*OFFICIAL* M11x Arrival Thread

how many seconds for the beast to boot up?

 

Awesome to hear. Can you please do just one simple run of 3Dmark06? It's free.. prob only will take ~10min of your time, I'm just so curious to know SU4100 vs SU7300 overclock benchmarks.

 

@aznguy
sorry, but the laptop is already in the box. This is the version that I thought was canceled. I am constantly checking dpa to see what has been charged and what hasn't. If I have been charged for this canceled laptop, I will inform Dell and return it instantly.

 

I see, okay thanks. You're the only SU4100 I've seen so far =)

 

why is this the only su4100? is the 7300 that much better? Intel said it was a $10 upgrade when it came out. virtualization and 1 more mb of l2 cache.

or is it a mental thing, where people think its so much better because it costs so much more?

 

I think that has a lot to do with it. I fell for it.

 

That is an M17x in the pic. After playing with the M11x for 30 min then pulling that out it feels like a true monster size wise.

And on the battery, it seems you can only disable in the bios, then enable on the fly if you need to.

 

Right. When it first came out I was first to jump up on the su7300 in the configuration screen, but then I realized how cheap of an upgrade it was.

But at the same time it is needed for windows7 xp mode, so otherwise it is a waste for the fancy new os features?

 

Actually, that is the M17x. Not that the M15x is much smaller than the 17" one but still.

 

Questions for new owners:

-How is the build quality? Does the keyboard feel solid and no creeks at all from the laptop when picking it up/moving it?

-Are the fans loud under load/gaming?

-Can you just keep the LED's on for the backlit keyboard while keeping all of the other LED's off?

-How is the quality/picture/brightness of the WLED screen?

 

Keyboard is very very nice.

Fan is pretty quiet but audible.

Yes, you can set the individual things like keyboard, alienhead, etc on or off.

The quality of the LCD is good, although the amount of light leakage at the bottom especially is obscene. If your looking for deep blacks - forget it.

 

@BigTymer:

I'm getting confused about the screen quality. When i look at some of the pictures, the black levels look really good, and no sign of light leakage, see here:



Any chance you could post a picture of what you mean? Is it bad looking straight at the screen or more when it's tilted up or down?

 

mine don't seem to have leakage at all

 

Well that's good to hear. I'm not picky about screens but it'll be nice to be spoiled lol

 

mine doesnt appear to have leakage either

 

has anyone made any videos yet???

 

Thanks man. I come to expect that most laptops screens have light leakage of some sort.

I'm pretty pumped for my arrival now.

 

Guys just saying check for the problem with your screen when you get it, as mine now has a 2mm gap at the top started as 1mm then is starting getting larger lol

 

@homebrewer = could you like post a pic up please?

 

No I'm not taking it out the box again. Its just to annoying to look at now

 

Youch.. But chewie and jonjonk aren't reporting any problems as of now so... Who knows? Anyone else with the problem?

 

Yeah mines just a rushed unit just warning you though guys

 

@nuke
Well, I haven't actually used mine for more than 1hr yet. It's closed most of the time, and is currently in the box waiting for DPA confirmations.

edit: I guess one way to check if your laptop has a screen problem is to see if there are any gaps below the screen. If there are gaps, call Dell asap.

 

Home, i know you don't want to mess with it anymore, but the next time you get the urge to look at, can you get us some pics so we know what to look for??

 

I like the M17x and M11x comparison photo.

There was another image floating around that gave me the impression that the M11 was too big. This makes me feel a lot better.

 

I prefer the pic comparing it to an Acer Aspire One 8.9".

@jonjonk = But its not falling apart rite?

 

@nuke
No, it's not.

 

No there is very little difference between the two. Mine has the 4100 also. If you look at passmark you can see the difference. In the owners thread part 2 if I recall, eggscrambled explains in a lot more detail. As a side in th UK there is a £40 difference which is vastly expensive compare to $10.

 

For info and what it's worth here's my take as I received mine a couple of days ago.

Top Lid is glossy and easily marks. Area next to mouse pad and below keyboard is plastic and matt.

Screen is difficult to view in sunlight, very mirror like.

Whilst browsing etc this machine gets pretty hot.

Overclocking is available in the bios with a simple enable/diasble taking it form 1.30 to 1.73

Much snappier with chrome, explorer is 2 seconds to kick in

Will conduct some 3d mark 06 benchmarking when time permits and post results

 

jingles, you'll be the first to complain about heat if anything... Are you sure your unit is fine?

 

Well how would you determine if it wasn't fine. This is my opinion and I guess what's warm/hot for me (based on the fact this is on my lap) might not necessarily be the same for someone else.

 

Check temps? but since its just a subjective opinion and yours isn't BSODing to oblivion like homebrewer's, guess you have a point.

 

It can make a big difference when it comes to temperature depending on which power saving level you are currently on, for instance because speedstep or some similar power saving mechanisms may be disabled in full performance mode, the cpu may be taxed more than really needed for plain browsing.

I had that experiene with my big dell laptop where the fans were running loud and the machine got rather hot even though I was not doing much - it got much better when I switched to balanced mode.

I suggest you make sure you are at least on balanced mode or even some more power saving level before checking if the machine really runs hot.

Also, it makes a huge difference what you are actually doing on the web. Playing youtube or some other video in a browser will tax the cpu or gpu and cause much more heat than just displaying a simple page.

 

With any new system I always install HWMonitor straight away. Place a shortcut to it in your Startup Items folder so it launches @ startup. You can open the properties of the shortcut and set it to launch minimized. As you use your system, make note of the temps (either written or mental) and watch for a pattern - idle and under load. This will give you a baseline and over time you will notice anything out of the ordinary. As you develop your base temps, compare with other owners in the OL.

HWMonitor can be found here:
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

CPUz can be found here:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

GPU-Z can be found here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

These three are your main apps. There are alternatives, but I find these very useful for monitoring aspects of the system.

 

I think the more pertinent question is:

Are you "browsing" with the NVidia GPU enabled? or the Intel 4500MHD?

I'd think there'd be a drastic difference in heat just between those two modes..

 

mine's always on 335m and OC'd. the left upper side of the touchpad does goes warmer while gaming but never felt hot. and while browsing + 1080p youtube videos it remains quite cool for me.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/4222/tempua.jpg

 

That does not surprise me. However, what about the underside? Many people use laptops - as the name says - on their laps. So it will be interesting to know how warm the underside is (both in easy browsing and in gaming).

I should warn people not to use laptops for extended periods of times on the lap unless it remains relatively cool, as something like this can happen in more extreme cases:
http://translate.google.at/translat...-nebenwirkungen.html&sl=de&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

 

I'm sure I won't be the last to say this today, but I do want to say; YYYYYEEESSSS!!!!! DELIVERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh yeah, my beautiful lil m11x is waiting for me at home!!! now I just need to endure the next 3 hours 27 min till I can get home and touch it!

 

In regards to M11x heat, since the vent is drawing air from the bottom corner and blowing it out the side, even a ULV at 1.3ghz would get hot IF the bottom vent was blocked. Seems having it on your lap would provide a chance for the bottom to be blocked.

Playing a 3D game with GPU active would then make it real toasty.

What is a "car" post? Is that in the literal sense?

 

Yeah Rush, starts out comparing the processor OC to a car, then degenerates into discussions about what everyone drives LOL. Batboy had to put HIS foot down!

 

Just got mine! Already replaced the hard drive with a 320GB 7200RPM - I wanted to keep all the Alienware modifications and preinstalled drivers, so instead of installing Windows 7 fresh, I took my built-in 160GB hard drive, put it in a USB enclosure, and I'm using Clonezilla to duplicate the 160GB drive onto the 320GB. Four minutes to go!

 

pictures!!! black or gray?

 

Posting from my M11X. Downloading 3dmark06.

 

Received my M11x today, already overclocked it and although it shows 1.73 GHz in the Windows properties CPUz shows 1.6 GHz with a 6.0 multiplier instead of 6.5. I even disabled SpeedStep and it stays at 6.0.

Ran 3DMark06 on it @ 1280x768:
5479 @ 1.3 GHz
6308 @ 1.6 GHz

 

Mine arrived earlier today. I'm still working on getting the original stuff up and running on the newly installed SSD. Will hopefully get a chance to run a couple of benchmarks tonight. Love it so far - build quality is phenomenal! Will definitely be recommending Alienware to friends.

 

If you don't mind - take some notes for your rebuild - I'll be doing the same thing (m11x tomorrow / SSD the next day) - would love to have any pointers for drivers / software / etc. for the new install to the SSD.

 

finally workin on getting mine set up.... cloning the drive to my SSD as we speak.... lets hope all goes well

 

I received mine today too!

 

got mine as well. I REALLY need to know if anyone elses' power brick is EXTREMELY hot when its plugged in, with the 335m on and on High performance. I swear mine could cook eggs on!
How hot is yours, and does it matter much??
Thanks!

 

those things are splitting atoms. i iron my clothes with my Eeepc 900hd netbook power brick