Dell outlet flooded with M18X's

Thanks! +1 rep both of you!

 

I didn't sleep just to get this order done the moment I saw the dell twitter feed about the 8am CST 20% off on all outlet home Laptops and PCs. I was there sharp at 8am CST placing my order lol

Just got a call from Dell to verify that I did indeed placed the order, and right after that my credit card company called to verify everything from their end. Now it should all be smooth sailing from here.

 

How did I do on this one? There weren't any with dual 6990s today so had to settle with the dual 6970s.

Alienware M18x Laptop $2,509.00
Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Internal 60GHz WirelessHD Transmitter
500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6970M
18.4 inch Wide FHD (1920 x 1080) WLED Display
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology
Nebula Red Anodized Aluminum
Processor: Intel Core i7 2920XM, Quad Core Extreme, 2.5GHz(3.5GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
Save 20% off any Dell Outlet Refurbished Home Laptop or Desktop with this coupon!

- $501.80

Alienware M18X: 1 Yr Ltd Warranty, Basic Service after Remote Diagnosis (Included In Price)


Subtotal:$2,007.20
Sales Tax: $140.50

Total Amount:$2,147.70

 

I'd say that's a great deal. I would have picked one up with a 2920xm, but I didn't happen to see any when I made my purchase.

 

Speedy shipping, i got a tracking# 15 hours after placing the order.

Then again, i guess they are boxed up and just waiting for an address.

Still have it showing as black on the order details, but the outlet info and first order confirmation said red. Weird.

24 hours ago, there was 103 M18x in the outlet, even some 6990's, now: 9 of them, all with 460m

 

I snagged one with 2630QM CPU, 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB ram, DVD-RW Drive, dual 6970M. Now I wish I had gone with 2720QM, 1.5 TB Hard Drive, 8 GB ram, and a blu-ray drive. It will costs $168 more.

Ordered in the morning and got a call in the afternoon about my order and I had a chance to cancel it and get the higher specc'd model.... but I decided not too. My friend told me that I don't need those things.

I also got 2 years extended warranty on the laptop. I am worried about this thing breaking down after a year.

 

The order page says it is red but in the order confirmation show that mine is black.

 

smart man, warranty is the most important thing when buying a laptop .

 

I'm personally against warranties. It doesn't matter how long you get one for, it'll always break the day after it expires.

 

thats why I have this

go big or go home. 5th year was free though.

 

own a high end dual gpu laptop and you will not be saying that anymore.....

 

He has bought one for himself just like us.

I see his point. Personally I push everything to the limits with frequent extreme loads (mostly highest overclocks) for the first 2-3 months and if nothing fails then everything is good to go for the long term. Then I back it down from the heavy overclocking.

Only when you overclock the GPUs to their absolute limit on a long term basis will you run the risk or the card's VRAM failing, those are the most likely components to fail first. Apart from that, HDD crashes cant really be helped.

Drives can fail any time. And I would worry more about my data than the actual drive.

Speakers can, on rare occasions, fail but most of the times its due to lack of maintenance. Keep the area clean and clean the insides often, and they don't usually fail.

This approach to checking for build quality has served me well over the past 10 years. There are definitely other forms of testing approaches out there am sure.

The one time when I had to change something on my own because I had no warranty was the LCD inverter on my Dell Vostro 1500, but the again it failed well after 3 years of usage. About the expected time for its failure. It cost me only 15USD to change, bought it off ebay. If I had paid for warranty it would have been unused money, for me atleast.

So yeah, bottom line it comes down to if you have the budget. Then a warranty is most definitely a good investment. Short on the budget? then testing it the way I did and making sure you take good care of the machine, things should go pretty well for the long term. Of course nothing is risk free, just a trade off.

 

My last notebook was a Sager 9262 with dual 9800m GTX's and a 3.0ghz C2Q. About a week after my 2 year warranty ran out my main GPU fried.

 

you need 3 year warranty not two. my 9262 8800m gtx also died at the 2nd year mark but warranty saved my butt.

my current m18x 6990m xfire has 3 year warranty.

 

It'll be way too outdated, IMO, to keep for 3 years. I've never kept a laptop more than 2.

I figure once my big heavy laptop is underperforming 15"'s, then it's time to upgrade.

 

Mine should be here by the 8th (a Thursday). Will post benches and stuff once I change the thermal paste on the GPUs to IC7

Will do a size comparison to my G73JH.

Since mine comes with 4GB ram (2 x 2GB) and that's definitely not enough as I do a lot of Adobe premier pro work loads, I bought 2 x 4GB (8GB) Gskill 1333Mhz RAMs off newegg. There was a deal going on for 10USD less than the standard price with free shipping. 12Gigs of RAM should do nicely.

 

wow. all them suckers are gone!!

 

Yeah, I was checking, and all that was left earlier today was ~4 460M models (ack).

 

those must have just came up...all that was there was a 2630qm model

that one is gone now as well...lol

 

So, i got the "red" one i ordered from the outlet. And guess what... it's BLACK!

What are my options?

In the packing slip it says Alienware m18x base black, but i assumed that was the "base" like the bottom part of it with is black on all of them.

 

you have to click on those extra options links to get the added stuff....speculation of course.

 

Added stuff?

 

There are no more M18x's in the outlet. There is no way they sold them all that fast.

 

oh yes it is...lol

side note:
added stuff...like drives cards or what ever options it shows.

 

No idea what you are talking about, i ordered a red one, got a black one, that's my problem.

As to options, i asked the guys on here what my options to deal with the situation might be.

 

I wonder what is the procedure if a customer orders a new laptop, receives it and then sends it back. I guess such a laptop cannot be sold as a new machine again, as it's been used already, so it must hit an outlet. I would assume it wouldn't be legal to sell such a laptop again as brand-new.

This prolly means that some of the laptops available via the outlet must be in excellent condition.

Guessing here. If any of you knows exactly what's the policy there, don't hesitate to explain.

 

example:
Alienware M17x R3
Processor: Intel Core i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Alienware M17x R3 Laptop
320 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (4 DIMMs)
Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
2 GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6970M


Click here for available options and upgrades
Alienware M17x R3
Category
Certified Refurbished
System Color
Soft Touch Nebula Red
Laptop Screen
17.3 inch Wide FHD (1920 x 1080 60Hz) WLED Display
Laptop Battery
9 Cell Battery
Network Interface Card
Intel 6250 Wireless-N (2x2) Half Mini-Card
Bluetooth Wireless
Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module
Keyboard
Internal English Single Pointing Keyboard
Hardware Upgrade
210W/240W switchable Slim 3P A/C Adapter
125V Power Cord
Software Upgrade
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit Operating System DVD


you would have to choose that color in the options menu
which would cost more money. taking a guess here.

but hey...if your right...your right.

side note: send it back for the right color...

 

No, the color was clearly stated under the details link.


According to your reasoning below, the battery, keyboard and screen are "options". I don't think that's right...

 

All m18's being returned up to recently were being broken down for warranty parts. I guess they had a glut of them come in and they put them on the outlet to lower their stock.

 

it was just a suggestion. when i ordered mine. i got the right color..

 

That is true! It was the case with my old outlet XPS, I just couldn't find any physical flaws

 

I guess I must be having bad luck. I can't ever seem to find a M18x in the outlet store...

 

There was 103 of them on Thursday night, then the 20% coupon came on friday and almost all of them sold in 10 hours.

 

Are these outlet M18x's the same ones that they have available for replacement? I don't see any more available so I'm wondering if I'm going to have a new one built.

 

The M18x's and others were removed because there is now a 25% off coupon for Alienwares in the Dell Home Outlet.

They want to get rid of the stuff that isn't moving otherwise, which seems to involve taking away the stuff that would sell like crazy with the 25% extra, like the M18x.

 

Mine arrived yesterday. The fan's build quality is seriously lacking, the wires just came out, the white place holders are just too fragile and feel cheap, had to do a super glue short fix on one of them.

The temps on GPU no:2 were in the 105C region after 20mins of testing some DX11 apps. Re-pasted and now down to just 74C. Both GPUs under 80C on highest benchmark and gaming loads. Haven't done a heavy Furmark run yet.

Over all build is very good except for the cheap 'Forceon' branded fans.

 

Now all you have to do is pass down or find a buyer for your G73 to get some of that money back

 

Oh no that's for my girlfriend

 

Definitely don't sell it

 

ugh missed the outlet stock

 

I scooped one up myself and thus far I couldn't be happier. Mine is also replacing a G73jh that was handed down to the sig other . Loving this machine so far.

 

Whats is your rig's spec? And if you can, the cost?

Thank you

 

Nebula Red Anodized Aluminum
2630qm
6970m Crossfire
4GB ram
320gb HD (I have a hybrid xt from my G73 so its not a problem)
Regular ol 8X DVD +/- RW Drive

The listing also said it was equipped with a wireless HD trasmitter also but I can't find anything that proves that to be true but oh well.

1471 was the price after the discount from the 20% off coupon. There were better spec'd machines but I missed out on them and this was the last of the 6970m equipped machines when I put my order in.

 

Is your actually red?

I ordered a red one and got a black one. :-(

 

Very much so yes

 

This info will be in the email dell automatically sent to your inbox on your order, the full detailed brake down.

Unless the CPU was a 2920XM it doesn't matter what you have now. Still loads of horse power for anything you can think off. And those two 6970Ms are very very good from what I can see so far.


You've got a very good lappy there

 

Yeah, seems one should never trust the description in the outlet, mine was red with killer WiFi, and came black with the 6300 WiFi. :-(

Partly my fault, it states black and 6300 in the order confirmation, but still...

 

The outlet listing is rubbish, the order email confirms what you really got. Which is indeed a shame as it misleads the buyer.

 

Just ordered a RED M18x yesterday. On the cart it was RED but in the order the Base and the Chassis was BLACK. I asked the rep who I made the purchase from and she checked and told me that the system was indeed RED (via the service tag).
We will see when the laptop gets here...

 

Couple of M18Xs up now, if anyone wants to grab 'em

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