Thanks to my dog and water – my XPS 730 finally kicked the bucket and having issues. Since I have complete care on the system (a must have by the way), they agreed to replace the system with “a like or better” model. Now since they don’t make the XPS 730 any longer it either had to be a Alienware (recently bought out by Dell) or a Studio XPS desktop. I was very worried thinking I could actually get “worse” (a lot of times they don’t go by the model, just GB, MB, or GHz). Well after waiting around 2 weeks to hear something from them I noticed a new order in my list. It was for a Alienware Aurora!!
Now compared to my XPS there are few draw backs…1) The video card is less powerful (260 vs 280), 2) the PSU is less powerful (1000w vs 875w), 3) no built-in bluetooth, and 4) the motherboard is smaller in regards to open slots. I could cancel this and get my money back from the XPS, or I can keep this system and be happy with the upgraded features of this system. Its hard choice since I need the money right now, like anyone else, but since I don’t have a desktop I most likely will keep this one.
I will follow up once I get the system with pictures, and maybe a video… 🙂
Here are the specs:
1 224-6493 Alienware Aurora Desktop
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8322 Cosmic Black, Alienware Aurora Chassis, 875W PSU
1 313-8750 AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue
1 313-8767 Dual Drives: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (BD-ROM; DVD/CD Burner) and DVD-ROM
1 313-8948 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
1 317-1886 Overclocked Intel Core i7 975 Extreme (3.6GHz, 8MB Cache)
1 317-1891 6GB Triple Channel 1067MHz DDR3
1 317-1904 Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling
1 317-2818 Accessory Kit, Aurora, Eng
1 320-0862 Single 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
1 320-7810 No Monitor
1 330-4769 Dell Resource DVD with Application Backup
1 330-6348 Automatic Updates:
1 330-6517 No Mouse
1 330-6518 No Keyboard
1 341-0436 300GB – SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 10k RPM, 16MB Cache HDD
1 410-0312 McAfee VirusScan Plus 15 Month Subscription (English)
1 410-1867 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANG
1 420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp 2.0 Basic
1 421-0974 CYBERLINK PDVD 8.0 ANW
1 421-0975 NERO 9, ANW
1 421-1424 Alienhead 3D
1 421-1721 Soft Contracts,Banktec Care,Alienware
1 421-2064 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 430-0637 1505 PCIe WLAN card with11n mini-Card & external antenna
Wow…your story is pretty similiar to mine. I came across your blog while I was researching the parts on my new Alien Aurora which is a replacement for the top of the line (then) xps 720 h2o I bought a couple years ago. All of a sudden it would no longer POST so then sent a tech out 3 time and he could not fix it so the are sending me a replacement (same story…they no longer have all the parts for my old system so the are sending me a new one). Here are the specs on the new…
1 224-6493 Alienware Aurora Desktop
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8322 Cosmic Black, Alienware Aurora Chassis, 875W PSU
1 313-8750 AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue
1 313-8767 Dual Drives: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (BD-ROM; DVD/CD Burner) and DVD-ROM
1 313-8948 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
1 317-1886 Overclocked Intel Core i7 975 Extreme (3.6GHz, 8MB Cache)
1 317-1893 6GB Triple Channel 1067MHz DDR3
1 317-1904 Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling
1 317-2818 Accessory Kit, Aurora, Eng
1 320-0862 Single 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
1 320-7810 No Monitor
1 330-4769 Dell Resource DVD with Application Backup
1 330-6348 Automatic Updates: On
1 330-6517 No Mouse
1 330-6518 No Keyboard
1 341-0472 600GB RAID 0 (2x 300GB SATA-II, 10k RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs)
1 410-0311 McAfee VirusScan Plus 30 Day Free Trial (English)
1 410-1867 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 412-1397 No Productivity Software requested
1 420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp 2.0 Basic
1 421-0974 CYBERLINK PDVD 8.0 ANW
1 421-0975 NERO 9, ANW
1 421-1424 Alienhead 3D
1 421-1721 Soft Contracts,Banktec Care,Alienware
1 421-2062 Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
1 430-0637 1505 PCIe WLAN card with11n mini-Card & external antenna
Nice setup, it looks so close to mine…congrats. Now the waiting begins building – then shipping…