Dell XPS M1730: SLI, Penryn, and Overclocking
by Jarred Walton on February 28, 2008 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Benchmark Setup
The launch of the 8800M GTX allowed us to set several new records in mobile graphics performance in January. Armed with two GPUs in the fastest mobile Core 2 Duo to date, we expect to shatter every laptop performance record. We also have several new titles were adding to our benchmark suite, and we ran a selection of the benchmarks at the various overclock settings. Here's the system configuration we received for review.
| Dell XPS M1730 Test System | |
| Processor | Core 2 Extreme X9000 (2.8GHz 6MB L2 800FSB) |
| Memory Slots | 2 x 1GB DDR2-667 (Nanya NT1GT64U8HB0BN-3C) |
| Graphics | 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX 512MB |
| Display | 17" UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) LG Philips LP171WU1 |
| Hard Drives | 2 x 200GB 7200RPM RAID 0 Hitachi HTS722020K9A300 16MB |
| Optical Drive | DVDR SuperMulti |
| Networking/Communications | Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet Intel 4965AGN WiFi |
| Audio | Sigmatel STAC9228X HD Audio |
| Extras | AGEIA PhysX 100M PPU |
| Operating System | Vista Home Premium 32-bit |
| . | |
One component that we wanted to talk about briefly is the LCD. We've complained in the past that laptop LCDs often offer significantly worse performance than just about any desktop LCD. They aren't as bright, they have poor viewing angles, nearly all of them use TN panels, and color accuracy even after calibration is relatively poor. Dell uses one of the newer 17" LCDs from LG Philips, the LP171WU1. This is the brightest notebook LCD we've tested to date, coming in at over 250 nits at maximum brightness. It has a glossy coating, but with Dell TrueLife - a technology that supposedly reduces reflection. We could definitely see reflections still, but perhaps they weren't quite as noticeable as on other glossy LCDs.
Besides having a brighter backlight, the LCD panel also boasts one of the best response times currently available in a notebook display. Many laptops still come with 25ms response times, but this new LG Philips display boasts 16ms TrTf/7ms GTG response times. For a gaming system, that can be a significant factor and we're glad to see Dell taking a holistic approach to the system. So far so good, right?
The only drawback is that the color accuracy is off the charts. Prior to calibration, we measured a Delta E of over 15.0, but even after calibrating the best Delta E we could achieve was still almost twice as high as the next closest laptop. We asked Dell about this, but we didn't get any real answer as to why the color accuracy was so poor. More likely than not, the display has been calibrated to be more subjectively pleasing at the cost of color accuracy - a case of Best Buy HDTVs meeting laptop LCDs. For gaming and watching movies in particular, there's a very good chance that many people will subjectively prefer the slightly oversaturated colors.
Honestly, most people probably won't notice the color inaccuracies, but they will definitely notice that the display is brighter and the response times are better than competing notebooks. For those that really need accurate colors, however, this particular panel seems to miss the mark. For gaming and movies, we had no complaints, and even doing photo editing it wasn't a serious problem. Placing the display next to a calibrated 30" desktop LCD, however, clearly showed the differences in color reproduction. Given that this is primarily a gaming notebook, we certainly don't consider the high Delta E to be a major concern, but we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention the fact.
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FXi - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
If folks are going to be told that a laptop performs extremely well, I think it would be fair to throw at least a single desktop system (mainstream enthusiast level, nothing over the top) into the charts for comparisons. I realize it could stunt the graphs a bit, but folks really need to understand what they are buying into with these machines, and all too often they think they are getting something that is 90% of a desktop's power, and that's rarely the case.If it breaks the grapsh too badly, throw a couple of graphs in the end of the article (much like you have a couple of pages dedicated to "overclocking performance") that give the fair comparison. I'm not saying that lappies aren't worth it, just people should be fully aware of what they are paying for.
7Enigma - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
I would completely agree with you up until the conclusion of the article. I have never owned a laptop, and probably won't for quite some time. Because of this I don't follow the laptop-only parts (CPU/GPU/RAM/etc.) much and so thought, "This is a crazy fast laptop but I wonder how it compares to a Q6600 with 8800GTX".The conclusion really put the laptop in perspective for me. Basically its a top of the line desktop system from a year ago. That's all I needed to hear. I think it is quite a feat to have a laptop capable of performance a year behind current tech. Yes it is more desktop in a small form factor, but it is a easily portable computer that behaves like a very capable desktop system.
With all that said, I can't wait to build my new system after 3 years with my current un-upgraded one. Just waiting on the 45nm quads and the new 9800's to pull the trigger...
funky24 - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
man they got the best job in the whole world do u keep all hardware u test here ,man that is one mean laptop would kill to have it lolPlasmaBomb - Monday, March 3, 2008 - link
Nope, they have to give it back :(Baked - Thursday, February 28, 2008 - link
This is totally necessary... You can probably murder somebody w/ the power brick if they try to take the "notebook" from you.PlasmaBomb - Thursday, February 28, 2008 - link
What size and rating does the power brick on this beast have?JarredWalton - Thursday, February 28, 2008 - link
It's the biggest power brick I've seen to date, rated at 230W output. So assuming ~80% efficiency, even at the maximum load with overclocking it still has some remaining capacity. Heck, the power brick probably weighs as much as a Mac Air! ;)PlasmaBomb - Saturday, March 1, 2008 - link
Cheers for the info, any chance of a piccy?It must get rather hot, if indeed it's 80% efficient it is dumping 50W when drawing 260W from the plug!
JarredWalton - Sunday, March 2, 2008 - link
Image added. And it could be less than 80% efficient, but the point is the laptop uses nearly as much power as an entry level desktop with discrete graphics.Direct link to image:
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/2008/de...">One big power brick
PlasmaBomb - Monday, March 3, 2008 - link
Cheers for the pics, good job btw :)