Mikefer.... What did you do to your M1710?.... I have a M1530... And it's running any game on the market right now. It's extremely fast, doesnt lag in-game and can handle most game's on high. For a laptop, XPS's are amazing if you take care of them. For a Desktop, There's nothing like building your own. The overall experience and joy you get from building it and the satisifaction that you get when you done saying " Wow, It's amazing! I cant believe I actually built this " and you get more bang for your buck when you build your own.