*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M15x Owners Lounge, *Part 3*

Hi guys, two weeks old owner of M15x here! :-D

Just wanted to ask a question about M15x screen, does yours bleeds little white color in top and bottom in the middle of screen if you have black background on? Please let me know, i just noticed it myself, just wanted to make sure i am not overreacting or anything.

 

Ah i lost the connection to the rep, so i'm going to start a new one.

What all did you guys ask for while talking to the reps? How did you do it?

 

@ steelcurtain11 : Yeah what inappropiatename said!! General rule of thumb when speaking to Dell employees:

Repeatedly demand for a better price and do not show weakness/fatigue/shame in doing so. Hassle them to the point of exhaustion. And when that fails, proceed on to plan B:

Repeatedly demand for MORE accessories/options/warranty for the SAME price and do not show weakness/fatigue/shame in doing so. Hassle them to the point of exhaustion. When that fails, proceed back to plan A ... You get the picture lol...

Thats what i did and got a carrying case, microsoft bluetrack technology mouse (works on any surface, not too shabby) and the 300$ discount 2 days after the sale ended because i told them i saved my cart and it somehow disappeared and the last sales rep i spoke to was going to give it to me . SHould've worked more on the warranty maybe, but ehh, for a year i'll tough it out and then upgrade to the now called " advanced care" package.

EDIT: notice how i've been on all night? I think i've caught AW fever as i'm receiving my lappy tomorrow and can't stop thinking about it!! ... I'm going to be dreaming of M15x's all night, then a longgggg painful day at work, and finally, tomorrow night, i shall INDULGE

I'm so excited I feel like jumping up n down like a grade 7 schoolgirl LOL

 

I paid $1780 shipped to California for my m15x pending delivery on the 12th just wanted to make sure I got a good deal. Purchased last night.

Specs:
Base System Color Alienware M15x, Cosmic Black
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz (2.8GHz
Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
Memory 3GB DDR3 at 1333MHz
LCD Display 15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED
Video Card 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M
Hard Drive 250GB SATAII 7,200RPM
Nameplate Personalized Nameplate (Anand00x)
AlienFX AlienFX Nova Yellow
Avatar Alienhead Glow
Adobe Reader
Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader
Optical Drives Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Wireless Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: On
Primary Battery Primary - 6-cell (56Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery
Service 1 Year Basic Service Plan
Factory Installed
Games World of Warcraft Preinstall Edition
Factory Installed
Games Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed
Wallpapers Alienhead Glow
Bluetooth Internal Bluetooth 2.1 Mini-Card - 2.1 Enhanced Data Rate
Standard
Nameplate Trigger

 

i personally just call them, once they have you on the line and ready to order, they will do whatever they can so you don't hang up. so just haggle it up, lol.

 

Bleh, well after a delay with Fedex to deliver my laptop today, it is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. Althought there are no updates on the tracking page. All it says is that the package was picked up at 6:00 am this morning in Nashville, TN. No tracking info is on the site... so is it stuck or whats going on? I thought FEDEX EXPRESS updates on every step of the package... so whats going on...

 

with tax and shipping, looks good to me. awesome welcome to the family,lol

@ pukalo, i'm sure it will come tomorrow, oh the joys of unboxing.

 

don't sweat it, you should get it by tomorrow. Same for me, just this morning it said "in production" on the dell site. now apprently im getting it tomorrow. They do a lousy job on updating the website promptly, both dell and well purolator for me, (fedex probably same thing). My tracking number doesn't even work yet on the website, but i received an automated msg from purolator saying it's being delievered to my house tomorrow.

 

I just ordered it yesterday can I call them to get a better warranty and or accessories by threatening to cancel my order haha?

 

Yeah nice system anand00x Oh how i love that our family is indeed growing lolll

 

Trying won't hurt

 

dang i can't seem to get through to another rep.. even though they're supposed to be open another 36 minutes... I'll just try tomorrow after classes and try to haggle it down!

I love these forums.

 

Was up fellas, I've been along time lurker and took the plunge. I bought this for work, so games will not be played on it, I have a I-7 cpu comeing for my desktop to take care of that! Here are my specs:
1 224-6812 BASE,NBK,ANW,BLK,M15X
1 317-2396 Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
1 317-2401 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz 1 x 2048MB + 1 x 4096MB
1 320-0934 15.6-inch WideHD+ 1600x900 (900p) WLED
1 320-0937 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M
1 341-9753 320GB SATAII 7,200RPM
1 330-6174 Personalized Nameplate
1 330-6106 Personalized Nameplate Trigger
1 313-8791 AlienFX Color, Mars Red
1 421-1590 Alienware Command Center Software
1 421-1398 Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
1 420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp 2.0 Basic
1 420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 421-1586 Alienhead Chrome Red
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 313-8565 Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 421-1304 CyberLink PowerDVD 8.0 Software
1 421-1305 Nero 9 Media Burning Software
1 313-8944 5.1 Channel Audio
1 430-0686 Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card
1 330-6348 Automatic Updates: On
1 312-0206 Primary - 9-cell (85Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery

I cant wait, delivery date of 2-9...Im so impatient!

 

Also I wanted to share my warranty upgrade experiance w/ you guys. Apparently you have to wait 30 days atleast before you try and up grade your warranty. Here is my chat conversation which ate up 45 minutes of my life!lol Pay attention to the time stamp!

8:38:26 PM System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
8:38:27 PM System Connected with BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis
8:38:36 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis Welcome to Dell's Sales Chat! I hope you are doing well and thank you for waiting. My name is Mary and I will be your personal sales agent today. There are instances where chats get disconnected (we don’t disconnect you on purpose). Feel free to email me at [email protected] or leave me a message at 1-800-379-3355 ext. 2160085, from 8AM CST – 12 CST. How may I help you with your purchase today?
8:39:35 PM steven I purchased a alienware m15x and it has yet to be delivered, but i would like to see how much the warranties are for it
8:41:32 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis may i have the order number?
8:41:42 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis so i can check it..
8:41:45 PM steven yes gimme a moment
8:42:31 PM steven 1301@#^&
8:42:47 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis thank you..
8:42:57 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis please give me a minute..
8:43:03 PM steven no problem
8:48:21 PM steven are you still there?
8:49:27 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis still checking..
8:49:38 PM steven ok thank you
8:57:59 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis as much as i want to help you, but we have limited resources. so please try to reach Customer Care. You can contact Customer Care by going to www.dellcustomercare.com or by calling 1-800-624-9897 ext. 72-66966.
8:59:11 PM steven why can you not tell me the prices? i just waited 10 minutes..
8:59:19 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis is there anything else that i can help you with?
8:59:45 PM steven i tried to find them online before i got a chat window
9:00:01 PM steven that popped up asking if i needed help
9:00:34 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis we are Dell Sales Chat queue..
9:01:13 PM steven so purchasing a warranty does not qualify as a sell?
9:01:44 PM BE_PR2_Rep_Mary_Alexis oh, i am sorry..

After this she transfered me to a CSS rep and the conversation is as follows:

9:04:10 PM System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
9:04:10 PM System Connected with CSS_Supervisor_John
9:04:20 PM CSS_Supervisor_John Thank you for choosing Dell Consumer Solutions Sales Chat. I hope you are doing well and thank you for waiting. My name is John and I'll be your personal sales agent. How may I assist you today?
9:05:00 PM steven i gotta tell you john i just had the worst service w/ the last rep
9:05:42 PM CSS_Supervisor_John Oh I feel really sorry for that
9:05:46 PM CSS_Supervisor_John wish I could be of help
9:06:04 PM steven i purchased a alienware m15x, this computer has not been delivered yet, i got to think about getting an extended warranty and tried to find online before chat
9:06:19 PM CSS_Supervisor_John Oh I see
9:06:58 PM steven i could not find online so would like to know the price, i was connected to the last chat for 25 minutes before she said that she could not help me
9:07:46 PM CSS_Supervisor_John May I have your phone number please
9:08:13 PM steven 713429@#$%
9:09:11 PM CSS_Supervisor_John Let me see
9:09:22 PM steven thank you
9:10:56 PM CSS_Supervisor_John We would not be able to extend it yet
9:11:16 PM CSS_Supervisor_John But I could give you a call after 30 days to see if we could
9:11:39 PM steven ok
9:11:45 PM steven thats fine
9:12:44 PM CSS_Supervisor_John What phone number can I contact you
9:12:58 PM steven if you dont mind me asking, why can i not purchase a warranty on a computer that has not been delivered to me yet?
9:13:11 PM steven 713-429-@#$%
9:13:27 PM CSS_Supervisor_John Since it has not shipped out yet
9:14:20 PM steven ok then
9:15:55 PM CSS_Supervisor_John Yup I will just give you a call then
9:16:04 PM steven can i get the prices so i will know if i even want to get one?
9:18:02 PM CSS_Supervisor_John We could not check it though
9:18:27 PM steven ok please give me a call then
9:19:28 PM CSS_Supervisor_John ANything else now?
9:19:40 PM steven nope
9:19:46 PM steven thank you

You try to give them money and well, they dont want it!

 

Ahah! Dell reps on chat are so awkward and unhelpful!
InnapropriateName_3, I need your help, what is the touchpad driver and how can I get rid of it? I cant stand it anymore! I usualy use my MX mouse, but when I cant its a total pain.
Also to all M15x future owner and such, I played TF2, Bioshock and L4D2 on highest resolutions, no lag at all, only candy for the eyes 8D

 

you should just go to your device manager and find the pad and right click it, uninstall from there. Then run new hardware wizard and windows will detect and install generic drivers

 

Yey finally my Fedex tracking number gave me an update on my package:

Jan 28, 2010 10:28 PMLeft FedEx origin facilityNASHVILLE, TN

So I think it left on a plane right now and is heading my way to get delivered tomorrow yay

 

Oh wow, that was more simple than I expected, thanks!

 

Nice, I just ordered mine on Monday, I checked to find out when it is going to arrive they said the 12th of Feb. I ordered through AAFES and they only do 5-7 day shipping. I called Dell and they cannot change the shipping after you order. Ohwell.

 

Np

@ pukalo, glad to hear, I still have a while to wait

 

They can expedite the order, thats what happened with mine. I called em up and they were out of stock on keayboards, so the guy upgraded me to 1 day shipping free. Call Dell and complain that the build time is very slow and that you really need the laptop, and if you get a good rep he/she will upgrade to 1 day.

 

Ohya, I will have to try that, thank you.

 

I just ordered my M15x estimated delivery date 2/11/2010

Cosmic Black
i7-720QM
GT 240M
4GB 1333Mhz RAM
Intel WiFi 5300
Alien-head Glow Avatar
60GB OCZ Vertex SSD maybe the old Intel drive with 80GB Fast read and the write is no slower then HDD
1920x1080 (1080p) WLED LCD panel
OpenSolaris Host OS, Backtrack Guest, Win7 Guest

Hum, as far as I can tell Solaris has the best support for the Nehalem Microarchitecture. Intel has put some employees in charge of helping Sun Microsystems get there Solaris OS to take full advantage of the new Core i7 CPU's. I have always thought Solaris was a good OS it is just that there is a vary limited selection of software for it. It has most stuff but I'll have to use Backtrack 4 for all the odds and ends. Win7 for school because they only teach M$ Office and not Open Office.

I'll also be running lots of VM's at the same time and building test networks with them to learn.

 

Just posting back if any M15x owners are interested in BFBC2 or are stuck between getting the console or pc version I have the game running solid 50-60 fps now with no more of the framerate drops I talked about earlier. It runs best for me in 900p but 1080 is definaltly playable. By setting shadows to low i gained 10fps and can keep game detail and textures high. This is gonna be a great game I wish I could afford it and ME2 but I'll wait for ME2 to go on a steam sale.

 

I think the biggest hardware upgrade you can do is an SSD. Windows Experience wise the max a 7200 RPM drive can get is 5.9

Transcend in Raid 0 max out at around 7.2 which I thought was awesome on my friends Dell.

Then I came across the x25 (not extreme version) intel. Windows experience score of 7.6 for the hard drive on an Asus G51j-A1. I think you could get higher gains from swapping to an X25 than doing any sort of RAM or i7 upgrade outside of going from 1066-1333 as you can see in my signature GT640 benchmark 1333 in combo with the comp really screamed on everest. I built a GT640 MSI with i7-820QM and I was very unsatisfied with it. I played around with th Asus i7-720QM & x25 in it and it screamed. Any thoughts? I am going to put an x25 in as soon as my m15x arrives. Hopefully the Extreme version goes down in price.

Asus with x25 score:




My thoughts: Get an intel x25-v 40GB Drive and deal with the space issue with an external passport or esata drive. Apparently windows 7 boots up in 18 seconds compared to 34+ second 7200 RPM drive load time. The new V and the 40GB version you can find for about $110. Windows experience score qualitatively on this is a 7.7

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Value-Solid-State-SSDSA2MP040G2R5/dp/B0031X8HG2

 

Downloading Battlefield bad company 2 beta now... gonna test out the power M15x...

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM SPEC
QUAD CORE CPU = CHECK
NVIDIA GTX 260 = not quite check... desktop 260 has 192/216 gpu respectively.. our GTX 260M only has 112, but its recommended not minumum spec.. so Ill download, install and report back....wish me luck.

 

sorry was away, glad someone solved it for you.

 

yeah once you go ssd, you will never go back. sweetest upgrade for any computer.

 

Awe man, I should have read the new posts before I ordered. I should have called on the phone and gotten a better deal. I am a student so I could have gotten 10%? That sucks. I just searched the first 2 pages of Google for coupon codes but none of them worked.

Owe well, I'll still call and try to get a deal on warranty after I get it. It's still a super cool laptop. I just hope that the one I get is near flawless.

 

You can always call and try to have them work something out -- they can probably cancel the order you made earlier and get you a better deal.

 

Made me think of something else...

And I lol'd HARD.

 

A little unimpressed with the gaming performance of the M15x. I tried out Far Cry 2 earlier on very high settings, 4x AA and dx10 and though it was playable the fps did frequently drop into the low to mid 20's. Maybe I am expecting too much from a 260m, but I was hoping for at least a steady 30fps on those settings. Has anyone gotten better fps in Far Cry 2 with similar settings?

 

I managed to get $70 off, but the rep was hesitant to go further ( tried getting me to switch to an xps). But then it got disconnected.. for the 5th time. So i'm going to try again and complain about the reps disconnecting.

 

LOL! GUYS CHECK THIS OUT!

I ordered mine over the weekend (so they wouldn't have started building until monday). I specifically told the dell rep that I am going out of town within a week and I will be needing the laptop ASAP. The rep told me that they cannot guarantee anything, but they will make a note and give me free overnight shipping. Low and behold, I just checked my status and it is "SHIPPED!"

btw, I live in Nashville, TN where the laptops are still getting built!

Now here is the BUZZKILL. We are getting a snowstorm as we speak, 6-8 inches, which means I probably won't get it until next week .

Oh well! Four days production time is not too shabby!

 

Dude, are you serious? FC2 on very high settings WITH 4xAA on DX10 getting dips of low 20's and your complaining? camannn man thats pretty good... Its not a m17x running 2x 4870s in crossfire over here, its just one measely 260M pushing all those frames at such high settings.. Thats pretty impressive if you ask me for such a demanding game...drop that to 2xAA or 1XAA and you should be getting 30-50 fps...

If you want to run games flawlessly maxed out EVERYTHING on 1080P, get a m17x with SSD, sli or crossfire config, with an i7 920XM. Oh yea and it'll also cost you about 1000-1500$ more...Gotta take things into perspective...

 

about the trackpad, you mean AW hasn't released a driver update for that yet? we still have to rely on the generic windows drivers? geeze louise...Anyways im at work now but my M15x just got delivered to my house btu no1 was home!! Can't wait to go pick it up at the drop off depot after work

 

wow, its nice to see alot of new M15x owners, congrats to everyone!.

@ jstarnino, i'm sure you can take a day off of work right, lol

 

You wanna know something, i was actually considering it last night LOL .. But then i thought of the hefty price tag of this machine, that i'm going to pay in full next month :s , and i decided I really shouldn't miss a day of work ..lol

 

university tuition doesn't help either ... lol

 

I ordered my m15x as a desktop replacement and then saw the eyefinity technology. Amazing game play but only for desktops. Almost feel like putting together an ALX but for my on the go lifestyle will need to compromise.

ATI 5970 - 3 monitor setup 5k+ x 1k+ res amazing

 

WOW, congrates, I ordered mine on the 22nd and says still in production I refresh the page about 6 times a day just hoping for a shipped status!

 

hahah, i feel you man. just don't bust a load when you open the box up for this sexy beast. lol

 

i haven't play fc2 yet, but what nvidia driver are you using right now. certain games works better with different drivers. like crysis for me plays better on the old driver than new driver. also you can only expect so much from a single gpu, just lower some of the settings, to get more fps. even a M17x can't max out crysis.

just got mass effect 2, its cool but i wish there was less talking, lol.
guessed i should of tried the first one before getting this. but still a good game.

 

Unboxing has the be the best feeling ever.
I cant even describe how pround and excited I was O_O

Oh, and I brought it to school today, got the reaction I paid for 8D

 

Yeah, it's definitely a continuation so playing the first would help a lot. The game is really heavy on story and lore and makes even the character customization look like a part of the story. If you're big on being immersion this is definitely the right game since there is just so much attention to detail.

It's really good if you like other Bioware games like KOTOR and such.

 

So I managed to get this build down to $1,600.81 shipped.

BASE,NBK,ANW,BLK,M15X
Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
3GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz - 1 x 2048MB + 1 x 1024MB
15.6-inch WideHD+ 1600x900 (900p) WLED
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
250GB SATAII 7,200RPM


took awhile, but I got it... (asked for any promos about free bags but couldn't get one because i guess he gave me a really good discount). But I saved 10% off and another $100 from his discount. not too bad right?
(IDK how much that would cost total without any disconut)


What sucks though is my bank only lets me spend $700 per 24 hours, so i went through all this hassle of calling them and trying to call dell back, but i can't seem to get ahold of the same rep i ordered from.. gah. i wish i knew that before hand. hopefully they can work out a 3day payment plan with me.

 

can't you open up a dell perferred account, and get another 3% off.

 

I don't have much credit since i'm still young. (like $500 on a credit card is my limit)

I tried signing up but it didn't accept me.

I got ahold of them and they just split my order into 3 days for payments. So after 3 days then it'll go into production, then shipping.


Is that setup worth the price though? I tried my best at haggling

 

price looks decent, tell them to throw in free next day or second day shipping, and to expedite the order because you need it for "school" or something.

 

Get the no interest for 6-months installment plan, thats what i did. even though im paying it all in one shot...