How powerful is this Dell XPS M1730 configuration?

Hi

I ordered this Dell laptop a few days ago, and was wondering just how powerful it really is?

Dell M1730
CPU: Intel® Core 2 Duo-processor T9300 (2,50 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2-buffer)
Memory/RAM: 4096 MB 667 MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2 x 2048]
Graphics card: Dual SLI™ 512MB nVidia® GeForce™ 9800GT
HD: Hard Drive 250GB Free Fall Sensor (7200rpm)
17" UltraSharp WUXGA (1920 x 1200) TFT with TrueLife (integrated 2,0 MP webcam)
OS: Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64 Bit

I considered going for the T9500 CPU (2,6 Ghz), but it seems like a lot of dough for the extra 0,1 GHz it has on the T9300.

The plan is to use the system for gaming (not powerhogs like Crysis, but stuff like STALKER, Red Orchestra and Counter-Strike: Source) and more general stuff (Excel/Word, light Photoshop CS4 tomfoolery, surfing, video/audio playback, etc). I'll be using it at home (occasionally hooked up to my Samsung T260HD 26" monitor), where it'll always be plugged in, so the battery life time is not very important.

Any comments or personal experiences with similar set-ups would be appreciated.

 

I have a similar set-up, only mines has an RAID0 of two 250 gigs hdds. It's very fast, games run great, PhotoShop is fast, the machine is very quiet (the fans are not making noise even with some light load) and the design is gorgeous. The battery lasts only about 2 hours and 15 minutes with power saving, but maybe this doesn't matter that much for you.
I don't know what to say more...

 

Thanks for the reply, that sounds promising.

 

I received the exact same setup 6 days ago, apart from i have a 320GB harddrive and 6GB of ram.

Its very good. So far ive only played C&C3 and Left4Dead, both of them went to the full resolution and both at maximum graphics. Its fairly quiet too, even under load. The lights look great and it is just a very speedy machine. Turns on to Windows login in around 30 seconds and shuts down about 10 seconds after you press Turn off.

I'm very pleased with it! Can't fault it! Hope you enjoy it!

 

Thanks, that's nice to hear.

Can't wait to get my hands on it. It's currently at the shipping facility - ETA Thursday.

 

It's powerful when it works. Hope you got the 4 year warranty!

 

What color did you go for?

 

That looks a nice system and spec, have fun with it

 

Haha, I did indeed go for the four year warranty. I see that some people have had trouble with their M1730s, so I suppose that it was a good idea.

Sapphire Blue.

Thanks, I imagine it'll serve me well.

 

Counterstrike: Source will play fluently at high settings with integrated graphics. That means you can buy a $600 laptop that will do it just fine.

 

Yeah, that's true. The Source engine is easily pleased.

But you need a bit of a monster to run games like STALKER: Clear Sky in DX10 mode with all the bells and whistles. The next STALKER expansion pack is out in a few months, so I need to be ready for that.