XPS 1730

yhwh · 05-11-2008 10:51am #1

Would like to get people's opinion on the XPS m1730 specifically with regard to the nVidia graphics chips. Was thinking of getting one but have heard stories about the graphics processor burning itself out due to overheating.

How much should I pay for a reasonable model? Any suggestions appreciated.

Silenceisbliss · 05-11-2008 11:00am

Just fyi, I have just sent an email to DELL tech support asking to send my laptop (xps m1330 with 8400gs) in for warrenty due to video failure.

heres some nice pictures. enjoy

yhwh · 05-11-2008 11:09am

Hi Silenceisbliss,

Just what I feared. I've been told that some of the XPS's have problems with the hardware overheating.

I've been told that chipsets on the newer models , i.e the 1730 are reasonably reliable and that it's just the 8400 and 8600 that has major reliability issues and that the 8800 and above are ok but I don't know if I wan't to take the chance. Any other brands out there that would do the same job for a similar price?

Thanks for the pics, hope you get it sorted soon as Dell are not renowned for their customer service.

Silenceisbliss · 05-11-2008 11:27am

well,

what Ive learned from this is:

if you just use your laptop for office work, videos, movies, internet etc.

A stand alone graphics card is actually a BAD thing. increased tempertures ARE NORMAL, therefore, other componant reliability goes doen. battery life goes down.

If you use it for gaming or photoshop or whatever, then yes, by all means you will need a grfy card.

but if you dont, a built in intel graphics unit is more reliable.

But maybe you do need graphics, like me.

so, I will look at a laptop with a very new reliable nvidia and read multiple review on it. Or I will look at a laptop with an ATI card.

its not easy now to be honest. nVidia aint cool anymore

Alanstrainor · 05-11-2008 11:35am

Something to note, is that, due to ot's design the m1330 is more suseptable to nvidia chip failure. I haven't heard any 1730 failures on here, although it's always a possibility.

Voodu Child · 05-11-2008 1:05pm

The 8800M GTX in the M1730 isn't affected by the Nvidia issues.

The quality problems are believed to only affect certain chips using the G84 and G86 core; the 8800M uses the G92 core, no issues have been reported with this.

The 8700M uses the G84 core, but I havent heard of any issues with that. Its a weak card though, so I wouldn't get it regardless of any issues.

Dartz · 05-11-2008 1:05pm

If you cycle any chip repeatedly to over 90-100c regularly.... it's going to fail. It's a design flaw in the heatsink of the 1330, exacerbating a problem in the solder between chip and substrate on the Nvidia G84/86.

People have replaced the heatsinks on 1330's with homemade copper ones, and noticed a good jump in reliability. IIRC, 1530's and 1730's are large enough that Dell used metal sinks on them originally. I know my 1530 rarely gets much above 70... and is sitting at 64 right now.

Silenceisbliss · 05-11-2008 4:37pm

Dartz wrote: »

If you cycle any chip repeatedly to over 90-100c regularly.... it's going to fail. It's a design flaw in the heatsink of the 1330, exacerbating a problem in the solder between chip and substrate on the Nvidia G84/86.

People have replaced the heatsinks on 1330's with homemade copper ones, and noticed a good jump in reliability. IIRC, 1530's and 1730's are large enough that Dell used metal sinks on them originally. I know my 1530 rarely gets much above 70... and is sitting at 64 right now.

I know this. i was actually the first to post about this here pointing out the copper mod.

alas. warrenty goes OUT THE WINDOW the second you do this. gladly, i didnt do this myself, otherwise id ne rightly fücked.

yhwh · 05-11-2008 7:52pm

Thanks for the advice guy's.

Just out of curiosity how do people rate the 1530. I have enough to get the 17 and have my eye on a nice one on e-bay but do I really need a 17" screen and other than that is there much difference in power between the two? Can you get a 1530 without the Nv G84/86?

Umiq88 · 06-11-2008 1:50pm

I have a vostro 1310 with the 8400m gs GPU and it had overheating issues too.

I wouldnt really recommend them to a friend but i modded the cooling system on mine with a copper heatsink and undervolted the Cpu and now im getting quite good temps so im happy and my laptop is working very well but if you not into that its not really for you.

As for preformance it plays cod4 very well without any hangups at all its a ver capable laptop.

Dartz · 07-11-2008 1:29am

I've had no problem with the 1530 for the last six months, though it's due for replacement by a 16*, or so the rumour goes.

curiosity · 07-11-2008 2:03am

Had the same thing go on my 1330 a week ago. Rang Dell tech support, got through after about 5 minutes on hold. Problem diagnosed quickly enough, and they arranged for an engineer to call to my place of work to replace the motherboard 2 days later. Also, the customer service agent informed me that due to the fact that this nvidia videocard had failed on a good few 1330s, and the supplier had agreed it was faulty, dell were giving an extra one years warranty on the videocard. So Dell ain't all that bad!

XPS 1730

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