPU performance. Now we have the GeForce GTX 560M Ti, the GTX 480M in SLI, and the GTX 570M also in SLI that use this “Optimus” technology. Each of these cards fit into an Alienware M17x, whose chassis-dimensions (and hence it’s Form Factor) is compatible with the Dell M1730’s own internal spacing. Motherboards haven’t changed much in laptops either, with Dell still using mostly Intel’s product range as the beating heart of such systems.

So, what I propose is a lifeline to users still owning an M1730 and can’t afford to purchase a brand new laptop. Since then the graphics cards of these machines have continued to fail due to overheating and will eventually expire, but the three candidates I’ve listed could be tested to see if they fit in the old chassis; to drastically improve the battery life without a loss in performance and be offered to customers as upgrades still under warranty. This would then buy these users time and allow the ability to earn enough money, to trade-in the equipment for a new laptop by Dell, so the old M1730s could be sent for destruction. I call upon all users of this laptop to support this initiative and help you to maintain your data, until such time you are able to replace it with a better system.

I also recommend that the support site is revamped for all systems by providing users full specs of what their machine currently has and properly lists what hardware upgrades are avaialble -- i.e., categorised by CPU, RAM, Graphics Card, Battery, Hard Drives, Wireless Adapter, and finally Operating System, instead of users having to search the "Parts for your Dell" area.

You can support this by promoting the thread on Dell IdeaStorm, located at the link below:

IdeaStorm | A Lifeline for XPS M1730 Customers

Thank you for your time.

 

When you buy high-end hardware, no matter what you pay for it, you should expect it to be obsolete in a year or two. There's basically no way around it, and I doubt Dell will make an exception.

Given that the fraction of M1730 users is a percent of a percent... and the fraction of M1730 users willing to pay for an upgrade are a percent of that, I highly, highly doubt this going to happen.

Good luck, though.

 

I agree with the above.

Unfortunately after the M1730, Dell pretty much turned the XPS line into a multimedia laptop. That's when Dell released the 1st generation Alienware M17x when they took full reign over Alienware. You maybe could look at a Precision proprietary MXM module, but you'd have to worry about vBIOS as well as TDP as cards like 3700M/3800M eat alot of juice. Also the M1730 uses a proprietary heatsink, you'd have to take that into consideration too.

I'd say your best bet is to sell the M1730 for whatever you can (still goes for 600+) and save up for an Alienware/Clevo based notebooks as those can readily take the newest MXM cards.

 

If many are like me they would want to get an M18x, and even with £600, it still costs about £2,400 to have a decent spec. So if you have the money, sure... if not you're screwed.

 

If you are out of warranty, how are you "screwed"? Dell doesn't HAVE to provide future upgrades for older laptops. In fact they gave it a refresh when GeForce 9 came out. You could configure M1730 with 8700M GT/8800 series cards, and they did put out 9800M GTX which IIRC are the best cards available for the M1730.

High end gaming laptops are always bound to lose alot of money when the newest toys come out, the XPS ended up not having upgrade options as it was a Dell proprietary module, not MXM which is what the original M17x was (upgrades are limited on that too).

Point in case? Sell your high end gaming machine or part it out while it still has value left, or buy a desktop.

 

please tell me how this is a lifeline when all you do is to say get rid of our m1730?
i would really like to know