Dell Inspiron 9400 With Intel Duo Core Available (specs)

Yes, you got it, but you have to have a bios that is accepts the new card. That is why I said earlier that notebook companies will probably not upgrade card as much. A marketing scheme you could say.

 

Yeah, i see. Quite clearly a marketing scheme. Cause if it was going to become some kind of "industrial standard" with easy changeable gpu's i guess gpu manufacturers would agree on ONE interface/standard and launch it more aggressive, with more nb-manufacturers using it and showing a wider range of gpu. Or am i wrong?

 

You got it clearly. Also you have to think. Many people won't upgrade a notebook card because of the hassle, and a single user does not build a notebook. That is why I think that a standard isn't unified yet.

 

Well, i don't believe it would work either. I think it would be very expensive. I mean, all these top-of-the-line desktop gpu's on the market right now, which consume a lot of power and generates a lot of heat are expensive, i honestly don't believe a less powerconsuming and heatgenerating gpu would be any cheaper, so in the end noone could afford it.
This is what i think(i may be wrong), if you buy a nb with the 7800gtx now, it lasts for what, about a year maybe. Even then it will be quite good, and you could easily sell it for, lets say $1000(too much?) and buy one with the, at that time, best gpu, for about $3000. Then you still save some money in a way. You'll (probably) get a better computer in every way. But, if you instead choose just to change the gpu at a cost of lets say $500(?) you will still not have the same performance, cause the other comps. don't quite match up.

Well, i don't know if that makes any sense to you, i'm getting kinda tired and my english is not that good even when i'm not tired

EDIT

This is how the graphicscard looks like i guess.


Fredrik, Sweden

 

What I don't understand then is that Nvidia's website says that the 7 series Go cards are MXM.

Q: Does the new 7-series Go GPU support MXM?
Of course the 7-series supports MXM. The MXM graphics interface reduces the length of the design cycle for notebook platforms, facilitating faster time to market for the latest notebook graphics and enabling multiple configure-to-order solutions and price points.

 

Where did you find that Weaser? EDIT(I found it)

Found this on nVIdias site:
Q: Which products will be available on MXM modules?
A: NVIDIA plans to make all future mobile GPUs available on MXM, including the upcoming GeForce 6 Go series. To support our partners NVIDIA is also releasing reference designs for MXM modules, exactly like we have been doing for years for our desktop graphics boards.

So, well i could be wrong about that there's only the 6-series. But i still don't think that the 7800 in 9400 is MXM. But I could be wrong, i'm not sure about it.

EDIT

Take a look at this.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/wtb_notebooks.html

Fredrik, Sweden

 

Yes, that is the graphics card and the non-mxm slot. I think that card in the picture is a 6800go because of the one heat pipe. But you are right about the latest and greatest machines. You can upgrade the video card, but what about the rest of the computer. Like for example, my pentium m 750. It runs at 1.86ghz. And then I install a 7800. This is not true, but the graphics card could run faster than the rest of the machine. Then you think, why did I spend that much money for something that doesn't get the performance I want. Does that make any sense?

 

Yeah, i get it, absolutely.
Well, i found that pic in the 9400 service manual at dell.com(search keywords 'service manual 9400 content') so i thought that that was how the 7800 looked like.

This is "the same" pic out of the 9300 SM

And this is the 9400 one

And one from XPS M170



You could quite clearly see a difference between the three. I guess the M170 on is the GTX(?). Anyway, it's obvious that the mobo's not the same in the 9400 as in the 9300 and M170.

EDIT

Just checked my orderstatus and my delivery date is now feb 10th.


Fredrik, Sweden

 

Yeah my status delivery got bumped to February 3rd. Kinda sucks... only a week difference though. As for upgrading notebooks... I hope it becomes possible. I know that older CPU's and technology could bottleneck the GPU, but the GPU usually has a faster turn around cycle. With PCI-Express and dual channel 667Mhz DDR Ram and dual core CPU.. I think we'll be futureproofed for at least a few years. I believe it's usually the GPU that bottlenecks most of the time though. Videocard manufacturers are trying to make the GPU's powerfull enough to prevent cycles being stolen from the CPU. I guess time will tell to see just how upgradable these cards are in the newer notebooks.

Say CCBR, how do you like your truebrite screen? Would you ever go back to a standard one if you had to?

 

My order status is now in stage 4, preparing for delivery(?)

Maybe it's being shipped earlier than expected? Hopefully, yesssss

 

*ENVY*

I'm going to take it as a good sign too.

 

well here is a funny story.

My friend's order was threatened with cancellation..as i mentioned. He was told a rep would call him within 24 hours. No one ever did.
His order was still good though. until today. It has just been cancelled.
Now he has been told someone will call in next 48 hours.

(When he calls them, he usually is put on hold for 30 min before he gets the run around).

Dell already knows he will be out of the country within next 24 hours.

Talk about getting screwed over.

I guess it wasn't such a funny story afterall.

 

edit:

and the tv tuner..he ordered as a system option (and tried to cancel when he was told it was external), was shipped 1 day after the order was placed. The 10th.

a tv tuner with nothing to plug it into! argh!
---
argh, wrong edit box

 

Hi my first post, so hello.

Ordered my 9400 on the 12th and have a 17th feb delivery date, but this morning was still awaiting parts, tonight it says shipping prep, whats going on, do i believe it or not.

 

now saying its shipped, no doubt ill get a call to arrange delivey if its true.
On the down side, its shipping with 2x512 dimms when id ordered 1x1024 and have already bought another 1024mb dimm else where, so ill have to phone them to change that.

will keep you updated

 

GeForce------------------- Go 7800 GTX------------------GeForce Go 7800
Nom de code--------------------------------GPU G70
Gravure-----------------------0,11µ-----------------------------0,11µ
Pixels Pipelines------------------ 24 ------------------------------- 16
Unités de Vertex----------------- 8--------------------------------- 6
Fréquence GPU---------------400 MHz--------------------------400 MHz
Fréquence mémoire-----------550 MHz-------------------------550 MHz
Interface mémoire------------256 bits--------------------------256 bits
Bande passante mémoire------32,8 Go/s------------------------32,8 Go/s

 

Ouch! That sucks. 8 pipes less? Yikes. Oh well, at least it's on par with the 6800Ultra desktop card which still isn't bad.. still faster than my desktop.

 

Hello fellow 9400 awaitee's

I've also ordered the 9400 (from the Canada site). The specs are:

Core Duo T2400 (1.83)
17" XGA+ (the Ultra would've been too hard on my eyes)
1GB Ram (2 Dimms)
Geforce go 7800
80GB 5400rpm SATA HD
Media Centre 2005 + Backup CD + Remote
8x DVD burner
9-cell Battery (80WHr)
FREE Nylon carrying case
FREE Dell 1100 Laser Printer
$2149 Canadian + taxes

I got two order #'s (one I presume is for the printer), but only after searching for them on the site. They didn't actually appear automatically on my profile after the 24-48hr period. The order for the 9400 was cancelled and given a new number, but it's stuck now at the "Order Processing" stage. The printer has been in the "In Production" stage since I ordered it (Jan 17). My original order confimation says "Estimated Arrival Date" as Jan 23, but I suppose it's anyone's guess...

I also wanted to mention that on notebookforums.com, someone says their 9400 has shipped, so that sounds like good news for the rest of us.

-----------------------------------
Current System: Celeron D320 @3ghz, 950GB HD, Radeon AIW 9800pro, 1.5GB DDR, 22" Samsung LCD HDTV

 

http://www.laptoplogic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2416

 

Wow, went skiing for a day and came back to a ton of new info. Awesome. To update you, my order number (3rd order number now) as of today has gone all the way back to order processing. A new delivery date is posted as Feb. 6th.

Dell has done nothing but screw this up over and over again and it's left me not feeling very excited about the new laptop right now. (not to mention the reduced performance of the 7800 Go vs GTX) I still don't believe they exist yet - phantom laptops. Lol - by the time we get one there will probably be better laptops available for less money with the speed of new technology developments.

If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't. I'd wait for the Merom CPU and buy a nice Toshiba GXx model of the day.

 

Hey Garbuckle, how have you liked your AIW9800 pro? I have one too. I've found it very capable, can't crank every setting maybe in a game but I still play in 1024x768 mode always. Funny, got it one year ago and paid on sale something like $350. Now what's it worth?

Wondering how much of an improvement the laptop will be with the Go7800 vs the AIW9800pro? My desktop is an XP2500 with the AIW9800pro and 512mb ram. My 3d benchmark score was 2660.

 

Haha, is that 3dmark05? The e1705 should get in the 5's with 3dmark05

 

Yes, I've loved my AIW9800. It plays everything, except I recently bought Age of Empires III, 'cause I heard the graphics rock. Only after did I realize that the photo-realistic graphics require PS 3.0 (not supported by the 9800). That kind of sparked my need to get a better card, which requires getting a new PC. I was leaning towards a Mac because of my small room and the need for something smaller and quieter (i.e. a Mac Mini), but the fact that I play a lot of PC games, and the coincidence of the Dell 9400 coming out, I couldn't resist. I paid close to $300 Can for the AIW 9800 6 months ago, and Futureshop is STILL selling them for that price (sometimes you can get a deal). And the remote is a bonus!

OK, I've done some research, and here's what I came up with in regards to the Go 7800. Some of the numbers may be a bit off (as core and memory speeds fluctuate). Excuse the poor layout of this (try to copy and paste to word or something if the TABs are screwed up)

GeForce 7800 GTX GeForce Go 7800 GTX GeForce 7800 GT GeForce Go 7800 GeForce 6800 Ultra GeForce Go 6800 ATI Radeon X850 XT PE
Memory Interface 256 bit 256-bit 256 bit 256-bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 38.4 35.2 34.24 35.2 35.2 35.2 37.8
Fill Rate (Billion pixels/sec) 10.32 9.6 6.4 6.4 6.8 3.6 8.6
Vertices/Second (Millions) 1100 800 1100 600 600 470 780
Memory Data Rate (GHz) 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.05 1.05 1.18
Transistor count (million) 302 302 302 302 222 190 160
Manufacturing process (micron) 0.11 0.11 0.11 0.11 0.13 0.13 0.13
Core clock speed (MHz) 430 400 400 400 425 400 540
Number of pixel pipes 24 24 20 16 16 12 16
Number of vertex pipelines 8 8 7 6 6 6 6

If we're lucky, the 3dMark05 score for the 7800 Go should hit the 5000-6000 range. I figured the specs of the 9400 should be about double my current PC (Core Duo at 2GHz gets 1m15s on Super Pi to 2m places - I get 2m46s on my 3GHz Celeron).

P.S. My "Delivery Date" online is blank - it did say 01/01/0001 at some point (how's that for "Indefinite")?

 

Well after waiting for the shoe to drop..i actually made it happen.

Now i have to back track and say... that dell finally squared things away with a revised ship date of feb 18th...same price.

/end dell hostility

 

I found this interesting. Buddy is saying he could overclock the card using a program called coolbits with impressive results. I thought I had read that the Go 7800 cards were "locked" and couldn't be overclocked?

 

Yup, 3dmark05. Well for me going from a desktop with 2660 score to a laptop with 5000+ score is like a 2 in one bonus ya know!

 

Okay, why are there 2 names/model numbers for this laptop: 9400 and e1705? Is there any difference other than the model number.

 

Yes, 9400 and e1705 are the same thing. e1705 seems to be prominent in the US, however.

I also read that someone overclocked the CES show model, but it's anyone's guess if the production models will bo OC-able. I'm hoping they will be, as right now it looks like the 7800 base model will be equal to about a 6800 ultra or so.

I agree. Until this 9400 showed up, I thought that getting a laptop invlolved either getting a slower model or paying a sh**load more for something equivalent to a desktop (can anyone say Alienware). Just for the heck of it, I priced out a desktop using the same specs and it came to about the same price! I bet Dell is getting quite a lot of business these last couple of weeks

 

You dont need a program to overclock your gpu. Voiding your warranty is not good. But if you install non-Dell drivers, you are given the Nvidia control panel.

The gup of the 7800go runs a little slower than the 6800ultra, but with the extra pipelines, the gpu and render the next frame quicker when excuting the current frame. That is why it is faster, about a billion more pixels in fill rate.

 

Do the tweaksrus drivers give you the Nvidia control panel too?

 

that is what i am running. Mobileforce drivers at tweaksrus.com.

 

Excuse my ignorance here, do the mobilie force drivers themselves give you a performance boost and then on top of that you can use an Nvidia control panel to further overclock?

 

Yes, I have said that earlier in this thread when posting to someone post. I got a 140million pixel per second boost when going to the tweaksrus drivers from the Dell drivers.

 

Don't know what if anything this might indicate but Futureshop.ca finally has duo core laptops on their website and the shipping date for them is not until Feb. 26th. (Toshiba and Gateway).

 

YEEESSSSSSS. Just got an email from Dell. The package is now on trailer from Ireland. ETA this friday (27th)!!! I'm sooooo happy

 

That's great Fredrik!! I'm sure we can count on you to post as much info as you can about it once you get it?

 

Yeah, I'm sure gonna try
Unfortunately I don't have a camera, but I'm gonna try to borrow one from a friend.
Now I'm just crossing my fingers that there won't be any more bad weather here until friday It's been snowing a lot the past days, a lot of problems in the traffic, let's hope it won't come any more for now.

 

happy to hear the news Fredrik, please post asap about it
Still waiting for min got an email they have deleyed again til 20 februar, I ordered one with 2.1 cpu maybe is this the cause of much waiting

 

May be so, I ordered mine with the 2GHz processor.
How much did you pay for your spec Turandot?

 

Good for you Fredrik! Can't wait to hear what your opinion is of it.

 

choosed the top configuration plus 3year basic warranty
2000 DKK
cpu 2.1
ram 667 2Gb
HD 100 7200
screen WUXGA
and so on

Price 23.000 DKK ~3000 US$

But the money is still in the bank

 

Okay, about the same then, but i got the 2GHz and 80GB 7200.
I paid 24500 SEK, with the 1 year warranty, but the guy at Dell told me that the warranty could be upgraded within a year, so i'm gonna do that when i can afford it.

 

Say, you know I read from a link that the 7800GTX consumes twice as much power as the 7800. So even if we don't really get top of the line graphics, we still get decent performance and save much more on battery power.

 

Yes, that is right. When mobile, the Inspiron 9300, 9400, and e1705 only needs a 6cell battery to perform. The XPS needs the 9cell battery to work. Why the 6cell works so well is that Nvidia's drivers tell the card to reduce gpu power greatly while on battery power. While plugged up though(max gpu power), the 9300, 9400, and e1705 only needs a 90watt ac adapter to work, and the XPS needs a 130watt ac adapter to work.

 

I bought the 9 cell battery. I'm not overly concerned about weight. It's alot lighter then packing my desktop and crt monitor (cables etc) over to friends house for local lan partys. I wanted the bigger battery for watching dvds unplugged.

 

Yeah, i got the 9cell too. Primarily cause i want to be able to really use the WLAN around the apartment. After all, to me it's a desktop replacement, so the weight wasn't the key issue.

 

Ditto on the 9-cell. I had a portable DVD player but was disappointed at the battery life and puny screen. Aparently the 9-cell is a whole 0.3 pounds heavier (which is little when you're talking about an 8 pound notebook).

Has anyone done any tests with the 9300 to see if you get longer battery life using the "MediaDirect" function as opposed to booting into windows to play a DVD?

 

The i9300 doesn't have the "MediaDirect" button. The XPS m140 was the first notebook to have the "MediaDirect" button.

Edit: On the i9300, there isn't a MediaDirect button, but there is the Dell MediaExperience program. It lets you push the play/pause button for two seconds when off, booting the machine into Windows and opening the Powerdvd app. Make sense?

 

I ended up getting the 9-cell battery as well. It was 40 bucks more but worth it for the extra unplugged battery life. No sense on scrimping on the battery when you already dropped almost 3 grand into the thing. I think my first purchase though is going to be a decent lock.

 

So, which drivers should I download? I thought i'd download 'em to my existing computer, put them on a cd and then installl them on the new 9400. I've looked around at tweaksrus.com, but i'm not sure which ones to choose.
nVidia Forceware?
I don't have a clue about drivers, so i hope you could help me.