Help-Need advice. Keep R1 or return for R2

The return department. Any number may work, just tell them you want to return your brand new lappy. Someone will try to find out why

 

Damn they are closed today. Now its in the build stage. Ill have to bug them a bunch tommorow and tell them I couldnt cancel because it was the weekend blablabla. I think I actually am going to get the i5 model, not because I care for the i5 part but because apparently, getting driver updates on the gt335m on the r1 is very hard, most seem to be community mod builds at this point, while its quite easy with the r2. Also I like the whole rubberized finish to the r2. I have to say dell is pretty lame, discontinuing driver development on the r1, which is what, a year old? Fail.

 

Where do we go to get official r2 video drivers? Alienware's website? Or will the drivers on nvidia's page work?

 

Yeah I don't know anything about the driver deal. I'm not sure how much Dell has to do with Nvidia drivers. But with video card drivers, I've always wondered what the obsession was with new ones. After a certain point, haven't they optimized the thing as much as they can?

If yours is still being built, then it would be easy to switch to the R2. When I called to switch, they told me it was shipped and offered me the deal to keep it. I think either of them are great machines and good deals at this point. But if yours hasn't shipped, I don't know why you wouldn't switch unless they made you an offer too

 

Sometimes patches are released for games or drivers are released that really screw up the performance. Having consistent driver updates helps to fix those screw ups. With that said, as long as My R2 can run Blizzard and Source-powered games at a decent clip, I can't complain (too much).

 

Yea Im calling them tommorow to switch over to an r2 unless they say...drop the price for me massively. I guess well see tommorow morning. Thanks for the advice man.

 

Just called Dell. The rep told me that if you upgrade to R2 from R1 no restocking fees. So for only ~200$ I can get i7 with stealth black finish. No deal for keeping R1, even 25$ and I would keep it without hesitation.

P.S. In a long term, the prices on ebay from R1 and i7 R2 differs form 25-30%, which is now around 300$, after some time I think the difference drops to same 200$ we have for new ones, so if you're gonna sell the rig before 1 year warranty ends it's a good investment. <- this bothers me a lot (keep or not to keep?)

 

What number did you call man? I keep getting the office that says they are closed or something dumb like that.

 

Actually they called me. On their website, when you are ordering smth there is a link "Talk", it's located at the top near "Chat", "Order support", bla-bla-bla. When you use this link in the pop-up window you enter your phone and they call you back. If the link is not there, first use "Chan now", then it should appear.
Try use this link

 

Hey guys,
I ordered my M11x R2 today, using the OP's original link. The model I opted for was the i7 + BT module, pre-tax the system was quoted at 884.55$(with 50$ coupon). Out the door the system ended up costing me 1049$ with next day shipping. I HAD to cancel my original order of the i5 model, as the i7 comes with 8gb of RAM and was actually $17 cheaper.

Also should be noted I did NOT purchase this through the Dell EPP website, this was ordered through the regular Dell website. Thanks, OP you saved me over $265 .

 

Well I got it changed to the r2, but man Ive never been on hold so long in my life. No really, Im STILL on hold...like for an hour and a half.

 

You got jipped somewhere, 459$ is what everyone was saving :/

 

Bro go ahead and cancel that order tommorow, I can still find deals through epp to get the same thing for 632. I dunno if it will still be up tommorow but if it is I suppose I can pm you the details since were not supposed to post stuff about epp deals here or something like that.

 

Well the exact numbers that were taken off from my order were $349 + $50 (for the coupon) the reason why I didn't save $469 was because I spent $69 dollars on next day shipping.

Reason I said $265 was because that was difference of the i5 system I originally had configured as opposed to the i7 ($165 for proc, $80 for ram, $20 for BT).

-AB

 

Ali_Baba got the i7 model tho, right? $884 for loaded i7 sounds like a good deal.

 

Right, fully-loaded i7 (320gb hd, switching it to SSD later on). I'm in CA so tax is kinda high and we also got this petty environmental disposal fee...

-AB

 

well congrats. Sounds like that'll be a mean gaming rig...

 

Damn man, that be speed right there.

 

Ah yeah, sounds about right then, a wild deal for us all.

 

Just bit on this deal. I received my R1 on Friday and LOVE it, but I'm a little sketchy about the driver support from Dell (and SC2 performance). With the latest WoW update, I'm noticing I can't raise the graphics slider above "fair", as the sunshaft/water patch requires the latest NVIDIA drivers.

Luckily, I have a friend that wanted to buy my R1, so I didn't need to hassle with returning the unit to Dell, or returning the memory upgrade to NewEgg.

i7 R2 for $858 with tax... amazing deal.

 

I've just checked and all these deals are dead now. Even the EPP deal. I haven't seen that $50 refund hit my credit card, so they are gonna get a phone call in a day or two. 21 days is return policy right? That leaves me just under 3 weeks. I'm very happy with it, but they'd better honor what they told me

 

In my case, they gave me a case # and told me to call back after I receive it for them to process the refund.

 

yeah I got a reference number, but was never told to call back. I was thinking I'd see it hit my card, but it has not yet. So long as I'm in the return period, I'm ok with it. but if it goes another week and I don't have a discount applied, I'll be angry....and you wouldn't like me when I'm angry....

 

C2D is extremely reliable. My Cousin uses a i7 920m with the 330m nVidia graphics card. And my R1 still beats his Acer Aspire laptop. C2D all the way. EDIT: It could also be the GPU, but the 335M uses more CUBA shaders. But the 335M is also underclocked, so overclocking the 335m could be extra useful. The 330M has better clock speed, but OC-ing is your friend.

 

After couple of day of using R1 I am very happy with that. For me battery live is very important, and mine R1 gets less 10W while constantly surfing the internet with pandora radio playing and downloading torrents via WIFI. If only torrent downloading the consumption is only ~7.5W. This is with OC CPU. Side by side with 1year old Asus ul30vt (claimed 12 hours of battery life) with 13% worn battery I've got same lifetime.
If I weren't care about battery then I would pick i7 version, but it's ~200$ more, which is a price for a good SSD.

 

I hear ya. Battery life in the r1 has been great so far. I'm looking at ssd or hybrid as well, but I'm a bit worried about the excess battery draw. Can anyone comment on any battery life lost with the momentus xt?

 

My refurb R1 just came in today. It is cosmetically flawless (phew! after all the horror stories, I had my doubts) and so far, it appears functionally flawless too. I got the 4gb/500hd model for $543 + tax. So far, I am loving it!

I currently have an R2i5/8gb/320hd on order from the awesome $636 + tax deal but am thinking I should cancel it. I know it's only ~$100 more but money is money, right??

The only potential pros I see for an R2i5 vs. an R1 are as follows:

1) Faster processor -- True, but based on everything I read on this forum, it appears that an overclocked R1 can perform within the same ballpark of an R2i5, with the possible exception of heavy CPU-based games like Civ 5 or SC2 which I don't play. I play mostly WoW and Sims 2. I may occasionally break out my old copy of Civ 3 which I would imagine the R1 can handle with ease, and if not, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. Furthermore, in lieu of a faster processor, the R1 makes up for it with longer battery life, which is something I can benefit from every day.

2) Driver support -- It does suck that WoW requires the new Nvidia drivers to get the special effects but honestly, I always play with all graphics set on low anyway. I know this is not an acceptable option for some people but I can live with it.

3) 8gb RAM -- I keep reading that unless I'm doing heavy video encoding or running multiple VMs or other intensive processing (which I don't do), I won't be able to tell the difference between 8 vs 4gb RAM for day-to-day tasks--surfing the web, Netflix, Microsoft Office, etc. Nor does it help in gaming. If that's the case, then there's no point having 8gb.

4) Soft touch stealth black -- This is debatable. I have not seen the soft touch stealth black in person but I am loving the metallic sheen of my cosmic black R1, which is the antithesis of the soft touch.

5) Better resale value -- This is also debatable. But in any case, why pay an extra 20% today for the mere possibility of a higher return a year or two from now. I can throw that money into my 401k and probably get better returns.

Hope this analysis helps someone. I do think a big part of it was just the luck of the draw--if I had gotten a banged-up unit like some of the others here did, I probably would have just returned it for the R2.

 

Faced with the same dilemma ($100 difference), I feel comfortable with the R1. The C2D seems to be snappy enough for regular tasks and from reading different threads, seems to handle overclocking well (every chip is different, ymmv). I have not OC'd yet so I can't speak from experience. But reading threads, the R2 seems more finicky with overclock and driver/gaming issues. Again, I don't have an R2 so I'm sure many R2 owners might disagree. But that is the feel I get from the forum. You nabbed a good deal before it disappeared, so it is tough to say you should cancel it. Added RAM and newer processor certainly looks more appealing in resale. Tough call. R1 definately seems to sip the battery if that is important to you, R2 may draw more juice