Power Supply

Was thinking of getting another power supply for this. Would it be better for me to get a Dell one or just some other reputable brand?

 

I ordered one from ebay at 18 punds. Will get it this week. I think it will do the job!

 

The Alienware M11x R1 and R2 both use standard Dell power chargers. And Dell pretty much uses a single plug type for all of their chargers. So any power adapter made in the past 10 years that is compatible with Dell machines will work just fine with the Alienware M11x.

The Alienware M11x R1 officially requires at least a 65W power supply. The M11x R2 officially requires 90W. You should not have any problem finding a power supply that provides those wattages, whether you go with Dell or a 3rd party. The only real difference between the manufacturers is price and features (e.g. some adpaters provide universal AC / auto / air support, some have included USB ports for charging a cell phone, etc).

 

Thanks for this info too Kent

I was just on Dell.com this morning, looking for a 2nd 90W adapter... for my R2. I knew the R1 used only 65W... funny thing is Dell.com currently shows the 65W supply for the "R2 Arrandale" M11x, which is wrong

There are ~6+ 90W Dell P/Ns too... none of which matched the P/N on my original order. Now I know that probably any of those will work.

- Kirk200

 

Hey Kent, a follow-up question... I have a couple of slightly older (3-4 years) XPS M1730/M1710 class notebooks, with some *large* power bricks (~120Watts or more)... could I use one of those on the M11x R2? I'll check pin polarity, DC output voltage etc. before I plug one in... I guess the difference is that these XPS supplies are higher current (higher wattage)... assuming the M11x only draws the current it wants/needs, hopefully this will work fine as well.
- Kirk200

 

Yes, those would absolutely work. I use my old Inspiron / Latitude chargers all the time, and share them across the many Dell laptops that I use in my house/office. The minimum wattage is what matters - the laptop will scale its power usage accordingly if you plug it into something with a higher max wattage.

In fact, the ability to use my several pre-existing chargers was a huge reason why I went with the Alienware M11x instead of the Sony Vaio Z or an Acer Timeline X. I could just buy the Alienware M11x and already have several spare chargers for it.

 

So sweet... thanks... you just saved me $70. Really appreciate it Kent.
I'll drop in some Rep points for you!
- Kirk200