Hello! M11x has my brain overloading! R1 or R2?

Whats up folks! I'm a new guy here. I have been reading these forums for quit some time...very very informative. thanks everyone. Anyways...I have a little dillema...

I'm a stay at home dad who has recently enrolled to take online college courses. Now, I have a broke desktop (actually it's my wifes.) It's still functional, but it's in our bedroom. Where my baby boy sleeps. So I need something that I can use when he's sleeping, and also something thats mobile for traveling and such.

So I decided on a m11x. Seems right down my ally. I'm not too much of a crazy hardcore PC gamer, but I do play WoW (most intense thing would be 10 man raids, which I hear this little machine handles pretty well) and some other games here and there. Nothing too crazy.

-Portable, and can be hooked up to my 37inch Tube.
-Powerful enough to play a couple games on it.
-Able to do my school work.
-Maybe listen to a little bit of music while I work.
-Have a desktop, need something to compliment it.

Now, my question is...

Through my school, I can get one of 2 systems...

m11x r1. SU7300, 4gigs of ram, 500gig HDD, 1 year basic service and all the bells and whistles with that for...$943.20

or R1 with a 320gig HDD, and the Alienware Orion Padfolio for $953.99(this price is without the EPP discount, which is about 10%) Would be about $860 i guess.

Now, this is where I get confused. For $130 more, I can get the R2 with an I7, and a smaller 320gig HDD.

What do you folks think I should do? I think the most advanced game I will ever play will be Starcraft II.

MY BRAIN HURTS! HAHA. I'm leaning towards the r1 with the orion case though...

 

See this thread also - may help a bit...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/497865-need-advice-first-gaming-computer.html

 

Thanks. I've read through it and didn't find exactly what I was looking for...

I have owned gaming PC's in the past. They were desktops.

Also, my school won't be using very demanding software. Probably Power Point will be the most demanding program I will have to use.

I guess my question more or less is...

With my school, some music, WoW, SCII and possibly Dioblo 3...would the Core 2 Duo be enough for me? Or should I go with the I7? Reason why I ask is because you folks know how they perform.

I'm leaning more towards the Core 2 Duo, 4 gigs, and 320gig hard drive and getting the Orion portfolio.

Also, does anyone have this portfolio? I can't find many images of it. Is there a place for the power supply?

I'm getting really anxious, and I can't order it for at least another couple weeks when I get my student loan. Maybe by then there will be some really good back to school deal...

 

Forgot to add this link - in case you did not see it...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/495297-m11x-r2-vs-r1-comparisons-benchmarks.html

Can't really advise you on the R1 vs R2. My personal choice is to go with the latest if possible. Now, that doesn't mean it has to be the i7 - perhaps the i5? In any event, be sure to review as much info here before purchasing. In the end, only you can truly decide which is the best route...

The Portfolio case has been discussed here - http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/494608-do-not-buy-alienware-binder.html

 

Thanks a lot BatBoy! You got the wheels spinning in my head. I'm thinking possibly a fasttrack m11x. I went through it and only thing I don't like is no custom name plate. An Alienware is something I've wanted for the longest time, and always thought it was cool. But I would rather have the Pc.

How is the i5 in comparison to the core2duo? I see the speed is kinda slow. Would it be sufficient enough for WoW and running 10 man raids?

 

This can be simplified thus:

R1: Will run all those games fine, longer battery life (upwards of 8 hours), stays cool during use, manual switch so it just works.

R2: Will run all those games fine, shorter battery life (around 6 hours under the same conditions the R1 gets 8), get a lot hotter during use, Optimus for automatic graphics switching (but at the moment more issues than the tried and true manual option).

Personal opinion time: I would tend towards getting the R1 for school, since it has a significantly longer battery life, and roughly the same performance as the R2 in the applications you mentioned using. However, you cannot ever upgrade the CPU, so if you don't mind the extra heat and lost battery life the R2 might be a better investment for the future.

 

i would go for an R1 as well since it's a bit cheaper and the price difference between the new core-i series, in my opinion, does not live up to a better price erformance ratio; it just doesn't seem worth it for a computer like the m11x at this time.

it's great for light gaming, but the difference in the hardware doesn't merrit the price differences. if you're going to buy something for very demanding tasks, don't get the m11x - they're powerful, but i don't think they're on par with full fledged gaming notebooks / high performance desktops, but at half the cost, these things will deliver adaquate results.

for your case, i would suggest the R1 model. the extra battery life will perhaps please you more than 1-2 fps higher in games and a bit snappier performance all around. if you really want to increase your performance with these machines, get an SSD. the computer should work fine with 10 man raids in WoW, especially if you take the time to tweak your settings.

IE, tweak your nvidia control panel graphics options to high performance, turn off excess stuff you don't need running, scale the graphics down to a modest setting, and overclock the 335m a little bit, and you should have fluid gameplay in many current games.

 

Thanks for the answers! I am leaning towards an R1 after reading more. If by chance there is a good deal on a m15x I would also consider one. But it would have to be a nice sale and also I would have to research the processors because there are quit a few options with the m15x.

Wish they had fast track r1

 

Something to note is that, theoretically, R2s should get comparable battery life as the R1s (going by other computers that use i7 ulv processors vs the su7600 - see the battery life thread). However, that won't happen until drivers and the like get significant upgrades in the future.

If you are on a budget I'd go with the R1 however. If you are not on a budget (I imagine there will be no driver issues with SC2) I would go with the R2 - the extra processing power should help a bit when you have large fights with a lot of sprites on screen.

 

Best Buy does.

 

I appreciate all the feedback folks! I do have one more question.


I have not been able to find any I5 benchmarks. Does anyone know where I can find them? I found a thread that was started about 2 weeks ago, but no follow through.

Thanks!

 

Seems to be that through EPP and also Dells Back to school sale that I could get an i7 4 gigs, 320g hdd for under 1100.

Does anyone know if I was to call, could I apply my EPP code on the back to school sales? Or can I only get from the EPP site?