M11x R3 Full Specs or Wait for R4?

I want to buy an alienware m11x, but im not sure if i should buy r3 now, or wait for r4 (revision 4).

1. Will there even be a R4? (When will it come out?)
2. What problems do the R3 have? (eg hinges?)
3. If R4 comes out with Ivy Bridge, will it be much more powerful than R3?
4. Should I buy now or wait till next year? (I do want to get it now...)
5. Is there a way of upgrading R3 CPU to an Ivy Bridge one when it comes out?

Thank you very much for helping, and Alienware rules.

 

I want to buy an alienware m11x, but im not sure if i should buy r3 now, or wait for r4 (revision 4).

1. Will there even be a R4? (When will it come out?)
2. What problems do the R3 have? (eg hinges?)
3. If R4 comes out with Ivy Bridge, will it be much more powerful than R3?
4. Should I buy now or wait till next year? (I do want to get it now...)
5. Is there a way of upgrading R3 CPU to an Ivy Bridge one when it comes out?

Thank you very much for helping, and Alienware rules.

 

If you are always waiting till the next version to be better than the current version you will never own on of these computers. Buy now, resell when the new one comes out. These computers hold value pretty well.

 

1.) Maybe.. who knows
2.) No hinge problem when i had mine
3.) If r4 comes out of course it will have updated hardware.
4.) Buy it now if you need it, otherwise why wait for r4 if there is an r5 or why wait for r5 if you can wait for r6 or r7.
5.) Possibly but the cpu might be soldered in then you are out of luck

 

Thank you, ur advice helped me decide +1 Rep

 

I bought my r3 and sold my r2. Got nearly what I originally spent on it minus the ram upgrade that I did later on. Considering the r3 just recently came out, if you are waiting for an r4, you might be waiting a full year.

 

i think i'm going to buy a r3 too...but a question...when will r4 come out?

 

I would guess when the Ivy Bridge processors are available. I think those are being released in Q1 of next year, I am not 100% sure.

 

If you want the best of your laptop or any device right now, get it at launch or close to it, since nowdays there is a revision every year...

It would be worst to get the R3 to find out that in 6 months is gonna be a R4....

 

Built myself a desktop in 2004 to run Counterstrike Source and the (then) upcoming Battlefield 2...

Still have said desktop and still play the same games on it! I've also been through an ol' HP DV6 (non gaming machine for uni) which recently died. More recently (as of a week ago) I've been gifted a Toshiba ellite (again for work and not gaming) so I've gone without playing the latest and greatest PC games for the last 5 or so years.

With the release of Battlefield 3 however I'll be keeping a close eye on any m14x r2 and m11x r4 developments closely as I do too much travelling to really think about investing in a desktop and by crikey I want to be able to play Battlefield 3 in all it's glory or as close to it as possible...

So yeah, in my case I've waited the best part of 5 years now to upgrade my system, what's another one more?

 

Alienwares have the same resell value as Macs.

Just get the R3 and then sell+buy the R4 once it comes out.

When you do end up selling the R3, you'll get a generous amount of money back.

 

The r4 wont be coming out for at least another what? 9-10 months. Get the R3 if your waiting. Anyhow, for those that do the yearly sell/upgrade. You know there is that service you can purchase from dell at the time of the sale that allows you to resell your system back to dell for credit for a declining percentage each year from the original sales date?

Personally, next year is the new desktop system (Bulldozer 10 core here I come) while this R3 will become my on the go.

 

Same as the other posters above, if you are forever waiting for the newer, better one, you'll never end up getting a top of the range machine! Get a machine whenever you need or want one - I grabbed my M11x after I was assigned on a project that has me in a hotel during the week nights so I could amuse myself away from my main gaming machine. After it finishes I may sell it, or keep it, I don't know yet...

To my knowledge, R4 hasn't been announced or even hinted at, but is a logical refresh once Ivy Bridge comes out Q1 2012. That having been said, if the R4 follows the same design principles, they need to wait for a ULV version, possibly married with a next-gen GPU from either provider. Ivy Bridge introduces the tri-gate, but the performance gains are unknown, and with a major change it may take a while before software can catch up with hardware to materialise those changes. I get the feeling the "tock" of Intel's roadmap in 2013, when they shrink the die, will be where the massive jump will be. Then again, maybe they are moving to the AMD platform? but that would require a major redesign of the innards so it might take a while, and again, the software to take advantage of "heterogeneous" computing, where the CPU offloads processing onto the graphical core within itself, is still in its infancy as well, and will take a while to catch up with a seriously powerful CPU like Core-i with a dedicated GPU alongside it.

Hmm, waxed on a bit there! Just some musings from my fragile little mind! Either way, we are getting into interesting times with competition between some big hardware providers...

 

Dude just wait. That's what I've been doing since the R1.

I mean the R1 was cool, but I knew they'd make an R2. So I waited. The R2 came out, nice upgrade... but I needed to make sure I had the best. So I waited for the R3. Awesome! But not awesome enough. I'm holding out til the R4 this time.

 

if you guys read the third post he states that he is going buy now... no need to keep telling him to buy now.

 

What you really mean is the R1 came out.. and you're still waiting for an exterior refresh. Enough said.

 

Are there ANY problems with the R3? I read on LaptopMag that it had bad Wireless connectivity, even lower than R2.

 

Are there ANY problems with the R3? I read on LaptopMag that it had bad Wireless connectivity, even lower than R2.

 

Then just choose the upgraded wireless. Yes, the stock is the intel 1000? Which while being N, does not support 5ghz.

I have gotten the killer wireless instead after realizing this mistake.

 

Wait for the R4.. Then when the R4 comes out its probably best to wait for the R5.. Then.. oh wait..

With tech the waiting game is a pain. The R3 is only just out. I'd get that and be happy

 

There are plenty of problems with the Alienware M11x R3. For the most part, they are the same problems that you had with the Alienware M11x R2.

If you meant to ask whether there were any NEW problems with M11x R2 --> R3, then the answer is no.

 

What were the problems with R2??

 

The biggest complaint was the low quality screen... Low contrast ratios, poor viewing angles, low brightness. Plus, the screen bezel was so large that many people speculate that Alienate could have put a 12.1" or 13.3" panel in there instead of settling for 11.6".

 

Hi voodooi can you please pm me about the Dell Rep you reccomend. Im in a bit of a hurry due to the fact that my laptop was canceled and now Im thinking about reordering it one to get more benefits cause after all my laptop was canceled. Thanks.

 

Ivy Bridge isn't due out until Q2 2012. Delayed a couple months due to Sandy Bridge chipset recall of the SATA controllers. So either buy now or wait until at least April 2012. I personally will probably hold out until Ivy Bridge because I have an M11x R1. But if it meets your needs, go for it.