*OFFICIAL* M11x Owners Lounge - Part 3

lets see.... i counted 20!!! lol

 

just tried the scrybe driver: doesn't work

 

Sum, with integrated graphics and OC off, my fan hardly ever comes on and when it does it is very very low. I would call it virtually silent.

With the OC on, and the GPU oc'd to 575,1150,850 it comes on high while gaming, but otherwise it just cycles on and off every minute or two about medium.

Given where I use it has other pc's running, I honestly cant even hear it, but I never did try and put it on my nightstand running all night as others have.

Its pretty amazing really that it never gets warm to the touch (top or bottom) even when fully overclocked.

I don't hear any strange ticking sounds, or other strange noises from mine, I cant even hear the HD grind when its being used.

The quality of this thing is amazing! I love the smooth texture on the keys, and its really easy to type on even though I have large hands. The screen is a little small but I got used to it quickly. Compared to my Asus G1, my Sony Z-750 and Dell Vostro work laptop, this thing is by FAR the highest quality, most solidly built and smexy looking laptop of the bunch!

 

And how many are missing (including spaces)?

 

just 2 letters are missing..
no big deal

 

Anyone else have a crooked/deformed key like i have?

With a minor issue such as this what should/can I do? If I would have to ship it back and wait another 3 weeks for another (possibly) defective unit I will just keep it and deal with it.

Mike

 

Okay cool. My nameplate was 14 characters so it looks like the limit is 18 (or someone just got lazy).

 

@cl1ff

you might be able to have a home service. we all get limited home service warranty. You should call them and troubleshoot. It's not like they will demand you senting the unit back in or they will charge you.

Personally, I'll try to work around having to send the unit in - too much of a hassell; advocate for home service or have them mail you the key. Look at some of the pictures others have posted of their M11x. I don't recall any deformities to the [ button.

 

Why don't you just jump on the support website, go to live chat, explain that your new laptop has a malformed key, and you wish to have this replaced under your warranty.

They will ship out a new Keyboard, and dispatch a tech, usually to your home, and replace it for you on site. No reason to have to return it.

 

yeah its not much of an issue for me..
the nameplate is on the bottom..
so i really wont be looking at it that much.. lol

 

Ok thanks for the reply, I was thinking just the key or the whole keymat could be replaced with the in-home warranty for 1 year that comes with it. It is nearly impossible to capture on a camera but it is noticable with the naked eye, it is just a little off (kinda like me I guess). Let's see how the Crysis demo runs/looks on my 37" tv over HDMI.

Mike

 

hmm mine is like 19 characters.. hope it fits!!

 

Hiya all!

I'm about to take the plunge but I'm a bit stuck on the choice of back-light for the keyboard. In terms of preference I'm torn between blue and red, but the thing is does anyone know how colour effects eye strain especially in the dark. Will certain colours detract from the screen more then others.

Many thanks in advance

 

Once you get your unit, you can change the color(s) to whatever you want.

 

@mahou

You're not stuck with the color options you choose on the website. Once you get your machine you'll be able to change the back lights of the keyboard and such at will.

 

@ mahou I wanted to answer your question but I'm slow. read above me hahaha my initial color will be purple and it will be sick.

 

woo hoo!!! thank you all for the quick replies

I should have asked first as I spent ages trying to come up with a sensible search term for google sensei researching about colours and eye strain

 

lol mahou, I googled a lot before making some decisions too. I changed my mind three times on my order, going from black to silver and changing from SSD to HDD and back =)

 

Hee hee me too, and this thread has been the most informative so far

Lucky I have access to a su4500 to do loads of testing to over-ride my fears with how well the cpu will perform in cpu intensive tasks like farmville *cough*

I will be getting the 7300 anyway and flash and hd video should be able to be offloaded to the gpu without any issues...

I can't wait to get this puppy, but I won't order for another 2 weeks just to make sure I am happy to commit

 

Ahh I see... yeah... I got my m11x sans extended warranty and with the epp discount so it was about the same price as the Asus.... That 3 year warranty from Asus is sweet.

 

Has anyone tested out the audio capabilities of this bad boy yet? I just bought some nice audio technica headphones and was wondering what they would sound like. What about the speakers, are they good sounding?

 

For overclocking, can I go ahead and press "F2" or "F12" (assuming one of those is the bios key) when I get it out of the box and turn it on, or is there first some Windows 7 set-up and a reboot before doing this? I do not want my Mini-Me to know 1.3ghz exists

 

It's a BIOS option you need to set to enable "turbo" mode.

 

Just got mine. This thing feels just like my E8400 downstairs. Whoever said this thing is close to an Atom is insane.

One thing though - the screen isn't the absolute BEST; but for an 11" it is the best in it's class imo.

Colors are not as vivid as my mbp, blacks are not the deepest, horizontal viewing angles are decent but verticals are horrid. The edge to edge is beautiful and even though it does not use glass - it does not have a plastic look to it like I was worried it would.

It is currently idling at 33C My mbp idles at 58C.

Gonna load some games soon. Real excited.

 

Lmfao looks like Dell messed up on the WoW install. The folder weighs 128 kilobytes. No wonder the patch wouldn't install.

 

Ruh roh. Oh well. I can't follow the advice to install the previous version because the previous version won't work with the M11x (it was released late last year). The FX haven't been flaking out on me yet, though. Hopefully the issues are only with the M15x and M17x and won't affect me.

I compared the version that I installed with the version on my original hard drive and the vast majority of the files are unchanged. Does anyone know which files contain the actual AlienFX firmware update? I'd like to compare. Thanks!

 

glad I downloaded the command center software before they removed it,The intel SSD I installed is a great match for this laptop.
By the way,I called and spoke with 6 different people regarding "my Hive" since there was NO acct# on the invoice or anywhere else for that matter. I was told that my hive is only active for older Alienware sytems and now that Dell sends invoices instead of Alienware,there is in fact no such acct # for new owners to join the hive. Wow,could have put a notice on their website regarding that !

 

Can someone please recommend what to look for when buying an ssd drive for the M11x?

Thx

 

wow i cant seem to get this HDMI port to work...only the VGA works right now.

 

aftermarket? look for Intel SSD G2 w/ TRIM

 

^ try the discrete graphics 335m

 

you have to have nvidia graphics enabled to use hdmi FN + F6

 

On the same tack as my post above, when the AlienFX firmware updates, is it usually obvious? In other words, does it go to a screen that would be clearly recognizable? I'm wondering if the bugged Command Center didn't touch my AlienFX firmware at all (which would explain why I haven't had any issues).

Maybe I should just stop worrying.

 

AVP almost done downloading cant wait to see how the game runs

 

I am on hour 10 of using this laptop So far so good. Suggestions

1) Keyboard Green
2) Alienware lettering and logo/power button both pink
3) Lights on bottom Green

Looks so good this way lol


Only games I have tried so far are Starcraft 1 (lanned it with a friend at a coffee shop lol), Heroes of Newerth, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Torchlight ... obviously these all run GREAT on this machine. My friend is jealous at how much better Heroes of Newerth looks on the alienware compared to his VAIO he bought 2 weeks ago at best buy for $1000 lol... HD screen makes a huge difference

 

what bugs are you experiencing with AlienFX? Why are ppl wanting to install it? confused.. is it b/c they're doing clean installs of Win7 on new HDDs etc? Figured that stuff would be on the recovery..

*edit* Kahi, your friend should have bought the Sony Vaio CW27 on bestbuy.com much nicer for $950, 1600x900 screen i5+330m and Blu-ray, $899 w/o BD. anywayy

 

Jeez downloading the multitouch drivers make this laptop insane.

I prob will never go back to my mbp now. Two finger scrolling is the only way to go.

 

armoured - how does the 2-finger drivers compare to the MBP's - assuming your MBP is the unibody one? I LOVED the two finger scrolling on my MB but previous 2finger scrolling driver on SXPS 1640 was not so great or responsive.

 

I'm not experiencing any bugs, but supposedly the Command Center that was posted for the other models (that the Dell rep advised me to install since nothing was up for the M11x) had a buggy/broken firmware update attached.

I needed it because I purchased an SSD for my M11x elsewhere and had swapped it in. There's no recovery media with drivers included with the machine; only an OS disk with no drivers and a recovery partition on the hard drive (which was useless because that would just restore the version of 7 that was on there, and I own a copy of Windows 7 Professional).

 

Two finger scrolling using the Scrybe drivers ftw!!! Works perfect just had to be patient while it installed. After a reboot enabled the settings and bingo!!! A thing of beauty. That is the one feature I love about the Macbook Pro I have. Now this little guy is complete! Yeah I am easy...

I enabled both vertical and horizontal scrolling.

 

@aznguyen316 yeah he isn't a computer guy and ignored my advice to buy online. Our store got the new models in 3 days after he got his. His is a core2duo lol

 

What would be considered as a good r/w speed? will I be looking at 2.5" only?

Thx

 

1) My fan is silent after start up, but once I play a round of modern warfare 2 or do something grahpic intensive, the fan comes on.

2) Once the fan comes on, it does not want to go back down. I never OC it and even 20-30 mins after I switch to integrated graphics, the fan is still on, while not a jet engine, it is very much noticeable even with my desktop pc on (Cooler master HAF case with core i7 920 and ATI 5870) I can still hear my M11x fan

3) At night with M11x plugged in, set to POWER SAVE, fan is on constantly all night, I would not be able to sleep. Whereas my 399 Acer 11.6 in netbook with Su 2300 duo core is absolutely silent...

so for SUM, I think you and I have the same problem.....everything on this laptop is phenomenal, but if the fan keeps on loud like this, I can't keep it..

 

Just an update to my crooked key issue:

Called Alienware 1-800 number this time instead of Dell's and it was a much nicer experience. I have a tech that should be calling within 2 days and he/she will set up an appointment to have the keyboard replaced in my home.

Sounds perfect to me!

Oh and the Crysis demo worked very well at 1280x1024 with all Medium settings as detected automatically in the settinggs menu. Didn't have a fps meter but was very smooth although during the cutscenes and some other action i noticed some horizontal tearing. I feel this is due to either the game and the 335 not meshing very well or the 335 just may need a driver update or two to increase performance with certain games. I'm running the SU7300 OC.

Mike

 

I understand that, but can I set it up the first time I turn it on, or wait until after setting Windows 7 up, reboot and THEN set it to overclock?

 

I was afraid of this. If common, I hope there is a simple answer, or I will go for the CW27FX. Yes, it is a pound heavier and 14" screen, but the system is quiet and runs cool- even with 3D games. The system uses a good copper core cooling solution that helps the fan. The M11x does not have the space for this. Then again, heat may not be the issue and the fan is running too much?

Rather have Mini-Me, but constant annoying fan, I do not.

Update: Perhaps only some people have problems with theirs, since others do not report this fan problem. Bad units?

 

I'm not armoured (in fact, I'm rather unarmoured, haha!), but I can give you my thoughts, as I've owned a few Macs in the past. It's not quite as good as the MBP's scrolling, but it's not bad. It occasionally seems to stick on, but for the most part it works well. You can tell the feature wasn't exactly built into the OS like it was in the Mac OS, though.

 

Yes - I want to do a clean install of Win7 on my SSD.

The only "recovery" disk provided was only the Win7 Home Premium Installation disk - no drivers, restore disks, etc., were provided.

 

My WoW folder was in C:\users\public\games

 

yeah 2.5 although a 1.8" would work but I don't know, you may need mounting or fitting bracket.

~200MB/s+ is good. I think there are others that can answer your question better than I. The 160GB Intel Generation 2 SSD is a very popular one. X25-m, great r/w speeds. Gen2 has TRIM which helps against speed degradation. THey go for about $400 though.. I forget another member got 100GB I think for $300, forget what brand/model.