Soon to be owner of Dell Inspiron 17R SE 7720 with a few questions

Hi Xyphir,

The Dell Inspiron 17R SE 7720 usually has SATA III ports but is backward compatible which means both SATA II and SATA III drives can be used. Same goes with DVD drive. Yes the computer will come with a hard drive bracket and second hard drive slot. Usually Dell offers 6 cell batteries but it can be upgraded to a 9 cell battery.  This system model is one of the best models. For further information about this system you may access the below link:

http://dell.to/OFmAYH

Don't look for problems but you may wish to read some of the other owners' questions, problems, etc.

http://en.community.dell.com/search/searchresults.aspx?q=Inspiron+17R+SE+7720&groups=30,9,72,81,73,94,74,89,75,77,78,76,79,175,66,2,161,117,69,70,95,96,149,93,62,65,168,154,51,27,24,25,150,115,176,105,120,64,144,145,146,63,85,40,83,125,126,166,172,174,127,128,162,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,140,141,110&sort=date+desc&ps=100

I spoke to live chat, and they told me there is no 9 cell battery for this model :(. Pretty depressing, you think with a laptop this powerful, you would be able to upgrade the battery. 

I also checked out the specs for the chipset the laptop comes with and apparently it only supports 2 SATA 3 ports, so im guessing the two are for the main hdd bays and only sata 2 for the dvd drive and MSATA. Which is another disappointment. I should of did my homework before making the order. 

Lesson learn.

@ maxd yeah i read about the ton of problems people has have with this model, both on dell forums and a quick search on google. Hoping i'm one of the lucky ones i guess.

"5.  Any opinions about  the 7720?"

Yes.  As a laptop, it makes an excellent paper weight.  Or an anchor for a very small boat.

I've had so many irritating and ongoing problems with my 3-month-old 17R SE 7720 that I'm currently looking around to replace it with something other than a DELL.  I'm totally P'd off.  And that's putting it mildly!

For a $1300 machine, it's a piece of rubbish, and far behind the quality of a new Toshiba my partner's just bought.  i know it's too late for you now, but I'd NEVER ever recommend a DELL computer—even to my worst enemy.  (Well, maybe I would LOL.)

I was sucked in by DELL's special offer of $400 off RRP before Christmas, and like a fool believed all the bogus claims about their fabulous customer after-sales service and their watertight warranty.  Ha!

All their customer service "agents" are located in India, so to start with it takes 4 times as long to initially explain your problems.  it's not the agent's fault per se—it's simply the inevitable language barriers between a native English speaker (I'm in Australia) and a non-English speaker.

As there's obviously a litany of major and minor faults with these overpriced and cheaply-made laptops, it's imperative that DELL at least have service agents available in the purchaser's country of origin.

I sincerely wish you well with your new machine, and you don't encounter one of the myriad problems hundreds of other users have on these forums.

—But I won't be holding my breath!

I hate to put a downer on your new purchase and maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones, but read my experience of this awful laptop here:

http://terribletruth-beautifullie.blogspot.com/2013/01/dell-customer-service-and-dell-inspiron.html

On the computers I have bought or have recommended (all Dell, except for a DOS clone) I use prior posts to alert me to potential issues and suggestions; it makes for interesting reading when you're spending a grand or two. I wasn't saying it's a bad machine overall, I don't know. When you sell as many units as Dell does there's bound to be lemons in the group. From my experiences Dell's quality and service have been good. To some degree computers *are* a <ADMIN NOTE: Profane word removed per privacy policy>

When you sell as many units as Dell does there's bound to be lemons in the group. From my experiences Dell's quality and service have been good.

I can agree with you that when a company sells hundreds of thousands of units, there's bound to be some lemons.  I guess it's a matter of the percentage of lemons versus the number of fully working units.  And I'm also guessing that this ratio is far too high with DELL laptops.

One only has to look through the massive numbers of complaints on these forums, or note the large numbers of owners (such as me) saying they'd never buy another DELL, and telling other folks to give DELL a miss.

Of course the major issue is (accepting the number of lemons, for the moment) that DELL makes it virtually impossible to make a full claim under their warranty.  They'll go to great lengths to replace various bits and pieces of the laptop over a period of weeks—and even then often not bringing the machine up to its full working potential. They steadfastly refuse to replace faulty laptops even a few days old!  Sometimes, they'll even replace the same defective part more than once.

And it's not as though DELL is (marketed) as a cheap and nasty unknown brand either.  Their laptops are one of the most expensive on the market, and with that high market value in comparison to its competitors, the consumer has a rightful expectation of higher quality and less lemons.

For example, my partner bought a brand new Toshiba 14.5" Satellite around six months ago for half the price, and it's never missed a beat.

I'm totally fed up with dealing through DELL's service agents in India, who are simply reading off a predetermined script sheet, and even have difficulties comprehending spoken English.  One has to explain in the most basic of grade school English, and using words of not more than three syllables before they can grasp what you're complaining about (or choose the right script LOL).

As far as DELL is concerned, once the product is off their shelves, they simply don't care any more—they've made their profit.  End of story.

I too am a disappointed 17R SE owner.  For years, I've owned this enigma.  There was nearly nothing in the box but a laptop and a power supply.  And Windows 8 doesn't work with nearly any of my previous hard won experience.  Dell support is like old school computer manuals.  Dell claims their laptop can do everything.  But they don't or won't send you anything that explains how to do it.  My obsolete company owned laptop runs Windows 7.  There is nothing I need to do that I can't do with my trustworthy old HP laptop.  Hey Dell !  Where can I take my 7720 to have its drive wiped and configured with Windows 7 ?

No msata port is sata ii. I have installed an msata iii and it is shown operated as sata ii