are you happy with your R3?

ok now I don't want to gamble with my hard earned money on an uncertain product quality (from what I've heard!) so decided to make a poll here so I can decide where to put my money, will it be a AW? or asus? sager? origin?
hopefully no fanboism in this thread

btw..not only R3 owners, but R2 or R1 or even the old M7700 owners are welcomed

 

I like my R2 quite a bit. I have an R3 incoming because I'd like to move to a (slightly) smaller and lighter system. But I give a thumbs up to the R2, been one of the best performing laptops I've had and I love the design. Constantly get compliments from it (and sometimes the occasional "Wow, how do you deal with carrying that thing around?")

 

just an observation from reading this forum. many more unhappy people with the 460, then the 6970

 

R3 is great quality, but as stated above get the 6970/6990m or the 580m, stay far away from the 460m.

 

AFAIC, the 120 Hz LG/Phillips panel is worth the price versus the basic TN 60 Hz panel. The colors are vibrant, 3D gaming is much more fluid, but I wish I waited instead of going with the 460M.

 

Love it. Despite what may first pop up in everyone's mind when the word plastic pops up, I've found this baby significantly sturdy. It can be knocked around and perhaps even dropped and you would be at high odds that it will be still working in pristine condition, although I highly recommend NOT trying that out to protect your investment At work, we have a fleet of HP Elitebooks and I can compare the build quality of this machine to them quite easily.

As for your uncertain product quality - When I received my initial R3, the DVD drive was dead on arrival and after half a month, the AlienFX lights died on my monitor. Alienware replaced my machine with a brand new one and also gave me cash back, so I can assure you from my experience that they will take care of you! At the beginning of the R3's release though, there was a high reportage on these forums about the media bar being slightly raised on arrival, but from what I see, that issue has long disappeared since the end of May.

You best take steve1ddd's advice and stick away from the GTX460M - there has been an alarming amount of people reporting BSODs with this GPU, not to mention there are many who end up returning it to go for the 6970M or now the 6990M, and I can tell you from my experience that the 6970M has been more than satisfying, and seeing how the 6990M is about 10-15% better, you won't be disappointed! That being said, if you have the money or really desire the 580M with the 120Hz panel, you won't be losing there either.

 

my first r3 was one with a 460...very glitchy.....returned for a WONDERFUL r3 with a 6970....not one issue to report......put a $185 OCZ Agility 120gb SSD in and and will never go back to magnetic primary drive again...i <3 my 16 second boot time

 

Yeh, it is great I guess.

Biggest issue is the screen. I ordered the 900p screen, so I guess it is my fault.. Also have driver crashes on some games, but I think that is AMDs fault.

 

Haven't had ANY issues since day 1 other than the audio jack issue.

I will be happier with my 580M

 

Well crap, I ordered the 460m. What would you say is the problem?

Also, how easy/much is it to replace?

 

it may take a little longer, but cancel and reorder...you will not regret it

 

I gotta say man, you have a really strange configuration there. You opted for the better processor, yet picked low end 460m GPU. Then you opted for the blu ray drive, yet picked the 900p screen...

Eh?

 

Well, when I started planning my order, I started with the 8gb + BluRay package and the only things I upgraded were the video card to nvidia 460m and the 1.5 tb raid 0 hard drive. Then when it came time to order I decided to get the better processor and wireless card(almost on a whim). Then the week after I ordered I found out about the spend and save deal and tried to cancel and reorder the system, but it was about to ship so it was too late.

I haven't really done any hardcore PC gaming, so I don't have the experience to know how the game will run, I just figured the 1.5GB cache would be pretty good and I've been a fan of nvidia in the past so I figured I would stick with that.

If the laptop starts to give me problems when it arrives soon, I'll replace it, but for now, I'll see how it works.

 

Personally, for the sake of another months wait. it'll be wirth just cancelling the laptop and reordering. Get the 1080p screen and upgrade your GPU to the 6990 or the GTX 580. If needs be, tone down the proccessor to the 2630, only order stock Ram annd get the smallest HDD available from Dell. RAM and HDD's are so much cheaper bought elsewhere.

 

^^^ This. You won't regret the upgraded gpu and bigger screen.

 

Coming from a M15x I was surprised just how much better the R3 was. Hardly any bigger but with a larger screen. The CPU is faster than my desktop!! And on top of that the battery life is more than double the M15x. I'm not phased by the plastic and have nothing but <3 for the R3

 

for those who aren't satisfied with their machine I would be appreciated if you tells us why! somewhat I can't take them seriously like that

and I would love to +rep everyone but sadly this site does NOT allow any more than 3 reps per 24 hours

so I should stay away from 460m, good! because I don't like this card! and if I ever had to I would pick the Qosmio X505 w/ 18.4" screen

the main purpose of this poll was to find out the reliability of this machine! I'll be owning the R3 within next 2 months! it'll be going for a nice 2-3 years trip of usage! then sell it and build another desktop and not going for sager/clevo because when I saw warranty policy I knew they wouldn't want to grow their sales! let alone they wouldn't sell me the major parts like motherboard so they won't let me fix it myself >.<" what an idiotic company! so alienware is my best bet here!

 

Good choice. You'll be very pleased come delivery day

 

Lots of ups and downs, but after all the hardship, strife, and struggle, and of course all the time wasted, this is my 2nd best purchase ever! The first was my launch-model ps3.

 

Unless you got the YLOD like me

 

Now to wait for Dell to run out of 460m's....

 

I'm going to reiterate this here now:

Although all the signs, weird old men, people yelling at the screen, and sudden music change are supposed to warn me off, I would like to know what the actual problems are rather than just take your word on something that honestly may never come up with MY normal usage.

 

Its a fairly weak card. If your not big on gaming then its not a problem but if you are. Right now, you'll get some ok visuals out of the 460, in a years time, who knows, it may sturggle......your spending alot of money on your laptop, its worth future proofing as much as possible. Things like RAM are done easily but GPU and CPU are not for the faint of heart and expensive.

Like someone else posted earlier, if you intend to game that is, why have you ordered a superior CPU and the weakest GPU on offer? Makes little sense if you do actually want long term gaming.

 

yeah always go for the best one when it comes to laptop gpu! I have seen an old nVidia Go6800 on old alienware M7700 that can handle COD MW2 high settings with ease! which is kinda surprising for a 5 years old laptop!

 

I think ya'll are starting to swing me on the returning and getting a new one.

If I can manage to return it without spending the 15% restocking fee and manage to do it in time to do the 15% off deal, I might just consider doing it.

 

I haven't really liked the R3 that much (free upgrade from an R1), and all of them were promised to be new.

R3 # 1 This R3 I got was basically falling apart, Raised media bar, Gaps around the speakers, Screen wasn't aligned when closed, and you could hear something moving around inside. I called and got this replaced.

R3 # 2, It came with a raised media bar, and that was easily replaced by a tech, then a little bit after that my mouse started moving really slow in the top right corner of the screen, and I found out that it was my graphics card going bad, so Alienware sent out a tech with a graphics card and new motherboard. Then after that the CPU was stuck at 797Mhz and wouldn't go up to full speed, so it was replaced again.

R3 # 3 This one came with scratches on the lid, media bar, and palmrest. So Alienware sent out a tech to replace the parts and they sent out the lid, a "Upgraded" Screen (the 3d one that the 6970 can't use), and the palm rest. They forgot the media bar! So the tech replaces the lid and palmrest, and accidentally breaks the connector for the alienware lights below the screen, so he tries putting in that "upgraded" screen, and the computer doesn't have anything on the screen and does 8 Beeps. The tech calls someone at his office to see what to do and that person says since its less than a week old, call alienware and get a replacement. So the tech Calls and is getting a replacement set up for me, but his phone dies in the middle of the call, and he said if alienware didn't call back, call them and say that the On site tech had recommended to get a replacement. I had to call them and then they say I cant get a replacement and send the tech out again with another "upgraded" screen and that one doesn't work so he calls alienware again and then gets me set up with a replacement.

R3 # 4 This one came with scratched speakers, a raised media bar and a few dead pixels. So they sent the on site tech out again, and all they gave the tech was the palmrest and some screws.

R3 # 5 This one isn't here yet, but thanks to nastynate69, I emailed Alienware's Corporate office and got someone that really wanted to try and get this resolved, so I'm getting another replacement, and he said that he would personally check in with the factory, and right now it's in production and I'm hoping that this one won't come all scratched up!

 

that's crazy! I would've demanded a complete refund within third replacement if I were you, hopefully mine (which will be a later model) will prevent these kind of flaws

btw, and your 2nd replacement was the 460m?

 

All of these replacements came with a 6970m in them.

If this latest replacement doesn't come in good condition, I'll get a full refund, and configure a m18x with the Rep on the phone if I have to, since I've heard they have better build quality than the R3.

And I remember on R3 #3 I think, I got a tech that was going to give me a full refund and then we would configure a new one, but the call got disconnected and I was told that he was part of the XPS tech support team and not alienware (which I think was a lie), so I couldn't get back to him and only got replacement parts.

 

My R3 came in perfect shape. Although the palm rest and the GPU went bad.

The palmrest hitting the screen issue is normal and there is really nothing we can do besides put something between them, like a microfiber cloth.

 

R3 #5 Just came in today. It looks perfect on the outside, but when I turned it on, now the optical drive sounds like its dying.

 

The laptop I got today (R3) the optical drive is very loud...

is that what your hearing too?

 

I love my R3! I have it hooked up to my 27" Toshiba 720p screen and my 24" LG 1080p gaming screen. My temps with both screens don't pass 74c while gaming. I have the SF-19 laptop cooler as well (I don't turn it on much unless gaming). If any of you have some questions or want to watch me stream SC2 sometime let me know

 

No, mine is quiet, but it sounds like part that moves around when its reading a disk (sorry can't think of the name) isn't moving right.

EDIT: Wow.. I was thinking of the wrong part! Its the sound that it makes when you try to eject a disk that's messing up.

 

Dell must hate you........

 

chiming in: Happy but not contented!

 

why not content?

 

^ I want dual cards.
But having a hard time selling this R3 off on ebay.

 

I love my R2!! Last great 17" Dual notebook GPU.