New M11x R3 i5

Hi to all - 1st time poster,
Just purchased M11x R3, i5 2467M, 6gb ram, gt540m, bluetooth 3.0, wireless n-6205, nebula red, $925 free shipping, after 2% employee discount, $60 auto discount, $100 coupon. Was hoping to do better, but no great deals at dell for the M11x.
So while I am eagerly awaiting my lappy wondering if there is a thread you can point me to for getting started. I will be using this laptop for travel, camping, using email, facebook, browsing the internet, playing games such as Civ IV, Half-Life, Diablo, Morrowind
1. Do I really need to purchase external drive, if so any suggestions?
I currently use steam on my current laptop but I have heard of problems playing civ IV with steam
2. Is there a recovery partition on the M11x, and or included recovery discs (It doesn't state anything about recovery discs or windows install disc on my order)
3. How would I make a re-install program on a usb thumb drive
4. Is there any crap-ware I should get rid of
Thanks for any advice, suggestions, Janice

 

Congrats on your new purchase! I was on the same boat when I got my M11x regarding getting an external drive. After over a year, I have never had to use an external drive for anything! Glad that I didn't get one.

 

I'm also a new m11x purchaser, mines still in production. Through reading other threads I don't think an external is necessary as of yet, unless you buy games physically. I believe it comes with a CD and AlienRespawn can be put into your USB which would return your comp back to its original factory state. There may be some bloatware to delete.

I'm more astonished at how you got your Alienware to only $925, did you have tax?

 

Got a Windows 7 disk with mine , + a restore partition like " Press F8 and wait for Factory Settings + drivers ".

 

This laptop will play Half-Life, Diablo (2?), and Morrowind very well. Civ IV, I'm not sure. The Diablo 3 beta has been reported to run on the M11x, though it's not really clear how well it. Half-Life or any valve game for that matter, runs very well on the M11x.

I've got a Seagate 2TB drive that I use for backups and DVD rips. I have heard a lot of people say they've had problems with Seagate drives failing, but I've had mine for months now with no issue. I even tipped the thing over while it was writing, and it still kept on kicking. No you don't technically *need* an external drive, and from a mobility perspective it's annoying to have the drive plugged in all the time.
Amazon.com: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive STAC2000103: Electronics

My friend who plays Civ IV has said that it has some issues. I'm not sure though because I haven't played it firsthand. I would do some research, maybe get on the Steam forums and find out before you shell out a lot of money on the game.

Yes, there is a recovery partition. You also get all your recovery discs with your laptop. Basically everything you need to factory restore your laptop to the way it was when it first arrived at your house. Be advised you will need some sort of external DVD drive to use these, as the M11x does not have a DVD drive of any kind.

there are options for this in Win7

I don't know what Dell is putting on the M11x these days, but a year ago when I got my M11x they put McAfee Antivirus on mine that I got rid of almost instantly. In terms of bloatware, there isn't much. They include a crippled OEM version of Nero that is just about useless unless you're burning audio discs only. Other than that, there isn't much pre-installed on your laptop. I ticked the option to have them pre-install Steam, which was cool.

 

RipJak - no tax in the state of Delaware

 

1. It is usually a good idea to back up stuff you want to keep periodically in case your machine bricks, is dropped or gets stolen. These days you can get NAS boxes that can backup automatically when you are on the same network at home. This can be useful for saving documents, photos, movies, etc.

2. Yes, but in addition to point 1, if your drive fails for whatever reason, then the recovery partition is also going to be useless. Windows backups can be saved externally to recover machines, or you can just use 3rd party software to create images of drives. Please note the difference between this and backing up the files as per point 1.

3. As per DarkDomino's reply, options in Win7, and all drive backup/restore software tends to come with options to create bootable media.

4. I had huge problems with all the Dell preinstalled software, such as their image backup software causing problems with AlienFX, and other software failing to work with .Net. I ended up ripping all the Dell stuff out and keeping Alienware utils only, and installing 3rd party software to replace the Dell crap.

 

Thanks darkdomino for your thoughtful suggestions. I will be disappointed if civ iv has issues, I had so many issues installing from retail disc to a gateway m6862 on windows vista 64 bit and now finally have it running very well. So do I have this right - I have retail cd civ iv, can I just go over to steam and download for free?
I will check out the win7 for making the thumb drive - not sure why Alienware would send me a disc if there's no cd drive!
How do I edit my profile? cant find any links that take me to my forum account
Thanks again

 

So they can offer you external drives too! I believe steam games allow you to input the key and let you download from your account.

 

Have a look here to see which retail games can be activated on Steam.

Steam: Retail Keys

Doesn't look like Civ IV is one of them sadly...

 

Thanks Irish, I definitely will be removing all non-essential software,so is it safe to remove all the Dell stuff?
Will check out NAS box, recently transfered a lot of files from my old creaky alienware desktop but ended up putting them on a thumb drive cause couldn't get acronis software to work - goodness these computers take up a lot of time - but its kind of fun

 

Yeah, just checked my machine and I don't have any Dell software that I can see installed - I remember there was the online (cloud) backup that seemed to create a narrow unusable bar right at the top of the screen, though it was more likely the on-screen notifier or Dell message alert or something. The only vaguely Dellish stuff I have left is the Alienware software for the lights and themes.

The NAS box sits on the home network and basically syncs chosen folders such as "My Docs" so it backs up the latest versions, usually using built in software across the WLAN. An alternative is just to get an external drive and manually back up important files and folders.

I know what you mean about taking up time - I really should partition a couple of machines so that the C drive can be imaged independently of the data drive but it just means such a large amount of time and effort to do all that!! I am thinking about hitting the New Year sales and getting some more SSDs to upgrade to so will use that opportunity to make my toys more efficient!

 

Eh i got my R3 M11x with the EXACT same specs as maidinBham for $680 with 1 year of complete care warranty. Just gotta grab it when there are good deals.

@ maidinBham - I wouldn't uninstall ANYTHING. I too was looking at things to uninstall when i got it, and almost everything is essential. Dell really doesn't put any "bloatware" onto the alienwares.

The only thing i uninstalled was the webcam suite, accelerometer, intel hard drive utility thing, and Alienrespawn after i made a USB recover disk.

 

I think you've removed more than I have!

I presume by the webcam suite you mean that util that allows you to add various effects to the webcam feed? If so, yes, it's not that useful. Alienrepawn was crashing with .net, and the notifier was creating the bloody bar at the top so removed those too.

However, I'd keep the accelerometer as it is the thing that detects a sudden movement of the machine and parks the mechanical heads of the hard drive to avaoid physical damage of the magnetic surface. I'd consider removing it when I switch to SSD but not before. The Intel RST allows firmware RAID to occur, which I haven't really had a chance to play with so 50/50 if it is actually worth keeping.

 

Yea but he got the laptop recently so I was wondering if he didn't have to pay tax. I missed that 25% coupon, so mad. I was too hesitant to take it and I was afraid of it being a scam or a waste of my $5 if I happen to not use it.

 

Congratz on your purchase guys, i envy you cause of the R3.

 

Have a similar configuration to yours, CIV runs fine - zero issues.

Got Skyrim on high - with mods for textures, lighting, and FXAA.

BF3 runs medium with all shaders cranked, AA on

Batman AC runs on medium with all bells and whistles on (ambient occlusion, motion blur, etc...)

Impressive machine - getting a good ssd for it this month after xmas. Can't wait.

 

Hi,CATALANOpunch and thanks for reply - Are you running CIV over steam or cd?
I am not crazy about using Steam - I have been trying to download my half-life games to my gateway m6862 since last night? Why does it take sooooo long.

 

Thanks all for your replies. Lappy arriving today Waiting for the sweet sound of the FedEx truck! Order date 11/28, estimated delivery was 12/12 but Santa is early.

 

Congratz, now imagine that sexy beast with me

 

Steam, this computer is made for digital downloads.

 

I agree, i have a ton of games on steam, downloads are fast too but that also depends on your internet connection.