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    upgrading question from current m11xr2?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by AbsolutVokz, Apr 20, 2011.

  1. AbsolutVokz

    AbsolutVokz Notebook Enthusiast

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    i currently own a m11xr2 with i7 u640 cpu 4gb ram 500gb hdd.

    i saw they released a newer m11xr3 and a m14x.

    i love the portability and battery of the m11. but it says the m14 can get up to 6hrs battery. my debate is i am on a budget i dont want to spend more than $1500. so should i max out a newer m11xr3 or tweak a m14 build? which would out perform the other at that price and stil keep a good battery life?

    what would be an ideal spec for that price range of the m14?
    worth the upgrade from the :

    Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.9GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache) [Included in Price] to the

    Intel® Core™ i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache) [Add $150.00 or $5.00/month1]

    and what is that wireless hd transmitter for?

    i know 4gb ram is fine and i can upgrade cheaper my self, and the 750hdd would be nice since my 500hdd of m11 is almost full. i like the bigger storage than the more expensive less storage of a ssd. the 20second bootup wow factor is no concern to me, i can waite 3mins for bootup. the ssd cant hold my 100gb music 200gb movies and 100gb games.
     
    AbsolutVokz, Apr 20, 2011
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  2. BeastRider

    BeastRider Notebook Evangelist

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    M14x base specs + 900p display and you're good. If you wanna upgrade it, get the 2720QM but the GT555M would bottleneck the CPU anyway so you won't experience any benefits when gaming whatsoever. 3GB GT55M is totally not gonna make even the slightest difference. 4GB ram is definitely enough, the HDD is really up to you and if you're gonna get an SSD anyway I'd still get one aftermarket since it'd be cheaper and you could get a SATA 3 SSD as supposed to the SATA 2 Samsung that Dell offers with their SSD upgrade.

    If you didn't already know, it's highly possible that the optical drive bay could be replaced with a second hard drive via a caddy, but we won't know for sure what kind of caddy would fit till people check it out for themselves so a future SSD with OS and programs only + 750GB HDD for music and videos and other files is highly possible..

    Battery life is only expected to be around the 4-5 hour range for the M14x..I'd definitely get the M14x over the M11x R3 though..Plan to get an M14x myself if it weren't so painstakingly difficult to have something shipped to the Philippines. Considering the price of the M11x R3 anyway, a base M14x would be the better choice IMO.

    Hope this helps. Cheers. :)
     
    BeastRider, Apr 23, 2011
    #2