Alienware M11x R3 initial impression

M14x users are also reporting super loud hair dryer/jet engine fan while gaming or benchmarking. AW/Dell said they are aware of the issue and will fix that on the next firmware/bios update.

So I'm guessing the m11x r3 will get the same treatment.

 

CPU is 17W TDP. It's cooler running then an R2. The RAM doesn't need cooling. That leaves the video card as the source of the heat.
Strange how Dell put out 2 fan tables: one hot running one but quieter for the review 2657M and this one with max fan at 65C.

Can you check if the R3 throttles when gaming on battery? The R1 and R2 run at full clocks unplugged but they don't have a 35W GPU.

 

Dang you are right, and separate thread about R3 noise is starting to pop up.

 

NBR should do an official review of the R3, and report on the fan noise as well. I do hope Alienware will quiet it down.

 

Hey can ya make a video of how the games are using fraps for those who already received their alienware. I would really like to see how smooth it runs. Thankx!!!

 

Dell would like to be able to use the same case for all new cpu's/gpu's for the next ten years but they will not be able to.

As new components arrive new challenges arise that likely cannot be accommodated by a cookie cutter approach to case design.

Wah Wah.

 

Of course that was an anthonykit comment. Knew after reading before I saw who it was .

 

Anthony please, PLEASE we understand you don't like the case design. _EVERYONE_ here knows this. We don't want to hear it anymore. Just drop it, and talk about something useful instead of bringing up the fact that you don't like the case design every other freaking post you make.

And I'm sure you knew this was an Oakley post before you looked at the name.

 

Okay. I wanted to make this comment, which is true and on topic, and then say no more, but now here comes Oakley being a Troll.

Oakley, fyi, I love my R2. Typing on it right now. Could sale it and trade up or down but there is nothing out there better for the money, including the R3.

Read this thread below that I OP'ed.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/556989-new-owner-shocked-quality.html

Oakley, the case cannot go on for an eternity.

Had Dell spent a little R&D budget redesigning this case this fan stuff would not be happening.

I don't think the fan noise problem it will be fixed.

Sorry.

Wah Wah.

 

The R4 will have a faster processor, faster gpu, and no fan noise when playing games.

 

An eternity you say? Really? Do you know how long the m11x has been out for?

You do realize it came out barely a year ago? It's official release was 3/1/10 in the US. So, this old stale design is just pushing the 1 year mark. I see a redesign coming in maybe another year.

I mean wow. I think thats pretty good, 2 updates to the hardware platform after the initial release.

And I would have to look around, but someone verified that the fan speed issue, is a bios issue, and will be worked out in a bios update.

Get some information before you start posting about things you obviously don't understand. So whatever, apparently I'm a troll. But at least I know what I'm talking about.

 

Ok.. here is what I dont understand here... How can you expect good gaming power and NOT have fan noise? How are they going to cool it? Cold Fusion?

Notebooks don't have the luxury of extra space within the case itself. Therefore it will need fans. If you want quiet, Macbook maybe or Mac Air or Super thin Lenovo?

Sometimes we just have to work with what we have available to us within the technology. I don't like loud fans either but I dont have any ideas that could help resolve the issue.

Its a simple if then...

If you want to game,
Then your going to hear a fan.

Best Wishes,

StevenX

 

Some fan noise is expected in laptops.

Fan noise is mitigated by a good case design based on the internals.

This case was designed for a su7300 or something like that.

When laptop fan noise becomes the subject of many, many, many separate threads at this forum then it becomes clear that you have laptop fan noise that is beyond normal.

Probably one of the loudest laptop fans ever. All because they want to squeeze too much life from an outdated case.

 

Anthonykit ----> Crab mentality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Real Talk.

 

I don't see the connection here.

Please be more specific.

Sorry.

 

I get it, makes sense. See what I have been trying to work with here? He just doesn't or won't try to understand.

 

It's been stated that the R3 has a much louder fan under load than the R1 & R2, and people are trying to understand why. The components in the R3 shouldn't really be hotter than the R2, which had a more pleasant fan. Also, judging from one of the reviews, it did seem like Alienware did change the fantable to a more aggressive one on the shipping units.

No one is arguing that the fan is needed, or that it's going to make noise. It's just that the R3's noise is so much louder than previously.

 

Guys, just my 2c. I imagine the R3 to be equal to both the R1 and R2 for their respected release dates... Let me explain, the real power in each of these machines does not reach potential until around 3-6moths after release thanks mainly to the genius guys and pioneers who test their ideas in this very forum. I'm 100% sure the R3 will follow in the same path as its older brethren. Bios updates will soon be released to sort out fan issues.
In the mean time enjoy the forum without the flaming and trolling, it doesn't matter which model you consider the best each have their own merits and cons. We are here to share knowledge and opinions not repeatedly beat each other over the head with them.
I love my R2 and I love this forum for the immense lake of knowledge and resource it has given me to mod/hack and generally improve my investment for the last 9 months or so. Peace and happy gaming

 

Here's what I know: There's almost no room for mods as existing methods are closed in hardware or more limited with the R3. Performance wise, the "real power" is here and now after a GPU overclock. Throttlestop can't unthrottle it, BIOS mods can't unthrottle it, BCLK is limited to 5% at most (one step in SetPLL beyond the BIOS?) and the VBIOS mod looks like it's limited to 1v from .98v. Maybe a vmod for the GPU at most.
You can see why some forum members are eager to use DDR3 1333 RAM as a strongpoint of the R3. The R3 is max potential OOTB.

 

Is that why the brand spanking new m14x is also having the same issues you simpleton?

 

You want to talk about fan noise my m17x R2 sounds like a jet taking off when gaming

 

Maybe you can tell us how Dell can redesign the case, making it smaller or at least stay the same size while making it more or at least just as powerful (by future standards), having more or at least comparable battery life, and a fan that is quieter or just as quiet.

 

What's a good program to benchmark drives? I want to see what kind of performance the USB3 gives with a USB3 HD.

 

Ok so after reading this thread, I've come to the conclusion that the fan is louder than normal under load, but overall the laptop is relatively quiet during general use. The cpu scales better considering performance/power consumption and if the pc is properly configured, it will be able to achieve more than 5 hours of light computer usage- which was the limit of my R2 i5 no matter how I stripped the features down. I know that Dell/Alienware has fixed hinge issues since February of 2011, and all R2's and assumingly R3's will have the new hinge if it was manufactured after that time, at least that's what they have told me.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think you can't really OC the CPU, you can get like 3% boost but no more without mods.

 

I am very happy with my m11X R3!

I can play Mass Effect 2, Crysis 2 and Just Cause at the same graphics levels as my 1 1/2 year old M17x.

I think that anyone complaining about the fan on the m11x is acting like a baby. What the heck you do expect to cool a little 11 inch computer.

If you can do better then go build one yourself and sell it as a competitor to Alienware!

If you don't like the noise don't buy one and let those of us who are happy with them alone to enjoy our toys!

 

In fact, I love my m11x so much I plan to buy another one soon, an R2, so I can play with overclocking!

 

R3 runs great out of the box but even with mods, there is no way to get any more CPU performance out of it. The mobile Sandy Bridge CPUs are locked down pretty tight so there won't be any magic trick 6 months from now to get around that.

The only time an M11x-R2 with an i5 gets up to 100C is when the fan dies or someone has installed the heatsink incorrectly. If you're bored this weekend, pull it apart and fix that so you can enjoy your R2 before your R3 arrives. Then again you better not or else they won't give you a new R3.

 

Crab Mentality bro, I'm telling you.

 

The Dell website won't let me use the R3's service tag for enything. Keeps telling me it is invalid.

 

YOUR RIGHT.

 

At the moment, I am frustrated because the only real PC game I play is Civ V and the R3 will not launch/play the game. However, I believe this is due to some GPU issues that will be cleared up shortly.

Note: The GPU freezing issue cause the machine to freeze significantly last night and corrupted my radio drivers forcing me to roll my machine back to a previous point as the device manager would not let me uninstall or delete anything... and I could not get on the internet because, of course, the wifi radio was effected.

On the positive side...
I think the machine is peepy and strong, works very well with good battery life and has a great feel to it. The keyboard is great and wonderfully responsive and the lights are great eye candy!

I am very excited about the pending upgrade to an SSD to add the only missing component, instant snappiness. The stock drive is very effective and the machine is quiet but the responsiveness of an SSD will make the machine a complete win (plus the $350 coupon makes it almost free). To support a smaller SSD, I have gone ahead and got an external RAID exclosure to handle my media... I will be ditching my desktop and Studi0 1735 completely!

However, all that said, my wife got one in Nebula Red and I got Stealth so we could tell them appart quickly. I think I like the red best.

 

"the $350 coupon" what coupon are you talking about? The old 350$ that they fixed so it didn't work with R3 anymore?

 

Yes, he would have bought before they realized they were getting ripped from the coupon

 

Yeah the fan sure is loud while gaming. You can hear it with the door closed two rooms away in my house. It'd be nice if there's a bios update that may help for that issue at some point.

It's almost silent when not gaming though, while browsing, downloading stuff, watching Netflix, etc. It doesn't bug me too much and so far I have had no other problems. I imagine it may bother people in public though.

On a different note, I wonder if there will ever be an aluminum/metal type chassis for the m11x in the future, or if it would never work for a system like this due to heating tendencies? The build quality feels sturdy enough, but I'm not super crazy about the plastic feel of the palm rests.

 

So there are no overclocking options in the bios on the SB processors? Has the integrated graphics proven to be better than the previous generations of intel graphics?

 

I found the following fix in the 'M11x r3 and the GPU' thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=7437571
Any help?

He said he had to download the the driver from Nvidia directly.

 

Sorry man I saw your score I have a question, did you switch to Nvidia Gt540m when you check WEI


as I read in this link
Review Alienware M11x R3 Gaming Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews
the score must be 6.6

I dont know why, can you answer may question.
Thank u

 

Score is determined by the lowest score, their is 6.6 mine is 5.6 I see their desktop video score is 6.6 mine is 5.6 so that's how they got the final score. I do see they have SSD and mine is 7200rpm HD. Not sure if this would have any effect on video but not likely. Also theirs was a pre-production unit I believe, so you have to go by the production, officially released ones. Its just a number anyway, not really indicative for real world performance just a reference.

 

ok thanks you so much
I'm waiting my R3 from Japan, it will come to my country (VietNam) in nextweek
I will feel it by my hand
Thanks you again

 

Anytime ! good luck

 

What is the cost in japan?