Dell XPS M1730 System Replacement Questions

I was just notified by Dell that they will be replacing my system, but they haven't told me what they will be replacing it with yet. What can I expect from them? What can I demand from them? If possible I would love to get a recent Alienware model with an AMD Radeon 7970M card. Is this realistic, or am I dreaming? Does the purchase price of the system make any difference? If I'm not happy with what they offer me, can I offer to pay extra to get some of the components upgraded? It's the graphic card that I'm most concerned about. Thanks in advance!

Dell XPS M1730 Intel Core2Duo T9300 @ 2.5GHz 4.0GB Ram Nvidia Geforce 8700M GT SLI (1920 x 1200) WUXGA Display

 

You might be able to push for an M18x since your had dual GPU's, you might only get like 560M or 660M SLI as 8700M GT's were entry level. You could maybe ask for an M17xR4, but they are now a plastic chassis not metal. I believe people who originally had an M1730 got bumped up to an M17xR1.

 

Thanks for the reply! I just got off the phone with Dell. Somehow my order was cancelled, but the girl who I spoke with reinstated it. I'm glad that I called. All that she could tell me right now is that it will either be replaced with an XPS 17 or an Alienware M17x, but her system didn't tell her which versions of the M17x are available. She mentioned in the notes that I would prefer the M17x, but that she has no control over what my system is actually replaced with. She also told me that I will find out what the replacement system will be in a couple of days. I guess now, I can only hope it will be an Alienware, although both systems will be an upgrade.

 

Push for the Alienware because XPS M1730 was their extreme gaming line before Dell took reigns of Alienware. Plus express that the laptop has to have dual GPU's as your current system has 2 of them which would only mean an M18x.

 

I will, and thank you so much for the tip about M18x having two graphic cards. I wouldn't have even thought of it if you didn't mention it. I brought up the fact my system has dual cards in my conversation with Dell earlier and the dell representative gave me some BS about my current system having a total of 512MB of graphics memory and that any replacement system would have at least 1GB of memory. However, isn't there a lot more to Graphics cards than just memory, such as two GPU's in my case? I think I'm going to have to be pushy with them. Another thing that I noticed is the current monitors are a slightly lower resolution. My display is 1920 x 1200 while the current ones are 1080P. I don't know if it makes a difference, but it might be another bargaining chip.

 

I got an Alienware M17x R2 about a year and a half ago as a replacement for my M1730.

I haggled a lot. Check the specs of your CPU on Intel.com and take note on cache sizes, number of cores, etc. then you can ask for an "equal or better", same with the GPU's, since the M1730 has 2 of them (PLUS THE PHYSX CARD) it gives you room to negotiate.

Also, my M1730 had a Blu-Ray Burner, which Dell doesn't support or offer anymore with AW lappies... so having this "Downgrade" I pushed to upgrade my GPUS from the ATI 4870s to the 5870s.

Check the complete specs of the system, and if they are adding Office, Anti-Virus, or some other crapware you don't want, ask them to have it removed and use those $$$ to upgrade something else.

What I finally did to convince the rep, was to go to dell.com and build the system they were offering, and then build the system I wanted... and it came in cheaper, so when I e-mailed them the screenshot of the price comparison they approved it and presto!!!!

Specs for both the systems are on my sig.

 

Thanks for the info. That's just what I wanted to know before calling them again, which I will be doing in a moment

 

Update:

I was given an M17X R2 as a replacement for my M1730. It has an i7 Q840 @ 1.87GHz, 8GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, Dual Nvidia GeForce 285M GPU’s, and a 1920x1200 Display. It’s a nice system but two days after getting it, the motherboard died. It also came with some serious scratches on the display lid. A tech came out but they must have sent a bad replacement motherboard because the system still wasn’t working after his visit. They also forgot to send the replacement lid to replace the scratched one. Alienware then asked me to send the system back to them for repairs and said that they would fix everything properly before they send it back to me. I agreed, but when I got it back they still hadn’t replaced the scratched lid, and one of the fans was now having a problem as well. Naturally I called Alienware Tech support and complained, however this time my call was answered by a supervisor which turned out to be a good thing. He was really nice, and understanding of all the problems that I had to endure with their crappy service, so he offered to replace my R2 with another refurbished system. He said that I would most likely receive an R3 or an R4 as a replacement because their stock of R2’s is extremely low.If they offer me an R3 or an R4 which both come only with single GPU solutions, which card would be an adequate replacement for my dual 285’s? I know the ATI 7870 is more powerful than both 285’s, but what about other cards that offered in those models like the 6870 in the R3? Thanks in advance, and I’ll let you know what happens when I finally resolve this thing. It’s been over two months since I made the first call to Dell to fix my M1730 which started all of this.

 

No do not opt for an M17x R3/R4, stress you had dual GPU's and you will get an M18x, likely an R1.

 

You were right! I'm getting a M18X R2! It's coming with a i7-3720QM Processor, Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M's, a Blu-ray Reader, which I never had before, 6.0GB DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM, 500GB 2.5 3.0Gb/s SATA with 16MB DataBurst Cache, and a Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO card. That's what I call an upgrade!

Thank you so much for the advice. It really helped. If there's one thing that I learned about dealing with Dell, is that you have to be pushy with them. It also helps to know what their rules are before speaking to them, and when you do speak to them, let them know that you know their rules. I'm so happy