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Additional options for the XPS M1730

230 points posted to XPS products, Laptop Power by killadaedalus 05/24/08

The main disadvantage to the XPS m1730 is the battery life. Many other companies- such as Alienware- offer "smart bays" these are additional bays in which an extra optical drive, hard drive, or (in this case) it would be a very good idea to have an additional battery. I believe that you do offer something similar to this but not in this version of the laptop. With the addition of an extra battery gaming on the go does not need to stop every hour or so.

Another idea to help extend battery life is giving this laptop the ability to switch off the duel graphics cards when they are not being used to significantly increase battery life.

My final point is that Dell should offer the "Intel® Turbo Memory" This is basically an extra 1GB of RAM which is used to store the most frequently used files of the computer, so when you come to use these files again they are loaded from this cache and not the hard drive. Hence greatly decreasing the time taken.

shiningarcanine
05/24/08		 Dell used to do this. I have an Inspiron 4000 here that has a drive bay that can hold either a piece of plastic that goes in so it looks nice, an optical drive, a LS-120 drive, a floppy drive or a battery.

I have no clue why they stopped using this design. It was very nice.
james-94
05/24/08		 I've read that Intel Turbo Memory doesn't improve performance that much unless you are using 1GB of RAM or less.
Most dell computers have at least a GB of RAM so why use turbo memory. Instead you can use Windows Vista ReadyBoost which can add up to 4GB's of memory for most frequenly used files.
boettr
05/24/08		 I wouldn't bother with the turbo memory either.

Some key area's for improvement as I see it are this:
- better casing. There is just to much plastic! try and add some brushed aluminium for durability (dints are better than snaps) and for style
- Switch to Montevina as soon as it comes out for better battery life, higher performance, wimax, 3.5g broadband etc etc
- give us the choice of the new mobility 3870x2 and SLI 8800/9800 graphics cards

I completely agree with the need to include the following
- include the battery saving features such as a low battery mode and ability to switch to on-board graphics
- sell spare batteries!
- Smart bays are an incredibly good idea!

The m1730 is already a great laptop but this would just make it a fantastic laptop.
good work dell
 
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