Last night I called tech support to find out about the prices on upgrading my video card on my Area-51 m5500. I currently have a 128MB Nvidia 6600. The first guy I talked to said I could upgrade and I could go to the 256MB Nvidia card or the 256MB ATI X1600 Readon Mobility. He quoted me $197 for the Nvidia and $147 for the ATI. Then he said he was going to transfer me to sales, because I told him I wanted to buy the ATI card.
Then another tech support guy came on and told me the first guy was wrong and Alienware would not sell video upgrades for any notebook. After trying to convince this guy that the first guy already told me I could upgrade, he agreed to transfer me to sales and see if they would sell me the card as a stand alone item and not an upgrade. But by this time sales was closed, so I have to call back today.
The option to buy either of these cards is available on their website when configuring a new m5500. I am pretty sure I have read posts about other people upgraing the video cards on other m5500 systems.
It seems to me that the first guy quoted me the wrong price (the ATI card should be more than the 256MB Nvidia 5500, shouldn't it?) and they are trying to backpedal now so they don't have to sell me the card at a loss.
Does anyone know if they do sell video upgrades for m5500 systems that are only 3 months old?
Then another tech support guy came on and told me the first guy was wrong and Alienware would not sell video upgrades for any notebook. After trying to convince this guy that the first guy already told me I could upgrade, he agreed to transfer me to sales and see if they would sell me the card as a stand alone item and not an upgrade. But by this time sales was closed, so I have to call back today.
The option to buy either of these cards is available on their website when configuring a new m5500. I am pretty sure I have read posts about other people upgraing the video cards on other m5500 systems.
It seems to me that the first guy quoted me the wrong price (the ATI card should be more than the 256MB Nvidia 5500, shouldn't it?) and they are trying to backpedal now so they don't have to sell me the card at a loss.
Does anyone know if they do sell video upgrades for m5500 systems that are only 3 months old?
