Just bought a M11x.

Greetings, I finally got the guts to finally order a M11x.
(9/10/11 was the buy date)
Not sure which version I received, the R2 or R3, but here are the specs.

Intel Core i3 @ 1.2Ghz (Is it OCable?)
8GB DDR3 RAM @ 800Mhz
320 GB SATA-II HDD @ 7200RPM
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M

Spent around $770, hope it's worth it.

Anything drastic I should know about?
I've saw things about hinge problems,
as well as overclocking problems.

(I know Google is your friend,
but after days of searching I
came up with a hand full of nothing.
Not even a sliver of any video reviews
or graphic demos [Crysis 2, SC2, etc.])

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kaeta

 

Seeing that it is the 335M GPU and an i3 processor that would be an R2

 

Thanks, now I have a base on which to find all the problems I might have with it. ^_^l|l

 

Hey Kaeta... nothing drastic with these models. You're going to want to download the latest nvidia drivers for your 335m. Just go to Welcome to NVIDIA - World Leader in Visual Computing Technologies and get em' there.

To answer your questions, yes, you can overclock. You hit F2 as the M11x is starting up to overclock. I started out at 166 and found that my system was crashing a bit, so I went to 164 and it seems to be perfectly stable. Every M11x is different.

Youtube is your friend! Just type "Alienware M11x" and you'll get hundreds of people with gameplay videos. This laptop will run Crysis 2, and it will run Starcraft 2. There are very few games that won't run on the M11x R2, it's just a matter of tweaking the in-game settings until you get a nice framerate.

I've owned this laptop for over a year now and had no hinge issues whatsoever. If you do have them, Dell repairs it. I'm pretty sure that kind of thing is covered under your mfc's warranty.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

I do have some questions, I have no clue about the Core i3 at all, I'm used to AMD Desktop processors (and also ATI/AMD Graphics), so I have no idea what it can and can't do, I'm glad it can run the above games (since I play those the most.)And also may I ask how the battery life is on yours? I seem to come across mixed answers on here and on the massive amount of clutter on Google.

 

Basically the Core i3 you got is on the lower end of the M11x's low-voltage intel processors. The middle model is the Core i5, and the upper the Core i7. The low voltage processor in the M11x works a little differently than a desktop processor in that it scales itself back when not needed. This is done to save battery life, and ultimately it means that you will not see the kind of performance numbers from an M11x than you will from a high end desktop. That being said, the M11x has been able to play just about every game I've thrown at it.

The M11x has a very nice nvidia graphics card inside it with can offset some of the burden. This allows it to play a lot of games very well and pump out really nice visuals. Games that are CPU intensive (meaning they rely more on the processor than on the graphics card) tend to suffer on the M11x. Games like Grand Theft Auto 4, and Starcraft 2 (any strategy game really) will take some tweaking, but they will run.

The battery life on my M11x has diminished a tad over the year that I've owned it. I used to get a solid 4 hours out of it, now I'm lucky if I get 2.5/3 ... I'm guessing that's just the nature of battery technology. It should be noted that if you're gaming, you're going to want to be plugged in. Due to nvidia's powermizer, my framerate goes up 10-15 FPS when I'm plugged in. This is just due to the M11x's whole mentality of scaling itself back when it's unplugged to maintain maximum battery life. You can disable powermizer, and a lot of these functions if you choose, but your battery life will suffer.

I know that Alienware claims you can get 6 hours of battery life out of this model (Or at least the rep on the phone told me this when I was getting info about the M11x) and honestly this is bull. I never got 6 hours on this thing, even when it was new out of the box. Then again, maybe they're using different batteries since I bought mine. You'll have to test and see.

As long as your expectations are realistic, you won't be let down with this laptop. I use my M11x as my primary gaming rig and it suits my needs just fine.

 

I second darkdomino's post, I have yet to find a game the M11x can't play although, 6 hours of battery life is just not going to happen with this model...

 

Kaeta, if you're worried about your I3's performance I CAN ASSURE YOU that it will be great, I have the R2 M11X Intel U5400 model (which is slightly weaker than the i3) and it can run every game I throw at it, and I even have black ops running at 60+ FPS . You'll be tweaking your computer for the next couple of months until you and the laptop become one, and you speak its language and learn what it likes and doesn't like.
It's almost like having another wife. Except you'll actually love this one!

 

Thanks for the help, hopefully my M11x will ship soon, can't wait.
Though do you think upgrading the ram from the 800Mhz to 1333Mhz
would be worth it in the long run? The upgrade would be around $70
from NewEgg. That and if I upgrade the HDD does it have to be a
SATA-II? (I want to upgrade from 320GB to 500GB-1TB)

 

Your CPU throttles back the memory to 800 MHZ. My memory's main clock is at 1033 MHZ, and same problem, CPU throttles it back. It's just an M11X thing. If you want the full 1333 MHZ you've gotta get an R3 As to the hard drive, get a solid state drive, it'll make up for slow loading times caused by the M11X's slower processor.

 

Any recommendations for SSDs? And would it be worth to loose all the memory from switching from 320GB HDD to around 64GB in an affordable SSD

 

When I had my M11x r2, upgrading to a SSD made a HUGE difference in how the machine responded. I would keep the memory you have and get an SSD. More expensive, but worth it. And yes you'd be looking at Sata-II drives whether an HDD or SSD.

 

Wait, that doesn't make any sense, does that mean that the M11x can hold both a HDD AND a SSD? If so then I'll buy one right away.

 

No no no, it can only hold one drive, he was just saying it'll be a sata-II drive for whichever you look for, go with an SSD if money isn't a problem.

 

So I have around $100 spending limit for a SSD, I saw one SSD on mydigitaldiscount.com for around $60 for a 64GB, would it be worth even trying? I'm skiddish on losing almost 250gb of space

 

I'm no expert, but I'd say 64gb is too small. Most folks on here seem to go for 256gb.

If you had space for a hdd too, you could put OS and main games on ssd and rest on hdd. But you only have room for one.

OS + games + movies/music (?) = more than 64gb, surely..?

If you can afford a 256gb one, I'd get that. If not, you could go cheap cheap and get a 64gb or 128gb and use an external hdd, but if it was me I'd stick to the internal hdd for convenience.

 

Yea, sounds like money is an issue for you, SSD's are basically a dollar per GB (in most cases) so stick with a HDD drive until you get the money for an SSD, but by then, a better m11x will be out so you can just get that (which is what I plan on doing).

 

Alright, I'll take that into consideration since my financial aid check from college is coming in soon. And also, Zuu, since you have a M11x with 8GB RAM, how is the performance?

 

Performance is roughly the same as with 4 GB, you won't find much use for 4GB+ of RAM, I did it just because, and it allows my CPU to stay at 166 OC because my stock RAM from dell was faulty. It is nice to only need about a 100 MB page file though

 

I finally got my M11x in.
It can run TF2, DiRT3, Dead Island, and Portal (Only games I have tested)
Around 30FPS Medium settings, DiRT3 runs at 18FPS on Ultra with no AA.
Screen size is perfect for me and I'm totally glad I made the purchase.

 

Hey Kaeta,
How is you M11x performing. What have you tried on it and what settings. I would like to know, thanks.

edit. Oh I saw you previous post. Are you overclocking if so at what speed. Did you also upgrade the video drivers from Nvidia's website?