need help with a decision

ok I bought the m11x r1 on the 10th and the finally shipped it on Friday the 17th. now here is my question, I just saw that the r2 with i5 is only $100 more than the r1. so I was wondering if I should send it back and get the i5? also I already have 8 gigs of gskill RAM on the way as well for $50 that I was gonna use for r1. so any help will be greatly appreciated. oh Btw laptop and RAM should be here on Tuesday. thank you

also here is what I will use it for: school ( nothing too CPU demanding), playing games but I'm not expecting it to be spectacular.

 

Does anyone know if there's still GPU driver support for the R1 from nvidia? If not, you might want to get the R2 for driver support alone. Speedwise, I'd like to think that the C2D is as fast as the i5, if not faster.

 

You have to make the decision based on several factors:
1) Time and effort involved in returning all of those components (M11x to Dell, RAM to NewEgg, etc.).
2) (Potential) restocking fees (could be up to 15% for everything) - although I have heard Dell won't charge you if you're placing another order.
3) Your needs, games you play, resale value of laptop you bought, etc.
With a clean slate, obviously anyone would probably pay $100 more to get an R2. But there are benefits to R1 (more battery life, more control over the GT335 graphics) versus the R2.

 

wow thanks for the quick replies guys. Hmmm from the website I thought they are the same now. yeah I was gonna call them last night when I found out, but I can't speak to them till Monday.

 

I had a similar situation last week.

I ended up calling dell and they offered me a small refund to keep the R1 which I took. So far it seems great, no complaints. I put the $100 savings (which would be more like $150 at today's price) and put it toward a 500GB seagate momentus XT (search the forum for info). That hdd probably does more for the feel and speed of the lappy than the i5 or the added RAM would if you are not heavy into gaming.

The C2D has its limitations but it does offer better battery life. Everything is a trade off I guess.

 

oh nice that sounds awesome. yeah I like playing games, but I was planning on building a desktop one once I got the money and I fig the laptop would be a better investment. I've found that the i5 and duo are about the same, but I didn't know if they have done anything to make it better.

 

I think overclocking the i5 puts it a bit above the C2D in terms of performance. The trade off there is perhaps a bit more instability. Search the forums a bit. There are a number of threads pointing to issues with lockups (R2 related mostly I think) and optimus driver issues.

Not that the R1 can't have issues - there are threads about how some don't handle the overclock well. I guess any machine can have troubles. Choose what best fits your use and budget. The i5 R2 is a better deal, no doubt. If it is worth trading up is a question only you can answer.

 

yeah that's what I was trying to fig out is if the i5 had problems. I've found that they did and that's why I asked this here, but all of those topics were old and I didn't know if they still had the same problem. guess I'll call tomorrow and see what they will allow me to do lol.

 

For what it's worth, I've owned my M11x for about a day now and have had no issues running SC2 and Source games with a 160MHz overclock.

 

alright cool I'll keep that in. also sorry about my grammar and stuff I'm using my phone at work. thanks for the help.

 

R2 has better performance but lockup issues.

R1 has trouble with more CPU intensive games, but less of the lockup problems from what I understand.

 

haha that's actually fantastic for Dell to do that! I wonder if I can call in to try to trade up my i5 for an i7 and get some kind of money so I can get a nice laptop bag or a nice mouse.

 

alright cool I'll keep that in. also sorry about my grammar and stuff I'm using my phone at work. thanks for the help.

 

what exactly do you mean in lock up issues?

also to let everyone know the r1 I have is the base model. would it be worth the extra money to get the i7 and does it experience the same problems?

 

see this thread

there is a similar thread on nvidia forums and dell forums I think

 

ok I'll check it out when I get home and thank you

 

there are some R1 vs i5 R2 comparisons on the internet, and (at least in the gaming department), the R1 was basically as fast or within ~95% of the i5 R2's FPS in ~8 out of 10 games that they reviewed here:

Alienware M11x R2: A Legend Reborn - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

however, for more CPU-centric tasks, the R2 generally wipes the floor with the R1's SU7300.

it comes down to preference in battery life (advantage R1), CPU capability (advantage R2), manual vs. automatic graphics switching (i personally like manual in the R1), price (R2 is cheaper), and some other, more trivial things like VGA output on the R1, etc.

 

well only games I play are fps or mmo, but mostly fps. I at least want the laptop to last 2 years.

 

No. The prices on the R2 went up a lot. I was lucky to get on the $636 before tax for the R2

 

dang 639? its 699 starting off and then the $50 coupon

 

Hmmm I think I might keep my m11x, it looks like it might be a little risky getting the r2. is there any games that the m11x can not play?

 

years ago I learned something about PC gaming: There will always be something your computer cannot play. If not today, then in 6 months, something will be beyond your machines capabilities. Spend what you are comfortable spending and enjoy it while you can, cause soon it will be outdated.

 

Haha yeah I know what you mean, this is mainly for school, so guess the r1 it is.

 

I'm guessing we have more than a couple new R2 owners here on this board thanks to that recent deal. I bought mine for school as well. It's more functional than a netbook and cost way less than Macbook Air. It's a great for taking notes in class and having around when studying.

 

yeah and if I was going to do anything really strenuous I could use my parents comp it has a pretty good quad core and other good specs, but with no graphics =( lol

 

The R1 combines 2 hard to find qualities in a very portable platform..long battery life, and the ability to play all pc games.

That makes the R1 close to unique.

The R2 only has one of these, gaming. This is directly attributable to the cpu not being as efficient, power-wise.

The one time-consuming task that is likely to matter to consumers is video encoding. There, the i5 has some advantage over the C2Duo, but for consumers who plan to do a lot of video encoding, they will be much better served by Sandy Bridge platforms.

An m11x with an i5 might have better resale value, that's the only factor I see in it's favor.

 

I love my R1. I ordered literally 1 week before the R2 was announced, and went back and forth about keeping it just like you are now.

Let me say, I am very pleased I decided to keep mine. It's a great little laptop, and especially after throwing a Momentus XT in there, it's *fast*. You won't regret it.

Also, the R1 overclock "failures" are mostly the older design. Around June/July of last year they changed the shell to have more air vents in the back of the laptop to keep things cooler. I have the older design and have no issues, but my buddy's R1 does run quieter/cooler with the new design.

 

Thanks guys, yeah I think I have finally decided to keep my r1. The graphics are the same and I shouldn't be using anything very cpu heavy. Also mostly just using this for school. I'm just scared it wont be supported since it is pretty old. lol

So yeah can't wait for today to be over I'm so excited lol.