Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition Laptop (Refurbished): i7 3610QM 2.30GHz CPU, 8GB DDR3, 1TB HD + 32GB mSSD Drive, 17.3" (1920x1080) LCD, 2GB GeForce GT 650M, 6 Cell, Win 7 $695 +

Quote from tycoon : That's a good question. Sorry I can't help, but if it ruins the laptop, Dell would be responsible. Oh, and is the tracking number for anyone working? I got my shipment email early this morning. Tracking from Fed Ex still isn't working

Mine changed to shipped yesterday and the tracking number still does not work, how about yours?

Quote from poweruserx : Why is a bracket required? I believe you just need to insert the drive and screw it in. Is there something different about this laptop?

Google turned up complaints that you needed a Dell part to install a second hard drive but I can't find anyone, including Dell, who actually sells it.

Despite the delay, mine is supposed to be delivered tomorrow so I will see if a bracket is in fact needed.

same here

Quote from BEEJAY : Mine changed to shipped yesterday and the tracking number still does not work, how about yours?

Tracking still isn't working for you guys? Mine shipped yesterday morning and tracking info was available yesterday evening. Dell's estimated arrival date is the 10th but FedEx says the 9th. It's 3-5 day shipping so I'm sure Dell just goes with 5 (business) days to be safe.

Unbox my 17R just now. Basic DELL brown box with minimal packing inside. My order is with 130W and backlit keyboard and they are all there.

The only complaint I have: the cover of the multi card reader is missing. Very tiny scratch at the edge of the palm rest. Overall, I am happy with it.

Quote from klippeklippe : Unbox my 17R just now. Basic DELL brown box with minimal packing inside. My order is with 130W and backlit keyboard and they are all there. The only complaint I have: the cover of the multi card reader is missing. Very tiny scratch at the edge of the palm rest. Overall, I am happy with it.

Can you post some benchmarks, if possible?

Received my plain brown box from Dell today as well with no packing list.... one initial issue - no backlit keyboard.

I checked my product description on order and it clearly lists "Dell Backlit Keybaord with Multi-touch Touchpad, English-int'l". I happened to have made a printout of this at the time I ordered.

I have sent an email to customer service. I wonder if it is a lost cause.

I also seem to be having all sorts of issues running IE9. Extremely slow and would not run sites requiring jvm or flash (gmail, youtube, etc) although i have updated both.

Darn all of you who got shipping info already, mine is still "In Production" with a estimated delivery of the 11th.

It is refurbished product. Why do they have to produce something (in production) for refurbs??
I thought it was funny. Oh well, I'll have mine today and will take a look at the difference.

My tracking number started to work yesterday afternoon. It originally said the estimated delivery date was today (10/05), but I figured that couldn't be right. Later that evening it changed to 10/08. So it should be here Monday.

Quote from cyonking : It is refurbished product. Why do they have to produce something (in production) for refurbs?? I thought it was funny. Oh well, I'll have mine today and will take a look at the difference.

As far as I can tell, my keyboard is brand new. I guess for certified refurbished, they have to do something like 100-point check and replace if needed (sounds like ads for certified cars from the dealership...)

I got mine yesterday in a plain box. I had some weird issues. At first, it did not boot. I had to remove the battery first and then it powered up without a problem. My AC adapter is 130 watt but is making some strange noises. The final odd issue was the mSSD drive showed up as "unallocated space". I had to play around with the configuration in order to get it to work. Now it boots in about 30 seconds as opposed to 1 minute before I adjusted the mSSD drive. It looks brand new and came with a backlit keyboard

Does the chipset on this laptop support the caching (Intel SRT?) using the mSATA SSD as a cache for the laptop spinner drive?

Wahoo, system shows it shipped [finally]!

EDIT: Answered my own question, wasn't looking in the right place. Yes, the system supports SRT, sweet.

Quote from poweruserx : Can you post some benchmarks, if possible?

Windows7
Processor 7.6
RAM 7.9
Graphics 7.1
GPU 7.1
HD 5.9

cpubenchmark
PassMark 2162.9
CPUMark 8866.4
2D 450.0
3D 991.6 (509.0 if uses Intel 4000)
Memory 2076.1
Disk 771.2
CD 492.5

Hope this helps.