*OFFICIAL* Alienware M11x Owners Lounge - Part 2

I don't know if these videos have been posted before (it's kind of hard to keep track of this thread), but it doesn't hurt to share, right?

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ohhhh, the silver looks nice!


im really curious to see how the battery really fairs when web browsing and watching youtube videos on the integrated graphics since its been said to last from 5-8 1/2 hours from various sources.

 

I am not sure how to get the $50 discount at all. I signed up for the email update newsletter thing in the link, are they supposed to email me a $50 discount code or something? I haven't received anything.

 

thanks Mag, I enjoyed the tech65 video, got to see the silver some more. Glad I went with it =) Looks clean and professional. Although I noticed it was shiny some, was thinking it was more matte. Either way, the silver does look a bit darker which is what I hoped for!

 

How difficult would it be to put in a SSD drive after receiving it? I've never swapped out a HD on a laptop (only desktops), is it just as straightforward?

 

I just ordered the m11x. Saved $91.90 EPP and $50 using this EPP code TP1QC0P96V9RCR good till tomorrow. $832 Total shipped with the following specs.
Alienware M11x, Cosmic Black
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache)
2GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz (upgrade to 4GB myself later cheaper)
11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
1GB NVIDIA?? GeForce GT 335M
160GB SATAII 5,400RPM (replace with SSD
Personalized Nameplate (Anand00x)
Integrated 10/100 Network Interface Card
Bluetooth Module, 2.1+ Enhanced Data Rate
1.3MP Web Cam
1 Year Basic Plan

 

Generally, yes just as straight forward. The issue is usually what panel(s) to be removed. The M11x is one single large panel and everything is accessible after it removed. So it'll be really easy. I've done it a few times on laptops as well as desktops. Other problem I've run into was on a Macbook it required Torx driver haha.

I plan to open this sucker up and apply MX-3 thermal paste. Any current AW owners have an opinion on the stock paste used? Is it sufficient or am I just wasting time?

 

The $100 off $999 coupon is only good if you total over $999 including EPP discount: TP1QC0P96V9RCR

The $50 EPP coupon code is : 162L$?WQBN0M9M

 

I wouldn't mess with removing heatsinks or anything. It will come from the factory just fine, you might mess it up trying to make a minor unneeded improvement. Just my opinion though.

 

Yeah I think it has a nice Silver Gun Metal look, makes me sorta consider getting silver but since coupon's are dead im keeping my black.

 

I just watched those vids that Mag linked,the last one with the Alienware engineer...

Ack I just noticed then how mirror-y the screen is. XD I'll just have to wait and see when I get mine I suppose. :S

 

Yeah I just notices the same thing, I hope it isn't to bad =(

 

you guys are NOW noticing how reflective the screen is? hehe even the pic on AW site was a mirror =D anyway just messin around

 

The Silver one looks so awesome with the two tone effect of inside being all black and outside being Silver plus the silver being so dark is awesome. This is best looking 11" without a doubt lol it looks sick! So happy I ordered silver!

 

Also going to make a lot of people angry, who upgraded the processor because the stupid sales rep told them that the SU4100 could NOT be OC'd.

 

I upgraded mine because I think it will help it sell better if I ever decide to offload it. Hence the reason for the 8gb of ram too.

 

eh, a few people upgraded but they would be fine either way having the SU7300 from reading their responses. There are also many people that went with the SU7300, OC or not, just b/c it's the C2D option.

 

You can get an overlay to get rid of the glossiness.

 

And so the wait begins By the time it arrives, this thread is going to be 300 pages!

P.S. If anyone knows of a kit to turn this into a convertible tablet, I'd be down with voiding my warranty (don't think there's one out yet though).

 

You had to add su7300 to get over 1000 for the extra 100 off anyway so it was free LOL Plus for me anyway had to go with su7300 because of resale, C2D is going to resale alot better than "Pentium Su4100"...

 

Which overlay are you referring to?

 

True, but it's still very shady that the reps are telling people that they cannot OC the 4100 chip. Either they don't know, which is pretty bad because it's such a basic function...and if they don't know they should say so...or they are just flat out lying to get another $100.

Sure, you're fine with the SU7300, but if I knew that I could OC the SU4100 I would have just gone with that and saved $100.

Has anybody talked to a rep that said you COULD OC it? I rest my case.

Also, as for resale value...I suspect there will be many real world comparisons coming out in the coming months that reveal the two chips peform basically the exact same. So any savvy buyer should ignore whatever chip you've got in it.

 

Don't you know how sales people work.

#1 Tell the costumer what they want to hear

#2 If you don't know, always say no haha

#3 Make them spend more money

#4 Accessories, Accessories, Accessories lol

#5 Extended warranty is a must (Scare tactics usually)

 

Unfortunately, most buyers aren't savvy. Selling crap on eBay for the past 9 years has proven this to me.

But yeah users like you that would've gone with the SU4100, then that's the sucky part. Sorry you couldn't save the $100, but like someone mentioned above, if you used coupons etc, the difference may not be bad, but I can't really speak for you.

 

Dell reps rarely know what they're talking about, from my experience; I'm not sure if it's that they have incorrect info or simply make up answers on the spot. I had two chat sessions with Dell reps prior to making my purchase. The first told me there are no available discounts on the system because it is too new. I asked the second specifically about EPP and student discounts, and she told me those aren't available on the m11x, but she did offer me a whopping $1.95 shipping discount. Clearly both were wrong.

As for the test results, I hope for everyone's sake that you are right. It's unfortunate that no reviewers were able to test the performance and heat increases on an overclocked 4100.

 

Some thoughts,

.We should rename this thread to "Official M11x processor conversation"
.The guy in the first video said the battery can be changed
.The guy in the wired video was very odd
.Matte screen protectors can be purchased

 

My First Post

Just wanted to give a confirmation that the coupons are no longer stack-able.

 

There is no such thing as savvy buyers on ebay

 

Oh I'm not really pissed about it, even if it's 5% better, that's 5% better on the weakest part of the build.

Just the whole $100 on an upgrade that everybody knows would be overpriced at $50, and then you have reps spreading misinformation like that to sell an already overpriced and more or less useless upgrade...it's just bad business practice by Dell/Alienware in my opinion.

 

Both procs suck so doesn't really matter which one you choose

Of course, if one is oc'able in the BIOS and one isn't, I give preference to the oc'able chip.

 

would the c2d be able to oc further than the pentium? i know they are of the same 45nm process and the difference is just the l2cache and some instruction set thing but is the internal architecture all the same?

as above, would getting the c2d which cost 100 more let you oc further? for eg maybe up to 1.8?

 

Hmm...something that kind of worries me. I'm trying to check my order status, which I could see a few hours ago that had reached the in production phase, and now I can't even bring it up. When I go through some backwards way to locate my order, my address doesn't even show up on the bill to ship to boxes. , did they cancel my order? Also, it shows that they did charge my dpa account for the amount of the laptop. is with dells site.

 

I don't know a lot about it...but from everything I've read, if anything, the pentium should potentially be able to OC futher.

 

No there would definetely be no difference, especially considering the fact that ocing is extremelly case by case.

Also theres no indication to believe that the processor can be oced beyond 1.6 ghz, atleast not through the bios settings.

 

Not through the BIOS settings, no...but isn't there an ACER model with the exact same CPU that overclocks to 1.73 or something? Again, I don't know a lot about it, but I'd be willing to wager in a short while you'll see people figuring out how to run these higher than 1.6.

 

okay, I went over to the hardware heaven forum and asked about the battery on/off "switch" that was mentioned awhile back regarding having battery off while in AC mode. Here's the admin's finding he replied to me.

So as of that production model, the battery button on F2 is simply an indicator of the status. Hopefully, although doubtful, the FN+F2 can be used to make the hard switch rather than requiring rebootin and changing it in the Bios. I guess with an SSD, won't be too long haha suckers! jp, I'd rather have the easy switch like the graphics card.

*edit* more CPU arguing, I've seen on other cache benchmarks - though not the SU chips, that L2 cache even from 2-3MB can make a difference. But yeah doesn't really add much.

 

More likely than not, but you can't simply go off that right now. Its far from confirmed that they will make something like that available and even more importantly when.

 

something like this
http://www.buyviewguard.com/en-US/

 

I have no remorse about buying the 7300. My total was $836 including 4 gb of RAM, 320 HDD, and Bluetooth, that's pretty damn good and before my DPA discount.

 

dang it..after being on this all day at work and reading...coupons don't stack anymore..but i guess every discount possible is still a good deal just not as much.

 

No way of knowing, there is not alot of info on 4100 overclocking. The 7300 though is alot more popular in the Asus UL30 which provides factory overclock to 1.7ghz and people are tweaking that to overclock it over 2ghz with ease. The 7300 is a known good overclocker. I have not seen much info about the 4100 though so it's kind of a gamble there.

 

Nice, I just looked up some reviews. Definetelly worth getting, especially for something as portable and glossy as the m11x.

 

I mean no offense by this, but you are using flawed logic here. First of all, nothing I posted was incorrect in the least, which you seem to acknowledge on some level. I posted what I did in response to several [potentially incorrect] posts in which forum members stated in a conclusory manner that the 4100 can overclock and that the net performance difference between the two processors would be 1-5%.

As to whether there would be a difference in results on an overclocked 4100 vs. an overclocked 7300: no one knows for certain! (Unless of course someone indeed has done the necessary tests and simply hasn't distributed the results.) Though the differences in the processors are apparently minimal, one cannot logically conclude that the 4100 would produce the exact same increase in performance as the 7300, nor that the resulting temperature increase would be the same.

To do is to follow this flawed path of logic:
1) "The 7300 processor produces an X% performance increase when overclocked, with a 1-degree temperature increase."
2)"The differences between the 4100 and 7300 are minimal"
2) "Therefore the 4100 and 7300 produce the same results, in terms of both performance and temperature increase, when overclocked."

The problem, of course, is that there is at least one difference between the processors -- one variable, if you will -- [cache size] which may or may not affect the overclocked performance of that particular processor. In order to be able to conclude that the performance would be the same, one must test both systems in order to determine what difference, if any, that variable/difference (and any potential other variables/differences) might cause. Hell, we don't even know the overclocking frequency or frequencies that might be available on the 4100.

As for what you stated about Dell's motivations and strategy, it may in fact be illogical for Dell to do what you described. However, it is also illogical for one to conclude that a company did or did not do something just because it would seem illogical to you. In other words, while it may not make sense to you for Dell to include a certain processor option, to lock out an overclocking feature for a processor capable of overclocking, etc., that does not necessarily mean Dell didn't do so. In the other thread, for example, many demonstrated that they felt it would be nonsensical/illogical for Dell not to include a faster processor option to appease its more hardcore customers who might care more about performance than battery life, and based on this sentiment, they predicted that Dell would offer an i3/i5 processor option. (They were wrong.) Maybe it didn't make sense for Dell to include the processor options it did. Maybe it didn't make sense for Dell to put up order pages a month before the system's ship date. Maybe it didn't make sense for Dell to inadequately prepare its reps for the launch of the m11x, which resulted in numerous customers receiving conflicting information about whether Bluetooth comes standard (and now about whether the 4100 can overclock) and using resources by flooding the phone lines with questions. Maybe it didn't make sense for Apple to do just about anything it did with the iPad. Hell, maybe it didn't make sense for AOL, which absolutely dominated the ISP market in the dial-up days, not to use its status and resources to lead the transition to high-speed Internet, instead of choosing not to evolve its business model, thereby killing its own business. Just because it seems nonsensical to you for a company to do something doesn't mean it won't do so nonetheless.

My main point in posting all of that: People are coming here to ask questions about the processor, and the answers to those questions may affect their purchase decisions. Thus, to state without reliable verification -- in a conclusory fashion -- that a processor can be overclocked and that the overclocked differences in performance and temperature will be minimal is wrong. Imagine if the 4100 couldn't be overclocked, or that its performance increase is not as substantial as the 7300's, or that for whatever reason the temperature increase is more significant than the 7300's. If your speculation ended up being wrong, would you be willing to reimburse the people you misled?

Feel free to offer speculation, but for the sake of everyone here, PLEASE make sure it's clear that you're speculating when you do so, rather than presenting speculation in the form of factual statements.

 

Alienware M11x, Lunar Silver
Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache, 800MHz FSB)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M
320GB SATAII 7,200RPM
Optional Bluetooth Module, 2.1+ Enhanced Data Rate

Subtotal:$811.60
Shipping and Handling:$0.00

Sales Tax:$66.97
Total:$878.57

My first post and my first Alienware all in one.

I ordered off the EPP site (10% off), redeemed the $100 coupon, and also got 3% off for a new DPA. Sadly, the $50 coupon was no longer stackable.

But I still feel good about the purchase. Can't wait!

 

If you factor in all the discounts, the processor upgrade is roughly a $75-80 cost. Is it worth it for 3-5% performance plus VT capability? That will vary from person to person.

Personally, as this system is CPU-constrained rather than GPU-constrained, I would think that every bit helps.

Other things to consider:

1. We still have no *verification* that the 4100 can be overclocked on the M11x, nor to what extent, and under what temperature conditions. There is only supposition at this point.

2. There is a potential resale value in having "the better one". Even if that resale disparity is only $20-40 between CPUS that still ends up narrowing the cost gap even further.

 

lower cache meant better OC in the old days FWIW

 

should we do a poll on how many went for black or silver? i ordered black but silver looks pretty slick too!

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get the 3% DPA discount to work?

 

Isn't it true that if there is a way to OC this AW beyond the 1.6 it will take more ram to keep it stable? Or is this not true?

 

This was from earlier today. I was probably the last person to get the stackable discount.