XPS M1530: a brief review

[unni]

And is it safe to overclock it in a laptop... Coz lap's are prone to get heated...

Please clear my doubts...

Especially because of the recent nVidia's admission about some of their laptop GPUs getting damaged due to overheating, I would stay away from overclocking.

 

[dOm1naTOr]

Guys they are not giving bluetooth headset as free...and price is really going up...so if anyone is planning to get one...get it soon..

Please tell me guys... Is pc version and mobile version of 8600 gt are same?

And is it safe to overclock it in a laptop... Coz lap's are prone to get heated...

Please clear my doubts...

Both are same GPU, but the bios is locked at 475/1400 but for desktop one, its locked at 540/1400. And the lock is easily unlockable.
But the M GT refuse to install normal forcewares, but u can do it easily by editing the inf file of the driver.
And in my experience, the lappy one is just as cool even at load than desktop 8600GT.
Some guys in this forum are running 8600GT stock clocks at 107c and even at 117c.
But my lappy's GPU at 645/1550 doesnt go beyond 75~80 at max load while 3D marking. While gaming it wont touch 75.
Maybe the low temps are due to Dells' good cooling techniques. They employs large copper heatpipes and blows heat out with a fan and heatsink at rear.

 

[naveen_reloaded]

Thanks dominator...

How long have you been running the overclocked lapy?

And also can you explain how to edit inf file?that would be great...

 

[dOm1naTOr]

Thanks dominator...

How long have you been running the overclocked lapy?

And also can you explain how to edit inf file?that would be great...

ive been using it at that oc state for almost one month, nd will continus using it.
The main feature of M GT is that during 2D and low power 3D, the GPU runs at bout 1/5th of the real clocks, though we can oc that too[no use].

So ocing will increase temps only during heavy games, and dont affect temps during normal use even 1%.

 

[VD17]

@dominator:
what are you using for the temperature monitoring? I am running by GPU in normal state and for games like NFS Most wanted and carbon, it has gone up to a maximum of 80C.

And yeah, the XPS prices are through the roof after they introduced Studio. The system I got for 59K (inclusive of taxes and delivery) was of around 68K a few days back. Studio looks like a good deal, though. Plus it has those ATi mobility cards.
Anyway, any idea if i can extend my warranty? I'm on the 1 year complete cover right now... I want to get the 3 year extended one if that is possible...

 

[naveen_reloaded]

Thanks again dominator...

Will get more tips regarding oc.ing from you when i get it...

Before that i need to verify certain things...

How do you change display brightness...coz i heard that only when you plugin the power cord the brigtmess is set full otherwise its very dim...and it seems there is no way to increase it to full brightness ... Is it true...

And did you find any abnormality in dvd drive... Like automatic ejection?

Can you post more photo's of your lap...
Coz i am on a verge of selecting red over ordered black...
So your photos will be usefule... And also how will blue suit...is it nice.. Coz i like blue... Too...

And could you tell me a best site to get driver,latest ones for this lap?

Can i format everything and put in a fresh vista? Is it worth?
Coz i know that Dell and other companies modify the os ... And i also heard that new installation makes vista faster... Please comment on this...

Thanks in advance...

 

[dOm1naTOr]

@ dominator
ya,dell xps is a great choice n since u hv got urs recently, plz help me out wid the following-
1) what was the difference in the price shown on the site wen u configured it and the price u gt it for??
2)how is it posibl to get this discount??
3)there's no dell authorized dealer in my city.. wat wil happen if the notebook gives some trouble?? wil i hav to send it to them via courier or wil sum1 come from the company??
plz reply soon..hav to decide by sunday...
thanks

1) the original price after i configured was bout 71k with tax and i got it for 50.5k on EPP.
And thats a gr8 discout, but can only be availed under EPP.[thru by Bro's friend].
2) search if u ve nyone woring in Dell. Even some fren of fren of fren will do if hes willing.
3) In case of trouble, call the technixal team [XPS special care] and theyll take the damaged parts and courrier them, and after receing replacement parts, theyll come back for assembly, nd wil through check if its ok.

The slot is just a dummy. For actually using a SIM card based internet service, you will need to buy a WWAN card and instal it. Dell does not sell this in India.

So the SIM card slot is actually of no use, I am not even sure if you get a WWAN card from the US, whether it will work in India.

thnx dude

 

[VD17]

The display brightness can be changed very easily. You just need to press the Fn key + Up/Down arrow to increase or decrease the brightness. Although the settings for the brightness revert to what is set in the BIOS after a system restart. For example, the BIOS setting says that the brightness is set to 3/10 when on batteries. You take it to, say, 7. When you restart, it'll be at 3/10 again. You'll need to change it from the BIOS to make it permanent. By default, the brightness in the BIOS on batteries is at 3/10 and on power is at 10/10. This is unlike the HP mechanism which I find less tedious.

My DVD drive is working absolutely fine... although I don't use it a lot.

I find all the colors of XPS worth getting... blue would look good too...
All the drivers are at Dell's site (for Vista 32 and 64 bits). And the drivers for Vostro work for XPS when using XP, i think.

 

[dOm1naTOr]

@VD17
but if u set battery power option to balanced, its set at some 50% by default and at high performance, its set at 80% by default, even after a restart.
U can manually set the brightness level for each power option and after that, it dun revert bac to default after restart.

 

[visor619]

@ dominator
thanx dude!!!! cheers

 

[VD17]

Hmmm... ok... too lazy to reboot right now... (although even my KIS has been telling me to do that since the last 1 hour)

 

[dOm1naTOr]

KIS has been asking me to restart since last 3 days on my desktop

 

[visor619]

hey guys, wat about the top in class webcam?? tried it???

 

[dOm1naTOr]

its a 2mp, and is just average
but the cam looks cool on the bazel.

 

[visor619]

but the 2 mp is bettr than others... thats the max that i hear for notebooks.... wil try n find sumone's relative's relative if i can.. coz ur config is nw lying around 73-74k.... studio is jst average... not gud looks....

PS: how much TAG memory does ur notebook show??

 

[dOm1naTOr]

TAG?
u mean total usable memory?
after SP1 it shows full 4GB, but due to the 128kb loss on 1M in the 32bit architecture of Windows OS, only 3.5 GB is usable.

 

[visor619]

nope... the total available graphics memory... lyk the u check thru DXDIAG

ya, that full 4 gb thing is MS bullshit... it can only use as much as 3.5gb

 

[dOm1naTOr]

its 256 MB

 

[visor619]

256 mb is the gfx of ur GPU.. try checkin it frm the system properties,where it shows the total video memory available....

 

[dOm1naTOr]

in dxdiag, it says 1778 MB

And could you tell me a best site to get driver,latest ones for this lap?

Can i format everything and put in a fresh vista? Is it worth?
Coz i know that Dell and other companies modify the os ... And i also heard that new installation makes vista faster... Please comment on this...

this one from laptop videotogo is good one
*www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19274

download the archive and extract it, then replace the inf file with the one downloadable from same page.
then u can easily install it on lappy.
btw, if u want i can upload more photos by tomorrow evening.

Can i format everything and put in a fresh vista? Is it worth?
Coz i know that Dell and other companies modify the os ... And i also heard that new installation makes vista faster... Please comment on this...

yup, u can do a fresh install with the provided disc and install SP1 after that. Ull experience, now its bit faster and dont crank up all the dell dics, as they ad up some real unwanted startup items.