M11x R3 Online Reviews Thread

Here are a couple to read through and discuss:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1159/pg1/alienware-m11x-r3-laptop-review-introduction.html

http://www.kitguru.net/components/zardon/alienware-m11x-r3-review-core-i7-2630um/

 

Review Alienware M11x R3 Gaming Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Has battery life taken another hit? Comparing both Hardware Heaven reviews ( R2 here), the R3 has less battery life across everything. It also looks hotter, getting 87C at load on the GPU. Probably to do with a tweaked fan table.

 

but no R2 to R3 comparisons

 

I'll be making some of my own, as will other SetPLL users.

 

is it just me or does it seem like both reviews avoided 3Dmark06 and Vantage?

i know 06 is kinda old but its still a standard today, even more so when trying to compair the R3 to systems built less than 6mths ago that cant run 3Dmark11....?

 

The notebookcheck has 3Dmark06 and Vantage. 06 scores are pretty meh at 7500. It does better in Vantage with 4000 points.

I did Cinebench 11.5 and here is the result:


It shows my i5 scoring 1.79, slower then the R3. However, what does that really mean? It means that if my quick calculations are correct, the R2 i7 will match or beat the R3 here if it is clocked at 166 or higher.
Here is my thinking:
[[[1.95 (Average of R3 scores*) - 1.79 (my i5 score)] / 1.79 ]] * 100 = 8.93% faster.
SetPLL'd i7 @ 180 performance gain over my i5 = [(2520mhz - 2160mhz) / 2160mhz] * 100 = 16.66%. if the SetPLL'd i7 @ 180 does scale linearly or close enough, it will be beat R3.

I got the Average of R3 scores using all three review scores: 1.97 (KitGuru), 1.91 (NBC), 1.96 (HH).

 

notebookcheck review says otherwise though...
Idle (without WLAN, min brightness) 12h 55min
Surfing with WLAN 7h 30min
DVD 6h 40min
Load (maximum brightness) 2h 23min

 

is that a typo? they act like 13hrs idle and 7hr playing a DVD is nothing. when its a HuGE improvment over the R2 and the the R1 for that matter. how could the numbers be so different from one review to the next?

i think i need more coffee and to go back and re-read these.


@ Davy thanks, 7500 is not what i was expecting. the gfx card alone looked as if it was gonna help produce 8k...I guess this is what to expect when you rev a laptop 3 times in one year. on the plus side, I have no buyers remorse.

if the battery life is indeed what notebookcheck measured then this is the best of both worlds if price is no object.

 

Notebookcheck review writes:

Ha ha ha, Notebookcheck review an M11xR3 variant one can't even buy at this juncture.

That should confuse the punters.

Just as well I have an M11xR1. Me love you long time.

 

I would disregard the idle number until something else can confirm it. What does idle mean? How did they test it? Does it mean sitting on desktop, screen off and with AlienFX or off? The other two reviews have, despite being incomparable, close ball pack figures.

Hmm. That can't be right. It's too slow against the 2617M and the SetPLL'd 640UM.

 

Battery life is 8 hours, from Alienware announcement justin video about 5 min ago.

Longer than r1 and r2.

 

I think I may have to go R1 and mod the crap out of it now the prices will fall a little. No point having so expensive to lug round Thailands beach shacks!

Must say the M11Xr3 does look very very nice. I'd get one but when I get back its cheaper to just sell the R1 and build a new desktop.

 

Dell once advertised the M11x R1 as having an 8hour 39minute battery life.

 

The reviewer from notebookcheck either must've tested a Lenovo TP or was high on dope....lol. =p

 

I don't see any real gaming gain from going from i5 to i7 or from going 1GB discrete video memory to 2GB discrete video memory - not at the resolutions the R3 runs at. It's too bad there's no quad core option - that would really be the kicker especially with games like Battlefield BC2 and 3 being so core-hungry.

So if I were to go M11x R3 I'd stick with the base and save $300.

 

Too bad none of these reviews actually compare results against R1 or R2. That battery life is very good was a no brainer, Sandy Bridge is known for this. Also, beware about the resolution used in 3DMark when comparing...

 

coupons available for $350 when over $1459

 

Battery life has taken a gain. It's @ 10 hours.

http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=m11x+r3+10+hours+battery

 

OK...now it's confusing. Tests on pre-sales units are conflicting with what Dell is saying about the battery life of the r3. Assuming that the 10 hours is actually idle time...7 to 8 hours of normal usage would be one heck of a gain over the m11x previous revisions.

 

The review I read said 12hours without internet/documentst/low brightness and 7-8 hours surfing with internet I closed my chrome tab and lost it, but it's out there somewhere in the AW NBR forum section

 

Based on those reviews how does the r3 compare to the r2? worth the upgrade?

 

If you sold your m11x and now without one or new users for m11x then r3 is for you.

If you have an r1 or r2 already, instead of bashing the r3, just say something constructive instead of acting like a jealous husband w/ that crab mentality just because you have an older tech.

 

Not really. The R1 was better value when the R2 came out, that's a fact. At present, judging by the preliminary benchmarks, the R2 is better value than the R3. I'm speaking in terms of performance per dollar here. Of course, price/performance ratios shouldn't be the only criteria used, other things need to be considered like battery life, the extra features (USB 3.0, DX11 support), etc. Either way, all 3 machines are still rather excellent.

 

Battery life numbers are all over the place in the reviews so far but 2/3 of them put it around 4.5 hours of normal use. I think the figures on the Notebookcheck review must be wrong. If it turns out they are right then this might be the GOAT notebook.

 

I completely agree. If you have waited months for the R3, instead of bashing the users trying to make a constructive comparison, just try saying something constructive instead of defending the R3 in a passive aggressive tone.

The performance numbers that NBC posted can't be right. It scores less in Cinebench 11.5 then the other 2 reviews despite having a faster CPU.

 

I say we wait for real users to have their r3 to test it because sometimes the reviewers are biased.

 

^I agree^

I'd also like to see a Throttle Stop SetPLL'd i7/i5 v's the new R3's.

I'm liking the new Graphics card. Isn't it basicly a DX11 enabled 9800GT? With 96SP's. Wont this make the biggest difference over the older models.

 

Biased for which side? The Hardware Heaven review repeated their tests 3 times

I'm awaiting someone with a SetPLL'd i7 to go against the i7 like cufy or MassivB. So far, it's only my maths working but it's looking very favorable. I mistaken the i7 in the first 2 reviews as the 2617M shipping configuration but a SetPLL'd i7 can actually beat a 2657M in Cinebench 10 and 11.5 by ~5%. If a SetPLL'd i7 can beat the review R3, then the shipping R3 will be beaten already.

The 540M is not a DX11 9800GT, far from it. For one, it's on another architecture (G92 vs GF108). Two, it doesn't have a 256bit VRAM interface. Three, to scratch the surface of the technical stuff, it has a quarter of the ROPs from 16 to 4. Don't know what that will do for AA performance. I could go on but I'll let others have a turn at this. This card is more 8800GSO then 9800GT.

 

Cheers for nthe Info Davy! So the the only similarity is SP count. Shame as my cousin has a 9800GT and he plays games at 1080p without issues (has to knock some settings down obviously but its still a decent card). I'll my selling my Desktop C/W Q9650 @ 3.8Ghz and GTX280 so this is gonna be a step down while i'm travelling.

 

Didn't even notice that. Maybe the NBC review had the processor capped in Windows or something?

 

No, it's right. I just mistaken the other two reviews as 2617M.

 

Let's see...
The Notebookcheck.net review of the M11x R3 reports the battery as having a capacity of 63Wh and reports idle (wireless card probably turned off and minimum brightness etc) power consumption of about 10 Watts.

Would this calculate to about 6 hours of idle battery life?

 

Yes, roughly 6 hours if the power consumption is 10W/hr.

 

Alrighty, then Hardware something review reported 16W which gives the more realistic number of about 4 hours.

 

This is what they say:

Idle (without WLAN, min brightness) 12h 55min
Surfing with WLAN 7h 30min
DVD 6h 40min
Load (maximum brightness) 2h 23min

7.9 - 12.0 Watts in an idle state, and 56.9 - 65.6 Watts under load.

 

I know that they say, but it doesn't seem to add up.

 

Numbers seem fine to me. There should be very low idle consumption with the Sandy Bridge platform. I believe Lenovo T420 was down to 5.9W idle (screen off I think).

 

How does NBC measure the power consumption? Without battery, only AC adapter and a kill-a-watt, without factoring in efficiency? In software? Remember the battery is new so it's has a little extra capacity (up to 70wHr). If they drawn those numbers from the AC adapter without factoring effency, then yes, they add up. If it's recorded from software or more accurate equipment, then no.

EDIT: They used a multimeter...

 

In that case, 7.5 hours while surfing the web (without Youtube which could trigger the nVidia GPU to turn on) sound pretty good to me!

 

Guys, what are the negatives to doing this then? Bricking the laptop, cooking it?

Very impressive btw.

Edit: wrong thread! Doh!

 

Here's the reviews I've looked at so far:

Hardware Heaven
Alienware M11x R3 Laptop Review - Introduction

KitGuru
Alienware M11x R3 review (Core i7 2630UM) | KitGuru

NotebookCheck
Review Alienware M11x R3 Gaming Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Are you guys referring to any others? I'll update this first post to include any you add.

BTW, I appreciate all the user feedback, it's just often the reviews can do multi-machine comparisons and include graphs/tables for easy digestion of useful info.

 

I think those are all of the "official" reviews at the moment.

 

There's already a thread with the reviews so have a read through it.

 

My quick review. I'm very new to all of this and this is my first experience with an Alienware system. My opinions are from someone who is an average consumer, not a computer savvy tech person lol. I only had the R1 for a few days and decided to return it for the R3.

Startup: The R1 seemed about 8 seconds slower to boot into windows than the R3. That being said, my no frills Acer laptop is quicker to get into windows than the both the R1 & R3, strange.

-Since I have installed a bunch of games into the R3, the windows boot time has slowed progressively I first opened it up. I don't know if this is to be expected, like I said I'm very non technical, just an observation.

-The screen is better on the R3 than R1, but I just cant put my finger on why. I guess brighter, but they both have the mirror like shine that seems to dull games. you have to sit JUST perfectly to properly game without a glare. Even at 2 AM lol.

-Running Crysis with Fraps was one of the first things I did. The R1 with my own custom settings (highest textures, med water, etc) I got 12-18 fps, with the R3 I got 18-24. Mass effect 2 I got around 50 with the R3 compared to the R1 that received mid to low 40s. Magika on the R3 seemed to stutter (on highest settings), cant figure out why.

-Did I notice a huge difference between the R1 and R3? The short answer is no. I bought Them both to play the games I wanted to play, and they both did that very well. Am I happy that I went with the R3? Yes, ONLY because I got in with the $400 off deal. If you are deciding between the R1 and R3(without any coupons) I'd probably save the $. Very helpful people on here that can help you mod your R3 to perform VERY close to an R3. If you don't give a crap about numbers like me, I found the they both played games they way they were meant to, and thats all I need.

 

I see that the models in these reviews have the Core i7-2657M. Any news on when Alienware will offer this option?

 

YouTube - Alienware M11x R3 Laptop Review.m4v

 

the old dude prolly owns all at COD: BO

 

It's kind of like when you pass an awesome sports car on the freeway and hoping that it's driven by some hot chick...and it's this old dude driving it instead

 

With all the hunting paraphenalia in the background, I'd day so!