Alienware - what to get?

Fluorescence

Hi all, I'm new to this forum

Anyway, I'm hoping to get a new Alienware M11x sometime next week and wanted to ask a few questions about what features to get with it. I'll mainly be using it for college work, music, videos, and sporadic gaming (in that I don't game all day everyday but every few weeks I'll want to play a new game that runs really smoothly). How much RAM should I be looking at? Which processor? I haven't a clue what they mean practically so any advice people can give me is really appreciated!

Reasons why I want the M11x:

• People seem to be eeking a really nice battery life out of it (I loathe bringing laptop cables into college with me).
• It's small but powerful. My 17.5" Lenovo is the slowest thing I've ever seen in my life.
• It looks awesome (must be said).
• It can handle new games really well for an affordable price. I don't want to spend €1000s on a high end gaming laptop that I won't use for gaming a whole lot.

If ye need any more information about what I'll be using it for etc I'll be happy to answer. Thanks in advance!

ED E

€ 1,078.79 Inc VAT + PandP

COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M11x Soft Touch – Stealth Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i5 520UM (3M Cache, 1.06 GHz) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
SERVICES AND SUPPORT 1 year of coverage included with your PC edit
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support edit
MEMORY 3072MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x2048 + 1x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE No Antivirus Software edit
Accessories
AVATAR Alienware Logo edit
PRE-INSTALLED GAMES Steam® Gaming forum and download application edit
Also included with your system
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Dell Wireless 1520 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
LCD 29.5cm (11.6") WideHD 1366x768 (720p) LCD
PRIMARY BATTERY 8-cell 63Whr Lithium Ion battery
GRAPHICS CARD 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
Gedis Bundle Reference N08W1X03
Order Information Alienware M11x Order - Ireland
Shipping Documents English Documentation
Power Supply 90W AC Adaptor
Cables UK 250V Power Cord
Keyboard Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
AutoMatic Updates AutoMatic updates - On
Hidden NamePlate Engraving Generic Name Plate Engraving
Standard Warranty 1 year Next Business Day Hardware Support included with your PC
Color Choice Alienware M11x Soft Touch – Stealth Black


Remember, to play many games you need a CD/DVD, which will mean a USB optical drive that you'll have to lug around if you plan on gaming.

Fluorescence

Thanks, that's very helpful! As for the Cd/DVD drive I was planning to pick one up cheap on Amazon and keep it at home for the most part.

ED E

You could go i7 but it would be a waste AFAIK. Graphics is fixed. RAM you could go up to 4GB. Other than that going to 7 Ultimate might be worth it. It all depends on just what you want to play and how much you have to splash.

Voodu Child

If you absolutely need something that is 11" and has a decent graphics card, then the M11x might be a good choice.

However, if you can tolerate a 13" or 15" laptop, you'd be much better off getting one. You'll get something much more powerful for the same money.

imitation

I would think carefully about getting the m11x as a main machine. I have a 12" ION netbook ( I was toying with the m11x, but €300 euro is much less of a gamble than €1k), and I cant use it for much more than an hour at a time, as the screen is such a small size that it causes a fair bit of fatigue. Likewise the keyboard and trackpad size arent massively comfortable. You can however get around that with an external screen, keyboard and mouse for when your home.

Dont forget your not going to get the 10 hours out of it when gaming, thats stricly when your in windows browsing the web. I would expect maybe 2-3 hours when gaming.

You'll probably get more bang for your buck in the 14-15 stakes (and probably even more in the 17") but if your the kind of person who will use a laptop in public then the m11x seems a good bet (I loathe using them in public)

Fluorescence

Thanks everyone for the advice. I was considering getting a 13"/15" for a while but I really want a netbook, and 11.6" seems to be the perfect size. I wasn't particularly excited about any of the netbooks I was looking at until I saw the M11x and then I drooled over its pictures for ages... I won't be doing a whole lot of portable gaming on it - I'd be somewhere with sockets if I'm gaming. It just needs to be small for bringing in and out of college (my Lenovo is such a pain in the arse to bring anywhere) with decent battery life to last me a day of note-taking etc in lectures, while also having the capabilities to game when I want to. I do a lot of multitasking, that's the only thing. I often have >10 tabs open at any one time...

I am however hoping to spend <€1000, would a Core 2 Duo processor be ok for what I want? I don't need a lot of memory either as I have a TB external drive for storage.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I have ridiculously tiny hands so the small keyboard etc isn't a problem for me. I don't envisage any issues with fatigue due to its size, though I could be wrong.

ED E

You'd want to have 100 tabs running to have issues on the above really. Browsing is not intensive. By the sound of it gaming is the only thing thats gonna require any spec, which means most of the time your system will be overkill.

Core 2 Duo is fine for most games now, but the i5 would last longer against new releases.

Voodu Child

fluorescence wrote: »

I do a lot of multitasking, that's the only thing. I often have >10 tabs open at any one time...

I am however hoping to spend <€1000, would a Core 2 Duo processor be ok for what I want? I don't need a lot of memory either as I have a TB external drive for storage.

The M11x uses ULV processors so it definitely wouldn't be as suited to multitasking as a full-speed processor. The ULV line have very low clockspeeds.

That said, if your definition of multi-tasking is having a few browser tabs open then you should be alright :pac:

x in the city

Voodu Child wrote: »

The M11x uses ULV processors so it definitely wouldn't be as suited to multitasking as a full-speed processor. The ULV line have very low clockspeeds.

That said, if your definition of multi-tasking is having a few browser tabs open then you should be alright :pac:

an 11" laptop for gaming is ridiculous, might as well get a friggin nintendo ds lite....

Fluorescence

I've been looking around and I think that an Acer TimelineX might just do the trick instead of getting an M11x. The model I'm looking at is Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3927, though I might consider the 13.3.

11.6-inch LED-backlit widescreen display
1.2 GHz ultra-low voltage Intel Core i3-350UM dual-core processor
320 GB SATA hard drive
3 GB of installed DDR3 RAM
Intel HD Graphics
6-cell battery (5800 mAh)

Any thoughts on this laptop? It is considerably cheaper than the Alienware which is the main reason I'm looking at it :P

Voodu Child

fluorescence wrote: »

Any thoughts on this laptop? It is considerably cheaper than the Alienware which is the main reason I'm looking at it :P

Its got integrated graphics, so don't expect to do any modern gaming on it.

And again, you're still talking about a ULV processor, which means it has low performance. There's nothing wrong with it, but you have to understand what you're getting - it is aimed to give long battery life rather than to run quickly. You complained about your Lenovo being slow so a ULV laptop may not be for you.

Fluorescence

Ok, thanks for the speedy reply!

ADIT: Forgot to mention I'm also looking at the Asus U30Jc. It's 13.3 but that's still pretty portable.

Processor Intel Core i3-350M 2.26GHz
Memory 4GB DDR3-1066 (2 DIMMs)
Chipset Intel HM55 Express
Graphics Nvidia GeForce 310M 512MB
Display 13.3" TFT with WXGA (1366x768) resolution and LED backlight
Storage Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B 320GB 2.5" 5,400-RPM hard drive
Optical Hitachi-LG Data Storage HL-DT-ST GT30N DVD writer
Audio Stereo HD audio via Realtek codec
Dimensions 12.9" x 9.4" x 0.8-1.2" (328 x 238 x 20-30 mm)
Weight ~4.6 lbs (~2 kg)
Battery 8-cell Li-Ion 5600 mAh

The only trouble is I can't seem to find a supplier in Ireland and overseas shipping is pretty high

Darwin

If its any help, I have an M11x - I use it mostly for email/browsing and some light gaming (I played Mass Effect 2 on it from start to finish). The CPU can be overclocked in the BIOS to 1.7Ghz which is a nice bump from the stock speed. I don't find the screen too small at all, and my portly fingers can managed the keyboard fine. Having said that I do use a larger laptop for serious work, but you can always plug the M11x into an external monitor & keyboard if you need to. Have a browse on the M11x forums here and see what other owners think.

Fluorescence

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.