XPS M170 Gamer's Review!

Question

System Specs: Dell XPS-M170Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 (2 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSBGenuine Windows® XP Home Edition 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm 100GB 5400rpm Hard Drive 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX  Packaging: The system arrived nicely boxed with nothing loose floating around in the box.  Upon opening the box upon first inspection I thought the top was scratched, but luckily it was just in the protective film on the top.  Once I took off the film I was pleased to find a very nicely brushed aluminum cover (scratch free)!  Initial start-up: After going through the normal set-up prompts I finally get into Windows to see how everything looks.  My only real complaint is that the system comes with too many useless programs installed (useless to a gamer at least).  That and after initializing Norton Internet Security I could not get it to recognize on my home network. This was because of the Personal Firewall that Norton runs. After turning off the Norton Personal Firewall all was good and I could begin streaming files from my desktop to the laptop and vice-versa. Since this is a gaming review I will not get into all the software features, but they are numerous and should make most users happy. Unfortunately my system came with MS XP Home and not Media Center Edition.  I will see if I can get Dell to provide me with MCE instead though.  Screen Resolution: Not sure what everyone is complaining about with light leakage and sparkles, this is my first laptop so maybe I am not as particular, but I find the screen to be very clear and the performance is everything I expected. The 1920x1200 resolution took me a bit to get use to as I have been use to a 19' CRT running at 1024x768 so needless to say everything seemed a bit small at first. Initially I was thinking of getting a 20' wide-screen for the desktop, but the 17' is more than enough for this gamer.  Movie Playback: One of the first things I did was to throw in the Sin City DVD.  I was pleasantly pleased with the quality of the DVD playback on the 17' wide-screen; the picture quality rivaled any other LCD screen at this size including LCD TVs.  The buttons on the front of the system make adjusting sound, pausing and re-starting convenient.  Gaming Performance: The game I installed for this review was F.E.A.R. Why? Because I believe that F.E.A.R. is the most system taxing game out right now. At first set-up I became a little worried because the game set my computer at minimal during the auto-config.  I initially set-up the game with max settings for both computer and graphics and returned the following tests.Initial test at 1024x768: 24fps min, 45fps average and max of 103fps (below 25fps 1%, between 25 and 40 fps 46% and above 40fps 53%).Lowering the resolution to 800x600: yielded a test of 36fps min, 66fps average and max of 163fps (below 25fps 0%, between 25 and 40 fps 13% and above 40fps 87%).Raising the resolution to 1600x1200: 11fps min, 21fps average and max of 45fps (below 25fps 77%, between 25 and 40 fps 22% and above 40fps 1%). As you can see running at 1600x1200 yielded un-acceptable results.800x600 or 1024x768 is the way to go. Considering some desktops would be hard-pressed to get these numbers I was very pleased and I’m sure with some tweaking I can get higher numbers without giving up too much graphics quality. I really wished F.E.A.R. ran in a native wide-screen mode. Next I will load Half-Life2 and FarCry.  Sound:The stock speakers and sub woofer are a nice feature, but for playing games nothing compares to a good set of headphones or a nice 5.1 or 7.1 system.  I chose to use headphones as it blocks out the surrounding noises and also does not annoy the wife.  I must say that playing F.E.A.R. with headphones is pretty creepy. As you can hear every little footstep and ambient noise in the game (it really adds to the experience). I also tossed on the headphones while watching Sin City and the sound was superb. Overall I do not have a solid review on sound as I have not plugged it into anything other than a good set of headphones.  Overall Conclusion:As a portable desktop replacement the Dell XPS M170 fits the bill perfectly, at just over 8.5lbs this user feels the portability of the system is more than one could hope for with features and power to spare. As a gaming laptop the Dell XPS M170 is an extremely capable system the only thing that might make the system better would be if Dell would experiment with using AMD CPU’s. AMD still holds the edge where gaming is concerned, but these latest crops of Intel chips are closing the gap, especially where portable gaming is concerned. The standard features on the base system are probably more than enough for most users.  The 2gig of ram and NVIDIA 7800 GTX video card my system has is probably overkill for the current crop of games, but this just means I will most likely be sitting well for the next couple of years with this system. Hopefully I will not need to upgrade till after Windows Vista and Vista enhanced games start to arrive. I am actually so pleased with the Dell XPS M170 I may scrap my plans for a new desktop gaming rig all together.  Pricing:The rig above can be bought from the Dell Small Business Division for $3252 before tax and freight.  If you are lucky enough to find a 30% off coupon you can save roughly $1000 off of that price bringing the price to somewhere around $2500 including tax and freight.  At this price I challenge anyone to find a better laptop gaming rig. Please feel free to comment on my review and add your experiences with the XPS M170 as well.Thanks for taking the time to read.Dante......

jeffcmfrt · Answer

Congrads on your new machine. And a very nice review. I also have a XPS Gen 2 and it is my desktop replacement and I am very pleased. I just wanted to mention that the first thing to be done after receiveing a new PC is a clean install of windows to get rid of bloatware and a whole bunch of uneeded running processes. After a test run to make sure you have no hardware issues ofcourse.

Enjoy your new machine Good Luck & Best Wishes

And I must say you have a powerhouse:smileyhappy:

Inspiron XPS Gen 2
770 (2.13 GHz/2MB Cache/533 MHz Fsb
100Gig Hardrive
6800 ultra but have 7800 ordered waiting for deleivery
2 GIG's Ram
17 "(1920 x1200) WUXGA Display ( Samsung )
OS Windows XP Pro sp2
Logitech MX 1000 Cordless Laser Mouse
Nostromo n52 Game pad

GuardianXPS · Answer

I agree, very nice review there.

Also, FEAR is a good game to heat up the system, however the top game to really push the video is Battlefield 2.

If you get some time go get that game and go online.

You will have between 16 to 64 player servers to play in.

I usually run on the 64 player servers.

Have fun. :)

Guardian

dprimm · Answer

I am re-formating my system and loading XP Media Center ( want to see how it is).  I will see if I get better frame rates afterwards.   I have been thinking of getting BF2, how is the user community?  I do not like run and gun and spray fests.  I would live some actual strategy and slow play.

jeffcmfrt · Answer

@KevT wrote:

Nice review.:smileyvery-happy:

I must admit, the amount of bloatware is excessive, but the thought of going through a complete windows reinstallation, then all the drivers is daunting. I removed most of the stuff through add/remove programs. The ones I'm not sure about are Dell support, Dell Quick set and the broadcom wireless interface (that says windows is managing the device). All of these add to an already bulging system tray. Are they needed?

Here is a tip that may be usefull to you I am very particular about what is on my system and what processes are running . Go to add and remove programs and click on your intel wireless a box will display select modify then next uncheck all but the first option which is wireless Lan adapter driver and uninstall them make sure you are letting windows maintain your wireless conection . This will remove like 7 running processes which are not nesesary.

Inspiron XPS Gen 2
770 (2.13 GHz/2MB Cache/533 MHz Fsb
100Gig Hardrive
6800 ultra 7800 Go GTX ordered 11-3 $477.64 Awaiting delivery
2 GIG's Ram
17 "(1920 x1200) WUXGA Display ( Samsung )
OS Windows XP Pro sp2
Logitech MX 1000 Cordless Laser Mouse
Nostromo n52 Game pad

GuardianXPS · Answer

Battlefield 2 is a first person shooter, however as a Squad Leader and Commander there is a LOT of strategy and decision making.

It has a lot of real life aspect to warfare. However there is no substitute for the real thing.

I definitely recommend it :)

Guardian

GuardianXPS · Answer

Dell Support I would say that unless you are interested in getting updates from Dell, you probably dont need it.

Dell Quickset I would recommend not removing, primarily because for the Inspiron XPS Gen 2 and M170 all the lights and special features are only controlled through Quickset.

Guardian

KevT · Answer

Nice review.:smileyvery-happy:

I must admit, the amount of bloatware is excessive, but the thought of going through a complete windows reinstallation, then all the drivers is daunting. I removed most of the stuff through add/remove programs. The ones I'm not sure about are Dell support, Dell Quick set and the broadcom wireless interface (that says windows is managing the device). All of these add to an already bulging system tray. Are they needed?

KevT · Answer

Thought I might try the Intel Proset/Wireless reset, but its unintelligable. I cannot tell whether setting an option will result in something being added or removed, or indeed what is currently present. For example, the first option, Wireless LAN adapter driver, shows with an X, indicating either that it is not installed, or that is selected for uninstall. But I don't know which. Everything else appears to be not installed but selected for installation. I give up with this. I'm not taking a chance on not having wireless for this (gulp).

I checked processes, there are 51 at startup. I only managed to remove the java updater, msmsgs and realplayer. The rest, according to Google searches, are needed for the relevant hardware to run.

GuardianXPS · Answer

If you ordered the system online on page 3 of the customize tool there is a section where you need to choose your software package:

UN INSTALLED SOFTWARE

Operating System Backup & Recovery

PC Restore recovery system by Symantec

Help Me Choose

PC Restore recovery system by Symantec [Included in Price]

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition backup CD [add $10]

Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition backup CD [add $10]

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional backup CD [add $10]

If you chose the other options then you would receive media. They may send it by default, however if none are sent this is why.

Guardian

Darren Evans · Answer

Can I just ask Just got my XPSM170 on order does it come with the restore cd and a copy of the windows version ordered and a driver disk?

jeffcmfrt · Answer

@KevT wrote:

Thought I might try the Intel Proset/Wireless reset, but its unintelligable. I cannot tell whether setting an option will result in something being added or removed, or indeed what is currently present. For example, the first option, Wireless LAN adapter driver, shows with an X, indicating either that it is not installed, or that is selected for uninstall. But I don't know which. Everything else appears to be not installed but selected for installation. I give up with this. I'm not taking a chance on not having wireless for this (gulp).

I checked processes, there are 51 at startup. I only managed to remove the java updater, msmsgs and realplayer. The rest, according to Google searches, are needed for the relevant hardware to run.

The first option Wireless Lan adapter driver Dont put a x in it you want a x in all the rest of the options tho.

Inspiron XPS Gen 2
770 (2.13 GHz/2MB Cache/533 MHz Fsb
100Gig Hardrive
6800 ultra 7800 Go GTX ordered 11-3 Awaiting delivery
2 GIG's Ram
17 "(1920 x1200) WUXGA Display ( Samsung )
OS Windows XP Pro sp2
Logitech MX 1000 Cordless Laser Mouse
Nostromo n52 Game pad

Harry009 · Answer

Last year i bought my Dell XPS M170 system and this is my first dell. I am extremely dissatisfied by DELL. The reason is that after almost a little over a year now i reinstalled my windows. However, when i inserted the driver CD, i had to install each and every driver seperately which was a great hassle. Only if DELL had prepared a customized CD which would automatically install all the drivers along with installing windows, it would have been very convinient. So, what i did was try to find out the number of DELL from the website to call technical support for m query to be answered and i entered my service tag number. the response i got was that warranty has expired. This was further extremely annoying as i tried to call for the first time and i couldnt get through to any tech support person. DELL should have some options that at least after purchasing the product either its the one year in which you could get tech assistance or there should be a limit as max three times or 2 times you could call tech support.   I have posted this message here because this was the onl way i could get through to anyone. So if anyone could help me figure out this problem ill be very thankful.

GuardianXPS · Answer

It is my understanding that driver installs are usually assisted by tech support even if your warranty has expired. Did you ask for anything other then driver assistance?   Also, reinstalling the OS has always been a user ownership process, why point to Dell because you needed to reinstall Windows as to blame for it not being an easy process?   Lastly, posting a complaint on something you did yourself isnt going to receive any real support from the rest of us. We can help provide ideas on how to fix the issue, but please do not turn it into a bashing post.

Harry009 · Answer

My idea was not to be rude or anything but i am upset that why is it that i will have to install each driver seperately....want to inquire about a solution that why doesnt dell provide a driver cd which automatically installs all the drivers as sitting and installing the driver for every component is very time consuming. For instance my friend's sister is a beginner in using the computer and when her windows crashed she was also very disappointed that she doesnt know the procedure and that there should be a user friendly cd which installs all the basic stuff directly!   Is any way i could contact tech support?   I would highly appreciate a contact or something!

Harry009 · Answer

thanks:)

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