Dell XPS M1330 First Look Review (Video)

[Jayayess1190]

Can anyone who has a M1330 with the GEForce 8400GS please post some benchmarks playing World of Warcraft at different settings (1280x800 on the M1330 screen)? That is the only game that I play with regularity. WoW plays fine on my Dell XPS M1710 with GEForce Go 7900GTX but this laptop is quite heavy to lug around. Thanks in advance.

The computer doesn't even ship till the end of July.

[Bruin1996]

Yeah, I figure it will be able to "run" WoW no problem with the M1330 (even my Inspiron 700m with Intel Extreme Graphics 2 can barely run WoW on minimum settings) =) My question is if it can run WoW at 30+fps with max video settings with all features on in a 25-man raid? Just wondering if the 8400 GS is sufficient for that or will I need to go to a larger laptop with a 8600GT.

[CodeMonkeyX]

Yeah I mean that I saw a video review of two computers with the same/similar specs although one had the SSD drive and the other didn't. The guy booted both at the same time. The computer with the SSD drive started up and he restarted it fully in the amount of time it took the non-SSD drive machine to start up once. It was pretty amazing, however I am fairly certain the non-SSD drive was a 5400 rpm or slower.

Both machines had low voltage core solo processors.

For speed info, windows booted to XP after two swooshes of the startup green status bar thing.

I found it extremely impressive. However, having 17 gigs available after Vista and office are loaded on is less than stellar.

EDIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mej7sf4uonI

It's the SONY UX review. Granted it is a mini ultra ultra portable and it is a 16 gig SSD drive, but it's at least interesting to see the speed difference of the SSD.
Look at the video starting at 9:10.

I watched the video two, and that video shows next to nothing. First I am pretty sure a device with that form factor is not using a full 2.5in laptop drive. It is probably using an even smaller form factor.

Also, the reviewer stated several times that the machine with the flash drive was "adapted" and had many changes to the Windows OS. So if they do not have identical systems, with identical OS's, that really does not mean very much.

From what I have read. Flash drives have faster seek and random access times. While traditional drives have better sustained throughput.

Also, the Flash drives do have a limited number of times you can write to them. So we can not really say for sure how they will holdup under heavy use in a laptop yet.

[vengance_01]

Yeah, I figure it will be able to "run" WoW no problem with the M1330 (even my Inspiron 700m with Intel Extreme Graphics 2 can barely run WoW on minimum settings) =) My question is if it can run WoW at 30+fps with max video settings with all features on in a 25-man raid? Just wondering if the 8400 GS is sufficient for that or will I need to go to a larger laptop with a 8600GT.

I think it can. WoW is more CPU and memory intensive rather than GPU bound. Just keep aa and AF off and you should be ok.

[monkhi]

Andrew, could you provide a photo of the dell m1330 next to a lenovo x61(non-tablet) for size comparison?

[Topspin14m]

I watched the video two, and that video shows next to nothing. First I am pretty sure a device with that form factor is not using a full 2.5in laptop drive. It is probably using an even smaller form factor.

Also, the reviewer stated several times that the machine with the flash drive was "adapted" and had many changes to the Windows OS. So if they do not have identical systems, with identical OS's, that really does not mean very much.

From what I have read. Flash drives have faster seek and random access times. While traditional drives have better sustained throughput.

Also, the Flash drives do have a limited number of times you can write to them. So we can not really say for sure how they will holdup under heavy use in a laptop yet.

I went with a 200 gig 7200 rpm drive. However, I think the difference shown in that video can't be attributed simply to a slightly adapted version of Windows XP. Both are running adapted versions of XP anyway (you can see that clearly). We just don't know if they are modified identically. I think there is no question the SSD drive is at least 50% faster given the benchmarks I've seen. As for read-write times, you may be right, but I am sure the hardware manufacturers have tested these drives under heavy use. I wouldn't be that concerned.

[oldsouth]

Here are my specs:

Quantity Item Number Description Unit Price

1 222-9686 XPS M1330, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.4GHz/800MHzFSB, 4M L2 Cache) $2726.94
1 310-9240 Matte Black Casing XPS M1330 $0.00
1 311-7310 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 320-5583 13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA TL WLED Backlit LCD with Camera, XPS M1330 $0.00
1 320-5603 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 341-5106 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive $0.00
1 310-8939 Dell Slim Auto/Air/AC Adapter for Inspiron $0.00
1 420-6813 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English $0.00
1 420-7098 Media Direct 3.3 $0.00
1 420-6995 Dell Support $0.00
1 420-5769 Internet Search and Portal $0.00
1 420-5924 Icon Consolidation Application $0.00
1 420-6436 Vista, PC-Restore, Dim/Insp $0.00
1 463-2282 Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access $0.00
1 420-7387 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP XPS-M1330 $0.00
1 412-0946 Dell Travel ExpressCard Remote Control, IR $0.00
1 310-9246 Creative Earbud EP630 $0.00
1 430-0493 Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron $0.00
1 412-0917 Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0, for Inspiron $0.00
1 313-5361 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive for XPSM1330 $0.00
1 313-5014 Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy $0.00
1 430-2577 Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini Card $0.00
1 412-0959 Norton Internet Security 2007 15 Month $0.00
1 312-0560 37 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 312-0564 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 412-0148 No Internet Service Provider Requested $0.00
1 412-0915 MS WORKS 8.5 $0.00
1 987-6377 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year $0.00
1 983-3740 Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year $0.00
1 986-4238 Thank you for choosing a Limited Warranty and Service Contract $0.00
1 970-5597 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3 $0.00
1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve $0.00
1 960-8710 Warranty Support,Initial Year $0.00
1 430-2566 Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR) $20
1 310-9348 Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor $0.00
1 310-8628 You have chosen a Windows Vista Premium System $0.00
1 320-5771 Slim and Light LCD with TuxedoBlack Casing and Camera XPS M1330 $0.00
1 463-6864 PAYMIX DISCOUNT APPLIED

[CodeMonkeyX]

I went with a 200 gig 7200 rpm drive. However, I think the difference shown in that video can't be attributed simply to a slightly adapted version of Windows XP. Both are running adapted versions of XP anyway (you can see that clearly). We just don't know if they are modified identically. I think there is no question the SSD drive is at least 50% faster given the benchmarks I've seen. As for read-write times, you may be right, but I am sure the hardware manufacturers have tested these drives under heavy use. I wouldn't be that concerned.

Oh I agree it most likely helped, but I doubt it can more the double boot times. I mean even the bios on that thing cleared more quickly. Right now I just thing $600 bucks is way too much for what you get.

I also just ordered mine (Aug 1st Ship!!). Dispite the long wait I am still happy, I have been shopping for a nice notebook for a long time, and this one just hit all my shopping bullet points. :P Can't wait.

[fan of laptop]

I thought that this laptop looks like the macbook from apple. See the white keyboard, the slot dvd rom. Very nice laptop

[carnifex2005]

Yeah, I figure it will be able to "run" WoW no problem with the M1330 (even my Inspiron 700m with Intel Extreme Graphics 2 can barely run WoW on minimum settings) =) My question is if it can run WoW at 30+fps with max video settings with all features on in a 25-man raid? Just wondering if the 8400 GS is sufficient for that or will I need to go to a larger laptop with a 8600GT.

You probably will not have to go larger laptop. I can run WOW at pretty much max settings with 1920 x 1200 res on my AMD 3500 (2 gb of RAM, Nvidia 6600GT with 128 mb of RAM). I ran 3DMark06 on my system and got a 1610 score on the 3DMark default settings. PCMag ran 3DMark06 on the M1330 and got a score of 1640 on the 3DMark default settings.