M11x New Cpu

Two new cpu options for the m11x are on the way
New CPU options for Alienware M11X R2 - Dell News, Tips & Tricks

•Intel i7-680UM, 4MB L3 cache, running at 1.46GHz and can turbo up to 2.53GHz
Intel® Core? i7-680UM Processor (4M Cache, 1.46 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBST

•Intel i5-470UM, 3MB L3 cache, running at 1.33Ghz and can turbo up to 1.86GHz
Intel® Core? i5-470UM Processor (3M Cache, 1.33 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBXP

 

Seriously, will it make any changes? for only about 200Mhz is not much for me when it comes to gameplay. probably 2 frames improvement?

I am more concern when it comes to battery life. I hope price also doesn't increase.

 

Wow.. They are much lower upgrades than I have imagined.
I doubt that they will make much of difference.

 

Hmm looks interesting. I wonder if these will be in addition to the current i5/i7 lineup or replacements at the same price point.

I would hope given the modest boost it would be the latter.

Mind you given the chassis size I would prefer to see a proper i3/i5 in there and not one of these UM models. Battery life would obviously suffer but tbh I think it would be a decent trade off considering the boost general gaming / application performance would receive.

Perhaps given that Nvidia's next gen mobile lineup is quite "bad" in terms of TDP we might see a "M13x" as a replacement for the M11x in the future. That way we could see a GT445m GDDR5 paired with a decent i3/i5 or above, all in a chassis not much larger than the M11x....

Oh I can but dream....

 

Can we upgrade the CPU in the M11x? or is it soldered into the mobo?

 

No, its soldered on the board.

 

The i5-470UM is now showing on the Dell Canada website. Not sure why I would want a slower i5? I guess to replace the i3.

Alienware M11x Laptop Details | Dell Canada

 

why is the i5 470UM being sold at the same price as the i7 640UM on the canadian site? y wud u go for the i5?

 

So wait.. no real upgrade for the i5? I thought it already turbo's to 1.86?

Thanks for the heads up! +rep StevenX

 

With all these M11x processors I feel like a kid in a confectioners shop at the pick n mix counter.

And would sir like a GPU with that?

 

How about a damn GPU update and a e-sata/USB port instead? The CPU Update is barely even an update...it's more of a lateral move!

 

This is tue although users who overclock would benefit from the higher base multipler (10x vs 8x). The new "I am really a i5" i7 would clock to 1.826Ghz assuming you could get the FSB (base clock) up to 166mhz. The i5 would clock to 1.66Ghz in the same scenario.

Theoretically the i7 model could hit 3+ Ghz on a single core when using turbo and throttlestop.

Like I said before though hopefully it's the case that these new chips replace the current i5/i7 rather than sitting in alongside them.

 

There was speculation by one of the Asian (Malaysia IIRC) members that there was going to be a "developer edition" m11x with the 680um.

This was months ago though, and if there's anything the m11x forum loves to do it's speculate about new processors and gpus...

 

i think it will be 2011 before the m11x will see a new gpu i have heard that the reason why we have not seen a new gpu is because the tdp is so high on the nvidia 400 series so alienware is waiting for amd's 6000 series

 

When the R2 came out, there were faster versions of the I7 and I5 UM available that, for no reason I could see, weren't available as an option (it might have been these versions, but I can't remember for sure). At the time, I wrote off as ignorance my confusion at their exclusion, but now I wonder if the purpose was to include them later (i.e., now, almost exactly six months after the R2's release) only for marketing and pricing purposes, since they certainly don't add much to the machine's power, as has already been said. That is, the update drives new reviews and news about it (free advertising), and it gives Dell/AW an excuse for why the price won't drop after more than six months on the market. It gives the appearance of updating the line when it's stagnating.

edit: It occurs to me late that each update has come around 5-6 months after the previous release. Assuming AW sticks to this schedule, we can expect the next update to come in April at the earliest.

 

Don't hold your breath.

The 5-6 month update happened one time with the Alienware M11x with the M11x R1 and R2. And the only reason the M11x R1 even exists is because they wanted to debut the system at CES 2010, and Intel's ULV Core i5/i7 parts were not available yet.

Look at any company on the entire planet that makes high-cost consumer electronics... you will not find a single one that updates a product every 6 months. You won't even find this in markets that rapidly evolve, such as smartphones. Believe me, you will NOT see an M11x R3 with any significant changes anytime soon. It will be AT LEAST 9-12 months before you see an Alienware M11x with Sandy Bridge, a higher gen GPU, USB 3.0, or SATA-3.

Even if Alienware could crank out a new model tomorrow with all of those features, why would they? They already have the most powerful gaming laptop under 14". Anyone looking for a gaming laptop under 14" will already buy the Alienware M11x. They make more money by riding their status as #1 in that product niche than they would by dumping a bunch of money into re-engineering a product that is already #1.

 

The product update might not happen until next years CES, but as soon as sandy bridge ships they'll be working on a platform.

 

i want to buy this thing but which core is better? the 1.2hz i3 core? or 1.06 ghz i5 core? is it i5 faster although its 1.06 ghz? and is it ok to get 2 gb of ram or is it mandatory to get 4gb of ram?

 

There was a decently priced package that meets the specs in my signature.

The real question is what are you going to use it for?

 

wanna play a little bit of game, office, and autocad..

 

.. and a little bit of spamming on a new account.

 

um is it just me or are the new cpus gone lol

 

If they stick a Radeon in this machine I'm gonna cry. I want my PhysX support.

 

AMD is good! Very good! Too bad there's no AMD powered options for the M11x, I wouldn't mind supporting AMD. Too bad AMD doesn't have anything like Nividia's Optimus but who knows waht they have in store later down the road?

 

I am waiting for a update, after all they still have the design flaw (hinge problem) that needs fixing.

I wouldn't mind a faster GPU

 

On other sites i see other gaming notebooks with at least 2.0GHz for an intel i5. I'm not the best with computer hardware, but doesn't this mean the current CPU options for alienware m11x aren't as good? I'm running a quad core 2.4GHz intel processor thats years old.

How would the performance of the m11x's CPU be compared to my 2.4GHz? Remember, i'm not that familiar with most new technology (new=within a few years).

To me, it seems like alienware has a pretty crap CPU... can anyone talk me through it?

These are Alienware's m11x CPU options

# Intel® CoreTM i5 520UM (1.86GHz/3MB cache)
# Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo SU7300 (1.3GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
# Intel® CoreTM i7 640UM (1.06GHz/3MB cache)

 

Any of those processors to an Intel Core 2 Quad will run a little short, however no laptop with a Core 2 Quad is going to give you 5+ hours of battery...

 

How many cores does the i5 have? The i7?

 

Both have 2 cores with hyperthreading. Which means they can simulate 4 cores by running extra threads.

 

CPU speed has very little impact on what you do on your computer. The reason is that a computer has several parts that must work together (hard drive, RAM, video card, etc). And in most cases, the CPU is not the bottleneck (the weakest link in the chain).

Most games you run are limited by the power of the GPU / video card, and not the CPU. Most applications you run are limited by the speed of the storage system (hard disk, SSD, etc), and not the CPU. The general rule is that as long as you have a CPU that is "fast enough", you will be fine.

The CPU's in the Alienware M11x are certainly not as powerful as other CPU's in desktop or laptop systems. But it is "fast enough", especially with gaming (which depends much more on the GPU than the CPU). That is why CPU and CPU speed and power are not as important as GPU when it comes to games.

 

Hyperthreading is not "virtual" cores or "simulated" cores. A 2-core CPU with hyperthreading still has 2 cores. All hyperthreading does is provide extra "staging" resources to prepare data for those 2 cores to execute. The idea is to keep the cores as busy as possible, so that they are never idle and waiting for data to be prepared for them to process.

When you go to your doctor's office for a sick visit, you go up to the front desk first. The front desk assistants check you in (e.g. take your insurance information, collect your copays, give you forms to fill out, and lead you back to an exam room). And then you sit int he exam room and wait to be seen by the doctor. The doctor goes from one exam room to another seeing patients who are already waiting. The doctor never needs to wait for patients, because there are always patients in exam rooms ready and waiting to be seen.

That is the equivalent of hyperthreading. The doctor is the CPU core, who always has work waiting to be done. The multiple exam rooms is the hyperthreading, which simply prepares the work to be done by the doctor.

This distinction is important because a hyperthreaded CPU typically performs identically to a non-hyperthreaded CPU. In some situations, you can see speed improvements up to +10% or +15%. In other situations, you can actually see performance DECREASES with Hyperthreading.

 

I'm going to buy a m11x with i7 640UM in Xmas and I've heard rumors that m11x will be upgraded with new i7 660UM and 680UM soon.
680UM gets 1.46GHz with turbo boost which is only like 200+Mhz higher than 640UM, so what I'm concerned now is if I shall wait for the higher 680UM coming in the future or just ignore the 200MHz difference and buy it right at Xmas(the one with 640UM I mean)?!
What's ur opinion guys?
Thx.

 

Minor differences in CPU clock speed have virtually no impact on real world performance. So even if you wait to get the faster CPUs, you will probably never notice any difference whatsoever.

So, buy the laptop, and enjoy your new toy over the holidays.

 

Agreed! If you keep waiting for minor improvements then you better have deep pockets and lots of time lol.

 

Thank you, I'm gonna buy it soon. just hope it can handle most programs and games.

BTW, villosa I just saw the trailer of Mass Effect 3. It's amazing and epic that Sheperd appears at the end in N7 armor!!

 

Can M11x use Q9000 from Alienware M17x ?

 

No.

The only CPUs that you can use on the Alienware M11x are the ones offered as configuration options on the Alienware website.

 

At least the new i7 is a 4M L3 cache now instead of a 3M.
Does anyone know if it has much of a performance boost over the 640UM?

 

Not worth at all, you get better performance increase with TS (way better)

Good option is you plan to buy one for the first time...