Which alienware support should I get?

Decided to upragrade my m15x to m17x r4
Is there any advice on which support I should get、
I bought my m15x three years ago and never encounter any major problems
But recent news of alienware's declining built quality had me worried, my m17x would probably stay at home most of the time

 

best advice would be to get as much as you can afford or at least as long as you plan on owning it. that said ive never bought an extended warranty on any computer ive ever owned. just get a newer one and the older ones get demoted to tv-hdmi movie machines, sold to friends, ect.

 

I'm wondering the same thing as OP. I'm thinking about upgrading to at least a 2 year warranty once I get my 5% rebate gift card.

 

You can never go wrong with extra warranty, especially if you like to overclock and tweak your laptop. I've made use of my external warranty many times for a variety of issues, and it's saved me a bunch of times.

 

When you say extra warranty do you mean extra years of warranty or the advanced warranty service?

 

Yep, I definitely like to tweak/overclock, I'll upgrade the warranty to two years and add more down the line if I need it (especially since I'll have to flash the vbios for the first time). I already got accidental coverage for the first year, might upgrade that too if my rep can give me a decent deal. I'm still amazed that Dell will send a technician out to your house to fix your laptop if something goes wrong. If something happened to my Sager I'd be without my laptop for weeks.

 

I've got both threw apirl 2013. I probably won't renew it as I will hopefully be getting another beast in june, and I'd rather use that decent sum of money to max out that new machine.

Yea it's great how I can get that done and I live in alaska!! it's also great to live in Alaska so I can tell support I'd rather do the repair myself if I choose to. Gotta love being A+ certified.

 

That's cool, so Dell will send you replacement parts and let you do the work yourself? I wish they'd let me do the same, but I'm far from certified lol. I just love opening up my laptops to work on them. Granted, the M17x is more complicated than my P150EM, but I don't think I'd have too much trouble with the basic teardown and component replacement (cpu, gpu, ram, etc.)

 

I took the 3 years on mine because i know if something breaks it is going to be expensive if I have to fork out of pocket myself unless it's only a hard drive or something. I didn't opt for the accidental but I am pretty careful with my stuff and couldn't really justify it but many like it because you just never know. Like many have said above I would go with what you can afford but the extra warranty is never a bad idea, you will really be glad you have it if something happens.

 

Which one did you buy? Three years essential or three years advanced?

 

M17x is a pretty easy system to tear down than a lot of the other machines I've worked on. (I've stripped mine all the way down and then put it back together). I just tell them that I live in alaska and there isn't a tech all that close by and it would be easier if I did the repair myself. Then I tell them I've done the repairs myself in the past and am also certified and it usually works.

 

The last couple of times I've used them I just say, ' don't bother with an engineer, just send me the parts.' and they do. The tech makes a follow-up call after the part has arrived to see if he can close the case. This is UK and I know they do it differently in different countries

I always recommend the best warranty options you can afford. For me it's saved me a whole bunch of money, and got me a new replacement

 

I've already gone through the r4 manual and watched QuagmireLXIX's tear-down video on youtube

Nothing too complicated, but it's going to be a little more time-consuming than the Sager (it's just ridiculously easy to take apart.) I won't need to do a full tear-down any time soon, just the basic hdd/ram swap.

 

I got 2 years warranty

 

one time I spilled water on the keyboard and thought I was gonna have to deal with the repairs myself (warrenty fiasco), so I took it all the way apart, but then they agreed to fix it so I had to put it all back together again. Hardest part is remembering what screws go where.

 

I would freak out so bad if that happened lol. Yeah, once you take keyboard and keyboard bezel out there are lots of screws, plugs, and wiring to deal with. I would need a video or manual to get it all back together again. I was surprised that they put the optical drive and last two dimm slots underneath the keyboard like that. Glad i only have 8gb so I don't have to get in there to install more ram

 

its actually pretty easy to get into the RAM slots under the keyboard. All you gotta do is take the 5 bezel screws out and then a few keyboard screws and you have access to that stuff.

 

Oh really? I thought you had to pretty much take the whole keyboard+screen off to access it lol. That's how I saw it in one of the youtube vids, but good to know there's an easier way.

 

Well I think that's the way to get to the other 2 RAM slots... But yeah I've never done anything like opening up a computer, and I wanted to check for faulty RAM... just got a small screwdriver, took 4 screws off and the whole bottom just slides off

 

Think you're right, but it's only 2 screws (under the battery) to remove the lower panel

 

Yup, just two screws on the bottom panel after taking the battery out. Super easy to access the SATA slots and bottom RAM, it's just more difficult to reach the other 2 RAM slots under the keyboard.