Dell’s XPS M1730 is a powerful Desktop Replacement notebook designed with the performance enthusiast in mind. Sleek styling and custom lighting adorn this beastly, semi-portable machine that weighs in at well over 10lbs. Gaming and multimedia performance with the M1730 is top notch, with frame rates across its beautiful 17″ 1920X1200 LCD holding strong in even the most demanding games and HD content. Though it’s not cheap, the Dell XPS M1730 offers great performance, fantastic build quality and eye-catching good looks. One item added to this notebook, a first for any notebook, is the AGEIA PhysX Processing Unit. Packed inside you also get dual 256MB NVIDIA 8700M GTs running in SLI alongside the Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor making this notebook a force to be reckoned with.
This Dell XPS M1730 has the following configuration:
- System: Dell XPS M1730 (Smoke Color)
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 (2.8 GHz)
- Memory: 2GB @ 667MHz – 2 DIMM Slots (2 x 1GB) (Max Ram 4GB)
- Hard Drive: 2x200GB 7200 RPM running RAID 0
- Graphics Card: Dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT with 512MB total memory
- Physics Card: AGEIA PhysX 100M
- Screen: 17″ WUXGA Truelife (1920 x 1200)
- Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW/+R) with Dual-Layer
- OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
- Wireless Card: Intel 4965 (802.11b/g/n)
- Battery: 9-cell lithium ion recharegable dell xps m1730 battery
- Ports / Slots: 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader, DVI-D, S-Video, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), 4 USB 2.0, Express Card slot, Modem, Ethernet/LAN, Microphone in, 2 Headphone out
- Price of this configuration: $4,499 (base model starts at $2,999)
Case
Dell didn’t modify the big case of the XPS M1730 in any way since the upgrade with 8800M GTX SLI video card. Features like LED backlight, additional display for gaming, and striking design are the same. Also the robust workmanship did not change. So, we refer to the review of the XPS M1730 with 8700M GT SLI for a detailed discussing of these aspects.
Input Devices
Dell also didn’t modify the good input devices too, so we’d like to refer to the former review regarding this aspect too. Typing with the illuminated keyboard is user-friendly. However, you can fatigue when typing for a long time. The touch pad once again proved to work precisely.
Display
This test sample was also equipped with 1920×1200 pixels 17″ WUXGA panel with reflecting surface. The average brightness of 220 cd/m² is similarly good than the one of the former M1730 (compare with 213cd/m² of the former review). However, when displaying a black picture, a visible uneven illumination got obvious at once.
Despite its good brightness the display reflects heavily in bright environments (rising sun in the office). So, it is to our opinion not fit for daily work. However, because of its good maximum contrast of above 640:1, it’s a nice computer for gaming sessions or watching motion pictures in the evening.
A detailed discussing of the viewing angles (including video), colour representation, and speed of reaction is available in the former review of the XPS M1730.
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Information
Maximum: 257 cd/m² |
Distribution of brightness
Performance
Compared with the 8700M GT SLI solution the 8800M video card is really better. Actually its performance is up to 109% higher (Lightsmark 2004), in average it is about 44% higher, so, this is a clear improvement. Only the performance of Doom3 with ultra details is 13% worse (however, 122 fps are still very good) compared with the 8700M GT. This might be due to the clearly higher clock rate of the 8700M GT (obviously the bigger number of pipelines is not crucial for Doom 3).
Compared to only a single 8800M GTX video card (if you deactivate SLI by the Nvidia system control), the artificial benchmarks of Futuremark only display a clear performance increase. The performance impact of deactivating SLI on games heavily depends on their support of SLI. World in Conflict, Crysis, and Company of Heroes profit from the second video card. Their performance is increased by 9%, 8%, and 4% (all of them with highest level of details). There was hardly any difference when running F.E.A.R. and Supreme Commander. And Doom3 was even slower with second video card.
The rest of the equipment is also better than the one of the former M1730, so this also slightly improves the overall performance. Two Seagate hard disks in RAID 0 connection, 4GB RAM (only 3.2 GB are accessible in Vista 32 Bit) and a T7700 processor (the former M1730 was equipped with a T7500) also contribute to the improved performance.
The performance for applications is, similar to the M1730 which was equipped with 8700M, excellent. Furthermore, the new Penryn processor should even improve it (see also our comprehensive Penryn comparison review).
World in Conflict
The integrated benchmark of World in Conflict shows a complex fight and should be an upper limit. We reviewed with the following settings: 1024×768 – high – DirectX 10 with an average of 31 fps. You can run this game smoothly at best with these settings.
Call of Duty 4
This up-to-date shooter, proved to be playable in full HD resolution, i.e., 1920×1200 with an average of 88 fps. The minimum frame rate (Level 1) was 60 fps. So, you can enjoy this game without flickering – even on-line matches are possible.
Age of Empires 3 – Asian Dynasties
The relatively demanding real-time strategy game by Microsoft demands especially for multi-player games much from CPU and video card. The review proved that the XPS M1730 is ready to cope with these demands. The game was well playable (20-60 fps) with the native resolution of 1920×1200 and all setting on high (except from the footprints). However, sometimes there were short interrupts (0 fps).
Doom 3
This shooter, which is based on OpenGL, is a classical scary shooter. It can be played with highest resolution and highest number of details.
| Doom 3 | |||
| Resolution | Settings | Value | |
| 1024×768 | Ultra, 0xAA, 0xAF | 116.3 fps | |
| 800×600 | High, 0xAA, 0xAF | 121.5 fps | |
| 800×600 | Medium, 0xAA, 0xAF | 125.1 fps | |
| 640×480 | Low, 0xAA, 0xAF | 125.2 fps | |
Quake 4
The same was true for Quake 4, which is based on Doom 3′s engine. Even with the detail level ‘ultra’ it was possible to play smoothly with an average of 60 fps.
F.E.A.R.
Fear, another scary shooter, supports only DirectX 9. Even at a resolution of 1600×1200 and highest detail level it was possible to play Fear with an average of 56 fps.
| F.E.A.R. | |||
| Resolution | Settings | Value | |
| 1024×768 | GPU: max, CPU: max, 0xAA, 0xAF | 76 fps | |
| 800×600 | GPU medium, CPU medium, 0xAA, 0xAF | 84 fps | |
| 640×480 | GPU min, CPU min, 0xAA, 0xAF | 117 fps | |
Crysis
Today’s most hardware demanding game, Crysis, was even a heavy load for the two 8800M GTX in SLI connection. The game was with a high detail level only reasonably playable with XGA resolution (in between it flickered time and again). You’ll need to try different settings to find one which is most convenient for this game.
| Crysis – GPU Benchmark | |||
| Resolution | Settings | Value | |
| 1024×768 | High | 36.5 fps | |
Application performance
Due to two 200GB hard disks combined in a RAID 0 array the performance is very good for applications. This way the two 200 GB hard disk have a performance which is as good as the one of the currently fastest 3.5” desktop hard disks, however, at the greater risk of data loss, and less capacity. So, the XPS should also be sufficiently powerful for demanding applications like video editing, image processing, and software development. If the intended field of operation is CAD or 3D rendering you should maybe prefer a notebook of the Precision series, which is equipped with certified video cards.
Emissions
Loudness
The impact of the new high-performance video cards on fan control is most obvious. Overall all measured values are higher than of the (nearly silent) M1730 with 8700M GT video card. Even if idle, the noise level of the fan is at least 34 dB (compare with the hardly audible 31.2 dB of the former review). This is about the level of other well-known DTR notebooks.
The maximum noise level of 45 dB also clearly exceed the 37.7 dB of the 8700M GT version. Despite being relatively loud, we didn’t feel that the noise is obtrusive.
Loudness
| Idle |    34.2 / 35.8 / 40.5 dB |
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| HDD |  36.2 dB |
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| Load | 40.5 / 45.2 dB |
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| 30 dB silent |
40 dB audible |
50 dB loud |
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Key: min:
, med: , max: (15 cm distance) |
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Temperature
The temperature emissions are very similar to the ones of the 8700M SLI Version. The fan, which runs more frequently and faster, compensates for the higher temperature emissions of the 8800M video cards, Therefore, the maximum surface temperature is 41.4°C, which is alright. The palm rest areas stay comfortably cool too, so, there is no impairment of serviceability caused by heat.
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| Maximum: 41.4 °C Average: 33.8 °C |
Maximum: 39.7 °C Average: 34.4 °C |
Room Temperature 22 °C
Speakers
There was also no difference regarding speakers compared with the former review. The sound of the four speakers is clear and good. Basses are audible, but, not as good as of notebooks with extra subwoofer. Overall the maximum volume is alright, however, it could be better for music or DVD playback.
Dell XPS M1730 Battery Runtime
As expected the battery runtime is indeed very short. During our review it ranges from 60 to nearly 90 minutes. In comparison with the 8700 GT SLI model, the maximum runtime, measured when idling with minimum brightness, and without wireless communication modules, fell from 110 to 86 minutes in our test.
Because the XPS is also very heavy and, therefore, not really mobile, the short battery runtime is not really crucial.
Current consumption
| Idle | 73 / 86 / 88 Watt |
| Load | 145 / 194 Watt |
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Key: min:
, med: , max: |
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Battery runtime
| Idle (without WLAN, min brightness) | 1h 27min |       |
| Load (maximum brightness) | 1h 01min | |
Dell xps m1730 Dimension:
Chemistry: Li-ion
Volts : 11.1V
Capacity : 6600mAh
Battery Cells: Grade A li-ion 9 cell, Long life cycle
Size (L x W x H): 278.88 x 63.10 x 21.65 mm
Net Weight: 466.10g
Color: Black
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