Alienware Replacement

Hi all,

After an extremely exhausting process Dell/Alienware have finally agreed to replace my faulty M17XR2 with a new one. Since my specs are no longer available in the UK they have offered "upgraded" specs. Pure nonsense in my book. Here are my original specs;

SYSTEM COLOR Space Black - Anodized Aluminum
PROCESSOR Intel® Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 3 Year Basic Serivce Plan
In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis: for issues covered by Limited Hardware Warranty, technician and/or part will be dispatched, if necessary, usually in 1 or 2 business days following Remote Diagnosis. During Remote Diagnosis, you may be asked to access the inside of your system (where safe to do so) or to participate in troubleshooting until a cause can be isolated.
VIDEO CARD Dual 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4870 in CrossfireX
LCD PANEL 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
HARD DRIVE 320GB Raid 0 (2x 160GB 7,200RPM HDDs)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
WIRELESS CARDS Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
PERSONALIZED PLATE Personalized Nameplate (David Mooney)
ALIENFX COLOR Quasar Blue
AVATAR Alienhead 3D
WALLPAPER Alien Red Glyphs
GAMING I/O Alienware TactX Mouse
PRE-INSTALLED GAMES Steam and Portal Factory Installed
SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
BLUETOOTH Internal Wireless Bluetooth® 2.1 with EDR
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader
POWER ADAPTERS 240 watt Adapter
AUTOMATIC UPDATES Automatic Updates: On
Standard Nameplate Trigger Thank you for Purchasing Alienware


And here are the specs of the replacement they want to send me;

COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M17x MLK Gaming Laptop - Space Black
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 620M(2.66GHz,4MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
SERVICES AND SUPPORT 3Yr Next Day Hardware Support
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support
GRAPHICS CARD Single 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870
MEMORY 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
HARD DRIVE 160GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
LCD 43cm (17") Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - Europe
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Wireless LAN 6300 3x3 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)
PRIMARY BATTERY 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery
OFFICE SOFTWARE English Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 ( Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Note) SECURITY SOFTWARE No Antivirus Software
Accessories
ALIENFX COLOUR Astral Aqua
OS CUSTOMIZATION Alienware Logo Wallpaper
AVATAR Alienware Logo
TIMEZONE (GMT + 00.00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
STEAM AND PORTAL Steam® Client and Portal™ Game - Factory Installed
Also included with your system
Gedis Bundle Reference N09W7X01
Order Information Alienware M17X MLK Order - UK
Shipping Documents English Documentation
Dell System Media Kit Alienware Resource DVD
Power Supply 240W AC Adaptor
Cables UK 2M 250V Power Cord
Keyboard Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Standard Warranty 1 year Next Business Day Hardware Support included with your PC
Hidden NamePlate Engraving Generic Name Plate Engraving

So they have upgraded the processor (barely) and downgraded me from dual Ati 4870 to a single Ati 5870? Is this worth it? I am thinking its not. The hard-drive has also been downgraded and there no personalised namplate.

Would any of you guys accept this or are they trying to shaft me again?

cheers
Dave

 

call them and ask for dual.

 

Ive done that

the only option at present on the Dell UK website is dual ATI 5870. If they agree to upgrade the cards but not the hard-drive do you think I should accept the deal......... or push them even further? mmwwwahahahahahahahaha

 

Depends on which way you look at it but i think that the original cpu you had is a better one than the 620.

620 is obviously not a quad core cpu, its just faster in a straight line...

And regarding the gpu's - dont settle for anything less than dual 5870's - after all, its a replacement system thru no fault of your own....i suggest having a look at the replacement thread here....ive been there with problems, waiting on my 4th replacement since 21st June.

 

Do you think? The 620 is £110 more expensive that the 740QM on their website. I use this mainly for work but I tend to play BFBC2 and Crysis.

Yeah I dont think I will settle for anything less than the dual 5870's.

 

What Stevie says is true. They guarantee an exchange of 'equal or better'. Your exchange should be a 720 or a 740. Accept no less. Same goes for the gpu's. If it came with dual then you get dual as an exchange/replacement. You are well within your rights to demand these things. When I say demand I do mean to do so in a polite, courteous manner. Good luck and in the future you can post here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...cement-systems-warranty-repair-issues-53.html
There a lot of people that check that thread frequently. And these people are most helpful since they have already been through this process.
The thread is getting very long but there is a lot of good information contained within. Cheers.

 

Infernia is also right....basically, you should get like for like or like for better....not the other way around. If you originally had dual gpu's then thats what you should get in replacement.

As far as cpu goes, its beyond me why the 620m is more expensive than the 720qm (i too found this out during researching it).
Fact is, since the cpu equivalent to the old 720qm (740qm) performs almost on par with the older 820qm (clock speeds and not cache), then that would be the cpu i would be aiming for.

If you intend to use for work, depending on what you do, if its lots of heavy rendering/cpu intesive tasks, the quad cores are gonna blow the 620m away whichever one you get.

For gaming, yeah, the 620m has a higher base clock speed so better suited for that purpose but with more an more games being released now and in the future which will focus on taking advantage of quad cores and not dual cores, the sensible thing in my book would be to go for a quad.

So, with that said, if it were me, I would be aiming for them to pop in a 740qm which is like for like now....if you can get an 820/840 then great, even better.....

I personally dont like older tech and thats what you would be getting with the 620m. At least i feel that anyway.

Hope that helps and as Infernia said, have a read of the replacement thread, it has lots of helpful info there.

Regards
Ste

 

Thank you for the help guys.

The mere fact they have offered me a 620 as an "upgrade" gives me more leeway for extra goodies when I ask for the equivalent processor (740) - this should give me an extra £110 to play with. I doubt they will give me the 800 series processor as an option.

I have also made it clear that I will not accept a refurbished system - this replacement has to be brand spanking new. The other thread is quite extensive so I have some looooong reading ahead of me.

If they come back to me with new specs I will post them here so any interested parties can see how I get on.

cheers

 

Good luck - and yes....INSIST on a new system and NOT a refurb!!!

 

It is long, but skim through it and then catch the last 7-8 pages fully. That will pretty much catch you up on what's going on and how to handle it. Plus, the people that are chiming in-infernia, steviejones-we've all been with that thread for a WHILE! So if we can help, just ask-or PM I know I don't mind. Good luck. Maybe you'll get a great tech like I got.

 

Yup, Seconded. I dont mind if you want to PM me for any advice/info. Just remain calm when dealing with them and know what you want. Thats the best advice I can give you at the outset.

 

Wow, I just read your post to see how they handled your situation and I don't see how they could begin to think that's an "equal or better" replacement. I'm still waiting for delivery on my refurb outlet M17x - which really because it's a refurb doesn't mean that it's broken or that I should expect it not to work, I've been running a refurb Dell desktop for 6 years with no problems and saved me a bundle. Anyway I digress.

So let's see - they don't want to replace your quad with a quad, drop a graphics card, uh..... there's nothing "equal" there! My only guess at their choice of the 620 is (and this may be different now) at least fairly recently it was the same upgrade price as the 720 from the base configuration? I actually want the 620 for the higher clock speed, but it's just because for my main interest (MSFS) clock speed trumps # of cores. A desktop would be a different story as the quads are a lot faster.

Anyway I hope they come to their senses and give you a proper replacement. 740QM and dual 5870's really should be a no brainer, it *is* the same level of options as yours - though at times I think I have still seen dual 4870's recently on the builder.

 

Hello gents,

well they have come back to me with updated specs;

COLOUR CHOICEAlienware M17x MLK Gaming Laptop - Space Black
PROCESSORIntel® Core™ i7 Processor 620M(2.66GHz,4MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
SERVICES AND SUPPORT3Yr Next Day Hardware Support
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORTNo Accidental Damage Support
GRAPHICS CARDCrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870
MEMORY4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
HARD DRIVE320GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
LCD43cm (17") Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED
OPTICAL DRIVE8X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
BLUETOOTHDell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - Europe
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITYIntel® Wireless LAN 6300 3x3 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)
PRIMARY BATTERY9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery
OFFICE SOFTWAREEnglish Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 ( Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Note)
SECURITY SOFTWARENo Antivirus Software
Accessories
ALIENFX COLOURAstral Aqua
OS CUSTOMIZATIONAlienware Logo Wallpaper
AVATARAlienware Logo
TIMEZONE(GMT + 00.00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
STEAM AND PORTALSteam® Client and Portal™ Game - Factory Installed
Also included with your system
Gedis Bundle ReferenceN09W7X01
Order InformationAlienware M17X MLK Order - UK
Shipping DocumentsEnglish Documentation
Dell System Media KitAlienware Resource DVD
Power Supply240W AC Adaptor
CablesUK 2M 250V Power Cord
KeyboardInternal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Standard Warranty1 year Next Business Day Hardware Support included with your PC
Hidden NamePlate EngravingGeneric Name Plate Engraving

So they have included the dual graphics cards and upgraded the hard-drive. The graphics replacement = win and the hard-drive = Fail as its still not the RAID (0) I currently have. In regards to the processor I have asked them to upgrade to the 840QM since I need quad core for work If they dont they I have instructed them to "downgrade" to the 740 and with the price difference upgrade the RAM to 6Gb.

Cant say fairer than that!

Thanks for the help guys - I wil add rep when I can


@ Stevie.... FOUR replacements?!!! Bloody hell!!!!

Edit!!

They just sent me this;

Thank you for your email.

Changes Made –

PROCESSORIntel® Core™ i7 Processor 840QM (1.86 Ghz, 8MB, 4C)
HARD DRIVE320GB (7200 RPM) Free Fall Sensor Raid 0 "Stripe" Dual HDD - (2x160GB)


Please provide me with the UK shipping address so that we can place the order today and try and get the system deliver as early as we can. Awaiting response from your end.

 

Nice!!! and grats!

I don't understand why reps usually try to get away w/ crappy replacement in their initial attemps though.

 

Congratulations! - seems like they have done you proud on the cpu/gpu score...i did think 840 would be pushing it a bit but hey, why not try it and you got it!....well done!, made up for you.

And yeah, no.4 just been shipped so am awaiting it with some trepidation to be honest.

 

Nice replacement system

Moving forward, please post follow-ups here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...placement-systems-warranty-repair-issues.html

Thanks.