XPS Notebook Torn-Apart and Overclocked

Pelly writes "For those who are interested in seeing the inner-workings of Dell's latest XPS M1710 flagship notebook, Hot Hardware has taken the time to rip the system apart and photograph the hardware for your viewing pleasure. In addition, there's some amusing overclocking attempts which utilize the sub-zero temperatures of New Hampshire's winter weather to provide an interesting spin on the review."

Guh!

[gEvil (beta)]

In fact, it would have been even better if NVIDIA (or ATI for that matter) could have offered a DX10 GPU to pair with Dell's latest revision to their XPS notebook. With no mobile DX10 parts available just yet, however...

So, they're complaining that something that doesn't even exist wasn't included in the machine?!? There's some quality reviewing for you...

Re:Guh!

[dave420]

It has the 7950, which is as powerful as notebook GPUs get, so it's not as if it has some shitty onboard Intel video :) Getting upset with Dell for not magically summoning yet-to-be-created parts is pretty funny, though :)

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey guys, Please do the editor a favor and READ THE FULL REVIEW before you start bad-mouthing and complaining. The editor clearly addresses your concerns later in the conclusion... "Enthusiasts might find themselves clamoring for more, like a DX10-class GPU. However, with all of the performance and functionality of the system in mind we need to wonder whether any of it is needed right now. Dell can only offer what hardware vendors are making available today and to that end they have done an exceptional jo

Re:

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I think the whole thing about DX10 could have been better presented, better yet, not included at all. It seems as if it's included to add to the word count.

Re:

[iamstretchypanda]

Whoever modded this -1 needs to get there sarcasm meter checked. Sheeesh, give the guy a break that was pretty funny.

In all seriousness I thought the -1 rank was for posts that blatently seek to be offtopic or trollish (think frost pist and GNAA). The parent obviously wasn't trying to be either of these. Remember: Just because you don't agree with it or think it's funny -- doesn't mean that others will not. And please, for the sake of everyone else, lighten up...

XPS

[Sneakernets]

The XPS notebooks are little powerhouses, but complaining about the lack of DX10 support? Why is this an issue in a NOTEBOOK?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a flagship gaming notebook that costs almost $4k and you will NOT be able to play the upcoming DX10 games with all their eye-candy since it does NOT have a DX10 GPU!!!

Re:

[drinkypoo]

The XPS notebooks are little powerhouses, but complaining about the lack of DX10 support? Why is this an issue in a NOTEBOOK?

I am currently sitting at the most powerful machine I use (work owns it, but I take it home) which is a laptop machine, a 17" widescreen HP.

If everyone wanted a desktop system, then your argument would have merit.

Everyone doesn't want a desktop system, and so your argument has no merit, and you should have kept it to yourself.

There are other people on this earth besides you.

Re:

[Cornflake917]

The XPS notebooks are little powerhouses, but complaining about the lack of DX10 support? Why is this an issue in a NOTEBOOK?

You should be asking:
Why is this an issue for ANY computer?

I have yet to hear about any games that are going to be DX10 exclusive. Alot of people are staying away from Vista, whether they have a notebook or desktop. I have the M1710 notebook, and I use it PURELY for gaming. The DTR (Desktop replacement) business is really starting to pick up. There are quite a few laptops being made specifically for gaming. So in maybe a few years from now, the fact that laptops don't have DX10 could be an issue.

Re:

[mikael]

You should be asking:
Why is this an issue for ANY computer?

Some people may be researchers worked on 3D Visualisation and want to take advantage of the latest extensions. Geometry Shaders support the use of the Marching cubes algorithm and polygon tesselation.

A high performance laptop is particularly desirable for conferences, as it can be plugged directly into an overhead projector, thus allowing for demonstrations to be presented without having to lug down a mini-desktop unit.

I'm looking to upgrade my lapt

Re:

[iamstretchypanda]

The XPS notebooks are little powerhouses, but complaining about the lack of DX10 support? Why is this an issue in a NOTEBOOK?

You should be asking:
Why is this an issue for ANY computer?

Ask yourself these questions: Would you want to pay thousands of dollars for a laptop that can't support the newest DX10 game next year? Would your company want to spend thousands of dollars on a laptop that doesn't support DX10 (assuming they may potentially need it in the future)?

And please don't give me any bull about how I am going to upgrade in 2 years anyways, because if I'm spending 2-3k on a laptop I would plan to get quite a few years out of it with decent performance.

Re:

[Cornflake917]

Did you not read all of my post? I did pay thousands of dollars for a laptop that doesn't support DX10. Why? Because I'm confident that even 5 years down the road, most games will still be be able to run on DX9. My company doesn't buy gaming laptops.

Re:

[brkello]

Gamers are not going to Vista. Performance is worse. It will be a few years down the road before it becomes stable and is able to beat XP. If some game comes out DX10 only, they are going to screw themselves out of millions of potential customers. Seems pretty stupid from a business perspective. I wouldn't worry about it at this point.

Once Vista doesn't suck and actually has users, then it will be an issue...but that will still be years.

Re:

[neminem]

That and, if Vista doesn't ever stop sucking, I guarantee you that someone will figure out a way to reverse engineer DX10, and provide us with an emulator for it. It's just the way these things work.

Who ODMs?

[nevesis]

Any idea who ODMs this machine?

I know ASUS is odm'ing some of the XPS notebooks, but I'd be willing to guess that with Dell's acquisition of Alienware, Dell is now using Clevo/Sager for some Dell notebook lines as well.

XPS M1710 = impressed

[brenddie]

Im writing this from the same model they reviewed except my cpu is a T7400 @ 2.16GHZ and I need to say Im impressed. This is my 3rd lasptop (1st-acer travelmate,2nd-compaq evo,3rd-compaq r3000) and is by far the best overall. If you have the money or can get your company to buy one for you, this is a good choice. If you think its too flashy you can get the M90 that its the same hardware but with a Quadro GPU instead of a GF, and its looks serious and enterprisy. I just turn OFF the leds on mine for normal use.
Performance wise, Core2 VT extensions seems to boost performace for VMWare as I have run VISTA and fedora6 at the same time on VMs and nothing lags. I usually have 15 - 20 windows open and response is instantaneous. Using the "Maximum Battery" power profile Im getting almost 3 hours on a 9 cell battery and performance is not that bad.
Dell bundled software is not that bad once you show whos boss. I didnt felt the need to reformat for this one although the default patitioning is a little too much with a service partition, media direct partition, windows partition, recovery partition.