M11x - about to pull the trigger

Hi folks.

After months of deliberation I've finally settled on the M11x as my next rig. I'm going to wait for the R3 to drop before I decide which iteration to get. In either case though I was hoping for some advice on taking any particularly critical steps in regards to changes I should make to the rig as soon as I get it like any BIOS or driver updates and what not. I haven't had a gaming rig in a while since I lost my ASUS G1Sn to a flood some time ago. I'm an ex-gear head who hung up his head made of gears some time ago and exchanged it for a stethoscope so I'm not TOO savvy about this kind of stuff but I'm not completely clueless either.

Thanks in advance.

 

buy an SSD(100gb is plenty) and a portable external
you will probably want a DVD/CD external too
find a non dell/OEM win 7 install disk, and install that. The dell OEM install has sooo much bloatware its not funny

the best sleeve I'v found so far is the actual alienware one...


there are a few optimization threads around here, you might want to check those out.
I'll post links when I get home, I have them saved on my other PC.

 

yeah the problem with that is that if you install your own OS on there, and you ever have hardware issues and need Dell support (which you will) ... they're not going to help you until you factory reset the thing with the OS they give you.

My only advice is get the warranty. You're most likely going to encounter some sort of hardware issue at some point, and having the warranty will save you a lot of money in the long run.

 

thanks for all the input so far guys. i'm def looking into a warranty, I just hope it doesn't break the bank. i'm also keen on checking those optimization threads out for sure.

what kind of a performance boost do we see with SSDs? 15%? 20%? what do you guys think of the seagate momentus XT 500GB/4GB SSD? as much as i'd like a big SDD in my rig it's not cheap and i wonder if this is a good middle road? i also want to drop 6gb of RAM in there, does the M11 support 1333MHz RAM?

 

the XT is a good compromise, but a 100ish gb SSD and a 300+gb HDD external will offer better performance...

Your m11x will..
run cooler
longer batt life
more durable( no moving parts)
boot faster
load programs faster


I can cold boot my m11x in 20sec, with an HDD it will take 1+min, an SSD also improves load times in games, and anything else that requires use of the HDD.


IDK if you've played BF2, but maps usually take 2+min too load, with an SSD it takes less than 30sec.


stick with min amount of ram until newegg has another sale on 8gb kits of ram($65-$70ish)

 

What are you talking about? The Windows disk that comes with the M11x has no bloatware at all. It doesn't even have the Alienware programs such as Command Center on there.

 

This is true.I just installed a 500gb Momentus XT and used the disk that came with it..Clean as can be.