Dell Announces Several Updates to XPS M1710 Gaming Notebook

Dell has made some tweaks to its high end gaming notebook, the XPS M1710. The blazing fast and newly announced Nvidia GeForce Go 7950GTX graphics card will be included in the M1710. In addition, gamers will now be able to overclock the Core 2 Duo Merom processor in the M1710 -- something Dell had prevented on this machine in the past.

Nvidia 7950GTX

With the inclusion of the Nvidia Go 7950GTX graphics card in the M1710 it will be at the head of the pack for 3D gaming performance. The Nvidia 7950GTX is an update to the current 7900GTX from Nvidia. According to Nvidia numbers, a Dell XPS M1710 configured with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 processor and 2GB of memory and the 7950GTx would score a 9,763 in 3DMark05.

* Estimated 3DMark05 result as provided by Nvidia

Dell to allow Overclocking

For all of those overclocking enthusiasts out there that refused to buy a Dell due to the fact Dell disabled the ability to overclock a processor, you might be able to reconsider Dell now. Dell says that with the update to the M1710 they will now allow users to overclock the Merom Core 2 Duo processors and nothing will be done to the notebook to prevent this.

Dell XPS M1710 (view large image)

New Blinking Lights -- XPS LightFX

The M1710 has always been well know for its light show. It has configurable color lights on the lid, speakers, vents and on the mousepad. Now the lights will pulsate to sound! That's right, you can play your music like a DJ and have a light show like a disco because the lights will pulse with the music if you choose. Certain game companies will also work with Dell to make game action control pulsing of lights. Dell is calling this technology XPS LightFX.

MediaDirect Technology Update

The XPS has always had MediaDirect technologies that allows you to view video, pictures and listen to music directly from the hard drive or a CD without fulling booting the notebook into Windows. Dell has added the ability to view Word documents, PowerPoint and see Outlook contacts using "instant office" capabilities within MediaDirect. This technology will be integrated into all Inspiron and XPS notebooks that offer MediaDirect.

View the NotebookReview.com XPS M1710 review here