M15-X just got stolen, now looking to buy an M11-X and would like some advice

First of all, if anyone has gotten both an M15 and an M11, I would really love your input. My plan is pretty much to max out the new M11 and use it on my 1080x1920 monitor at like 1600x900 or something. I'm coming from an i5-540 with a GTX 260 and I'd like to know how the graphics card compares to the 540M or whatever the M11 has now. I'd also like to know if anyone has an external blu ray drive they can recommend, because I really used my old one a lot =/

I'll be reading up on threads here in the meantime, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any words of advice or wisdom at all regarding the m15 vs the m11. I'm still kinda in shock at losing the old laptop, so I'm not really sure what I want to do right now, but any and all help/comments are appreciated. Thanks

 

very sorry to hear about your loss, while I do not own a m15, I have the m11x

I would recommend buying the ram separate to save some money, buy alienwares cheapest and get the actual off newegg.com
I would also do the same for the hard drive especially if you are going with a solid state.

 

I'm sorry to hear about that, as for the M11x is there a specific reason for you choosing that? I think if you are trying to continue gaming you should get a faster gpu such as the Gtx 560 which you can get in the Sager np8150/np8130 unless you are going for the visual appeal of the alienwares.

 

The 260M has more shaders and they are more powerful to boot so you are taking a step down with regards to the graphics card.

 

I have owned both laptops, and have loved both. I would say that the maxed out m11x r3 is fairly close to matching the performance of your old m15x. I would have guessed it would have got around 11000 in 3dmark06, whilst the my M11x gets around 9800. For a laptop of its size thats pretty good, but as said you will not have as much performance as you are used to. That said i find the R3 to really do well in games running at higher resolutions and texture settings (especially when compared to the R2) I can get 40-45fps in black ops maxed out @1080p (noAA) which i found to be quite impressive. At 1600x900 it could probably pull 50+. Other than that the 2 laptop are quite similar, same speed ram, same speed HDD, same wifi and other stuff.

In regards to what you should get, i wouldnt get a m11x if you didnt want it to take it everywhere (i got it over m15x cause it take it to school everyday). By that i mean, spend the extra $ to get m14x or even m17x if its going to sit on your desk. In fact why not buy a desktop if its just going to sit there. If you're going to take it places (or if your budget is restricted) then i would definitely recommend a m11x r3, possibly a m14x, which would most likely out perform your m15x.

hope it helped

 

Thanks for your help guys--price is an issue, but after looking at how much you get for the m17 I think I'm going to try and go with that and just pay off the difference over the next few months. The aluminum casing is something I really don't want to go without on the m11, but I really like the portability. I had trouble lugging around the 15, so I can only imagine the 17... But Bman, your comment is exactly what I was looking for--I know it won't perform the same, but it sounds like it would be close, which is all I wanted to know. Thanks everyone for your help!

 

Hey man I currently own both m15x and 11x r3 in my sig. And to be honest the 15x just sits there downloading stuff. As for performance the r3 packs plenty of it. As bman said your old setup should have been in the 10-11,000 3dmark range and so is my r3. Check out the last post on the benchmarking thread and you will see the r3 can break the 10,000 mark. Well atleast some can. I love my r3 and have no regrets plus I came from an r1 which my wife uses now.

 

If you get the new m11x the more expensive one it comes with better graphics card so performance will be what you used to also I agree ongetting ram and hard drive else where also if you willing to shell out some extra cash get gps locate installed on it incase something like that happens again

 

in which country do you get a better GPU with your M11x? I don't see that option anywhere, only the 540M.

I just picked up a Sager NP8130 for $1,299, and it should exceed a score of 15000 for 3DMark06. An M11x with i7 2617M, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD will run you about $1,200...

 

I would do some more research on the M11x and make sure your expectations are realistic. If you think you're going to effectively replace your M15x by buying an M11x and an external display... you're going to be REALLY disappointed. If you don't mind playing games in the native 1366x768 resolution, then you'll be okay.

 

I own both they do not compare. pretty simple but look at reviews and game benchmarks to see if it will do what you need it to do the ones i have are in my sig

 

Well I own both systems also and as stated before with the video performance your m15x had before it won't be such a drop in performance. And this is coming from someone who has an R3 not an R2. Currently I only use my r3 cause there isn't anything I haven't been able to run yet. Sure the m15x can be a beast but he'll the m11x r3 is a mini beast for it's size.

 

In regards to form factor and performance, I think m14x will be your best bet. I own a m11x i5 r3 (see sig) and it punches a fair wallop (averages 50-60 frames in Arkham Asylum, about 30 fps in Brotherhood on Medium settings, 30-40 fps in Vanilla Crysis on all medium, all at native resolution). The m14x is one slick machine too, and isn't TOO much bigger than the m11x. Be warned though (don't know if this was the case with the m15x) but the r3 is REALLY loud, so much so that even with speakers up full I can find it hard to hear games, especially cutscene conversation (I use headphones now).

But yeah, would recommend the m14x

 

get an Anti-Theft software.

 

I like my m11x because it can play everything thrown at it at medium to high on native resolution. That being said I wouldve gone with the m14 if I had less travel to do. I find the m11 to any mobile person (college and airplanes make it ideal). The battery life is astounding if you need to take notes or do some small work (I've gotten around 6hrs 30mjn)

 

When you get your M11x I suggest you install Prey.

I created a guest account to allow any would-be-thief to connect to the internet, thus facilitating recovery.

 

Although I find that the M11xr1 usfull for most of you computing needs, the Power of the M14x that I just orderd will be more suited to running FSX and other games while still getting at least 3.5+ hours of battery and a brighter screen.