Noob Confusion

Hi all,

Seriously considering purchasing an m11x. I do have a few lingering questions, I was hoping you could help me with:

1.) This Core 2 Duo SU7300 is on sale for $599: Alienware M11x Laptop Details | Dell Worth it?

2.) Is that Core 2 Duo SU7300 R1 (manual switch) or R2 (Optimus)

3.) Is Optimus still/really that bad?

4.) Are the hinges fixed?

5.) If you overclock the Core 2 Duo SU7300, is the i5 worth the extra few hundred?

Much appreciated,
Frank

 

4. No, not yet.

 

R2 pros over R1
-slightly faster cpu, (lil 3-5 fps increase effect on games, more effect on daily task where cpu is needed the most)
-Optimus (it might be a pro to some, but a con to some also)

R1 pros over R2
-2 to 2 1/2 longer battery life
-lesser heat, more comfortable to use
-manual switching meaning you have full control when to use integpu/dedicated card, battery efficiency
-cheaper by $300-350 vs i5 and $400-550 vs i7 with recommended configurations


I didn't include the new finish soft touch black on r2 as a pro or con (same with cosmic blk) because some r2 users prefer cosmic blk and some r2 users prefer soft touch blk

Soft Touch Blk Finish - Less fingerprints/better grip and less likely to scratch when bump, but shows more smudges and grease, somewhat easy to clean but the rubberized finish shows scuff marks like when wiped

Cosmic Blk Finish - Fingerprint magnet but easier to wipe n clean, shinier and more of a real blk color (like a car paint), smudges/grease/fingerprints are easier to clean

 

I really didnt have a choice of the colours, i mean, they only offered the lunar shadow for the i7 r2's even though i wanted black =(

 

Uh, sorry... but is your information based on anything other than your own imagination? It doesn't seem to be factual at all

- R2 CPU is significantly better than R1:
40% faster in wPrime
45% better in PCMark Vantage
- R2 can use the Nvidia control for manual graphics selection
- R2 only gets 2-3°C warmer under load
- R1 battery life is nowhere near 2+ hours better:
Surfing with WLAN:... 5h 30min vs. 4h 28 min ( 1 hour difference)
DVD playback:.......... 4h 20min vs. 4h 00min ( 20 min difference)

Also, a HUGE negative (IMO) is the fact that the R1 must use Dell drivers, whereas the R2 can install the latest direct from Nvidia.

Source:
Notebookcheck.net Reviews R1
Notebookcheck.net Reviews R2

 

So the R2 is faster than the R1 in a meaningless benchmark (prime) and another canned benchmark that has as much bearing on real world usage as 3D Mark Vantage..... Right.

The R2 (i7) is faster than the R1, but in gaming; the laptops primary use, it is not much faster at all especially when most games are GPU not CPU limited.

TBH I couldn't care if the R2 is faster at encoding movies or rendering when compared to the R1. In the real world both models are extremely slow when compared to my proper i7 running at 3.8Ghz.

Whilst the R2 (and R1) can do cpu intensive tasks I would imagine most people bought it for the gaming capabilities first and foremost, otherwise you would have been much better off with something like the HP envy 14 or Acer Timeline X models, both offer much faster cpu's and comparable gaming performance.

Your point about the drivers is also only partially correct. R1 users have to use Dell drivers if they want *official* support for the GPU switching*. For those of us who just game we have the abiilty to run the latest Nvidia drivers (260.99 at time of writing) albeit with the loss of graphics switching. The loss is not such a big deal when you use the laptop primarily for gaming as the Nvidia GPU would be in use even in switchable mode anyway.

*Unofficial support is available via these very forums although the solution is a little "techy".

 

Benchmarks are measurement tools. Just like in science, you need to measure in order to quantify behavior.

Yes, wPrime is a synthetic CPU benchmark - very little relevance to real-world scenarios due to most activities not being CPU-bound (with the exception of CPU-based video encoding). However, 3DMark Vantage is very relevant. It is a gaming benchmark, which stresses the same components of a computer that a game would.

Even if you completely discount any and all benchmarks, review testing (e.g. Anandtech's M11x R2 review) repeatedly show that the Alienware M11x R2 Core i7 stock speeds is about 10% faster in gaming than the Alienware M11x R1 w/overclocked C2D CPU. I'd imagine that gap would be even larger with overclocking and ThrottleStop turned on for the Core i7.

 

"For those of us who just game we have the abiilty to run the latest Nvidia drivers (260.99 at time of writing) albeit with the loss of graphics switching."

Hmm. Why did you buy a laptop with switchable graphics again?

And I get solid 6 hours of battery on my R2 with classroom notes taking and surfing on firefox.

 

I was actually aware of that, but doing so requires going into the BIOS every single time you want to switch, which is a HUGE inconvenience if you want to get any battery life out of the m11x.

Why would someone buy an ultraportable gaming laptop and not use its portability? Discrete graphics mode kills portability because it kills battery life.

 

See answers in-line below.

 

Thanks, really helpful info!

Regarding hard drives, if I choose to install an SSD, then I will probably have to store some files/games on an external since affordable SSD's are low capacity.

Will using an external to game defeat the purpose of having an SSD? In other words, is using an SSD only beneficial if the files are located on the SSD, or will it also enhance accessing files on an external drive as well?

I'd appreciate any SSD users sharing their configurations - do you use an external? If so, do you leave gaming files on the internal SSD and just put docs/pics/music on the external?

 

I don't agree with this at all. I get almost an hour more with just surfing the web.

 

I don't own a SSD but it seems obvious to me that only the files on an SSD would benefit from speed, not the ones on an external drive (which is limited by usb port speeds).
Having an SSD is great for faster loading and overal quick responses, but don't think it will increase your fps or anything. If you want to focus your money on gaming, you need cpu and gpu power.

Also, yes many say the difference between the ulv and core i cpu's is neglicable, but I read in this forum that in can make a difference of as much as 10 fps in certain games. Imo this is not worth the huge price difference, but if you want to be more future proof...(in the very small way this weak cpu can be future proof tbh). Eventhough this small laptop is for gaming, the cpu will still limit some cpu intensive games like Empire Total War (for example: when I play Empire, Mafia2 or Assassins creed 1 & 2, my 2ghz core 2 duo t7300 is always @91-100%).

About the hinges, I didn't hear anything about a fix yet (xept for some guy in this thread posting that dell is working on the problem).

 

This. You put your OS + applications + games on your SSD, and you keep your media (videos, music, pictures, ) on an external USB hard drive.

OS + apps + games actually benefit from being run off of an SSD. Media files (videos, music, etc) do not benefit one bit from SSD speeds. Keep them on cheaper slower high-capacity external storage.

You'd be surprised how far the storage on a 120GB SSD can go if you don't put videos on it. I have two computers each with OS + apps + 8 games on a 120GB SSD, and still have 30GB - 35GB on each drive.

 

I know it was mentioned briefly, but do not neglect the gains from using ThrottleStop on the i5 and i7. That increased the FPS gap between the R1 and R2.

If you have a first-person game chugging along at a min 25 FPS on the R1 and it gains a few more frames on the i5, say to 28 FPS or so. With ThrottleStop, in my experience, that goes up another 5 or 6 FPS. Now you are looking at around 33-34 FPS. Percentage-wise, that is a big increase (+35% in my example) over the R1 with the right tweaking.

Still an R1 for $600 is a great deal. Only your wallet knows if the FPS gains are worth it. The money could be spent on adding a SSD to the R1, but that will speed up load times and day-to-day Windows responsiveness and decrease storage capacity. It will not increase in-game FPS, so it becomes a very personal question... what is more important to you?

Stain

 

If battery life is my goal and all I was doing were note taking with some web I expect about 6.5hrs on the R1.

But since that is 4x what I'm used to its not a goal. Leave it on "max" and still get more than I was with other systems prior. Yippie!

For the price they offer now the R1 is a great deal and the side-by-side diff will be harder to justify. Remember, you don't get Xyrs of use like you could before so trying for future proof might not be worth it.

If your needs are different or a particular application warrants more processor then that is different.