Problem: On 09/05/08 my computer was considered a fire hazard and was scheduled to be returned to Dell for a replacement,  I was told at that time that my M1710 would be replaced by a system equal to or better then what I currently have and would not be downgraded, since the M1710 was not made any more a M1730 would be shipping. A tech had come to the house twice to repair the unit without success, it was at that time she placed a call to Dell and they issued the recall and assured me of the above concerns I had with this decision.
The ship date of the unit was to be on 09/16/08 and delivery was scheduled for 09/17/08, as I was anticipating my replacement and checking online as to the status of the unit to be shipped, needless to say I had to contact Dell and voice several major concerns I had surrounding the replacement since the system was a basic unit. I contacted Dell immediately, the shipment was placed on hold. On 09/16/08 I received a voice mail from the Resolution Expert Center and Corporate Case Manager, I returned his call the same day (now remember it is now 2 weeks since my system was considered a fire hazard). 
The case manager and I discussed my unit and could not reach an agreement and I was told to go to a website and configure a system but it had to be kept under a $$$ amount. I ordered a top of the line gaming system with a top of the line operating system. I was told that I'd be receiving a PC that would be equal to or better then my original. I did 3 months of reading on processors and video cards as well as other aspects of the XPS verses some of the other gaming laptops on the market. This all boils down to the fact that I am now being told I am going to have to take downgrades to the replacement and I cannot go over a certain dollar amount as stated above. 

My computer was shipped with the Intel Core 2 DuoT7600 processors (overclocks to 3.16).  I also chose the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX which was better than the 8600 or 8700 out on the market at that time, my PC also came with Vista Ultimate. I am being offered the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz which does not over clock) the NVIDIA®SLI™Dual GeForce®8700MGT video, I'm taking a hit on the 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery I'm being downgraded to Windows Vista™ Premium, this is just some of the things that are the main concern. Have you been in my situation and have what would you do?