Questions about the M11x

I've been looking for a laptop recently, and my eyes came upon the Alienware M11x. It looks like a great little computer, with quite a bit of power, and it meets what I'm looking for in a laptop. Recently, though, I've heard lots of Alienware horror stories, and I've heard lots of things concerning the R1 and the R2 versions. So, I have quite a few questions for you.
I'm not very computer savvy, and I've just entered the market for a laptop, so I'm doing as much research as I can. I may purchase it around Christmas.
1) Is it really worth giving up the extra hours of battery life and the extra few hundred dollars to upgrade the processor? (By the way, games I'd be looking to play on it would be games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Dragon Age: Origins...yes, I'm a huge RPG nerd...and games like Left 4 Dead, Modern Warfare 2, Half-Life series, etc., etc., etc.)
2) Speaking of the processor, how is it able to handle games? The Intel Core2Duo processor, if I'm reading correctly, only overclocks to roughly 1.7 Ghz...and that doesn't meet the minimum requirements for many modern games. The i5 goes up to about 1.8, and the i7 goes to 2.2, so I can see the i7 running those. But the other processors...can someone explain? And it seems to me that the i7 would absolutely kill the battery life. *shrugs*
3) Is it worth the money? I'm willing to spend roughly $1,000. If it is, great. If it isn't, can you recommend other laptops for me. Like I said, I want the ability to play most modern games (I am perfectly fine with lower settings, as long as it plays), and I'll hopefully be bringing it to college with me.
Share your experiences with me, please, if you own an M11x.
Thanks for any help you provide.

 

Get the Core2Duo. I bought mine for 989$. I get 6 hours and 40 minutes of battery life on the integrated card. It's great for school work, notes, etc, and still plays games at High or Medium. The i series processors are more suited to desktop gaming as these don't seem to up the performance that much.

Also, the C2D doesn't have those "Optimus" issues. Just be sure to overclock it in the BIOS (as it'll be running at 1.73 instead of 1.3) and you'll be golden.

 

Talon, what are your WPrime32 times?

 

I dont know much about computers... But I bought my m11x with dual core thinking ...Oh well I cant handle mass effect 2...I downloaded the demo on steam and I got really good graphics without my fps dropping I Bought SP: conviction (still downloading). I think just with a 4 gb ram and dual core you will do fine. But some things are true...Dell makes poor computers sometimes I got some keyboard problems my Ctrl key is kinda broken so.....You should get a 3 year warranty or something .

 

I have no idea. Games run just fine. I could care less what my scores are, really.

 

Well to give the OP a fair idea of how the R1 and R2 perform, you really can't tell him to compare your seat-of-the-pants performance with my seat-of-the-pants performance can we? Especially when you're telling him to go with an R1.

Optimus and PunkBuster do suck atm, but next driver version should fix it. I don't see alot of the RPG games he listed as PunkBuster games.

I'll tell you this, my former SU4100 can't hold a candle to my i5.

 

System requirements for cpus can be a little deceiving if you only look at processor speeds. Requirements that say Pentium 4 2.4GHz will run fine on a 1.3GHz core 2 duo processor, or games that say Core 2 duo 2Ghz will run fine on a 1.2Ghz i-core processor. This is because with each iteration of processors (Pentium, core 2 duo, i-core) the architecture that they run is more efficient than the previous iteration meaning that slower next generation processors are quicker than faster previous generation processors, ie: 1.3GHz core2duo > 1.8GHz Pentium 4.

 

If you want this "seat-of-your-pants" thing, why are you gaming on the M11x? I understand that this laptop can run games but if you want the true experience then you should get a desktop. I hear the M17x works pretty well too.

 

jeremyshaw and a number of other members here have or have had both the R1 and R2. Their observations should be great for someone asking for direct comparisons.

Also, for applications that are CPU intensive the difference in performance between the R1 and R2 didn't used to be that significant. Now with ThrottleStop that performance gap has increased quite a bit.

In the end though, based on what the OP is stating he'll be using the notebook for, it sounds as if the R1 would be capable provided those needs don't change much in terms of CPU requirements.

 

Yep, that's why I've got a Phenom IIX6 and 5850 video card. The M11X is when I travel. I used to travel with this before the M11X:

I'd like you all to meet my MOM - [H]ard|Forum

 

Yeah, I sold my R1 to cleverpseudonym. I didn't like GPU switching, that's all. It's rather annoying, and just short of dispicable in how Dell handles driver updates.

The biggest advantage to the R2 (baring the CPU... and throttlestop), is Optimus, actually. It's the forefront of nVidia mobile technology, and nVidia has invested quite a bit into it. The PB issue (the sole, major, issue with Optimus) is already promised to be gone by the next driver branch (261.xx, removing several DX hooks that caused the issue), and the m11x r2 is now officially part of the Verde program, so it can just simply nab the drivers right off of nVidia.com. The R1 cannot, not without sacrificing switchable drivers.


As for CPU, I didn't notice any real difference in day to day useage. In SC2, I did get a nice 15-30fps bump eek , over my m11x R1 (mind, I didn't OC the R1, since SpeedStep has an issue which drains battery life - and batt life is important to me).


However:
I no longer have to switch over to the nVidia GPU to watch movies over HDMI.

I no longer have to shut down IE9 and Live Messenger to switch the GPU.

I no longer have to switch the GPU, for that matter - it's done for me, and I can set rules up to automatically switch the GPU.

I get a nice ~6 hours of normal web surfing with my m11xr2, I didn't do much, just disabled TurboBoost and dimmed the KB backlighting. I also set the Intel GPU as the global default, and I have never noticed the nVidia GPU activating outside of a game (tray icon). ~6 hours is on par with my m11xr1, so I am happy with the results. The R1, in simple office tasks, however, managed an impressive 7 hours, something the R2 cannot do (so far - I seem capped at 6 hours, lol ). Having lower battery life is an artifact of Turbo Boost, IMO. When I did overclock the SU7300, I sunk down to 5.5 hours of web surfing. Any other R1 user get more time from theirs?

The m11xr2, overall, is a more capable machine with a bit more flexibility in what you can make it do.

Mind, I am a user who switched over from his m11xr1, simply because of how the GPU is managed, both in drivers, and how to switch it (+ associated issues with that).

The final nitpick? The PSU bundled with the R1 is a 65W PSU. It gets hot. The R2 comes with a 90W PSU (utter overkill....). It doesn't get hot (it's not being loaded as heavily as the 65W PSU is).

From what I know, before ThrottleStop, the SU7300 OC'd pulled close to the i5 at stock. Now with Throttlestop... there isn't a chance in hell of the SU7300 pulling close. That being said, the R1 is almost 200usd cheaper in most instances, sometimes more. The SU7300 now comes standard, which despite being a CULV, does somewhat well.


I think, for the OP's usage, if he can only get a R1, then get it. It's an awesome machine. It does have that annoying, smooth shell (final insult from Dell - after the glossy screen), that the R2 replaced with a matte shell, but that's personal preference [my personal preference? I should of taken the silver option]. If the OP can nab the R2, then get the R2. When the CPU is a limiting factor in many games (check anandtech's reviews of both units), then getting the most powerful CPU will be a nice feature to have - even if it's 200usd more, for a mere [pre-TS] 10-20% fps gain.

I feel like the i5/i7 R2 has fine control over everything, from how much FSB OC to apply, to how the CPU interacts with every GPU application on your computer! You can control it down to the micro level, or uptop at the highest level. On the R1, I feel like it's simple yes/no, on/off. You get one option for OCing the CPU [enable/disable]. That's it. You get one option for the GPU [enable all/disable all]. That's it. Maybe it's just late out, and I am kooky. Maybe I should have slept more last night before taking a decent 6 hour yelling trip through the wonderful Bay Area traffic today. But it's the general feeling I got from my transition from the R1, to the R2.

I'm really tired, and typing this took a lot longer than it should of.... I think I'll edit it for grammar tomorrow. Goodnight

 

@c4sc4: Oh...oh, okay. I get it. Thank you.
@ everyone else: Thank you for your responses, you've helped me out here quite a bit.

 

I absolutely agree with your assessment of Optimus. It seems to have garnered a somewhat negative reputation here and on the nvidia forums which I've never understood. Outside of the PB issue it just works. Some new R2 owners aren't able to wrap their heads around how to properly use the program whitelist or are unable to locate the proper executable for a given application. It's not rocket science.

 

Alright, but now I've got another question. If I decide to buy the M11x R2, should I stick with the i5 processor or scrape up the extra hundred or so and go with the i7? I think I could manage the extra money, but it would drain my funds pretty badly.

 

I play ME1 and ME2, Dead Space, COD4, COD:MW2 and even Crysis on my M11xR1.

 

IMO, just the i5 is fine for anything. Since the advant of ThrottleStop, the power of both i5/i7 CPU have been truely unlocked, and I don't think there is a *major* difference between the two once heavy OCing starts.

I won't try to sugar pad it, the battery life on the i5/i7 is indeed lower, I feel like I have to "try hard," , in order to achieve even a similar battery life to what I easily got on the SU7300.