Just recieved my "cancelled" refurb......Thoughts

First of all......I have to say this thing looks great. I would not be afraid to take this to a meeting with Donald Trump....

Not a mark any whereThe Hinge is intact and smooth, It booted into Windows....nice start...BT connected with my N97 Phone......All USB ports work. It is really a nice unit. Nicer than the pics.

I am on hold for Dell as I write this......to find out where my "TacTX keyboard" is...

 

That prompts the question, are you going to keep it?

 

It's tough to not love it when it's sitting there staring you in the face. Or should I say reflecting your face back at you...

 

I wouldn't be suprised if it's a "No"

 

I have to say I couldn't agree with you more. I'm faced with a situation where my new m11x R2 isn't treating me so well. I really want to send it back. But every time I look at it, I can't help but feel a little heart-broken at the thought of parting with such a cool looking piece of furniture.

 

People on the fence about the M11x need to consider the under-reported value that it has as an emergency shaving mirror.

 

It's really a nice machine. Just make sure you have a long warranty.

 

LOL Still on hold......I explained the machine was "advertised as having an i5M (as opposed to the UM (Which incidentally has been blanked out on the R2s on the outlet today.....no mention of processors at all)

They offerred me $35 to keep the machine for the error.......I told them it was a $99 accessory they were and still are (not after today I suspect) putting on the feature list and that was not acceptable. She put me on hold for another 5 minutes , came back and offered me $90 for the "missing" keyboard. I accepted knowing I still have three weeks to return it and the credit....

So I ended up with an

Base Alienware M11x R2 Laptop
Processor
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 64bit Home Premium
Hard Disk Drive 250 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Memory 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
Video 1 GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335 M
System Color Soft Touch Stealth Black
Laptop Screen 11.6 inch High Definition WLED Display (1366x768)
Laptop Battery 8 Cell Primary Battery
Network Interface Card Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
Bluetooth Wireless Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module
Web Camera Integrated Webcam
Keyboard Alienware TactX Keyboard
Hardware Upgrade 90W Adapter
125V Power Cord
Software Upgrade 64BIT Operating System DVD
Office Software Microsoft Works 9.0
Security Software McAfee Security Center, 30 Day

Final Price $625........ I think that is worth taking a chance on this.
The exact same one is on the outlet for $929 (with a "TacTx keyboard of course)

Again I have to say this is exactly what I wanted. A powerful Netbook.....The hinge thing really turned me off and scares me..However it will be a stationary end table machine so the LCD will be open most of the time anyway.

So we shall see. I have a slim DVD rom coming and will load up FSX and do the real test.

I deleted Mc Afee and will look for a very light weight AV program. Even Avast Home has become heavy lately. SO I am here to stay and hopefully will be a decent contributer to this forum..........Until a hinge breaks...

Now where is the thread to optimize the Video card drivers or should I even bother? I Increased the clock speed to 1.4 since I will be running on battery 90%+ of the time. It does get hot for the lap though....
Thanks for your support and patience with my rants....The Asus will have to wait.........until a hinge breaks...

 

^MSE is another lightweight AV program, and IIRC av-comparatives.com shows it has better detection rates than Avast.

Definitely update the video drivers. The Dell ones don't work well with a lot of games, including lots of Steam games. I use the 258.96 drivers without any problems, but there are newer versions. This thread has quite a few options http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/510346-modded-optimus-drivers-collection-r2.html

 

I never buy EWs/. I believe they are a great profit center for the seller and a poor bet for the user (except for the few that use them) The money I have saved not buying them on just the listed notebooks below more than paid for this one as none of them ever needed a service call in or out of warranty. Not to mentions all the TVs Cars Appliances on and on I passed on the EWs on. I have repaired and replaced some but no where near the cost of adding all the EWs together. Probably blew off $9000 in EWS over the years and maybe would have saved $2000 if that actually using them.

Now I do understand this one has hinge issues but for what I paid for it I will consider it disposable in a year if I have an issue for what I ended up paying for it Or probably buy the part from Dell and fix it myself or pay have a local fix it give it to a kid and buy whatever the flavor of the day is at that time. A warranty would add 1/3 to a 1/2 to the Price..... No way I would pay more than $700 for this considering the issues with hinges..so I am already ahead of the game.

 

Let's see.

I originally had M1330 (paid 2.2k), and M1730 (3.5k). Both expensive, over priced, but I do like these kind of stuff. Both bought w/ 3 year warranty, 2.5 years ago, and look at my sig now. So, is Dell warranty worth it? If you ask me, HELL YES. Good thing about Dell warranty is you don't necessarily have to demand a replacement system. If a rep with common sense go through your dispatch history on your system, and sees that it went through more than 4 part replacements, they will be fair and issue a replacement system.

The business side M90 ran out of warranty, but some how, it's still running like a tank btw.

 

@Achilles...you are right....

@ Carnold..I have less tolerance for issues. I would send this back if it were gilded in gold if I (or have) ongoing issues. I am a function over form person. But i DO like the looks . If it function as well as it looks I will stick with the line if for Dells service if nothing else.

@Slickie....I can "see" that..been working on a Matte screen for the ten years on this E1705 and the 8600 Both still running.....But that will help for Skype to tidy up before dialing....LOL

@ Corwinicer...Thanks for that AV advice. I will try it...I may not mess with the Nvidia Drivers yet until i see how FSX runs. Don't think I will be joining Steam. I play few games really. The PS3 is enough in this room on a 55" LCD...I do play GTA, COD/ Madden,NFS. Juarez/God Father/Far Cry and I buy those games used after the new versions come out so I am always a year behind

I don't go for the fantasy space robot type games like Halo/WOW...I never even saw Star Wars which for my age is blasphemous for many.....

I don't know much about Steam except that you can down load games and play without a CD? My online paying is on the PS3. I can see where a younger college person would like Staem though

 

Steam is to games what iTunes is to music. You make an account and then buy and play games through there--all digital. They also have a lot of sales and package deals.

One reason I'd still upgrade to at least 258.96 drivers is it adds a taskbar icon that shows when the nVidia GPU is in use. To me this is a necessary feature, at least at first while you're adding and removing programs to the list of what uses the 335m. Since you're going to be on battery 90% of the time, it might be handy to know when it kicks in. For instance, it does during flash videos until you whitelist your browser of choice (and also, I don't think you can turn it off while playing flash with the Dell drivers, at least with Chrome). Anyway, just something to keep in mind

Rather than getting an EW, you could consider a Squaretrade warranty. If it breaks, they'll decide to fix it or send a check for what it cost. I purchased it so when the hinge breaks out of warranty, I'll get back what I paid for it to put towards a different laptop. In that sense, it's like the Alienware trade-in program, except you get a full 100% of the purchase cost back. A $625 refurb laptop costs $99 for a three year warranty from SqT, and there is a 30% off coupon floating around (there almost always is a coupon for 20-30% off available), bringing it down to $70...another thing to think about . Also, you can get purchase it any time, so you can wait three weeks to see if you want to keep it.

 

WOW....That is almost or maybe even over $1000 worth of warranties.......If you can afford all those machines, you can probably afford to repair them. A gamer has a three years useful life .


I look at it this way...I have a $28K Honda Accord Coupe...I DID buy an EW..but I bought a Honda care Warranty from a Honda dealer in another state who was selling them at huge discounts online....I paid $635 for an 8 year/80K Bumper to bumper factory warranty. I put 6K a year on the car at most. I bought the warranty for resale purposes. I doubt I will use it...nor would I have paid the $1600 my dealership wanted for the same exact EW!!
Honda Corporate has since (disallowed on-line sales of EWs due to dealer complaints) but They can still be purchase by CALLING the Dealer who sells them ( Service Contract for Honda Accord 6 Cylinder - Bernardi Service Contracts) But they have to be ordered over the phone LOL.....

Now a Car has thousands of parts, computers,LCDS hard drives, wiring, Circuit boards operating in extreme heat and cold under the hood and engine and drive train and runs exclusively in the weather outdoors over rough roads in snow rain and excessive heat.

A notebook sits on a table stationary and when is moves is placed in a padded bag and is never exposed to rain, excessive heat outdoors and is coddled by it's owner.....and has 1/1000th the electronics..of a car yet the warranty costs up to 30% of the product while a car warranty (if purchased right can cost as little as 6% of the cost of the car...


Anyone who spent $3000 on a gaming machine 3-4 years ago has a dog by todays standards. BUT they will still run games well.

Thats why I look at minimal entry costs for lappys and build my own desktops never on the bleeding edge. Most games have to run on older machines. Most games today can run will on less than a 5870 or GTX460. They HAVE to or they would not sell many.

Yeah I just don't believe in EWs If I want "piece of mind" I just take a XANAX...LOL A lot less expensive.

 

I get what your coming from. I used to think all EW were all scams, then I purchased my XPS gen 1(I think this was Dell's very first "beasty laptop") in 2004, and paid about 3.8k with standard 1 yr warranty. It died after about 1-2 month of warranty expiration. I learned my lesson there.

Not a good comparison btw.

 

I was thinking of locking my CPU to use the GT335 only....but I
I will give those drivers a try during my 21 day window......Whats the worse that could happen? I brick my GPU and have to send it back to Dell? LOL

Square Trade is a great company. Not many complaints like you see with after market Warranty insurers.
I might pay $70 for a three year warranty (even though thats over 10% of my cost) just maybe IF they considered the HINGE a manufacture defect. Somehow I think they would argue it as being normal wear and tear and would want reams of paperwork proving it IS a factory defect and would have to see documentation from Dell especially. ...

I think I would rather see what it costs to repair and decide whether or not it's worth it then based on a number of factors. Not the least being whats new out there...on the refurb line..LOL In my opinion it would only be worth repairing IF there were a redesign of the part. Otherwise I would take comfort that I enjoyed the lappy for $50 a month and sell it for parts on Ebay reducing that cost.

 

That will happens but it only happens to very very few people...No $3500 notebook should have a part become un repairable for more than $500. AT most two hours labor....If one can afford $3.5K for a notebook an $800 repair should not break the bank.


When someone uses an EW once they are hooked for life......They are believers. I understand that to be true. I forget what year but i remember reading Circuits City's ENTIRE operating costs were paid for by profits from Extended Warranty sales. Best Buys covered 1/3 of theirs (even more now).......I suspect CC would have gone out of business a lot sooner had EWs not be invested. Selling paper for thousands of dollars.

I think the car analogy is perfect because it has the SAME components and thousands more to break and does operate in every possible outdoor condition while notebooks are the most coddled property people own...My God people get worked up about "finger prints" on the BACK of the LCD!!!


BTW Dell could have offered me an EW if I would have asked but I still would have taken the cash.