For those wanting smartbay drives and batteries, call AlienWare CS department. Not Sales, not Tech Support... Customer Service. 866-287-6727. It will ask you for your 10 digit phone number -> that is the area code and phone number tied to your account. Then select option 4.

I've purchased several items for my m5550's from them. Don't forget to tell them you want the 10% discount you're entitled to as an existing customer.

I hope AW-Kevin is still checking up on this thread.

With all the power of the new systems coming out, I would like to see some "Actual Benchmarks" on the config page to understand what to expect from my system.

For example, what scores does the current M17x achieve? For each card? 8600,8700 and 8800 in single config and SLI config?

Cheers!

that is a really good idea alienRod...but then it would depend on which processor you get and hard drive....

Gear Shop:
I'd like to see more store items like batteries (m5790),optical drives (blu-ray), ac adapters replacements, etc. for models sold with the last three years (i.e., systems still under warranty).

[QUOTEHmm, An option for all M9700 owners to upgrade to the M9750 at a minimal cost to the customer. (I was told my system was upgradable, and now Im told I stuck with it they way it is)

][/quote] Yea we were completely lied to.Told us it was upgradeable not 1 yet.

Heres another way you could improve fire all your customer service and rewrite your policies.Then maybe someday you could turn your horrible reputation back around to what it once was.While your at it show dell the door you were bettar before they bought you.To actually buy a desktop from you is insane .I have been building my own for yrs for a 1/3 of the price.Laptops is all you have going for you.When i buy my next one I really am going to miss that alien head looking back at me,but you only have your own greed to blame for that.

cant update a m9700 to a m9750 one m9700 is an AMD so an new motheboard, ram, processor, etc... there are different upgrades that any laptop can do but a m9750 cant be updated to a 9800 card there is a limit due to the motherboard...Laptops are not like desktops...

GPU can be updated in the m9700 to dual 512Mb 7900GS cards instead of the 256mb 7900 cards.... same thing with the m9750 it can be updated to the 8700 cards...

As other have stated, I would certainly like more emphasis on driver/software support. This would seem to be standard for a company such as Alienware.

I particularly like the idea of having a customized and automated Hive updater.

As some have mentioned, Complete Care would be a winner. In the past, all else being equal, warranty is what has led me to buy from Dell, as opposed to other brands.

The fact is, I have actually never needed the accidental coverage but the piece of mind I get from it is worth every cent.

Actually Dell's complete care coverage doesn't cost any more than the alienware warranty. Warranty is a real selling point.

Gear Shop:
When I recently ordered my Notebook from AW I also wanted to get the following peripherals (prices are what I actually paid when I ordered them from a local shop):
- SteelSeries Ikari Laser Gaming Mouse EUR 65
- SteelSeries 5H v2 USB Headset for EUR 90
- Western Digital Elements 1000GB External Hard Drive for EUR 80

I compared those products to the ones offered by AW. The external hard drives on offer were ridiculously overpriced for less than half the capacity, for comparison:

AW Gear Shop:
- Western Digital Passport 160GB External Hard Drive for EUR 140
- Maxtor BlackArmor 320GB External Hard Drive for EUR 150

The same story applied to the headsets and mice that AW Gear Shop had on offer. Needless to say I was not impressed and decided to get them elsewhere. I would have understood had AW been slightly more expensive for similar products, but paying twice as much for less... that just doesn't make sense.

Agreed. And maybe a better discount than just 5% for students. Dell's student discount on the XPS M1730 is what really made me lean to them over others. I know a couple of fellow college gamers are either holding off buying elsewhere or actually bought M1730's because of the deal.

I'd like to see them charge less then 300$ for a jump from 1gb to 4gb ram. I agree with endugu on the outrageous price of accessories as well.

most people will get 1 gb of RAM and purchase the RAM off like newegg for like 100 bucks...

The main thing I would like to see from Alienware and what prevented me from making another purchase and recently buying a Dell is. I would like to see wider availability of replacement parts, not just to those under warrenty, but to all owners of an Alienware desktop / notebook.

So many Alienwares sitting in junkyards because parts can't be located for them. It's quite sad. I didn't even want to buy a new notebook, but due to the unavailability of replacement parts, I really had no other option.

Haha! Romes got burned by the keyboard issue! I'd like to see Accidental damage protection.

And what about the HD 3870X2s that WORKED on the m9750? Did Alienware actually test the thing for the video cards or are they unscrupulously lying to us and limiting our upgrade options? It seems a 9800m worked too. Why not just offer us the parts and let US do the upgrade on absolutely our own cost and risk? Dell let's you buy two 8800ms even though you don't have an m1730.

I'm starting to feel Alienware is now just a sticker brand than an actual company due to their customer policies.

Same here. Not only that, people who work for Alienware probably own some of these 3rd party companies which sell parts which ruin our computers, just so Alienware can try and talk people into buying a new one.

I think they PURPOSEFULLY won't sell replacement parts just for the sake of wanting to sell another computer.

Would any other company tell its customers to go to a 3rd party company to get replacement parts? I mean, how unprofessional is that? Unless the 3rd party company has strings attached to them. Which I am starting to think they do.

Customer: Hello Alienware, I would like to order a replacement part.

Alienware: Sorry about your luck, search google, call ShopBattery.net, or buy a new computer....

Customer: WTF?

Alienware: Have a wonderful day and thank you for shopping Alienware.

LMFAO