Saving £££ in the UK buying ANY Dell/AW system OR accessories - please contribute!

[joleara]

also a great one with a 6990 or around 900 mx 17

[Crimsontarget]

Just looked at current pricing in case to my joy everything was marvelously cheaper. Alas no. But I did notice no killer wireless option. What happened? Are us Brits being short changed again?

[New World Order]

There is free shipping on outlet systems now + with the 20 off code (S547ZDTTZ5ZRLV) thats around £44 discount :P

[javilionaire]

Do you guys think it's worth getting the m18x with the 2960xm from Dell for £900 or from ebay for £600?

[steviejones133]

Do you guys think it's worth getting the m18x with the 2960xm from Dell for £900 or from ebay for £600?

Do you mean just the cpu? - if so, I would definetly go with the OEM 2960xm from Dell.....it will be better than any ES or QS chip you buy off Ebay and will also be covered under your Dell warranty should anything "blow up" ....for the extra, I think its worth it.

[javilionaire]

Do you mean just the cpu? - if so, I would definetly go with the OEM 2960xm from Dell.....it will be better than any ES or QS chip you buy off Ebay and will also be covered under your Dell warranty should anything "blow up" ....for the extra, I think its worth it.

Why do you think it'll be better than a chip off ebay? (Performance wise) =/

[steviejones133]

Why do you think it'll be better than a chip off ebay? (Performance wise) =/

Well, if you are looking at an ES (engineering sample) chip, the base clock tends to be a bit lower vs. OEM chips. I just had a quick look on ebay and all of the 2960xm cpu's seem to be OEM chips right now which is a good thing I guess. The 2920xm's on ebay are QS which is better than the ES and on par with OEM's and are the final "quality control" samples that Intel use for testing - what you will have to remember is that if you buy an XM chip off Ebay, you will also need a dual piped heatsink too to be able to run it effectively within thermal limits - if you buy a non-xm from Dell and upgrade yourself, you will find that your system only ships with a single piped heatsink which is not sufficient to cool the xm under extreme loads.

Given that you would have to shell out some more for the correct heatsink, and the fact that you wouldn't have Dell warranty makes it a no-brainer to me....however, lots of people go the route of buying a chip off ebay and there is nothing wrong in doing so.....just be aware that its likely not to have a long warranty (laptopmonkey give 3mths which is extendable but I dont know how much that costs) whereas if you get the chip from Dell, its covered for a minimum of 12 months at no extra cost or for as long as you decide to extend the warranty for ono your system AND you have the correct heatsink right off....for me, I have 4 years so the chip is covered for 4 yrs also.....

Up to you at the end of the day - save a feq quid and take a chance or just be done with it at the outset. Either way you look at it, £600 or £900 is alot of money and from a personl viewpoint, I would want to protect my money should something go wrong - for as long as possible.

[javilionaire]

Well, if you are looking at an ES (engineering sample) chip, the base clock tends to be a bit lower vs. OEM chips. I just had a quick look on ebay and all of the 2960xm cpu's seem to be OEM chips right now which is a good thing I guess. The 2920xm's on ebay are QS which is better than the ES and on par with OEM's and are the final "quality control" samples that Intel use for testing - what you will have to remember is that if you buy an XM chip off Ebay, you will also need a dual piped heatsink too to be able to run it effectively within thermal limits - if you buy a non-xm from Dell and upgrade yourself, you will find that your system only ships with a single piped heatsink which is not sufficient to cool the xm under extreme loads.

Given that you would have to shell out some more for the correct heatsink, and the fact that you wouldn't have Dell warranty makes it a no-brainer to me....however, lots of people go the route of buying a chip off ebay and there is nothing wrong in doing so.....just be aware that its likely not to have a long warranty (laptopmonkey give 3mths which is extendable but I dont know how much that costs) whereas if you get the chip from Dell, its covered for a minimum of 12 months at no extra cost or for as long as you decide to extend the warranty for ono your system AND you have the correct heatsink right off....for me, I have 4 years so the chip is covered for 4 yrs also.....

Up to you at the end of the day - save a feq quid and take a chance or just be done with it at the outset. Either way you look at it, £600 or £900 is alot of money and from a personl viewpoint, I would want to protect my money should something go wrong - for as long as possible.

Ah that's pretty sweet. How did you manage to get a 4 year warranty? As it's not on the dell website. I can imagine it'll be quite expensive if the 3 year warranty is an extra 265 quid!

[steviejones133]

Ah that's pretty sweet. How did you manage to get a 4 year warranty? As it's not on the dell website. I can imagine it'll be quite expensive if the 3 year warranty is an extra 265 quid!

You can ask for other warranty options that arent listed on the website when you discuss your quote with my Dell rep. It shouldnt be over inflated to go for 4 yrs or maybe 5 if thats an option, but believe me, Dell warranty is worth every penny - especially when you are thinking of dropping a few thousand on a laptop....if anything goes wrong, you are covered and if they cant fix it, they will replace it with the equivalent system at that time. Personally, I woulndt go for a system that costs so much without covering my back as long as possible. You can ask many of the guys here and they will tell you the same....Dell warranty rocks.

[javilionaire]

You can ask for other warranty options that arent listed on the website when you discuss your quote with my Dell rep. It shouldnt be over inflated to go for 4 yrs or maybe 5 if thats an option, but believe me, Dell warranty is worth every penny - especially when you are thinking of dropping a few thousand on a laptop....if anything goes wrong, you are covered and if they cant fix it, they will replace it with the equivalent system at that time. Personally, I woulndt go for a system that costs so much without covering my back as long as possible. You can ask many of the guys here and they will tell you the same....Dell warranty rocks.

Hmm that's true. I'm still stuck on the M17x or the M18x. Not sure which one to choose. Which one do you think I should go for seeing as I'm a student?