Yet another R1vsR2

Hello,
First post here.
I've been reading around but still have a few questions about the M11x.

I'm looking in to getting a M11x, but can't figure out if i should get the R1 or the R2..

I'll be using it for AutoCAD, Inventor, and gaming.
By gaming i mean, CS:S, occasional WoW, L4D2, and my biggest problem BFBC2.


My problem being that i need high run times on the battery, i will be using the m11 at school and at work.

If i can i will be replacing both my desktop and laptop (Xps m1330).

Soo, is it worth it going for the r2 i5/i7 and being able to play bc2 better.

Any1 able to comment on BC2 play-ability on the r1 or the r2.

And my last question, what's your run times on both during "normal work" browsing + ms Word?,
Is hoping for 5+ hours on a r2 just plain silly?

So basically i'm looking at battery life vs performance, if it's a huge difference and if i should go for the R1 instead of the R2..


Btw if it makes a difference i'm going for a nicely spec'd rig, 8gigs, ssd etc, unless a find a nice refurb'd one..


Since i'm starting the thread, if i order from Alienware.com, does it have international warrranty? I live in Iceland, EU and the prices of Aw computers from the dell/aw dealer here are crazy here!

Hoping for answers, Klaufi

 

Buy what you can afford, with throttlestop the R2 is amazing, the i5 or i7 is great if you can afford them, if not then the R1 should be fine for you.

I get about 4.5 hours-5 hours on my R2 i7 when I turn down the screen brightness and everything.

 

5 hours on the r2 is a bit sketchy, even if your on power saver with brightness turned all the way down. More like 4.5 hours as DigitalNinja said.

BFBC2 should run ok on the R1, and fairly well for the R2. You'll probably have to turn shadows to low/off and lower a few other settings for a smooth game. As for the difference, I'm not completely sure.

If you have the money, I honestly would suggest the R2. If not, an M11x R1 will do, and you will be assured of at least 5 hours of battery life.

By the way, is autocad/inventor a CPU and/or GPU intensive program?

 

r1 for battery life. I was getting ~6-7 hours of battery life when I was using it on campus, straight out of the box. Wi-fi on, browsing + ms word, screen at a decent brightness. Could probably stretch it a little longer by making some battery tweaks. VGA out, and no optimus (it's really not as optimized as you'd think).

With the r2 I got (Sent in my r1 to get a replacement, got a r2 back) I'm doing about 4 hours now... I turned off virtual memory, running windows in full classic mode, set the CPU max state to 75%. Out of the box, batterybar rated it around 3:30. Got annoyed the other day because I couldn't get the stupid GPU to turn on.. even if I whitelisted the app or tried the "run with graphics processor" option.

 

Onspeed, what graphics drivers you have?
If it is 258.96 or newer, you should have no problem turning the GPU on.
For me, turning the GPU on has been no issue since I installed newer drivers.

 

The R1 also only uses a 65W power adapter, the R2 uses a 90W. So if toting a brick around matters that might help.

 

Can any admin of M11x forum merge this into already existing thread that compares R1 and R2?
There are just too many R1 vs. R2 threads that talk about the same things.

 

Using the one released a week ago or so from nvidia. 266 I think? I don't game much to start with... I've booted a few with no problems. But I tried playing Anarchy Online (old mmo) the other day and the GPU wasn't turning on. Turns out everyone else has the same problem. O well. Regardless, I really wish nvidia would include an option to manually override the optimus drivers and force on/off the gpu.

This is interesting info... I had both an R1 and R2 in my possession for a short time. Both shipped with a 90W power adapter, although the R1 came with a nice flat (but wider) one, where as the R2 came with the typical thicker brick type one. Power specs were identical though. I kept the flat one.

Problem is that reading through a 50 page +thread for a short, quick answer is a major pain in the .

 

1 MH4Y4 Module,Adapter,AC,FLEX,65W,3P,Worldwide



65W it says on my shipping order.

 

Interesting. How many volts and amps output is it then? I would assume a lower wattage power adapter would mean a slower charge?

 

I can't answer that as its in the mail at the moment.

 

Just checked my old order form, it said the same thing, 65W.

But it came with a 90w. It's really not a giant brick or anything though.

 

No, neither are bricks. I also read something about this, the R2's brick is about the size of a dollar, and the R1's was the size of a blackberry, or thats what they showed.

 

I've had the C2D R1 and the i5 R2, and I think the R2 is a better value by far, especially if you're talking about playing BFBC2.

I couldn't get my R1 to break 7K in 3dmark06, but with OC and throttlestop my R2 currently gets around 8200. BFBC2 is noticeably better, I can play on all high (shadows low) and still get 30-60fps. On the R1 BFBC2 could rarely clear 30fps.

Plus the matte finish is very cool.

 

If brick size matters to you, then you can easily buy an aftermarket charger. I would recommend this for anyone who buys an R1 or R2 if power adapter size matters to them, since I would consider both chargers to be too big.

The R1 uses a 65W power supply, while the R2 uses a 90W power supply. Both are "standard" Dell chargers, and use "standard" Dell voltages and connectors. That means that any adapter that is compatible with a Dell laptop made in the past 10 years will work on the Alienware M11x, as long as the voltage is sufficient.

The M11x R2's 90W power supply is small by Dell standards, but still too big for my tastes. I got an aftermarket one from Kensington, which I *LOVE*.

 

Thats the 2nd post ive seen you make about that aftermarket kensington charger kent. I think you are here to sell stuff for them

 

Heh, yep. It's actually the 4th or 5th post I've made in the past few months about that charger. You will find me make several repeat posts about SSD's and mice as well.

And no, I don't work for them (or an SSD / mouse company). A lot of the questions in this forum are repeats of previously-asked questions. So I take that opportunity to reply with information relevant to the thread about awesome peripherals (PSU, SSD, mice) that I have personally bought, with my reasoning on why I think they are awesome.

I think it is a little more newbie-friendly to give a direct reply to their question, even if it repeats posts. I find it to be a lot more considerate to the OP to take that direct-reply approach, rather than the arrogant reply I've seen in some other forums:

*HUFF* GAWD! Stupid newbie! You know, we DO have this thing called SEARCH. All you had to do was to *SEARCH* for your question, and you will clearly see a 412-page thread that has your exact question on page 287. And you will clearly see that the best reply is #17 out of 64 replies, which is on page 294. GEEZ. The 4th sticky in the General forums says to use search and not create duplicate posts. There are RULES. This isn't 'Nam.​

 

Battery bar reports for me using Firefox 3.0, and word 2007 as 4:51 full charge, 4:21 at 92%