Replacing macbook pro 13" with m11x R3 i7/2GB 540M

So I am considering replacing my macbook pro 13" with a well stocked m11x. I have some questions though. I know these have been asked before, but I want to double check...its a lot of money for me.

1) r4 is coming in February? how will its price and graphics card compare?
2) any sales before christmas?
3) is the 540m able to max, or near max mass effect, l4d, fallout, La Noire, Dragon age, and Tropico 3? Im just picking out random games from my steam list, but if these games can only run on medium/low, I guess I better wait for a refresh.
4) once I plug it in to a 1080p monitor is the performance really destroyed? should I stick to gaming on the 11" screen?
5) can I drop in an SSD from new egg? or does this require some sort of special attachemnts?

 

1) The r4 isn't even confirmed yet... The r3 is still relatively new so don't hope for an r4 already.
2) Can't help you with that. Just look for deals or coupons.
3) My r2 runs those games on high, or at least the ones I have. Expect the r4 to handle them better obviously.
4) Performance drops a little bit but not too much. It's definitely not gonna be "destroyed" lol
5) As long as the SSD is 2.5" I believe it'll be fine. You could look at the SSDs people have already mentioned on the forums.

Also, it says you want the 2GB GPU? Don't get it. Waste of money. It's well-known that nothing really makes use of 2GB yet so you're getting the extra gig just for bragging rights basically.

 

4) Just remember you can lower the resolution on the 1080p screen if you need to squeeze out a bit more performance.

Irken answered the rest of your questions really well. The biggest change between the two will be OS X and Windows 7 in my opinion. You probably already use Windows but I'll just throw it out there because I've seen a lot of Mac users that dislike Windows and you might want to consider if the M11x will be able to perform all the tasks that your MacBook does. If this doesn't bother you and gaming on the go and portability is up the top of your 'must have' list, then the M11x is for you!

 

It might be worth it if he wants to use an external display pretty often (1080p), might be worth it, might not. Depends on what you are playing.

 

Well, yeah the software change is going to be huge for me, I use a lot of music stuff (abelton, serato itch, mp3 editing programs), but its all cross compatible/ identical. Although iTunes looks kind of lame on windows, but I think you can themes for it (and for windows in general) so in that respect it will look a lot better than OSX imo. Its so customizable that its possible I might prefer it, well have to see. It's going to suck to loose mail, garageband piano lessons, and transmission. but I guess I could adjust.

Im not really advanced of a user, so Im not picky. The MBP is fine, but its a little slow for general use, which I suspect is because of the HDD. I really wish the m11x had a 160GB SSD standard. But gaming is somthing I like all on one system, and the MBP is TERRIBLE. I am running L4D2 on lowest settings.

I plan to use the external monitor a LOT 24/7 for general use, movies, and whatever games can handle it. Now I'm thinking it would be kind of a shock to go back and forth between a 22" and 11" screen.


Ultimately Im not buying until I can get the i5 model for the black friday price again, I might give dell up a call and beg...

 

if your gonna call dell call the american call center, they have more leeway with price changes. theres a whole thread here about working dell over to get a price drop.

 

The M11x will be a HUGE jump in gaming performance for you then. Windows is great and I'm sure there would be lots of substitute programs for your Mac ones.

The prices of SSDs are beginning to become alot more reasonable now. I'm sure you could look around and pick up a decent SSD with all the Christmas sales. Just make sure you don't buy one through Dell. They are way overpriced!

 

I switched from a MacBook Pro 15 to the M11x R1. I haven't looked back. I expected a huge performance hit, but it never came even though I downgraded the CPU from a 2.4 C2D to a 1.6 C2D.

I hook it up to my Apple Cinema Display (which I found in the trash, but that's an awesome story for another time) all day long at work, but I have never gamed on it. If you like I'll try it for you tomorrow, but I have made a pact with myself to never game from work, so you won't get much more than a report of 30 seconds worth of gaming, on an R1, so it may not be useful to you.

I gamed a LOT on my MBP in BootCamp, and, again, the performance hit I was expecting never came. I'll tell you it's way better than the MBP in OSX gaming, but OSX gaming sucks anyway, so...

No, the biggest problem I ran in to while switching from OSX to Windows was my iTunes playlists and syncing them to my Droid. Windows 7 is not bad at all.

 

No, not coming in February. The M11x R4 has not been announced. But judging by the past history of the M11x R2 & R3, Alienware will release a redesign after a major generational jump in CPUs and GPUs. And to date, there have not been any.

The next CPU upgrade will come with Ivy Bridge processors, which has been pushed out until Q2 / Q3 of 2012. The next GPU upgrade (nVidia 6-series) will most likely happen Q2/Q3 of 2012. So don't expect an Alienware M11x R4 until at least Q3 / Q4 2012.

And the graphics card in an Alienware M11x R1/R2 (nVidia GeForce GT335M) or M11x R3 (nVidia 540M) beats the snot out of a MacBook Pro 13" GPU (Intel HD3000) for gaming.

I can say, that the display on the Alienware M11x is of far lower quality than what you would find on a MacBook Pro. It has lower brightness, lower contrast, lower color saturation, and lower viewing angles.

No guarantees, but very likely, yes. Dell almost always has sales near the holidays.

Yes to all. You can run just about any game on the M11x with decent graphics settings.

No, not destroyed. Just be ready to drop detail levels down a level or two, because of the higher 1080p resolution.

The nVidia GeForce GT540M GPU in the Alienware M11x R3 laptop is really a low-end GPU in the grand scale of things. It performs beautifully on the relatively low screen resoltuion of the M11x (1366x768), and is a capable performer on 1080p displays.

You can definitely drop an SSD in. No problem there. Many people have done so. Check out the YouTube links in my signature for some videos about that.

 

hey one more thing...

i forgot to ask will serato, abelton and stuff like perform noticeably worse. how do they use the graphics memory? thanks, if anyone know it would be great... i should add the I have decided on the i5 model not i7.now on my base 2010 pro, the programs have more than enough cpu % left on the meters.

 

speaking strictly of games: not really. 1gb vram / 2 gb vram means nothing for a gt540m.

 

I tested TF2 on my 1680x1050 external monitor, and I had no problems. I have an R1.