Newbie here. Could use help and answers about M11X

Hi to all . I am a newbie to this but i figured if i had questions you would be the people to ask. My problem is i am wanting an awesome new laptop that if or when needed i could upgrade the memory and hd easily ( with help from the hubby who can build pc's ).
I have a pos of a laptop now granted it is 6.5 yrs old but it does have a couple of positives , like 4 usb ports and a 15" screen. What it does not have is speed, ability to game without lagging if it will even load them, view videos without lagging and decent speakers. And the screen has started to act up.

The pos only has memory that can be upgraded and i believe hubby has upgraded it to the max and i am sorry to say is1gb.

Hubby has given me input but essentially it is my decision on what to buy. I have done research and I know that Alienware is one of the best. I like the case and the overall design and the options for hardware.

Here is what i want and need a laptop that i can upgrade the essentials in when they are needed that can be purchased say at Newegg or Microcenter.
Also i know i don't game like my hubby( ie: modern warfare, and crisis) but would like to have a graphics card that on the chance i want to it would be a possibility.

i have saved $720.00 so far but the budget is not much higher with tax included .

Here are the things i need :
above decent sound
speed
great graphics
decent hd

Questions:
should i go with :
the 2 gb memory build or the 4gb?
the 320 hd with it being able to upgrade later or the 500 gb now?
I saw posts about a m11xr1 and r2 can you tell me if there is a difference and how i would know how to tell which i was getting when building on AW site?
Would you still recommend this laptop even after owning it and with seeing posts about the hinges and screen issues?

these are all the questions i can think of right now but i am sure i will have more .. thank you for reading and possible helping me out.

 

If you're used to a 15-inch screen, it's going to take some adjustment to work with the smaller display on the M11x. The Alienware is pretty tiny by comparison.

The M11x is fine for light to moderate gaming. It won't run the latest titles at super-high details, but it's more than adequate for most tasks. The main differences between the R1 and R2 are the CPU, graphics implementation, exterior appearance, and connectivity. You said your current system has 4 USB ports. All M11x models have 3. The R2 does not have a standard VGA monitor output, but the R1 does. The R2's exterior shell is made of a soft-touch material, while the R1's is hard plastic.

The R1 uses a Core2 Duo processor. The R2 uses a newer Core i5 or faster Core i7. While the R2 will be faster at CPU-intensive tasks (video editing, some games, etc), the R1 will have better battery life. The graphics chips are the same in both, an Intel HD accelerator and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 335m. The former would be for your day-to-day tasks, surfing, e-mail, etc. The latter is used for games. The R1 requires you to switch between the Intel and NVIDIA GPU manually using a keyboard shortcut; the R2 has NVIDIA's Optimus, which is designed to automatically switch to the 335m when called upon, such as when starting a game. Optimus is not perfect, but most users have figured out how to get stuff running smoothly. You can "whitelist" games through the NVIDIA driver control panel in order to have them launch with the 335m.

That's a very cursory summary of the differences. Instead of buying a brand-new system, you may want to consider ordering a refurbished one from the Dell Outlet. There you can get an M11x R2 with the Core i7, 4 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive for a base price of $819 plus tax. Use the coupon code D19CRN0H9HLJF9 checkout to receive 15% off, bringing the price down to less than $700. Once tax is figured in, you should be right at your budget. The refurbished systems are generally of good quality and come with a full one-year warranty that you can upgrade to two years or beyond.

Later on, the RAM and hard drive can be upgraded if you want. It's only a matter of taking off a few screws and the bottom plate assembly. Going up to 8 GB of RAM isn't necessary unless you're doing things that require lots of RAM (heavy-duty photo editing, etc). The hard drive can be easily swapped out for one of greater capacity or a faster solid-state disk (SSD). The choice is yours, and the upgrades will not void your warranty.

Good luck with your purchase.

 

an m11x would be a great option, even the base model (r1 refers to model with a core2duo processor, r2 refers to the models that have i5/i7 processors, this confused me for a while too!)

It is small, so if you have small "girl" hands it should be easy to use the slightly smaller keyboard. You'll easily be able to play most games on a medium setting, from my experience.

If you have $720, I might suggest looking for a good coupon, getting a base model m11x, and then getting a good keyboard/mouse and possible flatscreen to use with it.

If you're not totally without a computer right now, I would give it a little bit of time. It looks like they're about to release an "m14x", a 14" version. If you save a couple of months, you might be able to afford the base model.

I got my r1 for only $450 from the dell outlet (refurbished), and they're really great! The 1 year in home service is fantastic.


As far as RAM/HDD upgrades, I would stick with the base model for those and have your hubby upgrade them later. An upgrade to 4 or 8GB is often on sale at newegg (from a quality brand like Crucial or G.Skill), and I see cheap hard drives (Solid State Disks - very fast / and normal HDD 5400/7200rpm drives) on sale at slickdeals.net frequently.

Also, it really depends on what you want for size. The 11.6" screen of the m11x is great for me for most games and browsing around, but I'd never play warcraft on it (my desktop has a 23" LED 1080p). I also prefer the "FHD" (higher resolutions on smaller monitors) being released these days.


TLDR; Go for a base model m11x r1 (core 2 duo processor), or wait it out for the m14x to be released, buy that base model and save a little more. Use extra money on buying upgrades from newegg for the memory and HDD.

 

Oh, if you're going to have it for several years like your previous laptop, I suggest getting an r1 simply because they come with the hard plastic shell instead of the "soft touch". The "soft touch" stuff tends to wear off and makes it look really nasty after a period of time. If anything, the hard plastic may just have some little scratches if you're not careful.

 

thanks for responding so quickly... i appreciate all feedback