Should i get the m11x r1 or r2?

I had an m11x r1 lunar shadow a few months back and sold it because of financial reasons, and i'm thinking about grabbin another 1 only this time im stuck between r1 and r2, i been readin a lot of opinions/post from threads in the m11x and i think i would rather ask you guys in my own thread so i can get some straight honest opinions

I can get the $599 (b4 final configuration) thanksgiving discount on m11x r1 or should i get the m11x r2 i5 discount deal $999 or go full force and get the m11x r2 i7?

Some things i read and I want to verifiy if it is real, Is it true that the m11x r2 runs way hotter and louder than r1 and when use on your lap gets uncomfortable because of the heat and noise? How long does the battery last now with the r2 compared to r1? I Know that i7 cpu will perform a lil better than su7300 but is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks guys

 

Simply based on the prices you have posted get the R1. The R2 is better (optimus issues aside) but it isn't anywhere near $400 better (especially the i5 version).

Certain games do run better on the R2 than the R1 (BFBC2 is a good example (although tweaking can make it run "ok" on the R1)) but in general outside of numbers on a graph the difference is not really noticable, at least not relative to the price difference.

 

Thanks Xaser I'm definitely considering it but we'll see

To R2 users with the i5 or i7, does i5 have more battery life than the i7? because i can get the i5 now for 999 and if i go i7 i wil add another $150-200usd and i don't know how big of a hit the i7 will be on the battery life compared to i5

 

You guys seen this ?

i dont know if you can get a US discount through them

Alienware Gaming Systems | Dell UK

 

The i5 and "i7" are technically very similar (the only real world difference is the clock speed increase on the i7 + max turbo), therefore the battery life should be similar. I would imagine they would be basically identical in real world usage.

 

I just orderd the R1 I want the ability to switch to my graphics card without optimus.. I used the savings for a few upgrades

250 gig 7200rpm HD
Dell combo DVD/RW drive
Anti glare screen protector
3 year warranty
Neoprene sleve
4 gigs ram

around $1100 after checkout

 

I don't know if you guys are interested or not, but i have just phoned up Vijay Kumar and asked him for the offers on the Alienware m11x the offer i posted above was the best he could really do, he did offer me the i3 processor which i didn't even realise was an option because its not online, with 500 gb hard drive and 4 gb ram but this would only be £40 cheaper than the ESL offer that i linked before.. so there wasnt much point going for that i don't think

ESL offer £999

free upgrade to 500 gb hard drive
free upgrade to 4gb Ram
free upgrade to i7

i was trying to look for something that was around £700/£750 though but he didn't want to tell me anything about the duo core systems for some reason.. said he wont sell any of his customers that processor.. lol

He was very helpful though and he will try his best to get you a good offer so it is worth calling him

 

Something don't sound right i3 then free upgrade to i7.. I did not even know there was a i3 in the works .. plus the r1 from what ive read is more reliable and better on battery life..


anyway whatever you go with you should tack on $179 for the 3 yr warranty cause these Lil guys have some serious issues with there hinges..

 

The i3 is offered only outside the USA in certain countries, the USA offers the i5/i7 only. As for the choice between R1 and R2 it's going to depend 100% on what you want to do with it. If you're looking only for portability with some gaming and no cpu intensive tasks definitely go with the R1 especially at that price, if you're going to need the cpu power or plan on using the computer a lot I'd go with the R2. And as for the cpu I can tell you with the i7 I get between 2-5.5hrs or so on battery and the cpu with throttle stop enabled and some tweaking will run nearly as fast in synthetic benchmarks as my i5 I had in my m15x did

 

R2 is not worth the current (as in today) premium.

I purchased the r2 this past weekend with a 20% coupon on outlet laptops, but today that coupon is no longer valid. So either you'd pay the EPP price for an r2 (lowest I could find) or the $550 black friday price for the r1.

Of course if you wait that might change.

The r1 does appear to have a bit more battery life than the r2 i5 and has manual switching graphics ( a pro for me). However, future driver support won't be as good from what I understand. Also might be a hair slower in some normal 'applications'.

 

I've seen benchmarks where the i7 R2 M11x had no effect, and its best it could get 10% better performance (though the former was more likely throughout the benchmarks). So, I'd say the $600 R1 is your best bet. It makes no sense why Alienware wouldn't apply the same discount to the the R2 since it was a minor upgrade, and there's no way a Core i5 and Optimus are worth 70% more.

 

TBH £999 for a M11x is pushing it quite a bit. It's a great laptop but given you can now get the MSI GX660R for £60 less it's a hard sell at that price.

Yes the MSI is bigger (similar in size to the M15x) but the tradeoff is a much faster all round laptop.

Realistically the R2 with i7 should be £750 or below.

 

I started out with an R2 but could not get the performance I wanted in StarCraft II or World of WarCraft, and it seemed like other people had similar issues. Never really figured out why, but the core i series was doing worse in processor intensive games. Some people reported abysmal FPS in something as old as Warcraft III. Maybe I just didn't configure throttle stop right.