Dell jumps the gun on its big new gaming laptop
You can find the XPS m1730 in your e-mail, but not through Dell's Web site.
We've been waiting around for some time now for official word on the Dell XPS m1730. We got a behind-closed-doors peek at the system last month, and we've been hearing rumors and leaks from all corners of the Web.
The original release date for Dell's sequel to the popular 17-inch XPS m1710 got pushed back more than a month, and was still up in the air earlier this week. But this morning, after some more spec info turned up online, we got an official marketing e-mail from Dell with the subject line: "The XPS M1730 - You Asked For It. Order Now."
That's right, Dell literally sneaked the system up on its site at 3 a.m. PST, and now you can order this beast of a laptop. While we've mentioned before that you can get high-end parts such as a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor, 2 x 200GB 7,200rpm hard drives, a Blu-ray optical drive, Twin 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8,700M GT GPUs, and 64GB solid state hard drives, the only model available right now seems to be a preconfigured one, with the following specs:
This $2,999 build is perfectly fine, but skips some of the most promising aspects of the m1730. No Blu-ray, no SSD hard drives, not even 802.11n Wi-Fi. We're sure a fully configurable versions will show up on Dell's site very soon, but if in case you have to be the first guy on the block with one of these, you can only find it through this special m1730 promo page link--you won't be able to find the system by going through the front door of Dell's site.
New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan. 
