ChewieTobbacca's Alienware M11x Review

Intro
Now normally I don't buy custom notebooks. In fact, in general, I haven't needed a notebook. I have a powerful desktop at home, and for other needs, my Acer Aspire One 8.9" netbook has done fine. However, lately I've realized that my netbook is showing it's age a bit.

I looked around at first at the various choices. I had a few requirements I wanted in my next notebooks:

• Something larger than 8.9" screen, but still portable. This was easy, as most netbooks were getting in the 10"-12" range.
• A system overall more powerful than the Atom N270 + 1.5GB of RAM.
• A GPU that packaged with the CPU would be competent at playing HD content. Any light gaming would be an added bonus.
• Battery life had to be at least 5+ hours.
• It doesn't need to be incredible at CPU work, but should still be able to multi-task and do basic operations much better than the Atom.

A few notable notebooks stood out at first: the Acer Aspire 1410, the Acer Aspire AS1810T, the ASUS Eee PC 1201N, and the HP Mini 311 were considered.

Well, after looking through those choices, they all had good features, but none of them added up to what I wanted. The Acer's had great CPU's, but the Intel GMA4500HD isn't very good (well, no Intel IGP has ever been good).

The Asus and HP both have the Nvidia ION chipset, which is great for HD content and can play some games at lower settings and resolutions. However, the HP was on the standard Atom N270 processor, whereas the Asus 1201N had the dual core N330 processor, but it's battery life wasn't as good.

Enter the Alienware M11x. At first I was a bit skeptical, since I knew that Alienware's were pricey, and they were always meant for their gaming notebooks. But it appeared the timing was right, the specs were what I wanted, and the price was near the maximum I was willing to spend.

The Alienware was advertised as having great battery life, upwards of 6-8+ hours on the Intel IGP, while up to 4 hours on the Nvidia discrete GPU. Furthermore, it was in the 11.6" screen form factor, had a CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) Intel Core 2 Duo processor, plenty of RAM and hard drive space. This was exactly what I wanted.

I ordered on 2/3/2010, and had a Dell EPP coupon for $50 off notebooks, as well as a Dell $100 off $1000 or more discount. This was too good to pass up so I ordered the M11x.

The configuration was as follows:

Lunar Silver Color
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3 GHz (3MB cache)
4GB DDR3 Dual Channel Memory at 800 MHz
11.6-inch 1366x768 WLED
1GB NVIDIA GT 335M
250GB SATA II 7,200 RPM HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Bluetooth Module, 2.1 + Enhanced Data Rate
Standard Nameplate

The estimated delivery date was 3/8/2010 and I wasn't in a hurry, so I picked standard shipping. Total pre-tax was $767. After tax, it came out to $826 shipped.

Well, while keeping track of the status, one day it suddenly went to being "prepared to ship" and sure enough, it arrived Friday 2/19.

It was shipped in this box:


And here's the actual Alienware box the unit comes in.


On top if it is the box with accessories and recovery disc.



It comes in a cover bag.


Lunar Silver


M11x + Everything else it comes with


The standard nameplate on the bottom


Pics (w/ and w/o camera flash)



First Impressions
Wow, needless to say, I was impressed by the build quality of the unit. The unit opens and closes very fluidly. The bottom of the unit is nicely made, and overall the entire thing feels very solid. It really made my Acer Aspire One netbook feel even cheaper than the $300 I paid for it.

The keyboard was very nice - it is not flimsy at all. The illuminated keyboard was awesome. I chose blue as the default color, but the keyboard color can be changed to 20+ different colors. In fact, the keyboard + Alienware sign + the power button can all have their colors independently chosen. The colors can also be phased to flash different colors so if you're into making your unit flashier than the neon lights at a strip club, be my guest.

And yes, the lights can be switched off simply by a press of the function key.

After turning the unit on, I immediately noticed that the screen quality was great. Now I know it isn't going to give you the quality of an IPS panel or whatever, but the screen was still very sharp. In fact, the resolution of 1366 x 768 on an 11.6" monitor is just perfect - high pixel density and all that good stuff.

Portability
Now the unit is obviously heavier than my Aspire One netbook, which I could (and have nearly) thrown around. However, it is considerably lighter than mid-range notebooks that pack the same firepower under the hood.

Here are some pics to compare the size of this notebook. This is being compared to the old Acer Aspire One 8.9" (not the 10.1" ones they have now), and the Acer Aspire AS5740G-6395 15.6" Notebook. Pardon the fingerprints on the Aspire One (black notebooks really are fingerprint magnets...)




Regarding thickness, it is slightly thinner than the AS5740G, and around the same thickness as the Acer Aspire One. It doesn't have the "hump" due to the battery, as the battery does not stick out of the unit.


The Software
My unit came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Like most other Alienware's, the M11x does not come with bloatware. Okay, so if you count Adobe Flash, Acrobat Reader, and Dell's data backup software as bloatware, it does have some. But otherwise, the rest of the unit is basically what you'd expect out of a freshly installed Windows 7.

The computer does come with the software for the webcam, and the Alienware Control Center. The Control Center does 4 things:

First, it manages the color scheme of the keyboard and the rest of the notebook. It also allows you to change the color theme on your own.

Second, it provides another point to change the power settings of the notebook while under battery and AC adapter settings.

Third, it controls the options for the touchpad, which allows you to adjust scrolling speeds, sensitivity, and all the options you'd expect out of a touchpad.

Finally, there is a facial recognition system! Yes, that's right, to log into Windows, all you have to do is put your face in front of the webcam, and it will automatically log in. Really nice stuff!

 

Under the Hood - The GPU
First off, I will speak about the GPU, since this is one of the main selling points. The GPU is normally turned off, but with a press of FN + F6, the Intel IGP is shut off and the Nvidia GPU is turned on. It takes just a second for the screen to flash off then on and the switch is complete.

The GPU that comes with the M11x is the Nvidia GeForce GT335M. Apparently, only the Alienware M11x has the GT335M, as it isn't sold elsewhere in other notebooks.

From the Nvidia GT335M page, the GT 335M is as follows:
72 Shader Processors
1080 MHz Shader Clock
233 GFlops
128-bit 1GB DDR3
Support for Nvidia PhysX, Nvidia CUDA, OpenCL

The Nvidia GT335M is meant to replace the GT 240M for notebooks. What's unique about the GT 335M is that it has 72 SP's. The GT 325M and GT 330M only have 48 SP's.

The number of render outputs (ROPs) and texture mapping units (TMUs) is not listed on the specs. However, Nvidia assigns ROPs in a ratio to the bus-width, and TMUs to the number of SP's. Thus, the 128-bit suggests 8 ROP's and the SP's suggests 24 TMU's. This is in comparison to the 8 ROP's and 16 TMU's on the GT 325M and GT 330M, meaning that there should be an even bigger boost in performance over the GT 330M and predecessors.

According to my math from the benchmarks on the feature test for 3dMark06 and 3dMarkVantage, the 24 TMU's is indeed the correct number. Those numbers can be found with the benchmarks.

The GT335M itself comes clocked in 3 modes. There's the standard 2D frequency profile, the low-power 3D profile, and the performance 3D profile. These are automatically switched based on what's going on on-screen, and are meant to save power. The clocks are:

Core / Shader / Memory
Standard 2D: 135 / 270 / 135 MHz
Low-Power 3D: 405 / 810 / 324 MHz
Performance 3D: 450 / 1080 / 790 MHz

Under the Hood - CPU
Much has been made about the CPU choice. The Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 comes clocked at a default 1.3 GHz, with an 800 FSB. Thus it utilizes a 6.5x multiplier to get 1.3GHz (6.5 x 200).

A feature of the M11x is that there is an OverClock feature in BIOS, which is also stated in the user manual. The OverClock feature changes the FSB to 1066. As of right now, this overclocks the unit to 1.6 GHz (6 x 266), which means you lose the extra .5 multiplier.

Some people have complained that the CPU is not enough for this unit. Other's have stated that the OverClock feature is too limited. Well, in my opinion, that it can overclock at all is an added bonus. And for general purpose use so far, the processor has been more than enough.

Now an interesting point brought up is that the voltage on the default clocks, with Intel SpeedStep enabled, goes from 0.900V (when the computer is at 4 x 200 = 800 MHz), to 0.990V (6 x 200 = 1.2 GHz), to 1.038V (6.5 x 200 = 1.3GHz). Whereas, during the OverClock, the unit is kept at 6 x 266 = 1.6 GHz, and the voltage is locked at 0.900V.

I'm not sure if this is a bug with the programming in BIOS, or if this was intentional, because SpeedStep is disabled when overclocked (i.e., your voltage and clocks don't change based on utilization of the unit).

From all indications, however, the increased speed doesn't compromise the battery life of the unit by much, if at all, so the increased speed is nice. The fact that the voltage is kept at 0.900V, however, below the 1.038V at 1.3GHz may be a bit troubling.

However, I have run Prime 95 blend (which loads the CPU fully) and have run it for some time, and haven't seen errors, so it appears stable. We'll find out more about stability as more units are released out there, but as with any kind of product on its first run (be it computers, phones, cars, etc.) there will be kinks to work out, and some units will just plain be duds.

Note that there is confusion in the system at reading the multiplier and clock speed when overclocked. CPU-Z and CoreTemp are the most reliable sources. 3dMark06 and Everest both read the overclocked CPU as 1.73GHz (6.5 x 266), while the Intel Processor Identification Utility reads it at 1.6 GHz (6.5 x 246), but CoreTemp and CPU-Z read it correctly @ 1.6 GHz (6 x 266).

System Stats
Here are pics of some of the statistics of the systems, as pulled by CPU-Z, CoreTemp, GPU-Z, Everest, Intel Processor Identification Utility, and Windows.





Benchmarks
Unfortunately, I do not have enough time to bench in-game performance, and test battery life. However, from when I did unplug the unit, on the Nvidia GPU, it stated around 4-hours of battery life (wi-fi and Bluetooth were on). So on the Intel IGP, it should easily hit 6-8+ hours.

Synthetic Benchmark - PCMarkVantage
First up, we will run PCMarkVantage. PCMarkVantage evaluates the overall score of your computer, and thus will factor in the performance of components in your system beyond just your GPU.

At our default CPU speed, we achieved a score of 2,389 marks. With our overclocked CPU, we achieved a score of 3,084 marks.

(Note: Since I'm a bit unfamiliar with PCMark Vantage, I'm re-running these scores to verify some setting, so if the scores change significantly, I'll re-update these scores).




Synthetic Benchmark - Super Pi

I ran Super Pi v1.5 mod to test CPU + RAM performance. I only ran this at the OC of 1.6 GHz. The results are in the picture.

You can figure out how much slower this would be at 1.3 GHz or on the SU4100 on your own.



Badaboom
To test out the GPU's ability with Nvidia's CUDA, I downloaded Badaboom and set it to transcode a 1.5 GB movie clip I had to the iPhone video format. This was completed at 89.5 frames per second, and in 35 minutes. I don't even want to imagine how long this would have taken with the CPU.



Synthetic Benchmark - 3dMark Vantage
3dMarkVantage utilizes DirectX 10 and has different pre-set levels of detail for benchmarking. 3dMark Vantage is less CPU bound than 3dMark06 (which I will go into detail below) and is a better tool to compare different notebooks with different CPU's, as the CPU isn't factored into the score as much as in 3dMark06. That doesn't mean that the CPU isn't utilized - it just isn't as big of a factor.

The Performance preset requires 1280x1024 resolution, and so I hooked up the Alienware to a 20" monitor, which goes up to 1680 x 1050.

With our CPU at 1.3 GHz, and our GPU at stock clocks, we ran the 3dMarkVantage in the Performance preset (1280 x 1024) and scored: P2541.

With our CPU overclocked to 1.6 GHz, we scored: P2664.

As you can see, 3dMarkVantage doesn't care about the CPU nearly as much. I then proceeded to install the Nvidia PhysX drivers (note: PhysX was not pre-installed on the system, and will have to be downloaded) and enabled them, just to see what I'd score. With PhysX enabled, I scored P3261.



Synthetic Benchmark - 3dMark06
I've stated it before, and I'll state it again - I don't like using 3dMark06 as a tool for comparison. 3dMark06 is incredibly CPU bound, and it is very hard to compare actual in-game performance through 3dMark06.

As an example, on my desktop, I run a Core 2 Quad QX9650 and a 4870X2. I set my QX9650 to 3.6GHz and my 4870X2 to 800 Mhz core. I scored over 19,000 in 3dMark06. I downclocked my 4870X2 by 25% to 600 MHz core, and I scored ~18,000. With my 4870X2 back to 800 MHz, I downclocked my QX9650 by 25% to 2.7 GHz. My 3dMark06 score fell to ~15,000. But, in real-world performance, we all know that dropping our GPU speed by 25% will hurt far far more in game than dropping our CPU speed by 25%.

The comparisons are even worse when the scores are relatively close. It's true that a 3dMark06 score of 3000 is never going to see that computer faster than one that scores 15,000. However, when you get down to difference between say, 6,000 and 8,000, the lines aren't so clear cut.

This is because 3dMark06, for whatever reason, is extremely CPU bound. In part, this is due to the fact that the default resolution is low. But the tests themselves also factor in the CPU score a lot.

However, since 3dMark06 is the de facto benchmark for testing, this is also covered the most.

The default setting for 3dMark06 is actually at 1280x1024 resolution. However, since the native resolution of the monitor is at most 1366 x 768, an external monitor is attached for our 1280 x 1024 tests. However, our 1280 x 768 tests are also conducted.

First up, on a bone-stock M11x - that is, at 1.3GHz, we ran it at 1280 x 768 and scored 5352 marks.

Next, we OC'd the computer to 1.6 GHz and kept it at 1280 x 768. We scored 6208 marks! Pretty impressive for an ultraportable!

Now, we kick up the resolution to 1280 x 1024. At the stock 1.3 GHz, we score 5,159 marks. At 1.6 GHz, we score 5,670 marks.

We ran the feature test as well, and through calculating the results, the number of TMU's on the GT 335M is pretty certainly 24, which is a welcome boost over the GT 325M/330M.

Finally, just to see what happens for those of us who will connect the M11x to an external monitor of higher resolutions, I ran 3dMark06 at 1680 x 1050. Sure enough, I scored a very cool 5,213 marks.

 

Gaming
As I wrote, I didn't have time to do any benchmarks in game, and I probably won't have any time for a bit to dedicate to it. However, I did install Team Fortress 2 and used Fraps to briefly check it out. I chose TF2 because it's a commonly played game that most people are familiar with and because it's built on the Source engine, which is more CPU dependent than other shooters.

At 1.6 GHz, with settings mostly medium/high, and at a resolution of 1366 x 768, I averaged around 30-35 fps, with maximum FPS in the 40-60 range. Minimum did drop to around 20-25. Note that I did not get a chance to test it at 1.3 GHz - then again, I didn't spend a lot of time playing with the settings either.

GPU Overclocking
Ah, now the fun stuff. Let me preface this by stating that GPU overclocking will vary model by model. There's a chance yours can clock higher - but also a chance you can clock lower. Do so at your own risk.

I used ATITool to detect artifacts and to check the stability of my overclocks.

I used the EVGA Precision overclocking tool to test the nice GT 335M. All tests were done with the 1.6GHz processor unless otherwise stated.

First off, I cranked the core to 525 MHz (the shader domain is linked, and so it goes up to 1260 MHz). I scored 6,066 marks. A nice increase from the 5,600's!

Ah, but how much higher can we go? Well, I then cranked it up to 550 core / 1320 shader / 871 memory. I scored 6,232 marks. Hmm, so it appears that memory bandwidth isn't likely a bottleneck.

At 1280 x 768, the 550/1320/871 overclock produces a score of 6,454 marks!

With 3dMarkVantage, we get a score of P3011!

As a point of reference at 1280x1024, my AS5740G-6395 scores ~6,200 with a stock Core i5-520M and ATI 5650, so this is quite a capable performer.



But we can go higher right? Of course!

Let's see what happens when we take it up to a core of 600 Mhz, shader of 1440 Mhz and a memory speed of 900 MHz. In 3dMarkVantage, we get P3157.

At 1280x1024, 3dMark06 provides us 6,373 marks. At 1280x768, this is 6,660 marks.



So what was the MAX stable overclock I achieved? Well, I haven't gotten that far yet...

But I did unlink the shader and core domain and reached 600 core, 1500 shader , and 900 memory.

One thing is sure: this thing can overclock (33% faster on the core, nearly 38% faster on the shader, and 14% faster on the memory).

Oh and in game, for Team Fortress 2 at the 600/1440/900 setting, at the same in-game settings as earlier, I hit an average FPS that was easily in the mid 40's with FPS ranging from > 26 or so to the 60's and higher.

Temperatures & Noise
Noise-wise, the unit is silent unless the fan is spinning at high loads. When the fan is spinning at high loads, the noise is certainly noticeable if no sound is on. However, it is still considerably quieter than any desktop, and is hardly unbearable. And, if you are playing any games, you probably won't notice.

Heat wise, if you looked at my benchmark pictures, you'd see the maximum temperatures recorded. For the GPU, even when overclocked to the max, I saw at most 65-67 degrees C. For the CPU, it rarely went above 60 C. This unit is very well cooled, and the heat around the notebook is not very high at all.

Bug
Unfortunately, this unit does have a few bugs, that will probably be solved soon. First of all, the FN+F2 key is supposed to let you toggle between enabling/disabling battery charging. As of right now, it doesn't toggle properly, and you have to go into BIOS to manually change it. This appears to be a software issue, however, and shouldn't be too hard to fix.

I haven't noticed any other particular issues so far, since most of my time with this unit has been dedicated to benchmarking. I'm sure there are things here and there, but honestly, I'm quite amazed at how trouble-free the M11x has been.

Conclusions
Well, obviously I've only had it for a few days but so far this thing has been great. There are a few bugs as stated, but for the first-run of a new notebook line, this thing has been mostly trouble-free for me.

The build quality on this thing is amazing. I honestly did not know what to expect from Alienware/Dell, but this has easily exceeded my expectations. The unit is solidly put together, the keyboard is very nice, and the screen is great.

As far as the power of the computer... well, the numbers speak for themselves. The GT 335M is a killer GPU, and whether you decide to use the native monitor or an external monitor, it should play most games just fine. The CPU intensive games, of course, may see the weaker Core 2 Duo suffer a bit. However, so far, I haven't seen anything that suggests that tweaks in settings can't fix it.

I set out searching for a notebook that provided ultraportability, battery life, and power, and quite frankly, the M11x has achieved all that I have wanted. It's tough to compare this notebook to other notebooks out there, because quite simply, there isn't anything quite in the same form factor that is on the same level and pricing.

Yes, for roughly $200-300 cheaper, you can get an ultraportable that sports an Intel Atom with Nvidia ION or an Intel CULV with an IGP, but those don't perform even close.

Nearby competitors like the ASUS UL80VT sport a CULV, but have a GeForce G210M, which isn't even close to the same league as GT 335M.

The Sony Vaio Z does offer a better processor and better screen in a similar form factor (larger monitor, but similar overall size). However, they start at $1000 more than the M11x, and the Vaio Z only has a GT 330M, which is an inferior GPU.

For the form factor and the price, there isn't quite any other machine out there that has the same combination of battery life, portability, and power that met all my requirements.

 

So i compiled the first 4 posts into 3 posts to save a post for updates.

*UPDATE 2/21/2010*

OC Stablity
I left Prime 95 Blend on for over 8 hours while I slept with the OC at 1.6 GHz. It passed all 8 hours without any errors.

I know most people suggest leaving it on for 24 hours and will do so sometime during the week when I don't need to use the notebook. However, this is a good sign that the 1.6 GHz overclock is indeed stable.

The temperature on my CPU's never went past 57C during this test, which is very nice, as this traditionally taxes the CPUs fully. The cooling on this thing is very good.

PCMarkVantage Run 2
So I re-ran PCMarkVantage, and in my 2nd run at 1.6 GHz, I scored 3,208 marks.



wPrime
I ran wPrime - 32M and 1024M. Note that the pics at 1.3 GHz read 1.2 GHz, but that's just an error in reading the CPU frequency.

For the default CPU, I achieved:
32M - 67.096 seconds
1024M - 2173.909 seconds


For the OC'd CPU of 1.6 GHz, we have these results:
32M - 53.744 seconds
1024M - 1712.822 seconds



UPDATE 2 - 2/21/2010
I didn't have a lot of time to do any concrete benching of games, and I figure most people will have this notebook within the next week or two for better figures.

Anyways, at 1.6 GHz CPU, and stock GPU, I played a few minutes on servers with > 24 players.

CounterStrike: Source, 1366 x 768, all details high + 16x AF
Min FPS: 26, Avg FPS: 44, Max: 67

Team Fortress 2, 1366 x 768, details medium/high, no AF
Min FPS: 25, Avg FPS: 37, Max: 62

I know CS:S dipped to 26, but it was honestly pretty smooth all around, and TF2 as well, despite having a slightly lower FPS.

Note: I did not disable shadows on BFBC2 so take my review of this with a grain of salt. I did not get a lot of time with the game to play around
I did install the Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta. At the stock GPU speed and 1.6 GHz CPU, the game was pretty unplayable (average fps in the 15-20 range). With the GPU OC'd to 600/1500/900, the average FPS was around 25, and was playable, though rough. This was at the 1024 x 768 and at the lowest settings possible.

Unfortunately, BFBC2 brings even good desktops down to its knees (my brother's Core 2 Duo @ 2.33 GHz + ATI 4850 1GB see's average FPS in the 30's to 40's on medium settings at 1680x1050, so that ought to show you how demanding this game is). EA did patch the game recently which saw some performance improvements for dual core PC's, so we might see more performance out of this game in the near future, but then again, this is EA, so I'm not holding my breath.

*UPDATE 2/22/2010*

Synthetic Benchmark - Sandra Memory Bandwidth
Ran Sandra's Memory Bandwidth benchmark. At stock 1.3 GHz, I received Int and Float memory bandwidth's of 4GB/s.

For 1.6 GHz, I achieved for Int: 4.74 GB/s
For Float: 4.84 GB/s



Synthetic Benchmark - Cinebench R10
I ran Cinebench R10. For my stock CPU,
Single-Thread: 1458
Multi-Thread: 2635

For 1.6 GHz CPU,
Single-Thread: 1815
Multi-Thread: 3165



*UPDATE 2/22/2010

Street Fighter IV Benchmark

1366 x 768 - all settings on highest - AF x16
Min FPS: 42
Average: 59
Max: >60 (vsync was on)

Starcraft 2 Beta
Ultra setting saw FPS ~27-30 on average, dips to 22 or so
High setting saw FPS ~30-33 on average, dips to 25 or so

But it's an RTS so anything ~30 is fine!

Team Fortress 2
So I dropped the ball on TF2's multi-core rendering.

I turned it on, and with the same settings earlier (OC'd CPU, stock GPU) my average FPS and max FPS went up a good amount. Max FPS was now in the 80's, average FPS was 41, on a 31 player game of Dustbowl.

Very very smooth and nice. I'm sure I can crank settings up a bit more if I want to.

Bioshock
I don't have Bioshock 2, so I just benched my copy of Bioshock through a playthrough of ~15 minutes:

1366 x 768, all settings maxed:
Min FPS: 15, Average: 53, Max: 80

Game was very smooth and sharp.

 

Nice pictures and fun story.

 

great review - many thanks.

 

I would not complain my frist M5550 that use windows xp/vista I was around 3.? My last laptop was 5.1

 

Indeed- great to read. Good job mate.

 

Hey, Awesome review. Im glad you like your first alienware notebook

Will you also be trying to run Linux on it?

 

Thanks all

Doubtful right now unless I really need it, since my desktop is already able to

 

@ chewie = Thought Nero and PowerDVD were included too rite? And could you draw a comparison to the UL30s that were being mentioned all over owner's lounge parts 1 and 2?

 

thanks for the great review. if you have any free time could you please benchmark some games ? so far we've seen lots of 3d mark scores and other benchmarking software around the forum but apart from the tf2 bench, which was interesting, there has been very little actual real gaming benchmarks which is what it really boils down to wouldnt you agree ?

again great review - kept the wolves from the door until i get mine next week

 

Nero and PowerDVD are not included in mine.

Then again, with no built-in DVD player, I won't really be missing them

As for the UL30/80/whatever... I don't have one/own one so it'll be a bit hard to compare

One thing is certain though.. the GT 335M will easily beat down a G210M without a hesitation. I might need to test playing games at 1680 x 1050 on an external monitor and see what I can do with it

I'll do my best, but these next two days are extremely busy for me, so it'll be hard to bench games and do the rest of my business I have to take care of. That and I need to go find an extra mouse to use!

 

If you dont like games CD direct2drive work good.

I hate bloody cds bootup so I only order online.

 

This is the stuff !! Was waiting for a review ...

Thanks chewietobbacca for your insights about M11x. Great one +rep

 

dear chewie, great job really. thx. and I'm 100% agree with u.

 

How are the reflections on the screen?

Can't wait for figures of the screen like contrast and brightness.
If it is high enough, one can put a antireflective foil on it to reduce the reflection.

However i am not too happy that this don't have integerated wirelesslan in it for wlan or does it?

Also, the SU-cpu is not to appealing. Intel should release their new ULM-series already...

 

thanks for the review. I especially liked you included info on how you OC'ed with use of ATITool for artifacting and EVGA for the actual OC itself. I've only used nvidia sys tools but I seem to like your method better. I will certainly be doing some GPU overclocking when I get mine in and leaving it at stock 1.6Ghz all day son!

Question about EVGA overclock, I assume that needs to be running in background for the OC to work, do you have profiles you can run? I see it can autoload a profile on boot, what does it say when it's on integrated graphics - does EVGA get disabled? I only plan to use 335m when plugged in so I don't mind stressing the GPU then but don't want to use discrete on battery.

 

@chewie = Hardwareheaven did mention those two progs... But heck two less programs to deal with ain't a problem with me. People would also like to know the comparison between the 330 and the 335... Just an opinion.

 

Nice review, +1 for that. I hope you will eventually test Assassins creed1 on it, I wonder how that will turn out.
Every pic I see of the m11x makes me want to buy it even more, but i'm a bit offset by the sreen which looks so small compared to the entire laptop size. Also, the higher low voltage cpu's like the ones dell has recently released in its dell latitude Z series motivate me to wait patiently for a stronger cpu.

 

Well done!
+ rep easily the best review yet!( I think it's the only review)
great job anyway

 

Couldn't have asked for a better first review. I'm pretty confident my alien baby is going to perform like I want her to. I was a little worried about heat when OC'ing the GPU. No more!

 

Good job, chewie!

 

very nicely written review. Thanks for that

 

Thank you for that nice Review! +1 Rep from me!

Greetings,
Sascha

 

Nice review, but how did you get it for $836 after tax?

BTW, the fps you got with Team Fortress makes more sense than some posts (not sure where) that stated 115 fps.

 

Sick Sick overclock on that 335M. Insane.

 

Now all we need is some game benchmarks.
With and without OCing to see what this laptop can do.Synthetic benchmarks are good to compare with other system but the question remains how good can it really game?
I'm sure it would handle almost every game all we need now are numbers!
Anyone care to try

 

Seriously, that OC brings the 335M up to levels near my desktop 8800GT at stock.

Mine arrives tomorrow. I'm so excited.

 

really ? that must be a slow 8800?? ive got the upgraded 8800gtx and a C2D 2.6ghz and i get a 3d mark 06 score of 11k.

 

Did your machine temps change after you oc'd your 335m? I'm curious and am thinking about exploring it when I get mine. On the 4th of march probabl T_T.

 

First trustworthy review on the Net. Nice job!

 

Very well put together review 1+ Rep. Hopefully some in game results will surface soon.

 

Awesome review man. Much thanks.

I saw a lot of people posting benchmarks, but my main concern was the review...as I will only be doing gaming with older games/upcoming blizzard games.

I'm feeling very confident about this machine. It sounds like a well built laptop.

 

so it is 1.6ghz after all...

 

Fair play to you after our minor spat on the owners part 3. If I didn't already have mine you'd have convinced me. That's a serious amount of effort so glad to see everybody appreciates it.

 

Great review thanks!

I don't have a lot of experience with overclocking so I've got a couple of quick questions. If the bios overclock feature locks the voltage at 0.900V (which is the lowest of the different voltages the non-overclocked mode runs at), wouldn't it technically get better battery life with OC turned on?
The amount you were able to overclock the GPU is awesome. I'd like to do this too (hey free performance upgrades right) but only if it isn't going to negatively effect battery life. Would this hurt the battery life?

 

Of course it has wireless card inside it. Unless you buy a barebones laptop which requires you to install all the parts, all prebuilt laptops have a wireless card included. The M11x comes with a b/g/n dual band card.

 

Nice work. Good read covers plenty.

 

SuperPi is old man, time to move on to wprime.

 

ChewieTobbacca, thanks for a great review!

Just a quick question regarding the "Lunar Silver/Lunar Shadow" colour; is it only the top (lid) and sides that are the silver/charcoal colour? Is the frame around the screen and the palm rest/keyboard black in colour?

I would like to order an M11x (in Canada) but I am unsure of the colour to order; I don't want too black and I don't want too silver. If the "Lunar Silver/Lunar Shadow" choice means that the the top (lid) and sides are silver but the palm rest/keyboard and border around the screen is black, then I'm sold!

Your pictures seem to confirm this but the lighting also may be telling a different story...

Thanks.

Also, as a side note, can anyone in Canada confirm whether the M11x ships with the Bluetooth module by default? The system configurator does not have the option so are we to assume it comes standard with the unit? On the US site, the BT module is an additional $20US.

 

good read!

although i'm sad we both ordered at the same time.. and yet you got yours early

 

Yep, great review... thanks for the info and pictures!

 

Congratulation with your fine purchase

 

Thanks guys

It does let you load / set up different profiles. It does have to run in the background. None of the OC programs permanently change the clocks - you'd have to edit the BIOS.

Not sure what happens if you switch the graphics while the OC is on, but my bet is that since the driver's turn on/off the GPU, it will just make the program irrelevant and you'd have to turn the program off then back on to get an accurate read.

It does that with GPU-Z: if GPU-Z is on while the Nvidia GPU is on, and you switch it, it'll say that it no longer detects the GPU or whatever and you have to turn it off then back on to detect the Intel IGP and vice versa.

I havent taken it outside, but under lighted conditions, the reflections haven't been bad at all

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I'm sure that with a C2D 2.6GHz, my OC'd GT335M would get 8-10k in 3dMark06

And actually, at that level, the GT 335M will probably match the 8800 GTS 320/640MB versions in terms of shader power... its texturing power and render power however will not be anywhere nearly as powerful

 

Older games and upcoming Blizzard games should run just fine.

Thanks. Glad to see you got your thing sorted out.

The lowered voltage does seem to maintain battery life even when OC'd. Temperatures are roughly the same as well.

Overclocking the GPU should hurt battery life, but OC's can be turned on/off at will.

Yep I know, I ran SuperPi since I still had a copy on my external and it was for old time kicks

I'll be posting my wPrime benchmarks in a few minutes actually

The palm rest/keyboard and border around the screen are indeed black. Take a look at my pics of the nameplate and the sides, the bottom and sides and top of the case are silver.

The silver isn't very bright either - it's more of a gunmetal kind. So yeah, the outside is silver, but the screen and inside are black.

 

Looks like your sold!!! because what you said here is exactly how it is the "Lunar Silver/Lunar Shadow" choice means that the the top (lid) and sides are silver but the palm rest/keyboard and border around the screen is black, then I'm sold!

Also in CANADA, the BT option is not on the website to choose, you need to get them to add it make sure it is on your order or you will not get it.

 

good guess
gt335m @ stock & core i7-720
3dmark06 > 7.5k
3dmark vantage > 13k
google is your f(r)iend

 

Wow!!! That is one Big Time review. Many Thanks!

 

Hey, chewie, can you confirm what ethernet controller is being used in the m11x? (check under network adapters in device manager)

Cos the AU M11X site says gigabit, yet the US site says 100mbps... I don't mind either way, but i'd like to know.

[edit] Oh hey, never mind, found your device manager screenshots - aww, 100mbit... oh well! [/edit]

--neg