Dell upgraded me to Alienware 15x: questions for you

Hi guys! I was a dell xps studio owner until my computer pretty much blew up... After they sent me three replacements ( all of which were incredibly defective) they let me build an alienware within reason here is what i got ( i also have a question about a ram upgrade) :

m15x
windows 7
i7 Q820 1.73-3.06 ghz
6 gig ram ( read below, they are changing this)
nvidia 1gig 260m
500gig 7,200 hd
9-cell battery


I have a few questions.

The first being the Ram, my old comp had 8 gigs of 1333mhz ram, so alienware promised to upgrade me to this standard.. is there any specific model or brand I should ask for?

Second. How easy is this computer to open up and clean? I plan on taking really good care of it ( it is the nicest laptop I have ever owned!).. I want to keep it dust, and spy ware free and I only plan on loading games onto it.

third. does this computer have any known heating issues? I HATED the heating on my dells, i had to undervolt everything plus by coolers, just to get a tolerable heat. So far It seems like the computer is just warm and It seemed to stay that way after a full night of gaming. Do the fans wear out? will they need to be replaced? This is probably my biggest fear.

last. I have about 1year and 4 months left on my warranty from my old laptop. Now that I have this alienware I'd really like to get it extended to cover this computer for the next 3-4 years. Is this unheard of?

Thanks so much! Hopefully I didn't ask too much!

 

Heat? No problems, Alienware has exceptional cooling. You can call and get your warranty upgraded. Also if your really into gaming, the M15x can take the AT 5870 GPU. BIOS supports it, but dell didn't release the card with the system.

 

ahh thanks mate. I'm going to upgrade my warranty tomorrow I think. I hope they send me the 8 gigs of ram. I don't think I have the extra money to be spending on a 400 dollar graphics card. I play darkfall online and if i turn the graphics all the way down I can run it crystal clear... Now I know they are going to upgrade the game to direct x 11 sooner or later, but it is super nice to have the option to upgrade my card! i'm just so worried about the overheating thing. but i guess i have many years of warranty to cover that!

 

Yea, one of the strongest points of Alienware is the cooling system. In my M17x I never had temps get over 65*, CPU or GPU. Same thing in my M11x. Temps are the least of my worries. And that includes some overclocking and benchmarking.

 

Just so you know, you can configure the system with an ATi Mobility 5850. That supports DX11, eyefinity, and is more powerful than nVidia's GTX 260M. (Yes, even though the 5850 is cheaper...it's more powerful)

So you might want to configure that. I don't think Dell will mind giving you the 'cheaper' graphics card.

 

And also to second what DR650SE has said, I own a m15x and have owned studio xps 16, xps 1530 and plenty of others and this is by far the coolest running laptop I have owned.
The palm rests and keyboard dont even get remotely warm and the internal temps are great too!

With regards to cleaning, you only need to unscrew 2 small screws and the bottom plate slides off giving you access to all important components and fans

 

How can I view the temps on the M15? My desktop was easy but I can't seem to find it on the M15x.

 

Temps:

HWInfo32: HWiNFO32 Download

HardwareMonitor: CPUID

/10char

 

ok so when dell calls me today, should I ask that they send me over a 5850 and the 8 gigs of ram? Is it really worth the extra trouble, knowing that they are going to give me a refurbished graphics card... plus, will that fit onto my motherboard already? HOW much better is it? enough of a difference to go through the extra trouble? Will it make my system run any hotter? Would it just be worth saving my money and purchasing a 5870?

 

I think its a 300$ or 200$ upgrade from 6 to 8 GB ram so if you can get it free I would go for it.

 

you can't get a refurbished video card. Since no one has even received a new one yet. The replacement stock is New stock. At least for now.