Byebye R2, Oh r1 why did I doubt you!

Well guys,

I have had a few days with the R2 and I am sorry to say it is going back and I am sticking with my R1.
Why??

well first and foremost, bloody optimus! I know they will probably gradually iron out the kinks but at the moment I have to choose which games I want to play and install the relevant driver that actually manages to work.

secondly, heat. My R1 runs so cool I can even game with it on my lap. The R2 on the other hand gets hot on idle and scorching whilst gaming. No more watching movies with this baby say on my bed.

thirdly battery life. You loose a good 2 hours. Now dont get me wrong, I could live with 4-5 hours battery life if the laptop performed that much better than my R1 but it doesnt.

finally the overclock. what a pointless waste of time, lets give the user an overclock options that degrades performance! Thanks but no thanks Dell.

There are some good points (the new finish is amazing on the stealth and less fps dips in cpu bound games such as TF2 and LFD2). But ultimately I will happily stick with my R1 which was a third cheaper than the new R2.

I know a lot of people will probably hate to read this but I want to give new buyers the opertunity to hear about some of the negatives

 

Interesting to hear from someone who owned both, thanks.

 

Yeah, I've had my R1 for about a month and I couldn't be happier with it.

 

I could be happier but only with a screen improvement, which the R2 doesn't offer. For the deal I got with the R1 I'm very happy the i7 R2 would have been $500 extra (no R2 deals in Canada yet), and it just isn't worth it.

 

Oh man I was just about to post a similar topic. My R2 is going back today for all the reasons you mentioned plus the WoW issues. I'm the GM of a progression guild and I need a dependable portable unit as I travel frequently. Unfortunately, I sold my R1 so I will have to reconfigured a new one. It's not too bad though as I didnt loose much I'm just thankful the R1's are still available.

Cheers

 

I am glad it is not just me! I was so disappointed. I thought if they built on the quality of the original it would be amazing. OH well.

I am considering an envy 14 now, bit bigger but switchable gfx, a decent screen and a proper i5. Just waiting for it to hit the UK.

 

Sorry dude to hear about the R2. Hope BFBC2 went well. Like I said.. i may have more good stuff up the sleeve here...

BW,

StevenX

 

le sigh.

Disheartening.

Here I am, getting my r2 delivered tomorrow.

<shakes head>

and all I want to do is play final fantasy xiv. =[

 

Timely post as I have 6 days left to decide if I'm going to keep the R2, my only reason for possibly returning is the Optimus issue...I'm leaning toward sending it back ....

Jim

 

I'd wait.

I get a 6950 3dmark06 score with no overclock and no turboboost.

Any optimus issues WILL be sorted in the very near future.

 

I must have missed something what issues with world of warcraft are you refuring to?

 

People should not return their R2 just for the Optimus issues, those will get sorted, and probably faster than you can return your laptop and get another.

 

I have the R2 now, my keyboard touches screen, battery life is about 4 hours, should I return it for the r1, is it possible to ask for a replacement BACK to the r1? R2 was really a downgrade from the R1, ;sadface:

 

Its difficult to be at a transition point.
You have the M11xR1 somewhat on the outs and the M11xR2 on the ins. The R1 is based on Hybrid Graphics which is generations ahead (the first of which was released years ago) of Optimus in having both hardware and software kinks worked out of it. It also has the very reliable Core2Duo CPU. The R2 is full of brand new technology (Optimus, iX processors with integrated GPUs) which is still in the earlier stages.

So new hotness or old reliable?

 

I say stick with it barry, you know part of owning laptops is the fun you have geting things to work the way you want them to.

 

It is growing on me, after doing the optimizations I get a steady 5 hours surfing, it drops to 4:30 if I am using Steam, this is general usage, varying screen brightness (10-20% to 80%). I hope the Optimus issue gets sorted out, and I am sure it will eventually.

 

Thanks guys, I will probably be keeping it but I do like the sound of old reliable. Battery bar is still reporting ~3:40 min of battery life on a full charge, I am fully discharging it ATM while timing the entire discharge myself for a fully accurate time. I think the 335m may be sucking power, I've tried the nvidia test tool from Nautis but it says its "off" so I'm not sure whats causing my battery life to be so low..

 

I get 5.5 hours of battery life with 4 bars brightness just doing surfing and some youtube, i force google chrome to use integrated via optimus. I love the R2 optimus is a dream on 258.69 beta drivers working perfectly. got a 7.9k 3dmark06 score with the new drivers too! I was blessed with a good CPU (i5 164 fsb stable and 590/900/1450 GPU overclock).

 

Tassadar, how do you force it to use integrated ?

 

add it to under the advanced 3dsettings in the nvidia control panel. I could only do this on the 258.69 drivers though didnt work with the dell beta or the dell stock or the .21 drivers.

 

Do you have physX disabled or enabled, also is it under "manage 3D settings"?

 

Though I have not received my unit yet, I agree that it's very hard to make a call on something that has been out barely a month. With the success of the earlier m11xR1, I am certain that the team at Alienware are paying attention to the issues being reported, and will be making improvements to ensure a similar success of the R2 model.

I would personally prefer having the ability of the GPU control that the R1 has, but I think that if it is configured right, the Optimus in the R2 would kick in and transform at the right moments. This is going to be a tweaking and driver update issue which is resolveble through time. However, the R1 is still a great performer.

With regards to its poor performance in certain games like WOW, I am sure the Alienware team will looking into it. Afterall, it has such a large user base.

The only other question in my mind for the R2 is if it can display to two external monitors like the R1. This may be a deal breaker for me if it can't.

 

What do you get with turbo boost enabled?

Im still very curious to whether its a good idea to disable it or not.

 

Optimus issues will be sorted. And the build issues are shared between both models.

It's odd - people were whining that they had to do things manually with the r1, and now they are annoyed with the auto in r2.

From a general laptop point of view, you would be nuts not to get the i7. The extra speed in every day tasks and cpu intensive apps is worth it, even with the quirks. And the integrated graphics in the r2a better, meaning you have to switch less often.

Not saying it's epic better, just saying the increase is worth it if you can afford it and don't care forfeiting 2hrs batt.

 

i got the r2 and so far it is good, maybe if i had the r1 thoughts would be different. one of the two things i dislike is battery life, i seem to get 5 hours and the r1 i have seen up to 7 hours

 

5hrs is great though. How much do you really need?

 

I'm happy with my R1 too, i always bring it to work and get a good 5-7 hours on it, most of the time i only have to recharge it when i'm at home already

 

omg I envy that, my r2 is giving me 4 hours max, might be hardware defect because I have other problems w/ mine but my capacity is the same though. I would exchange mine for an r1 if I could at the moment :O

 

Defect as such? Couldn't other elemenets be involved that would drain battery life - indexing, choice of hard drive(rpm's), screensavers, LEDs on/off, bluetooth on/off, how strong the wi-fi signal is, how many tabs are open, if your watching HD online videos on youtube or hulu, anti virus/windows defender/system updates background searching in the background. I could imagine many of these things will affect battery.

Maybe you can get the same battery life if you tweak it a bit?

 

Sorry to hear some ppl having tough time...I get around 5.5 hrs with websurfing and light usage, playing itunes drops it to 4.5 with built in speakers,..all with 20% brightness tho

 

Well one of the issues may be that PhysX was not working properly which was solved in the update just released.

PhysX 9.10.0224

Whoops.

 

Do these drivers apply to the 258.69 drivers for R2? Thanks a lot.

 

hey Ninja I want to thank you for your time with your work with the R1 and R2. It has given a lot of insight to many people I'm sure. I just got a brand new R1 replacement in and put it up on the forums for sale. I'm a freak and I can't seem to own a laptop for longer than 3-4 months. This is like my 4th laptop in the past year.

 

Yes.. thanks Ninja... Appreciate all the help!

Azn - Cant believe you are selling your m11x. Coolest, sexiest, notebook in the biz right now. Please dont tell me your going to buy an envy or something?

BW, StevenX

 

lol I honestly am looking at the envy closely. I am not sure what I want to do. I'm even thinking about the R2 because I have this OCD for the latest and greatest. But leaning toward an Envy maybe MBP or I dunnooooo. I just figure right now is the best time to do something with the M11x since I got a new replacement in just today.

 

I have always dream for a machine that is really portable, capable and have decent battery performance. None existed since either they are capable in most aspect but the size fail. Or everything else are ok but battery performance fail, or if not size great battery great same goes to size but it fail to give decent gaming performance. Basically it's hard to really try to squeeze all these juice into one damn small package. Until the arrival of M11x by Alienware. I am amaze by it. However what hesitate me is the processor which is getting a little old. So I was kinda hesitate to get it or not and deciding it for months. Until the Core i-Series announced. I reckon that the wait is over. I went straight the R2 i7 model.

I can understand ppl who make comparison since this is human nature. Especially those who used to own R1 will definitely compare a lot to R2 given that on the technical aspect side R2 is suppose to crown. I have sold my previously laptop for this one. Althou I am still only in the mid or setting up my new R2 yet to play games or anything. But have almost every day from the day I that I am deciding on the purchase up till this point of time I have always been reading in this forum. Now obviously I hear so much problem with the R2. Makes me think I am screwed since with all these problem unlikely I am able to live with this machine. But honestly I am still not disappointed. As I am looking at it as a long run. With all the new technologies it takes time to get settled down. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the hardware. What needs to be iron out are 90% on the software department which involves BIOS, Drivers, Program support/Patches and etcs. Nvidia and Intel spend so much in these technologies obviously they are not meant to fail. I believe things will get straighten out. Just takes time. Not to forget without consumer's input, problem will never get fix!. We users use the hardware more than ppl who invented it.

So imo I am not trying to dispute the unhappy owners in this thread. I just want to give out my opinion which I find what makes sense rather than looking at just one side of thing especially towards new comers. Looking at it this way. Ppl buy R1, when R2 comes out more than 50% of the owners start ing for a change. After changing disappointed due to issues. Now to change back to R1. Later when R2 problem get fix and starts to reign over R1. Ppl start crying and want change again. Honestly this will never end. Not to mention the amount of time spend just switch over from one to another. The wait time for replacement. The money spend over the entire course of routine. Personally I just dun find it worth. For me I choose to stay positive even with all the negativity surrounding me. As i always believe all these will be repaid in some ways. I hope my opinion helps. Nothing personal. And seriously no offence to anyone out there. We are suppose to be one family after all as a proud owner of the M11x. Peace and Cheers!

 

There's a problem with your argument that the R2 will get fixed because the R1 did...the R1 hasn't. There are still a bunch of problems with the R1 that haven't been worked out like the fan issue after switching GPUs.

I do think Optimus will get the problems that are game-specific fixed because nVidia always works on that stuff, but I doubt there will be a manual switch added because that would mean Optimus as a whole is pointless technology; the whole selling point of it is that it isn't manual like "last-gen hybrid GPUs".

There also isn't going to be a magic bios that adds 2 hours back that the R2 . And in that regard, no one is going to work on getting the Core I's to have better battery life. nVidia does both software and hardware, but Intel doesn't. Intel isn't going to work on a new driver for the Core Is because that's not what they do. Intel is a hardware company; they design the hardware and publish the specifications on how to use it. How it is used is Windows' job. What determines battery life is how Windows adjusts the CPU in terms of Speed Step and Turbo Boost. The only way battery life will change is if Windows changes how it scales them, and stuff like that doesn't get changed after the OS comes out unless there's a major bug. There's no incentive for them to, and they have more important things to do. Plus they put some--though not all--configuration in the power plans, so if they were ever called out on it, they can just say to change those settings.

I don't mean to be negative, but I think you are rationalizing your decision. Keep in mind I have an R2 and am happy with it. I only mention these things because I don't think it is a good idea to base decisions on hopes, hopes that history has shown are not going to come true. Go into the decision with wide eyes, not with blinders on; that's all I'm saying.

 

Kopichia, you are so right. The main thing is that when you get your new laptop that it is exactly what you thougt you were buying. Be happy for what you are able to have, not a wish list of unfullfiled expectations.

Every laptop sold will have some feature that a new owner thought could have been included, but at what extra cost? I bought R1 because the price and the performance were the correct combination, am i disapointed that I don't have a R2? No.

 

optimus is not meant to have manual switching if you read the technology properly. so to have a switch for it is not a bug but more like a wishful thinking. this is not realistic at all. just because ppl can never get satisfy. even if you give them the best they will still come after for more and pick on you with very small little thing that doesnt make sense or even matter at all. 1-2hrs battery lose to me i am kinda expecting that before i even seen any benchmark. so i am not expecting some "magic bios" to "fix" it. i already put that into consideration when buying mine. bear in mind i order mine before any benchmark were given. put it this way, my previous c2d p8700 only lasted me 3.5hrs in just purely surfing/youtube. my new baby does the same thing but giving me almost 5hrs but thats not all. i have other extras running like listening to music reading from my external hdd. my background is constantly downloading/installing wow client. to be realistic i find it reasonable. i am not so naive to think that i7 will outperform the c2d with battery performance in R1. i am a perfectionist too to be honest, i am always expecting things to be perfect in my own ways of thinking but sometimes ppl just got to stay realistic and remember nothing is perfect. I am not creating an argument really. but if you want to pin point on me with every small little thing then i am sorry. i just didnt want to write a compo over such thing into every small little details.

 

I see I misjudged what you were saying, and I apologize. Actually, we are in a similar situation. I am sure part of the reason I didn't mind going with the R2 is because it also gets better battery life than my previous laptop (about 3 hours like yours), so the 4-5 hours of battery life of the Core I's is still an upgrade. Also, I certainly agree nothing is ever perfect right when it comes out. My last laptop is a tablet with a keyboard and a rotating screen that I had to work on for a month before the tablet worked at all in Linux, and it was another year before I got automatic rotation working, but now it's 100% working in Linux (sure, now that I get a new laptop it is all working hahaha). But anyway, sorry again.

 

np mate. nothing to apologise for we are just sharing opnions like i said its no offence or anything. i also only giving my on thoughts on things hoping to give new comers more different angles when doing a judgement.

 

You got a new replacement... and now you're selling it Then I suggest keep wasting money on a new laptop each month... ^^ I'm sure Dell won't mind it. You should buy Clevo too, it will work wonders for holding the doors open during these hot summer months!

Mine is still working flawlessly, except for the fan stuck bug (which I just fix by sleep/awake routine). I thought about MBP but I remember some heating problems under full load on their releases a year back or so. Besides, they aren't really meant for gaming. Plus I'm not sure how would it run Windows.

On another note, the optimus seems like a really big fail so far. I never understood the purpose for it anyway - it doesn't take that much energy to press Fn+F6 and you have full control which card is on. The only advantage would be if you could use nVidia drivers ...

 

I disagree. My old laptop was a pentium II windows 98 that try as I might could not get me laid . I dreamed of one day owning a computer that was 100 times better with the form factor of an ultra portable which would make women go topless at the sight of me playing modern video games all alone in the library, on the bus, at a party, and in the woods . Then the m11x r2 came around and to my disappointment topless women did not appear before my eyes ! I suspected that because my battery only lasted 5.5 hours, I simply wasn't waiting the 6.5 hours I figured I needed to wait in order for these women to appear . Then I came across these forums only to find out about the R1 !!! Topless women appeared after exactly 6.5 hours of not plugging in the laptop at the library and then a fed ex guy appeared with an envelope. "That's strange," I wondered. I opened the package, and out fell a cellphone into my hand. It began ringing. I answered, "...Morpheus?" To which a man replied, "Yes sir, this is Morpheus at Dell support. We were just calling to tell you congratulations sir, and you have won our surprise contest."
"What contest?"
"Okay sir, we actually just made the M11x R2 as a practical joke, we weren't ever planing on supporting or fixing it in the future. And you sir have made the right choice to pick the R1 because the other is fake and hocus pocus."
"Mhmm, yeah I know that's what I was telling all these guys online,"
"Yes sir, the ones who purchase the R2 have heads filled with rocks, you were smart sir to choose the R1 , and as such we will be awarding you topless women as soon as your battery outlasts the R2 by an hour."
"Yeah, I see the topless women, thank you so much I was expecting this anyhow."
"Very good sir, is there anything else I can help you with today?"
"Ah yeah I just wanted to be clear that the core 2 duo can not be removed in case one of those guys with rocks for brains tries to sneak the i7 core in my R1 in order to take away my topless women."
"Certainly not sir. No need to worry, the processor is a fixed piece of hardware. You made a very good choice not to pick the more powerful core, since it would void the prize we have sent, and you would certainly have rocks for brains to do so sir "

And there you have it, Morpheus said so himself, and my point is proven that the R2 is for someone with rocks for brains, I will be enjoying topless women and my R1 thank you very much!

 

Is there even a possibility of an R3 within this year? It seems Alienware can't really update any of the M11X components as of now.

 

Anything is possible.--although I wonder why they are still selling R1 config--it's like selling 2009 model cars along with 2010 models even though we are well into 2010 year..

 

Well I dont know about you guys but Im sticking with my m11x r1... With 8gb of ram and an intel x18 gen 2 160gb this thing shines...

8+ hours of battery life... Beat that...

I hope the m11x r2 problems get solved the i7 seems very powerful !.

 

Just thought I'd mention I cancelled my i7 r2 today and purchased the core 2 model, mostly because of the r2's short battery life. I don't think there is any denying that if battery life is a big concern to you, it's a no brainer to get the r1. Whenever I fly it's usually across country so that extra hour or 2 is crucial for me!

 

lol, I think we are vey similar! I have had at least 4 laptops this year too!

I am keeping an eye on the envy thread waiting for a user to get hold of one, if it doesnt run too hot them I am in!

And guys, dont get me wrong, I am sure they will gradually fix optimus (just dont expect it to be quick) but in the UK we onl have a 7 day return policy. Having thoroughly tested it against my R1 it just simply isnt worth the difference in price.
If you havent owned the R1 then I am sure you will be more than happy with the R2, just dont expect to get 7 hours battery and have this thing running cool like the original did.

 

NP, and I appreciate all the BFBC2, looking forward to what you have up your sleeve as now I am sticking with the R1 I am going to need to improve the performance!

I will be sticking the intel 160gb SSD in it later

 

I partly agree with you, but not everyone wants the same thing from a laptop. Battery life and low heat are really important to me, this is one area that the R1 shines over the R2. Dont get me wrong, I would love some extra cpu performance for my gaming/encoding, but I guess that for the meantime I will do those intensive tasks on my m15x and just use the R1 whilst out and about