Better Pictures of Dell XPS M1730

Ok…. i’ve taken better pics of the laptop so hopefully it comes out nicely… my phone is getting bad.. need to replace it soon.. I WAN MY HTC!!!! TYTN II!!!! XD i can only dream now.. T.T okok.. back to the XPS..

For starters.. i shall start with the top part of the laptop…. i got the bone white version which has white led lights at the back… its not that clear due to the camera so please bare with me… hehe~~

Opening it… i tried taking the screen with the keyboard.. but the screen did not come out clearly.. some how the camera darkens when i point it at the screen… sigh~~~

Blured rite… ok.. coming to the keyboard…

A macro shot at the keyboard… look at the beautiful backlights.. XD

 

Ok…. around they keyboard.. the power button with the media centre button.. Its dell software.. looks kindda cool.. XD

Ok… this is getting lame… but here is Dell’s kind warning words..

 

I like this part about the laptop.. this LCD screen is extremely useful.. it has a stop watch as well as a timer. It also displays what song or movie you are listening or watching, the processor and ram usage, date and time as well as game information when you play.. it will show you how much bullets and life you have.. cool eh.. XD

Ok.. lastly.. i tried to take a good shot of the monitor…. so hope the effort was not futile and you are able to see it.. XD

Thats it for the pictures of the computer… but i noticed one thing while taking the pictures for this computer.. i got a mouse to go together with this computer and i did not know they compliment each other so perfectly…. the way they look.. and both of them seem to be made out of carbon fiber because both of them have the same design…. so if anyone out there owns an XPS M1730… i’ll recommend the Logitech G7 mouse to go with it because it looked like a match made in heaven.. XD

Thats all.. -Endz-

Review – XPS M1730

Recently, thanks to my sis, she bought me a great laptop… XPS M1730.. Dual Nvidia 8700 GT 256RM each, C2D 2.2, 2gb ram, 17″ HD lcd screen… great computer and was totally impressed with it at first glance.. when i unboxed it…. i took some pics of the laptop.. below are the pics…

The first view of it outside.. it looked cool.. looks like having a carbon fiber casing but its actually plastic i think..haha!

This was when it was running the dell setup asking to enter the computer name, user name and stuff.. the proess took quite some time fo complete..

The keyboard had backlights which is good for me because i like using the computer with the lights off.. even though i done look a the keyboard much but it still helps because sometimes i can forget the position of the keys… especially when i’m too sleepy.. ^^

The laptop was loading up vista and you can see the wallpaper that dell provided together.. looks cool.. ^^

The only major thing i dont like about this laptop is the huge power adapter.. damn.. my feet is around size 8 – 9 and its almost as long as my feet.. crazy~~! can kill people with it.. >_>

 Testing the laptop, the first game i tried with max settings is Company of Heroes. It lagged~~~!!! DAMN! according to someone.. it seems that the first version had some problems with SLI and the second version of COH which is Opposing Fronts is much better.. Anyways.. waiting to get it from anyone who has it.. my comp only could support it when the resolution was set to 1600×1200 with medium graphics… when i set to 1929×1200 with max settings.. it started to lag.. >_< think cannot support that high resolution.. But 1600×1200 suits fine for me.. still good.. better than my current comp.. i tested 3Dbenchmark03 and it scored 268xx points… my old comp only manage to score around 7xxx plus.. so much difference.. maybe i might try upgrading the processor to a 2.8 next time when the price drops.. ^^ Anyways.. tried rainbow six with max settings and it lagged also.. sigh… but later i noticed that there was a program running in the background which was windows media player 11.. that could have caused the lag.. also due to the fact i’m running on vista.. another bummer.. sigh.. wanna change back to xp soon.. hope that i’m able to get the drivers from dell..

This laptop also has one of the best sound system i’ve heard from a laptop.. the clarity is great… it is also loud! i went to the kitchen and i left the music on and closed the door.. i could hear it clearly from the kitchen… when my friend was doing a video recording of the laptop with his hp… it recorded the music that was playing perfectly.. the clarity is superb~! Anyways.. thats the end of it.. -Endz-

A shop in Low Yat to stay clear off

Its 5:10 am not and i still cant sleep.. today is the day i’m going to get back the notebook from that stupid shop i sent it to get repaired… This is one of the shops which has no ethics in their work. Takes out the hard disk and claims that there is no hard disk and when i sent back the notebook for warranty regarding the standby mode not working, they remember the hard disk incident and started calling me chuttiah a.k.a asshole the whole time i was there… Then on monday or tuesday i called them up regarding the notebook, they said that its the processor problem. Before this the notebook was running on celeron 2.8 and they changed it to P4 2.8… now they are saying that because the mother board cannot support the P4 2.8, they need to change back to a celeron 2.8… which should be cheaper.. I asked if there was any refund of the processor and they said no, it was the same price.. so they expect me to believe that a celeron 2.8 cost the same as a p4 2.8… wow.. its so believable.. P4 2.8 is so much more faster than a celeron 2.8 and its the same price.. if they wanted to cheat.. this is the most stupidest way to cheat… hes thinking as though i’m some computer illiterate noob which he can swindle money off.. The best part about that call is that he actually raised his voice at me.. it sounded more like he was annoyed with my call and that seriously pisses me off.. I’m gonna go tomorrow and confront him about calling me the chuttiah.. see if is man enough to admit and apologize.. anyways.. The name of the shop is Aqua Bridge SDN BHD which you can locate on the 2nd Floor of Low Yat. Below is a screen shot of their reciept and their locations.. certain stuff i’ve blanked out just in case..

Anyways, if you need a laptop to repair, go somewhere else who you can trust. Never send to some unknown shop like what i did and they give you crappy service and tries to swindle you of every penny you have. So.. this is one shop which i can 100% advice you to stay clear off… *Endz*

Laptop & Phone hunting

The past few days.. i’ve been on the internet looking for a good laptop to get and also to change my mobile phone which is a Nokia 3120 to something better.. i looked into a few models which were all damn costly and then started to see which one has better value for money.. So far.. only a few models caught my attention… Nokia N95, Sony Erricson K850 and Samsung U700… all these phones look ok and the features are not bad.. but i’ll prolly get the N95 or K850.. U700 looks stylish but its actually kindda laggy to use.. tested it.. not worth to get.. was looking at the review on both phones.. both seem relatively good but my main interest is in the camera… if i get N95.. i wont need to replace my other phone.. if i get K850.. prolly trade in my K800 for that model because theres no point having 2 K series models rite? anyways.. still saving up money for either phones… Was reading the review on the phone comparison for K850 and N95 on gmsarena.com N95’s camera is better than in more ways than K850.. but its only a prototype model.. not the real one yet.. i wonder how the real one is going to be.. hmmmm.. heard from review of people who actually own that phone which claims that its actually must better.. so… see whats the outcome in a few months time.. hehehe! Functionality wise… N95 has loads more applications and softwares.. not to mention wifi capabilities.. but somehow is still doubt the phone a little.. wanna see how the new N95 8Gb edition performs then only make my decision..

Ok… notebooks… my sis said she was gonna get me one.. so told me the budget… which was around AU$2500.. so looked at the laptops in australia that cost around that much.. and i had a tough decision.. between HP DV6500 series or Dell XPS M1730… even through i dont like Dell laptops so much.. prolly caused i had bad experience with dell computers in college… i was just looking at the price and the specs that they offer.. and i found out that Dell’s price and specs are much better than HP DV6500 series.. the video card is impressive.. Dual Nvidia GeForce 8700GT using Nvidia SLI technology, 2Gb ram, 160Gb Hard disk space, Core 2 Duo Processor 2.2Ghz, and best part of this is that its 17″.. that made my day.. i found the laptop that i wanted… *throwing away the brand* but its still value for money.. at AU$2.9 i get a wh0le lot more than i will get with a DV6500 series laptop.. so.. now gotta wait till december to get it.. anyways.. gonna get back to work.. *Endz*

Trip to Low Yat

On Saturday evening.. i made a trip to Low Yat to get some stuff for myself, a friend a to send back a notebook for warranty check.. anyways.. it was a long and tiresome day.. going there was ok.. the jam was not that bad.. the only thing that made the trip that sucked is that i missed a road and ended up making 1 huge circle to get back.. and then i was caught in the jam.. wheeee.. stupid roads… jam packed with cars.. left and right.. and also the best part.. nearly got scrapped by a bus.. >_> stupid taxi suddenly stopped… forced me to move to the right a little.. and when i moved a little.. i got a shock to see the bus so near to my car.. >.< but.. managed to reach there safely.. Thank God.. In Low Yat, my agenda, buy RAM, AGP 8x Graphics Card, 120Gb notebook HardDisk, small mouse, and repair the notebook.

In Low Yat, i straight went to the shop who repaired the notebook and then complained to them about the problem.. They did not like be because last time when i first sent the notebook there, they took out the hard disk and claimed there was no hard disk… then after that keep saying no hard disk.. so i was there complaining and claiming that i had formatted it before it went dead.. then i was there for around half an hour.. they finally gave up and put a 40gb HDD inside… Good! This time.. when i came to tell them that it had a problem and showed them the reciept, they immediately remembered that incident and were talking to themselves about it… and from that conversation.. i could catch a few words.. they were speaking Urdu… which my friend taught me some bad words… and i heard them saying it.. they kept saying chuttiah which means asshole… so.. from the way they spoke using that word and the computer devices… i could estimated what they were saying.. it sounded like… “This is the chuttiah that we had problems with, claiming that there was a harddisk but there was none”… i kept it to myself because i did not want to cause trouble for my friend.. that notebook was not mine.. so don’t want them to do anything to it because its still under warranty… anywyas… i was there for like a whole hour waiting for them to fix the problem.. and then they finally said.. “You leave it here first. We will try to fix it and contact you as soon as we have fixed it”… by then.. it was around 7 plus.. i quickly went to survey the prices for the things i needed to get… I noticed some things about that area…. the shops there sells certain category of goods at cheaper prices.. i went all over that area looking for the notebook harddisk.. and Sri Comp sold the WD 120GB SATA HDD cheaper than the rest i looked at.. so i got the HDD and casing for it.. it looks like this.. ^^

Then i went to get my RAM and Graphic Card.. Got it cheap at Cycom.. I got it for my comp back in Sitiawan because its starting to show problems with its display… yellow lines appearing everywhere.. so.. got this one instead.. its a GeForce 7300GT with 256Mb DDR3 ram… its way more powerful than what i am currently using.. T.T i want a new graphics card too.. T.T haih.. dun be greedy.. save money for my trip i’m planning when i finish my final year.. ^^ anyways.. below are some pictures of the graphics card i bought.. ^^

Anyways.. this card sucks lots of power.. normal AGP slots cannot give it enough power so.. additional power cables needs to be connected to the card in order for it to function.. >_> haih.. hope the power supply is enough for this card.. >_< ok.. back to the story…. After getting all i needed, i straight went back.. and the moment i came out from Low Yat…. Stuck in the traffic jam… left the place at 9…. at somewhere near 10.. i was still stuck in the same area… if i knew it was that bad.. i would have prolly took the LRT there.. >_> got back.. 10:30 – 10:45.. somewhere there.. sigh… stupid traffic jam.. grrrr~~~~~ Installed my ram in my comp… still can see sometimes its slow.. haih.. i give up.. 2GB ram.. and it still is slow.. not much difference.. haih….. waste my 95 bucks for it…. >_< *ENDZ*

Exploration Into My PC

Today of all days, i was kindda frustrated with my PC’s performance… loading up up programs is slow sometimes.. and it often lags. So i thought to myself… “Why not get another stick of ram.. the prices should be dirt cheap now”… I know for a fact that DDR2 RAMS are extremely cheap because i have been looking into ram prices since saturday. Was looking for the old DDR1 RAMS but they were all so damn costly. Was looking at laptop RAMS and it cost like RM115 to RM145 for a normal DDR 333/400 512MB RAM… sigh… but then.. i looked at DDR2 RAMs.. which was for my own comp.. RM95 for a 1GB RAM.. *drooling* It was then i decided to buy myself 1 more stick…

After deciding.. i needed to check what was the speed of my current ram.. there was 2 ways of checking.. the easy way was.. going online and downloading a software called CPUZ from http://www.filehippo.com under utilities. This program will tell you everything you need to know about your motherboard and ram… but i felt like doing it the hard way.. The reason i took the hard way is because i have not openned my computer for quite some time… i guess it must have been a few months.. so.. what the heck… just open it up…

Ripping all the cables off the comp.. openning its hard metal shell… i was shocked to see my processor heat sink… it had a whole layer of dust… i installed a temperature monitor software on my computer few days back and it stated that my computer temperature was around 60 – 65 degrees celcius… no wonder it was so damn hot.. then i decided to see how my graphics card’s heatsink was doing and i was shocked to see the amount of dust that had accumulated there.. I then ripped out my processor fan and took a good look at my heatsink…. it looked like this…

Luckily my computer processor did not burn.. if not.. pokai!!! Anyways.. i wiped it clean and set everything back.. next i had to disect my graphic card’s heatsink. For your information, i’m using a HIS ATI Radeon X1600 Pro IceQ Turbo PCI-E card…. which looks like this….

Huge aint it… anyways.. unscrewed all the screws… and then i saw the layer of dust there.. haih.. only a small hole to cool down my card.. >_>

Now its totally cleaned.. and runinng smoothly.. best part is that i forgot to plug back my processor fan when i switched on for the first time… was wondering why my computer was so silent.. looked into the comp.. fan not running.. i was like “OMG!”.. luckily i looked inside.. anyways.. thats about it.. computer temperature back to 40 – 50 degrees… i feel safer now.. hehehe!! okok.. back to work.. *Endz*