Any real need for a warranty with an M4400?

I'm about to purchase an M4400 as a mobile editing station but I've only got one reservation. Basically, I can buy one with a dell 3 year warranty or I can buy a better speced one for 20% less that doesn't have a warranty as it's from a liquidation of assets sale.

Now, I'm pretty handy with computers/laptop and in the past I've taken apart laptops to replace CPU's, motherboards, hard drives, etc. so I'm fairly comfortable with fixing things when they go wrong. But my question is whether I should expect things to go wrong. I'm especially concerned about the screen and the occurrence of dead pixels. Is this commonplace and how many dead pixels does it take for dell to accept a returns anyway?

At home I have a Dell 2407WFP-HC and I've never had any problems with it. I built my desktop computer myself and I'm not concerned with parts of it going wrong as it's easy to find replacement parts, but the same can't be said for laptops, and there is a significant cost differential!

So, is it worth paying a 25% premium to have the dell warranty? I'm a frugal man, and a penny saved is always a good thing in my book, but not at the expense of having to shell out in 6 months when something goes wrong!

Also, if it makes any difference, I'm based in the UK.

Thanks for your time.

 

Always expect something to go wrong... for me the instant i don't i'll receive a swift bite to my backside

I would go the warranty, Dell are normally quick and it will save you the headache of pin pointing where a problem stems from. have the machine replaced if it does really bad, that means less down time for everyone, if its a production machine this is a critical aspect. Its not money wasted if you use it as for dead pixels if you find one.... do as i do and drop it down the stairs 710m took 5 attempts before it finally stopped working!
Called dell - warrenty checked - system replaced - happy days.

 

as far as i know, the one you're buying from the liquidation sale should have a warranty, its just that you need to transfer it. all you have to do is fill in a form and thats it.

laptop parts can be killer expensive, the M4400's motherboard is quite highly integrated, the nvidia chip is soldered on etc. so for example if you have problems with the GPU, you have to replace the mobo. if you dont have a warranty i suggest you insure it!

 

Interesting. So how do I find out if it does have warranty and is it up to the seller to provide the form etc? Does he need to sign it over to me?

I thought that the warranty might be some corporate deal which wasn't transferable, but I'm not fully clued in as to the place it's coming from.

I guess I'm just trying to save some money! Currently I'm looking at £750 vs £950 and the cheaper one is slightly better specced!

 

go to the dell website, type in the service tag in the support section and it should give you the status of the warranty.

as the unit was only launched in august, and was available around september onwards, there should definitely be some warranty left. im not sure about the details of ownership transfer, call dell for details or try dell chat on the website.