R1 Owner considering R2

Hi
As said, I am already a happy R1 owner, with the SU7300. However I am really wanting the new optimus system, and the quicker i7. Is it worth buying one now? And can I change the RAM from the R1 to the R2.

 

I've read a lot of issues with optimus. People who swiched arent very happy. If you're happy with what you have, I'd say keep it

 

I'm happy with my switch from the R1 SU7300 --> R2 640UM.

I'm not aware of any Optimus issues, then again, I only play Starcraft 2, Supcom 2 (not much...), KOTOR (one playthrough - forced by my friends...), Black Ops, Portal, and whatever else is in my steam folder.

Do I think it's worth it? I do. Why? Because I'm too lazy to switch GPU (well, I actually forgot a number of times and had to restart an application or game... all of them). Do I miss one thing? Battery life. I cannot ever achieve the almost 8 hours web surfing my R1 could pull off easily. 5.5 hours is normal for me, now.

 

I personally would have preferred manually switching the GPU. This automatic thing is buggy at times.

 

Wait for the r3...

 

like it doesn't work, or the profiles are wrong? I set the global default to the Intel IGP, and only certain games to the nVidia GPU.

 

When does the R3 come out? I also like manual switch, BUT i hate closing applications each time. Also I do not like that the last time I got new graphics drivers was over 6months ago! I guess I want SC2, WoW and some new games like Diablo III. Not a graphic junkie, as long as the FPS is ok.

Any idea how to get discounts?

Simply love my R1 in general, but an R2 would be cool!

 

I personally switched and LOVE it. 100% wouldn't go back to an R1.

 

agreed. i don't think the difference in performance is enough between R1 and R2 to justify selling your R1 for ~$300-400, buying an R2 for $700, only to have the R3 come out late this year or next year or whatever. save that $300 and put it in your R3 fund...

 

R1 --> R2 will give you miniscule performance bumps. If you were buying a new laptop, I'd say buy the M11x R2.

But since you already own the M11x R1, I say keep your laptop and run it into the ground. When it no longer does the job you need it to do, buy a new laptop. Waiting to buy, and using your laptop that is "good enough" until that point, will result in a laptop that is both cheaper and more powerful than what you can get today.

 

I have both, an R1 and an R2, both overclocked, etc.

The advantage of being able to use Throttlestop on top of the overclocking combined with 4 threads instead of 2, for Windows and cpu-intensive games, it is a significant bump IMHO from the R1. This is NOT to say the R1 is a slouch, far from it. My case was a bit unusual, but suffice to say if your games are generally GPU-intensive and not CPU-intensive, there is little reason to switch for gaming. Running multiple applications at once that are active is also smoother on the R2, but again, do you do that? Unless you're actually frustrated with the R1 I would agree with waiting for the inevitable R3, because if it is SB-based it will be worth the wait.

 

waste of money! avoid it and wait for r3.

 

I'd have to disagree with this. I personally have found it to greatly improve performance (especially if you a planning on gaming). For instance, I barely pushed 25fps on my R1 on low while playing Bad Company 2. But now I can play on high with about 40fps. Samethings apply to other common games such as WoW, black ops, etc. Im glad I upgraded. The R3 has not been formally announced. Its been rumored based on leaked announcements. To wait for it could be anywhere from a month to a year. Just I do not regret upgrading. Just a personal feeling I guess. But I was in a similar situation.

 

you're mentioning a single game in making the determination that an R2 is significantly better gaming performer than an R1. it really does depend on the game, and whether it is CPU vs GPU dependent. the reality is that in the vast majority of games out there, there is going to be little difference in gaming performance, and the R2 might even perform worse than the R1 in certain games. also, i highly doubt you average 40 FPS in BFBC2 with your R2.

see the link below for a comparison of other games:

Alienware M11x R2: A Legend Reborn - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

so...if you play BFBC2 or other CPU-heavy games, then by all means sell your R1 and get an R2. you're still only going to be able to play it on pretty low settings, even with an R2, so it's not like you're upgrading to M17x R3 performance either. if the difference was being able to play BFBC2 on high settings @ 30 FPS, then that would be another story, but even in this type of situation, the performance isn't worth the hundreds of dollars that you'd have to spend to get an R2.

 

Don't believe everything you read. That review has been obsolete for quite a while now.

If you overclock an M11x-R2 Core i7-640UM and you don't use ThrottleStop, your CPU will actually run slower than its default setting. You will run into the turbo power limits and the multiplier will drop to 9X as Anandtech found out. The happy users in this thread that love their R2 are using ThrottleStop to boost CPU performance by over 50% compared to the speed Anandtech was running. Since this little trick was discovered, the R2 took a big step ahead of the M11x-R1 and has never looked back. Many NBR users are running their R2 fully loaded at 2338 MHz (167 MHz x 14.0) which is in a totally different league compared to Anandtech running at 1440 MHz (160 MHz x 9.0).

Even the upcoming R3 is going to have a hard time competing with a fully overclocked R2.

DeeVu is one of the happy users I recently helped.
He knows what he's talking about far more than Anand does about this subject.

 

Well, not even thinking about possible performance gains for a moment, is there anything in particular that you wish ran better on your R1, or are you just thinking about theoretical gains? It depends how much that increase in performance is worth to you.

Also, for the price of an R2, you could put together a kickass desktop that will blow away both the R1 and R2, and keep your R1 for when you're on the go. I'm just throwing that out there, obviously it may not suit you.

 

i think that would be the best of both worlds. you can build a decent quad core desktop with a 500W PSU and an above average graphics card for $700.

my main point was that an R2 isn't going to be worth the $300-400 it would take to upgrade from an R1.

 

you could build a helluva desktop for >9000usd, however, you'd miss one clear, distinct reason why people even bother owning a laptop in the first place.

 

the OP already owns an R1 and is thinking of dropping money on an R2 to replace the R1. the point of an M11x isn't to run every game maxed out; it's to be able to run just about any game with at least decent details and somewhat reasonable framerates.

the OP already has an R1. he would be better off keeping the R1 and using the rest of the money on something else, and if he wants to really game, that money would be better spent elsewhere.

no one is missing the point of owning an M11x.

 

It works fine. Some people seem to have difficulty assigning launch specifications in the nvidia driver panel (because it does not always detect your games properly). However its quite easy to do and once done runs perfectly. Its a very fast machine. However it will not run linux as well as the r1 (issues switching between integrated and discrete) and you cant manually assign the discrete gpu to run all the time. I like them both, for their own reasons, but got the r2 because it was being offered with a better hdd, memory, and new drivers are available for it, for the same price. In your case, unless the games you are running really need a faster cpu, then I would wait and see if the r3 (if/when it ever comes out) has an even faster cpu and perhaps a dx11 video card improvement. This is especially relevant if it is your main gaming computer, the r3 is rumored to be coming out in april.

 

Have an M11xR1 and very happy with it.

That said, if I was starting over again, I'd buy an M11xR2 i7

But. One has to remember that the CPU is only part of a notebook package.

The current M11x is really a legacy system, so if you go from an M11xR1 to an M11xR2 you're just trading up within an aged system group.

On a lot of games, the GPU is the bottleneck, not the CPU.

Most new GPU are now DX11 with the potential of GPU acceleration and by the end of this year the Intel GPU will support DX11 as well.

USB 3.0 is going to increase external I/O.

HDMI is mostly 1.4a now.

Bluetooth is up to 3.0 and higher with greater cross-over with WiFi.

All this doesn't mean that much today, but in a couple of years, it's going to be an increased issue if you're on an older M11xR1/M11xR2.

However if one is one of these people that trade up every eight months, go for it, buy an M11xR2.

Optimus is the future as an M11xR1 is limited to the support of NBR members for hybrid driver sets and Intel GPU upgrades.

Also if you're not one of the people comfortable with mod'ing your CPU chip you're restricted to 1.6Ghz OC on an M11xR1

 

iv noticed the r1 gets much higher gpu overclocks. look at my sig to see mine, also pinmodding the r1 isnt very hard, and with that it can come very close to r2 speeds if not the same or better.

 

There are no reviews of the R2 with TS so this won't be the last time you say this.

With SetPLL and Throttlestop, maybe an i7 can be faster then a Sandy Bridge CULV.

Pinmodding is harder then using software to further overclock and it also makes the lead even greater between R1 and R2. This is best shown by comparing the fastest R2 (csufy's), clocked at 2.55Ghz (182x14), to the fastest pinmodded R1 (2.1Ghz).

 

that is true, but a core 2 duo at 2.1ghz is gonna be much faster then at 1.6, id think it would give a nice improvement to cpu bound games.
i would rather pinmod my r1 then buying an r2

 

Thanks for loads of answers!
I have also read a bit about the R3 beeing out in April, the best thing would be to wait. Either R3 will be so nice I'l buy it straight away, OR prices will drop so much on the R2 that it is a bargain!

I have no plans on selling my R1, it is the first M11x and I intend to keep it!

unclewebb; Thanks for the overclocking tips. I will put that into mind when choosing between R2, R3.

 

Build yourself a custom rig, trust me. The M11X R1 will probably be the last laptop I buy. Its a great little machine. I heard theres A LOT of problems with the Optimus, I prefer manual switching. The i7 doesn't seem faster then the C2D, my friend has a Acer Aspire 5745g with an i7 920m and the nVidia 330m GPU, and he gets WAY worser Frames-per-second in games.

 

@AlienOnions

thats couse your friend has the 330m which sucks compared to the gt335m

 

I don't even know where he get's the quotes (if they even exist) of people who have switched saying they are unhappy with Optimus. IF they exist, I'd bet on them being old 257.xx Dell driver users

I've personally made the switch, and am happy with the results. Was it worth spending 300usd on? I think so. Then again, I made my switch before the last quarter of 2010.

 

Wait for the next major upgrade. The CPUs right now aren't a huge deal.
Wait until there is a big leap in graphics then upgrade.
It shouldn't be too far off either.

 

Yeah, I agree with this. At the time I made my switch, the only real comparison with was the Sony Z12, and that was almost 500usd more (Z12 starting price vs m11xR2 reasonably maxxed price). Now, the Acer 3820TG is already somewhat making rounds in North America, Sony has released a resonably priced 13" with a AMD 66XXM GPU and a built in DVD burner! , and AMD llano is about to launch during the summer, which will be more powerful than the m11xR2 (based on the GPU and CPU specs of the nonFusion parts), and will likely draw less power overall as a platform, while taking up less PCB space (allowing for smaller internal parts/bigger battery ).

 

Was the M11X r3 thread just a pile of crap (It is gone now)?

Or is it announced in april?

 

it was mostly just speculation

 

Hell, then I might just buy the i7.. And then the R3 when that is older. Maybe even start a M11x museum :-D

 

haha yeah, but if i were you id keep your r1 and get something better later on. if you buy an r2 its probly more trouble then its worth, and between the r1 and r2 there basicly the same machine. and wont notice much of a difference

 

Yeah, you sound a bit more senable than me. Guess I'l give dell a call on monday to see if any discounts are available. Worst case, I can always sell em!

 

thats true, id love to own an r2, but i keep telling myself whats the point? for the games i play i dont need the extra processing power =p and all the optimus issues, kinda sounds like a headache. but if you want the r2 then you should get it, you can always get a refund within 21 days if you dont like it.

 

And eat a 15% restocking fee.

 

thats true lol or he could sell it on ebay, either way.

 

Hearing this though makes me even happier though about stacking an M11x-R2 vs an R3... and thanks again for the work on TS, it really does make the R2 an awesome little beast!

 

Well, now the M14X is actually a reality (see the General Alienware section)

So skip the R2 if you don't mind something bigger.

 

Wait for an R3, imo. The i7 will give you minimal gains at best, while the i5 will give barely noticeable improvement in performance over the SU7300. If you want a performance boost throw an SSD on the M11x because you wont gain much, if anything at all by using faster clocked RAM.