EEEK! I'm having an EPP person call me back at 6pm-possibly getting this config...

<<<Man I'm nervous :lol: For some reason EPP is more expensive right now than Home, but I talked (chat) to an EPP agent, and she's configured one so it's basically the same price (wish it was cheaper, but oh well).

Ugh, so undecided on a lot of these, including 3 or 4 year warranty, black or red, whether to use my middle initial on the name plate, etc.

But anyway, the config is (some specs removed 'cause irrelevant...I left all the codes in for the warranty stuff, 'cause it's SUPPOSED to be 3 year premium that supposedly gives you U.S. based support...even if I don't use it, I want to support us

What do you guys think? :-0

Alienware M15X, Nebula Red (or black) $2,752.82 $2,752.82
Intel Core i7 840QM Quad Core Processor, 1.86GHz (3.20GHz Turbo Mode, 8M Cache)
8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)
15.6-inch WideHD+ 1600x900 (900p) WLED
1.5GB GDDR5 65W NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
250GB SATAII 7,200RPM
PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card
3 Year Limited Warranty
905-4468
1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Extended Year(s)
905-3017
1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Initial Year
905-3182
1 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , 2 Year Extended
906-0700
1 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , Initial Year
421-1721
1 Soft Contracts,Banktec Care,Alienware
993-8582
1 Warranty Support,2 Year Extended
994-3730
1 Warranty Support,Initial Year
993-8552
1 CompleteCare Accidental DamageProtection, Inspiron Desktop, 3 Year
421-1719
1 Soft Contracts,Consumer Complete Care,Alienware
988-3313
1 Your Tech Team Unlimited POS SKU - 3 YR valid contract

 

Nice setup. There's no way I would get that without the 1080p screen though. FYI, I inquired about a warranty upgrade and Dell charges a hefty upgrade for the "Premium" warranty so that you get US reps all the time. I can't speak to the accuracy of this claim but it seems to me like a lot of wasted money on this option when you could upgrade other components. In addition, it is much cheaper for you to upgrade the memory on your own than through Dell. I would consider getting a larger hard drive as well, unless you plan on upgrading it also.

 

hahah bluray without 1080 screen doesn't make sense.

 

Maybe he want to game on laptop, and watch movies via external monitor. But I see your point.

 

Regarding the U.S. support...I'm partially doing that to hopefully have a better shot at help if I need it, and partially 'cause I want to support U.S. jobs, even if I never need the help

Regarding the panel-how's the quality on it? I know Dell's high end panels are the best in the business, or close to it, but I don't know how the 1600x900 panel stacks up on the M15x. Someone on the Apple forum said the Macbook Pro's is better, which may well be the case (although it's supposed to be worse than Dell's best).

Regarding resolution-I want as low as possible-this is already pushing it big time. Blu Ray looks great regardless, and over half the time I'll have this hooked to an external monitor with a similar resolution anyway.

 

Whoops-regarding the hard drive, I've already got a Seagate 500GB Momentus XT I'll be swapping in (and for that matter, a 160GB Intel drive, though it's too small unfortunately...really needed a dual drive system for that)

 

Sounds like you've got it all sorted out. Go ahead and order and enjoy your new m15x.

 

the 1600x900 screen is great. High quality as well.
You got a nice set-up there. If I were you I'd stick the SSD into your M15x and I would use a larger HDD through the ESATA port.
Nice set-up you got there. You're gonna enjoy it

 

Yo dude. Screw that 840QM, get an i3 and install your own 920XM for like 2x less. It's actually really simple, I installed a 820QM ES that I bought from shirleyfu for 280 bucks and I didn't have any computer knowledge at that time, except a couple of youtube videos pointing the way. W/ the money you save, you can get a 1080p screen and 8GB Ram no problem. Then you can have the best M15x possible! (Though you have to get the 9 cell for the 920XM)

 

EDIT: This was in response to SoccerThierry:

Oh wow, you've got almost the same system! I'm glad to hear you like the screen-some people were thinking it wasn't too good quality, and I didn't know one way or the other, since I hadn't heard anything about it (and Dell's higher end screens are really good).

Hmm...interesting idea about using the eSATA port (with the same SSD I bought!). I'm not sure though...I'd have to haul the drive around, worry about it getting damaged or something, and at home I'm not sure where I'd put it.

So you're doing that? What type of external drive do you use? It seems like a lot of them don't have super great performance, and over heat, that kind of thing.

 

My system came with a 500GB HDD (Seagate Momentus 7200rpm)
When I bought the SSD, I went at my local computer store and picked up a 2.5'' external HDD enclosure. The performance were great (peaked 120MB/s while transfering a movie from the external HDD to my SSD). I had all my media on it and a few games. My SSD never went over 50GB used.
If you carry your computer in a bag the HDD is small and easy to move around, the only downside of using a ESATA external HDD is that you need an extra USB port to power the HDD since the esata cable/port don't carry power.
It shouldn't get damaged, unless you do like me and you drop it on the floor, thus breaking the connectors

 

Red is ugly. Get black or silver.

 

Okay, that's leaning me towards black then...can't believe I was considering red! Hee hee

Soccer, I would somehow drop it LOL

I am worried about heat though on external drives...hmm...maybe I ought to take a look at what's available...I'm always thinking 3.5" drives, but yeah a 2.5" one might make more sense with eSATA since I'd actually be using it as a primary drive...IF it can hold up to that kind of work load, since I'd be moving my Tivo shows to it, installing games to it, etc...I don't know, dealing with a whole external drive actually sounds like more of a hassle to me than just dealing with Windows boot time (which supposedly isn't too bad on an XT anyway).

And you guys are great by the way!

 

Hehe, always contributing to make a new happy AW owner!
The drive won't get hot. Unless you are copying moving stuff all the time!
I'd get silver, but thats just me
And if you are 100% sure you are gonna drop it, cover it in some kind of bubblewrap

 

All the colors look sexy in their own right.

I was leaning towards silver but i just like the look of an all black alienware.

Red looks really nice though... Kinda like a sports car red if you are into that thing.