Using M11x R2 as main PC

Hey guys, I ordered an Alienware M11x last week, and I sold my high powered desktop because I don't play games that often and didn't really need it. So now I'm in a dilema...
Do I cancel this order and go for something else?
Or do I just keep the m11x R2
Specs on it are:
i7 640UM
4GB ram
etc...

Will this be enough for what I want to do? Web browsing, video stuff, odd video game here or there, DOW2, BC2 etc...
I need this to last me 2 years at least... I don't mean 2 years everything @ high, but at least playable maybe...

 

I use my r1 as my main computer, I have yet to find something that I cant do with it. My only problem I guess is the lack of DVD drive (fixed with a external) and the limit of a 500gb hdd drive. (also fixed external drive)

 

m11x is fine for web browing and some gaming, however if you don't want portability you might be better with an m15x as it's got more power they are going cheap now and you will be able to play games for years with the GPUs around these days. With the GPU in the m11x I'm not sure how future proof it is but not much however but it does very well for such a small laptop. I'm looking to exchange my m15x for an m11x as i want more portability.

 

DOW2 was fixed in December to work correctly with the m11x, and the new upcoming patch from Nvidia is supposed to solve the Punkbuster issues with Optimus. Everything else it should be good enough for a couple years. However when describing what you were looking for in a laptop you didn't mention portability. If portability is not an important factor there's a lot of other laptops which pack more power and screen size for the same price.

 

I was now looking at the m15x, I got the m11x for 1200 Taxes in here in Canada it was a 1300 plus tax laptop...
I'm thinking of going for the m15x... I do go to university and I have an ipad and there are lots of computers there, portability is important but so is power... I have no idea what I want anymore.

 

If your like me and want to hook it up to a external monitor the M11Xr2 only has a hdmi or DP connector. Since My monitor does not use either type of connector I cant hook it up, except to my TV. Don't forget to see if you need an adapter.

 

My monitor supports HDMI so that's not an issue. What I'm going to do is try out the m11x within that 21 day period and see how it works out for me.

 

you might not want to hear this but

i've had the m11x r1 and m11x r2, and the r1 seems to be much better in every way to me

however I had the R2 for a few months when it was first introduced, they might've optimized it better

I also had an m15x i7-740qm 5870m video, and it did everything no problem. You need to plug it in to use it in high performance though, the battery doesn't have enough output to enable everything

 

Oh, if you are a student I don't really recommend an alienware let alone a heavy laptop like the m15x man. It weighs a ton for a 15 incher and although the build is ok you don't want to drop it, it would be damaged from the sheer weight. I would have never taken one into college. If it is sat stationary all day playing games the m15x is perfect but as a student? I'm not so sure, remember you pay a premium for the gaming capability and you need to look at your real needs. Don't prioritise gaming and power over your studies, get extra support warranties and software if you have that sort of cash to spend. Get one when you have finished. I had a Vaio when I was in college, my partner is a student now she has a 15 mac book pro that is bullet proof. I'm not a fan boy of any of these companies of laptops, I just look at my current needs. The m11x is the only reasonable choice of alienware laptops because of its size and ok battery life. Everything else should be out of the question. Don't get an m15x as a student!

 

o right i thought you wanted a static browsing semi gaming rig. dude m15x is not good if you are at uni it is too impractical. m11x is well priced and should suit you. you could even look at an r1 tbh you have extra money to get drunk and get laid then.

 

the m15x also, as said before, is not the traditional 15" laptop size, it's actually much larger and heavier than say, an IBM thinkpad 15"

chances are a regular bag that says "fits 15" laptops" actually won't fit

 

Ugh now the question is should I go for something like an ideapad or envy 14 instead?

 

With an external monitor, a mouse, and and external DVD drive, you should have no problem. I had to use my M11R2 as my main computer for a couple of weeks because my video card went out on my desktop.

 

My R1 replaced my Inspiron laptop and my desktop.. I did get the optional external optical drive.. I could not be more happy OC is stable, Switches graphic cards at the push of a button and really is a fast lil machine..

 

Hmm ok, any idea on a docking station for this at all? One that has HDMI input and output, so I an use the 335

 

The battery life and portablity of the M11x make it perfect for school use. I take it around campus all the time, and it takes 15 seconds to get up and running. I am really into gaming, but not to the point where I'll lose sleep if a game doesn't run at 60 FPS with max settings. I really just wanted a portable system that I can enjoy modern gaming with.

The truth of the matter is that I'm a college student and I didn't have the bucks to shell out for a high end alienware laptop. I needed something affordable that could get the job done, and the M11x does that for me. I can play all the games that I wanna play, and even games that I couldn't play on my old PC before (Bad Company 2, Starcraft 2, etc)

and there is no reason why this can't be your primary PC. I use my M11x as my primary PC everyday and it performs perfectly. The screen size has never been an issue. I've never loaded a web page and gone "Oh man I wish I had more screen area"... I even say a youtube video of some Starcraft player complaining that the screen was too small to see enemies on the minimap... I don't have a clue what he's talking about, because I play Starcraft 2 all the time and have never had an issue seeing anything. It handles just like a desktop.

I'm also coming from an old Alienware M9700 with a 1920x1200 display, and I was especially worried that an 11.6 inch screen would be too small. The truth is that it's not at all. I have no trouble seeing things, and it even provides a sharper image than my 1920x1200 screen.

with the gaming aspect... just realize that a lot of your games you'll have to make choices. Turning off CPU intensive things like shadows will obviously boost your framerate significantly. Most games I've played, however, don't take too much of a hit from it. Don't expect to fire up Grand Theft Auto 4 and play at max settings... cause it's just not gonna happen. This isn't that kind of laptop. In a lot of ways, it's an underdog... but an underdog that can kick a lot of .

The only thing I can really say is that if you do get the M11x, make sure you get the 500 GB harddrive. I was debating going with a smaller hard drive, and I'm glad that I went with the 500 gig option because I've got about 15 steam games installed and it definitely eats up a chunk of space. You will also need to invest in some sort of external CD-drive if you want to install things that way.

The only catch with this laptop is (as you may have read) that there are some driver issues because Optimus interferes with some games right now. I think that as nvidia releases more and more updates, this issue will be fixed. I think being patient may be the only route to go right now.

 

Get ready for a 15% restocking fee if you decide to do that, I suggest getting the M15x since you already have an ipad or get the m15x and get yourself a 12" netbook 1366x768 HD if you really need portability (not the 10" with win7starter or winexp)

 

If by better you mean slower, poorer gaming performance, clunkier GPU switching, and a lack of driver updates due to the hybrid configuration... then sure, it's totally better

 

I survived 3+ years using a 8400m GS and was able to play all the games I wanted to play at acceptable levels (for me). The GT 335m should be fine for you if you're looking to be relevant for 2 years.

 

So far the M11xR2 is doing anything I throw at it. I play WOW at 50FPS with mostly high settings. Black ops runs great at 50FPS. I have not had any problems so far.
I thought for awhile the M11xR2 was out performing my desktop. My desktop was freezing and had bad FPS drops when I played games. The other night one 9800 GTX video cards (SLI) died. I took it out and now the remaining 9800 GTX is preforming just a little better. I get about 10 more FPS with the same game settings than the M11xR2 can get. i can not compare Apples to Oranges but the point is that the M11xR2 is a big beast in a small package.

 

sry about some outside setences but I like the way people use English in this topic can learn alot from you guys

 

I've been using my r2 as my main pc for a little while now. I use its portability for school and carry it to every class. When I'm at home i have it hooked up to my 27inch tv. (720p so it doesn't seem to look any different). So far the only time i notice its not a desktop is when im typing cause the keyboard is smaller than a normal keyboard.

I am playing with the idea of getting the new m17x r3. Affordable pricing and higher resolution screen is really catching my eye. Though i'm not sure why i would get it since i've had no complaints with the m11x playing any games i've thrown at it.

 

for the price of the m11x r2, now this is just my opinion, but i think you get a lot more for your money getting an envy 14 then an m11x r2

 

It's not about getting a 14" notebook....

 

or you know, you could actually try both?

nvidia scores higher on benchmarks, but the ATI outperforms them in the same category, funny isn't it? On paper nvidia does better but in real time first person testing, it doesn't

 

a post like that with out saying what card modles your talking about is kind of miss informing ppl of what to buy.

 

My R1 works just fine as my main PC.

 

Ever since I got my m11x I put the SXPS in the office on server duty with the rare gaming session. I use my m11x probably 90%+ of my computing time and it works great for casual gaming, sys admin, light development and web/documents/movies. Definitely worthy of main computer status.

 

Personally I wasn't sure completely about what I wanted at first. I had wanted a laptop that was light enough (my last laptop was a 17" beast with a brick for AC adapter) to carry around, and had at least 2-3 hours of battery in it (with moderate to heavy usage). I thought that the m11x i7 would work, and it was good. But then I realized after I had the thing for almost a month that it probably wouldn't future proof me for more than a year or so (I like to game with moderate to nice graphics and can't stand any fps lower than 15 or so). Yeah, I know that future proofing is "dumb" - but I realized that if I bought a desktop I could build upon it and put in different parts as I needed them instead of buying a whole new rig as with a laptop. But I really do like having a portable laptop with good battery life and some kick - so I sold my m11x i7 and bought an m11x i5 refurbished and on sale, and then built a desktop custom with a friend. So far I mostly use my desktop because I'm in my room - but I can't say that I don't like to have a laptop if I go somewhere (recently went on a cruise, was nice to be able to watch movies while on a plane).

But newayz, you can always just get a cheap netbook for campus (at least if it gets stolen you won't be out m11x r2 money) and get that m15x for gaming in the room and other cpu/gpu intensive programs (that is depending largely on your major and homework of course... but for a lot of people a netbook is sufficient - even enough to play low intensity games). And hey, if you need to bring your m15x around to places, you can... it'll just suck if you have to walk far .
netbooks will also get you longer battery life if you choose the right one

Or as much as I'm not really into Macs... they actually have some really sturdy cases... but I don't really like some of the prices (and you have to check those gpus before you buy).

fyi i also use my m11x i5 for school and it's pretty nice (probably could've gotten by with a netbook but i don't mind so much)

 

Whether the m11x is future proof is certainly debatable. but technology advances quickly so who knows what will last anyways. I personally feel the m11x has been more than enough to fit all my necessities as a main pc. I too used my laptop kind of like a netbook for college. But it was always nice to work on a document from home, close my laptop, and open it up at school to pick up exactly where i left off. Or pause a game and go back to it in another location. The convenience of not having to share information with multiple systems is nice.

Still. for no reason than to just have something better, im looking at the m17x r3 to replace the m11x as a primary pc. Just seems appropriate for some reason.

 

Yup, use my M11x 80-90% of the time because I'm on the road
a lot for work.

I've ended up gaming on this thing more than my rig at home!

The small screen is no problem either. In fact, I find myself having a harder time
adjusting to the 22" monitor at home when I get back from work. Go figure.

 

Future proofing is impossible, even the awesome m17x will be outdated in a year or less. Youre never going to be future proof no matter how much money you throw at a computer.

Exactly the same here. I have a 21.5 hooked up to the SXPS at home and I find it weird now that I have used my m11x. I will admit the m11x was a huge adjustment from my multi monitor setups and 17/15.6in laptops. But once I adjusted everything was fine and let me tell you carrying an 11in laptop vs a 17in or 15.6in is nice.

 

I use my m11x R1 as my main PC. It does me just fine for work, though I can't play some of the newer games as smoothly as I would like to, but that's what I've got a PS3 for. I've had my old XP rig from 2002 in all it's single-core AMD glory until a bolt of lightning killed it. RIP old computer...*Strong Bad expression*

 

Depends on how oy define "outdated" If outdated means that you can't run the latest games maxed out, then yeah,hardware is going to get outdated pretty quickly.

 

I have a self-built Core 2 Duo E6750 with a NVidia G-Force 9800 GT 1GB and 4 gb 667 MHz DDR2 and 500 Sata 2 and a common 500 GB Hardrive. I don't use it anymore, except for 3D active glasses gaming. (about 10 hours a month) So my m11X IS my main computer.

EDIT: New game! Count the "and"s and win a headache!

 

m11xr2 is my main pc, simply hook it up to hd 23inch external monitor when im at home for bigger screen. reccomend

 

Find myself using my M11xR1 more and more. Plus my desk area is setup so a few cables plugged in and I get Keyboard/Mouse, ~20 USB connections and a couple of 24" IPS monitors.

And and and when Ivy Bridge comes out, then I can have a bit of a rethink.

Life couldn't be better

 

Isn't it strange? It's just so fun to use, minor flaws and all I love using it. When SB R3's appear (assuming they do) they should make using it as a general computer all the better...

 

+1 to this.

I haven't been travelling for work very much lately, so I've been doing most of my PC gaming on my home desktop rig (32" 1080p display, nice headphones, and a nice mouse).

But yesterday, I intentionally pulled out my Alienware M11x, because it's just so much... fun... to use. It reminds me of when I was a kid and would hide under the covers playing with my Game Boy, even though I had a full-sized Nintendo in the other room.