I had a knock at the door this morning, i have this for you sir he said.

I said go on then, i`ll accept it, you have twisted my arm





2.80Ghz EXTREME X9000 CPU (overclockable to 3.4GHZ)
1GB nVidia 9800 GT Graphics (2x9800 GT in SLI mode)
400GB 7200rpm FFS Hard Drive (2x200GB)
6GB DDR2 (667mhz) RAM
BLURAY BD-RE Drive Allows to read and write BLU-RAY&DVD&CD
17.0" WUXGA Truelife FULL HD Display (1920x1200)
4 YEAR WORLDWIDE Warranty
UK QWERTY Keyboard
Battery Primary 9-cell 85 Whr Lithium Ion battery.
AC ADAPTER 3 Pin UK/IRISH Type (220 watt, 100-240V

Additional Info
BLUETOOTH 355
Intel WiFi 4965WLAN MiniCard
Travel Remote Control
XPS Gaming MousePad

Vista Home Premium 64Bit SP1 DVD, Drivers&Utilities DVD, MediaDirect DVD, Webcam Manager CD, Roxio Creator CD, MS Works CD
McAfee Security Center 30 Days Trial Antivirus Software

 

Congrats , but 6GB DDR2 (667mhz) RAM seems a bit slow.

 

Can that be changed at a later date and if so what memory would you recommend ? Ive got Kingston in my Vaio at the min as i read good reviews about them on the net. Forgive me as i`m not that clued up when it comes to stuff like that.

 

Agreed. The only thing stopping me from getting this laptop over the 1640 is comparatively slow RAM.

Great choice of processors, awesome GFX cards, amazing 1200p screen; DDR2 667mhz RAM - so slow.

 

That would depend on the chipset, if the laptop is using the newer Montevina chipset it should support DDR2-800 as well. DDR3 uses a different pin configuration so it is physically incompatible. However, DDR2-800 ram with low latencies should perform just as fast as DDR3-1066 since DDR3 ram tends to have higher latencies.

 

If any of the M1730 experts can shed any light on the above it will be appreciated, what chipset will the M1730 have that i`m using from the spec above.

At worse i have a far better system than what i previously had, with my limited knowledge in the hardware area i doubt i would notice the difference on faster RAM anyway lol

 

You can use 800 MHz memory with the M1730.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...9&category_id=4325&mfgpid=193200&chassisid=-1

Try finding any PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM at Newegg.com. You will need to put in a 4GB and a 2GB to get both running at 800 MHz. After that upgrade, that machine will be flying out the door.

 

Texas, your help is really appreciated.

What i can`t understand and i`m not even an expert in this area is why did Dell put such slow memory in a high end gaming machine ?

Will that memory you suggested above make a vast improvement to the system ? I`m in the UK so i would have to try and find somewhere over here to get the memory from that you suggested.

Thanks again

 

Low latency DDR2 800 can in quite a few cases be faster than HL DDR3-1066

 

Grat's Stig,,,that's one *sexy looking lappy*....

And, Stig...Remember, it's *your* lappy...in the end..do what you want to do with it!


Cin

 

Thanks Cin, it took me a while to find the right laptop at the right price but it was worth the wait

I could have got an M17X but i just felt this was much better value at not far off half the price, it will suit my needs really well. Next step is to get some quicker memory in.

 

So how many memory slots do you have? , do you have a 4gb and a 2gb , if so a lot of netbooks use ddr2-667 and you should be able to sell it easy, if you do have a 4gb , it would be interesting to see if a 4gb sodimm is accepted in a netbook, most likely not.

 

I'm curious as to why you went with the 1730 over an M17x....

 

In the UK the prices we are being quoted for an M17X are crazy compared to the US prices, if i was in the US i wouldn`t have hesited to get an M17X.

As an example i paid £1,750 which is roughly $2,930 for the M1730 which is a great price for the UK, a 4 year worldwide warranty is included in that.

For me to get a fairly decent M17X in the UK it would have cost me over £3,000 with a similar warranty, thats roughly $4,945 ..... I didn`t think the M17X was worh another $2,000 considering the spec i got with the M1730. Also their are no options in th Uk for a 17inch 1920 x 1200 screen.

If me M1730 was to ever fail in the future i would probably get an equivelant M17X anyway as a replacement.

 

That is true, the reason I sad just as fast was because I did not want to make too big of a promise.

 

So what is it i need to search for in the UK to improve the memory speed, whats the exact memory i should be hunting down ?

 

Kingston ValueRAM 4GB PC2-6400
Kingston ValueRAM 2GB PC2-6400

any DDR2 6400 will work but I had the best luck with kingston for that machine

corsair and crucial are also good ram

 

Look at the latencies as well as making sure it is DDR2-800. Lower latencies are better. Latency is usually listed as a series of numbers such as 5-5-5-15. The first number is the CAS latency. I'd stick to CAS 5 or better for DDR2-800 laptop memory. In addition to Kingston, Corsair, and Crucial, you may want to consider OCZ, Mushkin, and G.Skill if the price is good. Patriot has its followers as well. Every manufacturer has both good and not so good RAM, so remember to check the specs.

 

How about these ? Its 4GB which is 2 X 2GB, i can ask them if they do a single 2Gb and a single 4GB of the same.

http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.asp?pn=KHX6400D2LLK2/4G&ReLoad=y

 

works perfect for you. latency of 4 and a decent price too

 

Even cheaper if i can find a single 4GB and a single 2GB

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=314891&sourceid=2009

 

Ahhh.. I see! I didn't even think to look at where you were located. lol

I had a 1730 for 2 years and it was a BEAST!

I know you will enjoy it

 

Hate to break it to you, but even though Dell sells it with 800Mhz DDR2, its only going to run @ 667Mhz. Limited by the Chipset (Details here). Sorry.

2 Memory slots with a max of 4GB stick each slot.

Don't worry though, the system will do what you need it to do. I loved my M1730 - the thing is a work horse. Congrats on the system

Grab this while you are at it: http://dcse.dell.com/ifr/Portables/XPS_M1730.zip

 

man every were i look i see batboy and his posts. you guys have no life. lol. need a girlfriend.

 

Its strange isn`t it that a company will sell something for one of its machines yet the laptop won`t recognise the extra performance.

I powered it up for the first time earlier, my early impressions are very impressive. The laptop looks like the cockpit of an aircraft with all the lights on lol, i didn`t realise it came with its own power station, that power brick is massive

I`m very happy, when you buy a new laptop it should always been an upgrade from what you had previously, this is a big upgrade on my last laptop. Its slightly dissapointing that it won`t recognise DDR2 @ 800mhz but to be honest i don`t think i`m enough of an expert where i would notice much difference anyway.

Ive got the boring bits to do tomorow, taking some software off and putting my own software on.