1) a DVI to HDMI cable is available

2) Seiko LCD panels have an slight blue tinge

3) It have a freaken numberpad - woot!

4) The Logitech Panel is programmable and there is an active development community.

5) Dell doesn't provide 64-bit Vista drivers, however going to the original suppliers yields working drivers. (it runs FAAST!)

6) No comment on the 230W power supply? That's the same as some of those small form factor cases.

7) I'd recommend the Targus XL notebook bag. It fit's The Beast nicely.

8) I've lost the feeling in my legs during the time it's taken to type this comment... :S

… has it got all the keys in the right places, being a Dell and all?

Unless this is some crippled version the Logitech game panel is awsome! there are complete sdk's avaiable and many many applications available from the community that use it. and if you dont like them right your own..

RSS feeds, mail checkers, game stats, IM alerts, clocks, timers, Usage stats, broadband speed monitors, server monitors, network monitors, media displays etc etc etc etc the list is endless... hardly a gimmick!

Someone get this reporter a G15! hey get one at work write an inhouse app to display pending comments for moderation counts etc.....

There are loads of decent programs that run on the displays. I wrote and published one myselft that uses the hotkeys as a media player (having the tracks displayed on the small screen) that way you can cycle through music (I use the volume wheel as a jog wheel on mine) whilst playing games.

Paris: 'cause she can jog my wheel.

Would be helpful to know what detail setting Crysis was played at, presumably Very High to get those frame rates? There's a pretty decent review of this laptop at anandtech too, which shows how more recent drivers have improved performance.

I've yet to get past 70Mbit with the so-called onboard Broadcom gigabit ethernet connection.

Why Dell couldn't of used the Intel 82566MC/MM is beyond me.... Well okay I know it's cost, but still on such a high priced product I would expect the best!

It's a decent gigabit... the Broadcoms are also used in servers, support VLAN, QoS, and wire testing, and mine easy transfers files at 40MB/s+

I bought this computer for work and I really like it. I could give or take the graphics extras. I bought it for the exteme processor and the RAID capability (they will do RAID 1 if you ask them to) and basically the sheer power of the machine.

It is huge. Much bigger then you expect. The power brick alone is the size of 3 regular laptop bricks put together. However, I find the size hard to complain about. I knew that it was big and heavy and ordered it anyway.

I also ended up buying Dell's backpack specifically designed for the M1730 because it is hard to find a case that will hold the laptop plus all the extras that end up in the bag.

All of the light effects are pretty cool and the monitor is very sharp. What they dont make apparant is that the machine ships with a decent set of headphones and a small remote control that fits right in the PC card slot (That was a nice little bonus to find in the box).

This maybe true of the highend Broadcom server and workstation parts, but not whichever 57xx part that is integrated into the M1730.

Looking at the 57xx advanced properties/device manager in Win XP Pro 32bit (Dell OEM) shows only options for 802.1P QOS, Flow Control, Speed & Duplex and Wake Up Capabilities, with both the Dell and generic Broadcom drivers. I've seen more options with bottom of the barrel Realtek parts/drivers.

My switch is a Dell Powerconnect 2708 which works fine with my Intel Gigabit devices and yes I've changed cables etc.

I bought one and I have to say its great.

Ok, its heavy and large, and thats just the power supply - but as the review pointed out thats not the point.

I got it with Vista and I'm not looking back. My previous laptop was an alienware, but the XPS actually has real performance.

The laptop bag is rather large - you could probably fit 10 eeePC's in it - whilst still carrying the XPS as well! I'd save my money and get a third party one instead - although the XPS one is very nice.

I can honestly say I've had no problems with it, which for me is a first.

Why Paris? Both are by by no means perfect, but if you had the chance to have either you'd be mad not to.

The review states:-

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The display is supported by the best graphics set-up you’ll currently find on any laptop: two Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs in an SLI configuration. With each chip connected to 512MB of dedicated video memory, the Beast promises far better performance than past gaming laptops.

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So, does this meaen it is 512MB shared between the cards, or that each features 512MB? Forgive my ignorance, I only ask as the US site has 1GB dual 8800gtx, and the 512mb version is the lesser 8700 gt.