Well.......as much as I hated Dell recently......

I just ordered an M17X on the Outlet....

My M15X I ordered a few weeks ago was a complte mess...and three days of hassle to return it. But after perusing the MSI.s ASUS, Envy....and having four Dell Notebooks from the outlet Mall the oldest 10 years old I decided to give them another chance...

This time I made actual contact and got an extension of an American contact.

Dell offers a 15 day return policy and a one YEAR return -15% which I am comfortable with since I used a 15% off coupon.

The system I chose was

i7 640M (After extensive reading I did not find the Quad 720 to be all that much better unless fully loaded and I already have a quad desktop to do that kind of heavy lifting)

Twin 160GB 7200 drives in Raid 0 ) (which I will call Dell support and switch to two independent drives)

4GB RAM (plenty for my laptop application)

Samsung WUXGA LED ( Really wanted the lower rez 1440 like I have now but not much choice in the outlet)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 (Plenty fast enough no need for DX11 today)

Standard DVD Drive recorder

BT

WIndows Ultimate Which I am already running on 5 machines in my house. Love Bit Locker.

Nebula Red ugh....(not my choice but outlet doesn't give you one)

A HAT and MOUSE PAD YAY? Actually I asked if the box candy came with the refurbs because they did not come with the M15X I order and wanted a good reason to return it if I don't like it......HE claimed everything comes as if it were new...We shall see.


I was torn between this and and this for $100 More

Alienware M17x R2 Laptop
Processor: Intel Core i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
6 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2 DIMMs)
WUXGA
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870

But decided in the end I did not need 6GB Ram and the i620 would be faster and cooler overall for my lappy apps. Home Premium doesn't have Bit Locker, I wanted two spindle drives. I am not convinced SSD is ready for prime time yet in price vs performance.


So here I am a 55 year old with a 20 friggin pound RED 20lb "Hasbro" looking "disco" beast coming. I hope this is better than the last one. All I wanted was a backlit keyboard.......

My second choice was the MSI GX660 and the Sager but at $1699 vs $1232 no brainer and Dell at least has in home service for a year rather then having to send your machine away for weeks. I have found if these things work for a year they will work for 5. I just could not find a better bang for the buck , In three years a $3000 Alienware/ASUS/MSI/SAGER will be a turtle so I may as well spend as less as possible for what I need to do TODAY.


IF you order off the outlet CALL a sales rep. I did not do this last time and had no one to go to. No extension for help. He even expedited the order (so he says) LOL

Looking forward to reading more of these threads and hoping for the best.

 

Hi kingfrog,
I'm sure you'll love the color once you see it in person. I had originally ordered my M17X laptop black, and low and behold, the red ones came out a few weeks later. Also, if you were looking for a more compact size, the M15X was probably a good choice. My M17X sometimes takes up a little more space on the desk than I would like it to (But I have to have SLI). Also, keep in mind that the Dell Support line is the best number to keep handy.

Thanks,
Gabe

 

kingfrog
Your new system will kick a$$ .I have a similar set-up myself & would give it a 10/10 no problem.I have not had one bit of trouble with mine.The i7 620M is for me the best cpu i have used to date & i have had a lot of cpu's in my time you wont be disappointed.
Cheer's
SAUCE

 

Nebula red was my color choice and what does age have to do with anything. I am rounding the corner in a year and a half and I'm thrilled with my friggin disco red beast.

 

LOL Yeah..he warned me about the weight and I did get an M15X a few weeks ago. Originally I was looking for something smaller than my current E1705 that I have in the living room to browse on while watching the TV....and look what I am ended up with! I just could not see paying $1000 for a LOT less horse power in a Sony or other "Store brand" with a much faster processor and GPU than I already have in my E1705.

I do occasionally like to run Flight Sim X and that requires a lot of GPU. If this is too big I will move it to another room, or send it back and buy a netbook LOL....and a magnifying glass. But for a tad over $1200 and not much to choose from in the M15X outlet....I went for it.

If they would have had a nice Studio XPS 16 on the outlet I would have jumped on it instead. I will give it a 10 day run and decide if it's too much for me. I will be needing a laptop pillow though......

 

I didnt' know 640m was even out? How did Dell manage to put one in their outlet so fast? Bizarre.

 

I think he meant 620M as his new system has a 4870.I have seen i7 640M ES/QS available on ebay so there definitely about.

 

I also think he meant 620m. It's going to take a while for Dell to get the new 640m

 

Indeed the i7 620..I have been looking at so many configs over the past few weeks after sending the M15 back my numerology is not intact. My only concern is the size. If it is to massive I will likely send it back and buy an IpAd or the new HP pad and upgrade my desktop to a Bloomfield on a 1366 MB.

I am a little worried about the Raid set up. I am not sure the benefit will outweigh the risks and really it's only 160 GB. I would rather have two 160GB drives. BUt i won't mess with it until I know it's a keeper. The tech said it weighed nearly 20lbs LOL.....I hope not. The sites claims around 12. I REALLY want to like this beast.

But we are possibly in line for Hurricane Earl here in Myrtle Beach, so UPS probably won;t be delivering on Thursday or Friday and I know the battery won't last for three days of no power LOL.....

 

Hmmmmm I don't know what age has to do with it.......all those colored lights and alien-heads....Not something one sees at the "office" if I had to go to an office anymore. Actually I did have an M6500 in my cart last week but was two hours past the 15% coupon......and they don;t release Outlet Precision coupons as much as the Home Stuff. Three year at home service comes with that lesser beast as well as better service based in this country. Dell takes care of the Office and Enterprise side of their business a lot better.


LOL Yeah......I guess its a mid age crisis thing....I passed on the C5 Corvette.....both my brothers just bought....I settled for a red disco computer from outer space....but if I do see an M6500 coupon in the next 20 days.............