NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware Area-51 and Aurora Notebooks › Area-51m 7700 7800 Go Upgrade **Bad News Yet Again** AW-STEVE
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Area-51m 7700 7800 Go Upgrade **Bad News Yet Again** AW-STEVE  

post #1 of 103
9/21/05 at 11:13pm
Thread Starter 
I called AW today and got some VERY bad news for everyone with 7700's with MoBo revision 5.2 or earlier. The 7800 will require MoBo revision 5.3 (Ultra board/220 Watt AC) to upgrade. So were all back to square one, this card is gonna require a MoBo swap, the 7800, and the 220 Watt AC just like the Ultra.

Spoke to a tech at AW named "Ronald" who also confirmed that ABSOLUTELY NO UPGRADES ARE INTENDED FOR THE 7700 THIS YEAR PERIOD. HE STATED NEXT YEAR WILL BE THE SOONEST AND WHO KNOWS WHEN.

@ AW-STEVE, 2 quotes now for $1900 for the Ultra and now we are in the same screwed boat for the 7800 according to TS "Ronald". Yet another answer from a another tech...

Please look into this because if this info is true, AW is going lose a lot of customers and piss a lot of people off... What can/are you going to do to help here???
post #2 of 103
9/22/05 at 12:16am
ummmm if the 7800 does come out for the 7700, **** my warranty, im just going to have sager do the upgrade.... alienware never follows through... i had the 5500 way back when and that was supposed to be upgradeable too. I bought the 7700 cuz i thought they had it figured out finally... sager is so much more on the ball. they know how to make their customers happpy and are making a ton of money doin it... dunno if alienware gives a shit... eh o well, besides all of that negativity, i really do enjoy my 7700, its a ton better than most laptops, i just alienware would follow through with their advertising... they did advertise that this model was upgradeable for about a week or two, but took it of their website cuz they feard they'd have a repeat of what the 5500 customers went through.... and looked what happened... awsome
post #3 of 103
9/22/05 at 5:18am
even sager is saying that you need the 220 watt power supply. in fact they have been saying it in the sager section for some time... it shouldnt be a suprise really. personally i think that AW will have an upgrade when it is available because they owuld be nuts not too.
post #4 of 103
9/22/05 at 5:35am
If the upgrade is $2000 I won't be doing it . It is a joke to advertise something as upgradeable then expecting customers to pay 50% of the original system cost purely to upgrade the gfx card ....
post #5 of 103
9/22/05 at 5:52am
I dont see how it is AW's fault that they do not know requirements for future video card releases.

As for them saying the 7700 is upgradeable, well it is. You can change processors, hard drvies, ram, optical drives, and even video cards form two version of 6800go ddr1 and ddr3 to the x800 without needing hardware changes like the ultra requires. AW has provided a upgradeable laptop. They just do not have control over specs of future video cards.
post #6 of 103
9/22/05 at 7:37am
For me, i won't send my system back to aw just for the 7800 upgrade, most when the upgrade would cost 2000$

I'll sold my current system and buy a new one later, cause the heat generates by the video is really frustrating while playing.

For me, this is the fault of alienware.

I bought the system from AW, not clevo.
post #7 of 103
9/22/05 at 9:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by maxrule
I dont see how it is AW's fault that they do not know requirements for future video card releases.

As for them saying the 7700 is upgradeable, well it is. You can change processors, hard drvies, ram, optical drives, and even video cards form two version of 6800go ddr1 and ddr3 to the x800 without needing hardware changes like the ultra requires. AW has provided a upgradeable laptop. They just do not have control over specs of future video cards.

I think your absolutely right....I do not recall reading where AW said they could control the price of a vid card they do not produce....AW did not lie, it is upgradable but the price is what you do not like and if it requires a mobo replacement to upgrade, I do not see where AW has control over that either
post #8 of 103
9/22/05 at 10:17am
Of course AW don't have control over the hardware requirements for future video cards but at the same time I think they should have done more to make people aware of the fact that the upgrade could involve having to pay extra for motherboard swapouts etc.

One of the deciding factors for me buying an AW laptop was that I could upgrade the CPU, RAM and GFX card. As I said previously, if this is dependent on paying an extra 1000 for a new motherboard I would hardly say that this qualifies the system to be advertised as upgradeable - I may as well buy a new system for what it is going to cost me to upgrade the old one.... bleh !
post #9 of 103
9/22/05 at 10:19am
Now..i can not more sleeping this night...bad news...ARGH!
But if i read right the update cost 2000$ ??? No no i can`t believe this..
Than i can only buy at first the ddr3 6800 sniff
post #10 of 103
9/22/05 at 10:32am
2 grand is what their saying just for the Ultra upgrade? Man, I really don't want to sell my 7700 for another brand machine
post #11 of 103
9/22/05 at 12:41pm
i dont sell my 7700 for the new 7800Go.My Machine is from March and have Garanty.All Games run`s fine.I buy the DDR3 and than i`m happy...4000€ had i pay for my system..no..I can only save money for the next time to upgrade.But its take a longer time...
PS:Hope it give a happy end for us.....
post #12 of 103
9/22/05 at 12:44pm
You can't blame AW or any other reseller because trends went in a direction Clevo didn't anticipate. New graphics cards came out that required more power, the motherboard couldn't handle it, and Clevo didn't want Dell to be the only company able to use them, so they made a change. Personally, I can't really imagine needing yet another mobo revision, and PCI-E doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon, so I'm pretty comfortable. But if all of a sudden memory for instance decides out of the blue to go optical, you can't really blame the laptop for not being able to handle it anymore than you can call a desktop not upgradeable because it needs a new mobo for it too. This laptop is only upgradeable assuming parts manufacturers don't start going like Apple and changing their approach every year.

As to the price, try getting it from other distributors. It's not like the card is proprietary or anything. Maybe if everyone does that, Alienware will wise up and stop trying to rip you off.
post #13 of 103
9/22/05 at 1:41pm
oh oh.this would be a never end story i think... Oh man
I safe my Cash a long time for my system,and now, i must saves my money again for a long time...im feeling so bad...
post #14 of 103
9/22/05 at 5:54pm
Codename_47,

I have passed along your posts about the price quotes, as well as the information regarding the offers Sager has been making with the d900t platform, to my supervisors and the product group.

Unfortunately there is no official information at the moment as to the certainty of the prices given to you or the date at which an upgrade will be available.

The information you have been given by the techs were preliminary estimations at best, and do not reflect the final price of the upgrades.

I apologize for the lack of concrete information. It is too soon to make any claims regarding this issue.
post #15 of 103
9/22/05 at 6:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Olli
Of course AW don't have control over the hardware requirements for future video cards but at the same time I think they should have done more to make people aware of the fact that the upgrade could involve having to pay extra for motherboard swapouts etc.

One of the deciding factors for me buying an AW laptop was that I could upgrade the CPU, RAM and GFX card. As I said previously, if this is dependent on paying an extra 1000 for a new motherboard I would hardly say that this qualifies the system to be advertised as upgradeable - I may as well buy a new system for what it is going to cost me to upgrade the old one.... bleh !
Earth to Olli.

The machine is upgradable.
post #16 of 103
9/22/05 at 6:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blowfish64
You can't blame AW or any other reseller because trends went in a direction Clevo didn't anticipate. New graphics cards came out that required more power, the motherboard couldn't handle it, and Clevo didn't want Dell to be the only company able to use them, so they made a change. Personally, I can't really imagine needing yet another mobo revision, and PCI-E doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon, so I'm pretty comfortable. But if all of a sudden memory for instance decides out of the blue to go optical, you can't really blame the laptop for not being able to handle it anymore than you can call a desktop not upgradeable because it needs a new mobo for it too. This laptop is only upgradeable assuming parts manufacturers don't start going like Apple and changing their approach every year.

As to the price, try getting it from other distributors. It's not like the card is proprietary or anything. Maybe if everyone does that, Alienware will wise up and stop trying to rip you off.
That's true. You can just buy a 7800 and install it yourself and see if it's stable. If not, return it.

I think it's interesting that some think AW should know the direction hardware is taking, when journalists in the computer industry do that for a living, and can't get it right...
post #17 of 103
9/22/05 at 6:24pm
Is there any place I can go and buy these mobile cards without having to go through like AW or Dell? same with the MOBO...if it is possible, then when My warranty ends i can buy the parts and upgrade it myself.
post #18 of 103
9/22/05 at 6:35pm
De JA Vous
post #19 of 103
9/22/05 at 6:41pm
Did that quote include labor for them to replace the motherboard or would that be extra? Because if that quote is at least in the bellpark, that would mean the motherboard alone is around 1200-1400 which makes no sense.
post #20 of 103
9/22/05 at 6:42pm
yeah this whole thread seems very familiar to something we were looking at a few months ago... only at least now you can go through sager to get an upgrade instead of having to be forced to use AW (unless you want to keep your warranty cause that means using only AW)

still its nice to see AW steve here trying to clear the air...
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
This thread is locked  
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware Area-51 and Aurora Notebooks › Area-51m 7700 7800 Go Upgrade **Bad News Yet Again** AW-STEVE