DELL XPS M1530
- Thread starter ive
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Associate
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Anyone know what courier company Dell use ?
R
Mehul
R
Mehul
Soldato
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- 24 Apr 2006
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Mine came yesterday and was delivered by Business Post just before midday after a wait of 3 weeks 
.
2Ghz
2GB
8600M GT
1400x900 panel
120GB 7,000RPM Seagate
9 cell battery
First impressions after getting it out the box were build quality is very nice, brushed metal around the keyboard, no place bends or gives in the case. Keyboard feels very nice and solid, mouse pad is okish not as sensitive as i'd like and abit of a rough feel. Weight is surprisingly light even with the 9 Cell battery. The 9 cell battery does stick out at the bottom, I don't find it a problem and will easierly give at least 1.5 hours more of on battery time. A tiny issue, the left side of the battery is abit loose it could do with another lock on that side, no massive problem but something that underminds the rest of the great build quality of the M1530.
After hitting the power button I was fixed on the LCD display hoping I got a good one. After Vista booted and went into native resolution I was relieved, seeing a pin sharp evenly bright backlit display. I was abit worried about the shiney reflective screen but I really don't find it a problem I went for the 1440x900 after seeing out of interest it is a LG panel.
Vista that comes preloaded runs like a pig. Its terrible that quite a high end laptop is sent out in such a state, nevermind I did expect it though. Within 10mins I was installing XP. Once all the drivers were installed everything ran great and how it should!.. pff bloody vista
If you jump straight in and and start gaming with the M1530 straight out of the box you will be disappointed and worried if the 8600M GT has actually been installed! I'd recommend a total fresh install of XP (or vista if you must 
). Then head over to laptopvideo2go.com the drivers their have been tweaked for mobile graphics and they make a big difference.
If you are interested in installing XP some nice people at notebookreview have made a thread that has links to zip files containing XP drivers for all the devices on the M1530. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=212981&highlight=169.01
With no overclocking I get a score of 4515 in 3Dmark06.
I had a quick push at overclocking the 8600M GT using rivatuner CPU: 580mhz Ram: 449mhz I get a score of 5329 in 3Dmark06, theres more scope there aswell it seems for oc'ing
. Very impressive to have a laptop that out scores and out performs my desktop which is running a 1.8ghz c2d with x1800XT graphics card.
.
2Ghz
2GB
8600M GT
1400x900 panel
120GB 7,000RPM Seagate
9 cell battery
First impressions after getting it out the box were build quality is very nice, brushed metal around the keyboard, no place bends or gives in the case. Keyboard feels very nice and solid, mouse pad is okish not as sensitive as i'd like and abit of a rough feel. Weight is surprisingly light even with the 9 Cell battery. The 9 cell battery does stick out at the bottom, I don't find it a problem and will easierly give at least 1.5 hours more of on battery time. A tiny issue, the left side of the battery is abit loose it could do with another lock on that side, no massive problem but something that underminds the rest of the great build quality of the M1530.
After hitting the power button I was fixed on the LCD display hoping I got a good one. After Vista booted and went into native resolution I was relieved, seeing a pin sharp evenly bright backlit display. I was abit worried about the shiney reflective screen but I really don't find it a problem I went for the 1440x900 after seeing out of interest it is a LG panel.
Vista that comes preloaded runs like a pig. Its terrible that quite a high end laptop is sent out in such a state, nevermind I did expect it though. Within 10mins I was installing XP. Once all the drivers were installed everything ran great and how it should!.. pff bloody vista
If you jump straight in and and start gaming with the M1530 straight out of the box you will be disappointed and worried if the 8600M GT has actually been installed! I'd recommend a total fresh install of XP (or vista if you must ). Then head over to laptopvideo2go.com the drivers their have been tweaked for mobile graphics and they make a big difference.If you are interested in installing XP some nice people at notebookreview have made a thread that has links to zip files containing XP drivers for all the devices on the M1530. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=212981&highlight=169.01
With no overclocking I get a score of 4515 in 3Dmark06.
I had a quick push at overclocking the 8600M GT using rivatuner CPU: 580mhz Ram: 449mhz I get a score of 5329 in 3Dmark06, theres more scope there aswell it seems for oc'ing
. Very impressive to have a laptop that out scores and out performs my desktop which is running a 1.8ghz c2d with x1800XT graphics card.
Last edited:
Associate
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Great mini-review. Did you buy from the outlet , or actually from the dell main site ?
R
Mehul
R
Mehul
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Apr 2006
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- Location
- SE England
Cheers am still messing with it to get it how I like, but thats all part of the fun 
. I bought it from the dell main site.
Yeah the 8600M GT is def a solid performing card, it keeps surprising me how well it can handle games.
. I bought it from the dell main site.Yeah the 8600M GT is def a solid performing card, it keeps surprising me how well it can handle games.
Last edited:
Cheers am still messing with it to get it how I like, but thats all part of the fun
Yeah the 8600M GT is def a solid performing card, it keeps surprising me how well it can handle games.
Nice review, if you discover any other good things or even oddities please post.
I did have a tootle over to the Dell web site and was suprised to find no XP drivers .... hhmmmmmmm.
Been using Vista for a while now and not really a big fan even with all it's bells and whistles... Will see if I can find the link you were on about for the M1530 XP drivers.
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Apr 2006
- Posts
- 6,439
- Location
- SE England
Hey faroogm I edited the mini review post I made so it includes a link to the notebookreview forums thread that includes XP drivers.
Yeah its pretty bad that Dell decided not to include XP drivers on their site for the M1530, XP isn't dead yet and it works great on the M1530.
Yeah its pretty bad that Dell decided not to include XP drivers on their site for the M1530, XP isn't dead yet and it works great on the M1530.
Just been looking at the XPS M1530 - would I be right in thinking you can only get the 1440*900 screen if you also get a blu-ray drive and pay £999? Seems rather odd. Also is it true what I've read about the 1280*800 screen being inferior?
Cheers.
Cheers.
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Apr 2006
- Posts
- 6,439
- Location
- SE England
a few weeks ago dell took away a lot of the options for the display panels, you now have to choose a high cost preconfiged M1530 to get the display option to show, pretty strange why they did that.. You might be better off phoning them and asking if you can choose the panel you want with the specs you want.
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When I ordered mine, it was cheaper to configure the lower cost model up, than to order the more expensive ones, I suspect that was the main reason!
Only issue I'm having with mine is that the touchpad is pretty poor, it seems to be quite flakey with recognising me using it. Not an issue with my mouse plugged in, but a bit annoying when it's not to hand...
Thanks. Just seen a video on youtube of the viewing angles on the XPS M1530 1280*800 screen and they to me look pretty bad TBH, typical TN+Film, very similar to the screen on my Amilo Li1818.
How are people here finding their screens and which screen do you have?
Mine came yesterday and was delivered by Business Post just before midday after a wait of 3 weeks
2Ghz
2GB
8600M GT
1400x900 panel
120GB 7,000RPM Seagate
9 cell battery
First impressions after getting it out the box were build quality is very nice, brushed metal around the keyboard, no place bends or gives in the case. Keyboard feels very nice and solid, mouse pad is okish not as sensitive as i'd like and abit of a rough feel. Weight is surprisingly light even with the 9 Cell battery. The 9 cell battery does stick out at the bottom, I don't find it a problem and will easierly give at least 1.5 hours more of on battery time. A tiny issue, the left side of the battery is abit loose it could do with another lock on that side, no massive problem but something that underminds the rest of the great build quality of the M1530.
After hitting the power button I was fixed on the LCD display hoping I got a good one. After Vista booted and went into native resolution I was relieved, seeing a pin sharp evenly bright backlit display. I was abit worried about the shiney reflective screen but I really don't find it a problem I went for the 1440x900 after seeing out of interest it is a LG panel.
Vista that comes preloaded runs like a pig. Its terrible that quite a high end laptop is sent out in such a state, nevermind I did expect it though. Within 10mins I was installing XP. Once all the drivers were installed everything ran great and how it should!.. pff bloody vista
If you are interested in installing XP some nice people at notebookreview have made a thread that has links to zip files containing XP drivers for all the devices on the M1530. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=212981&highlight=169.01
With no overclocking I get a score of 4515 in 3Dmark06.
I had a quick push at overclocking the 8600M GT using rivatuner CPU: 580mhz Ram: 449mhz I get a score of 5329 in 3Dmark06, theres more scope there aswell it seems for oc'ing
Did you install media direct along side Win XP or just install Win Xp?
Can't wait to get mine now
I just ordered mine at Dell outlet instead of going to them direct.
As you can see you can get some good deals :-