Dell Inspiron 1720 Review

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by Kevin O'Brien

The Dell Inspiron 1720 is a 17&quot; desktop replacement targeted towards younger consumers, most of whom are in school. This notebook competes against such notebooks as the HP dv9500t and Toshiba P200/P205. The 1720 offers a wide range of hardware configurations, as well as 8 different color options to be customized exactly as you want it. Processors range from the T5250 all the way up to the T7700, RAM from 1GB to 4GB, HD from 120GB to 500GB (250GB x 2), display resolutions starting at WXGA+ up to WUXGA, and color ranging from jet black to sunshine yellow.

Our review model came with the following options, bringing the price up to $2,438 as configured from a base of $899.

• Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
• Mobile Intel P965 Express Chipset
• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
• 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM (maximum capacity 4GB)
• 320GB Total Space (160GB x 2, option no longer offered at the time of this writing)
• 8x DVD (+/-R double layer) drive
• 17.0&quot; diagonal widescreen TrueLife TFT LCD display at 1920x1200 (WUXGA, Glossy)
• 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 8600M GT
• 2.0 megapixel webcam
• Bluetooth version 2.0 plus Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)
• ExpressCard slot (ExpressCard/34 and Express Card/54)
• 5-in-1 media card reader
• VGA out
• Mic/Headphone connectors
• IEEE-1394 (FireWire)
• Five USB 2.0 ports
• Dimensions (WxDxH Front/H Rear): 15.5&quot; x 11.5&quot; x 1.7&quot;
• Weight: 7.62 Advertised, 8lbs 13.2oz actual w/ 9-cell battery
• 90W (19V x 4.62A) 100-240V AC adapter (1lb 1.4oz)
• 9-cell (85Wh) Lithium Ion battery (1lb 1oz)
• 1-Year Standard Limited Warranty

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Build and Design

Gone are the white bumpers of old, replaced with a solid shimmering silver paint, giving the body of the Dell 1720 a much cleaner and refined look. The body still allows some user configuration with its custom top cover paint options, including jet black, alpine white, espresso brown, ruby red, midnight blue, spring green, flamingo pink, and sunshine yellow. The high level of personalization can even go as far as a color matched Logitech mouse as an added $29 option during checkout.

The cleaner look and feel is matched with an even stronger and more durable chassis. During testing no plastic creaks or squeaks could be heard, with flex only apparent in the plastic painted screen cover. The entire bottom shell is a metal alloy which gives the laptop a strong footprint on your desk, and is gives enough strength to resist bending if you hold the laptop by the edge of the palm rest walking around the room. The only downside to the chassis was the metal HD bay cover had some movement, and would make clacking sound if tapped with your finger, or placed on an uneven desk. Overlooking that fact, the underbody is strong enough to hurt your knuckles if you try to punch it without giving up as much as a millimeter of flex in the process.

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One concern worth mentioning with the custom paint process is long term durability. The review model we received had a paint defect out of the box on the upper right hand cover of the LCD cover. The rubbery texture paint was already peeling; exposing the glossy espresso brown paint underneath. Since this peeling was visible straight out of the box, long-term day to day use inside various cases or backpacks might show more extreme peeling. Hopefully the paint issue was fixed in production, as our review model has an early May build date.

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Screen

The glossy WUXGA (1920x1200) screen on the Dell 1720 is absolutely beautiful.  No dead pixels were found during testing, and backlight bleed while noticed on some dark screens was minimal. Colors were vibrant as with many glossy screens, and wide viewing angles made the screen look sharp even at odd contorted angles. Backlight adjustment was very broad, allowing me to adjust low enough for darker room settings, and bright enough to still be readable in sunlight or a bright office. I had the adjustment sitting around the 80 percent mark or two notches down from max level for most of my testing.

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Protection for the screen through the rear cover prevented any rippling when you press in the cover. While the plastic section did have more flex than the alloy main body, it was still better than most. The release latch was kind of tricky, and compared to most latches required too much effort to release. Its smaller slick surface needed a fingernail to catch it to release the latch.

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Speakers

The speakers on the 1720 were better than average for most laptops, comparable to speakers found on most midrange televisions. While lower bass was lacking, volume levels were quite loud, and distortion at peak levels was not present. Combined with the 17&quot; display, it would not be hard at all to entertain a small group of friends in a dorm room with the laptop by itself.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard and palm rest structure matches the strength of the bottom panel of this laptop. Pressing down very firmly, the keyboard flexes less than my T60 Thinkpad. The palm rest is just as firm, supporting my wrists or elbows pressing down with barely a hint of flex.

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The keyboard was very comfortable to type on, and gave just the right amount of response for each key press. Throw length was about even with my ThinkPad, with just a bit less clicking sound. The keyboard layout was not cramped at all, and the control key was in the correct (outmost) position on the left-hand side.

The touchpad I felt could be improved. It exhibited a slight delay when starting each time, almost what is seen with some wireless mice, and it also had a hint of lag. The size of the touchpad surface was large enough for comfortable control, and the surface texture had a smooth matte feel. The two touchpad buttons spanned the full length of the touchpad, and each had a responsive click when pressed. One thing I would have liked is a third touchpad button to allow easier control of tabs during web browsing.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Dell 1720 as configured has more than enough speed and storage space to handle most users needs. The Intel T7500 and nVidia 8600M GT combined really make this laptop an excellent performer, for both multimedia uses and gaming. Below are benchmarks to give you an idea of how this laptop might compare up against other rivals in the same category.

Super Pi comparison results:

Notebook	Time
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500)	0m 54s
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500)	0m 54s
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 58s
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 03s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
Toshiba Satellite A205 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 34s
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52)	2m 05s
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T2400)	0m 59s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s

PCMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT)	5,377 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,925 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,377 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

3DMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT)	5,306 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	2,840 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	910 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	3,116 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100)	916 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52, ATI x1270)	871 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	2,013 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	1,791 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT)	2,930 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,329 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU)	1,069 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66 Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB)	2,144 3DMarks
Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB)	1,831 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks
Samsung R20 (1.73GHz T2250 and ATI 1250M chipset / GPU)	476 3DMarks

Heat and Noise

Coping with heat under stress is one task that this laptop shrugs off with ease. Using two instances of Prime95, each stressing an individual core, the processor went up to 75C after 40 minutes. Outside temps were barely fazed though, even with internal parts scorching hot. With a room temperature of 24C, the palm rest was 27C on the right side, and 29C on the left side. Keyboard temperature was between 30-33C going right to left. Air coming out of the heatsink grill came out at around 46C. Underside temps were into &quot;warm blanket&quot; range of 40-42C, so wearing pants while gaming intensively should be recommended. After letting the laptop cool down for 20 minutes, the keyboard and palm rest evened out at 29-30C with the bottom peaking at 36C under the heatsink area.

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The fan noise was rarely loud enough to be heard in a quiet room unless the notebook was under extreme stress such as benchmarking or serious gaming.

Input and Output ports

Port selection was not a problem, although I would have enjoyed seeing a DVI or HDMI port included since there is more than enough free space around the perimeter of this 17&quot; notebook. Going around the notebook, we find the following ports

Left: Kensington lock slot, expresscard slot, WIFI on/off/search switch (view large image)

Front: Media access and volume controls (view large image)

Right: Headphone/Mic, Firewire, VGA, LAN, two USB (view large image)

Rear: S-video, two USB, Power connector, 56k modem, one USB (view large image)

Software

This laptop came with Windows Vista Home Premium preinstalled, as well as other smaller applications included through Dell. The most notable addition being the Norton Internet Security package which I uninstalled from the system during review to speed it up.  Another item unique to Dell is the &quot;Dell QuickSafe&quot; online storage system which comes included free for one year. This gives a user 3GB of online storage space for backing up documents, pictures, or other information to an outside source incase of system failure (or losing your laptop). The user then selects the folders they want backed up, what interval to have it pulled off the system, and let the software do the magic behind the scenes.

Battery

Under normal web browsing use the 9-cell battery performed quite well, pushing out 3 hours and 12 minutes of life before going into hibernation mode at two percent. Screen brightness was two notches below max, or about 80 percent, and other items were set to Vista’s balanced power plan. This gives more than enough time for taking notes (surfing the web) during a couple of classes throughout the day away from an outlet.

Conclusion

This Dell 17&quot; laptop is a great performer and extremely well built laptop structurally. It seems to be built well enough to be thrown around in day to day use, and hold up throughout an entire college career. It will roll with the punches, and probably hurt your fist in the process. The only problems I found which don’t relate directly to the function of the laptop are the peeling paint, which should hopefully be worked out as production goes on in the upcoming months. Dell has mentioned paint quality problems with this new design, and how they were working to improve the painting process. Counting out that problem this is a great laptop, and I hope Dell continues on this trend of well built, affordable machines.

Pros:

• Very tough structure and underbody.
• Strong gaming performance with the 8600M GT
• Excellent battery life for a 17&quot; notebook
• Bright and Vivid LCD with excellent viewing angles

Cons:

• Paint defects out of the box
• HD Bay cover has some play, making loud clacking noises
• No plaid paint option ... they offer every other color after all.

 

Nice looking laptop I must say. Looking much better then I expected from the first pictures I saw.

Was this espresso brown? Nice. I wondering if Black would look better?

Thank you for a long awaited review!

Best regards!

 

haha "so wearing pants while gaming intensively should be recommended"

 

thank you for the review.it was nicely done

 

Nice review! I think it would be a better idea, however, to compare the model to other laptops with similar graphics options so as to not bias this particular Dell laptop to be overwhelmingly better than all others (all the other models did not have an 8600M GT).

What do you think about the WUXGA resolution on a 17" screen in regards to doing everyday tasks (e.g. browsing, reading, etc.?) - I'm concerned at that resolution there would be way too much strain on the eyes.

 

Nice review with some actual weight measurements: I wouldn't want to carry that machine around all day.

John

 

I can safely say that the resolution was just fine for me under heavy use, compared to the 15.4" WUXGA T61p which was wayy too small for my poor eyes.

 

I was amazed out how cool the 1720 remained even when being stressed out. The room we were in was pretty cool, so that may have helped, but it was commendable how cool it stayed.

This thing is a beast in terms of build quality, Kevin was right about not wanting to punch it, I gave it a wrap with my knuckles to test how hard it was and ended up with a hurt hand.

 

no HDMI and weak Nvidia for DirectX 10
Useless for most video and game applications

 

Lack of HDMI is forgivable. But weak nVidia card? Hello, it is only the second most powerful DX10 card out right now (falls to the 8700GT which is barely even out yet).

 

most LCD panels support different resolutions over VGA and HDMI so HDMI is obligatory to me plus it integrates audio - less cables.
Someone on DLTV recommended at least 8800 to see improvement but 8800 is not available for notebooks yet.

 

As you can read in the forums, most HDMI ports on the notebooks do not have audio for some odd-ball reason. I do not know for sure though, but I'm worried this might be true.

Improvement for what? Viewing quality? - the card won't affect that.

 

I think the DDR2 we have is pretty weak...

 

Thanks for the review Kevin. I like your Avatar btw. Maybe I should get one as well. After all it matches my name better

 

Yea, I really recommend the star wars theme

 

Great review... you should have added no HDMI or DVI as a major bummer. What was Dell thinking?

 

hahah that would be cool

 

HDMI includes audio otherwise it is not HDMI

I referred to DirectX 10 performance

 

2500$ for a DELL inspiron 1720 with only 8600GT GPU , what would they think of next ?

Where is the 1000$ off 2000$ coupon ?

 

The inspiron 1720 should come with a more powerful GPU in my opinion

 

Right now they are offering a pretty good discount coupon on the 1720 models.. I configured a very nice rig with the super high res screen, 2GB ram, 8600GT AND three year warranty for about $1650.

That is a very nice price. I have yet to purchase it tho .. still not 100% convinced the "shared memory" will be as good as buying a ASUS c90s. Although the dell 17" screen is nicer than having a 15.4 ".

nice review

 

First Dell notebook (17" and overall) with a built in num pad?

 

What do you mean it won't be as good as the c90s (from a graphics point of view)? The 512MB for the 8600M GT is pointless and they're both the DDR2 version clocked at 400MHz, so performance will be the same.

You can put in desktop CPUs with the C90 though, which is somewhat attractive if you don't intend to use it on battery power.

 

Why does a 17" laptop need to use an ugly extended battery?

 

Nice review!
all i need is my 1501 though

 

Nice review Kevin, I'm glad to hear that dell is making better constructed notebooks,this has been a small issue with me in the past.

 

Well the Dell uses some form of memory that is '2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz'...even though the 8600GT has dedicated memory - doesnt the fact that the RAM is devoted to being shared make it slower than a system without shared memory (ie: the dell xps series).

Also, the 15.4" screen will be easier to run on the video card than the 17" version = higher frame rates in games

can anyone comment with background info on the 1720's RAM in comparison to a non shared RAM system??

very nice review - this laptop is a great deal right now for money.

 

1. Shared Memory doesn't slow down computers generally; the shared memory space is taken as needed. However, shared memory does not improve performance significantly due to slower speed.
2. Screen Size doesn't matter for FPS, screen resolution does.
3. All integrated and discrete cards have the option of using shared memory now.

 

Hopefully the Vostro 1700 won't have any such paint issues.

 

That is a really good point. It would be nice if notebook vendors would make more effort to match the native panel resolution to the capability of the video card a little more closely.

All in all, I've found 17" laptops to be impractical. 15" is about the best mix of screen size/resolution, weight, and GPU performance, but a 14" with an 8700GT would be the bomb too.

 

As the above poster has already said, performance is a function of resolution, not size.

 

"The Dell Inspiron 1720 is a 17" desktop replacement targeted towards younger consumers, most of who are in school."

Where they will be presented with the proper usage of whom.

 

... this is a notebook site, not the teachers lounge.
(don't be hatin', lol)

Anywho.. loved the review, had some laughs, had some tears (paint issue). Good stuff .

About the HDMI "debacle"... i'm sure that this will be used in the upper echelon (XPS) notebooks as a selling point (seeing as they will need it with the way the XPS M1730 looks.. lol)

 

How do you like me now?

 

For me, in the 17" arena, with this pricetag vs performance, is a no brainer, the Sager NP5790 is the best 17" today.

 

I've been having some major issues already with my e1520. I sent a letter to some folks at Dell outlining the problems, and I thought I'd paste a copy here for those of you thinking buying into the new line:

Hi, Dell reps. I am a computer tech from North Carolina, and I have some major issues with my new e1520. The overseas support has not been helpful, to say the least; maybe you guys can do something with this information:

1. The first time I opened the lid on my e1520, the left hinge broke. A small plastic piece popped off at the bottom left corner of the screen, and the hinge creaks loudly every time I raise or lower the lid. I can put the plastic piece back on, but it pops back off each time I open the lid.

2. After resuming from suspend, I often cannot change the screen brightness again until I reboot.

3. The battery does not fit firmly in its socket, and clatters around every time I move the laptop.

4. The WSXGA+ screen with truelife looks pretty bad, as if Dell replaced the liquid crystals with colored sand. I have my laptop sitting next to an HP laptop with a glossy screen -- the image on the HP screen looks crystal clear compared to my Dell's conspicuous graininess. Is this problem absent from the "anti-glare" screens? It appears that the truelife coating is causing the problem.

5. Along with thousands of other Dell customers, I waited almost two agonizing months for this computer. Customer Service repeatedly promised me a "$100 credit deposited to your Paypal account once the laptop has been invoiced." That $100 never showed up.

I plan to return this laptop in a few days; I just wanted to know whether Dell was aware of these issues, and whether it plans to take any steps to solve them. For nearly ten years, I have bought only Dell computers; because of this ordeal, Dell has lost my business, along with the business of hundreds of my future customers. I used to recommend Dell exclusively to my clients, but I can no longer do that. What has happened to your once-great company?

 

I noticed this happen one time with the review machine after it sat in sleep mode on my desk for probably 6-8 hours. Only happened once, and I couldn't replicate it.

 

Put 'em in detention and give 'em lines (and take away their computers)...

 

Please note a few of the items on the 1720 laptop from DELL:
- Does NOT have GIGABIT ethernet! 10/100 ONLY!
- Does NOT work with previous D-Family Dockingstations.

It is meant to be a Budget line of laptops, with XPS being the upper end.
My company is a DELL shop, and my reps told me this.
They also confirmed there is a new Inspiron 9300 series coming in 2 weeks.

 

Do anyone know if built-in bluetooth card is A2DP compatible? I'm about to buy this laptop and I want to pair it with Sony Ericsson MBR-100 Stereo Bluetooth Reciever.

 

Great review Kevin! What brand of screen does the 1720 have?

simonz

 

I disagree, the 8600M GT is a rather mediocre card. Perhaps, it's the second best DX 10 nVidia card, but overall, there are much better notebook graphics cards than this one, eg. Go 7950GTX, Go 7800 GTX, ATI 1800, Go 7800 (depending on the situation, sometimes the 8600's unified shaders may have advantages). So, I wouldn't recommend this card as a good gaming graphics card. You should still use the nVidia 7900 series, or the mobile version of 8800when it comes out. I wouldn't expect the 8700M to be much better since it has the same number of stream processors (32), except the clock speed is much faster.

 

Nice looking laptop. The 8600m gt is a bit weak, mainly the 128 bit bus is what irks me the most, all the yummy high res goodness with that dispaly and that card will hardly push games at native res.

 

The idea was to point out that panels usually come equipped with higher native resolution than the included videocard can handle in games at acceptable frame rates. And playing on lower resolutions will result in degraded image quality wich most people are trying to avoid.

In the case of the 1720 - and the 9400 before it for that matter - the 17" WUXGA+ sports a 1920x1200 resolution. I can think of but a few games wich are playable on such cards as the 8600GT, or the slightly more powerful 7900GS of the 9400, at this size. None of wich are very recent, not to mention new, titles.

Moving on to other matters of interest:
- my main concern is the effectiveness of the single fan configuration. The previous 9400 had 2 cooling fans - one for the CPU and the other for the video card. Of course the 8600GT with DDR2 should theoretically run a little cooler compared to the 7900GS with DDR3.
Advantages over the old 9400 [if they were to be compared]:
- full size keyboard;
- two harddrives instead of 1;
- new T7100/T7300 CPUs with 800MHz FSB;
- sleeker allround look [no more white bumpers ]
- optional 2.0 Megapixel webcam;
- considerably cheaper than the old model.
Disadvantages:
- possibly less eficient cooling with only one fan;
- 5 USBs instead of 6 [not that you would really use 6 all the time];
- bye, bye included subwoofer;
- less powerful videocard than the previous model [the 7900GS still manages to best this 8600GT in most games], or at least less powerful than expected;
- no bundled OS [at least where I live] - but this can also be seen as an advantage, some people preferring to stick to XP SP2 instead of jumping in the Vista bus just yet.

All this is coming from an upgrade thirsty Inspiron 9400 user so it might be a little subjective.

 

I like the design of this laptop. Really nice. I am wondering if it will last long. How are you doing with Vista? Home much time does it take you to boot the system?

 

Great review....Can anyone please tell me whats the use of Hdmi and Dvi port. Secondly can I install fresh copy of Win XP OS with 3-4 partitions on my laptop by formatting all dell stuff from it? Is it as simple as installing windows on desktop or is it difficult to do that?

 

I would like to have suggestions about a notebook for video editing in high resolution using Studio 11 ultimate.
My choice is between the following notebook:
A) Dell Precision M6300
Intell Core 2 T7700 2.4Ghz, 800, 4Mb
2.0GB, 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1 x 2048MB)
160GB (7,200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
256MB NVIDIA Picture FX 1600M Graphics Card
17,0 " UltraSharp Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200)
Internal 8X DVD+/-RW
HP Professional, SP2

B)Dell Inspiron 1720 (or analogous models as HP 9585)
Intell Core 2 T7700 or (T7500) 2.40 (2,2)GHz, 800,4Mb
2.0GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1x2048)
320GB, 5400RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (2X160GB)
256MB DDR2, NVIDIA® GeForce Go 8600M GT
17,0 " UltraSharp Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200)
Internal 8X DVD+/-RW
Vista Home Premium or Business (32Bit)

Questions
1) Is better two internal HD 5400rpm (solution B) or one HD 7200rpm eventually with a second external HD 7200rpm (solution A)?
2)XP Professional o Vista?
3) 2 GB RAM are enough or are necessary 4 GB?

Thanks in advances for your suggestions
Live33

 

Great review Kevin

here is a link to a 17 more close up pictures for Dell Inspiron 1720 and a small(29sec-15mb) video

http://www.malys.de/notebook/inspiron1720.htm

hope it will help all of you to make your decisions about Dell Inspiron 1720

 

I haven't even had mine for a week yet and although it has been running strong the fan seems to get off balance if it is on and the laptop bets bumped or moved... I'm planning on sending it back in. Aside from that it's not too shabby.


Dell Inspiron 1720
XP MCE (Vista on a virtual machine just for kicks)
Core 2 Duo (2.0 Ghz 2MB L2)
2 GB 667Mhz
6800m GT...

 

it has lousy keyboard flex. especially where the f keys are positioned.