*NEW* M17xR3 Available for order... details and discussion here

Ummm, what about those of us that didn't do the cpu upgrade, are we gonna get it for free, or have our orders "automagically adjusted", or are we gonna be boned when it won't work when we get it in the mail..?

 

It should work fine if you have the slower cpu. Dell is just ripping people off in good old large corporation fashion

 

ha ha ha, free? of course not. the notebook will do 3d fine without the cpu bump, this is just dell's way of making a little more money of course.

 

Dell certainly know how to "shove it" to us non-us citizens dont they?......Id love someone from Dell to comment on the HUUUUGGGGEEEEE price differences given that these massive price gaps are based on same specs.

Personally, and simply because of that, I wouldnt touch the R3 with a bargepole....even if it had dual cards and a hula girl thrown in for free....

 

Whew.. Yeah I figured free was a shot in the dark but I just didn't want to get the machine, have it turn to smoky bits the first time I dared try to do anything 3D and get an "Oh yeah sorry our bad" from Dell.

 

Ahh yes good ol' Dalton Mcguinty, they'll probably use most of his money for his going away party

Anyway, yeah that price is ridiculous, you and I are probably better off getting a U.S package forwarding.

 

Still no sign of 485m or AMD 6970.....what a crap way to release a new revision.....basically, you can buy it now with the "not so great" card options....and thats your options.....great way to market a new product Dell - you shouldnt have released it in the first place without all options being available....unless it was another corporate marketing ploy to get people to buy them right of the bat....

 

@steviejones133 read my post couple pages earlier, you'll find out more about 485m

in my opinion, they only raised prices because gtx460 is selling better than ATI 6870 graphs. Of like 6 people who posted they wanna buy it/have bought it, only 1 has purchased an ATI card quite frankly i wouldnt get that one too because the 6870 is just a "ripped" version of 5870 so they wanna rip people by $25 i mean how lower can you go... i bet they're running out of nvidia cards also and they want to keep people buying 6870s

 

they should have included 3d as an option for the 6870 as well. as an envy 17 3d owner, i used tridef with great success for gaming. maybe dell has a contract with nvidia to use them for 3d only or somehting.

 

Im not even remotely interested in buying one, im just curious as to why its been launched so hastily without all the relevant gpu options....kind of like cracking the bottle of champagne on the bow without the ships captain at the helm.....

 

Any views on what would constitute the better gaming machine, in the long term…

An R3 with:
• 2820QM
• GTX 460M
• WLED 120Hz 3D

Or an R2 with:
• 940XM
• CrossFire HD 5870
• RGBLED

Any opinions appreciated

 

If you are not going upgrade later, the R2 you have spec'd

If later on you get the 2930xm and GTX 485 then I would get the R3

 

What I WAS saying is that Dell had plenty of time to coincide the launch of a new laptop so that ALL options would be available....its slip-shod marketing and crap management at best. You wouldnt announce a new Ferrari and tell people the wheels for it should be along in a few weeks!

 

or...if your really want to make a fair analogy...I'd say having the hot, sexy sports boat/lambo, bugati..whatever your wish...and not having the ENGINE to make it move....! So yeah, kinda weird..... POWER is key with gaming laptops....not sure what's the story here, but oh well...I guess it was meant to be more of a multimeida pc than a gaming pc...

KJ

 

^^^^^^beat ya to it with that analagy lol

 

Cheers.
Assuming no future upgrades (I probably won’t), if the 6970M became available for the R3, would you still go for the R2, as I had spec’d it? (and do you reckon much chance of this happening in the near future?)

 

I consider the 6970m to be comparable to the GTX 485m but we will not know for sure until it is released and benched

 

@Gabardine
if you're going to do your purchase now with no further "upgrades" and other pain in the butt, take the r2. even if you are considering the upgrade, take the r2. frankly, it just refers to what you need from laptop? unbox & get it in 1 position and barely move it? r2 is ur candidate. if you move a lot with laptop like i do u need r3 if you dont consider u have rush for a laptop - get the r3 later in couple weeks as they announce the availability of 485m
i myself am actually looking forward to getting the r2 and give up on mobility since any single gpu we know of so far is weaker in terms of graphics as opposing to cf 5870s.

 

an additional advice and hope this is not OT: you can always get best refurbished deal on ebay for r2s, it'll cost you as much as if you bought r3 but specs r gonna be stronger im sure.

 

Ok, thanks. A final question then...

Have any indications been given for a (rough) release/inclusion date for the 6970m? Again, many thanls for the help.

 

All we know about the 6970m is that they listed it as an option with them R3 at CES

The GTX 485m is purely speculation and may never happen on these machines (officially at least)

 

Interesting. The machine, pretty much, will be in 1 position. But... do you really anticipate that they'll offer a 485m in a couple of weeks?

 

Ah... my 485m question answered

 

How does that correlate with Dell Canada's page showing this: http://search.dell.com/results.aspx...~srd=False&ipsys=False&advsrch=False&~ck=anav which clearly shows the 485m as an option - or is that just ANOTHER Dell mess-up....

 

The choice genuinely is a pain. One's got the processor and 3D (and is the new tech). The other's got the graphics, screen and chassis. Alienware don't make life easy!

 

well actually i dont think i shouldnt trust dell rep. his job is to sell you stuff right away, not to keep you from buying or making noize out of nothing. as according to the rep., it is just out of stock and will be available in roughly couple weeks.
then again - you not considering to move laptop to anywhere (have you really thought good about buying a laptop over a desktop? ) - r2 is your best choice unless they somehow come up with CF on r3 which is definitely not going to happen, so yes, go ahead with r2

p.s. Gabardine in his post probably means "Up to 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M"


p.p.s. z im so thrilled to get that gtx 485m

 

Because everything you see on the internet is true.......given how many screw ups you have seen so far on the dell website you still trust what you see on it? The only part of the website I would trust is the part that lets me select my configuration, and even that has been wrong before (GDDR5 4870s anyone?)

 

Thats what i mean Scook, totally crap shoddy, lame, pathetic way to release a new laptop when they dont even know what will or wont go into it, wehter or not they have them to put into it, or simply just will it take one of those things anyway........just another reason that I wouldnt touch one....cos its a Dell thing where its all about getting the "money" rolling in faster than they were actually "ready" in reality to release the bloooooody thing.

 

Yep, I suspect that I probably will end up with an R2 (and yeah, has to be a laptop - even if I don't move it much, I like the fact that I have the option). The canadian thing is indeed interesting, but as stated above (good point), how much can Dell be trusted with the facts?

 

@skook9
dude, ur missing the point. it has been confirmed over the chat, it is at least on 2 spots at website, it does make pure sense in terms of marketing their product (single strong gpu, not as strong as r2s 5870cf, but still good option) that also explains why the heck would they even offer gtx 460/ ati 6870 as options at all on 17inch laptop - the 485m is not that easy to get for such a brand as alienware in terms of having huge deficiency in supplies (u release new model with very nice graphs everybody's looking forward to changing their r2s to r3s and it'll take months to deliver to certain customers, huge dissappointments in dell etc etc. how does it not make sense to you?

 

@Gabardine
you do realise if your main purpose is gaming you shouldnt buy a laptop over desktop, because no laptop on earth can outperform a desktop? i mean, really, dude?

 

Lol, in your link, the M17X listed just over the R3 is the All-Powerfull, R1, 'cause they're talking about QX9300

Ultimate Power Is Finally Yours The new Alienware® M17x laptop combines brains with brawn to give you the ultimate Hi-def mobile gaming and entertainment powerhouse. With mind-blowing graphics, the latest generation of processors and its new industrial design, you'll have the universe bowing before you. Be allpowerful - it's yours for the taking. Intel® Core™ Extreme Quad QX9300 So I'd say the 485m must be a mess too... What a mess...

 

most people buy the m17x for gaming.

 

I think all of the issues we've seen is just the fact that Dell has either gotten too big for their own good or really has absolutely no interest or care in customer satisfaction.

 

Gaming is the biggest draw on my comps resources, rather than its main purpose, and (occasionally), I need to bring it to work. Therefore...

 

Thats good spotting ! ..... i really do feel sorry (not in a bad way) for those people who have "rushed" out and bought one.....even Dell cant get the spec right.

 

GDDR5 for the 4870s was confirmed over chat too. The people you talk to on the phone/chat see an ordering screen and some limited decision trees with scripts. They are not the engineers who design/test the laptop or the marketing higher ups who make business oriented design decisions.

I take all those chat "confirmations" with a grain of salt

 

skook9 ur completely right man and im not arguing over it. it would be questionable in case with 4870 as 5870 were in near, and again, im talking only in terms of business decision - it wouldnt make sense to go with gddr5 4870s, that draws more people from spending additional buck on 5870s -that is only the theory in my mind, not saying you're wrong or im right. Still i think there will be a total of 4 GPU options (as with r2) and well, what else could that be if not 6970 HD and 485M ?

 

01/13/2011 01:37:38PM Adencea: "hi your website says the geforce gtx 285 is available for the alienware m17x r3 but I don't see it listed as an upgrade option?"
01/13/2011 01:39:18PM Agent (Peter C): "Let's take a look."
01/13/2011 01:39:49PM Agent (Peter C): "The R3 would have the GTX 460 M and the ATI HD 6870 cards. The M17x can have the GTX 285"
01/13/2011 01:40:13PM Adencea: "why can't the r3 have the 285?"
01/13/2011 01:41:51PM Agent (Peter C): "It would have been a merchandising decision to offer the new 460M and 6870 HD and to shortly (not sure when) have the 6970 card."
01/13/2011 01:44:31PM Adencea: "can the 6970 do 3D display when its offered?"
01/13/2011 01:44:46PM Agent (Peter C): "Yes, it can. Can you tell me some of the things you'd like to do with the computer?"


Take it how you will.

 

If they're not satisfied with it, they have a retraction period where they can return it without any restocking fee. The lenght of time may vary per region/country though. Still...

But yeah, clearly, they need to sort things out because they really look unprofessional right now, and the worse thing is that this directly impacts their corporate image...

But hey, don't get me wrong: can't believe they just don't care and they're not trying to fix it; how long over is the remaining question imho...

Time will tell

 

This kind of thing is EXACTLY why its always best NOT to jump at the very first news of the release of ANYTHING.....there is always mess ups, balls ups, whatever you wanna call it....everything settles down after a few months....hopefully you will then see ALL the relevant options for this R3 super revision.

 

This kind of thing tho, with all the returns will only impact further onto costs....dya think Dell dont mind people returning their systems for whatever reason? dya think they sell them on again at the same price as new...nope.....they have to go to outlet/seconds...and what happens then?....well, of course Dell have LOST money, so the price for something ELSE goes up to compensate for it. That cost might be your new gpu or SSD but sure as hell, Dell will want to recoup their lost money on ANY return system as they then cant sell it on again at retail price....so, bang, up goes the cost of something else that you may not notice, but it will go up...corporations dont give money away for nothing do they?.....d'ya get me?

 

Funny thing is Dell has screwed up beyond what you can see on the surface, I used an existing DPA account to purchase mine, had to speak to the finance dept to verify everything, got an email that it was charged and should enter production. Now today I find out they have to mail a snail mail letter out that I have to verify before they will produce it, thanks Dell.

 

So, maybe this thread should be renamed as "*NEW* M17xR3 Available for order....if your lucky, they have the right parts and know what they are selling and can actually process your order properly.....details and discussion here".......*sigh*

 

Sometimes bad things happen for good reasons. Perhaps getting something changed you otherwise would have missed due to the delay.

 

I agree, I also just noticed they already discounted it. Look here:
Alienware M17x Laptop Details | Dell
Same base price as mine was before discounts, but this has the 120hz 3D too

 

how did you get there?

 

You have a valid point here.

However, all true what you said is, still as a corporation, Dell Yen Where knows they will get some system back, for whatever reason, so they already include this lost in their pricing strategy.

Now, should there be a sudden whole bunch of people returning their systems simultaneously, whatever the reason(s), then obviously they would re-calculate their profitability upon this new situation.

What I am trying to say here is that they already based their pricing strategy with data on this; however, if the returned systems jump like crazy, as you say, ultimately, their consumers will pay the price.

I was in no way suggesting any massive returns or so; just saying that if people happen to get screwed on this particular one, they might just benefit from that. After all, who's dropping the ball right now ?

 

I got there by going to the "Dell Recommended" drop down tab at the top of the laptop page and it's right there on page 3. $1699 for base specs+3D+nvidia and a few other things. About a $250 savings, looks like Dell may not be selling as many of these as they hoped, otherwise I see no point for any discount.

 

Found. Thanks!