*OFFICIAL* M11xR2 Owners Lounge - Part 1

Very true.

 

Quick Question! If I want to upgrade my cpu

1- Is It Possible?
2- What is the fastest & latest cpu that i can put in this m11x R2?

I am asking this because i think in some laptops you cant upgrade the cpu?
Thank you all for your answers.

 

the CPU's are soldered to the motherboard. The only way to change cpu is to change motherboard. Its probably easier to sell you m11x and get another for the cost of buying a motherboard!

 

OK, you guys are either gonna laugh your rear end off or tease me and rightfully so. After thinking about it, I decide to give it a shot. If it works out I'll get 10% bing cashback and if it doesn't work out, I can always return it if the fan noise is too annoying. But Dell's posting on my previous thread did have a valid point. This will have a certain amount of noise that user will have to live with in order to not fry the notebook, it's a compromise between powerful spec and portability.

Just re-ordered 1167 shipped with 3% DPA discount.
I'll also be working July 4th overtime..that give me 360 cash
10% bing cashback = 105 dollars off for me.
So out of pocket will really only be 700 bucks for me. Guess I can sell my Asus ul30VT for 500 or so

Will post noise level once I receive and use it....




System Color Alienware M11x, Soft Touch Stealth Black FT
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Intel® Core™ i5 520UM (3M Cache, 1.066 GHZ with 1.866 GHz Max Turbo Frequency) - Overclockable
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
Power Adapters Alienware M11x 90W A/C Adapter
LCD 11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
Video Card 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
Hard Drive 250GB SATAII 7,200RPM
AlienFX Quasar Blue
Integrated NIC Integrated 10/100 Network Interface Card
Adobe Reader Adobe Acrobat Reader
Sound Internal High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)
Wireless Alienware M11x a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO Wireless
Webcam 1.3MP Web Cam
Hardware Services 1 Year Basic Plan
Pre-Installed Games Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed
OS Customization Alienhead 3D
Bluetooth Bluetooth Module, 2.1+ Enhanced Data Rate
Standard Nameplate Standard Nameplate

 

Dude my R2 is sitting a 1/4 mile away from me right now at Fedex Ground for pickup. This day needs to hurry up so i can haul home lol.

 

I ordered the same config. Out of curiousity, when did you order it?

 

i ordered it on 06/11/10 & i live in Oregon if your wondering about location, if it has anything to do with shipping dates.

 

It's cool. We all have our pet peeves when it comes to this sort of things.

For some it's noise, for others it's when Temperatures are warm, for others it's the glossy display.

For me, it's flex it's weak keyboards and flex in keyboards. I just can't really make myself deal with that.

Noise does not bother me at all. I usually have headphones on when I am doing something, or I am usually in places with noise from a tv, or a crowd or I am talking.
As long as temps are not extremely high, then it's great

 

Yea, east coast here and I ordered it on 6/8/10. Just trying to find a pattern to this Dell madness.

 

It came out of of CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA

West coast first i guess?

 

city of industry is 10 miles southeast of me, gimme your id, ill go pick up for ya

City of industry is in Los Angeles County, about 20 miles southeast of downtown LA.....that's the .... tech headquarter most of those zotac..evga...msi....all those headquarter are based out of this city...

 

does anyone play dirt 2 or battle field 2 how does the m11x play these games, thanks.

 

I know this is the R2 thread but I play both fine on my R1 and the R2 should be even better.

 

Got a 2 year accidental warranty, 4GB DDR3, i7 configuration out the door with tax and next day shipping for $986 total

 

Awsome I think ill be purchasing this laptop, the most graphically intense games I play are dirt 2 and grid, most other games I play are like day of defeat source and such so I assume this computer will run those lol, how does the i7 in the m11x compare too the core 2 duo t7500 just wondering cause that is what is in my current laptop and I cant really find anything on google, thanks.

 

impossible to make a comparison in real world performance.

 

dude i live like 2 miles away from the city lol... do they let you pick up? haha i would totally go get it now...

 

Please tell me how did you bring it to that price. I cancelled my order from 9th June because i realized that i paid too much for it. now i can not find the deals that people are writing here. if ANANDOOX you can explain here how did you get that price and what should i do I will buy it the same second. Thanks for your time.

 

I'm guessing through EPP, right? That's much better than my EPP (16% through my company, even as an intern). Were you able to stack discounts? Did you call in or order online?

I configured a similar system, but with 1 yr accidental, 4GB RAM, i7 proc, tax and shipping, and it totaled to $1,112.46 out the door. I haven't bought it yet (waiting to get paid first). Share with us your magic!

 

I went through my EPP account along with the $100 discount code for EPP or Dell U. I went through a phone sales rep who discounted the system (highly recommended after they give you a price ask them for a discount or some free-bees if they say they have to ask their manager you will usually get something if not try another rep because you ended up with someone having a bad day at work) . I also had a $50 coupon from my EPP rep from a previous order I never used and have a guaranteed locked in price of $95 for accidental 2 year warranty which i will initiate and pay for 30 days after I receive my system. They couldn't apply the warranty now and said to call in 30 days after to pay and have it activated. My account is notated for the $95. I figured it was worth if if I drop the thing and it cracks in half they send me another one can't beat that. If I drop it in water its covered haha. 2 years is a long time! I am sure there are limitations.

Yea ummmm soooo my m11x fell out of my car while I was driving on the freeway and all I managed to salvage was my shift key.

 

I can't imagine how that could've happened, unless one day you just decided "hey! let's try out if this warranty thing really works!"

 

It's all about getting a deal on the accidental warranty. Mine came to ~$935 after tax/shipping for the same configuration without the warranty. I tried to haggle a deal on a 2yr accidental but couldn't get them to budge.

You have time to activate the accidental warranty after you purchase the laptop (I think 18 days or something like that), so I'm planning on trying to get a deal on it after hearing some people have had luck with this.

 

after working on it hours and hours and reading pages long forums thats what i end up with.

allright i just put an order but if i find out a better discount i will cancel it later. first of all i tried the boing discount and it only gave a 16% discount and couldnt combine it with any other discounts (unless you guys have any other ideas) so i tried the epp dicount with sales rep on the phone and this got me a better price(eventhough sales rep didnt give me any additional discount or better deal. From him i got exactly what i would get from the link i posted below.) we started from this link Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at Dell. | Dell --->>> indeed I got 4 gb ram, i7, 320gb, bluetooth, tax(88$ to new york) and shipping included total 1089$$$ everything included. Sound good or can i get bettter deal???

edit: used the 100 off coupon too, forgot to mention.

 

Just to piggyback, his link is legitimate and works. Also use this coupon code for 100 off, I confirmed that its active

Code: DHBXMTCSSJQ62K Use this »
Description: Offers subject to change, not combinable with all other offers, valid only for eligible Member Purchase Program end users and not for resellers or online auctions. Taxes, shipping, handling and other fees apply. Dell reserves the right to cancel orders arising from ineligibility, pricing or other errors. Limit of 5 systems per customer.
Expires:
05/24/11

 

I just received my M11XR2 today.

Couple of issues...

- When I press FN + F6 to switch between graphics cards, nothing happens. as in there is no on-screen prompt that tells me the switch was successful. Anyone know what the problem is?

- How do I tell which Graphics device is currently in use?

Thanks guys.

 

R1 you could do it manually, R2 does it automaticly.

a easy way to tell is when you right click on the desktop, if you see nvidia option then it's on GT335m.

 

Eh....I do not have the R2 yet but just an educated guess..

R2 use Optimus, it automatically switches graphic mode depend on the system usage, there is no FN manual switch, that's for R1.

TO change setting manually, you MIGHT (just a guess for now) to go to nvidia control panel to check

 

I also qualify for the Boeing discount, but there's another thread here that has a better price on an i7-spec'ed M11x: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/494196-m11x-sale.html

 

I didnt use the boeing discount though because it only gave me 16% off. Going through the link gave a better deal. With boeing dicount i couldt use the 100 off coupon. I will keep trying using maybe bing cashback option. Basically I am trying to bring i7, 320gb, 4gb, bluetooth machine all inclusive under 1 K.

 

Hey guys, how do you OC the CPU for the M11X R2? It is from the BIOS again or are there other ways?

 

Just in the bios.

 

BFBC2 vid:
bfbc2 vid

dirt2 is pretty smooth, medium effects and environment to high settings on car and tex.

 

If anyone here has Medal Of Honer beta please post your settings and what fps you are getting.

I should be getting mine by the 6th. If no one has posted by then I will. Great game btw.

 

I'll get my R2 next tuesday...will install MOH then....

 

Great thanks Howard looking forward to that. I'm really enjoying this game good mix of bf2bc and cod.

I hope you have the i7 plus 4 gigs of ram in your R2 so I can know what to exspect

 

Actually mine has the I5 4GB ram lol..I figured with a little overclocking, I really won't see much diff between the two CPU. Not like i7 is really 4 physical core anyway. They are both 2 logical core + 2 hyper thread diff is 1 mb cache. Not worth my 150 bucks to upgrade. Which means if mine runs MOH fine, your i7 will be perfect

 

The i5 cannot turbo boost as high.

i5 = 1.8ghz

i7 = 2.2ghz

 

and you are correct, guess we all base our purchase on perceived cost and effect ratio. not quite worth enough for me. I figure my UL30 with weak G210m video card can play MW2 at 1366 x 768 low detail. 520um and GT 335m both annihilate my UL30, its enough for my use. Got $10000 dollars worth of bill to pay next month lol...

 

Hey guys. I finally got my m11x in today (woo!). Almost everything is perfect except for a few things:

1. How do I know which graphics card is currently being used?

Someone previously said to right click the background and if you had the NVIDIA control panel option that meant you were using the 335M. Is that true? Because when I right click the background I have both the Intel HD and the 335M graphics card options listed...

Also CPUID Hardware Monitor only displays the temperature for the 335M for me. I really don't want to be running on discrete graphics all the time and it would explain why I only got 3 hours of battery life by only doing driver installations and transferring files.

2. The USB and headphone jacks on the right side are tight fits. It's not such a big deal but this is the first time I've actually had to apply a decent amount of pressure to pull out a USB/earphones. Just wondering if this is the same on anyone else's laptop.

3. What temperatures is everyone getting? Because my CPU hovers around 50C, GPU around 55C, and HDD around 45-50C. I know it shouldn't be this high for simple web browsing. I suppose if I really am running on the 335M then these temperatures would make sense.

So yeah. My main concern is knowing which graphics card I am running on because 3 hour battery life + high temps for doing nothing graphically intensive is definitely not what other people are getting. I really hope I am running on the 335M by default and it's not some hardware issue because I can't stand having Dell tech support "repair" my laptop.

 

Which version did you get ? Core 2 Duo or Core i?

Core 2 Duo you have to manually turn off and on the graphics card, Core i is automatic.

 

I gotmy Ri7, 4gig, 160 config. A quick review

1) System is VERY quiet. it's near silent during everyday task (web brose)--quieter than my plastic macbook '09. If you want a quiet laptop, this is it.
2) 11.9 screen is PERFECT for portable. I thought it would be harder to adjust to a smaller screen coming from 13.3", but that wasn't a problem

Cons

1. When lid is closed, it leaves small gap towards where the vents are as there are two small plastic pieces on each end of the laptop. Not sure why they designed it the way it is

2) My hinge looks to be ok. But then again, I don't know what the 'bad hinge' or signs of hinge going bad are.

3)My keyboard touches the screen (only wesd area). As a result, it leaves the outline of the key (i.e. square) on the screen and i have to wipe it every time I open the lid. It looks like what others have been saying are true to my copy as well

 

Core i7. If it were Core 2 Duo I'd post in the R1 thread =P plus I know they have the fn+f6 thing so this wouldn't be an issue.

So yeah. I just turned my laptop on. Getting 50C/55C/35C for CPU/GPU/HDD and I only have HW Monitor and a few tabs of Google Chrome open.

The GPU and HDD are definitely cooler than my last laptop but the CPU runs hotter than my last laptop. Still, I am pretty sure my temps aren't normal.

So there's no way to check which graphics card is currently being used?

EDIT: so basically my GPU is reaching up to 60C every few minutes and the fan will kick it up a notch and bring it back down to 50C. Rinse and repeat. Still only using a few tabs on Google Chrome and that's it. This can't be normal...

 

I'm waiting for mine.. so yours is silent when just browsing and doing not so intensive work. What about game or after you play game, does the fan switch off pretty quick ? I understand the fan kicks on high when gaming, just wonder about the stuck fan issue that plague the R1.

WSDF key touch the screen......hope its not a heavy pressure where it would eventually engrave the LCD

 

honestly, i don't think it'll leave a permanent mark on the screen--but since only wsdf--or keys in that region touch the screen, it shows that there is a design flaw--if it was meant to be desgined like this the mark on the screen should be symmetrical--in another words [ ] ; ' keys should also leave marks on the screen. It's annoying because you know what's leaving the stain on your screen and you have to wipe it off EVERYTIME you open the lid.

As for your fan qustion, mine shuts off gradually. it's a good laptop, but it has a known flaw.

 

I have not had the R2 yet so I can't comment specifically but since I have owned tons of gaming laptop I have a few guesses..

1) Cpu temperature is OK, while not the best but at such small package its understandable. Its not the coolest but still in a very safe operating level.

2) Your temperature of 55C for GT 335m was what I had for my R1 with switchable graphics. My current Asus Ul30 with low power G210m idles at 49c to 50c when not being taxed. Mind you..yours has 72 stream processor and my G210m only has 8 and temperature is not so different.

3) I had previous generation Asus G51 and G60 with GTX 260m. The temperature hover around 60C idle doing NOTHING. Problem was attributed to nvidia driver's powermizer was not working properly. Meaning the video card was not downclocking properly resulting it constantly work in 3D tasking mode. A later driver fixed it. Its just my guess that the optimus driver might not have been optimized yet and have the powermizer bug.......

 

Leaving those 4 keys just shows everyone you are a true gamer Thanks on the fan, I returned TWO R1 because of the stuck fan issue and nothing worked. Otherwise this is a fabulous laptop. Old one with SU 7300 at stock 1.3 ghz handled my modern warfare 2 beautifully. With i5 (I opted to save money) I can only imagine it will be more capable than SU 7300. The only concern I had was fan noise. Thanks to you and other memebers all had good experience with NON noisy R2, I can't wait to get mine tuesday

 

cool please post pics of your laptop from side view if your laptop keys do not touch the screen. i want to see if the gap is supposed to be uniform or is only supposed to be there between palm rest and the screen. thx

 

Thanks howard for the response. I guess I'm just a little paranoid reading all those m11x revision 2 issue threads xD. Admittedly it's still running cooler than my last laptop (Studio XPS 1340...what a nightmare) as well as quieter so I am happy. Seriously the max fan speed on the m11x sounds about as loud as the SXPS1340 on low fan speed.

As for the keys leaving marks/keyboard touching the monitor I am happy to report that I do not have that issue! Best purchase ever lol. And the soft touch material is really nice.

Also while I can't overclock to 166mhz, I can do 164 but it's unstable and runs sorta choppy. So I am sitting at 162mhz stable. Not too shabby.

Gonna be keeping track of battery life for the next week. HWMonitor says my battery has 9% wear which can't be good. But hey, if I really do manage at least 5 hours with normal usage and 2-3 hours with gaming then it beats my old laptop by a mile.

 

Amodar-

Does your laptop have a gap (when it's lid is closed) only between palm rest and the lcd screen or is the gap uniform? Can you move a sheet of paper freely or do you have to put some force? a pic of your "perfect" build (side view showing gaps) would do me a favor

 

I can get you some pictures later today at the earliest. It's 2AM and I don't really feel like whipping up a few pictures xP. But I'll try to describe what I see.

When my laptop is closed the spacing isn't actually uniform. It's actually really tight (or in otherwords no space/I can't freely slide in a piece of paper in and out) on the black strip where the power button lies. However, the space increases as you move towards the palm rest. It's actually sort of a slight V shape (where the tip of the V would be where the hinge is located) when you look at it from the side, rather than it looking sort of like this: || where the space is uniform. And when I say slight V shape I really do mean slight. At first glance I thought it was uniform and it wasn't until you asked me to check did I notice it wasn't uniform.

So to answer the first question, the gap is only between the palm rest/keyboard and the screen, but not on the black bar where the power button alien head lies.

To answer the second question, yes I can freely slide a sheet of paper in and out between the keyboard area and the screen.

I don't think the gap is supposed to be uniform. Ideally that would be the perfect situation. But for laptops with only 1 hinge and no clasping mechanism I don't think there's any laptop in the world that would have a uniform gap along the edges. Inadvertently the gap closest to the hinge will almost be the smallest while the area furthest away from the hinge will have the largest gap.

Referring to the actual thread dedicated to the hinge problem, I think they only really care about the gap between the keyboard area and the screen, not everywhere on the laptop.

So yeah, basically not a big deal if the gap isn't uniform. It is a big deal if you don't have enough space between the screen and the keyboard area when the laptop is closed.