Buying m15x Smart Bay accessories separately from order.

I was wondering when they would be offering the smartbay batteries and HDDs in the Gear Shop, not just when you're ordering the m15x. Anyone have any info on this? Can you call and order them over the phone?

 

some people have posted about ordering them on the phone. I intend to try to order on the phone in a few weeks (when my laptop is well into the production phase)...

if you want to wait, i can tell you then, or someone with experience can come answer.

 

Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated, whenever you get it. Thanks!

If anyone has any pictures or can take some pics of their smartbay batteries and HDDS please post them in here, along with any info you have about ordering them! Thanks!

 

can do. bear in mind that i'll likely be ordering in a week and a half to two weeks, as my m15x is due to be shipped out early in april. (unless i get lucky and they decide to work fast)

 

you order off the phone. and you get a discount. im not really intrested in the smart bay. i dont need more battery life or more hd space. i might buy a blu ray drive. im not sure if i can buy it and it might be too expensive.

 

I wouldn't mind having another HDD. It depends on how rugged they are while out of the laptop. They might wanna think about making cases for them while they're out of the bay.

 

yea. i was deciding between a western digital passport 320gb and the smart bay hd. i chose the passport because

1) not a proprietary connection.
2) i can use with all my computers/ 360
3) i dont have to switch out drives. that can get annoying because i hate thoose " windows cannot stop the drive because its in use" warnings.
4) it was way cheap got it for 150.

yeah they should come with an alien style case for the SB accessories.

 

Once I received my m15x then called and ordered my battery a week later. To me the battery was well worth it because I don't really use my DVD drive. Here are some pics of the battery.

 

I appreciate the pics and info! How much was the battery? It looks like it could survive in a briefcase, but I would rather have at the very least a sleeve on it.

Since you have first-hand knowledge, how long do both batteries last?

 

Its pretty strong it will have no problem a briefcase if you notice in the pic there is a nick on the gray part thats because I forgot it in my trunk one day and accidentally put a spare tire on top if it and it took a little chunk out. Still works great I don't really ever take it out of my pc anymore. As for your question how long it will last well it all depends on your settings if you switch to integrated graphics and power saver mode. I've had it last over 5 hrs and also it depends on what your doing. It went over 5 hrs one time I was just using a terminal program walking away for a little bit and then coming back every once and a while. Check out this pic I took one time while surfing the forums.

 

Over 7 hours??? I know that changes constantly, but still thats pretty damn awesome!

How much was the battery on it's own?

 

If I remember correctly it was 78 including shipping.

 

thats a pretty cheap. but whats the true battery life?

 

can anyone else verify that battery life?!

 

That is an AWESOME price for this kind of performance boost in the mobility department! Wowsers... I definitely have to get one!

 

what are your payment options when you order over the phone?

 

credit card

 

I tried to order one but the salesman said i am wasting my money on SSD and the cage for it so he refused to get me one.

That's a nice salesman i reckon.

 

wow thats pretty rude.

 

What? He didn't want to sell you the SSD? How rude..

 

I also ordered Smartbay battery (together with backpack and longer warranty from 1 to 3 years) via email and AW requested to confirm the order by phone. No problems, everything arrived very quickly.

And I can also confirm that the price was aproximately by 40% lower than the prices on the website... nice

 

Wow! That is definitely a remarkable difference. I'm quite pleased with the information I'm able to find on these forums. Thanks for sharing that

 

i will probably get one later on in 2 years when teh price is like $100

right now even the salesman said teh price of $1500 for a 64 gig from Alienware is not a good price.

 

Well I learn from Alienware it best to buy basic. Then over time in 10 Month or less Upgrade what needs to be upgraded. Like Hard drives Grapics card and cpu.

 

I ordered a SB Battery when i ordered a case for my m15x (which, for whatever reason, came engraved with "ALX" .. i'm confused)...

anyways, the Battery is great. I ordered by phone and shipment was amazingly quick.

 

I get about 6+ hours of life. But, I can probably squeeze out more if I lower the lighting on my display.

Like Mystik, I got the SB battery the same week that I ordered it. And I got it for about 78 dollars through the Roswell Crew.

I recommend the SB battery, it is great!

 

I can verify that. about 6hrs in BinaryGFX with wifi ON. I've seen it, and experienced it. I usually want the screen to be brighter, because I work frequently in daylight and don't mind the hit to battery life... But if you were to use it at a low brightness, everything off (BT and Wifi), in stealth, with the power-saver profile and no AlienFX... you could realistically see 7+hrs.

 

Okay I've updated my last post with the SB battery time and picture. It's on power saver mode with the lowest brightness settings and turned off the camera, bluetooth,AlienFX, wifi and running on integrated graphics mode. wow. almost 8hours! But, realistically speaking, I use it on brightness level 3 and usually with wifi on and take the hit in battery time.

 

yep, it's incredible to think a gaming laptop (at heart) can squeeze out so much battery power as to beat even the most portable laptops.

 

Well... with SB the battery life does get extended A LOT. But on batteries, this laptop is as much a gaming laptop as a pocket PC.
A negative point of the portability is that you don't have an option to use your M15x at normal power when on batteries. When on batteries it's an average-low power laptop (as both CPU and GPU get downclocked).

 

yeah, no doubt, it's hardly a performance machine when you're drawing out the battery life. That said, the fact that it has the ability to do so when needed is great and incredibly convenient.

 

It is incredible in fact... But I would really like to see AW allowing us to burn that battery juice for 10 minutes of raw power playing crysis while waiting for my flight!

 

yes I do agree with that, have some type of software override

 

lol. They do have power sockets in the airport!

 

Well you can actually play Crysis for an hour on just th eone battery with full brightness and sound. I think that's bad ass.

 

Well... with 2 FPS? It's downclocks the GPU on batteries. If there's something it won't be pleasant to do is gaming while on batteries.

 

Is it just me, or does that look EXACTLY like the Dell D-Bay modules from the Latitude series... could this be a cheap solution?

 

I don't know, try it and see if it works...

 

Love to, but sadly no M15X to try it on...

Anyone out there with both a Latitude and an M15X?

 

Yea, I did the same when I got my m15x, and ordered a smart bay battery and smart bay hd loader that I used to put a spare 320gb drive into. What AW doesn't tell you is that any item you order through technical support/parts, you get a heavily discounted price compared to what you pay when customizing the order online.

Last year, I posted a detailed post and price breakdown on how much money I saved on my m9700 by ordering the extra video card for SLI, memory and hd from newegg and just installing everything myself. I got flamed off NBF because people felt like I was bashing AW which I wasn't, just trying to save some cash! The card was literally half the online price. I think online at the time it was $400 more and I got it through parts for $198 or some ridiculously low price. It's not necessarily a swindling scheme by AW, just typical of all pc manufacturers.

 

Haha, what do you know, I found it here. Wow, I had forgotten what a fight that thread turned into. Maybe I was a little more argumentative than I remember. Anyway, it just goes to show how much some people can save when ordering an AW online if they are smart about it.

 

That drive thing won't fix, the connector is different. The connecter on it looks more like the connector on the m15x main battery.

 

Hello, i was wandering if the situation in finding if the dell battery packs fit the alienware smart dock, if you can send pictures including the connection and the sticker on the upper surface, i can compare them on my end



these are the specs on my DELL smart battery,
type 4R084 - Dell battery module
li-polymer battery
rating: 11.1 volts - 4320 milli ampere hours - capacity: 48 what-hours
dell product number: 4X530 A00
there is a solid upper line, then a dashed lower line after the voltage.



if anyone has a m15x with the smart battery, or knows a lot about one, can you see if the specs match, or even better, a picture!

thanks,
Antony

 

Hmm. I orderd the SB Blu-ray burner separate from the machine and was offered the drive for a higher price then if I had ordered straight away while buying my m15x. I argued for a discount but the order still came out to more then what I could have payed initially when shipping was included. Did I get ripped off or are some items just not cheaper?