M17 parts that are on backorder!

I just got off the phone with an Alienware Rep and was told that the secondary video card for the M17 is on backorder until the 24th of March. He also told me that the Chassis (which includes the primary video card, motherboard and other cards) is on backorder and they have no Idea when they will arrive. So in short, he has no Idea when the construction of my M17 will begin.

I hope the M17 isn't going the way of the whitebook. Is anyone else having the same backorder issues?

I have read that lots of people got their A.W.'s on time but it's looking like I'M going to end up very delayed like my last A.W. purchase.

 

What is the difference between the primary and secondary?

Mine not only look identical, they have the same PN stamped on them.

 

They are physically the same but are flashed with a different bios. Because of this they aren't interchangable. I guess A.W. doesn't flash their own video cards.

 

yea Robs right. the bios is flashed differnt

they said the same thing about the parts for mine but i got a email the next day saying they got in ...so be hopeful

 

Thx Mr.Moo,
I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

Rob and I ordered similar systems at the same time - guess we're in the same boat on this one...

On the flip side, this gives me more time to try to decide if I want to upgrade anything before they start building it.... not sure if that's good or not!

 

What are your spec's jeffreyac?

 

As ordered, it's an M17 in a ripley case, X9100 dual core(3.06G/6MB cache), the dual cards, 1920x1200 screen, illuminated keyboard, 64 bit vista w/4G RAM, 320G/7200RPM HDD, lightscribe DVD/CD burner, ultimate N 5300 a/b/g/draft-n mini card.

Opted for the 3 year warranty, as I just lost my last laptop at the 1.4 year mark (on a one-year warranty), and I don't want to repeat that!

The upgrades I'm struggling with are getting a TV tuner (I can't see me using it now, but I plan on having this thing a while, and it seems for the cost to be a reasonable 'just-in-case' option to add) and, the biggest one, going to a 256GB solid-state hard drive. (You may have seen my thread in here on that issue, soliciting advice! )

I can't see me going for the dual hard drive option for the solid state drives, but I am really close to upgrading to the single 256G option. My only fear is, as I ordered through AAFES, i wonder if I can call alienware and upgrade the order. I know if I have to go through AAFES, it'll amount to cancelling the order and redoing it, and I don't want to do that - though, I guess, with the delay in parts it may not be that much of a big deal. It'd just be a pain!

 

My M17 is on hold as well due to the graphics card. Does this have anything to do with the fact that the 4870 card may be out on March 23 2009?

 

When 2010?

edit: btw, that was a joke.

 

Sounds like a sweet rig jeffrayac! I got the lower res so I can read stuff easier and I got the tv tuner so I can watch AFRTS. I'd say go ahead with the SSD. I know I will NEVER use anything else.
I would be worried about changing my order through AAFES too. I'd get the SSD from Newegg and go with the OCZ Vertex series; it's got amazing spec's.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&N=2013240636 50001550 4804&name=New Product

Mr.Z, I wish that were the case. I don't think tghey're holding up our orders for a free upgrade or something. I think the secondary 3870's are just as they say, "on backorder".

 

Yeah, if I elect to change, I'll contact alienware directly and see if they can bill me directly for any difference. I'll have to pay tax on the upgrade, perhaps, but I think I'd rather do that than start all over, unless it becomes my only option.

I looked at the newegg cards, but the least expensive 256GB SSD there run $490, and that one you showed me (I did look at that one - no doubt, it is sweet!) runs $775; to have alienware upgrade directly would be $425. One thing I am unsure of - does anyone know what brand/type drive alienware puts in for the 256G SSD? It'd help me decide if I could look at the read/write performance of what they used, and compare it to, say, the monster drive Rob41 linked....

Oh, and are all drives essentially the same size? That is, if I did upgrade myself, would it just be a pull-and-replace of the old drive for the new SSD, or is there more to it than that?

 

well I never received an email for mine that I ordered on the 13th, i've been on phase 4 now for 2 days, hopefully mine has all the parts :-/

 

Yeah jeffrayac,
the notebook size is the same as a HDD notebook size (2.5"). I use small size SSD's so if you have a lot of movies, music, pictures do like I do and put them on an external drive. Mine are really small at 32Gb each for a total of 64Gb. I still manage to have a few games installed, about 5Gb of music and a lot of pictures. I just put my movies and extra music on my external.

You could get two of these for less and get much better performance than what A.W uses.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227394

Even if you go with the A.W. installed single SSD you'll still have better performance and reliability than with a conventional HDD.

 

no thats the wrong month and they will not dicountinue the 3870's offered for the m17. if any thing they will phase them out. and if you ment march 23 then thats proably not gonna happen ... maybe april 23

 

huh, i didnt follow the news for a while, is there a date settled for delivering the hd 4870?

 

Nothing official yet.

 

Not 'official', but I cancelled my original order and re-ordered today (to upgrade to SSD's) and the estimated ship date from the AAFES confirmation email was Apr. 2nd. This seems to fall in line with previous info from alienware, who said they'd get the cards on the 23rd, release them to production on the 24th, and need about 5 business days to complete the build.

I say unofficial, as the info comes to me via an email from AAFES, and not direct from alienware - in fact, the alienware site still lists an estimated ship date of 24 March if you go in to build one for fun. However, I'm thinking it may be legit, as I don't know where AAFES would have come up with that date, except from Alienware...

 

How long does it take to go from Phase 4 to Phase 9? I've been on four since Monday now. Any possibility for it to ship Friday?

 

took 34 days for mine to ship

 

Did it ever send you backordered email or just took that long with no explaination?

 

i emailed them a crap load lol i finally by the 30th day i send a pm to CS and alienware armando saying if it didnt ship by the end of the week i was cancelling and it shipped that night

i had a backordered part that had came in the next day i ordered the 23 and it was backordered the 6 it took 2 weeks to get through phase 2 ... then the part arrived late that night and went into phase 7 testing and then failed testing and went back to 6 and sat there for 2 weeks ..

 

aehem, pls enlighten me, what is AAFES ?

phase 4 to 9 in 1 day
(but hthen dhl decided to let my package wait in the station for approx 3 days and then though that my new laptop would like to have a sightseeing thru north- germany on the truck for another 3 days...

 

Oh, I'm sorry - forgot which post I was in... AAFES is the Army/Air Force Exchange Service, they run all the military (well, army and air force anyway) stores like the commisary and base/post exchange.

They also have deals with Dell and Alienware as vendors, so military members can order computer stuff through them - saves tax and shipping, as the AAFES stuff is tax free and frequently has free shipping offered. Rob41 has a thread about his experience in ordering his through them somewhere on here, I believe (and I ordered mine through them as well)...

 

ah, i see. no taxes and free shipping: sounds cool

i cant wait to see what price aw wants for the m17 with hd4870 xfired. maybe i buy it again, although im keen on the 18.4" sager/clevo aswell

 

It is... The pros are cheaper w/ no taxes or shipping, the cons are a little more delay as your order has to go through AAFES first, then on to AW; you can't check your order online at the alienware website; and you can't really change your order through AAFES - if you want to change something (as I did!) you have to cancel the first order and create a new order.

All in all, probably still a good deal - though it's driving my little obsessive-compulsive brain nuts not being able to click on the link and check my status all day...

Like I said, Rob41 has a thread on his experience with the AAFES ordering system - if you're curious, it should be in one of the first few pages, as it wasn't too long ago.

 

Well I was concerned whether or not my parts were actually on back order, do to the fact of upcoming unit movements and that if my M17 doesn't ship this week i'll probably have to wait an additional 2-4 weeks to receive it. So I emailed AW and asked whether or not it was on backorder and an estimated ship date, check my email after 13 hours of work, and got a reply that it was delayed, but then go online to check I had moved from phase 4 to 5, so was the email right and i'll be stuck on 5 for awhile, or wrong and I should be shipped shortly all things go well?

 

I just revieved this email today and called to varify.

From: order_status@alienware .com
Subject: Alienware Order Status
Date: March 19, 2009

Your system is now in production.


If you have any questions concerning your order status, please do not
hesitate to contact us by replying to this e-mail.
You may also click on the following link to view your order status online,
real-time, 24 hours a day, any day:

Sincerely,

Alienware
............
They may have recieved some video cards or had some, they just told me my M17 may be shipped on Monday.

 

Yah I got the same email, hopefully it gets off asap so I can get it soon. Ugh having to wait an extra 10-14 days to get it after it ships

 

guess you've got a good seed in the Alienware production tournament.. I just checked, through calling the alienware support number, and mine still shows awaiting parts.

 

Mines now in phase 6, hopefully it ships monday, and it'll be a race to get here before my units mail stops on the 1st for the upcoming movement :-/

 

Mine is still in phase 5 i think they put it there to stop me from calling customer service every 5 hours LOL

 

wow prices dropped since i checked last, its gettin cheaper n cheaper

 

Got word today that the ship date on my ordered M17 system was likely to be Friday (27 March), or Monday (30 March) at the latest. So it sounds like the parts are in and they're in production...

 

Great to hear jeffreyac!

 

Did they, by chance, tell you "OH AND they are equipped with 4870's, BTW."? Come on Alienware... whats taking so long! D= I WANT A 260GTX on the m15x, d@mn it!

I just noticed I cant say d@mn.

 

thats because of the filter, its there so people do not cuss .... which usually results in a infraction

AW is takeing there time to make it work right. They are working with flex to try to revamp the cooling, i would rather my m17 run nicely then a super hot m5550 or m15x

 

lol... nope, they neglected to mention anything about upgrades... I'm actually working through AAFES, so I don't get to talk to Alienware directly - but the AAFES guy called today, and that's what he was told. I hate getting information secondhand like this!

 

they re modifying the cooling-system? youre sure? officialy confirmed info?

 

That scares me... i've had heat issues with my last 2 desktops and my last laptop, and was hoping to finally get one with good cooling for the high-end components to make it less of a worry. (I say 'less' because I understand with this level of performance, heat is always going to be at least something you'll think about...)

At any rate, if anyone needs me, i'll be over reviewing the various "how to keep your notebook cool" articles..

 

no the cooling is fine for the 3870's

the 4870's ddr5 are going to be alot hotter but some members here have sold Whitebooks and they talked to OCZ while they had it and OCZ said that they were working with Flex. So i guess AW is now workign with them. Every one knew there was going to be heat issues so .... just time to sort it out

the m17 is fine as far as cooling

 

Ya know,
There is a ton of rumor, speculation, and second hand assumptions from......I don't really know where. I haven't seen anything official from Alienware that says we're getting 4870's w/ddr5 or that there is a heating issue. I'm not sure asking a "rep", unofficially of course, is any kind of confirmation. Although some of these rumors may come to pass the truth is we just don't know yet. If anyone can provide a link to an "official" Alienware document about this I'd love to read it, but as far as "a good source told me" or "heard it from a rep", I'll take that with a grain of salt.

Like others, I too am looking forward to what A.W. has to offer next and am hopeful it will live up to or exceed expectations. IMHO

 

Yeah, certainly no graphics upgrades, and i think the heat thing was just mentioned (first I'd heard it mentioned, and sounds like a false alarm, clearly...) You know how the internet is, though - something gets mentioned, quoted out of context somewhere else, and pretty soon it's "a reliable source told me..."



I'll just be happy to get my M17, as ordered, in a reasonable amount of time...

 

Well, as always, until it is, "official," all things are off the record. This goes for just about anything not meant to be said until official releases or authorized PR. You're not going to get a confirmation officially because who wants to lose their job?

And you never know. It might not pan out. There could be heat issues or a need for a different Heatsink/physical issues.

It's fun speculating and chasing ghosts, though.

 

I think it would be really funny if the next cards were GTX 260's or GTX 280's. It would be cool too. Or would that be 2cool? Er..2hot?

 

cool x2 is what asus would call it.. scnr ....

 

Nice mimime!

 

lol i talked to a roswell agent other then that nothing "offical".

rk computers confirmed that the 4870's would be shipped with the OCZ Whitebook before it was killed. So the white book will support the 4870s

the heat issue is there, even if 4870's come out or not, if right now you tried to put 4870's in there they would over heat.

I personally think 4870's are coming this is a high end laptop and the OCZ whitebook has potential and more then likely AW is going to invest into it now since their the sole distro for them

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=355235
this is the conversation i had with the rep.

ROb
the m17 can only fit 1 nivida card not 2

 

That does sound promising, but has anyone considered the application of GTX280's in SLI? I've read articles stating that the GTX280 is almost up tospeed with 4870's in crossfire and even exceeds them in some applications. Can you imagine what the GTX280's would be capable of in SLI? Maybe A.W. will surprise us with this, if not in the M17 then the next platform......i7?

I'd like to see GTX280 SLI now cause the tech is here now.

MR.Moo, Why only one?

 

one of the slots is differnt then the other... i cant remeber exactly its a differnt mxm slot i think.

the only 4870's out now are the ddr3 just wait for the ddr5 version