3 weeks after your new XPS17 arrives what happens?

So i decided to order a dell xps17 a few weeks back ( i7-740qm, 4gb 1300mhz ram, 500gb 7200 HD, GT445M gpu). Such a difference from the 2 year old HPdv6 (AMD athlon QL-64 portable nuclear furnace) i had been running on that i still can't quite believe just how much the CPU can handle.

The only slight reservation i had was that although ordering the machine in the US allowed you to spec a backlit keyboard in the UK this option wasnt avaliable and i really really wanted one, but i decided the deal was too good to miss out and i bit the bullet and ordered it.

A few weeks down the line and the "new XPS17" is out, i was aware i was getting a decent discount on the other one becasue the new model was launching and checked the spec sheet and upgrade list on the day it appeared on the Dell site.... still no backlit keyboard option.

However i just checked again and apparently they now offer a UK/Irish backlit keyboard as a £30 upgrade on the new XPS17 only)

So now i am stuck with an issue, Do i..

1. Try to buy the part from dell and get it fitted ( not sure if this voids the warranty)

2. Give this xps to my wife (she really needs a new lappy her old dv6 has about had it) and order another one with backlit keyboard and upgraded CPU (i7-2720QM) and GPU (GT555m) and hope to god my bank manager has a sense of humour.

On that note does anybody have any real world experience of the difference between the 740qm and the 2720qm or the gt445m and the gt555m?

 

You need to ask yourself, what you do with your laptop. If it is just word browsing, Youtube, then SB won't be as profound as an upgrade if you were rendering.

Installing a genuine OEM Dell part after the fact will not void your warranty UNLESS you mess up the installation. That and the keyboard will not be covered under Dell warranty and any problems caused by the keyboard will not be covered (quite rare).

 

Buy the new XPS17 configured the way you like.

Give the old tech to your wife!

If the bank manager has no sense of humor, hit him/her over the head with the old Dv6.

 

I use all my machines for gaming, and so does the wife but her Dv6 is just about holding on where as my old one was idleing at 80 degrees and opening up a 2 year old lappy that has been hammered consistently throught it's entire life didnt really appeal to me. I figure it has done its work and has gone out to pasture now (well it has actually gone to my mate to see if he can do the required re-pasteing so i can give it to my brother).

So i figure between having my first laptop with glowing buttons, the "gratitude" of my wife when i get back home this weekend and an even faster system then i am going to go for it and place the order.

Cheers guys

 

I mean if you are gaming, you don't have to spend a fortune on a heavily upgraded XPS 17, you can take a look at the ASUS G73-SW with SB and a 460M which smashes the 445M and takes it's lunch money. They were like 1299.99 which comes close to a nice XPS 17.

 

Buy a keyboard from eBay or similar and install it. I'm not familiar with Dells specicically but usually a KB swap is very straightforward. Or return for an exchange if you are still within Dell's window to do that.

 

OEM XPS parts have yet to flood Ebay yet. Correct me if I'm wrong but you can only order it through Dell AFAIK.

 

As far as i am aware the part is only avaliable from dell, there have been a lot of people looking for the upgrade over here and it seems like dell realised that.

I will take a look at that asus tsunade_hime but the new xps17 upgraded sensibly with the specs i listed earlier was only going to set me back £1000 (plus an ssd upgrade i was going to stick in there myself).

at 1300 were you talking $ or £

 

Yeah just had a look around, not only can i not find any g73-sw's for sale in the UK, the only ones i do seem to be able to find are almost double the price of the new xps17 with an inferior cpu. On the gpu side of things i cant find a direct comparison on notebookcheck but the gtx460 is apparently 6% faster than a 5850 and the gt555 is 6% slower than a 5850 which i wouldnt exactly call smashing it and taking its lunch money (see above) let me know if i am missing something as it looks like i can get an xps with a 2720QM and buy myself a nice little 120gb SSD for a grand total of about £500 less than the asus (unless the prices i have seen were just people trying to make a fast buck selling something that isnt avaliable over here yet)

 

The GT445 and GT555 will do all games on high just struggle with max settings so you will be fine with them. Don't expect games to change enough to cause you problems for a good few years yet just maybe the occasional 1 or 2 and then on Medium aint the end of the world unless you are a serious gamer and in that case you should have a desktop anyway. enjoy whatever you decide on

 

This is somewhat true, even my GT 425m handles WoW at good(medium) setting well. But looking at the barely 1/3 loaded CPU I have an urge to upgrade to something that handles ultra(max) setting with ease. A high end system like this really do deserve a better GPU.