Considering an Alienware M11x R1, VM? Fresh Install? Ubuntu?

So I'm contemplating an Alienware M11x purchase! As with most of you, it's the combination of portability and gaming capability that makes me want to buy one! I have a few questions I hope some of you can answer.


Can M11x R1 run Virtual Machines?
The processor is going to be SU7300. Are virtual machines more Memory dependent or CPU? It's going to have 4GB. I will only be running two VM's at a time. Should I increase the RAM?

I have a Windows 7 Ultimate CD. Without an internal CD drive, I would need an external usb CD drive to do an OS install. Can you guys recommend a cheap external usb CD drive that can BOOT!!! I tried one before long time ago and it didn't support booting from it!

Anyone here with any experience on running Ubuntu on M11x? Live CD?

Finally, anything I should know to turn away from this machine? Apart from the hinge problem, anything else that might be annoying? Should I just get envy 14 instead?

 

VMs are more limited by RAM than CPU so 8GB will probably be worthwhile to you -- just don't get it from Dell because their RAM prices are extremely inflated. Still, I don't know enough about VMs to say how well the m11x will handle running them.

Do you have the key for Win 7 Ultimate? You can use the "Windows Anytime Upgrade" feature without needing the CD. I see no need whatsoever for a clean install because Alienware doesn't load their computers with tons of crap.

 

Previous poster is right....maximize the memory, but do it aftermarket.

SU7300 will do VMs, but I've not tried 2 VMs at one time. The question here is what will be your host OS? if Windows + 2 other VMs, this M11X might not be powerful enough. Running Windows has such a large overhead. Now you might get away with running a unix host running Zen and running your 2VMs off of that.

As for building Windows without a CD/DVD, it is very possible to the image onto a USB flash drive and forcing your system to boot from the USB flash drive. You will need to do some research on this; you will also need a system that has a cd/dvd and usb port to build this bootable flash drive.

 

I appreciate the input! So aftermarket memory upgrade, I can do that.

Yea, the host OS is going to be Windows. I was afraid of the "resource hungry" Windows 7. I was going to look into streamlining Windows 7 like we could do back then with Windows XP. I used to run a stripped XP that only used 67MB Ram. That's why I wanted to do a fresh install, it was not just to upgrade to Windows 7 ultimate.

So you can boot from a USB drive? I will look into that too. I have a spare system here. I would have to buy a USB flash drive but at least I can use it for storage afterwards.

I'm really excited for this M11x series. We should see more powerful CPU's next year!

 

I've got the latest Ubuntu (10.10) running fine on my M11X. I use it mainly for Android development/debugging/testing, and it works fine for that. Quite well, in fact. Boots faster than Windows :-D

I didn't have any strange driver issues with it like I have in the past on previous Ubuntu's and other laptops. Pretty much all hardware was detected fine when booted from the LiveCD, and drivers were automatically downloaded and installed after the system came up the first time. Note that you'll have to decide which graphics processor (integrated Intel or discrete nVidia) you intend to use within the OS, since it doesn't support switching. Either card will work fine though.

I've run simultaneous VMs on my Windows 7 side of things with good success - depending on the requirements of the guest OS, of course. I've got an 8GB RAM kit on the way to make that (and my digital audio production hobby) go a little bit more smoothly, as those processes can be fairly memory intensive.

 

I've run 3-4 VM's on only 4 gigs of RAM on slower processors. You should have no problem doing that with 8 gigs of RAM. Faster HD's makes a tremendous difference as well.

 

Dont mean to thread steal, but when u say choose between Discrete or integrated do u mean that u can run off intel or Nvidia? Can I change to Nvidia by enabling discrete and change to integrated by enabling switchable? Or is there a special process to go through?

I'd rather have integrated graphics in Linux since I wont game in it, but will it still have all the fancy Theme stuff? LOL I really like those

Anyways thanks!!!!!

P.S

Is it illegal if I install my gf's Mac OS on my m11x? Because I have the retail disk of Snow leopard

 

In my experience, yes: You can run either Intel or nVidia GPUs. Just select the appropriate option in the BIOS.

I haven't tried loading up Compiz/Beryl/Fusion/ it is being called now, but I don't think the integrated card would have too much issue with it - at least on modest settings. When I'm able to get to the internet again, I'll install the appropriate packages and give it a shot.

PS: Yes, it would be illegal. Generally, an OS is only licensed to be installed on one computer at a time. If you were to remove it from the Mac and install it on yours, I think you'd be good. Don't know how you'd actually get it to work though. Linux will be much easier :-D

 

Thank you very much

 

Ive ran Compiz on Intel 4500hd chips before, that chip is actually a dx10/opengl2 chip so compiz stuff runs fine.