[-OFFICIAL-] Alienware M17x Owners' Lounge

He needed to change his underwear after that. He was actually quite entertaining. Those other videos with those Mac guys had a bug up their arse.

 

Way to justify that. What I saw was $800 for the vertex vs. $400 upgrade for the Sammy. Good deal!!

 

I wouldn't bother. Most people are excited to get their laptop and pay right away. Don't sell it out of the country. Worst that will happen is you get a negative mark in eBay.

 

^

I can guarantee you that when I upgrade to RAID 0 SSD's next yaer, they will BOTH cost LESS than the $400 upgrade for ONE Samsung SSD now

And I am sure the seq read/writes will be faster as well.....

 

I was gonna suggest that, but there was a whole lot of SSD negativity going on.

 

I wouldn't bet against it. Your M17x will retail for $1500 also.

 

I only paid $2k for it now, so that isn't bad. I like to do my own stuff to my computers.

If you like getting everything all at once, then more power to ya!

 

Definitely the way to go.

Reports are prices on SSD should drop by as much as half by Christmas.

 

According to an article in Laptop magazine, there was no speed advantage when loading Vista.

 

yeah, vista wasn't really optimised for SSDs yet. win7, and future OSes, on the other hand...

 

That article is misleading at best.

 

I am waiting, at a minimum, for the TRIM command support.

That way I won't have to use HDDErase every 4 months and re-image to clean up speed times

 

My first part of my new setup just came in. I took advantage of that Tiger Direct deal for the Logitech speakers. I don't plan on hooking the M17x into my home theater so I wanted a separate set of speakers. Processor is next!

 

But you'll also need hardware that makes use of Win7's features like TRIM.

OCZ Vertex is the only SSD I know right now that supports it.

 

Firmware updates or wait for the Calpella systems?

 

I believe there are 3 other drives that is the exact hardware as the vertex. I assume those would also assuming they had the firmware capabilities.

 

If they offer a firmware update. Not every SSD can or will.

 

There probably are. I didn't mean to make it sound like OCZ was the only one just that it was the only one I knew of.

From what I've read the Samsungs Dell use don't support TRIM.

 

I'd probably upgrade the whole systems before changing.

On a side note I can't be the only one here diving into SSD for the first time with this purchase, am I?

 

It will be my first SSD also.

Right now though I'm thinking about just getting a small 16 or 32Gb Mini PCIe SSD to install Windows to tide me over. When I get a real SSD I'll move the small one to the netbook or CULV I'm also looking to purchase.

 

Make sure you get at least 32Gb. I'm using a 32Gb SSD for my OS and just a few other things and only have 8Gb of free space.

I've disabled "hibernate" so there are none of those files being written. I've also adjusted the max capacity for restore points to 5GB and only create a sys. restore point weekly.

In addition, I have moved all the items in the "users" folder to my D drive to save space.

 

My expectations are high so i'll probably be disappointed.

Roughly 5-7 years ago I actually tested out an array of SSD drives for work. Technology is slightly different now but I remember it cost around $50K. We wanted to test it because disk seemed to be a huge bottle neck with our application. We found out with further testing that adding more ram and tweaking the app made it perform better. At least it was only a demo unit.

 

if your looking to be disappointed, then you have already set your mind to finding faults.
i was skeptical at first and the cost was a consideration, but i remained open and did not expect anything...
i am now glad i got the SSD, and my expereince has been exeptional since.

 

Well I took the dive:

SYSTEM COLOR Space Black – Anodized Aluminum
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
VIDEO CARD Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
LCD PANEL 17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz – 2 x 2048MB
HARD DRIVE 250GB 7,200RPM w/ Free Fall Protection
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Load Dual Layer Blu-ray Combo (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1 Yr Ltd Warranty with 1 Yr NBD Onsite Service with Complete Care and 1 Yr Tech Support

 

Congrats, the complete care warranty is the way to go!

 

congrats on the purchase

 

In the future I would want to extend my warranty and my rep told me that I'd have to have complete care in the first place to keep it extended. One question I have tho. Can you upgrade from the T9600 to the the QX9300?

Thanks.

 

definitely

Edit: I don't know if my upgrade is possible yet...

 

The dell guy i was talking to called me at home today. Processor and space black chassis are still in demand/backorder. They are getting more from manufacturers as soon as they can. He didn't delve into to much more info. Also, are there any non dangerous music downloading programs...for free =P saw someone say a bad thing about limewire, I've had it for awhile luckily I'm fine?

 

if you buy an alienware with only the standard warranty can you upgrade that warranty down the road? how long do you have until you can extend the warranty? is it like Apple care where you only have one year?

 

yes you can upgrade down the road

 

Do you have to do it with in the first year?

 

It will be cheaper to extend/upgrade while you are still under warranty, but you can extend/upgrade an expired warranty.

 

before it expires.

 

you can upgrade any time you want.

 

Woah!! thats insane!!!

 

I remember them in the past offering me a discount around the time of expiration. Do they still do that?

 

Yeah, I have gotten the email about the warranty expiring soon but I am not sure if they still give the discount.

 

With lenovo if I extended the warranty, I could buy accessories and whatever the price of the accessory was they subtracted that off the price of the warranty cost. So I did a little shopping when I extended 2 more years.

 

Keep in mind that extended warranties are only as good as the company that backs them. So far, I haven't heard a lot of good news from Dell in that department.

CR recommends you save that money, and get any repairs done yourself.

 

Your a funny guy

Dell's warranties are the best in the business.

I had an XPS M170 replaced with a M1730 When needed, I had parts shipped to me to install that no other manufacturer would let you do yourself (ie mobos, gpu's, etc).

 

Funny is not my intent, being an educated consumer is. If you maintain that Dell has the best warranties in the business, than you're live in a different dimension than the rest of us.

 

Right.... Keep believing what you want.

My experience with Dell's warranties have been nothing short of outstanding.
For instance, on my M1730, I had a return to depot (mail-in) warranty and I was able to get all parts sent to me for repairs.
Good luck getting Sony or Toshiba to do something like that for you

Also, what exactly went wrong with your warranty issues with Dell? Which system(s) did you have problems with?

Do you know that 1 mobo swap would cost you about $500 with the M17x? Or the dual 280's probably $500 per card? I'd say an "educated" consumer would opt for a warranty extension that might cost $99 per year (for basic coverage - no cc, etc).

 

hummm im just wondering how i am going to sell my laptop now

 

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Sorry, Moo.... Keep trying!

 

I agree, Dell warranties have never let me down

 

Yeah Dell has been Great for me as well, and they are one of the few companies that give discounts... I can understand where your position is if you have had a bad experience but I think you should give it a second chance

 

Dell warranty in 1st class........I had a m2300 replaced by CC. Best money I ever spent.

 

Moo, have you tried craigslist yet? and also make a video demonstrating the laptop, its performance... many people respond much better to viual things, it is called infotainment... We are Americans after all

 

An M1330 or M1530 owner is likely to have an extremely different view of Dell warranty service. I'm just saying, personal experience is not the best barometer, good or bad.