Dell Offers XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition

Many visitors to the Dell website have noticed a mysterious teaser banner with the tag line, "You are not prepared." The banner lists the date of 12/11/07 but provides no additional details. Well, we're happy to break the news that Dell and Blizzard are launching a line of special edition gaming notebooks with custom World of Warcraft designs.

The Dell XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition will have the same hardware as the standard XPS M1730 however the design will be quite different ... and the experience will be completely unique. For starters, the exterior will have WoW designs along with original designs on the wings, LCD back and hinge cover. There will also be exclusive original artwork desktop backgrounds and screen savers.

The Horde system (left) and the Alliance system (right). (view large image)

The starting price for the Dell XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition is $4,499 ... so you WoW fans out there (or your parents) will have to pay a premium for these sexy beasts. The WoW Edition notebooks won't be available to the general public until 12/11/07, but a limited number of consumers who registered on the Dell website will receive a special email giving them the chance to place their order early starting today.

The Alliance system (left) and the Horde system (right). (view large image)

Details of XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition – Developed in Collaboration with Blizzard:

• Customers can choose either a “Horde” system or “Alliance” system.
• The packaging will have WoW designs.
• There will be exclusive original artwork on desktop backgrounds and screen savers.
• A WoW backpack will ship with every system. Items in the backpack include:

<blockquote>

• WoW &amp; Burning Crusade in retail boxes
• Strategy Guides
• Behind the Scenes, &ldquo;The Making of WoW&rdquo; DVD
• WoW and Burning Crusade Paperback Novels
• WoW Audio Soundtrack

</blockquote>

• Customers will also receive a Quest Envelope which includes surprise items from Dell and Blizzard (ships separate from system). Items include:

<blockquote>

• Blizzard beta key card with five keys used to access future WoW games
• An upgrade certificate which allows customers to upgrade their accounts to a &ldquo;Collectors Edition Account&rdquo; enabling them to get a special in-game pet
• Golden Ticket which allows customers to get a pre-paid special custom action figure based on their own in-game WoW character. (Come on, who hasn't dreamed of owning their own action figure?)

</blockquote>

Alliance Theme (view large image)

Horde Theme (view large image)

 

ugly just got uglier

too bad WoW won't take advantage of all that power.

 

Just curious, but is anyone here a big enough fan of WoW that they'd be tempted to buy this?

I think the design is pretty cool actually. Not my style or something I'd be buying, but the finish on the lid looks artistic.

 

I was thinking along similar lines... How many fans of WOW would actually fork out that amount of cash. Sure, an action figure of myself would be cool, but handing over 4 grand to Dell for that?

I think it looks pretty decent. Not quite my cup of tea and insanely overpriced though.

 

I'd say this notebook has a market life of about 2 weeks - the time it'd take for Dell to scrap it when they've realized that they've only sold a few dozen units.

Dedicating a notebook to a game that's a few years old is taking the niche market to a whole new level.

 

Seriously doesn't wow not need that good of graphics anyway? And yes they made ugly even more ugly!

 

How lame. Yes, please: can I buy an overpriced hunk of crap notebook made by Dell that screams idiocy? It's a shame that for $4,500, this notebook is basically a piece of crap Vostro with fancy LEDs and a cheap, plastic-molded facade with "XPS" slapped all over it. If this is Dell's answer to win back its market share that it lost to HP in laptop, this is definitely the wrong way to go about it.

Give it up Dell: your sun has set.

 

My thought exactly.

 

it's at least 2000 dollars overpriced... I doubt it will sell well (if at all).

 

You can run wow on almost any computer! You wouldn't need a $4000 computer just to do so.

 

You'll be surprised at some of the WoW addicts out there, Andrew .

But yeah, its a rather odd pairing. WoW doesn't need XPS M1730 power to run...how about a Crysis-themed XPS M1730?

 

Trust someone will take a second mortgage on his family home to buy this crap .

The XPS 1730 by itself is an overpriced disaster .

 

It's consider it, but unless it shipped with an 8800 GTS/GTX I don't see much of a point. If the best this beast has is 8700GTs like the regulary XPS m1730, the extra money is really just going in for the extras.

 

Why? Don't you think that whoever buys this already has both of those? I will say the envelope with the action figure, beta accounts and special pet does sound cool. Not $4000 cool, but cool.

 

All I can say is...WoW! (pun intended).
Why in the world would anyone buy this? WoW doesn't even require high end graphics to play.

 

I thought Blizzard was already financially sound and had good brand recognition. But the merger with Activision and this Dell partnership seems to be expansion and marketing that they don't really need. I wonder what Blizzard management's motivation is, since it just seems to me like they are just all of a sudden flailing around.

 

i thought they already had this for M1710 (donation on ebay?) so this is nothing new. as long as blizzard handles its own game development i don't see any harm from decisions made by their marketing department. considering how people actually pay real cash for WoW items i have no doubt this will sell enough to rake in a decent profit.

 

I do think these notebooks are "interesting" but I'm not sure there will be more than a handful of sales. I think this is more of a "look at us" product for Dell.

The goal of products like this isn't to sell significant numbers (although Dell probably would love to) ... it's to get people to notice Dell and browse their notebook lineup.

It's like when a local car dealership puts the most expensive luxury sports car front and center on the sales lot. The car dealership knows most people aren't going to buy a luxury sports car, but the sexy car gets attention from potential customers ... who then stop into the dealership to buy another car.

Personally, if I was a WoW fan (and I'm not) I would probably buy another gaming notebook and then buy a "create your own" custom WoW laptop skin from www.skinit.com or www.schtickers.com and save a ton of money.

Still, there are probably a few WoW fans that are very excited about this package.

 

I think it looks very sweet! If I had $4400 lying around I'd buy it. Nothing ugly about it either.

 

I'd be all over that if those were 8800's. I'm not paying $4500 for subpar technology and a custom case.

 

I have been a WoW player since launch and I can tell you that many fans are disappointed with this announcement. When they said it was going to be "legendary and epic" we were hoping for something like a WoW console type device for $200-300 bucks. $4500 is absolutely way too much for this and all of the extras are extremely sad and can be gotten by other means.

 

Disapointed, while the top looks cool, there does not seem to be much else about it design wise. The included stuff sounds neat, but I was hoping for some hardware upgradage. Like say 8800's......

I had an M1730 and it was nice, but...

1) Chunky. Not so bad but other notebooks have done it a lot thinner....
2) Got really hot. Have to wonder what the 'system life' is going to be.
3) 8700 performance was a bit disapointing. Driver problems didnt help.
4) Did I mention it got really hot?
5) For some reason the LCD panels quality was kind of hitandmiss. Some people got good ones, others had problems.
6) If you ran it on battery power it lasted 45mins or less, AND ran at about 50% of the performance on mains power.

I think DELL should scrub SLI and chuck in a single 8800 GTX. That will keep the heat down, and improve battery time.

 

Why is Dell spending that much time in creating useless special editions of their laptops where they could be upgrading them.
Like for the XPS M1530, they should have focussed in investing for better screens, better cards etc...

 

$4,000?! What the hell??? Who in their right mind would spend that amount? And yeah, its *BEYOND* overpriced. I can run WoW on my Latitude 110L for goodness sake.

I like the back cover; the garrishly oversized symbols ruin it, however. Keep the black/grey swirl design throughout. The interior is just plain ugly.

And, you know, honestly, anyone who buys this is just begging to be laughed at. Its basically a computer to get people to look at you, or a conversation starter. Not to mention rather telling of a person who spends so much on such crap.

 

there are tons of idiots who pay 4000+ for notebooks from FN or other boutiques. they don't even know that FN or whoever just paints a machine they buy from somebody else.

also, whoever said this was basically a Vostro earlier in the thread is... well, an idiot. nuf said.

 

I say the 5 beta keys for the next expansion will be enough to pull addicts to buy this, or even resellers.. to buy the whole package and resell all the stuff as separates..

 

http://youtube.com/user/DellVlog has some videos about the laptop

 

I agree with everyone here regarding this tread and this product Dell is making available. But I will say, there is certainly a market for Laptops configured specially for a certain Fan Base. I mean not this ridiculous $4000 thing but just the bundling of a laptop, skin, with a few things thrown in. For example, I would love a Penn State University version, where I get a Dell 1520 with a Penn State Skin, maybe a special Blue/White mouse with a Nittany Lion on it, some custom background wallpapers, bumper stickers...you know things like that...Season's Pass to all their games . Just kidding on the last one...anyway you know what I mean..and then sell it a roughly the same price as a normal 1520...

So for Dell...you get an A- for the idea...but a D+ on your first implementation of it...

 

a 17 inch macbook pro is over 4 k and people buy that, this on the other hand is much stronger and comes with goodies. Who wouldnt buy it?

 

Buying this laptop is like getting a permanent tattoo of a significant other.

You better hope that you stay together for years LOL.

 

dell=smart if and only if they scrap these marketing games and put out a coupon code for the XPSs

 

Who buys an xps to run WOW?

i will surely laugh at any one who owns an xps and only plays warcraft

 

The average consumer doesn't understand that. Joe Consumer is a cash cow for for large PC makers. Last time i checked a 4GB upgrade from 2GB on an Inspiron was something like $300-$400 . . . or buy two 2GB modules from Newegg for about $100 for those consumers who are more "informed".

 

I was considering picking up a m1730 prior to the 8800m GTX announcement despite everyone calling it ugly...

I think this 'paint job' is a step up from the faux carbon fiber look...just not into advertising software for companies...

And I think the sports car analogy in the showroom is dead-on...it can't hurt to have Dell mentioned in the same breath as World of Warcraft when there are millions of WoW subscribers...nice advertising even if they don't sell a single one...I'm not a WoW fan, but I love Blizzard...and if Dell is good enough for Blizzard then Dell is good enough for me (although I would have to settle for a more reasonable m1710 from the Outlet w/ a coupon)...

 

1730 Wow Edition now available for customization:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...&cs=00&l=en&s=dhs&dgc=EM&cid=26383&lid=601037

 

Someone on this website has a 4-3-2 17" power laptop for less than this DELL crap! if i had $4000 (and wanted a large laptop) that's what i would get.
4-3-2 (quad-core processor-3 hard drives-2 gpu's...all in one lappie)
the laptop is Sager NP9261 Quad Core

 

If you people seriously think there aren't WoW freaks out there who would spend this kind of cash on a computer, this story http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/a-real-r...ict-constructs-massive-47-pc-setup-275902.php
should remind you that there are crazies out there.

 

Its a Novelty item. Way too overpriced and overspecced to be anything else.

They will sell a few, but at that price they are obviously not intended to sell in large numbers.

Its a PR excercise for both Dell and Activision Blizzard.

 

The only reason I would buy the laptop is for the beta card that gets you into 5 future betas. You could probably off that on eBay itself and make the other $2K back.

 

This kind of reminds me of the Eddie Van Halen reissue Hamer with a price tag of $25000, only not as good of a deal. Take your $4500 to pcm or xotic and see what you can get!

 

Dell:

Take the XPS m1730 and throw it away. Then make a new XPS M1735, which has the same style as the M1330 and M1530, except a larger 17" design, 8800M, full keyboard, decently low weight like the M1530 for it's size. That will sell. This monstrosity will not. It was hideous, now there are no words.

 

A WOW edition? You have to be kidding me. They (the marketing team) are either smoking the best or the worst crack in the universe.

 

Panda look at laptop...
Panda happy....
Panda look at price...
Panda sad :'-(

 

Actually

All you people who say good computer is useless for Wow are wrong. Whilst you certainly can play WoW on slow computer, your graphics will have low crappy settings.
Fast computer you can turn on your settings to the max. In fact if you can get 60+ fps during raids with all settings maxed out @ 1920x1200 with this laptop it will be impressive.