Buying an XPS M1210

i currently have a Dell Inspiron 630m. I want a smaller laptop. and now i decided to go ahead with dell xps m1210. I want to know some questions about xps m1210. please answer, i dont have much knowlgde about computer hardware. Here are my Question:

1. If i buy a 1.8GHz, will i be able to upgrade it to a highr pros such as 2. 0 or 2.16GHz

2. Is the nVidia Grphics in the Laptop able to be upgraded. ( i am looking to future)

3. When will it be release with Vista Pre-Installed?


Please answer my questions.

 

When ordering the above laptop from the Dell website, you are given a number of options to upgrade certain components. Without checking completely, I believe you can upgrade the CPU but not the graphics card.

Edit: checked on this page and found that indeed you can upgrade the CPU and the graphics card up to a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 with TurboCache4.

On the right hand side of that page you will also notice a Vista upgrade link. I couldn't find any information regarding when it will come with Vista pre-installed however. The upgrade is redeemable until the 31st March which would suggest to me that Vista will not be pre-installed significantly until that point.

The best place to check for definite is actually the Dell website or talk to one of their sales advisers.

HTH

J

 

i believe you CAN upgrade the processor, but not the graphics card

you can only upgrade it to other processors in the same line, i say just get the 2.16 because the jump from 2.16 to 2.33 is hundreds of dollars and the performance is not worth it especially when you can overclock it pretty safely and close the gap (dont take my word for it on a laptop that small)

i had the same dilemma, but im just going to wait until spring to buy my laptop when the new graphics cards and processors come out (hopefully)

oh yeah, go take a look at the Asus A8JS, its cheaper and comes with a much better graphics card and isnt much bigger

 

1.) Yes, you can upgrade within model lines. However, modern processors as so good that if you will not be doing CPU intensive tasks (video editing/encoding, etc) the T5500/T5600 or T7200 is plenty of processor. (difference between T7xxx and T5xxx is size of L2 cache in and in some cases FSB speed)

2.) Yes, but only if Dell releases a better card for the M1210. Get the card you need now, you can't depend on Dell to release a new one.

3.) My guess would be as soon as or slightly before it's released to the public.

 

if you start with intel graphics, your stuck with intel graphics, if you get the gf7400, you could upgrade if dell decided to release a better card for the m1210 in the future, though that is highly unlikely, my bet would be the newer cards will come with the new chipset platform coming out this spring, so if you want an m1210, and decent graphic support, get the 7400, if you dont think that will be enough, dont get the m1210

 

excellent post iceman, I have to agree.

 

I own 3 M1210's and am getting weird BSOD (crashes) on all three. Dell might issue a refund on them. Personally, I would be very wary of getting one. If you do, make sure you take advantage of the return period to test everything out as much as you can. And get the full warranty just in case anyway. And even then, as I have found, you are still in trouble.

 

1) It is possible to upgrade your CPU, will void your warranty with Dell, but you will see little to no performance gains when going from 1.86 to 2ghz or 2.16...

2) I highly doubt Dell will release a better GPU for the m1210.

3) I would think they would ship them with Vista starting February if they haven’t already...

 

If you already have a notebook and your only problem is the size... then wait for Santa Rosa.

 

converesly, if you dont need Dx10 support, waiting a short while for santa rosa units to hit the shelves could save you a pretty penny on the current m1210, especially in the outlet, though if you a notebook now, get a notebook now, you can always get a better one later, and more than likely, the first round of mainstream dx10 cards arent going to be able to cut the mustard when true A-list dx10 titles finally hit the market, all in all, if you want to wait, you should be prepared to wait for awhile

 

Here's a question, is it possible or nessasary to change the motherboard? to Santa Rosa chipset of course.

If dell were to add another video card, probably a lower end direct x 10 card in the future, would you need to have santa rosa? I know you will definately need the dedicated go7400 card.

 

The bottom line is that notebooks are not meant to be upgraded. It's great that you can in some circumstances, however, think of the practicalities of it. A notebook is not something you leave sitting around on a desk. It sees a lot of wear and tear. You are probably going to want to upgrade your case before it's worth it after ballancing financial loss and performance gain. Spending $300 to upgrade a beat up Dell or worse yet, a recently purchased Dell just doesn't make sense to me. If you're that worried about staying ahead of the technology curve, simply buy now and sell when the next big thing comes out.

 

Thank You very much for supporting me. In your opinion, what should i do?

Should i wait for a little time a get a new model one

Will i be able to upgrade the current gf7400 to gf7900 that is in the market, my own.

Will i be able to upgrade my DVD Drive to a Blu-Ray drive?

 

i saw on another thread that while changing the RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB he got some BSOD or somthing errors...... What does tham BSOD mean? Is it a trouble with his model or prob woth XPS M1210 model generally?

 

If you are not in a hurry then wait for Santa Rosa platform.

You can upgrade the VGA only if DELL releases a new card specifically for XPS M1210, you cannot just plug in any other notebook card to your M1210. It is highly unlikely that DELL will release a new card, even if they do they will never release a 7900; NO WAY! Cos M1210 is too small to house such a powerful card (heat issues).

You will have better luck upgrading the BlueRay drive.

BSOD stands for Blue Screen Of Death: the blue error screen displayed when Win 2000/XP encounters a critical error. I am not familiar with M1210 giving errors when memory is upgraded, maybe someone else here can help you more on that specific issue.

 

what is this santa rosa platform?

 

when is this xps supposed to be released with windows vista.

AND: I really like this NotebookReview forum, than any other forum. i got what help i needed from you. Thank You very Much.

 

http://news.com.com/Intel+notebook+tech+to+head+to+Santa+Rosa/2100-1006_3-6032965.html

SHG

 

ok i have read the santa rosa platform. Will XPS be released with Santa Rosa? or any other new XPS?

 

Can anyone explain me the difference between current intel chipsets and santa rosa chipsets in detail. please. I love this bad boy. will it be released with Santa Rosa?

 

It will probably be one of the first notebooks to adopt Santa Rosa...Dell rolls them all out pretty quickly though.

But to answer a few of the OP questions:
1) You would not need Santa Rosa to get DX10
2) You would need to upgrade your M1210 to support DX10. That would most likely require a motherboard update from Dell if they ever decide to offer it.
3) The 7400Go will not support DX10. DX10 games will run (at least in DX9 compatibility mode as long as game vendors support DX9 in parellel), but you will not have the DX10 eye candy that makes the API so much better.
4) There is no way a 7900Go would ever fit in a 12.1" notebook due to heat and cooling requirements. We're actually lucky Dell pulled off getting a 7400 in there.
5) Mostly likely, any future M1210 w/ DX10 will support at most the 8400 due to heat and other constraints.
6) BSOD = Blue Screen of Death. I'd recommend getting 2GB straight from Dell at the time of purchase if you are worried about it.
7) Vista should be publicly available at the end of this month. I would expect Dell to roll out Vista notebooks by the end of Feb 2007 or sooner.

Read here for details on Santa Rosa.

 

so will xps m1210 will be shipping with santa rosa platform sooner or any other new xps notebooks planning to come out?

 

can u please explain

 

please reply

 

Because the 7400 is a DX9 card and will never be able to support DX10. If the 1210 is ever able to do DX10 it will likley be when a small enough DX10 card arrives, likley the Go8400. But since there is no Go DX10 cards, and there wont be for a long time due to the power requirements and heat issues pertaining to notebooks. You wont be able to get your 1210 DX10 capable unless you basically rebuild the insides of it if/when the hardware becomes avalable to do so. You should just buy what you want now and get a DX10 notebook in 2 years or so when DX10 Go Cards will be good (likley 9 series by then)

 

as for dell future plans, keep watching the news page, when thay information becomes available it will be posted there, until then its all guess work, if you need a machine now, get one now, as for new offerings along the line of the m1210, mid to late spring would be my best guess, mid may maybe

 

should i buy one laptop now or get xps when it comes vista preinstalled.

 

thats your call, you should get a vista upgrade if you get it now, and dell factory installs are horrible, you should avoid them at all costs, so I would order now, do a clean xp install, then do a clean vista install when its released, I've never been a fan of installing an os on top of an os

 

^
Yes but isn't the "Vista Upgrade" going to be just that - an upgrade? I was under the impression that it wasn't something you could install on empty.

 

Quick question - so last night I installed my Tech Net edition of Vista Ultimate on the Windows XP partition of my just delivered XPS M1210 - I bascially did a clean install of Vista correct? I chose custom install and replaced the the windows partition with Vista Ultimate.

I left the other 2 or 3 hidden partitions (media direct (works in vista by the way) and the dell restore in case I ever sell the laptop).

 

you should be able to cleanly install an upgrade, usually it just asks you to verify you have an eligible product by instering your older os disc before the installation process begins, vista might be different, but I doubt it, thats how all the MS os upgrades have worked for me in the past

Jeme, did you just install over your existing xp?, or did you reformat the partition?, for a clean install you need to reformat

 

I installed over the XP partition, how do you format just that partition? I remember that XP installs formally formated the partition you are putting it on - how would you do that boot from the Vista disk and then choose that partition? Additionally what difference does it make - I have a full clean install of Vista Ultimate without any of the Dell bloatware?

 

I would think it'll be like the XP Pro 'upgrade' disk in that you'll have the option to start afresh and as mentioned prove you have an elligable upgrade option by inserting your old OS install disk during installation? Smart money seems to be generally on a clean install rather than simply upgrading your old OS. New installs are fast (my experiance of Vista RC2) where as reports of upgrades taking up to a couple of hours or more to install?

 

all your old xp files could bog your system down and cause possible conflicts, if it works and your happy with it, keep it, I always prefer to start from scratch, it usually reults in a quicker more stable system

 

What old XP files - It is a brand new computer that I just took out of the box and only started to upgrade the ram, I then installed Vista on the XP partition - you can choose an upgrade or custom install, I choose custom install and installed Vista on the XP partition.

Vista does creast a file called windows old and I deleted that file. So is that considered a clean install? If not any hints on how to do a clean install? Thanks Iceman.

 

upgrade/custom install doesn't = clean install


Best way would be to put in Vista CD when it comes up with option of the drive to install on...delete the partition, create it, then format it. THIS WILL WIPE OUT ALL THE FILES ON THE DRIVE. This would be a clean install.

 

But here in Middle East Dell is not providing Vista Upgrade - after all i will have to pay for another upgrade. So i think its better to wait for a while a get a vista installed one - also you get a original vista product key if you buy at that time. I also want dell installe the Dell restore (Ctrl+F11) with vista. So if i sell the laptop that ill be better. i hope there wont be any chage in the price of the laptop when vista comes preinstalled. then i will clean install vista with the resotre disc that dell will provide.

I WISH DELL COULD SHIP VISTA INSTALLED EARLIER

 

I am a notebook fan man - y is the dell not releasing it man. i cant wait to get man. i think it will be available in the end of february

 

Dell will release it as early if not earlier than any other notebook manufacturer. Why do you want Vista so badly anyways. Microsoft is notorious for beta testing their products on consumers and fixing bugs afterwards...

 

i dont have money to get the original copy. i'm a poor guy. if i buy i can get a key also of vista - also a OEM Reinstall dick. i am on buget man!!!

 

What does this mean man. Dell will release sooner than any other manufactures.?

 

This BAD BOY is going to attract ladies man

 

Question for PC Modifiers - Will that delete the entire drive and all of the other partitions if I start with the disk in the drive or only the XP partition?

Please help - thanks!!!

 

Only the partitions you select....for instance if you have a C: and D: drive partitions set up you can tell it just to delete the C: drive partition, this would leave the D: drive intact and with all its files. What I usually do is create two partitions on a drive C: and D: where D: houses my random files and the C: has my operating system and installs (office, AIM etc) So anytime I want to reload the operating system I can without losing all my files since they are on the D: drive. Hope that made some sense.

 

Thanks for helping me. Another question - Here are the partitions:

Remember this is a new dell

There are 3 partitions with no name, then there is the C Drive - where vista resides then the D drive (which is an SD card I have in this thing).

The 3 no names partitions I assume are

Media Direct, an XP restore and something else - one is only 55MB.

So the question is can I just boot from disk and do what is considered a clean install on the C drive while leaving all of the others in tact?

What I am trying to get here is not reinstalling the media direct partition.

Will that work. Right now the media connect partition works and I want to keep the XP partition in case I ever sell the laptop - so that I can resore it to "out of the box" like condition from a software perspective.

Will this work? Thanks in advance iceman.

 

yes you can, just delete and refomat c only, and leave the other be ,the other partition is diagnostics

 

Thanks Iceman and Pcmodifiers - so that will basically give me what I have now only with a "clean" install correct? and MediaDirect should still work?

 

as far as I know, I dont use media direct, its completely useless to me so I delete it, I would think it should still work just fine, you might want to check with someone that does use it first

 

is that instant office function available with the xps m1210 media direct

 

Some info here could be of interest

http://dozleng.com/internetsecurity/?p=111

Scroll down to "The Dell MediaDirect buttons, the webcam button and Vista"