ausjoe

Oh, can't argue their pricing doesn't appear justified. I wonder how many 580ms they're going to sell in SLI. [shaking head]

Arguably NVidia have better drivers especially for multi-monitor, and I think I've seen some benchmarks that suggests SLI scales better than CF in many games. I wish there were more benchmarks of 580m SLI vs 6990m CF. But I agree, even if there were a 20% improvement I'm not sure that's worth a 140% cost increase. I think my need for e-peen will be satisfied with 32Gb RAM.

Good to know, thank you!

Wait, 6990 and not 6970? Hmmm. I've seen some benchmarks that show 580m SLI is a good deal better than 6970m CF. There doesn't seem to be much for the 6990 yet though. Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News - Notebookcheck.net has stats on standalone 6990m but not in CF. Hmmmmmm. Oh this will be a tough call!

Yeah, the other reason I didn't want whole-unit replacement was because then I wouldn't have much control over the specs. This way I get to place a new order for a new machine. I have enough cash reserves that I can place the new order without waiting for the refund, which helps minimise the time I'm without a machine. (I use it for work, too - not an option to have no machine for 3-4 weeks.) I'll order the m18x. I don't like that the m17x R3 only has a single graphics card. And the m18x just added the option for the Nvidia 580m in SLI... expensive but there are some very attractive benchmarks floating around.

Hi all. Thanks for the many good suggestions! We put a new wireless module in and yet another motherboard. Nothing. The Dell on-site tech had brought the Dell drivers for both with me - didn't help. We confirmed both were enabled in BIOS (and that BIOS was up to date). At that point we called up Dell Tech Support who said it had to be a Windows problem. I was a bit skeptical since there'd been no Windows changes from when everything worked to didn't work, but there had been an incorrect reassembly. Anyway, I restored to factory image (actually put in the original drives, untouched and never booted from, as I'd upgraded to third-party SSDs as soon as I got it). Even under factory image Windows still couldn't see the wireless at all, and couldn't load any driver (Dell or latest Intel) for the Ethernet. I have talked more with Tech Support and supposedly I've been approved for a refund. (They wanted to do a full unit replacement but that would be a refurb, and given this isn't even six months old yet I argued I was entitled to a working brand new unit.) Just waiting to hear from Dell Customer Care to confirm the refund, but Tech Support says Finance agreed. Ordering a m18x as soon as the refund is confirmed. Thanks again for all your help! This does indeed look like the botched reassembly broke something, somewhere. I'm unhappy about that, but I'm happy with everything Dell's said and done since. (Even with telling me to reinstall Windows - I agree at that point it was a reasonable suspicion.)

Agree re. wireless, and the mini-card is being replaced tomorrow. Re. Ethernet: Last known good didn't help. I have uninstalled (both with and without removing the drivers) and rebooted. No good. Like I said, I've used the Dell and the Intel drivers for the Ethernet. I'm not seeing anything in the Event Viewer related to the Ethernet. It's very odd because the hardware is always detected during scan, but every driver I try to load for it fails with good old "Code 10" (ie "I don't know what went wrong")...

Oh wouldn't it be lovely if it were that simple! I just double-checked since systemboard replacement of course resets the BIOS. Both wired and wireless are enabled in BIOS. I was hoping that would be the answer for the wireless since it just doesn't show up in Windows at all. Remember though the wired Ethernet does show up in Device Manager - it just can't load its driver. Nice idea, thank you for making me double-check (since honestly I had assumed, and hadn't looked until then), and thanks for the fast reply & welcome.

I had Dell onsite replacing the optical drive. Strangely after that both the wireless (Intel 6300) and Ethernet stopped working. Wireless simply doesn't show up in Win 7 Device Manager at all. The Ethernet shows up in Device Manager but the driver can't load ("Code 10"). I have reinstalled the correct driver from Dell, plus the Intel driver just in case that made any difference (it didn't). Dell thought there was maybe a problem during reassembly following the new optical drive, and they put in another systemboard. This hasn't helped either issue. The wireless is a separate card so maybe it was damaged somewhere with these multiple tear downs. I'm getting a new one in tomorrow. I can't understand what's up with the Ethernet though - how does a tear down cause a driver problem? It seems unlikely to be hardware as the problem persists over two systemboards... and the Ethernet is built in to the systemboard. Any ideas??