Dell DTR Laptop Shootout - M1710 vs. E1705
by Jarred Walton on May 30, 2006 1:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
User Upgrades
Getting a look at the motherboard may be interesting for the hardware geeks, but realistically most people won't be opening up their systems to upgrade the processor. Quite a few areas can be upgraded without going through nearly as much effort, however. Most of the user upgradeable areas can be accessed via the bottom of the laptop. |
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The most likely - and easiest - upgrade would be to increase the amount of memory in your system. The center cover is secured by two screws and hides access to the two SO-DIMM slots. It's worth mentioning once again that the 945GM/PM chipset only has a 64-bit front side bus, so while it can support dual channel memory, there is little advantage in running dual channel over a single channel - at least if you use DDR2-667 memory. If you're looking for a high-performance laptop, we definitely recommend going with 2GB of memory these days, especially if you're running a dual core processor. However, paying Dell for your memory upgrade may not be the most cost-effective way of getting more RAM. If you're willing to do the upgrade yourself, you might be able to save a few bucks, and just about anyone with a screwdriver should be able to swap out memory modules. The only caveat is that you need to make sure you get Dell compatible RAM, which generally means RAM that strictly adheres to the JEDEC standards (i.e. 5-5-5-15 timings at DDR2-667).
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Next up in terms of simplicity would be an upgrade to your optical drive. On the bottom of the laptop, you remove one screw, insert the screwdriver into the vacated hole, and pry the DVD drive loose. Of course, as long as you get one of the models with a dual layer DVD-RW drive, you're not likely to need to upgrade your optical drive any time soon. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will both likely become available in laptop drive format in the future, but until that standards war calms down and we can declare a winner, 8X DVD-RW will get the job done.
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Upgrading the hard drive is done in a similar manner: remove the two screws and slide out the hard drive cage. Note that these laptops are among the newer models that use 2.5 inch SATA hard drives. You'll probably want to use some drive imaging software to clone your original hard drive as well, in order to keep the Dell system restore utility and partition present. (We'll have the bit more to say on that later.)
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The last area that you might want to upgrade at some point is the WiFi support. One option is to remove the included mini-PCI card and install an upgraded card. However, not all mini-PCI cards are compatible with all systems, so you'll want to make sure that the card will work in advance. The alternative is to find an upgraded WiFi card that will work in the ExpressCard slot. There are no ExpressCard modules on the market right now, but availability is anticipated late this year. We should also start seeing some faster WiFi offerings hit the market later this year, with 802.11N making an appearance very soon. Going with ExpressCard instead of sticking with PC Card is another interesting compromise; Dell has sacrificed support for a wide variety of current offerings in order to provide future functionality. Long-term, ExpressCard should be the better solution, but whether it will reach its potential during the life of the laptop remains to be seen.
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NullSubroutine - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
In the article the author mentioned the painfulness of disassembling the laptop system, however I disagree. While not being two thumb screws like on some desktops, after taking apart the laptop (which doesnt void your warrenty, as tell had me disassemble so to take the CD/DVD drive in and out to fix a glitch) after a few times, it becomes a breeze. I can take it apart in less than a minute.I would have liked to have seen the comparison of the 7900 GS vs the 7800. As a early i9400 buyer, I was plagued with the 7800 (didnt realize it wasnt the 7800 Go GTX until after it was purchased), there is some good info on i think its called notebookforums or something on how to overclock your gpu with some volt mods. I could get 485/965 on 1.3 volt mod, but it gets hot, and accept a 450/960 on 1.2v (default is 1.1) the 130watt psu helps (I highly recommend) and you should prop up your laptop. I use two 'crystal light cup packs' under each backside pad; I actually perfer it propped as it is easier to type with the backside elevated a bit.
Unfortunetely, dell isnt shipping the 7900 Go GTX, otherwise you could drop that video card right into an older shipping model of the i9400. You can always slightly mod your case and put the 7800 Go GTX in there...but I'm personally gonna wait (and save money) to get the 7900 Go GTX later, or get the 8800 Go GTX sometime later this year if it is released (dell will offer it for the m1710 and it will fit right into the i9400). But this is only if I really decide to droop myself low enough to switch to Vista....shutters....I really hate MS for making DX10 Vista only.
Also, Dell said the Memron will work perfectly (needing at most a bios update) with either laptop.
ElFenix - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
and what pipe configuration does it have?thanks!
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - link
20 pixel, 7 vertex (I think), 375/1000 clocks are typical. I'm not positive what the Dell model has on clocks, as there is some variation, but it should still be quite a bit faster than the GF Go 7800. I figure the GF Go 7900 GTX adds another 20-30% in performance, however, as it has even higher clocks (500/1200 with 24/8 pipelines).anandlurker - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
I'm glad that Anandtech include Source DoD for benchmarking, i love this game but when i bought my $300 7800gt just to play this game, the results were mediocre and rather disappointing for this kinda of price. I hope future benchmark from Anandtech include this game, it's a nice simple multiplayer game that seems to render 7800 series useless(pricewise).JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - link
The fastest scores I've seen on DODS top out at around 67 FPS with audio enabled. (Overclocked FX-62 running 3.08 GHz.) The game is very CPU limited, at least with any reasonable GPU. That said, I find 40 FPS to be very playable on this particular title, though lots of people want higher frame rates.turkster - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
you dont even need the modified INF drivers, the installed Nvidia drivers that came with my M1710 will allow me fix aspect ratio and set scaling options without any problem.For those interested my M1710 (T2500 2Ghz, 2GB RAM) with 7900GS graphics card scored 3805 in 3dmark06 straight out of the box with no tweaks or new drivers etc. This seems a quite respectable score and puts it considerably ahead of the 7800go. I havent done any further benchmarks yet but my experience so far shows that it is quite capable of playing FEAR at 1920x1200 4xAA perfectly smoothly, similarly FarCry and HL2. As such it would seems like quite a good option for those who cant quite stomach the rather steep price of 7900GTX.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
So there is an option to do 1:1 scaling - I've removed the paragraph on this. I would have never thought to look in the drivers for this, and it certainly could be placed in a more prominent position. I guess I'm just used to older laptops that did this via BIOS/keyboard shortcuts. (I'm getting old.... LOL)mrSHEiK124 - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
You actually can have the laptop scale resolution while preserving aspect ratio, you just need to install nVIDIA's desktop drivers w/the modified INF that allows them to run on mobile parts and then you can use the scaling settings built into the drivers.ahmshaegar - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
Now I don't know about the Nvidia-based laptops, but I have the Dell Inspiron E1505 (with ATI x1400 Mobility) and to have the aspect resolution preserved when changing resolutions, there's an option in the control panels (both CCC and the old ATI control panels have the option to preserve aspect ratio when changing resolutions.) I'm guessing that it would be the same for Nvidia.Thor86 - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
So, instead of reviewing DTRs, which it seems no-one really cares about, how about a review of ultra-portables?