I mean i guess you could call this a flame posting but thats a stupid generalized term, their doesnt need to be any arguments its just people pointing out their opinions...no need to get upset.
And my opinion from owning laptops for half my life, was that Dell seems to have had a reputation for building a really tight computer but their laptops nowadays arent much better then a Gateway or HP as far as build quality. And the ASUS Z71V i had was twice as sturdy, no creaks or nothing. It seems like when Dell is coming together now to build a laptop, well first off they dont build one laptop they build a laptop design or mold and base 4-8 different laptops off of one mold. The M1710 isnt that much different then the Inspiron 9200 structurally. So when they do come together they focus more on other things, it seems like they put just enough material to make the laptop hold together, this thing couldnt take much abuse.
But..... i love my dell, its got a nice fast 3d card and if you know what youre doing the Dells have the most robust upgrade path, and not even on purpose! You can take a Dell 9300 start off with an ATI X300 and go to a full blown top of the line 7800GTX. Other companies have tried to come together and get the MXM standard going to make upgrades better and possibly across companies. But Dell by having a huge (the biggest?) share of the laptop gaming market was able to make low to high end laptops and mix and match 3d cards between them. Its funny that all the laptop companies that used MXM couldnt come together, their was too much to lose for them to make a robust upgrade solution. Meanwhile, Dell simply by making a cheaper manufacturing process and making all the motherboards similar so everything can be made on the same assembly line made bigtime upgrades possible to people willing to take a risk.
But they focus on the specs and the numbers everyone else does, and i think their build quality has taken a nosedive.
