I have an XPS M1730 (with a single 8700M GT), and to be honest I regret the purchase.
I've spent more time on the support line for this computer than I have on every other product I've ever bought combined. And they are usually not able to help. Sometimes they try to get me to pay extra for the 'good' support (even though I've already supposedly paid for support)
That includes spending Christmas day on the phone with support (when it was 2 weeks old at most) because the screen wouldn't display -- just 'cause I had updated my nVidia drivers. Even with Dell's recommended drivers, it sometimes detects phantom monitors and either screws up the screen resolution or doesn't display at all.
The audio controls (at least with Vista) are so bad that I can't record on it like I intended to. In fact, I couldn't even get audio pass-through (IOW hear my guitar as I was playing it) until I spent 3 days researching how to do it and eventually added a registry value. (Before that, I tried getting Dell support's help, but they had no idea) Even now, I can't control the volume of it (it's either mute or full volume) and it outputs at unlistenable high volumes if my input levels are set correctly for recording. Obviously if you aren't planning to do any audio stuff on it, you can ignore that, but that's the kind of problem it has.
I also opted for the Blu-Ray drive, so I could hook it up to my HDTV. However, the DVI output (despite their claims) does not seem to be HDCP compliant, so purchased Blu-Rays will refuse to play unless you watch on the laptop monitor. (HDCP is the new copy protection the studios are using. You could get around it with software, but it would void your warrantee) So my plan to start watching Blu-Rays went out the window.
One thing the reviews don't tend to mention is that the touch pad is on the left side of the computer. So if you are looking to play some games on a bus or whatever, and are right-handed, it's very uncomfortable.
It's also extremely bulky, with a power brick about the size of the XBOX 360's.
Oh, and Dell loads up the hard drive (RAID in my case) with so many partitions that Windows won't let you create any more if you want to. You'll need to get Partition Magic or other software if you want to add partitions to keep your files and your OS seperate, for example.
Graphically it's about as good as the 360, maybe slightly worse.
In conclusion, no I don't recommend.
Log in to comment