The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Is the entry level model a worthwhile purchase?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by lukekarts, May 16, 2011.

  1. lukekarts

    lukekarts Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Alienware (UK) are selling the M11x, with the following spec, for £499 (equivalent to $700-800):

    Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SU7300(1.3GHz,800MHz,3MB)
    4096MB 1067MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
    500gb 7200rpm HDD
    1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
    Windows 7 Home 64 bit

    The bit that puts me off is the processor speed, although I understand this can easily be overclocked?

    Intended use is for moderate gaming. Not expecting to play the latest/greatest at high resolution, but will be playing:

    - Dawn of War 2
    - GTR2
    - rFactor
    - Crysis
    - Valve games (HL2 Episodes, Portal)
    - maybe the odd new game.

    Anyway, does this seem a good price? Is it a worthwhile purchase? Is it likely to be a more reliable system than my old XPS M1710 which fried itself?

    Thanks - and sorry, I appreciate this question probably gets asked a lot, but it's been 4 years since I bought a system and I have no idea about current performance specs.
     
    lukekarts, May 16, 2011
    #1
  2. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

    Reputations:
    827
    Messages:
    2,278
    Likes Received:
    104
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Last year that was the top of the line version.

    I have the same one, plays all the games I want perfect on all high settings.

    SC2 gives it a little trouble when on high, but portal 2 runs like a champ.
    l4d and l4d2 both run great
     
    ejohnson, May 16, 2011
    #2
  3. rashul

    rashul Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I've been using it for a solid 11 months,
    pretty much plays anything i throw at it
    crysis 2 ran pretty smooth
    and all the valve games run on the source engine which aren't really demanding on the computer at all

    but if you are planning to buy an m11x you might as well go for the m11xr3, which has the gt 540m which will run a bit faster for a slight price raise
     
    rashul, May 16, 2011
    #3
  4. Tsukurimashou

    Tsukurimashou Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    189
    Messages:
    468
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yep the CPU can be easily overclocked, if you are not expecting to play in high I think it will run all games you listed. The price is a little high for a R1 because it uses old tech. The R3 will be better and it is not so expensive compared to the R1.
     
    Tsukurimashou, May 16, 2011
    #4
  5. lukekarts

    lukekarts Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Getting the R3 here, the entry level spec i3 1.2Ghz, 250gb HDD, 335M, 3072MB RAM, for £700 ($1120), which seems like bad value to me.

    The i5 2537M 1.4GHz (2.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost), running the 540GT and the same RAM as above, is £900 ($1400+)

    I don't know if those prices help put it into perspective.
     
    lukekarts, May 16, 2011
    #5
  6. texasreb

    texasreb Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    $1120 seems really highfor a 335 card. I got an r2 out of the dell outlet with an i5 for $800 and it looks brand new amd plays my flight sims without a hitch.
     
    texasreb, May 17, 2011
    #6