Finally Dell confirms M11x refresh!

Awesome. Sold mine just in time. Now if we can get lucky and stack coupons again to make it out to $850 shipped.......

 

Nice open mind there. The thread he was referring to gave benchmarks between the differences between basically the same processor upgrade our refresh is giving the m11x. Unfortunately the real world differences are negligible. Like I said earlier, its a nice little upgrade but by no means a big deal for existing owners.

 

well if the alienware guys be retaining the chassis of the m11x then we will be replacing only mobo

 

Are there any differences between the current integrated graphics and the integrated graphics on the arrandale chip?

 

Hey Raven,

do you have any particular link with benchmarks? I'm currently in one of those UL30JT thread on some xxx page where they're talking about cheese... -.-

i7 6XX UM at least "sounds" really good with turbo boost.

 

I really don't understand Dellienware's view on this, the M15x really is a nice laptop but it's very nichey, I think it's just poorly marketed and lacking an RGB LED display is a critical loss for it.

OTOH, the brand is better represented with the M17x and the "cool" M11x. My guess is that then that the M15x will go away and the refreshed M11x (with hopefully a better chassis structure) will take it's place, with better build construction than the M11x and the performance levels of the M15x.

Maybe it will be an M13x

 

You mean m13.37x . Yeah noticed.... the Dell Manager wearing lenovo strip around his neck ^^ skipped over m15x...

 

i cancelled my m11x which i ordered and am waiting for the new processors

 

Maybe an M11x with the GDDR3 version of the 5850 in it, that'd be nice.

 

I'll probably get one with the best i-core they have

 

Anyone see any benches from the ULV i3 and i5? I don't find much out there. I'll check out the Asus UL30JT though.

Also they are not necessarily doing this for performance increase, but the Core 2 ULV chips are no longer manufactured so they have to switch to something else eventually anyhow. If the i3 adds $80, the i5 probably tacks another $50-100 on to that. For same performance i3 to SU7300, I don't know that $80 is worth it. Wonder if BB will have an i3 $899 model to replace their existing one.

Regarding the mobo swap, does this mean a new GPU and heatsink as well? That'll be an expensive swap out. Probably better to sell your M11x and pay the difference for a new one. Most likely be same price, maybe a bit more, but no hassle for swapping it out.

 

im not waiting for the m11x but i would deff. buy that thing if i can put an i7 in it.. id buy right now.. i wish it wouldnt take so long and we dont even know when it will be.. another problem is im sure there will be alot of orders so maybe it will take longer for some people anyway

 

TBH, I don't think the i3 will be any improvement, i5 probably a little bit, and i7 most definitely, and probably at a significant cost. But what I think some people are missing is that these are the ULV versions, not the regular mobile versions on other laptops. So performance will be greatly diminished compared with the normal mobile counterpart.

 

The i5 ULV (the only one known to be existent at this point in time) seems pretty mediocre. It's clocked at 1.06GHz and turbo-boosts to 1.86Ghz. How is this any superior than the current SU7300 that's clocked at 1.3GHz and can be OCed to 1.73GHz easily. Wouldn't the i3 ULV be worse? Anyway, these are currently the official the iX ULV range:

Compare Intel® Products

 

The new board should be a little smaller and cooler. We're moving from a 4 chip system (CPU + NB + SB + 335M) to a 3 chip one (CPU/IGP + PCH + 335M).

I expect the Celeron and Core i3 ULV to replace the lower end single and dual core Core 2 CULV parts we see today. There shouldn't be a price increase. Intel releases new parts into the price points of previous ones.

 

Right. Only real advantage I see is hyperthreading. But the way the Core iX CPU's work doesn't it only run at fastest clock with single thread, and downclock based on number of threads? So four threads would run the i5-520um at 1.06GHz? Even if its more efficient, I can't see it being enough to offset the clock speed of the SU7300 @ 1.73GHz.

I also thought I read that the i3 ULV was being sold under the "Celeron" moniker.

 

Nehalam and Westmere processors will use Turbo Boost in a wide variety of thread situations. It depends on the motherboard and BIOS as well. (My Core i5 750 rarely Turbo Boost on all four cores until I got a later BIOS update from Gigabyte that effectively forced 2.8 GHz operations at full load.)

You'll get the highest boost in single or dual threaded operations on a quad core. You'll still get at least one bin (+133 MHz) when in full load operations over the listed stock speeds. (e.g 2.8 GHz over 2.66 on my Core i5 750)

On a dual core, four thread processr you'll get full Turbo Boost for a single thread and usually two bins of Turbo over stock speeds for full load operations (+266 MHz).

 

The arrandale chips are not really comparable with the Penryn chips..
I mean, you get 2 core running at 1.2Ghz stock and up to 2.26Ghz on Turbo boost. Hyperthreading will help and all that! PLus the cpu's bus is waaay faster and larger. The Arrandales are 32mn vs 45mn for the SUxxxx, and they consume 80% more power than the SU7300..
Compare Intel® Products,
Anyways, I'll way to see some benchs and all, if it's conclusive, I might very well buy one. If it's not, I'll buy a cheap used r1

 

Arrandale consume more power but they have integrated GPU as well. So I think it total it does consume less power.

I do wonder if the i7 can be OC'ed same way as SU4100/SU7300. Right now you have 2 cores on 1.7GHz each (if you got a working unit lol).

 

Arrandale's TDP includes the IGP in the calculation.

I've noticed that Standard Voltage 35W Arrandale manages to get similar battery life to Medium Voltage 25W Penryn processors.

Given the 10W TDP form factor of the M11x I expect it to continue the trend of Ultra Low Voltage processors even though the northbridge is non-existant after Core 2 mobile.

 

The I7-620UM is also known to exist since Fijitsu is selling it in its P770.

Fujitsu Lifebook P770, Core i7-620UM 1.06GHz, 4096MB, 320GB, UMTS, Windows 7 Professional (P7700MF021GB) | The H Price Insight / UK

It is an awesome CPU and will be perfect for the M11x and provide a significant improvement in power. Dell may also use some of the new Gen 2 UM cores.

Bronsky

 

If I didn't have one already, I'd go for the i7. Now I'll wait for the new generation of Alienware notebooks.

Maybe I have a chance of getting a new one including iX core when I send my m11x back, because it has some issues.

 

Intel's Arrandale ULV and LV CPUs are all on a BGA package which means they'll be soldered in.

No i3 ULVs out yet or any models numbers leaked. There is a Celeron U3400 model due out which is a 32nm Arrandale based 1.06Ghz with an 18W TDP and 2Mb of cache. It essentially has the characteristics of what an i3 ULV would be since it also lacks Turbo Boost just like a full voltage i3.

 

So for the most part, everything now is speculation as far as performance, cost, TDP, and availability. I heard him in the video, but what does it mean exactly? It may not arrive for at least two to three months. I'm sure they'll exhaust whatever stock they have of the core 2 configurations before switching and making it available for purchase. If it's anything like the original M11x, probably a good 4-6 week wait once you place an order.

Just seems odd that their original launched product would have a three month life before a significant refresh like this. But oh well. I'm excited to see how it performs.

 

@Joker

Yeah, I noticed it.

'We have the most powerful 11 inch laptop, the most powerful 17 inch laptop...' Then I was expecting 'the most powerful 15 inch laptop' (which it isn't, but would be in keeping with alienware's claims) but instead 'and we have the most powerful desktop in the universe'.

 

The Celeron U3400 lacks hyperthreading as well.

Price and TDP information are already out for the Core i5 and i7 UM processors. You can easily extrapolate performance by reducing the multiplier of a faster Core i3 part for Core i3 UM.

It's a little tougher with Turbo Boost on the other ones.

 

I haven't seen info one way or the other on the U3400 having or lacking hyper-threading.

 

Thanks for straightning that out Phinagle.
I did not know the ULV CPU's are soldered in as well.
There goes my next project...lol
Still they should offer a pretty good boost in performance, especially the i7.

 

Some benchmarks for the i5-520UM if anyone wants to see them

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At 1.06GHz in performs about the same as the SU7300 @ 1.73GHz and about 25% better at 1.86GHz. That 25% is likely to be negligible when gaming so I stand by my position that waiting for the refresh isn't worth it if you really want one now. If I was going to wait I would buy an older one at a low price when the refresh comes out.

 

^ 25% processor performance increase negligible? Whoa there...

And that's the i5 we're talking about. Fair enough, in gaming terms it may not mean the world, but there have been significant improvements in OCing the SU7400 from 1.3GHz to 1.7GHz so why not any further?

 

If the new i-ULV processors can be OC'd past the factory OC, like the SU7300 can be in most cases, then I think the upgrade might be worth it. But if they can't handle it then I wouldn't bother spending all that money for an i7-ULV when the performance increase isn't going to be there it what the notebook is used for. I am cheap, though.

 

Even if performance was the same, the improved graphics switching alone might make it worth the wait.

 

Everyone is going to have their own opinion, obviously. Mine is that unless the price is the same or only slightly higher than it isn't.

 

Good point, I wouldn't pay a ton extra just for improved graphics switching. Maybe $50-100 tops.

 

I'm happy with my M11X the way it is. Sure, it would probably be more robust with the i3/i5/i7 ULV but for what I want out of my M11X the SU7300/335M is great.

 

What I've read has pointed to the Celeron U3400 lacking hyperthreading like the Pentium G6950 on the desktop side.

Core i3 UM will offer hyperthreading over the Celeron. Clock speeds will be heavily flattened with x1-2 of a difference at most.

 

Glad I waited
Cant wait to see how one with the i7 ulv will perform

 

Yeah and keep waiting... ^^

Hopefully a bit better than i5 on asus ul30...

 

i'm happy with my pentium model. and that cpu will happily munch through whatever i throw at it. it feels snappy enough doing regular windows tasks, and if the arrandale cores don't improve gaming enough, then for me it would still be worth sticking with that i have.

whatever happens, i hope that dell keep the base spec prices of £749 and £899 that were around when the m11x was released.

 

The 1.2GHz Core i3-330UM leaked in the upcoming Acer 1830T and Lenovo U160 a while ago.

 

if alienware make the same performance as them, this will also be the same. i hope they make something better than others or something much more than expectation. this is the reason why they claim to be the fastest smallest laptop in the world and i hope that they won't be put into shame.

m11x with optimus, i7 and GT 4xxM series DX11 (hopefully if miracle happen which tech reviews already announced the laptop Fermi GPU card a month ago) will be included on this tiny laptop and surely will be the greatest laptop in 2010!

 

A power hungery Fermi? Very doubtful, and my speculation is that any overclock feature in the BIOS will be removed due to turbo boost.

The only thing I as is that when the R2 arrives, Dell doesn't forget about the R1, and ignore any updates.

 

hopefully too because Dell is gloriously Deaf at customers feedbacks and complains.

i was wondering why alienware sold it to Dell. don't they want to have their own company??

 

Alienware is much better off with Dell. Better warranty support, build quality, ect.

One of the biggest reasons for the appeal to the M11x is the battery life. If your not concered about battery life get an M15x or M17x. A powerr hungry Fermi card will kill battery life. Besides, why would you need Fermi in a computer designed to travel and move around? Not like anyone is going to be carrying around a few extra monitors with them through the airport. If Fermi is what your lookig for, your looking in the wrong place with the M11x, I just see no point in it.

 

But something to just break the DX11 ice with would be a dream come true.

 

I definately wouldn't complain about DX11 support. Althought I won't be buying a refresh (as of now), it's nice to have the option.

 

Looking at the infos on Intel's site the SU7300 has a TDP of 10W.

The only processor that would make sense if you ask me is the Intel® Core™ i7-640UM, which has a TDP of 18W. All other are in the 35+ W.

Still, 18W is almost double the SU7300's 10W so battery life would suffer.

 

Dont forget about the built in Intel HD graphics in the Core i7..

Maybe the current M11x CPU is 10W what about its Intel GMA?

 

Then again they might offer a bigger more powerful battery with the R2.
Optimus would be ideal.

 

Protip to people that bought version 1 such as myself. Wait for R3 next year.