*OFFICIAL* M11x Owners Lounge - Part 3

That's why it pays not to be in the first batch.

 

Does anyone have Everest?

 

I ;kinda worry about the long term effects when overclocking the CPU/GPU. I'm all for it if it gives a few extra frames though!

 

anyone tested : setfsb.. ?

 

Overclocking is usually safe. It's the voltages and temps that kills the two, but higher volts=higher temps and as long as you don't go over their supported threshold, you'll be fine. You're probaby going to get rid of the system (due to age) before the OC even does any damage.

 

No, still running various benchmark's and tests

 

Good news on temperatures too... CPU is always < 60 C and GPU maxed out at 61-63 C from what I remember off the top of my head. The unit feels cool though even under load

I'll put up more comprehensive numbers when I get a chance

 

@ villosa
I have everest.. just no m11x :cry:

 

@Chewie

Nice temps !

 

lol me too bro, me too.

 

No one has bothered to take it apart and find out which PLL is in it. Without this info it can't be tested

 

Your answer seems so complicated to me !

 

I'll do it since I'm applying mx-3 anyway.

 

Mine should ship this coming week, and then maybe two weeks to get to me, but I'll find the PLL when it gets here. As far as OCing the CPU and GPU, heat will likely not be a problem. Alienware always has excellent cooling in thier systems. The voltage of the CPU will be the bigger challange. They are low power consumption to extend the battery life. If we can get somone to rewrite the bios, then maybe we can increase the voltage and get the CPU clocked higher. As for the GPU, it should be easily overclockable. Barring some manufacturing error, I don't think heat will become a problem. You are going to get more frames by overclocking the GPU. CPU overclocking will have minimal impact in gaming FPS

 

hi i have ordered the m11x i was just wondering as i am a student i currently use adobe creative suite 4 will the processor be able to handle this, my desktop is a dell dimension 3100c with a pentium 4 running at 3.0 ghz as this is 1.3 but core 2 duo will it handle it?

 

My Nvidia GTX 295 has been OC'd to a mild 650 core clock since the day I got it .... no adverse problems to report.

I'd hope there are a good few fps to be gained from a prudent core and memory OC on the 335m. Does it not have its roots in a mature desktop part ? If so then , voltages aside, it should give some more. Safely.

 

If you could get a pic of the PLL like this, that would be great. I'm going to go out on a limb, but As my luck would have it, the PLL will probably not be compatible, be we won't know until we see it. I attached a pic I took of the PLL in my Inspiron 1720 with a Nikon P90 camera on close up setting with no flash and lots of light.

 

@DR650SE

Sure thing man, I try to get a shot as close as possible. Hopefully it'll be compatible. I'm banking on early next week since I've been sitting on Boxing stage for 4 days now. The only thing I'm going to do is firing it up, installing Everest, reading the temps (idle and load), and then breaking it down to apply TIM. Should have the PLL by that night's end.

 

OC'd since recieved. that's about 24Hr, no crash, feels cool. 've run some games like COD MW2 and N4S shift, all high no AA, very fluid.

tried the battery this morning with OC and 335m, screen light to middle, FX led all on (morphing mode). doing commen things like surfing, warching a short 1080P trailor (5min), burning a Windows backup DVD (external burner of course). it's been 3.5 hrs now and the indication shows 23% remaining (1h03min)

 

this.. this makes me want to cry.. that's great!

 

Isn't it? This are great stats man!

 

@virtue = Awesome numbers. So homebrewer was just plain unlucky.

 

I think we need a final verdict since Alienware chat reps seem to refute it. If I overclock the CPU, is the warranty void? If so, I will be cancelling my preorder.

 

@virtue people like you put my mind at ease, thanks for the update appreciate it.

 

@chewie = How are the benchies coming along? And what AlienFX colours do you think are nice with the gunmetal silver?

 

Alienware advertised 6100 @ 3dmark06.
I assume @ 1.3GHz.
Can anyone check this out please?

 

Certanly no, cause they use maximum to show in adv maximum numbers. In 1.3 its about 5600.

Also their 8 hours of battery life will be possible with wi-fi - off, low brightness, and etc...

 

do you actually have one ? the 5600 you are refering to i think came from a NOK review, that machine had the cheap CPU and only 2gb of ram.

 

I don't get it.

"Hey, you can get 6100 @ 3dmark06!!!"
"But if you do so, it's because you overclocked and you have no warranty now!!"

Edit: since nobody wants to benchmark M11x, we'll have to wait to know how this thing works with and without OC.

 

the 6100 comes from a maxed out spec e.g. upgraded cpu, max ram and ssd hdd.

 

Note: Overclocking will not void your warranty. It is a built in bios feature!! If they didn't want it overclocked for fear of damage, they would never have programmed to OC option in the bios. I hope I'm making sense. You can overclock other alienwares, and I've never had a warranty issue. The issue develops when you use a third party CPU and that causes damage to the laptop.

 

this is simple not true. until you can show us in the terms and conditions where this is stated please stop speculating, because thats all your doing.

 

I've had chat reps say otherwise even when I threatened to.cancel my order.

 

Dell Reps If thats the case, be sure not to change the boot order in your M11x or that will void the warranty as well.

 

@ DR650SE

I read a few posts back it would void your warranty. There are so many people saying different things, that i don't know what to believe now... No ofense...

I really want to buy one of these, and have a friend who can bring it to me from US. But i won't order until i see all these points cleared. Including OC.

 

It's known that flash uses up more cpu when playing video content compared to a standard standalone video. It's true however that the type and complexity of video encoding affects how much cpu is needed to play back the video.

It's been a general impression however that for instance you are usually able to play 720p content on netbooks (atom processor without ion) standalone ok, but when you try to play a video with the same resolution on youtube, it stutters cause cpu is taxed more.

 

stop being childish guys, u are afraid of OC? just don't do it. u like other PC, go ahead and buy then. but stop stirling the water.

I've got several Dell's and I've changement many things in them, but never got my warranty void. the rep people and the tech people are just 2 kinds of species.

I'm buying this 11X without even knowing it OCs, so it's a bonus to me. Still amazed of it's capabilities under such a small forme. She just get every thing she's promised to do and even more. why are u complaining without even touched one.

 

@ruigui

take everything you read as speculation until its backed up by fact.

@DR650SE

yes i see your argument and it makes logical sence but law is not logical. its logical to assume because ones car can go over 100mps that you are allowed to drive that fast, does the law permit it ? no ! when you buy anything you are bound by the terms and condictions of that company. reps are saying its not aloud under the warrenty, how they go about monitoring this is another matter but as it stands if a representative of a company is stating something you have to accept thats how it is.

 

I really don't care about warranty, probably because even before i turn it on, i will disassemble it a little I just want to know what's dell official position on this. Also i have a Gskill Falcon waiting for a new laptop.

If i order M11x, i will OC it, and will try to get 1.73GHz with setfsb, if possible. We all know this CPU can take it very well. And will try to use default CPU voltages, even if it warms up a little more and lose some battery.

Edit: I just would like more people to benchmark this computer. My only laptop is a T2370 with sis graphics (sold the other one), and need a new one. Small and plays MW2, this is the only i've heard.

 

I see your argument, and you make some good points. For me regardless of whether it voids the warranty or not, I'll still OC it.

Another thing to think about is that we already have on individual returning his laptop because it BSOD's when it's overclocked. Thats the arguement presented to the dell techs. Now if it stood that OCing the CPU via the bios feature voided the warranty, this gentleman would not be allowed to return his product because he OCEd it. The thing to keep in mind is that reps are there to make a sale, they read from a sheet of paper, skim a table of contents, and say what is in the script. They are not tech people. Nor do they fully understand the warranty conditions. They are hired because they are smooth talkers. Thier job is to make the sale, let the techs and customer care worry about the warranty. The other thing is Dell will not spend the money to send a laptop to a computer forensics lap to see if you OCed the CPU. It's just not cost efficient. But as it stands, one member is getting a return. So from the evidence I've been presented, I'm going to have to remain on the side of the arguement that states OCing does not void the warranty.

But I'm with Ruigui, I'm disassembling it before using it and swapping parts.

 

If it makes any of you guys worried about warranty feel any better, in the terms & conditions pamphlet they send with the thing, there's no specific mention of overclocking being stated as a reason for ending warranty

And, in the user manual, there is specific instructions on BIOS with details of overclock, and no where is it stated as a warning that overclocking will cause your warranty to be voided, as is in the case in most other notebook user manual's

So i'd say it's safe to overclock, especially when the user manual itself highlights the feature and what the FSB is set to!

 

simple things to ask: u swap ur intel SSD in it, does it void ur warranty? u'll have to take de battery out, does it void ur warranty? u want to paint it other ways (or just put some sticks on) does it void ur warranty?

OK, some thing more similar: if I pushed my Prius hubrid to 180km/h and the engine dies, does it void my warranty? Or If I drive my M3 to 250km/H (cause it's been bride), and the engine fails what would u thinK...

so please stop this useless debate for nothing. u don't feel it, don't do that.

 

It has been confirmed by the hardware heaven review that 1080p mkv files play:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?reviewid=924&pageid=16

Also, concerning youtube at 1080p: I think that's too much for the cpu, however if you use flash 10.1 (which is downloadable as beta) which supports hardware decoding then it should play those smoothly too.

1080p only makes real sense however if you output the video to an external high resolution monitor since the display resolution of the M11x is 1366x768.

 

i'm curious as to WHY dell would include the overclocking in the bios if you weren't supposed to take advantage of it.

its not as if they just grabbed a random bios off a list and it just so happened to have the overclocking option. they wrote it for this machine and included the ability. the ability to overclock is there because dell specifically put it there.

just for clarification i'm not arguing as to whether is allowed either way and i don't care about the car analogies. its a laptop, not a car

i myself will enable it before it boots windows the first time and likely go even further if someone figures out how. i have a 3 year warranty and quite frankly dell doesn't know and doesn't care why it stopped working. they will fix/replace it if you call and tell them its dead. i've returned 5 laptops in the last 3 months alone with nary a restocking fee.

 

I'm not too concerned about the warranty in relation to the OC, it seems fairly standard practice to not cover it, but I am very concerned about the stability of the OC due to the voltage. They're running this SU7300 overclocked at 0.15-0.25v less that what a stock SU7300 is designed to run at. No wonder one owner has already had BSOD's while running his M11x OC'd. Yes some owners have had no issues but what, we don't even have 10 owners yet and there's already reported problems?

Don't even think of mentioning third-party apps, voltage adjustments and BIOS hacks... That is not a solution. This is Dell/AW's problem, not ours. If the full multi/voltage on the OC was causing heat or battery life issues, then don't offer the overclock option. Don't crank the voltage down to compensate for whatever issue was present, at the expense of a stable OC. Hell, an OC'd CPU requires more voltage, not 10% less!

I'm forgetting about the 6x multiplier lowering the CPU to 1.6GHz for the moment as I don't want to get into that debate again. If you're happy with 1.6GHz, fine, I (and many others) are not. I'm specifically talking about the stability of the system OC'ing even to 1.6GHz.

Once we get more owners and more systems on the go, we'll be able to see if it is a real problem. Until then, I suggest prospective owners stop dismissing the CPU issue as "irrelevant". If we see more OC issues over the next coming weeks, you may not even be able to OC to 1.6GHz, so you'll be running at stock 1.3GHz all the time. If you're happy with that, well, I don't really know what to say then...

 

A pentium 4 3ghz gets you 487 passmark cpu points: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+4+3.00GHz

The 1,3 ghz core 2 duo gets you 989 points, so about double that: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+SU7300+@+1.30GHz

If you oveclock it to 1,6, you'll get even more.

So if your pentium 4 was enough, you will be pleased with the M11x.

 

Thanks Chewie +1

 

Anyone willing to tear theirs apart to get the PLL?

 

Now we have printed proof on the Alienware M11x Manual..

oh wait, then theres a term there stating:
"Terms & Conditions can be changed without informing users"

 

@rpg-XPS= totally agreed. since the very 1st minute i've OC'd it and will stress it for awhile to see if it stays stable. generally, if it passed the first week with no issues it will likely be trouble free for a quite time. sorry to hear that some one is un fortune, but it's better now then after.