XPS M1530: a brief review

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All scores managed to get above 5. The memory score was limited to 5 maybe coz og the lower frequency ram @ 667 even though at dual channel.
BTW now Vista detects only 3.5G ram due to the bug nd will probably be solved after SP1. Then maybe the performance might improve.

ill post more bench results nd scores soon.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________-

EDITED

Got Vista Sp1 installed and now the whole 4GB is shown in system properties, but actually MS is fooling us. Still it wont use higher than 3.5GB even thogh it shows 4G to keep the audience satisfied while they keep on their drama.

I installed the latest forceware[175.80] for desktop GPUs with a modified .inf files [otherwise it refuses to install].
Also got rivatuner and ATI tool to start some overclocking. I prefer ATI tool.
Here are the stock and oced bench scores:


Stock:
clocks : 475/1400/950

latest driver from Dell website [dont say ny driver version nd naming seems diff from normal ones].
3D M 06:
1024* 768 : 4785
1280*800 : 4281
1440*900 : 3843

Overclocked:

clocks : 645/1510/1290
driver : modified forceware 175.80 (fromLAPTOPVIDEO2GO )
1024*768 : 6042
1440*900 : 5056

on 2/8/08
driver : 175.97
clocks : 645/1510/1290
1024*768 : 6303 wow!
1440*900 : 5138
max temps during bench : 74c
*img145.imageshack.us/img145/2979/3dm066457551440kk1.th.jpg


Overclocking Guide

[Actually the 8600M GT houses the same G82 GPU used in desktop 8600 GT cards. But the core/memory clocks are locked at lower value like 475/1400 as opposed to desktop ones 540/1400. This locking of clocks is not a BIOS lock, and just a driver lock...means the driver provided for 8600M GT from Dell locks this clocks at this value. I u managed to install normal forcewares, then you can set clocks at any value like in 8600GT provided the temps are under control]

1) I suggest u to updare XPS M1530 to latest bios, ie A09 from dell site. This one runs cooler, especially the GPU and so better suited for safer overclocking.
2) go to this siteand download a good forceware with modified inf file (i suggest 175.xx drivers). After download, extract the archive and replace the nv4disp.inf file with the modified one downloaded from the same driver download page.
3) Now you can easily install this desktop forceware on ur lappy. This driver will support more games, which otherwise refuses to start on 'Go' series driver for mobile GPU.
4) download rivatuner from here and install it.
5) start rivatuner and click on this button as in pic:
*img143.imageshack.us/img143/5605/3dm06440oc645755ic0.th.jpg

6) tick 'enable driver level hardware overclocking' select 'performance 3D' from drop down list.
7) slowly increase the clocks by movinf=g the slider. I must say, the XPS M1530 with GDDR3 can be taken to a min of 620/1290/750 w/o worrying bout the temps. You can go much higher as ive did, but just watch out for the temps.
8 )open rivatner's hardware monitoring and run a 3DM o6 or vantage bench and see if the temps goes beyond 85c~90c, then its somewhat the limit for the oced clocks, even though the GPU can withstand more than 120c with ease. but consider other sensitive components situated close to GPU on a lappy, 90c+ will be somewat overkill.
9) Run some benchs post in this thread

Hope this will help u guys who have bought this lappy [or similar one with 'go' series driver by default], to pust the rendering performance of ur lappy yo its max. Please do comment if uve got ny
Now trying to oc the proccy and ram. The bios has no option to oc. Will try to do it with some software from windows.

You got the machine of my (and ofcourse, yours too ) dreams man! Good luck to you. Enjoy!

I have a deep sense of respect for Dell in my heart as far as quality is concerned. Dell is unlike the other guys who spend a lot on ads with movie stars (read Hritik, i am stuck with an Acer Travelmate Grr..., their customer support cheated me by temporary solving a problem that i was having with it, coz the warranty period was going to be over in Next 5 days. X-( ) in them and dont care about quality when it comes to their lower end models. With Dell, even the lower range (which apprently is not that lower) has the same quality components.

thnx

Hey, you running Vista Basic theme on this baby man! Why don't u enable AERO? its just a suggestion buddy

Aero is automatically turned off when 3D M 06 is launched.

OK, got it. i didn't know that.

Congrats aravind. But why did you get the crimson red one?

^^^ because he likes red color

Personally, I would have prefered a pImped up HP TZ2000 laptop. in 60K you get 2 GB RAM, 2 GHz AMD Turian CPU & touch screen, it is also a tablet PC.

@pathik
thnx mate

he he
its not..... "i like red"
but the black nd blue shades arent that impressive for the XPS models as seen on some reviews....and im too much impressed by the mpvie '300' lol

For Inspiron, i wud have opted piano black or white(mac like look) or green(for green computing).

^^ cool accessories man, the headsets and 4GB kick a$$ dude, have fun on the baby and do let all know how is vista on 4 gigs

hey aravind, does not XPS M1530 comes with Vista SP1 installed ?

@debsuvra
nope as of now, coz MS withdrew SP1 downloads due to some bugs nd posponed the release. Maybe Dell ll start shipping SP1 anytime soon.

@iMav
And Vista runs on it as if i was running XP on a 256MB ram walla PC. Apps like VS 08, Dreamweaver, Flash CS3 nd Fireworks lags much more than my desktop which has mere 1G ram. The tooloxes of these apps first launches empty nd slowly each tools are loaded......wtf???
Its really annoying..

Ill soon install XP SP3 which ive been using on my desktop. I dun know if all XP drivers wud be available, but surelly im not gonna stick to Vista atleast till SP1 is released.


One of the mistake i did was not opting factory partitioning nd didnt pay dat 516/- for partitioning. SO The whole HDD came with two partitions.
220 GB Primary active
10GB Secondary...

And while trying to shrink the volume using Vista Disk Management tool, everythin went crappy nd i lost the OS. Thanks DELL povided Vista Full installation disk nd full driver disc i reformated it back to that 220.
That 10GB partition contains some Dell restore utilities (which didnt work while trying to repair).

Anyone knows how to resize the partition w/o losing data???
I know Partitoj magic or Aconis can do it, but the problem is

Whenever i try to rezise/shrink, the free space is created in Primary session, nd white trying to format the free space to new partiton it says "One one active partition is alloved as primary". It dun have option for formating as secondary...wat shud i do?

I need to install XP urgently.

Vista crawls for you?

yap. The UI gets sluggish sometimes and some apps are faster than XP while some are slower.
Formating (both full nd quick) flash memories like memory cards, thumbdrives takes almost 5x more time than in XP while moving large files on HDD us faster.

Clean install Vista, then install SP1 standalone EXE & you won't face any driver incompatibility either cos the hardware of your laptop is new.

After that you can read my guide of Using Windows Vista the MVP way. On your hardware Vista should rock if configured properly. I guess you must be having many unnecessary services running by default.

ya
SP1 is open for DL now.
Thnx, will try it

gx_saurav said:

^^^ because he likes red color

Personally, I would have prefered a pImped up HP TZ2000 laptop. in 60K you get 2 GB RAM, 2 GHz AMD Turian CPU & touch screen, it is also a tablet PC.

Click to expand...

Did you mean Tx2000 entertainmeny lappy?

if yes, it's display maxes out at 12.1" which is a big let down for entertainment PC. Watching a movie on a 12" display doesn't feel good.

I donno whther the option is available on newer HDDs but in Devcie Manager, on double clicking the Hardidsk drive, a property sheet appears. On this sheet, on the policies tab, there is a checkbox "Enable Advance Performance" under the "Enable Write Caching....." checkbox. Enabling it gave a huge performance boost to my aging lappy, on Vista. Try it if it applies to you. But this option is only recommended for Lappy's or computers with reliable power backup systems.

Crimson Red finish is really cool......even if it is red, it has a professional touch.

Unlike all other laptops which I hav reviewed, this lappy really caught my attention when domi brought it me on the very first day after its delivery from Dell. Dell guys really amused us by sending the lappy by air, after just 12 hrs before domi called those guys at Dell test center.

Build quality is really solid and rigid, with gud layout of keys and other media buttons and side ports. Display is really nice on ur eyes. Brighter with more clarity than most of the laptops of this range. Also hav gud wide viewing angles from top and from the sides, even though its a little foggy when viewed with a downside angle. The lap only heats up at the top left conner, where all the copper heat pipes running along the inside of the lappy ejects all its heat.

All accessories provided by Dell really rox. I think Dell guys dunno wat all stuffs they hav to pack......they send two EP630 with a small note telling dat with a small amount of additional bucks they will send one more EP630 if u want(sounds funny ). The media+control IR remote and Bluetooth headset are really handy extra stuffs.

The 8600M GT with DDR3 really does its job and the audio output is very powerful than on any other laptops. The EP630 will punch the h3ll out of everyone if volume is turned on maximum. But the in-built lappy speakers r below average. Apart from this everything is fine and cool.........

gx_saurav is right.. Do a fresh install of Vista and install Service Pack 1.

It improves Vista's responsiveness a lot.

yup, SP1 just finished installation....
currently i have problem with MS SQL Server Express 2005 nd refuses to start it services even after SP1.

SO im gonna install XP too on it by formating it somehow.

I dun see n BIG change in the total system response after SP1. Sometimes even mouse movements are getting too choppy. I tries disabling AV, sidebar nd most of the resource hungry services, but doesnt help.




And the Creative Audigy Sound they provided is a software one. Its ok but it required registration while setup nd the serial number i got, seems to be expired (even before installation).

I think ill have to call Dell for help.

^^ dude theres definitely some problem

yes there must be some problem, these kind of problems don't even occur on my Celeron 1.5 with 1.24 DDR2 GB Ram and an PATA hdd@5400rpm. Do you have the most recent graphics driver, by the way, buddy? Also try using Process Explorer by Mark Russinovich of SysInternals. Its a great tool for analyzing situations like this and there is a link to a video on his blog that explains it very intuitively, apart from the blog entry. Address is *blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/

Amazing. hv fun !!

Hi Aravind ! (dominator)

How is your lappy working ? Are all the problems solved ?
Please reply as I have to put order for the same lappy.

Everythi is fine except the audigy software driver. It shows as expired, but its my fault dat ivnt yet called dell bout this problem. Too busy with xams and college mini project.
nywat other than that im pretty happy with it, but the battery life still seems avg. I shud have opted for the 9cell.

Conga Man!. nice reviews there
I hope you have Gone for 64bit OS.
As, only 64bit edition will be able to do justice on your hardware.
Also, Please do remove all the crapware.

So, how is support on 64bit edition of Vista?
on Xp it is very bad when i last checked. maybe MS has improved in this deparment.


9cell batteries are very very Heavy to carry around

thnx man
Ive heard most s/w wont work for x64. Ill be using SQL Express 2005, VS 2008 etc for our college projects and any incompatibility wud land me in trouble.

BTW VIsta 32 bit SP1 got installed nd now whole 4GB is detaectd, but the performance remains same.

dOm1naTOr said:

BTW VIsta 32 bit SP1 got installed nd now whole 4GB is detaectd, but the performance remains same.

Click to expand...

Well there are a number of threads on this one but I thought its worth mentining here again - It DOES NOT see all the 4GB, but just shows the installed memory.

32Bit OSes have a limitation of address spaces (2 ^ 32) which is 4GB, so it cannot see more than 3.5GB in your case. The computer is still using 3.5GB only, but it just displays 4GB to show much physical memory is installed (but only 3.5GB is used by the OS)

Awesome review.i am going to buy this model very soon..
But before i need yöü to answer few questions..
Did yöü customize your system online or straight to the dealer..how is the procedure?
How long does it take to get delivered.?

Did yöü customize your display? I saw three variety and i choose the second one,ie wxga not with true life..sorry if i am wrong...is that the same display yöü are having?if so how is it compared to sony's display? My friend has a high end lap from sony,the display is just awesome..it had wxga display only..?
More question to come..

Is it possible to format everything on the hard disk and install a fresh vista?i mean even the backup or recovery the company takes up in seperate partition... I dont need them anyway..
What about drivers?is it availabe on their site? Or does those come in installation file?
Is it worth to go for 4gb? And also to 8600GT?
How is the mousepad? Is it sticky like in hp? Or rough in like sony? I prefer the latter...
Is there a way to get black key pad? Yours is silver right?
How much did it cost for yöü? With taxes?

Sorry for too many questions..hi hi i
Just curious..
All i need is a best display since i cant live with a horrible display which comes with starting models...thats why..
The third variety they showed on their website was costly, so i have no option but to go for second choice..so help me in this regard mainly..
Is it possible to send back the lap withing 15 days if i dont like it?

@naveen_reloaded
thnx for rating the review man
I have answers to some/most of ur questions.

* I customized it on site and i proceeded by clicking that button and i gave my email, phone number etc. They called me the very next day(it was at 10M that i configured it). And even after the sale person has called u, u can ask him to alter any specs and he ll give the correct price difference exactly as on site. It much easy and they sometimes gives foolish advices too. (like dual channel shud not be implemented manually on DDR2. It comes in dual channel even if i choose 3GB, ie 1*2GB and 1*1GB...lol)

* It took less than 2 full days after the cash has been transfered from the account to Dell. SO it ll take max of 3~4 days in case u are in a far remote location.

* There was choises like 1280*800, 1280*800 True Life, 1440*900[WXGA] True Life and 1680*1050[Xtreme HD]. I choose the 1440*900 one nd its brilliant though the viewing angle from bottom of screen is not much impressive. Sharpness, color, contrast, response everythin is top notch than most of the 19" desktop LCDs. And viewing angles from both sides are perfect. I think the WXGA nd XtremeHD displays can easily compete with VIAO.

* Yup, u can format everythin oh HDD and repartition as per ur needs. But its a big trouble if u want to keep that backup partition nd then repartition that primary one....And really that recovry partion is not dat useful. U get a fresh copy of Vista Disc OEM which dun need a s/n during installation nd only works for that mobo(coz its OEM).

* U get whole Driver disc packages on discs which includes every s/w which comes installed on it when we receives the lappy. U can also dl all drivers from Dell websites too if u want to update frequently. There is no choice for 8600M GT on nvidia website whereas Dell has it.

* The touchpad is average but far better than compaq nd HP. U can set if u want it too soft or hard via drivers....its highly tweakable.

* Nope, there is only SILVER for XPS M1530....but hey its not that bad as i thought before actually seeing it. The surface seems like brushed alluminium.

* U can bargain to get atleast 6~8k reduction.

* And i dun think Dell is giving any money back guarentee for lappys. If u are so keen on displays, then opt for Xtreme HD. Its sure gonna beat da hell outaa WXGA of dat VAIO.

Thanks for the answers..that was much usefull...
Is the mousepad easy to use..i mean, if yöü would have used hp ,yöü would notice that the mouse pad is very glossy and sticky,i mean the surface...my friend has it and its very uncomfortable to use..thats why i asked..
Thanks for the reply on display.. Will go for your choice..
I think i saw a lap with black keypad,thats why i asked..

Did yöü freshly install your os...coz the company installed will be loaded with sh!t..
Did yöü update to SP1? Is it showing 4gb?

Does 50k is inclusive of all tax? Sorry coz the i dont know what that epp stands for! And where can i get discount coupon as shown in whe website?
What did they give as free ?
Sorry for asking too many question... Hi hi..
Anyway thanks for answering all my questions

Yup, i lost my original vista installation while trying to split the primary partition using partition maic boot disc. Then i reformated using Acronis and then freshly installed vista and SP1 too. Now its showing as 4GB...nyways the memory usage never shooted upto 4G with whatever apps i opened simultaneously......didnt get time to game on it.
I got that carry bag and another EP 630 as free.. EPP is employee purchase program by which dell employees can purchase under gr8 discounts and that employee can give any shipping address. My Bro's friend helpem me.

And that Coupon feature is not available on India.

BTW where are u from? In south India, Dell has a new production centre at chennai.

Does XPS 1530 have 8600gt ddr3 or ddr2 memory?? I enquired via mail to the Dell people n dey said it's DDR2 memory. Can u just check that out if it's possible to check??

Can u tell us wot all games u can play on it?? Was thinking of buying it as gaming lappi but drew back cause of graphics card being an old one!!
wud like to hear of fps u get on crysis and cod4 etc..

dOm1naTOr said:

Yup, i lost my original vista installation while trying to split the primary partition using partition maic boot disc. Then i reformated using Acronis and then freshly installed vista and SP1 too. Now its showing as 4GB...nyways the memory usage never shooted upto 4G with whatever apps i opened simultaneously......didnt get time to game on it.
yup, it was 50,516/- incl of taxes and i got that carry bag and another EP 630 as free.. EPP is employee purchase program by which dell employees can purchase under gr8 discounts and that employee can give any shipping address. My Bro's friend helpem me.

And that Coupon feature is not available on India.

BTW where are u from? In south India, Dell has a new production centre at chennai.

Click to expand...

sorry for the late rteply....

had problem in mobile office so wasnt able to reply from mobile...

anyway again thanks for the answer...
i

15.4" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife(TM)
4GB ( 2 X 2048MB ) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
128MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 8400M GS

these are the changes i made to Dell XPS M1530 Laptop... but as you acan see , i just having a confusion whether to go for 8600 gt intially or just 8400 ... anyway its my choice only .. but i am hardcore gameer.. but will be using it in my hostell.. where i have to study a lot coz i am in final year... but again are lesiure times i may play....

i am just thinking or asking suggestion to all whether shall igo for 8600 gt and reduce on to ram ie to 3gb ??? or go for 4gb and 8400 .. coz at present including tax it comes for Rs 54,291.23

also another thing is will it be difficult to change graphics card to 8600 gt ???

since for ram , its tweo slotted i can remove that 1 gb and put in 2 gb few months later....

please help me guys...

i cantstretch my budget fruther more and i cant compromise on screen clarity also ...

dominator .. can u post few pictures of your screen....

say a comparison between lap and pc if u have ???

thnks again for the answer...

@bhaskarvyas001
yup, now Dell is giving 8600M GT with 256Mb GDDR3...it different from desktop 8600GT gpu only GPU clocks...its at 475 whereas desktop one i for 540mhz.

will try more games on it nd will be back soon.
get that 8600GT and 4G ram as it wud be totally a big trouble incase u need to upgrade later especially the gcard.

ill post more pics 2day nite....
BTW...u can call me aravind...dom1nator is ma nick name i use for CS matches

thanks aravind...

but getting both 4gb and 8600 gt will shoot my budget even higher,.... since with recent lcd tv and ps3 purchase my option have been limited...

anyway looking for more pics of your lappy...

heardf that it gives shock with that metal coating , is that true ???

and also please post a good clear picture... i mean one with good light setting.. want to see the beauty..nice./... hi hi ...

How cud it give a shock?
The adapter plug itself is only giving some 12v Dc to the system...and how is the chance of getting shock from a 12v DC?
nyways i havnt felt ny shock from it yet...maybe its a adapter problem that he got the shock or some grounding problem.

and sorry bout the pics...my connection is actig weirdly nd photo uploads are failing(even torrents ports not working). called the ISP nd they say it ll be fixed b 2moro.
but its crawling like a dialup.

no just search in for XPS dell laptops in youtube... you get the results with that shock videos and solution tooo....
anyway if its not there well and good... it seems when its not properly grounded .. you getthat shock... may be its rectified...

waiting for your photos aravind...

Thats too cool Dominator

A Dell XPS....Will soon get that one ..probly by year end...

Thanks for the photos

I Ordered an XPS 1330 as a 15" Lappy seemed very huge(and heavy) to lug around in University .

Will be arriving in a week , will post a review .

^^ Congrats.

Hi ! Arvind,

Finally I sent DD for XPS 1530
Mine would be same as yours but I have opted for 3 GB ram and 250 GB HDD
I m not going to get headset free and not even a carry bag.

On base of yours and few other review I think mine would be also nice and prove worthy investment. I wish it could be delivered in a week.

tusharlad said:

Mine would be same as yours but I have opted for 3 GB ram and 250 GB HDD
I m not going to get headset free and not even a carry bag.

Click to expand...

just out of curiosity, why?

iMav said:

just out of curiosity, why?

Click to expand...

b'coz they are the starting config in their respective component ie ram and HDD. and I didn't think to upgrade

i meant the free headset & carry bag, duh!

iMav said:

i meant the free headset & carry bag, duh!

Click to expand...

Becose Dell improved configuration from 2nd May and no more offering headset

Dell has never been offering Carry bag free with XPS.

is it possible to get some discount withoput any coupon or anyother thing...

coz m config has come tih tax around 57k....

wht shall ido..

i opted for good screen and 8600 gt

kept 3 gb as such..

help me some one...

dOm1naTOr said:

First of all, sorry for the delay. I was busy with college matters nd was already short on attendances.

Here is the thread i started when i ordered the lappy:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=855401
I finally got it on 25th April.

Here is what is found when i opened the package
XPS M1530
Charger kit
Carry Folder with 16 CD capacity nd provision for holding earbuds
Nylon Case
Bluetooth headset
2*EP 630
Driver CD pack etc


And the config is:
C2D T8100 Penryne 2.1Ghz 3Mb cache 45nm
965 Express chipset Dell mobo
2*2GB NEC Dual channel 667Mhz memory [total 4GB]
Dell 8600M GT 256 GDDR3 475/1400
250GB HDD 5400rpm
Crimson Red Body finish
15.4" True Life 1440*900
Intel 4965AG wireless N Card
SoundBlaster Audigy Advanced Audio
2.0 mp web cam Creative Integrated
8X DVDRW 24X CD Slot loading type
Dell Bluetooth Module
6 Cell Battery Li-ion
90W Charger
Dell Wireless Bluetooth headset A2DP stereo
8 in 1 card reader integrated
Binder kit
Finger Print Security
Travel Remote control IR
Noise isolation ear buds [Creative EP 630]
RJ-11 modem cable
1 Year Dell XPS Care warranty

Got 2*EP 630 noise isolation earbuds nd the case free when i opened the package.

Now lets move onto The features nd design.

The design is cool nd is comfortable to carry too. The thing is sturdy nd most of the body is metal. Only the silver lining on edges nd inner areas are non metal.
*img380.imageshack.us/img380/5099/1003155tu4.th.jpg
It has approximately 2.75 KG(when measures on a soft spring balance) weight which is on higher side. But with such build quality nd features which makes it a desktop replacement one, the weight is justifiable as this one packs quiet a punch.

The Screen performance is commendable nd marginally better than most lappys within the same price range, though the viewing angle from the bottom of screen cud have been better. The angles from top, nd sides are awesome.
The speaker quality is average compared to others. Its even weaker than most of he mobiles phones actually. The speakers are situates at either end of the dark grill above the media buttons. But using the bundled earbuds is recommended for movies nd music. The speaker is only gud for hearing windows warning sounds.....lol
*img139.imageshack.us/img139/3949/1003156kx2.th.jpg

The keyboard layout is the one which is seen common on most lappys. The media buttons above the keyboard is really helpful. They are touch sensitive nd have impressive blue backlit nd the response is gud enough.

The Travel remote is a nice feature, but sports a IR sensor, so u shut point it to the front of the lappy for proper working while operating from a distance. This is helpful on occasions like presentation, watching movies on TV etc.
*img504.imageshack.us/img504/5976/1003266nn6.th.jpg
*img509.imageshack.us/img509/3336/1003292wv9.th.jpg
The DVDRW is a slot loading type. SO You wont be able to use mini discs burned on ur camcoder or use driver discs which comes on mini CDs or DVDs. The drive is sometimes noisy nd slower due to its 8X DVD speeds nd 24X CD speed. The ejecting disc can sometimes collide with large thumbdrived or USB connector on the right side.
*img73.imageshack.us/img73/113/1003300ts1.th.jpg

The carry case is real gud one though it dun have any carry strap ot handle. Its only to serve the purpose of protecting lappy from smudges, scratches or mild shocks. Its a very compact nd fits the lappy perfectly. The lappy bagged in the case can then easily be goused in any medium sized lappy bags which has handle or carry straps.
*img230.imageshack.us/img230/8922/1003268vz1.th.jpg

The left side has connectors namely
HDMI, D-sub, 2* USB, IEEE 1394 nd charger port and right side has Express card, CD/DVD slot, 1*USB, S-VID, Lappy lock port etc. The front has three audio ports of which two can be used as headphones nd the thirt as mic or line in. Also there is a Media card reader hwich accepts SD/MMC/MS Pro/Duo standards.
*img501.imageshack.us/img501/7048/1003279ej1.th.jpg

*img178.imageshack.us/img178/6250/1003287mw8.th.jpg

*img178.imageshack.us/img178/9637/1003291jf7.th.jpg

The bundled bluetooth headset is stylish nd comfortable, though it has some trouble with vista. It worked perfectly on my mobile with A2DP nd the sound quality is gus though the it cud have been a bit more louder. It can be folded to fit in ur pocket, but itll be bit bulgy. It has got gu battery life nd can be charged thru mini USB cable bundled with it. It has play/pause, next/prev, vol +/- buttons.

*img512.imageshack.us/img512/2435/1003272ei1.th.jpg
*img379.imageshack.us/img379/1264/1003271at7.th.jpg




And do i need to say nythin bout the EP-630???? It simply rocks
*img166.imageshack.us/img166/4153/1003276vm3.th.jpg

The rear left side of the lappy heats up quickly while doing heavy tasks like animation on games nd u cant keep working while placing it on ur laps. The hot air is pushed away from rear nd all the heatpipes throws the heat out thru this vent. Ive seen on some reviews some long copper heatpipes running throughout the inside of the lappy nd a large heatsink on the rear nd air is pushed out after filtering thru the heatsink. Make sure the air exhaust is not blocked while the lappy is on cloth surface or a bed while gaming or ull end up buring the GPU or system might crash loosing stability on overheating.
*img247.imageshack.us/img247/1428/1003299lb3.th.jpg

The battery backup is quite average about 2~2.25 hrs of usage with med~high screen brightness. It couldnt even last 1.5~1.75 hrs while under heavy gaming nd under max volume nd brightness.
The battery status can be found using the display on the battery itself which can be activated by the touch of a soft button on battery itself.
*img230.imageshack.us/img230/1517/1003295fa6.th.jpg





MOVING ONTO PERFORMANCE

The system breezed thru 3D Mark o6 compared to my desktop running Athlon X2 4200+939 oc 1GB Ram and 7600GT oc.
AT resolution 1024*768 the system score was impressive though the scores got bit down at 1440*900. It performs almost same as a Desktop 8600GT as Dell just started shipping GDDR3 with their XPS 8600GT.
The M8600GT runs at 475 Mhz while desktop one runs at 540. Memory runs at same speed.
[the nvidia driver was tuned for max performance nd AA to 2X and texture quality to 'Performance' nd kept most of the stuffs off.
*img138.imageshack.us/img138/3826/screenshot2hw3.th.jpg

Click to expand...

I got my XPS M1530 yesterday.... i could not find the CD folder ,which u hav mentioned above..... Have u got that shipment from Dell`s Chennai manufacturing plant..... coz mine came from there.... and i guess urz frm Maylaysia ? plzz reply...

What the he*k is wrong with alphabets- * & * ?

They are *sing word *ensors.

EDIT- Even My post is not displayed *orre*tly

[Q*OTE=pkirwadi;827690]I got my XPS M1530 yesterday.... i *o*ld not find the *D folder ,whi*h * hav mentioned above..... Have * got that shipment from Dell`s *hennai man*fa*t*ring plant..... *oz mine *ame from there.... and i g*ess *rz frm Maylaysia ? plzz reply...[/Q*OTE]

Yes arvind,

I also has been*onf*sed abo*t the *ases shown in *r pi*s.
Whi*h is for lappy and whi*h one is for *Ds. I think that nylon one is for lappy.

Please inform *s how yo* have got them both ?

Dell is saying to give only *arry sleeves.

I sho*ld raise q*ery to DELL again

looks like dell is fooling *s

WTH happened to this for*m????
letters like "*" [for *at] or "*" [for *mbrella] are given as *.

f*k

@iMav
Dell is not fooling us, but they updated the customization page last week nd now they dun mention bout free bluetooth headset nd Binder kit. And maybe due to dat theyve reduced the price appx 2.5k than when i bought.
Now those stuffs comes as extra accessory which cost xtra.

dOm1naTOr said:

Dell is not fooling us, but they updated the customization page last week nd now they dun mention bout free bluetooth headset nd Binder kit. And maybe due to dat theyve reduced the price appx 2.5k than when i bought.
Now those stuffs comes as extra accessory which cost xtra.

Click to expand...

When they were giving free blue tooth headset, Dell had mentioned in their site that this offer is valid only till 24/30 April 2008.

No i ordered last week end and they are offering free bluetooth headphones...even the customer care officer confirmed...it...

naveen_reloaded said:

No i ordered last week end and they are offering free bluetooth headphones...even the customer care officer confirmed...it...

Click to expand...

Dear Naveen,

According to me dell is not giving headset free on all the configuration forwarded after 2nd May. I f you have prepared and forwarded the config. b4 that and not put order by paying even after 2nd may and wanted to go with that earlier config. only then only they are opffering Headset free.

I have the same case but as i opted for new config. after 2nd may i could not get the headset free. If yours is not such case and really getting free head set, please send your ouotation no. so that i can also demand it free on base of it.

Dell People are not at all supporting bargaining. at the cost of lossing costamer even. No chance of getting any discount.

My system cost me 64K. T8100 1400x900 4GB ram 256 mb GPU N wireless etc.

I will receive it around 19 may

@tusharlad: Are you saying that Dell reps are charging exactly what is mentioned on the website when we customize a system, and offering no discount at all?

yes Gopz

They use a software to generate Quotation and that is the final prise we are asked to pay.
If we have upgraded the system from their base offering then they give discount of 4% and that equal to the vat.
After lot of haggling and bargaining for 3 days I failed to get any more discount of freebies.

hi tushar bhai can you please tell us how much discount r they offering. i will be ordering this laptop in a week or so.. the base price is 50k but after customising the price gets about 60k without taxes and 68k with taxes. how much discount at most can i get according to you. also have you tried asking for freebies rather than asking for discount .. like a free laptop bag??

@arvind,,, any grainy screen problum??

also can any1 tell me the best method to pay to them from an sbi card .. i dont have a credit card and i suppose the bank will charge for a dd??

@dominator Dude why don't you OC the 8600m GT? I've posted a tutorial for it in digit, the performance increment is massive!

@aytus
the screen is absolutely brilliant but for my bad luck i found a dead pixel at right corner. Its hardly noticeable nd i has to use a S/W called tdpf to find it. Everythin is fine apart from this. Its ultra sharp nd gud colours. But adjusting brightness[with hot keys] while gaming shows some glitches for split second nd a cracky noise[only during gaming].

@coolpcguy
the card is already running hot as the rear of lappy gets too hot. The rear has a massive metal heatsink + grill which is used to throw out all he heat collected by the heatpipes running thruout the interior to cool CPU nd GPU.
One thing for sure that the 8600M GT gets hotter than its desktop counterpart. But it seems to ge stable enuf as if it cud stand another 10~15c increment in temps[still not closer to electric stove editions ].

@coolpcguy
ny links?

coolpcguy said:

@dominator Dude why don't you OC the 8600m GT? I've posted a tutorial for it in digit, the performance increment is massive!

Click to expand...

And also the heat & stress on the machine will be massive, and the moment you try to overclock it, you lose the warranty. I dont recommend overclocking this beautiful laptop.

@dominator I'm aware of the cooling mechanism, I believe its the same on my Inspiron

The beauty is that overclocking the 8600m GT DOES NOT increase the temperature, max only a 2deg incremement.
My C2D temps max out at 77dec, 8600m GT at 67deg,

Also I realized that you're using Vista, I believe there are certain issues regarding Vista + nVidia drivers + ATiTool which would prevent OC'ing, but you can try.

Here's the link: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79968

if u sure temps wont be a big problem, ill try riva tuner which i been using to oc my desktop GPU.
BTW how much 3D Mark 06 do u get?

^^ I've mentioned the 3dMarks obtained in the link above

hi arvind .. do you suggest buying this nylon backpack or should i opt for that belkin sling bag?? i would need a laptop bag to carry it with me// does that nylon bag has backstrap and anything to hold the charger ??

id suggest you refrain from ocing .. mainly bcos u void ur warranty... and howz gaming at ur native res.?? can you post some pics..

The nylon case is gud but cannot be used as a carry bag. Its more like a protection case which protect the lappy alone nd need to have another bag large enuf to carry the bagged case.
The case if for some 850/- i think and the backpack one is a large bag which cud hold lappy charger nd accessories.
*buysell.mypdacafe.com/upload_files/mpc_buysell/5772/Dell%20Backpack%20KC736.jpg

Zeeshan got his Dell XPS M1330 yesterday, have to say...I like the size. It can even come in my Sidepack

aytus said:

hi tushar bhai can you please tell us how much discount r they offering. i will be ordering this laptop in a week or so.. the base price is 50k but after customising the price gets about 60k without taxes and 68k with taxes. how much discount at most can i get according to you. also have you tried asking for freebies rather than asking for discount .. like a free laptop bag??


I have replied to your pvt msg.

aytus said:

hi arvind .. do you suggest buying this nylon backpack or should i opt for that belkin sling bag?? i would need a laptop bag to carry it with me// does that nylon bag has backstrap and anything to hold the charger ??

id suggest you refrain from ocing .. mainly bcos u void ur warranty... and howz gaming at ur native res.?? can you post some pics..

Click to expand...

I don't suggest to buy nylon backpack or belkin bag. coz Dell's bag is costlier and bares less value for money. same with Belkin, it may not be water resistant.

Either you go to your local market and can find a descent lappy bag having many other compartment within1200.

By the way I've received my matchine yesterday 24th may only. Delayed delivery by 5 days due to short supply of GPU as they informed.

Click to expand...

can someone tell me the difference between the 8600m gt 265 ddr3 and the desktop 8600gt 512 ddr2?
in everyday performance.

I thnik 8600M GT with 256 GDDR3 wud be better than 8600GT 512 DDR2.
Coz The former has clocks 475/700 while latter has 540/400.
If u have an 8600GT 512 DDr2, post the 3D marks nd we can make sure.

nyways as per my opinion, the DDR2 oc potential is really low nd ocing GPU alone wudnt help much as memory wud lag behind. The memory clocks will act as relative bottlenect despite fast GPU.

But for 8600M GT with GDDR3 , the memory has real gud clocks nd can be further oced much, but GPU oc is limited due to heat rise insede the lappy due to its limited cooling setup. But for a small rise in GOU clock can fruit really gud in performance due to higher memory clocks nd GPU wont have to wait for slow responding memory. here the GPU acts as the relative bottlenecker nd a small rise in GPU clocks shows real gud results.

Nyway theory cud go wrong, nd cannot be predicted accurately untill a test/comparison is performed.

8600GT with gddr3 will perform better in gaming with high settings at lower resulutions (read more fps with higher settings at lower resolutions) and 8600 GT wit 512 will be slower comparatavely on lower resolutions but the fps wont drop as you shift into higher resolutions.. so if u hav say an high defination screen.. say 1920*1080 go wit 512 ddr2 .. else go with 256gddr3

hey Aravind, i'm another prospective buyer of 1530. My primary need is music so i opted to buy the bluetooth headphones as well, apart from the ear buds they're giving free. Anyway, just wanted to know one thing: how's the bass in both the stuff (ear buds and headphones)?

^^^^ then go for a 1525 if music only.
its got all minus the Gfx card.

i like style as well..

the sound seems to be overpowered, due to preamping on the headphone jacks.
The music quality after on EP 639 is awesome, but the bluetooth headphone when paired with the system is below avarage. Its much better when coupled with an A2DP phone like SE K550i.
BTW, did u buy the creative audigy HD advanced Audio s/w with ur system?

hi guys.. i just read sometime back on techpowerup.com that creative is making the audigy software free of cost.. please if someone can conform.. it will save lots of ppl some bucks...

wow
BTW, it dun make ny gr8 improvement on sound. Just adds more features like headphone optimization, nd s/w EAX effects etc

hey arvind
how does GMA X3100 compare with 8400GS ??

Am a casual gamer playing old games. And looking for a solid laptop.
do you suggest the 1525 with 3 years warranty ??

I XPS goes out of my budget.

And how much % of discount did you get ?? Because i am also going to get the dell from some insider. So would like to know the % of discount.

What about your dead pixel ?? did you ask for replacement of LCD yet ?

X3100 is a good IGP which can play most todays games at low. It comes close to 8400GS nd some even says its better coz sometimes it gives better fps than 8400GS. But it renders too much artifacts in some games[mostly driver problems].
U can safely go with X3100 as it can display aero with ease nd handle older games @ med or high like GTASA.

I got almost 30% discount. U can get upto 33% if im correct.

And i wud like a replacement, but too busy with xams. And the one dead pixel ive spotted is not easy detectable.
BTW brands like VS needs atleast 6 dead pixels to apply for a replacement. DUnt know bout Dell. ill surelly apply for replacement if i spot more than 2.

dOm1naTOr said:

X3100 is a good IGP which can play most todays games at low. It comes close to 8400GS nd some even says its better coz sometimes it gives better fps than 8400GS.

Click to expand...

That is incorrect. A dedicated GPU is ALWAYS better than an Intel integrated one which shares the resources.

The 8400GS is definitely better than X3100 because it has dedicated 128MB DDR3 which surely outperforms the X3100 by a significant margin.

The below links illustrate the same:

Here are the 3dMark05 comparison:

Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS) 3,079 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100) 916 3DMarks
Here are the 3dMark05 comparison:

The 8400M GS scores roughly three times better in 3DMark 05 & 06 than the Intel x3100
*www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

@gopz
even if an 8400GS is much powerful than X3100, performance in games may vary. X3100 shows real gud fps in games mainly be not rendering certain effects which may make the quality really crappy.

read the whole posts in here nd ull believe.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60232

but surelly it can never match a dedicated GPU in image quality coz a gud GPU always renders an image the way its meant to be rendered at cost of performance.
read that thread. It cud play PS @1024 everythin high w/o AA. But 8400GS has far better quality even at med.

And X3100 is more than enuf to play old games at medium quality.

yup.. i opted for the audigy HD s/w. I actually am buying the bluetooth headphone since its no more free and cause it's my audiophilic judgement thats tells me to do so. But now i'm in a dilemma since the ep630 is undoubtedly good, and i already have a phillips SHP 850 headphone (which i have pushed to the limit on my music system and it still didnt faulter in the highs or the lows!).. if dropping the bluetooth headphones isnt a big loss and i can save the 2800 bucks, i might consider to do so. My mind says to leave it out but my heart is vehemently against the notion!

hey arvind thanks !
can i try to ask for an 8400 GS in the 1525 ?? coz its not provided in the website.
30% is too cool !! thanks man !

a_k_s_h_a_y said:

hey arvind thanks !
can i try to ask for an 8400 GS in the 1525

Click to expand...

Nope not possible, if you want discrete gfx in inspiron series then Inspiron 1420/1520 is for you.

hi.. i think x3100 has very improved performance compared to 950.. well suited for all office work and small games .. no point in going for an 8400 .. either go with x3100... will give you comparable performance to 8400 or else go for an 8600 (very little premium paid for a large performance boost)_ i suggest for x3100 . you will be able to play the not too demanding games at respectable fps..

gopz said:

The 8400GS is definitely better than X3100 because it has dedicated 128MB DDR3 which surely outperforms the X3100 by a significant margin.

Click to expand...

are' , dell tho abhi abhi DDR3 even 8600GT mein lagaaya. 8400GS has only DDR2

dOm1naTOr said:

are' , dell tho abhi abhi DDR3 even 8600GT mein lagaaya. 8400GS has only DDR2

Click to expand...

If you click on Customize page on www.dell.co.in for XPS M1330, the options shown are X3100 and 8400GS with DDR3 NOT DDR2

And M1530 has only 8400GS or 8600GT and it is not clearly mentioned if they are DDR2 or DDR3

coolpcguy said:

Nope not possible, if you want discrete gfx in inspiron series then Inspiron 1420/1520 is for you.

Click to expand...

ahh thanks ! will see and also try

aytus said:

hi.. i think x3100 has very improved performance compared to 950.. well suited for all office work and small games .. no point in going for an 8400 .. either go with x3100... will give you comparable performance to 8400 or else go for an 8600 (very little premium paid for a large performance boost)_ i suggest for x3100 . you will be able to play the not too demanding games at respectable fps..

Click to expand...

Am really confused now.
Is there any benchmarking software that i could run on my neighbor's 1525 ??

^^^ run 3DMark06 and Everest Benches

3D M o3 or 05 will be better for benching for older games nd In o6, it wont even give 1fps in some benchs

^^^ thats the procy bench

hi all .. nvidia has announced the mobile 9xxx series ... it says the products will be available this summer.. any ideas when are these beauties coming to xps 1530 for india.. ?? almost 40% increase suggested.. check out the link for more *www.nvidia.com/object/io_1212479706296.html

hope its not power hungry like the desktop 9 series models.

What was the price u payed for that new laptop of yours?

50.1k

9500M GS 256 GDDR3 is already being dished out by Asus with their M51 lappies.

but Asus M51 does not hav the cool looks of XPS.....

that true.just posted that for general info that 9500M GS is already available.

Now since they are giving only 256MB 8600GT for XPS M1530, I am hoping from 17th of June they will start giving 9 series card.

i am a fool .. i should have got it by now... the prices have went up by 2-3k....

naveen_reloaded said:

i am a fool .. i should have got it by now... the prices have went up by 2-3k....

Click to expand...

hi Naveen, please delete the Vista Ultimate key from your signature.

why dude???

lol
i have some similar keys starting with wth4 and IGPN,IMBO etc

damn.. everyone got ultimate key free...

guys how long does a quotation generated be valid...??

i think only for less than a week. Thats what the salesperson told me over phone.

i'm planning to get a XPSM1530 sometime in july...hopefully 9600 will be available as an option by then

Did anyone notice..after price change there is no option to select 8400 card?

^^ The 8600GT is now the default choice. Signs of 9-series coming soon ?

^^yup, Asus M series and G series will be coming with GeForce 9 series cards.....

Hi guys
i just oced the 8600M GT on my lappy and the results are pretty impressive
Oced the clocks from 475/1400 to 610/1510. I cud have done more, but i think this is enuf for all games currently installed.
I had to install custom drivers with modified ini files to enable ocing.
The temps reached a max of 82c at full load.
The 3D marks are below
*img340.imageshack.us/img340/702/3dm06ocxk7.th.jpg
*img516.imageshack.us/img516/4623/3dm06oc3tw6.th.jpg

old scores
1440*900 : 3843
1024*768 : 4785

new scores
1440*900 : 4643
1024*768 : 5751

Ill try higher clocks are temps are pretty low even compared to desktop 8600GT oc.

which drivers did you use? laptopvideo2go.com's?

yup. the latest from there

@ Aravind, Naveen, coolPCguy

Guys, shud I wait any longer b4 placing an ORder for DELL 1530 XPS ? I mean is there any good chances that the 9xxx series cards will be launched with DELL 1530 XPS models ??

@ Aravind,
congrats MAn for that sexy lappy, I too love the RED color of DEL L(hv seen it personally in a store) and the red is a good option, as its MATT in Finish and looks lively rather than the Blue adn Black colors of XPS Models, they are rather DULL..

As, for the INSPIRON series of DELL, as they hv a glossy finish, so any color (they hv a option of 5 colors, imo) looks lively.. but yes, inspiron series are a bit LESS COOL LOOKING.. while the XPS are a BIT TOO HOT to handle. .

@ NAveen
Did u get ur lappy dude ?>? (i read in ur previous posts) tat u hv spent a good sum on buying LCD tv (i guess) adn a PS3, wow man, u must be rocking in the hostell.
I hv a PS2, a poor old p4 desktop and planning to buy DELL XPS adn a SONY "modded" PSP
_---___---___---

CHeers n e-peace...

Thanks ashu...actually its on in my hostel..but in my home.. .
No i didnt get my lapy...huh budget problem...probably by next month....

And for your lapy purchase...even if you wait and get 9 series gfx card...they will surely cost a bomb...

Can anyone post something regarding acer gemstone blue...saw it in readers digest...it looks awesome... Anyone?

^ that acer will cost more than ur choice.

naveen_reloaded said:

Thanks ashu...actually its on in my hostel..but in my home.. .
No i didnt get my lapy...huh budget problem...probably by next month....

And for your lapy purchase...even if you wait and get 9 series gfx card...they will surely cost a bomb...

Click to expand...

SO. shud i be purchasing the DELL XPS lappy now ?? as it has the 8600 GT card with it ?? i mean this will be a good time considering my budget is Rs.85K !!

^^no.. dont expect any huge increase in price as the 9600M GT gets introduced . expect maybe 4 to 5k jump.. ur budget wud suffice .. but it may or may not be worth waiting. as i dont expect huge performance gains (expecting bout 20%).approximately same as that of a 8700 . though power consumption will b significantly reduced if dell implement the HYBRID POWER .. the card itself consumes almost same current "23Watts", pcie 2.0 is there., a new video engine too. and wud b definately a better ocer than 8600 as its based on 65nm .
hp dv5 and dv7 will be getting 9600M GT this month

@dominator . y dont u post the overclocking 1530 link in ur signature!

asus may hav 9600gt but they r cramped with older processors.. neither do i like the acer bluestone.. mainly targeted at movie audience, not gamers..

here is the requested info abut bluestone.. *www.gadgetspeak.com/gadget/article.rhtm/754/492761/Acer_Gemstone_blue_6920_and_8920_various.html

and has any1 using 1530 has used it with BSNL broadband?? does it has the required lan port?

@dominator : i assume battery back up must be reducing after oc'ing ur gfx card

@aytus
thnx...i ll do after some further oc.
BTW. it has a gigabit lan port. Also a small external adapter for dial up phone lines.

@xbonez
ya, it might decrease battery backup. But i play on it only at home. I use it mainly for web development nd related stuffs when at college. I and only oced the clocks for performance 3d mode. It dun affect battery at normal use as i havnt touched clocks of low power 3D and 2D

aytus said:

^^no.. dont expect any huge increase in price as the 9600M GT gets introduced . expect maybe 4 to 5k jump.. ur budget wud suffice .. but it may or may not be worth waiting. as i dont expect huge performance gains (expecting bout 20%).approximately same as that of a 8700 . though power consumption will b significantly reduced if dell implement the HYBRID POWER .. the card itself consumes almost same current "23Watts", pcie 2.0 is there., a new video engine too. and wud b definately a better ocer than 8600 as its based on 65nm .
hp dv5 and dv7 will be getting 9600M GT this month

Click to expand...

Ok, im ready to spend 5K for the increased budget but wen are the DELL ppl launching this so called 9600M GT in their lappys ?? any confirmed news like in a month or 2 ??
__________________________

@ Aravind,

Dude, do u use net connection on ur lappy ?? if yes, is it working ?? and using LAN card provided in the lappy ? coz i hv a MTNL TRIBAND DSL connection using a D LINK ADSL Routerand i hope that wen i buy this lappy, the net also shud work on the lappy (using the lan card) if it can...

Yup, i connect to net thru lan port, ie RJ 45.
im also getting a USB to lan adapter for 200, for setting a lan with my PC, as my existing additional lan card on PC is dead/givin BSOD.

If uve two or more systems[one lappy], then cable lan + wifi net wud be better, coz the lan+net type BSNL wifi router has been discontinued i think.
but 100mbps or 1gbps connection is best for MP gamin.

@ashu i really dont know when wud they b launching it.. but i hav seen a lot of requests in ideastorms and it is inevitable that dell dont know bout how many ppl are waiting.. the particular request is also shown "in progress" no one can pinpoint the date atm.
btw. hp has already revamped its dv series after 2 years.. dv5t will b a strong competitor to xps now..(the more the merrier) . their stock config hs some 9xxx processor and 9600gt.. expected to arrive this july ..and at 1560 dollars it. might b tempting enuf for me 2 switch sides..
check out this link for hp dv5t and tell is it gud enuf??

@arvind .. buddy can u tell exactly what is the model no. of those creative buds?? i was looking for ep-630 and if these r the same i may order more than one .. hows the sound quality with these??

yup, its EP 630. Ive got 2 of em for free and a card saying "i can get more on special offer from dell".
I think they are only charging 450 bucks for EP 630. But 10~20 of em nd sell it locally. Its bout 800~850 locally.

And EP-630 simply rocks. But the o/p power from lappy is too powerful for Ep630. Cant even use 20% volume on windows sound. But the quality rocks.
Its too good when paired with a music player or a phone.
just search for its reviews.

^^ i'm planning to get the dell XPS M1530...i plan to place the order online...is it better that i speak to a call executive and place the order via telephone? are there chances that i receive a discount if i do it this way?

on one stage or other, they ll insist on calling via phone. U can ask for discounts especially on taxes.

what sort of discounts can i expect? on their web site it says, offer valid till 20/6/2008...whats gonna change after that? coz i was planning to place order in july

Guys, I sent my DD's for the order today.
Here are the spec highlights
Intel C2D T5750
250GB HDD, Default screen, 4GB RAM, 8600GT, Creative HD Audio software, Bluetooth Headset (by default), Bluetooth Travel Mouse, Dell Backpack.
It cost me 58,897 including taxes, discounts and delivery. Before the discount, it came to around 62K. Fair deal, I suppose. Just can't wait for it to arrive here!!!

This is the hardest part, aint it? waiting for it to come.. heh

btw, Is there a way i can install XP 64bit edition? are the drivers available? couldnt find them on the site...
and yeah, i have HDD partitioning selected so i can multi-boot, if the need be. I was also thinking of tinkering with Fedora.

@xbones. i just called them a couple of days ago.. my base config costed me 60,280 rupees .. tis was same on the site and what they sent in the quotation.. but the quotation they sent had some 4%(app rs.2500) vat and the same amount was discounted .. all in all it was cheaper by 1055 rupees .. for the same configration from the site.. including taxes..

@vinayak.. yarr i m also thinking about paying them by dd// can u tell me how much extra did it cost u when u opted for paying by dd (what amout did the bank charge)

also when i contacted dell they told me they dont hav the option to accept cheque.. but the site states otherwise?
@arvind .. did that card u stated had any particular number on it..?? or is it jst like an add?? means is the offer open to ny1 or jst 4 u ??

yaar... i dont remember... i actually got it as part of my edu loan... so the bank made the dd in their name...
and yeah, they do accept cheques but they dont prefer it since it takes time in clearing etc...

aytus said:

@ashu i really dont know when wud they b launching it.. but i hav seen a lot of requests in ideastorms and it is inevitable that dell dont know bout how many ppl are waiting.. the particular request is also shown "in progress" no one can pinpoint the date atm.
btw. hp has already revamped its dv series after 2 years.. dv5t will b a strong competitor to xps now..(the more the merrier) . their stock config hs some 9xxx processor and 9600gt.. expected to arrive this july ..and at 1560 dollars it. might b tempting enuf for me 2 switch sides..
check out this link for hp dv5t and tell is it gud enuf??

@arvind .. buddy can u tell exactly what is the model no. of those creative buds?? i was looking for ep-630 and if these r the same i may order more than one .. hows the sound quality with these??

Click to expand...

Well, to say u frankly, the specs look mouth watering..
especially these---> Graphics CardNvidia GeForce 9600MVideo Memory512MB


But, u knw wat dude, the DELL ka design kida (insect) in my mind lures me over to it (Dell's side) but today, after looking at the HP link u gave me, i was distracted..lol also, the Price of Rs.61K Also looks more promising as compared to Dell XPS version...
_____________________

But, the one thing (related to design) im crazy abt is the circular DELL logo at the side of the DELL lappy (the point where the LCD Screen is attached to the main keyboard)

So, lets see.. i will personally go to a shop and see this HP lappy and tell u my experience..
_____________________
Btw, guys, how is the DELL's XPS 1730 Lappy ?? I knw its a gaming Lappy but is it worth it?? stating the fact that it has a huge adn bulky 17" Screen ??? and a costly one too.. around Rs. 1 Lac
*www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1730?c=in&cs=indhs1&l=en&s=dhs
_____________________
Cheers n e-peace....

@all those who have recently bought stuff from dell
how frequently does the thing on "my order status" change? Mine is still in the manufacturing stage (was released to manufacturing on the 16th), And how long has it taken for you guys to recieve your laptops? they gave me an est. time of 7-10 days from 16th.

Yup, many of the guys here hv received their DELL masterpieces in less than a week, say 4-5 days.

But the delivery also depends on the location where u stay, for example, generally mumbai and delhi ppl get their orders delivered in 3-4 days at the MAX

Do not worry, urs will be delivered in the time specified by them (7-10 days)..

If, u are a bit concerned, do contact them either by e-mail or if u hv placed an order in ur location, then call them..
___________________

Btw, @ to all, guys

how is the DELL's XPS 1730 Lappy ?? I knw its a gaming Lappy but is it worth it?? stating the fact that it has a huge and bulky 17" Screen ??? and a costly one too.. around Rs. 1 Lac

*www1.ap.dell.com/content/prod...hs1&l=en&s=dhs

ok... just got screwed.. called em up and they said they have a shortage of batteries.. the manufacturing will be completed by the 26th... then customs and invoice ****... the rep. told me it'll be here by the first week of july...
this wait is the hardest part!!!

yep .. there was a fire in lg,s battrey factory a couple of months ago.(they manufacture almost 50 percent battrey,s). thats the cause of the steep price hike of 9 cell battrey.. and now its starting to show signs of the same in 6 cell too.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------****************************************** ashu,, xps 1730 is good. u get sli gaming at ur disposal.. but ill rather opt for a full performance desktop if i was in ur shoes.. but if u r the kinda guy for whome all that matters is how much juice you can carry around wit you.. go wit it.. btw nvidia launched 260 and 280GTX // so ill advise u rather to spend on a desktop for some serious gamin.. if you already hav a quad pumped desk.. and got some real deep pockets.. go wit the highest end options of 1730.. otherwise its jst a waste of money.. you get almost similar performance (dont argue here) for a 1530 wit lot less mobility.. and 40k more.. also the physicx processor they are offering is not supported by most games.. and cuda can replace it nytime soon.. for me its a no no. waitin for amd 4870.. disappointed by 280...

^^

Thanx for the reply dude, (yup, no arguing here..lol )

1.) Well, yes there is no Customisation option on that model (XPS 1730) apart from the basic config as displayed on their site

2.) Also, It only has a 256 MB nVIDIA card but its good its SLI tech (i guess there will be 2x256 MB cards in it to work as SLI), isint it ??

3.) I also feel the 1530's design is good also the mobility (as its less in size)..

4.) Still confused wich one to buy... (1530 or 1730)

Cheers n e-peace...

^^ Get a netbook and a new PC.

Nowadays everythin is gettin outdated very fast. SO no point in getting an expensive stuffs. 8600M GT is enuf for a 1400*900 res with med~high for most games, as of now.
Even if u get 8700 GT SLI, itt ll soon get outdates and u end up wasting all that money, and the lappy cannot even be used for other mobility purposes[almost 5KG].

Also SLI performance is unstable and SLI wud eat up loys of battery power. U can get double backup with a 9-Cell battery on XPS 1530[do opt penryne].
Or wait a while nd get one with 9600GT, which i think is a far better option than 8700GT SLI considering performance/price/battery/mobility.

^^

yaa, valid point spoken..

Btw, i was surpirsed to knw that the 1730 weighs approx. 5 KGs (omg !!)

Even im waiting for 9600GT in 1530, but if they make a launch late, i may go in for 8600GT (coz as u said, it will be good for mid to high range gaming..) As i wanan play crysis, bioshock and other games on it ( in my free time).

nice review

I managed to play Crysis 1280*800 med~high AA,AF off, and looked good overall. It palys @1400*900 smoothly med but only some set to high.
Also it plays World In Conflict @ 1400*900 high[not very high] smoothly.
And the GPU[oc 625/1550] temps never rises above 80c even if the the proccy, chipset and GPU is cooled by a single small fan and a heatsink alone.

^^

wat if i DO NOT OC the GPU ?? will tat be a gr8 reduction in performance of games ? or jus slight ?

Only slight yaar,
i got avg of 21 fps for WIC before oc and 25 fps with same setings after oc. But oc can give a nice boost in 3D Marks

nice thanks for the info dominator...
and as per gamin.. if i had the money to buy 1730 i wud go for alienware // wud hav my relatives or sm1 import it for me from usa.. thr 15 incher rocks.. and evry1 can drool over cool neons..;p; lol

w00t! order placed for Dell XPS M1530 lappy...got a discount of about 3.5k

xbonez said:

w00t! order placed for Dell XPS M1530 lappy...got a discount of about 3.5k

Click to expand...

nice... and whats your config? and have they given any estimates as to when they will deliver?

Anyway, mine was released to manufacturing on the 16th.. earlier they said they'd deliver by 23rd june but now they have delayed it to the 8th of july.. it is slated to leave the manufacturing unit by 28th.. then i'll get to know whether they will deliver on 8th or even later...
apparently, the fire at LG Chem in Korea in March is screwing them hard... they told me that they have a backorder of 760 laptops... so that is bad...
hope ours get delivered soon...

and btw, i read at a few forums that they give compensations for delays... any ideas?

Yeah they compensate for any considerable delay in delivery. I am not sure if your case is a 'considerable delay' though

I know friends who got their laptops within 4-5 days, ordered just 3 weeks ago. I think this fire you are talking about was somewhere in March. There must be some other reason for the delay.

You might want to try talking to a supervisor and telling him that you will cancel the order or return the laptop if there is any further delay.

VD17 said:

nice... and whats your config? and have they given any estimates as to when they will deliver?

Click to expand...

basic system with T8100 (2.1 ghz, 3mb cache) procy, and dell nylon back-pack and audigy sound

he said delivery under one week...but can expect faster in New Delhi

wtf... i'm in delhi as well...
do keep me posted if you get your laptop soon.. i'll ride these guys to hell

btw, the reasons why i came to the battery conclusions were:
(a) they told me so
(b) Dell's forum is filled with people with same complaints from US, UK, Ireland etc.. and they gave the same reason

the prob is with 6-cell batt's, as per the forum... anyone who ordered 9 cell?

ok, will keep u posted...

btw, how many noise isolation earphones do they give?

For those having lappy with gcards, can try some oc with the modded drivers from:


*www.laptopvideo2go.com/

nice place to hang. One guy in there oced 8600M GT GPU from 476 to 756!!
really hard to believe
*www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16952&st=20

Hi, guys just got 175.80 installed on it from laptopvideo2go and oced further and crossed 6k marks in 3DM 06 @ 1024*768

*img401.imageshack.us/img401/3741/3dm0664077017580je7.th.jpg
*img364.imageshack.us/img364/5571/3dm06440ocuf4.th.jpg
clocks
640/1540
shader 1252
new 3DM 06 score : 6203 0n 1024*768
5056 on 1440*900

temps didnt get higher than 75c!!!! i think even a desktop 8600GT will get higher.
I think I shud add these to first post.

expected delivery date 1 july

^^

wat abt 9600 cards for DELL XPS ??any news guys ??

my buying again postponed... oh god.. i don't know how much extra i am gona pay....

recently i saw again a price hike in their xps series....

^^

Same here.. btw, im still waiting for the 96xx series (as recently got a new PSP)

real sweet clocks dude.. :laugh: i can c the oc potential of these chips.. and im drooling over 9600 now. ur clocks are raisin my expectations from 9600gt .. i bet they,ll break 8k oced.. my purchase is also delayed due to this 9600 gt .. i think theyll introduce the same next month.on around 20-21 .. nt sure tho. btw dell launched a new studio series... check www.dell.com/studio i think in competion of thr own inspirons,.with full hd screens. for blod* americans ofcourse. and i got bsnl broadband.. h500c plan.. ny1 else got one?

can laptop proccy be oced thru s/w?
i know to do it on AMD proccys only. never done oc on Intel via windows.
Also its bios has no options to tweak any kinda clocks, so only hope is to do it via s/w.
Any specific s/w for that?
It has Intel 965Express chipset and proccy temps are quiet low, to take some oc.

Got my XPS today.
Thoroughly disappointed. period.

For an audiophile like me, the sound quality is a nightmare! As it was pointed out before, it sounds overpowered. The bass and the treble distorts pathetically when the volume is increased, especially with the EP 630's. When i connected it to my Creative 4.1 speakers, it was embarassing. My only saving grace is my Phillips SHP 850 headphones which need quite a lot of power to drive them and hence deliver quite a good output when connected to the laptop. But that too isn't as good as i'd have wanted.. a friend of mine got an hp dv6767 and the SHP 850's work in full volume with full bass spectacularly.

My bluetooth headphones won't work. I have connected them and windows even detects them but the sound just would not deliver from the headphone. And the XPS tech support didn't answer my call. I'll rain down on these idiots as soon as they pick up.

Media files stutter when unloading discs - PATHETIC!

weird battery indicator. havent checked how much backup i'm getting, though.

Anyway, I love my laptop the best when the lid is closed. It's looks are the most prominent thing to be proud of.

The sound is really overpowered and makes the quality worse. But the sound is ok, if u set windows volume to some 30~40 and then increase the volume from player[i prefer winamp 5.5]. Also turning on CMSS from Creative Audio Centre improves sound quality. But still its overpowered for EP-630. But it sounds gr8 on my Philips SHP-1900 than on most Realteks[which too needs more power to produce good sound].
Also seting windows volume to 20~30 and connecting to a 5.1 is better. Dont set volume higher than 50% unless u are using the built in speakers.
And the bluetooth headset was a mess to connect for the first time. After that just turn on bluetooth and wait for some 30 sec nd all is done.
First keep the power button on headset pressed for some 10 sec untin the light blinks and then turn on bluetooth on lappy. Then under bluettoth setings, click add device. And select pass code came with the device as 0000 [four zeroes]. After connecting, select its properties and modify the services and enable stereo audio. The under audio tab on bluetooth setings, click on stereo audio and click connect, and wait for 5 sec.

After that the light on headset blinks with longer delay, and its been paired. And open winamp or any otehr player and go to its properties, and click on the output devives and select bluetooth stereo audio and dont select bluetooth jandfree audio and start listening. Its quality is above avg.
Make sure u dont select bluetooth hansfree audio from within player, as it sounds worse and also mono sound is punped to the ears and far less vulume and quality.

If u are a true audiophile, then consider a Creative X-fi card which fits into the Xpress card slot and the best sound is guaranteed[as creative says].

All those stuttering shows up on power saving mode. Its almost absent on high performance mode.

Thanks! Will try the bt headphone thingy tomorrow...
Anyway, its not just the music stuttering, the whole system freezes for a few seconds while the disc is being ejected.. and high performance doesnt help either...
and btw, finally found audio settings that work well for me...

Me too was terrified with the sound on EP 630 at first, and even thought its speaker drivers wud come out blasting

And thnx to its overpowered output, i didnt knew my Philips SHP 1900 sounds this gr8. It was very worse on all realteks and Creative SB 24 bit live 5.1 card too.[sound was really low].

But i dun see any stutter while loading nd ejecting discs. Try updating the drivers, especially the chipsets and sound from Dell site. Also load latest forceware with modified inf file as most games wont run even with the latest drivers for 8600M GT from Dell.

And what exactly is the problem with the battery? Mine is working fine and indicator too works fine.
btw, can u give ur config?

Actually, it's not just a stutter in media files... the whole system freezes (mouse, keyboard stop responding) whenever I eject the disk. I noticed the same thing happens when I close/open the lid but only for a fraction of a second.

I'm running C2D T5750
4GB Ram
250GB HDD
256MB nVidia 8600GT

The battery is ok.. the battery indicator went haywire... it showed different duration remaining for the same percentage of battery....
I still haven't been able to fully discharge the battery yet, though...

and yeah, running Vista Home Premium SP1

There was a similar issue with XPS 1330 (DVD drive issue) and it was resolved with a BIOS update (A11 BIOS). Try searching the Dell drivers page for the same.

btw, i also ordered the dell nylon backpack? anyone else with it? how is it?

yeah... i got the backpack... love it... very value for money... plus it's quality and looks are quite good...

yay! bluetooth headphones working like a breeze now...
but then again, not for an audiophile... i'll probably use it to watch movies or something....

oh no, is audio really that bad? I own a Sennheiser and was looking forward to using it on a XPS ( which i am planning to buy ) .

@aditya_v
Its not bad yaar, but its very much overpowered and we end up thinking that the quality is real bad as at that power most of the headset's speaker drives wud be straining. Once set to low volume in windows, then the quality is quiet good, especially with CMSS turned on. And the Creative equalizer does a good job too. But the built-in speaker is not as good as the LG ones which boasts of a woofer built in the laptop itself. But who really cares that much quality thru built in speakers, its the headset quality that matters and that is about the same.

some queries

@vid : why'd u go for 4gb ram? a 32bit OS can't utilise it and 64bit drivers arent avaialable

does the bluetooth headset have a mic also, or only for output?

my config is

Intel C2D T8100 (2.1ghz, 3mb cache, 800mhz FSB)
3GB RAM DDR2 667mhz
Nvidia geforce 8600GT M
250GB HDD
Audigy Soundblaster sound solution

@xbonez
I suggest u 4GB as the price diff is very less...some 1.2k i think. And ive seen vista's ram utilizations as high as 3GB + on most games(wt*).
Thought Dell claims that 3GB too is dual channel, 1*2GB+1*1GB as 965 Express chipset supports it. But just to make sure its in dual channel, 4GB wud be better idea.
Also the bt headset has mic too, but cant be noticed easily. A small hole on one earpiece and does pretty descently, but it captres noise more than vocals as it is situated much far from our mouth. So its only good at quite environments.

xbonez said:

some queries

@vid : why'd u go for 4gb ram? a 32bit OS can't utilise it and 64bit drivers arent avaialable

does the bluetooth headset have a mic also, or only for output?

my config is

Intel C2D T8100 (2.1ghz, 3mb cache, 800mhz FSB)
3GB RAM DDR2 667mhz
Nvidia geforce 8600GT M
250GB HDD
Audigy Soundblaster sound solution

Click to expand...

Dell provides 64 bit drivers for Vista

The price difference between 3GB and 4GB is not much, so its better to go in for 2 x 2GB for dual channel functionality

The bluetooth headset has a built in mic, it can be paired with your cellphone too.

thanx dominoator and gopz .. i've already placed order, and will recieve today, so too late now. i went in for 3gb only.

i did not know dell provides 64bit drivers. its not their on their official site i think...idk

xbonez said:

thanx dominoator and gopz .. i've already placed order, and will recieve today, so too late now. i went in for 3gb only.

i did not know dell provides 64bit drivers. its not their on their official site i think...idk

Click to expand...

Actually Dell is really flexible, its never too late. If you still want, you can return the system for a full refund within 21 days and order a new config. No other manufacturer gives you this much choice. But I think you will be fine with 3GB, so never mind.

I have downloaded 64 bit drivers for XPS 1330 and everything worked fine. Not sure about the XPS 1530, probably check with dominator

received lappy just now. i have cds with drivers, utilities etc. is it alright if i perform a clean format, re-partition my hdds, and install vista ultimte?

***edit***

so, i did a fresh install of vista ultimate, partitioning my hdd in the process, installed all drivers etc. everything working fine, but for bluetooth. i'm not getting the bluetooth icon in Control Panel. when i try to install the Bluetooth drivers, it says, switch on Wireless radio button... i do that, but driver installation does not proceed

@xbonez
check if the function for the wifi hotkey is set to 'wifi + bluetooth' on BIOS.

@gopz
but i dont have 64 bit OS. I have only the bundled Vista Home Premium, and some XP discs and a non genuine VIsta Ultimate. All 32 bit.

dOm1naTOr said:

@gopz
but i dont have 64 bit OS. I have only the bundled Vista Home Premium, and some XP discs and a non genuine VIsta Ultimate. All 32 bit.

Click to expand...

I have a copy of 64 bit Vista (Dell) pre-activated.

Let me know if you need it, I will courier it to you

hi thnx,
but i dont have the budget for Vista Ultimate, even for an OEM.
maybe i shud try torrents

dOm1naTOr said:

hi thnx,
but i dont have the budget for Vista Ultimate, even for an OEM.
maybe i shud try torrents

Click to expand...

Hey...I did not ask you money I can burn a copy and send it across to you

wow
thnx buddy

one highly highly reccomended software : SRS Audio Sandbox .... it does wonders to the audio output ... i've been using it for a few months now, and its just awesome. u know where to get it from

but its(SRS) destroying the bass. For music, i like winamp 5.5 + enhancer.
SRS is ok for movies and games.

use iZotope Ozone guys, its the best i have found after trying tonnes of different DFX systems.

WMP's srs murders the bass and sound. however, SRS Audio Soundbox enhances it without ny distortion. i love it

The studio series has been launched in India guys, and they are offering HD3450 on 15" and
HD3650 on 17".

they are equipped with WXGA + CCFL and WXGA + WLED screens. ( no idea if its good or not)

@dominator do you know the PLL of ur board? If u do u can try clockgen to oc ur processor. Altho the chances r tht it will autodetect. Hav u tried all the options in bios?
And btw if u get 3gb ram then 1gb from both sticks will dual channel and the remaining 1gb will be single channel. . Tho dual channel dosent affect performance that much. Source: tomshardware

aytus said:

And btw if u get 3gb ram then 1gb from both sticks will dual channel and the remaining 1gb will be single channel. . Tho dual channel dosent affect performance that much. Source: tomshardware

Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. 1GB from both sticks will run in dual channel, the remaining 1GB in single channel.

This does not affect much for Intel based systems, but for AMD it makes a big difference to have dual channel functionality.

BtW Do these support 5.1 channel audio? Will i be able to run my vs3251 or will it be only 2.1 output. I hv seen dual headphone jacks.

yeah... atleast my XPS does... a popup asks me to identify what is plugged in when i plug something in the mic socket. All the sockets can be changed by the user to output whatever they want.

+1
and the dual headphone jack is a boon.

tharu said:

I am Tamil Cinema Director Tharani.I am a homosexual.My films you know Thill,Thool,Killi,Kuruvi.My telephone no is 9144426213. Call me.O.K|?

Click to expand...

W T F ?

hi guys,
nybody in here know bout UTMT supported sim cards from any mobile service providers?
i wanna use/try the UTMT service using the sim card slot underneath the 6 cell battery.

go and ask Reliance guys

Reliance?
UTMT is a feature on Sim cards.

Reliance phones now uses a special type of sim on their CDMA phones, dat needs to be inserted before activation

oh, then will search for their toll free number

I dunno whether they r UTMT SIMs, just ask them if it is UTMT, tell them u hav to talk to the technical guys rather than those receptionists

@ 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

dOm1naTOr said:

hi guys,
nybody in here know bout UTMT supported sim cards from any mobile service providers?
i wanna use/try the UTMT service using the sim card slot underneath the 6 cell battery.

Click to expand...

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.

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...

naveen_reloaded said:

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

Please clear my doubts...

Click to expand...

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.

naveen_reloaded said:

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...

Click to expand...

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.

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...

naveen_reloaded said:

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...

Click to expand...

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%.

@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...

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...

visor619 said:

@ 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

Click to expand...

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.

gopz said:

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.

Click to expand...

thnx dude

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.

@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.

@ dominator
thanx dude!!!! cheers

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

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

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

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

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??

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.

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

its 256 MB

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

in dxdiag, it says 1778 MB

naveen_reloaded said:

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...

Click to expand...

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.

naveen_reloaded said:

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...

Click to expand...

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.

Guys are you able to set brightness to max or brightness when power cord is plugged in in normal condition , ie when you didnt plug power cord?

VD17 what is your lap color...

Guys any photos of your lap will be great...

In maximum performance power option, u can set max brightness even if not connected to power. But under that power option, HDD, proccy, and screen will draw more power, ad so less backup.
In power saver mode, HDD activity is much limited and CPU runs at only bout some 1 Ghz. U can feel the lag, whatever u do!

I have also opted for your screen selection ie xwga+ 1444x....

How is it bro?
Have you seen sony viao high end models screen clarity... Is it to that extent?

The screen is really good, though it cud be a bit more brighter...its not upto mark while using it under direct sunlight at noon times, but my K790i's screen was completely unreadable and images was displayed like a shadow.

The pixel size is really small, eally tiny compared to a 19" TFT with 1440*900. The true life screen surface is a finger print marnet, and u need to clean it too often with the provided stuff.
havnt seen VAIO top model's scree, so cant compare.

btw, if u are getting in EPP, then y not get 1680*1050?
no way VAIO's screen can challenge that.

naveen_reloaded said:

I have also opted for your screen selection ie xwga+ 1444x....

How is it bro?
Have you seen sony viao high end models screen clarity... Is it to that extent?

Click to expand...

VAIO SZ has a non-glossy screen

XPS comes with a glossy screen.

I am not getting it through coz eff so have to be very budget conscious... Now itself. .. For delaying month i am shedding a extra 5k with no bluetooth headset...thats really horrible...,

My friend has a sony vio 75k lap...dont know the model name... But it has got 8500m...
Its screen are the best among my friends laps...
Thats why i wanted a better one or one similar to it...

Ok guys can you please post some pics of your lap...

Another thing is i wont be using it outside so i think the screen should be good ...what say guys?

Is there anything we can do to increase screen brigtmess?..
Coz i dont mind of using it with powercord on all times...

Is there anything like i need to know about battery and its use?

For interior use, the brightness is just fine and is above avg. If u really gonna kick the Sony Screen, consider 1680*1050....its pixels are near microscopic for sure.
ill post some pics in daylight soon.

btw naveen, did u order it?

Here are the photos u requested

*www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e93a1282824ccf87d5a101cf914073b4cc0edb15f66b6bd4
on K790i

*www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e93a1282824ccf87d5a101cf914073b48db227fe52854907
on Kodak V803

Thanks bro..ya i ordered and today D.D should have been taken...but wasnt..tom surely will take and send it..,
Hope i get my lap by next week friday...hope so...

Going to ree the photos...

Thanks a lot...

Hey Naveen... congratulations!
Anyway, mine is black and I don't have a camera right now so can't put up the pics... which color did you order?

Black...

I think it too late now to change...

I am planning to pimp my lap later if there are any decent sticker or anything is available....

Thanks for the photo dominator...awesome....

Where can i get all latest drivers for this lap?
Or can i ask them to give?

see if u can buy the red and blue bezels+body seperately from US. ive heard that its available seperately in US, and we can change it ourselves.

From u.s?
Difficult then

THanx for the photos.. it was really helpful.. even me deciding to place an order in next 2-3 weeks... for the RED XPS one

ashu888ashu888 said:

THanx for the photos.. it was really helpful.. even me deciding to place an order in next 2-3 weeks... for the RED XPS one

Click to expand...

If you can wait for a month, Centrino 2 will be out. It is already out in the US (last week)

So, you can either get the latest processor (or get a great discount with the older processors) ... So if you can wait, wait!

There was some discussion about screen brightness, I have a 1330 with LED screen and its really bright, even under sunlight, outdoors.

1530 does not have the option of LED screen in India, but it is available in the US & UK. Hopefully by the time you order it, it should be an option in India as well...

dOm1naTOr said:

btw, if u are getting in EPP, then y not get 1680*1050?
no way VAIO's screen can challenge that.

Click to expand...

I am a little bit confused about which screen resolution to choose. dOm1naTOr gave me some advise, but still not sure.

Suppose I have a game that is playable only at 1024 x 768 or some resolution closer to it. Will it look better in a 1280 x 800 screen, a 1440 x 900 screen or a 1680 x 1050 screen?

gopz said:

If you can wait for a month, Centrino 2 will be out. It is already out in the US (last week)

So, you can either get the latest processor (or get a great discount with the older processors) ... So if you can wait, wait!

There was some discussion about screen brightness, I have a 1330 with LED screen and its really bright, even under sunlight, outdoors.

1530 does not have the option of LED screen in India, but it is available in the US & UK. Hopefully by the time you order it, it should be an option in India as well...

Click to expand...

If that's the news. i am ready to wait

Btw, if DELL also has plans to launch the 9xxx series of graphics card in its XPS lappy, i can wait for that too... coz i think there will be an introduction of a new series of GPU for the Centrino 2 proccy.. any news on this too ? guys..

Centrino 2?

Why is it happening to me? Just now sent D.D....


Today my Dell account manager was on leave... So tom only i will get to know from him when i will get my lap...

D.D should have reached him...by today...

Lets see..

Anyway whoever getting lap with centrino 2 and 9x series... All the best...


Guys one more question..,
Where can i find latest drivers... For this lap?

According to the reports here, Centrino 2 (Montevina) will be out soon.

BUT dont worry Naveen, you sent the DD and you will get a nice XPS m1530, the Centrino 2 would cost more and Dell wont offer any discounts!

if you still want, you can return the Dell laptop within 21 days and get a full refund and re-order a Centrino 2 based laptop....

*www.notebookforums.com/thread218706.html

*forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=270532

*www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Intel-Ready-with-Centrino-2-Laptop-Platform/

@naveen_reloaded
get all the mobo, sound and NIC drivers from Dell site and for gfx drivers visit vaptopvideo2go.com

Why that site?

u can install latest forceware out there which is released for desktop GPUs, which otherwise refuses to install w/o a a modified .inf file.

btw, the latest driver in Dell site if bout 7 months old [for 8699M GT], and there is no driver supported for that GPU on nvidia website too.
just google for 8600M GT drivers and u can see many people in dilemma, and that dell driver cant launcg most games, even UT3, GOW, CRYSIS...or nythin new saying the GPU id not supported.
So i had to search around for alternate driver and found that site very helpful. U can install that modified driver even if u dun plan to oc.

How much is the size?

forceware is about 45MB and other drivers wud be some 20~30 MB each. but does that really matters?

Kinda since i dont have a broadband aberr right now... I have to go to internet centre and download... Thats why...

Is the performance better than a core 2 duo plus 2 gb ram plus 8600 on a pc?


Offtopic...

D.D sent and recieved.. . Am on waiting phase... What a 10 days its going to be...
When did you get yours guys?

i got mine in 4-5 days

I got my 1330 in 4 days, I paid by Credit Card.

Payment through DD might take a longer time.

yep .. me too paid by CC

gopz said:

If you can wait for a month, Centrino 2 will be out. It is already out in the US (last week)

So, you can either get the latest processor (or get a great discount with the older processors) ... So if you can wait, wait!

There was some discussion about screen brightness, I have a 1330 with LED screen and its really bright, even under sunlight, outdoors.

1530 does not have the option of LED screen in India, but it is available in the US & UK. Hopefully by the time you order it, it should be an option in India as well...

Click to expand...

very nice find . Can i have the links please. I am eagerly watin 4 this

Reffering to centrino 2

aytus said:

very nice find . Can i have the links please. I am eagerly watin 4 this

Reffering to centrino 2

Click to expand...

Here are a few links:

*www.newlaunches.com/archives/samsung_montevina_laptops_powered_by_centrino_2.php

*www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080715comp_sm.htm

*www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209000079

*hothardware.com/Articles/Intel_Unveils_Montevina_Centrino_2_Platform_Launched/

*www.i4u.com/article18995.html

the new prices are amazing

8600m GT
2.0GHz C2D
2GB DDR2
250GB HDD

and lots of goodies only 50000 rupees

is there any way one can buy it without Vista and MS Works ?

^^ nope, none that i know of

wait a sec... from dell studio page, ms w0rks is only 79 rupees
how is it kompared to OpenOffice.org ?

MS works is a highly scaled down version of Office.

dOm1naTOr said:

MS works is a highly scaled down version of Office.

Click to expand...

I honestly don't know what else to expect for 79 rupees
Is it worth having ? I mean, what are its distinct features and qualities ?
I am talking about MS WOrks 9.

gopz said:

Here are a few links:

*www.newlaunches.com/archives/samsung_montevina_laptops_powered_by_centrino_2.php

*www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080715comp_sm.htm

*www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209000079

*hothardware.com/Articles/Intel_Unveils_Montevina_Centrino_2_Platform_Launched/

*www.i4u.com/article18995.html

Click to expand...

Thanks. for the links but i knew about centrino2 .. i was thinkin maybe you were reffering that some dell lappy ws offering centrino 2 in the US. nyway.

btw do u think india will get centrino 2?? it needs a wimax adaptor to get that certification.. and as per current situation i think thts waste . tho montevina and the new chipset ARE good/ nyexpectancy when wil this make inroads in india?

3 to 4 days...

Awesome...

Its been 3 days now... So hopefully i should get by tuesday or wed...

Huh what a week its gona be....

i searched for modded inf file... in that site.. icant find it .. can any one upload it ../?

also i downloadda file called 17597_vista.exe ... is this right file ?

please comment ... waiting for ur reply...

and if possible plesae upload the modded inf fiole for this lappy ...


thgnkas. .

@metalhead
*en.allexperts.com/q/Microsoft-Software-2918/office-vs-works.htm
u ll get a fair idea bout works vs office

Guys today i got the laptop...

very soon ....

i got the confirmation order on thursday.. and was expecting it on next thursdy atleast.. buttoday by 10 pm i got it ...

WOW... it rocks,,,


ok before i comment on the system..please tell me how to download the modded inf file and install latest nforce driver or normal driver for 8600 GT...

please help me fast..

first go to their forums, anc click on 17x drivr series
and select a good driver, like 175.91 for which users has posted good commentc.
download the driver and also the inf file from the top of the thread, ie the first post.
then extract the pack and replace the inf file among the extracted files.
then u will be able to install the driver w/o ny warnings.

this is a good release
*www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18824

i downloaded yesterday 7597 and downloaded inf of 7591 and installed it worked....

i dont have broadband... just gprs.. so have to download both original driver and inf file...

is that ok with wht i did...??

and actually the lappy is really running cool...

neat..

also tell me how to safely overclock...

how much increase u got ??
and have u got any artefact so far ?

i am having problem now .. i cant run crysis @ 1444x... resolution.. it opens only in a window...

i tried restoring.. but no good..

any idea?

atleast please give me the link for 175.97 modded inf file...

i downloaded yesterday a 7-zip file from laptopvideo2go ... in that there is a rar file named "original inf`s " wht shall i do ..

*www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19274&st=0

the link u gave me that day doesnt have a inf file in the first post ???

wht should i do now ?

@naveen_reloaded
crysis runs in window for the first time
go to crysis system optipns, and under graphics tick fullscreen and apply
after that quit the game and right click on cyisis icon,then properties and set 'run as administrator'.
then it shud run on fullsvreen mode.
If it fails sometimes, then u shud just go to crysis options again and set 'run in fullscreen'

ya wht u say is right...
i went to option and selected full screenn

but the thing is first when i ran crysis it was the default driver..

then i tried installing this modded version.. now it runs at window and says that i need to select 1444x .... resolution... so i went to nvidia cpanel and found that screen resoltuion option has been missing .. when i tried to create a new screen resolution i got the error saying " custom test failed.." now i cant even view the cpanel in standard mode.. all i have is advanced mode..

now downloading 175.80 along with inf file..

just say me how u installed and wht driver are u currently using ...

and also please tell me is this the real driver or is it some kinda nforce ... something ... sorry .. i am little confused...

and also please leave ur yahoo or gmail ID. ..

waiting for ur reply


another question .. how to make a new partition ??

Im currently using 175.16 [it was the newest when i downloaded].
and u can change resolution from windows desktop properties itself, no need to go to windows cpanel.
my gmail is
aravindn20

only thing is i cant ad custom resolution... i dont know whether its good or bad.. but i dont see and performance difference with installing the driver...

ok just tell me is it ok to uninstall all the graphics card driver ( i mean delete it - which asks me during uninstalling ) ?

and install the driver i downloaded from laptopvideo2go.com ?

u just have to install a stable version with inf and install it over than default one.

the problem with the default dell driver and the one available on their site is that most games refuses to launch, saying unsupported GPU and its clocks too is locked.

with the custom new drivers will fix most bugs and the clocks can be unlocked using apps like rivatuner or ATI tool. riva tuner will be better as ATI tool become unstable, [not the system].
use rivatuner 2.0.9 or later.

btw y do u want custom resolution? LCDs looks best on native resolutions only, which is 1440*900.

@naveen_reloaded
overclocking greately improved game performance...see the above bench scores on first post. ive updated it with oc scores too.

congrats naveen!

thnks VD17...

one thing guys ... i tried to install new driver from laptopvideo2go ... and installed it... the performance is toooooo bad.... i dont know... why..

so i had to rollback driver... and to my suprise .. now crysis runs smoothly..

but i grealty believe that i am the one who is making mistake here...

please can anyone upload these driver and full instruction on how to ??

that would be great..

more over i am now on broadband.. this whole night..
so please can anyone help me by today night ??

naveen_reloaded said:

thnks VD17...

one thing guys ... i tried to install new driver from laptopvideo2go ... and installed it... the performance is toooooo bad.... i dont know... why..

so i had to rollback driver... and to my suprise .. now crysis runs smoothly..

but i grealty believe that i am the one who is making mistake here...

please can anyone upload these driver and full instruction on how to ??

that would be great..

more over i am now on broadband.. this whole night..
so please can anyone help me by today night ??

Click to expand...

Did you extract the package and download the MODDED .ini file and replace it with the original file?

ini files???

or is it inf files??

can anyone upload the perfect driver for me??

with all these modded files in it ??

i am really confused...

those drivers are just like the desktop ones..some gives better performance in one games and lower for another..u need to test each driver which gives best performance for the game u need.
175.16 works fine for me in WIC and UT3, which im addicted to, rite now.
ucan alo read the comments for each driver on laptopvideo2go.com's each driver release pages. It might give u some idea bout its performances in various games.

btw, its inf[information files which includes the driver info and the hardwares it supports, and editing it will enable us to install in on unsupported GPU's even the GPU is same as the desktop ones. But the power consumption will rise for the GPU, coz it ll begin to draw power like a desktop GPU].
[ini filis are initialization files, used to trigger some events while opening folder, or aurorunning a disc etc].

and bout the oc, see the scores on my second post. Its a big boost, even at 1440*900.
dont oc the memory too much, GPU is much more oc friendly.

ok tell me .. shall i remove the driver fully ad install these new ones from laptopvideo2go.com

or shall i update them ??/


is ther a way to backup my driver .. ie current driver ??

just update it, and u can always roll back if needed. Also u can go to add/remove pgms and remove the current and install another one.

pl i will tri to download the driver...

but still am confused on which driver to select.. as it that forum itself they said that higher numbers dont neccesarily suggest the latest driver and the best one..

now how can i know which one it is ..

as i read the comment .. nearly all thread are equally commented... i mean , all threads are well reviewed...

which one to select..

how many u tried ?? and which one did u find best ??

Dell has released BIOS updates to reduce the possibility of the GPU failures due to heating. I have posted it here: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=901623#post901623

saaw ur thread...

i think we better stay away from OC... wht say guys ???

^^

agree to it to be on the safer side, i wud really NOT want jus a few more fps for a game due to OC at the cost of my lappy...

I just realised that the problem GPU may be with the 8400 cards. That may be the reason they are not offering it any more with XPS. Earlier, I thought they are no longer offering 8400 because they will be introducing 9600.

unni said:

I just realised that the problem GPU may be with the 8400 cards. That may be the reason they are not offering it any more with XPS. Earlier, I thought they are no longer offering 8400 because they will be introducing 9600.

Click to expand...

But 8400 is still available with XPS m1330 & Inspiron. Probably they removed 8400 from 1530 because it clashes with Studio

heard that studio comes with ATI only..

downlaoded the bios update .. but waiting for someone to confirm whether it slows down the game or any effect or does it loc kt he OCing ...

i also heard that OCing voids warranty.....


i think may just update the driver.. and keep quite...

my bluetooth drivers don't install ... during driver installation, it says to switch on BT using the radio button, i do that but installation won't proceed. i've checked in BIOS, the radio button is set to 'All'

actually my solution may not be correct but its definetly a try atleast/...
\
i tried to install USB driver for my BSNL modem yeserday...

simlar thing happened.. it asked me to plug in the usb cord...

nothing happened...

i waited.. i waited.. then after a solid 3-4 minutes... it said driver installed correctly..

so better wait and see...

naveen_reloaded said:

actually my solution may not be correct but its definetly a try atleast/...
\
i tried to install USB driver for my BSNL modem yeserday...

simlar thing happened.. it asked me to plug in the usb cord...

nothing happened...

i waited.. i waited.. then after a solid 3-4 minutes... it said driver installed correctly..

so better wait and see...

Click to expand...

its the ultimate feature of vista...u wont even know what its doin sometimes
but all we can know is ....itll take a lot of time

ya may be...

anyway just now installed nVIDIA ForceWare X 175.95 ...

fortunately this time there was a .inf file compilation for all the series.. by antoher memeber of the same thread... have installed it...

since i dont have crysis cd with me .. i have to wait a another 2-3 hours and then i wil lknow

^^ aah! ok ... lemme wait and see ... i haven't waited more than 15sec until now

dOm1naTOr said:

its the ultimate feature of vista...u wont even know what its doin sometimes

Click to expand...

*85.17.184.130/forums/style_emoticons/DarksideRG/haha.gif


**** EDIT ****

waited 15 min .... no luck

i think the driver u got may be wrong one ....then..

i think u should try different driver...

i am selecting 'Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module (Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR)' for Dell XPS M1530

seems like the right driver

doese it mean u have successfully installed the driver ?

*direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

more details on the bios updates.. now finally my wait for 9600GT is gonna pay off.. btw any idea when are dell goin to update their portfolio?? any idea when is centrino 2 comin.. got my eyes on 9600GT and P8400

My understanding is that the GPU and substrate bond (I assume they're using some sort of epoxy, or some sort of underflowed bonding material) was slightly off-spec. That means that it doesn't share the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the substrate, and the GPU.

Everyone knows that Heat-Cold-Heat stress shocking causes extreme wear on that bond, and it's apparently just a matter of time before the affected parts fail. There was speculation for a while that Nvidia knew about this since the A1 and A2 revisions of the 8600 GPUs had different core voltages, which was rather curious.

And also fyi The new BIOS updates will not have any noticeable impact on battery life. The fan may cycle on more frequently, but it will run at half or a quarter of its full speed.

naveen_reloaded said:

doese it mean u have successfully installed the driver ?

Click to expand...

no, driver installation does not proceed ... it says, switch on bluetooth using radio button, and does not proceed further even after i switch it on

did u download the drivers from the dell site ?

and ad for BIOS update... any one did bios update .. can anyone post gaming performance under it ?
and also system performancce on the whole ..

i have got the update but not sure whether to proceed or not .. coz i dont want my GPU to gget locked or run fan at certain speed/rpm after i do a OCing...

^^ yeah, dl'ed from their webby

then it should work..

or else do one thing .. try to remove the driver compltetly... i mean when it asks for removal of driver .. it will also ask for whether the driver should be completely remove.. remove it and try reinstalling... but rememebr .. u cant roll back,,..

did u try windows update ??

u may get drivers in optional downloads in windows update coulmn...

hi,
have ny of u tried XP on M1530?
no driver support on dell India or global
im tryin to dual boot XP and vista

Dell has premade 4 primary partition and only one of em cud be formatted for our usage...
and the recovery partion is the extended one and vista's shrink cant convert the unallocated space from primary to extended.
So now i used Acronis boot disc and deleted everythin from HDD, and now ive got 234GB of unallocated space on it.

i wonder if i ll get all drivers if i install XP first. But sure im not gonna let the genuine Vista go wasted..planning for a dual boot.

@ naveen
btw i tried A09 bios and the GPU was running cooler than before, and performance was same...only 2 points different on 3D mark for older A08 bios. But GPU temps was down by 5c under oced condiions.
On older bios, the max GPU temps during 3DM benching was 76c and after flashing, it went down to 71c
but the fans almost runnig all the time, but the noise is very low, as the idle fan speed has been lowered, but however fan speed at full system load is somewhat same as before.

will try XP/Vista from scratch and will be back

thanks for the comment on the new bios brother...

will update it now ..

and did u by any means got a partition ?? any method ?

actually dell shouldn't have done this.. simply to ge more money from us .. they hve locked us out like this ..

now i have store everything on my OS partition which really sucks..coz its very difficult to organize....

why install a XP .. i am not sure whether they support XP drvier.. why take risk...

anyway ...good luck..

happpy friendship day

happy frenship day bro
btw, i used acronis boot disc and deleted all partitions and tried XP oot disc.
But XP disc fails to detect an HDD!!!
it says it cudnt detect any HDD on this computer. i tried XP pre, Xp pro Sp2 and the new SP3 integrated, but in vein.

But vista install was a breeze, got three partitions 30, 60, and 142. Installed Vista on 30.
All drivers got installed correctly, then installed Sp1, and then the nvidia 175.97 and oced further.
3D Mark score went thru the roofs of 8600GT, with 6303 @ 1024*768
clocks were 645/770 and max temps logged using riva tuner was 74c.

didnt check the proccy temps, as i dun think a stock penryne @ 2.1 Ghz will even go above 40c.

will install Crysis, UT3 etc and will post the result soon.

Congrats Buddy!! Crimson Red is Stunning..

Quad Core said:

Congrats Buddy!! Crimson Red is Stunning..

Click to expand...

thnx buddy....but its been almost 3 months

dOm1naTOr said:

happy frenship day bro
btw, i used acronis boot disc and deleted all partitions and tried XP oot disc.
But XP disc fails to detect an HDD!!!
it says it cudnt detect any HDD on this computer. i tried XP pre, Xp pro Sp2 and the new SP3 integrated, but in vein.

But vista install was a breeze, got three partitions 30, 60, and 142. Installed Vista on 30.
All drivers got installed correctly, then installed Sp1, and then the nvidia 175.97 and oced further.
3D Mark score went thru the roofs of 8600GT, with 6303 @ 1024*768
clocks were 645/770 and max temps logged using riva tuner was 74c.

didnt check the proccy temps, as i dun think a stock penryne @ 2.1 Ghz will even go above 40c.

will install Crysis, UT3 etc and will post the result soon.

Click to expand...

just few questions..
1.) how much performance increase have u got thru this ?? whts ur prev banchmark value ? how much is now ?
2.)does BIOS update revert back to prev one ? ( silly question though ) just curious...
3.)also please give detailed value on temp... after long play hours..
4.)and also please tell me is there a way to un OC ... after unlocking the card ?? i mean , i know that u have to fiddle with some reg to unlock the GFX card.. ?

1) actually the performance gain is almost nil, but with lower temps GPU can atain higher clocks.
2) I think BIOS can be reverted back. I just ran the A09.exe and it said, flash the bios after restart "y"/"N" . And after 2 min i was back on desktop. Its simple.
3) I think temp logging for long hours is not necessary, as the temp graph on rivatuner was moving much lower than on older bios, and even after long hours of gaming, its gonna continue that way.
I got almost 3~4c lower temps at max load than on older BIOS.
4) Yup, u can easily un oc. just click on default on rivatuner, and its done. U dun need to unlock nythin to oc. just install the driver's which is meant for 8600GT [not M GT]. open rivatuner, and start moving the slider and the GPU gets oced along with it.
open its hardware monitor graph and performs some benchs or gaming and see if the temps goes above 75c.


[ive updated my first and second posts with more photos and links to rivatuner, ATI tool, and also ive given my updated bench scores with each forceware releases]

Sorry for interrupting but I'm planning to buy a Laptop this Nov. or Dec. and was thinking about XPS1530, initially thought of M1730 but its way too expensive so can you tell me few things about M1530:

1. Total effective price for it that you payed?
2. Options, if any available for GPU?
3. Max. RAM upgradable to?
4. Chipset?
5. Is MoBo or Drivers or OS Disk included?
6. Finally, will it be a good buy then,I mean in December?

My Budget is 60K max.

thanks dominator...

can u explain more on OCing...

you know now i have the driver from laptopvideo2go ...

is that enough or which driver should i have to install...
please help me.. and also can u guide me and others here on how to OC ... SAFELY...

hi.. all.. guys.. u need to dump ur bios first if you want to revert back to the older ver. ... use google its easy..

dominator.. maybe u need sata drivers for ur xp installation..

@Plasma_Snake
by December, the P8xxx procys and GF 9600M GS will be available with XPS M 1530.

1) the total price was bout 70k, and with EPP i got it for 50.5k
2) As of now, there is no choice, only M 8600GT. By december ull have choice of M 8600GT and M 9600GS...or maybe 9600GS alone.
3) Max ram upgradable is 4GB. As of now, its 667mhz in dual channel. Maybe theyll pack 800mhz ones soon.
4) chipset : now its 965 Xpress [mobile]....u can expect a new one with nahalems, ie P8xxx.
5) Everthin is included, ie vista disc, driver CDs[all drivers], app s/w, total of 7~8 CDs.
6) Yup, it shud be freakin awesome with P8xxx, 9600GS, etc .

@aytus
but its[Xp disc] detecting the sata HDD of my desktops with ease.

i downloaded rivatuner..

wht should i do next ?

anyone can guide me ??
should have to install someother driver .. oor the present one from laptopvisdeo2go is fine ?

u just need to install in and run it.
this screenshot will help u.
*img143.imageshack.us/img143/5605/3dm06440oc645755ic0.th.jpg

select 'performance 3D' and increase the core clocks and memory clocks by about 15mhx for core.
the core can easily be taken to 620+ from 475 and memory from 700 to 750. This is guarenteed, and u can always go much higher than this, if the temps are acceptable.

a detailed oc guide has been posted on my second post

that all ???

i dont need to hack registry ????

i just install and oc

yup, just install rivatuner and start oc. the coolbits registry edit is automatically done by rivatuner.
u can aslo manually edit coolbits entry into registry if u want. So after that u can oc directly from nvidia control panel.
we cud have enabled oc directly from nvidia Cpanel if we has an nvidia chipset mobo, as ntune is a very user friendly utility to oc proccy,ram, GPU, hardware logging, monitoring etc.
but i dun think we can install ntune on Intel chipset mobo.

ok .. tell me how much to increase .. how to know its stable ....
i am on gprs and cant download much... so should i have to download ATI tool ??

it seems its for XP .. is there ATI tool for vista ??

tell me how much to increase and wht to increase and where to increase .. i mean the option to be increased,,, there are too many option .. under which i should increase...

and also tell me how to revert it back to default .. if i want to...

does bring back to default reverts the reg edit also ?

can u come on gtalk ?

just read my second post.
first increase the core to bout 550 and memory to 720 from 475/700. Then open rivatuner's hardware monitor and run 3D mark, and see if the temps are under control and ny sign of unstability.
if no probs, then do increment bout 15 mhz on core and 5mhz on memory each steps and repeat the above procedures to check stabilty.

ATI tool latest version is workin fine with Vista, but u need to run it in admin mode inorder to run. But mine started problem, saying it dun have admin priviledge after bout one month of usage of ATI tool.
SO i moved to rivatuner, and it seems better than ATI tool.



Also aftyer setting new clocks, u shud click on "save" the clocks on rivatuner's clock setings page, so than never clocks are applied each time windows is started.

when i started rivvatuner .. it said that current driver i use is not supported.. anyway it opened... but is it safe to proceed ???

and also how much temp is safe ?

how much is urs ?

i tried to detect the current clock speed..

i found out the default in mine are ..

@ High 3D

core clock : 475
shader clock :950
memory clock : 702

and while changing the clock speed .. under which category we should overclock.. i mean is it in low Power , Standard 2D , or high 3D ??


can i continue with unsupported drivers..

wht are ur normal default clocks @ high 3D ??

or else link me to the drivers u have right now ...

yup, riva tuner will say 'unsupported driver version' but no probs, it ll run just fine.
and btw, as ive said above, the default clocks under performance 3d ll be 475/950/700 [dont worry if its 702 for u as it may vary +-5 mhz sometimes].

oc only performance 3d clocks as the oced clocks will be attained only during gaming and it dun affect the load at normal usages.
im at 175.97....dont worry bout it
anythin other than dell bundled will be just fine...and dont worry bout the warning from rivatuner bout the driver incompatibility.
rivatuner 2.0.9 might be the latest.
temps bout 85c too is stable enuf.
but for 100% safety, raise the clocks such that temps wont rise above 78~80c even at noon times.

also use ny book or DVD box, and place underneath the rear of lappy, which really helps in cooling as the bottom fans needs more room to suck air in. and keep the fan/AC in ur room running.

happy ocing

and un-ticking the 'enable diver level ocing' from rivatuner will revert back the driver clock settings to default, ie 475/950/700.

1.) ati tools is showing some error.. didnt even run for one time ...

ok i finally OCd the clocks ... and ran westward ( small game but some wht good at graphics... and noted the temp in rivatuner hardware monitoring...

it touched a max of 75...

i am only seeing core shader clock ..and temp in hardware monitoring..

another one ther eis ROP domain clock speed...

but where is the COre clock speed ???

and another thing is it ok temp 75 ???

i am next gona play assains creed for 10 minutes or so and see if there is very gross raise in temp...


Update @ 3:15

i played quake4 for 20 minutes or so...
while recording the temp with hardware monitoriring...

It seems it hit a max of 82c at one time.. but all the while it kept the temp @ 75-80c

gameplay was really smooth...
Next gona try out assains creed ... i am excited...

Is there any small benchmarking software.. it seems 3dmark 06 is around 580 MB ... and i am on gprs.. it will take my life to get downloaded...

i dont know how to figure out how many framerates i am getting extra...

and also how to find out the max OC value ?? how much have u raised .. and wht ur temp ?? can u show us ur screen shot of temp after playing some games ??

and also if i cross the value and something happens ... will it do something to my gfx card ?? in that case wht should i do ?? i mean should i shutdown and switch it on after it gets coollledd.. or wht ..

and how to find the best OC speed ??

and can we raise memory speed still more ??

Update @ 6:30

What a pity i am able to save the oc value only when i plugin my power cord! Ie at high performance option....

Now my temp are always at 60 to 75 without even playing any game... Is it ok.. It varies continentsly...


*i35.tinypic.com/1sjsyb.jpg

this is a screen shot right from the startup ... to nothing.. ( meaning i didnt play any game in this time period...)

raising mem speed is not a good idea.
btw, raising mem speed wud omprove performance at low resolutions only. At higher res, its more GPU depend.
Try placing a notebook, or a DVD box type cover underneath the rear of lappy. It ll help reduce the temps by bout 10C, and egularly use a vacuum cleaner's blower to blow off the dust from the heatsink from beneath.
mine too went 95c when i was Crysising keeping lappy on bed [airvent was blocked] but soon i realized and placed it on desk, but even at 95c GPU temps, it was stable, but my hand almost burnt when i placed my hand near the air vent.

Use ATI tools, artifact tester to see if theres ny artifacts at that temps. IF it runs successfully, its fine to go at that temps.

wow, somethin is not rite from the screenshot,
did u changed the clocks of low power 2D and 3D?
dont increase that, as it ll raise temps at idle[Aero uses GPU at low power 2D, and sometimes low power 3D].

mine idles at bout 52~54c and dun go beyond 51c even if i use vista 3D task switcher.
my desktop 7600GT too idles at 51~52c.
[current room temp is 30~31c]
which forceware are u using? mine is 175.97
and, btw do the ocing from rivatuner, not from ATI tool.

[The GPU,CPU, and chipset is cooled by a shared single copper heatpipe, that means heated CPU too can raise the GPU temps. See the taskmanager or resource monitor, and check if CPU is at load]

btw, ocing performance 3D clocks will no way raise the idle temps.
btw, did u update ur bios?

Dell should really do something about the substandard nVidia's that we have. The two most important question that Dell has been ditching (refer to Direct2Dell Blog)

1. Are they trying to just delay the failure of the card past our warranty periods? Because it is obvious that just a more frequent fan cycle would not really make the "Die/Packaging" stronger.

2. In spite of their claims that the fan running more frequently would have no "considerable effect" on the battery life, people are still concerned about this aspect. It's not like the fan, which runs quite a lot more frequently now, uses Michael Dell's hopes and dreams to power it.

Apparently, such issues have been raised with quite some fervor in the comments section of the blog and the blogger, when asked, said that there were quite a few people from Dell watching those comments. Let's hope they get their act together. I suggest they sue nVidia black and blue. And if they signed some shitty clause that prevents them from doing so, then Dell is in some serious ****. Atleast HP is providing some kind of limited extended warranty for all it's customers who bought laptops with these faulty cards.

dOm1naTOr said:

raising mem speed is not a good idea.
btw, raising mem speed wud omprove performance at low resolutions only. At higher res, its more GPU depend.
Try placing a notebook, or a DVD box type cover underneath the rear of lappy. It ll help reduce the temps by bout 10C, and egularly use a vacuum cleaner's blower to blow off the dust from the heatsink from beneath.
mine too went 95c when i was Crysising keeping lappy on bed [airvent was blocked] but soon i realized and placed it on desk, but even at 95c GPU temps, it was stable, but my hand almost burnt when i placed my hand near the air vent.

Click to expand...

i have placed suitable book and raised the laptop higher...
but still its doing @ 60-65 c

Use ATI tools, artifact tester to see if theres ny artifacts at that temps. IF it runs successfully, its fine to go at that temps.

Click to expand...

read my post ... ATI tool didnt install properly.. it showing error...

"access violation something...."

wow, somethin is not rite from the screenshot,
did u changed the clocks of low power 2D and 3D?
dont increase that, as it ll raise temps at idle[Aero uses GPU at low power 2D, and sometimes low power 3D].

Click to expand...

i just changed the performance 3D only.. didnt touch other otpion,...

mine idles at bout 52~54c and dun go beyond 51c even if i use vista 3D task switcher.
my desktop 7600GT too idles at 51~52c.
[current room temp is 30~31c]
which forceware are u using? mine is 175.97
and, btw do the ocing from rivatuner, not from ATI tool.

Click to expand...

mine is always above 60.... will install ATItool again... and see for artefacts...

[The GPU,CPU, and chipset is cooled by a shared single copper heatpipe, that means heated CPU too can raise the GPU temps. See the taskmanager or resource monitor, and check if CPU is at load]

btw, ocing performance 3D clocks will no way raise the idle temps.
btw, did u update ur bios?

Click to expand...

yes latest BIOS is in place and my foreware is 175.95

eagerly waiting for ur reply...

coz should i continue and see the tempss... or do something ,,,

VD17 said:

Atleast HP is providing some kind of limited extended warranty for all it's customers who bought laptops with these faulty cards.

Click to expand...

wow
are u sure?
im gonna start pulling Dell's feet....
i was about to pay an extended warranty for 3years...now i think i shud wait.

*h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3340263

I came across this while reading up on the nVidia fiasco on some site. HP doesn't mention the GPU failures exactly but the symptoms match it. Plus the BIOS fix they have come up with is the same as Dell did. Just that these guys are making the fan run all the time (at a lower speed).

and yeah.. even I was thinking for extending warranty to 3 years...

@naveen
i can see WPMclassic in bg of that image.
it uses GPU to render video, and GPU temps will raise for sure, but not as much like during games.

and a 1080p video will use GPU bout 70~80%, and CPu around 50% both core[for a dual core].

ya .. ran assasins creed and played for about 20 minutes.. there was drop in framerates thoug hsince in the background i was recording the temp...

after that .. i saw the temp .. they never croseed 80 limit...

after that i closed the recording and played creed.. ya it was ok.. not much difference .. but surely there is something...

anyway... is it ok to go beyond 550/720 ??

600/740 is safe for sure
after that, do it by 5mhz increment and close watch temps...and u shud always make sure that air vents wont be blocked while gaming at nythin higher than 620~630 and regularly clean off the dusts.
but 600 is just fine....

actually the 8600GT core can withstand more than 127c, which someone in this forum has [a desktop 8600GT XFX one]. But in a lappy, such temps might damage nearby plastic components....and even the keyboard and battery case is located close. So max of 100c wub be safe.....and 105~110 is dead[maybe not the GPU but some other parts]

nyway, ive found myself a sweet spot for mine @ 645/755. and temps are always below 80 while gaming...rarely goes 81~82 at noon times with no fan in room.

also jumping back to menu or pausing the game will cool the GPU.

645/755

Click to expand...

awesome !!!

ok also please explain on how to save the setting .. ( OC values )

coz when ever i try to do in powercord unplugged.. i cant save it...

i think i may be doing something wrong..

so explain on saving the settings..

its working all fine on battery if its set to performance mode...
there is no point in gaming in other modes like balanced or power saver, as HDD and proccy will run only at less than half its potential on those modes.

just save a profile on power and performance mode, and it ll be saved even after unplugging from power.

Ya the value stays there...

Is there any other benchmarking software of less size?

there are lots of other benching softwares, but nothin as good as 3D mark and PC mark which will put the systems in real testing...and rate each of the hardware's capability..which will affect system's actual performance.
u can try out these utilities, and let me know if u need ny bench score with ny of these utilities.
*downloads.guru3d.com/Generic-Benchmarks_c7.html
*downloads.guru3d.com/Benchmarks-&-Demo's_c6.html

btw, everest and sisoft sandra are good ones, but they dun have any gfx benchs. but good for rating cpu/memory/HDD performances.

first nehalem built.. *www.maximumpc.com/article/features/exclusive_we_build_first_nehalem_system_dont_tell_intel

hav a look

btw are you guys missing some basic must haves.. CPU-Z,, GPU-Z . PC wizard... keep them handy when ur ocing

ya HP is offering extended warranty but its not easy to enroll wit it. also not available in india as officially no HP system uses 8600 in india.. some do use 8400..

and a word of caution for the newbie ocers.. REVERT BACK to ur normal clocks.. as soon as you are out of gaming.. use oc profiles only when gaming not at idle or ur gpu wil suffer premature failure.

@aytus
the GPU clocks automatically scales down to 169/100 while not performing ny 3D apps, and those oc clocks will be reached only while the GPU is under heavy load.

and CPUZ and GPUZ is of no use...
coz the proccy cannot be oced [from bios] and GPUZ dun give temps. it only gives GPU details which has nothin to do with clocks.
rivatuner's H/W monitor graphs even shows the shooting GPU/mem clocks, temps, shader clocks.

btw, nvtemp logger is a much lighter app, which runs in background and can log the temps without taxing the system, unlike rivatuners h/w monitor's logging.

Guys how to log temp using nvtemp coz as you said rivatuner's temp loging is very heavy...indeed...

Dominator...

The oc value gets activated only when i switch on my lap with powercord...or else the value dont get activated...

Even if i choose performance setting in battery option it doesnt.. i have to each time manually activate those setting... Is there a way to permanently activate the values... I mean without worrying about this powercord...

And also to my finding even after playing c and c kane's wrath for hours the temp stays below 80 it seems... So shall i note ahead ? How much shall i increase the value?

And how to know the value are stable? And when should i see for temp changes, will it be sudden or over hours?
Hope you get my point... Also suggest any light , very light weigt app to record gpu temp...

arvind u missed the third software i mentioned. PC wizard.. n i use hardware monitor and fraps for temps.. tho pc wizard can do it too. i find hWmonitor more reliable.. still nothin beats riva for what it does.
nyhow did u try clockgen??? for the cpu ocing? whats stopping you btw?? are the FSB,s locked in the BIOS? any voltmods possible? can u post a snapshot of bios?
and have you tried Nibitor for the gpu? ny options revealed?

^^ use memtest or orthos large but nyhow theyd still be taxing more on cpu then gpu. best is to benchmark wit real world gamin..

@dominator...

today gona try 600/740 ...

can u suggest or give me link to small bechmark tool to know the frame-per-second ( the link u gave prev .. were many .. couldnt find which one to suite me and to download ) so that i could know how much really i gain from OCing..

Coz the games i play like assasins creed... i really dont know whether i get extra fps ..

so can u suggest a small yet good utility to show fps...

i have placed books underneath to raise the level... ya now its coooler...

updated this post @ 12:00


hi again...

i have got a weird setting here...

i tried to raise the OC value to 600/740...

before that i download FurMark ( a nice little 1.5Mb tool to render a image .. with nice FPS rating...

when i tried to set the shader clock value beyond 1000-1100Mhz the core clock speed goes to 100 MHz ( this is while running FurMark + RivaTuner Hardware Monitor )

the setting dont get changed while i tried to change in the Rivatuner system setting...

why does the core value reverts back to 100 Mhz when i try to Oc shader clock more than 1000 Mhz ??/

are u guys having the same issue ???


here is the screenshot ...

i have marked the value at various setting...

good news is that when i ran furmark for more than 15 minutes .. the temp stayed below 83c which is good news for me .. atleast..

but if i/we can resolve the core clock speed not to get reverted back to 100Mhz .. i think i can gain still more performance...

*i36.tinypic.com/2a92nlv.jpg

dont use multiple utility to oc at same time... coz both utility will try to change the clocks settings on nvidia driver's coolbits options simultaneously and cud behave unpredictable [though not dangerous].

serach for nvtemplogger for logging temps. its very light. It can save the log to a text file at any interval.
Also for showing fps, use fraps. But the frap's benching utility itself will reduce the score if u use the inbuilt benching of fraps.

no i am using only rivatuner to OC....

i am just saying that the core clock downclocks itself after the shader clock passes 1000 Mhz...

why does it happen...

see my screenshot u will understand..

step by step procedure for xp installation :
credits to orignal poster
grab nLite from here:
*www.nliteos.com/download.html

hen these two files which are xp drivers for the hardware
*www.mediafire.com/?7hwmn4yfjw2
*www.mediafire.com/?f52jzgdv1ln

matrix storage drivers
*support.us.dell.com/support/downlo...eid=R173412&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=235720

edit:
new complete driver package found here: (Many thanks to Udi for compiling this package!)
*www.uditha.de/assets/Udi_M1530_XP_Drivers.exe

Now, put in your windows xp disc and copy the entire contents of the cd to a folder on your desktop (name it 'XP')

Run the nLite program. Click next until you get to a page that asks you to point to the location containing Windows XP install files. Now you point it to the 'XP' folder you just created on your desktop.

Click next until you see a screen with about 7 or 8 long rectangular buttons on it. One of the buttons will be named 'drivers' and at the bottom one should be named 'bootable iso'. Click them to select them then click next.
(note: You can mess with the unattended install and tweaks settings as well, however, that it outside of the scope of this guide and I will not cover them in detail. If you do not know what you are doing I would suggest just leaving them alone for now and go back and play with them later)

Hitting next after this page should take you to the drivers page which will let you add drivers to the Windows XP install. Now we get to add the SATA matrix drivers to the installation. You need to run the executable file that you downloaded. this will let you extract the drivers to a folder. make sure you either make a note of where this folder is located, or make a new folder on your desktop and when prompted, changed the extraction point to this folder)

Back in nLite on the drivers page there should be a button in the bottom right corner labeled 'import'. Click it and select 'insert single driver'. Navigate to the folder containing the extracted files. Search for the sata drivers folder. Once found, you will be given a list of all the drivers in that were in that folder and you need to select a specific one. The one you are looking for is near the bottom. You need the one that has ICH8M (which is ICH8mobile) and it also must say SATA DRIVER before it and not RAID DRIVER. (or the ahci driver if you downloaded the complete package from Udi) If you want to play it safe you can include all of the drivers without doing any damage by just selecting the first one the shift clicking on the last one which should select them all then click ok or whatever button is on that screen to accept the selection.

You will see a driver pop up in the white part of the screen on the drivers page. Clicking next will bring you to a screen that will ask you to start the process (this is assuming that you haven't checked any of the other options on the main menu, if you did then go through them until you get to the page asking you to start the process) This process will repack the .cab (cabinet) with the new drivers and settings.

Afterwards, click next which will bring you to a screen that will let you burn the changes to a bootable Windows XP cd. In order to burn it to CD you need to select 'direct burn' in the top left selection box. Towards the bottom right corner there is a 'burn now' button which will start the burning process, so pop in a cd and click the burn now button and you will shortly have a bootable Windows XP cd with SATA drivers on it.

Before you boot from cd you'll want to save the two zip files that you downloaded containing all of the hardware drivers for Windows XP. You can write them to cd, store them on an external hard drive or thumb drive, or do whatever you have to do in order to have a copy of them because you will be wiping this hard drive very shortly.

When you are ready to wipe the hard drive and install Windows XP, AFTER having saved the drivers somewhere off of the laptop hard drive you will put the cd in and reboot the computer. On the first screen that pops up that has the dell logo on it, you will need to hit f12 a few times. As soon as it beeps you know it accepted your input. This will bring you to a screen that lets you choose what to boot from. Choose 'boot from cd/dvd'.

After a few minutes of loading you will eventually get to a screen that displays your currently connected drives, this will be waiting for you to input which partition will contain your operating system. There will probably be multiple drives on this screen due to dell installing recovery and media direct partitions, but these are only partitions on your hard drive. To be honest, I really dont use media direct or the recovery partition so I delete them ( by highlighting them with the arrow keys then pressing 'd' then 'L') I leave the choice to you whether you want to keep these two partitions or not. Onward.

Personally, I would recommend having at least two partitions on your hard drive, one for the operating system and one to store files. I like having a separate partition for storage because I can reinstall the operating system without worry of losing files. If you dont want to worry about separate partitions then select the unpartitioned space with the up/down arrows and hit enter twice and skip the next paragraph.
(for those who do not know, a partition will simply look like a second hard drive in windows but will be completely independent from other partitions on the same drive)

To make a new partition you need to hit 'd' to delete the C: partition then 'L' to confirm deletion ( do this for all partitions that you do not want). afterwards it will bring you back to the previous menu which will contain unpartitioned space. To create a new partition you highlight the unpartitioned space (arrow keys) then press 'c' and choose a size for it. For an operating system partition you are usually safe with 20000-30000 megabytes. Personally its been a long time since I've had a Windows XP OS take up more than 25000 megs but you can choose however much you wish. Select the unpartitoned space again then hit 'c' and enter to create the other partition with the remaining space.

Now all that is left is to install Windows XP is select the C: partition then hit enter. Choose format method. (go with NTFS, not FAT32) The quick format will take less than 30 seconds while the other NTFS format will take between 5-10 minutes. To understand the difference between a quick format and the normal format, think of your hard drive like a book. Quick format just erases the table of contents in the book while a normal format will erase all of the pages as well. Either choice will work exactly the same, but if you are worried about security of the information previously stored on the drive then you should opt for the normal, slower format.

After choosing format method the computer will copy the setup files and go through with the Windows installation. From here on out everything is relatively straight forward with the setup process. After the setup is complete the computer should boot up into Windows XP and all that is remaining is to install all of the drivers from the zip files that you saved before erasing your drive. (right click and extract them to the same folder before trying to run them)

Afterward, if you want to check if you've got the hardware installed correctly, you can right click on 'my computer' then click 'manage'. Select device manager in the left frame and anything that has a yellow exclamation next to it is not functioning. If something is not functioning you should try reinstalling the driver for it. If that still does not work then you can either send me a pm or ask in this thread.

another update .. dell has announced that it will be modifying its customer support policy (service terms and conditions for the faulty laptops) .. details not announced yet

nice one there....aytus

but vista is just fine for me... to add.. its better than xp...

is there any one compilation of drivers for Vista ?

thnx very much aytus
will try it definitely.

hi, the Udi_M1530_XP_Drivers.exe file is missing...the link is broken or its been deleted.
nybody has a copy?

@ dominator ..

can u find a solution for this *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=912331&postcount=329

guys any help ...

dell is phasing out xps series. according to dell the market share is going to be shared by studio and inspiron series. mainly the reason comes because they want to promote alienware .. but since india has got no alienware .. i feel it is going to be a stupid move

^^

but im still eagerly waiting for the nehalem's to be introduced in DELL..waiting for sept..

Don't you think your very powerful config demanded some more in the graphics sector. I think a 9600M GT would have increased performance by 250% in games.

me 2 ashu. but asking for nehalem is a bit too much. nyway i think u meant centrino 2 platform .. if it happens its going to be a platform revamp. and i am going for the kill with a P8400 (25W TDP) and the 9600M GT. but rit now chances seem to be thin that dell is going to revamp its line//
hey nybody got any info about the new laptops dell is selling? are they still selling defective pieces?

^^
no news on those new dell lappys...

btw, the P8400 is the HP one ?? isint it ???

Dell will offer a 12-month limited warranty enhancement specific to this issue. For all customers worldwide, we plan to add 12 months of coverage for this issue to the existing limited warranty up to 60 months from the date of purchase

Click to expand...

*direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/20...ment-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

finally, huh? took long in coming...
still, i feel the deal could have been better...

ya.. guys u still got a defective gpu and nyhow that extended warranty isnt helping if you overclocked ur gpu.. so better stop excessive ocing

ok just one silly question...

if i oc my gpu will i able to startup the os ??

coz in case of pc .. i can always try out the motherboard video slot....

wht about in lappy ???

wht will happen ??

and where is dominator...

can someone answer my "*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=912331&postcount=329" problem

guys can anyone confirm that the latest release of Gfx card driver from dell is fine and good for overclocking....

please confirm..

here is the link *support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=XPS_M1530&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=


please guys ..

i need replies really fast as i am about to start to download it...

hi guys .. some old pictures i,d like to share here:
*img174.imageshack.us/img174/5239/dell4rc5.th.jpg
the new 13 incher
*img513.imageshack.us/img513/8226/dell2rz6.th.jpg
end of xps1530
*img264.imageshack.us/img264/2742/dell5vc4.th.jpg
what i and most of u would be interested in maybe? it seems dell is going hybrid sli way. (i would say most exciting is hybrid sli.. , though i have some doubts on its implementation . i thought it needed an nvidia based motherboard to function , is dell dumping intel mobos?? ) read more here *www.nvidia.com/object/hybridsli_notebook.html

^^ thanx for the screenies.

but according to the 2nd screenshot, does that alarm a signal(to the consumers like us) tat DELL is discontinuing its XPS models (1330,1530 and 1730) after nov, 2008 ?? but will still continue delivering the Studio models ??

If yes, then is the Studio model better than the XPS one , in terms of performance, looks (i guess its better than XPS as per the screenshots and smaller too) and configuration ?? if NO, then i will go and buy the XPS 1530 latest by Oct,2008..
-------------------

ff topic: is there any news on DELL's new range of Lappy's on the 9xxx GPUs ?
-------------------

Cheers n e-peace...

dell is not discontinuing 1330 .. only 1530. dont know about 1730 i think it will live on as well. and yes it will continue all its studio branding. now xps will also be a subbrand under studio.. and the new studio xps 16 that they are launching .. its gonna have either a 9600 or a 9700M GT .. the model is supposed to replace xps 1530 .. and it will offer centrino 2 platform as well.. combined with montevina.. btw if ashu u cant wait .. then go with hp dv5t now.. it has 9600M GT but the only thing holding me down from buying that is that it uses GDDR2 and not GDDR3 .. so the performance increase is negligible.. and as of now.. it dosent support hybrid sli either. and ive heard dell customer care is better then.. hp.. so i think id be waitng for the studio xps 16.

^^

well, if thats the news then even i'll wait for the same, y not buy a new tech rather than an already phased out concept..
--

Buddy, do u hv any news as to wen this Studio xps 16 is gonna get launched by DELL..

Hi,

Dell is currently providing core2 duo processors with 45nm tech. Recently intel advertised in TOI about arrival of centrino2 in India as well.Can anyone tell me that when dell will include centrion 2 in xps series and would it lead to massivereduction in price of current 45nm (2.1 Ghz preferably) processors and thus price of xps 1530 as well. So is it best to buy a new xps in and around diwali with reduced prices.

All suggestions are welcome....

Cheers

Well, my webcam is screwed... lines and patches... called up tech support and they're sending someone to replace it tomorrow... the call took 75 minutes... waited for 55 minutes and then a 20 minute calll..
good news for xps customers: a friend of mine in tech support in gurgaon said they'll be starting XPS support for Indian customers exclusively in a few months...

i thought xps had a exclusive dell support center. atleast their site says so.. and as of ur query nowornvr .. i think as in typical dell tradition.. most probably the older parts will be most likly be replaced by newer parts.. rather than dell reducing the price of one of its so called premium segment system .. so expect some new parts or rather newer models around black friday .. .. that is . maybe around a week or so after diwali..

yeah... they do.. thats what i meant by XPS support. Its called XPS Gold Support, i think. Sad thing is that all XPS customers around the world get routed to this one tech support centre in Philippines and hence the wait.

Hey, to end this whole vista/ xp mess, theres a cool solution. Have heard of an application that installs Vista skin on the XP OS in your machine. This transforms your UI into that of Vista's which is vista's high point, and retains the robustness and
platform viability (across application softwares) of the XP (which is really the XP advanage). Aint it a great solution?

^^

are u talking abt Vista transformation pack for Win XP ???

i dont knw wat tat means, but i hv installed Win XP Pro+SP3+Vista Transformation pack and this is the screenshot of my desktop:

*img7.pictiger.com/6af/17046080_th.jpg

-------------------

Yup! the Vista transformation pack. thats what I was talking about.

goin off topic though.. but i dont think it will give you aero.. or the other effects .. btw ubuntu desktop looks much prettier to me with all its effects on and runs on my p4 wit 865 onboard.. tho vista runs too but without the aero..
also has anyone used alienGUI .. it,s cool too..
^^^ how did u get that sidebar and those gadgets???

anyone with any updates on studio xps 16 ???

wot do u guys think how will this global rescission going to affect the prices of laptops in india???

^^ well i got those sidebar gadgets via "Windows Sidebar"

can u please post a screenshot of the uBUNTU OS with all the effects ON !

yup, nice ques asked abt the lappy prices !! im interested in it too, also abt the h/w prices for PCs..tat will be affected (be it a negative or a positive way)..
-------------

aytus said:

hi guys .. some old pictures i,d like to share here:
*img174.imageshack.us/img174/5239/dell4rc5.th.jpg
the new 13 incher
*img513.imageshack.us/img513/8226/dell2rz6.th.jpg
end of xps1530
*img264.imageshack.us/img264/2742/dell5vc4.th.jpg
what i and most of u would be interested in maybe? it seems dell is going hybrid sli way. (i would say most exciting is hybrid sli.. , though i have some doubts on its implementation . i thought it needed an nvidia based motherboard to function , is dell dumping intel mobos?? ) read more here *www.nvidia.com/object/hybridsli_notebook.html

Click to expand...

Hi ! everyone,
Its november and Dell is not taking any move regarding Centrino 2 or 9xxx GPU.
one sales person from dell told me that it may take 2-3 months to supply their models with this upgraded components.
BTW @ Aytus
from where have you got this pictures about Studio-XPS.
I am going to put order for XPS 1530 with T9300 2.5 GHz 6mb cache 800mhz FSB, and 1680x1050 display.
How is it ? should I wait for Centrino 2 or go for now ?
please reply soon as I m already under negotation with DELL?

My system is configured at Rs 73000 after discount as I also have selected TV tuner card. Dell is not ready to give any more discount I am asking for 70000.
Is there any one who has negotiated about price and got the major discount.

ashu888ashu888 said:

^^ thanx for the screenies.

but according to the 2nd screenshot, does that alarm a signal(to the consumers like us) tat DELL is discontinuing its XPS models (1330,1530 and 1730) after nov, 2008 ?? but will still continue delivering the Studio models ??

If yes, then is the Studio model better than the XPS one , in terms of performance, looks (i guess its better than XPS as per the screenshots and smaller too) and configuration ?? if NO, then i will go and buy the XPS 1530 latest by Oct,2008..
-------------------

ff topic: is there any news on DELL's new range of Lappy's on the 9xxx GPUs ?
-------------------

Cheers n e-peace...

Click to expand...

I think XPS are far better in both look and configuration

^^

yup, i knw XPS model is really good in terms of looks as well as performance..

also, if the DELL's representative are telling tat the newer models will take 2-3 months time and IF they provide 9xxx series of gpu, then im ready to wait, as it is its been 6 months tat i hv been waiting jus for the 9xxx series and a newer processor in DELL lappys...

btw, i hv found this info abt DELL lappy's regarding the GPUs tat each model comes with (its for ur info as well as for every1's info too, have a look)

I am posting this info (below one) in as many lappy threads as i can, jus that ppl get info abt the gpus of DELL lappys..


1.) Inspiron 1525: comes ONLY with Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
and even the customisation option has NO other option to change this card.

2.) Inspiron Mini 9: comes ONLY with Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
and with NO customisation

3.) Inspiron 13 & Inspiron 14: comes ONLY Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
and with NO customisation

1.) Studio 15: comes ONLY with 256 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
and the customisation has NO other option to change this card.

2.) Studio 17: comes ONLY with 256 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650

1.) XPS 1330: comes with Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
and the customisation option has ANOTHER option of a 128MB nVIDIA Ge Force 8400 M GS at an added cost of Rs.4281/- (replacing the X3100)

2.) XPS 1530: comes with ONLY 256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT

3.) XPS 1730: comes with Dual 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT graphics with NVIDIA SLI Technology
and the customisation option has ANOTHER option of a
Dual 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics with NVIDIA SLI Technology at an added cost of Rs.28,050/- (replacing the 256 MB 8700M GT)
---------------

Cheers n e-peace...

I have made my mind for XPS 1530 again with T 9300 processor.
Can any one tell the performance of TV tuner card with it. Dell is providing Avermedia hybrid card. Is it wise decision to have TV tuner with laptop ?
How the TV cable is connected with the card ?

^^

the tv cable wud jus go at the inlet on the tuner card, i guess

Status of my XPS M1530:

Issues:
Since the webcam was changed, a hinge cover right next to the XPS logo is loose.
The smudging on the lid surface is really irritating. The price you pay for a suave, black look... heh

A friend of mine who has recently joined dell tech support told me that the known issues for my batch of xps was battery problem and drive issues, both of which have not yet occurred in my laptop *touch wood*

I'll be able to get my hands on another brand new XPS M1530 in a few days as my girlfriend ordered hers as well. This one is with a higher resolution screen, T9300 processor and 320GB HDD... will post my experience with that when I can.

^^

yup sure will be waiting for the review..

btw, any news still tat wen DELL are gonna introduce the 9xxx series of gpu in their lappys ???? (i am still waiting since 3 months after hearing this rumour )
-----------

Cheers n e-peace...

ashu888ashu888 said:

^^

btw, any news still tat wen DELL are gonna introduce the 9xxx series of gpu in their lappys ???? (i am still waiting since 3 months after hearing this rumour )
-----------

Click to expand...

sorry dude... still we have no updates on that .... will provide the info asap we get it...

^^

thanx for tat info buddy..

Hi, i wud like to make this a Long term review, so though it important to post here.

Bout one month ago, my M 1530 showed some problems like one of its speaker

i envy you, man... i so want my battery to die on me right now so that i can badger them into giving me a 9-cell one as well...
btw, did they tell you why it happened? mine is working perfectly fine.. although i do discharge cycles 3-4 times a week, max...
and i'll be going in for the warranty extension as well.. glad that you mentioned how much it'll cost...

Meanwhile, the story with my XPS M1530:

EP 630's died on me... twice! actually, the replacement they sent got screwed in 2 days... audio died on one earphone...
Dell replaced it without any hassles and sent me a completely new set... Since their dispatching area (some partnership with DHL) was close to my college, i managed to get my replacements within 4 hours of the case being lodged at tech support.

Webcam cable got damaged. This was totally my fault. left the computer running and stuffed it in the backpack for a complete hour... it was almost burning hot when i took the laptop out. Again, next business day solution to the problem.

However, when the guy fixed the webcam, he didnt align the lid properly, so i called them again a few days later and someone else came and fixed it...
-----------------------------------------
Posted again:
-----------------------------------------
The story with my girlfriend's XPS M1530:

Battery backup is awesome, man... didnt know t9300 was that efficient.. she gets 2.20 hours on the same 6 cell which gives me 2 hours on balanced power plan.

However, we forgot to order hdd partitioning.. so things are a bit hard to manage.

THe computer developed a weird freezing tendency... everything would freeze a few minutes after logging in to windows. System restore solved it but windows media player still does the same. Will format and reinstall her OS once when i get time.

The lid has become pretty loose and the alignment is a bit messed up.. worse than what it was in my case when the technician screwed up. will call the tech soon...

BTW, i used my vacuum cleaner's blower to clean the exhaust vent of my laptop... it blew a dust-storm for 2 complete seconds out of that place... result: the laptop runs a full 10 degree C cooler now... the fan too runs way less often than before... i guess all laptop owners should do this in 5-6 months.. but with caution.

ya me too uses vacuum cleaner blower. When i did it fir first time i was mazed to see the amount of dust in the cooler. Ya, mine too runs oober cool in highly oced condition[gpu@ 650/1540].

u can opt for next business day + parts warranty for 12k -2 yrs.
But accdent warranty is worth i think as u can get even complete replacement even if accidently dropped it, ofcouse uve to prove the drop genuine.

i got 9 cell by mistake i think. The serviceman was too doubtful and called the service centre and they said they got the serial no. of that product> and it was by mistake the s/l no. of a 9 cell.

my both Ep's are working fine. the warranty extension wont cover extra stuffs and battery. i usually discharge 3~4 times per day and remainin g time work with power on.
nyway this new 9 cell is almost 3/4 KG heavier thn 6 cell i think and bit bulky too, though it fits in the old sleeve tight.
i use my lap also for 24/7 download my desktop being dead for last 6 months.

btw, did u try ocing ur GPU?

heh.. no, yaar.. dont game much... pretty ironic, huh?

My primary use of a laptop is music, and pretending to work
the only thing i regret is the sound card.. i am somewhat of an audiophile and the sound really disappoints me... will buy a creative x-fi xpress card as soon as it is launched in India...

btw Ep630 is horrible on its headphone jacks..u shud try somethin large like a Philips earcup type headphones[SHP 1900 or above]. They sounds somewhat great on it.
the power output of the jack seems overkill for the EP. cant operate it beyond 10% volume level.

yeah... the EP's are more volume sensitive than other earphones.. i actually do use a phillips with my laptop... but then, that too distorts at very high volumes.. i remember my friend's HP DV 6767 in which the headphones performed absolutely perfectly... full volume, full bass.. no distortion... heh..
anyway, you win some, you lose some... for someone not as audio crazy as me, you win all...

Got 2 year warranty extended for 16k
its complete cover + accidental warranty.

w/o accidental warranty it was some 12k for 2 years.

BAD NEWS:
My laptop:
Optical drive failed.
Motherboard dead.

After I got my optical drive replaced, my motherboard dead after a few weeks (unrelated to the drive replacement). The computer now does not even start up most of the times. POST appears rarely, and the power goes off half way through the loading bar. A technician is coming tomorrow.

Because of this problem, my HDD developed bad sectors and now that needs replacement as well.

My girlfriend's laptop:
Motherboard stopped recognizing the a/c adapter. Adapter and motherboard, both replaced.

BTW... both laptops are XPS M1530.