**M11xR2 Discussion Thread

Ahh Dell you should have put this up on EPP yesterday. I have a certain obsession to have a smaller laptop, and my Envy 15 is not exactly small, so I *needed* to get another smallish one. Between waiting for this to show up on EPP, I discovered and ordered the HP TM2T on a $400 off deal (would be absolute steal if BCB comes through too).

Oh well, I'm not meant to have an M11x..

 

It is so much easier to order over the phone..PM me if you want the contact info of a really good US EPP sales rep...It hardly took me 10 mins to get a final quote and get a lot of questions clarified

 

The 10% discount doesn't seem to be applying on my EPP site. Seems like the same price.

 

Your Member Purchase Program | Dell

There will be a form field for you orgs participation#. If not, clear your cookies and try again. As a last resport, EPP Sales is 1-866-535-3578.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/video_chat_eppandmilitary?&~lt=bodyonly

 

sweet, ignore that PM i sent you than

i was desperate, lol

 

Anybody know when they will be shipping the M11xR2 in Canada?
I am thinking about buying one with a i5 but if I cant get it quickly I will go with the Q2D.
Thanks

Theblah

 

You gotta do this over the phone for now. The 10% isn't online yet but reps over the phone are honoring it.

 

i am not receiving the 10% of through the epp is this happening to anyone else?

edit: nevermind i see the post above mine

 

I probably will get the i7 w/ 4GB and leaving the HD as standard, as Dell charge too much for HD upgrade. Dell charge $50 for 250GB 7200 RPM upgrade. While I can pay roughtly $55 for the same HD at newegg, meaning I get that 160GB slower speed for free that I can put in an enclosure for some other use or spare HD.

PS: exactly how do you apply EPP & dell coupon on the phone w/ the sell rep? I mean, isn't the coupon kinda look hard to say it? Or you just ask the rep if there is any coupon he/she can apply to it?

 

Link to the HDD?

 

I did see that M11xR2 is slightly (about 1" from both sides) smaller than my 14" Lenovo T60, but the thickness is about the same. It's almost the same size as my Lifebook T4215, so that isn't bad. Judging from the pictures, the keyboard trim is small, so it probably have the same keyboard size as my T4215. But the darn LCD bazel is too big, this mean the screen is very small. Man, I wish dell sell M13x cuz I looked at M15x spec and it's even bigger than my Studio 1557.

here is the list of 250GB+ 7200RPM 2.5" harddrive.
Interestingly Seagate 250GB 7200RPM just onsale for $43 w/ free shipping. I wouldn't order it now, Newegg got HD onsale all the time, I would get it after the new lappy arrive.

PS: anyone know if you can use non-english language on the Personalize Plate?

 

Do you guys think the Seagate 500 GB Momentus XT(SSD / HDD hybrid) will work well with the m11x?

 

I got my M11x in today, and this thing destroys my Studio 1747 in build quality. It reminds me of a Thinkpad, honestly.

It's quick too. I've been putting it through its paces, and it is a great little machine. For the $900 I spent, it appears to be worth the cash so far.

 

Alright so I need your guys opinion on whether or not I should exchange my m11x that I received two days ago for the m11xR2. This is the first laptop I've owned and it's going to be considered as my primary computer. The only thing I'll upgrade from my original m11x is the processor which'll be a core i7 and basically everything else the same. Will it be worth the time and money for this upgrade?

 

Wow! These look amazing! I can't believe I haven't heard of these before. They should work - I don't see why not.

I will get one of these when they come out, I'm buying the cheap HDD option in my m11x.

 

I think the unanimous decision from everyone who's been in this thread awhile is that it's not worth upgrading if you already have the R1.

 

I don't know if this is new but...



The only things, Alienware has released about the M11xR2 is these;

# Over 2,811 3DMark Vantage Performance Score!4
# Over 1,300 3DMark Vantage Extreme Score!5


So I searched google for the scores of the old ones, C2D;

Over 2,590 3DMark Vantage Performance Score7
• Over 1,180 3DMark Vantage Extreme Score8



This is benchmark. And it's not 3DMark 06, which is the standard we all know and love. Maybe the reason why they didnt wrote it down is that there are not much difference between them.
This is a upgrade.

Some of you are saying i7 UM, might be inferior to CD2 7300 ULV! This should prove that there is a boost.

But it should also reduce your expectations, in terms of what to expect in real world performance. As you can see, it is not more than a 10% case, in either case. Still, real world performance might be different.

The question is now - Will it OC better, how much improved does it run in games, how far are i5 from i7, and how much battery does it use to C2D versions.



Anyway, I tnought this was interesting... Didnt see it posted before. But yeah, Benchmark is benchmark. Not a true indicator of real performance.

 

See this thread first; http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...tus-xt-hybrid-hdd-w-built-4gb-ssd-coming.html

It's an interesting thread. It goes from rumors, to post-release about the product.


There are two big reviews on the hard drive from Anandtech and Toms Hardware. Anandtech recommends it, but Toms Hardware has some recognitions about it.

The main problem seems to be power use. According to Toms Hardware, it eats up 50 minutes of battery life compared to a regular 7200 RPM hard drive.

But people are arguing over, benchmark, vs real life performance, and all that. I'm confused about it.

But it's sold out all over.

 

Since the i7-640um or the i5 have 4 threads, wouldn't that help in the increase of performance compared to the u7300?

 

Well, after placing an online M11x R2 order, using a $100 coupon, but no EPP discount, I called Dell and worked out a 2% EPP + $100 coupon... which ended up at a 10% net discount in the end. So I went for it... Build date ETA is 7/7/10 (and they did include free overnight shipping as well).

So maybe there are some better hagglers out there, kudos to you guys!!

- Kirk200

 

looks real cool, although the ssd part is only 4 gb; is that big enough for windows 7 home 64 bit?

 

Lets move the Seagate discussion to the thread linked... thanks.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...tus-xt-hybrid-hdd-w-built-4gb-ssd-coming.html

 

Hi, First time posting here. Anyhow, I tried calling the reps a few times, but I haven't had luck with getting that 10% through the EPP (and my company have this). Can someone PM me with a rep who was able to do this?

 

Being umming and rring for a while now, but i thought "Awww screw it!", just ordered one at base spec with an i7, yummy! Came to a total of £977.44 inc VAT.

I was thinking of swapping my ram (and ssd) out of my current m11x, but ive noticed dell state stock ram now runs at 800mhz. Am i right in understanding my ram will get throttled to 800mhz rather than 1066mhz? They are Kingston HyperX KHX1066C5S3K2 DDR3 SDRAM.

 

Hey guys, first post here. I placed my order today for the M11X i7, 4 gb ram, 160 GB HD and got the rep to accept certain Dell EPP's. Since we can't post the codes here, i'll just say that my total came out to $895 after tax with free shipping which included a $100 discount and 21% off. Definitely order over the phone.

 

All m11x ram on all models run at 800, always.

 

Ahh I hate ordering over the phone.

Dell called me back today, it was a different rep then I had before, but they didn't get the discount right. After the fact it looks like I only got $75 off, not the 10% ($111 in my case).

The guy also got my email address wrong and didn't link the order to my account. Lucky the order number I wrote down was right. How is it that they had all my information yesterday like my account, email, address, config, and today they have my config and phone number, but have to ask for my email address again and get it wrong? I'm going to have to call back after work.

 

My trusted mini 9 has served me well through the past two years but it is showing its age. So I have been looking for a replacement that has better than Atom CPU and a discrete GPU in a small form factor. The M11x was the only one that fit the requirements but I was unwilling to order due to the silly alien head... (I use the machine mostly for school) I'm glad that I hesitated. Now that the M11x is updated with i7 CPU, I know I can't wait any longer.

I've just ordered a R2 on the phone with a EPP sales rep. As of this morning, the M11x R2 page on the EPP site is functional but there is no discount. Save your setting so the sale rep can pull it up. Ask for the EPP discount for AW. She gave me a 6% discount for student after talking to her manager. Hope you get the same or more. The sales rep also gave it free shipping. Then add the $100 off coupon code [Edit: taking out the source of the EPP promotion code for forum rule. It's not hard to find]

Here is my setup:
Alienware M11x, Soft Touch Stealth Black
Overclockable Intel Core i7 640UM (4M Cache, 2.266 GHz Max Turbo Frequency)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
320GB SATAII 7,200RPM

The rest is left at stock. The total is $1,224.00 before discount. After the 6% off and $100 off coupon, it became 1049.52. Sales tax for where I live is an extra $93.16 though =(

I have a Windows 7 Professional on my mini 9 that is going to be moved to the R2. Too bad, Dell would not ship computer without OS. I was thinking I might be able to save a few dollars there.

Seeing the hybird drive, I am very tempted to alter the order to just get the stock 5400rpm hdd instead. However, that'll bring the original total to $1,149.00, or $1,080.06 after the 6% discount. I'll post if the $100 off coupon still going to work. It should.

Would anyone suggest getting the stock 2GB ram and swap it yourself? I guess if it should not matter when it is already down clock to 800Mhz.

 

Too bad not many people are getting the 10% off that dell advertises on their website, but at least were saving money

About the RAM; I agree, anything you buy is gonna get downclocked to 800mhz anyways, and since upgrading to 4gb isn't too expensive it's probably just worth it to do that.


I do have one question though, the RAM is upgradable to 8gb, so if I buy mine with 4gb does it still have open RAM slots to add another 4gb in the future if I want? Or will I have to buy the full 8gb if I ever decide to upgrade?

 

Us poor souls in Blighty get no coupons and the EPP is only 6% (which I cant get anyway). Has anyone in the UK phoned and got a deal yet? money off or even free shipping.
Can we phone the US reps as the call centre in India which we get routed to is never that great.
I know tomorrow (Thursday) is when Dell change there deals fingers crossed something happens as £1224 for I7, 500gb, 4gb ram, bluetooth is high when you can get same config with SU7300 for £849!

 

I ended up calling Dell to try and adjust my order, but after 3 transfers and having to confirm my order number, name, address, phone number I just gave up.

Ordered it online with the $100 off coupon and chose free next day shipping. EPP wouldn't have only saved me another $12.

 

Agree on the 4GB upgrade... $50 to get from 2GB is a pretty fair deal, it's ~$100 retail for a 4GB kit. So I went with the Dell upgrade on that one too. For max performance, you want a matched *pair* of SODIMMs in the system, leaving a memory slot empty will impact performance...
- Kirk200

 

Pretty sure it is 2x2 or 2x4, so if you order w/ 4gb, you'll need to buy 2x4 to get to 8 later.

 

I am with you MaxGeek... for the hassle to pick up the added 2% EPP that I did get (a whopping $30) by making a phone call to Dell, I hope they don't get the "new" order screwed up (like the name plate)... the CSR basically re-ordered an M11x for me from scratch, which was very tedious... I may be wishing in a month I left my online order intact, just the same as you did... good luck to us both!
- Kirk200

 

Ah sweet, I am able to get the 10% off via my college ID number..looks like you can't just put down that you are in the field..you have to know the number.

 

Where did you put down your college id number? Or did you talk to a rep?

 

When you first enter the EPP website it gives you an option to enter your business/school number or just select k-12, business, etc. Have to enter the number.

 

Not what most sources are saying. Turbo Boost apparently rarely runs anywhere near max, and will not sustain the max speed very long even when it does engage. Most places say to completely disregard turbo boost and look only at base speed. It is generally agreed the i7 ULV will be faster than the C2D ULV, but not by a whole lot. We are talking like 30 seconds on the C2D and 27 Seconds on the i7, 10% difference.

Notebookcheck: Intel Core i7 640UM Notebook Processor

"Still the Turbo Boost may not trigger very often and therefore the maximum of 2.26 GHz is not very important. All in all the I7-640UM should be faster than a Core 2 Duo (1.6GHz)."

You notice it is not exactly a glowing statement like "the i7 will smoke the C2D". We are talking about a tiny incremental upgrade, which is why the added cost is a bit iffy.

Notebookcheck: Intel Core i7 640UM Notebook Processor

Notebookcheck: Intel Core i5 520UM Notebook Processor

Tests - Asus UL30JT - 13-Zoller mit Turbo und Optimus auf notebookjournal.de

There is a forum thread somewhere about the i7 ULV but I can't seem to locate it right this second, may edit later when I come across it.

Yea everything I am reading is ULV to ULV comparisons. I really think this is just a EOL on the C2D chips and so Alienware is making a transition. Certainly these chips are the future and everything, but to call this an upgrade worthy of $150-$300 or even more for people talking about returns and buybacks seems pretty silly from everything I am reading. Plus, what is sad/scary is all these people jumping through hoops now for the iX cores will want to do it again in 6 months when the new mobile GPU's start shipping, and that refresh will be a lot more substantial than this one.

You should wait for benchmarks, right now I am gonna guess that the i5 will perform the same or slightly worse than the OCed C2D and that the i7 will perform better but by no more than 10-20%. Both iX cores will definitely be as good or better than the C2D without the OC on. So to put that in perspective, if it takes you 30 seconds to load on the C2D, the i7 will do it in 24-27 seconds. At this point though this is just conjecture and educated assessment.

It doesn't need to be $1700, you can get 95% of the performance for half the cost with the C2D. The primary piece of the M11X is the GPU, these new CPU's are in no way game changing. Think single digit performance gains.

 

Whoever here in the R2 thread gets his M11x R2 first, please do post here about performance. We will gladly appreciate it.

 

I understand that Windows 7 Experience Index is not a valid way to measure your CPU speed but I'm just wondering with a Intel Core i7 640UM what WEI should we expect to see? *Guesstimation numberical value pls*

I'm only at 4.6 atm with my 1.7 overclocked processor, how much of a difference would a Intel Core i7 640UM be vs a 1.7 C2D processor?

 

So what you're saying is for the current m11x owners to wait for proper benchmarks of the m11xR2 and compare them with the old before we decide to exchange our current laptop?

 

I just ordered one online and was able to get the 10% EPP, $100 discount and free next day shipping... seems a little too good be true, but it went through! =D

 

My 1.4GHz SU9400 scores a 4.2 so I'd say maybe 4.8?

 

Damn if it's only a .2 increase then Intel Core i7 640UM isnt worth it Lol

 

Yeah, just got a quote from Dell rep:

Alienware M11x, Soft Touch Stealth Black
Overclockable Intel Core i7 640UM (4M Cache, 2.266 GHz Max Turbo Frequency)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
250 GB SATAII 7,200RPM
Alienware Orion Portfolio ($30)

The total came to $1248, and I got the 10% discount through my school and a $100 off coupon to bring the price down to $1027.09. Seems like a great deal, what do you guys think?

Taxes where I am are $57.52, so that brings the total up to $1,084.61, with free 2-5 day shipping and handling.

I dunno if I can get any more off... any suggestions?

Wanted to try to get Next Business Day shipping... but I didn't want to try my luck, lol. >$200 savings is plenty anyway.

 

Definitely, if you can manage the translators or speak German you can refer to some of my links for some reviews and benchmarks. The iX cores are not very impressive, compared with C2D at 1.3 Ghz they aren't amazing, and against a 1.6 C2D they will fair even worse.

Anyway, people should wait for some concrete info, because these chips are not gonna be much faster, and a lot of people seem to not understand that at all.

This is exactly my point, we are talking 27 seconds for the i7 or 30 seconds for the C2D, like 10-20% performance increase. In other words, if you sat down with 2 M11X, one iX and one C2D and didn't know which was which, you would not be able to tell with normal use.

 

I'm trying to order the m11x with the i7, 4gigs ram, and 500 gig hard drive. I am an EPP member but when I call they will only give me the $100 coupon and not the 10% off. So online I can get the setup for about $1,170 and on the phone they are giving me $1,350. Does anyone have a number to a good U.S. rep I would really appreciate it. I'm trying to get this closer to $1,050. Thanks guys

 

The Core i7-640UM should have pretty good performance:

 

Guys
is i5 or i7 faster than P7350 running at 2.1 ghz which is what's powering my macbook? if ix is faster, how much is it faster? my original post was posted in the wrong section

 

Well, remember, the core i7/i5 version gives you other bonuses, namely, the support for Nvidia Optimus drivers through Nvidia, and not through Dell.

Btw, the website says the Core i7 will be overclockable.

I assume thats not just the regular Turbo Boost "overclock"

Do we have any information about Core i7 overclocks, and what that could mean for performance?