Why Dell?

Well for startes, you should be able to get a $3000 laptop down in price quite a bit with specials, coupons etc.

Great performance at a low price. Sometimes a pita getting support, but I have never had an unresolved issue. Upgrades on warranty replacement systems, long term warranties available, and did I mention best bang for the buck.

They sent me the system in my sig as a replacement for a non-functioning 9300. The old had an ATI x300 video card and a regular XGA screen.

I have spent the past month researching a high end mobile gaming solution. I have looked at Sager, Dell, Alienware, HP, Acer, Toshiba, IBM to name but a few. In the end, I didnt choose the Dell 1710 over the Sager 5950 (SLi solution) because of Dell, so much as I looked at my requirements and the Dell solution wins at this point in time.

I have owned a Dell laptop and PC. I have not been impressed with the regular support for Dell. But the XPS series apparently gets dedicated support (not based off-shore). So we shall see.

Alienware does desktop components very well, but tends to scimp on the graphics when it comes to mobile CPUs etc. Great if you want an FX60 and 7800 GTX burning your balls off, but not so great if you want a laptop to not fry your eggs, or run out of power in 1.5 hours.

Sager is a classy brand based on the Clevo models. The 5950 is the first SLi 7800 GTX mobile solution. However, its ETA has already been shifted from Mar 31 to Mid April without a firm date. Soooo, given I want a laptop today...

I chose the 1710 because I was lucky to be able to make my decision today. It's ability to upgrade to 64 bit processing, the 7900 GTX, AND 4GB of RAM available now make it a future proofed laptop. However, dont go for more than 2GB of RAM until Vista comes out and you upgrade. It will save you money and would be wasted today.

Is there a clear winner? No.

But if you want 2.5 hours of battery, low noise (I have seen a review with the 5950 alongside the 1710 and they commented about how much quieter the Dell was), and can accept the Intel architecture, then the 1710 is a solid choice.

Coupons on the XPS range are rarer than you might find for other Dell laptops. But people have made great savings in the past (albeit the word is that a big recent discounted coupon was an error on Dell's part).

Tough questions to answer. I don't claim to have 'the' answer for you, but I have a couple of thoughts.

Google will net you sites that scour for coupons. Many coupons appear to have a limited number of applications, so if you catch them on the day they're released you should be good.

However, every laptop coupon in the past month has said something about excluding the 170 or 1710 XPS. In Jan/Feb there was a big coupon that could be applied, but many have concluded that it was in error. If it was an error, and the XPS is their flagship gaming notebook, can we expect another coupon with a big discount for XPS? Well, online our chances are low methinks.

One poster on another thread claimed to have gotten a 650 discount on the 1710 by saying they phoned small business and pushed for a discount.

Dell mailing lists do hook you up to email newsletters/brochures. You do get to see offers as they occur, including things like 8 days of sales etc. You also get coupons on them as well. I would say subscribing is worthwhile.

And of course, supply and demand can lead to the price falling for the 1710 anyway.

Good luck.

Alienware have a nice customer service but I think you pay too much for basically what is rebranded notebooks painted.

If you want a Dell M1710. Call for ordering and negotiate. Many people, including myself have had several hundreds of dollars rebate on it via phone compared to the online price.

Yep or wait about 30 days for the initial rush to wear off and then start seeing the coupons

1710 had the features I wanted, the upgradeability I required, the track record (M170/Gen2's are still fantastic machines) and the support team to back up the cost. They send out replacement screens when things are wrong, new cards, and sometimes a year or two after the purchase if a machine goes bad people have gotten new models. Its not perfect, and it's not something they do for everyone, but it certainly appears that they go out of their way to be sure people get a good down the road experience. Larger vendor = more spare parts on hands a couple years after your notebook is owned but fails somehow. Larger vendor = more likely some crazy software developer actually built a patch for your machine

And at this moment the 1710 was the only machine with dual core and a 7900

in my experience, the XPS support was definitely off-shore. thick indian accent, to be specific.

If you got off-shore support you probably didn't call the XPS line. I haven't owned one, but from all the XPS owners I've talked to they get state-side support just like business class does. I could be wron but that's what I've heard from several people.

Oh, and the M1710 isn't the only laptop with dual core and a 7900, though it is the one one with dual core and a 7900 GTX. The Toshiba S105(That might be wrong, but it is a Toshiba) has dual core and the 7900GS, but it's not exactly a gaming rig. Still a nice machine though.

if anyone has this #, please pass it along! when i needed help, i looked through all my documentation, but could not find any special XPS support line. or if i did, it was definitely hooking me up to someone in india.

Try to find someone here with a M170 and ask them if they know the XPS support line. I know they have their own dedicated support, and I'm really suprised it wasn't in your paperwork. You should be able to get it from someone here though. Do you have a M140, M170, M1710 or something older? Either way you shouldn't be dealing with Indian support, that's part of the "XPS Experience" is getting American Tech Support.

i HAD and will be getting an M140. yeah, if anyone knows the #, please PM it to me. maybe my new paperwork will have it. here's hoping.

umm, what i liked about dell, was you can customize wha tu want in ur notebok, after look at retail stores, they got notebooks that have high amoutns of ram and cpu's speeds are high, although their graphics cards are also very good, which makes the price high; where i will do no gaming what so ever!

sure the alienware's and sagers are nice, but when it comes to getting the best bang for your buck, its dell. and i sure dont feel like i lost any quality or "comprimised" by going with dell. my 9300 does exaclty what i want it to do and more. and so far, dell has given me free replacement parts for accessories i broke (wireless mouse, the WHOLE ac adapter, etc)

In any consumer electronic market your only buying the engineering and not the physical device as all computer manufactures only package already developed technologies into a computer. Dell being larger than Alienware can spend more on the engineering and testing of there units as the cost of design and engineering is higher but the over all expense is much lower due to volume. Years ago when companies didn’t understand process improvement methods upstarts like Alienware and Voodoo did well selling there systems as an upscale boutique device. Now business is sharper, no market goes untapped. Alienware is a great company and delivers a good product, but they are just over priced. If you want the NAME buy Alienware, if you want value for your dollar buy Dell.

Three words for me... "at-home warranty" |Done.

I use my machine for work and cannot afford to be out for a week or two while mailing it in if something goes wrong. I looked around and couln't find this with any other vendor (Sony, IBM, Toshiba). If they do offer it, they hide it very well on their websites.