Update, 8/13: The link for the XPS 700 Exchange Program is now live:
It’s been two weeks since we announced the exchange program. Wanted to clarify a few things:
- In terms of hardware that Dell will be providing under the program, this motherboard exchange program will include Dell’s next-generation XPS gaming motherboard and necessary cables and connectors.
- It will not include the H2C cooling system
- XPS 710 and 710 H2C customers can purchase Dell’s next-generation XPS gaming board and on-site service. Pricing will be available later this year.
- The updated XPS 700 BIOS (version 1.4.0) is now available for download. The updated version of the XPS 710 BIOS (that enables the same list of features) is also available today.
I’ve also received comments and emails from customers asking about specs for Dell’s next-generation XPS gaming motherboard. I can’t provide any kind of information about the product at this point. Will share more details later this year.
More update items:
- XPS Mouse pads: We will ship an XPS mouse pad to XPS 700 customers at no cost when you schedule your motherboard exchange.
- DTS functionality: DTS is a surround sound format that allows you to hear movies and music encoded in that format. It requires that you have at least 5 speakers and a subwoofer. If you own the Dell version of the Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card, Dell plans to make the DTS codec available to XPS 700 customers who want it. We’re still working through some details—I’ll provide more information soon.
- $200 gift cards: Unfortunately, we will not be issuing any additional gift cards to XPS 700 customers.
- Magazine subscriptions: Unfortunately, we will not be issuing any additional magazine subscriptions to XPS 700 customers.
Know that some of you will be upset about the gift cards and the magazine subscriptions, and I apologize for any frustration this causes. The lack of an upgrade path was far and away the most important issue for many of our XPS 700 customers. That’s why we focused our efforts on providing all XPS 700 customers worldwide the motherboard exchange program at no cost.
Next week, we’ll publish a survey on the Dell Community Forum to get additional feedback from you. More to come next week. Please submit questions and comments to this blog entry or this thread in the Dell Community Forum.
Finally, Bob D. and jsrder have asked if we have plans to notify customers via e-mails or letters. Though many of our customers who asked for an upgrade path spend lots of time in either Direct2Dell or DCF (or both places), we don’t want to require people to always track the updates on their own. Instead, we will give all XPS 700 customers a chance to tell us that they are interested in the exchange program. We still have to work out some logistics, but we remain focused on making this process as simple as we can for XPS 700 customers.
I’ve also created an XPS 700 Motherboard Exchange Program category so Direct2Dell readers can easily see all of these posts in one place.