m11x R3 or m14x

What im looking for:

Portability

Ability to handle design software (photoshop, architectural design)

Ability to play most games on at least medium settings

Price (max 2200)


The only thing that's keeping me from buying the m11x
is whether or not it can play games on high settings without
overclock. I also heard dell does not support Nvidia updates for
the m11x. Is this true?

 

CAD on an 11" screen?

 

Your requirements are pretty much what I had, and I was leaning towards the M14x, because of the bigger screen, and more powerful components (the 540M just isn't that great, but for an 11" unit, it's very good), while still keeping good battery life.

In the end, I decided to just pick up on of these, and do any intensive things on my desktop.

 

I intend to hook it up to an external monitor.

 

Ah.

I would personally recommend the m14x. The extra power will definitely improve your CAD experience and I think it is still plenty portable.

 

Did you rule out every possible laptop? While this computer is capable of doing other things, its design was intended mainly for gaming.

 

A bit of background, I bought an m15x when they first came out and it was WAY too big to be what I would call portable. Then I bought an m11x r1, which has served me quite well over the past year - I also run 3D design programs and Photoshop. I just received an m14x and am thinking it hits a pretty nice sweet spot of power and portability. It certainly fits nicely in my backpack, isn't crazy heavy, has a great screen and is quite fast.

Now, the question is really just how portable do you want ? I was traveling a lot over the last year and loved the m11x because I could use it on any airline tray for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours running CAD or Photoshop. I'm quite sure the m14x will be more challenging . . . yes, it will fit better that the m15x (which basically just didn't) but I bet that there will be some contortions required to use it. Fortunately, I'm not traveling much and when I do I'm not required to work on the plane, so not an issue for me.

All that said, I'm still considering swapping for an m11x r3, it is just hard to beat the power and size - I had a Dell XPS M1210 for about 3 years and just loved the portability vs power spot it hit.

However, as a counterpoint to the r3, as a rough summary of the performance ratings I've read it seems that the m14x GPU is about 50% more powerful than the m11x, overall 3D Marks for m11x r3 are 6-9K and 12-15K for the m14x. In testing my systems the m14x is 2.5x over the m11x r1. That's a pretty big boost and I think in the end will be worth hanging on the m14x.

It all comes down to how important portable is to you, I can confirm that an m11x is quite suitable for CAD and Photoshop

 

That's practically what im aiming for. A laptop that's portable enough for lots of travel while still being able to play games.

I've also considered upgrading my desktop and buy a cheaper laptop, but in the end I ruled that out.

Thank you. It all really comes down to wether m11x can handle the games
I want (black ops, starcraft 2, crysis etc etc). I checked a bit on
youtube and it seems capable of doing all that, while still being portable (which is really my main concern right now). Otherwise I would've gotten the m14x.

 

Well, the m11x R2 is certainly capable of handling Starcraft 2.... just 3v3 and higher kinda have a tendandcy of slaughtering the CPU at stock + TS

 

i had the m11x r2 but later down the road i wanted a bigger screen, don't like being hook up to a monitor all the time. got the m14 couple weeks ago its awesome

 

Do you find it difficult to carry around? Also, are you content with
the cooling?

Sorry if im being annoying with all these questions . Just don't
wanna waste 2000 bucks.

 

I find the m14x plenty portable. But as someone else said, it isn't portable enough that using it on an airplace will be easy (maybe if you are in first class and have more room between rows it would be).

It can get a little hot when flat on a table, but not to the point where it is an issue. If you prop the back up, you don't have to worry about it.

 

After careful consideration, I've decided to buy the 11x and then upgrade my desktop when I can afford it.

Thanks for the input everyone .

 

Well, the base model m14x wont compare with the m11x r3 top spec (the one with i7,6gb ram, 500gb hd and 2gb 540m) But the high spec m14x will be better than m11x r3 top spec. It all comes down to what you want. My m11x (love it) can open word,excel, powerpoint ect in under .5 seconds. here is a pic so you believe me