What are you thoughts on the m11x CPU?

So with the new gaming "Netbook" almost on the door steps of anxious consumers. I was just curious on what your thoughts of the two CPU's that alienware has decided to use for the new m11x?

Clearly if anyone has been living under a rock the two CPU's are the Intel Pentium SU4100 1.3 Ghz and the Intel Core 2 Duo SUV7300 1.3 Ghz. .... Respectively.

Thanks.

 

weak-sauce.............

 

This has been discussed in detail in the dedicated M11x threads.

The general consensus is that yes they're the weakest part of the M11x, but they're sufficient for the majority of the M11x's intents and purposes (i.e. gaming). The GPU is the "flagship" aspect of the M11x.

It's the sole reason why I won't be buying one, and I think it's very dissapointing that the "All Powerful" AW chose such weak, dated CPU's for one of their machines. I'm hoping for a refresh before winter this year. If not, my money's going elsewhere.

 

I think it's a great selection to achieve best battery life, performance, and cost. If you threw in any other faster Core 2 Duo you'd increase cost and likely reduce battery life. If you used the new iCore platform (i3, i5) you'd garner better performance and same if not slightly better battery life, but at a significant price increase, like +$200 or more. I think $799 is a good starting price point considering the hardware and market.

I shrieked when I saw reports from CES that it would start at $999. Then I would expect an i3 in there at least.

 

I believe the reason why they used the chipsets chosen were to primarily keep the costs down. An Alienware under a 1000 dollars is a huge selling point to the average consumer and looks very attractive.

 

Maybe. They probably got a deal on the CPU's as the C2D's are being phased out. They should have at least given the consumer the option of choosing a faster CPU though (like a 17W SL9300 or similar). They were able to cram a 35W GPU in there, I'm sure they could manage a slightly higher watt CPU. I'd happily sacrifice one or two hours battery life for a faster CPU.

The reason why I didn't mention the low voltage i5's/i7's is because a completely different MB/chipset is required and it's simply not feasible to have the two options running together. In saying that though, I don't know if I could even buy it if it had a SL9300. The Core i3/i5/i7's are here now and nearly all manufacturers have made the change over to them on their high end machines. For me, I don't think I could justify spending £800+ on a C2D machine.

 

I believe that everyone needs to stop complaining about it, and that they are more than capable CPUs for most games especially when overclocked to 1.6GHz through the appropriate BIOS option.

 

I"m sure the m11x will have a refresh in the future and offer a more powerful chipset. But then again the m11x is a 11.6" netbook and you can't expect too much in a package that small. From what it offers even now I"m rather impressed.

 

Werd. Agreed. Lets count our chickens AFTER they hatch... er... soemthing like that

 

Why do people INSIST ON CALLING THEM NETBOOKS.
Ultra-Portable.

NOT Netbooks.

Netbooks typically use DDR2 Ram and Atom Processors... Some have core2culvs, fine, but DDR3 Ram and a dedicated GPU? Switchable graphics? It's not a netbook!!

 

Frankly, I *almost* bought one, came so close it hurt.

Then I realized that a 2nd gen one would be so much better.... and get the kinks out.

Buying machines from Dellienware is starting to resemble waiting for the first model year bugs on a car to be worked out and buying the 2nd year...

 

Well, I've been waiting for something like this for quite some time, so I bit right away. If there is a significantly better improvement in 6-9 months, then I should be able to off my m11x for $500-$600 and put that towards the new one.

 

It's all about timing. I need one right now for my school and travels. Price point is so low that I'd be happy to upgrade to a refresh when it comes out.

 

M11x is too bulky to be called ultra-portable, call it a "net-brick" if you will.
As for the CPU - who cares, it's not like you gonna do heavy stuff on it.

 

The computer is a netbook.. I'm pretty sure as of now the average consumer knows "Laptop" as a Notebook or a Netbook.. The rest of the lingo is a given and the marketers at Dell and other corporations for that matter like to keep things simple. so that the average consumers don't get to confused in what they are buying.. However coming from a more then average consumer from a technical standpoint... Who cares..

 

The CPU in the M11X is sufficient for the purposes of the M11X. It's a netbook. If you need power, your not looking in the right direction. Power =M17X/M15X, although it appears the M17X R2 doesn't get enough power But I'm going to get the M11X for work on the road and maybe light gaming to kill time when I'm bored. I dont need it to run crysis at Ultra High settings

 

when i was speaking to a/w about my laptop we started talking about the m11x he asked me what i thought of it, i said yeah it looksgood but whats with the 1.3 prozzi hes answer was battery life.

i said your kidding me aint you i said anyone who buys an alienware isnt really considering battery life...its normally gaming performance thats what we want, but according to him this is why thats in it.

 

an Alienware with a long battery life.. decent gaming capabilities, price starting under 1k and an attractive design.. They should sell a lot.

 

Asus: G51 series = notebook and EEE series = netbook
Alienware: m15x = notebook and m11x = netbook

makes sense to me. it may not match the industry standards for netbook, but it seems to fit into AWs definition... think about it

 

Honestly, it makes sense to me Alienware using the C2D ULVs. Lower cost, lower heat, less power consumption, and still sufficient for most games.

It'd have taken them time and money to fit an i5/i7 ULV in there which has already been proven to be only marginally more powerful than the C2D ULVs, and draws more power, and makes more heat.

If I could, I'd be getting one, but due to my parents thinking that my M17 is enough I'm not going to be able to.

After all, all of you, keep in mind that this isn't designed to be a knock-your-socks-off gaming system like the M17x. By the looks of things the M11x is designed for portability with power as second priority, whereas with the M15x and M17x it's the other way around.

This is still the most powerful laptop with a sub-15" screen. Keep that in mind when you people still keep trying to pass it off as weak.

 

I'm personally pretty disappointed by the processor choice. The i5/i7 ULV (there are no i3 ULV processors) are only 8 W more than the C2D ULV, and the motherboard for the i-series chips draws less power. The net result is that both processor/motherboard combinations have an about equal TDP (I think the i-series is actually 1-2 W less when the motherboard is considered).

Although the chips themselves aren't that much more powerful (I've seen 10% more powerful thrown around), they do have much better integrated graphics. That means you can play games like WOW on the integrated settings and get much longer battery life, while still being able to switch over to dedicated graphics for more intensive games.

I see a few potential reasons why there are no i-series processors on this machine at the moment.
1) time. The processors wouldn't have been available when this was being developed, and they wanted an early 2010 release. We thus might see them in the refresh.
2) incompatibility. The i-series processors aren't compatible with the C2D ULV mothereboard. They'd have to completely redesign the computer in order to offer i-series with the C2D ULV at the same time. Thats not really practical.
3) price. The i-series are more expensive than the C2D. For me thats not really an issue, but its an issue for alienware's PR if they want to keep the pricepoint for a decently specced m11x below $1k (consumer perception is very important).

Personally I'll be waiting to order mine until a refresh occurs, assuming they upgrade the processor. I can't justify spending that amount of money on old tech, especially since this is a 'fun' purchase.

On a side note, apparently the RAM installed was advertised initially as being clocked at 1066 MHz, but a review said they were underclocking it and it was running at 800 MHz. Last I checked the configuration tool said the RAM was 800 MHz. Anyone know if the RAM is 1066 MHz ram and just being underclocked, or if they've changed it to 800 MHz?

 

Someone didn't do their homework... Overall, ULV i5/i6's = Less power draw + lower heat output:

ULV C2D (10W) + GS45 Chipset; MCH (12W), ICH (2.5W) = 24.5W
ULV i5/i7 (18W) + HM/PM55 Chipset (3.5W) = 21.5W

To be honest I can't really see the difference being minimal in real world situations (i7-640UM vs SU7300 for instance). No, the difference is not going to be huge, but I can guarantee you it'll be noticeable. I'd choose a 4MB cache HT Core i7 that turbos to 2.26GHz over a 3MB cache non-HT C2D that runs at 1.3GHz any day.

 

No it's not. It has a powerful GPU, that's it. "You people"? It doesn't need to be "passed off" as weak, it is weak. Fact.

 

If you think it's weak I think you guys are missing the point. Of course it's weak. It's a netbook. Granted maybe a larger netbook, but this isn't designed to be your primary gaming machine. If you want an i-core, the choice is obvious, M15X, if you want power, M17X.

 

Netbook it isn't - netbooks cost less than half as much. Netbook to most people means 'cheap' computer that they expect to run like garbage to get long battery life. This computer is about $1000 when reasonably specced. For that kind of money you can a) build a powerful desktop system, or b) order a very nice laptop. The only 'netbook' thing about it is the screen size - it even weighs a lot more. Most of my friends are not gamers, or computer experts in the slightest. And to them under $500 is a 'cheapish' computer. under $1000 is a 'nice' computer. $1000 and up is an 'expensive' computer. Price-wise this sytem isn't what anyone would consider a netbook, and so it better not have netbook performance (not that it does, but that doesn't change the fact that the processor is horrible).

 

No, I'm not missing any point. The CPU is weak, end of story. I don't care what form factor it's in. I'm referring specifically to the capability of the CPU.

I'm not talking about only gaming, it's already been clarified that the CPU is sufficient for gaming. If I wanted something just to play games, I'd buy a PS3. I want to do other tasks (you know the CPU-intensive kind?) when I'm on the go, and I thought that this would be perfect. Sadly, it's not, because of the weak CPU. Therefore, I will not be buying it. Is that so hard to understand?

 

no one is doubting that the SU7300 is not the most powerful sub 15" processor. however I have yet to see a sub 15" notebook with a more powerful GPU. Most people believe that the majority of games will bottleneck at the GPU. I wanted the most GPU grunt I could get with the smallest footprint I could get. do I wish it had a Ci7 um, yes. but if I wait for the refresh in 6-8 mo. then I will be waiting for the GPU refresh that will be around the corner and so on and so forth.

on another note: a drop of 3 watts would gain you between 10 and 20 min on a system that draws 64 watts to begin with.... just sayin

 

Why not an M15X then? I'm not defending it, I just think everyone has unresonable expectations. It is what it is so except it or find another computer. It's not something that's for everyone

If you were just anyone though, then you would not be considering the M11X. The solution is simple, if you want it, and are willing to buy it, by all means get it. If not, then by all means get something else, an inspiron mini or a M15X. People are going to buy what they want and what suits them. I'm getting it just to mess with something when I'm bored at work or on the go. For me it's about the portability and battery life coupled with the ability to game a little. Not for anything important, just a toy. Do I think the CPU is weak? Yes, and frankly I expected it to be. It's a non-issue to me. It'll do all I need. Thats why I'm also getting an M17XR2

 

I'd assume they went with old technology to save some money, most notebooks with SU7300/4100 are being or are already phased out to move to the i5's and i7's. Since they build to order they probably have quite a few of these processors they need to get rid of so they put them in the m11x and once they are gone will do a refresh with i5 or i7. Pretty common business practice actually.

I mean it sucks that we don't get i series but it's not the end of the world, if you were able to get in on the 250 dollars in discounts and get the thing for 750ish dollars with su7300,gt335m,7200rpm drive,4gb ram it's a pretty good deal even with the su7300 instead of i series.

 

Even if everyone doesn't agree that the m11x isn't a netbook regardless of that it is still considered a CILV (Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage) laptop/netbook…. whatever.

The fact of the matter is, is that we have an 11.6" Alienware computer for under 1K. Clearly alienware is trying to prove to everyone that they can manufacture a decent gaming rig at low cost with a good battery life.

 

Sony is putting a Core i7-620 (With hyperthreading enabled, for 8 cores) into a thinner packaged " New 2010 Z" that's not much bigger, alongside a GT 330 1gb. This is a "regular" non ULV Arrandale CPU.

Sure, the price is higher but the performance will be a rather astounding gain. If they can do it, I think AW should be able to at LEAST put some variety of latest generation CPU into their 11" brick if they want to sell it as the first true "gaming" ultraportable. Sadly there are plenty of modern games that won't work well on the CPU they've decided upon, even at the native resolution.

 

Please name these games and I'll gladly benchmark them. I'm not saying they will or not, but considering a much lesser equipped netbook can handle most things, MW2 included, I don't think this will struggle too much.

 

I don't think that a low voltage Core i5/i7 config is an unreasonable expectation. Time constraints may have been an issue (i.e. having the product ready for CES vs release date of ULV i5/i7 CPU's) but I wouldn't say unreasonable, not possible may be more suited.

I'll have a desktop for playing my games maxed out so it's not about brute power for me. I have a 13" notebook at the moment and I'm not prepared to go higher in size. I've been waiting for the i5/i7 refresh on the SXPS 13 for months and I thought the M11x might have featured them before the SXPS 13, with the advantage of the powerful GPU. Unfortunately, they didn't, so I'm disappointed. That's all.

Whether I go for the SXPS 13 refresh or wait for the M11x refresh is another thing, I'll have to weigh up the pros and cons. The size and GPU of the M11x beat the SXPS 13 hands down, but I can't justify it with such a weak CPU. Even the current C2D CPU's offered on the SXPS 13 blow the M11x CPU's out of the water.

I don't want to annoy anyone harping on about it, so apologies if I have!

 

The Core i5 Mobile 2.4GHz (i5-520M) cost is $225
http://intc.client.shareholder.com/priceList.cfm

Core 2 Duo SU7300 release price was $289
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors

However, and I am still trying to find the source, but IIRC, the cost of the Mobile Core 2's were less than 50% of original pricing at this point and I'm sure with Dell they probably managed a much cheaper bulk buy than that.

So you're talking ~$80 cheaper CPU which translates into probably $120 cheaper once it hits retail, not to mention cost of chipsets, I'm sure an i5 setup in an m11x would have cost $200-$250 more than the Core 2 setup.

I think it is more palatable for a $799 starting price regardless of CPU than a $999 starting price. Maybe in 6-9 months we'll see i5 m11x refresh, so if that's what you want, then wait. Maybe it'll never happen.

 

I thought about it long and hard but in the end cancelled my order, got a better deal for the same price on a ASUS N61JQ-A1 Core i7 720 Quad Core Radeon 5730 1GB 500GB 4GB 16IN HD LED WIN7 Home Premium Notebook

 

the CPU doesnt worry me, you don't want to game on a 11 inch anyway, the screen is way to small and cramped together, its a net book and as such should just be used to do your essays, browse the net, bring to your school/uni/college to do studies with. If you want a portable gaming rig go for a m15x or a m17x

 

Don't forget, part of that expense is due to style, and brand name. The fact that it's an "Alienware" is part of the increase. Just like brand named cloths. Even with the weak CPU, I think it's going to be a fun little toy. And look cool too.

 

I hear buying an m11x makes you more of a man as well..

 

I find it funny so many people are acting like the M11X is such an investment. With coupons it was like $800 tricked out for me. A regular netbook that can barely run Firefox will run $300+.

For the $800 you get an awesome netbook, a good portable gaming machine, a good productivity machine, all in one. The M11X is the first laptop I can take to school and take notes on, and in my down time grab a game of Warcraft or Leage of Legends or even Starcraft 2, and at the end of the day still have some battery left over.

Also, I may not be totally up on everything, but when I checked the 335M was miles above anything else, like double or 3 times the stream processors. Pretty much all modern games are GPU hindered, so the processor wasn't as important, and if it can play games like Mass Effect 2, GTA4, and others with steady FPS then why complain?

 

The GT330M is a far far cry GT335M.

48 SP's vs. 72 SP's (and the associated texture units) is a big big difference

The CPU alone will not make up for that

As resolution increases, the GPU has to shoulder more of the load than the CPU, and bottlenecking is most likely to occur at the GPU first. Will a faster CPU make benchmarks look nicer w/ a GT335M on the M11x? Sure. But real world performance in games will favor the GT335M easily

And yes, as YodaGoneMad says, the price is not that ridiculous.

With those coupons, I got it down to $826 shipped with a SU7300, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, and Bluetooth. Consider that an AS1410 or AS1810T from Acer, also 11.6" netbooks/ultra-portables, can only run the crummy GMA4500HD, have same processors, have less RAM, and cost in the $400-600 range - and don't have illuminated keyboards or any of that stuff, I'd say the price worked out quite well.

 

here is a nice benchmark I came across it directly compares the SU7300 and the SU4100.

http://anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3735&p=6

The acer 1810T is using the SU7300 and the Dell 11Z is using the SU4100.

 

Nice, good find, thanks. So about 8-10% improvement. But the real question is which one overclocks better? Considering the SU7300 has a BIOS o/c to 1.7GHz I'm thinking it'll be pretty decent. That's over a 30% CPU overclock.

I wonder if software O/C will be supported. I'd much rather be able to boost the speed on demand when needed, than have to BIOS overclock every time. But if battery life isn't compromised much then I guess it doesn't matter.

 

I think I would go for the low end cpu I have my m17x for all the heavy lifting.

 

True I don't know why we keep arguing about CPUs here. I mean this is a sub 13" LAPTOP not a gaming machine. For what it does it's awesome, that's why I got it. If I wanted power, I'd stay with my e8400 @ 4.5ghz 275 sli (738/156/1269) quietly watercooled at home. Some say my tech is dated but hey it runs crysis at max with 42 fps.

So again this is a tiny laptop not a M17x.

 

The real question is: Does this need it's own thread? It's been beaten to death in both parts of the owner's lounge.

 

Im fine with it, even though it may be a bit weak, I don't expect this thing to run crysis at high at 800 fps...

 

I was referring to the heat that the processor itself produces. The processors generate more heat than the chipset, and in the case of the i5/i7 ULVs, that extra heat concentrated in the processor itself may have resulted in overheating.

I'm just speculating here. I do think that the reasons they didn't include an i5/i7 ULV are most likely time and money, especially as they aren't much more powerful. Not to mention the M11x is more than likely aimed at an average consumer who will see a ULV C2D clocked at 1.3GHz as stronger than an i7 ULV clocked at 1.2GHz. The average consumer is not going to know about turboboost, and faster architecture, and all the other i7 benefits.

That is an opinion and considering that somewhere around the lines of 90% of computers nowadays still use IGPs, no, this is not weak. The average consumer is not going to be running processor intensive programs. Like I have said before, the processor will NOT bottleneck many games, especially when overclocked to 1.6GHz through the BIOS. I run my quad core at 1.6GHz all the time to save heat, purely because the only games I notice a difference in at 2GHz are Dragon Age Origins, The Last Remnant and Crysis. And even then the difference was minor and all those games are perfectly playable at 1.6GHz.

Granted my CPU is a quad core and all of the games above are optimised for quad cores, the point I'm trying to make is that when the CPU IS a bottleneck, in most games it only results in the dropping of a few frames a second, with a few select games (most notably RTSs) being an exception.

No, it is NOT weak. Fact. Compared to netbooks, it's godlike. Compared to most notebooks even, when it comes to games which don't forget is one of its purposes, it IS NOT WEAK.

It plays Mass Effect 2 maxed out. It plays Modern Warfare 2 maxed out. It can play Crysis. I don't know if you'd consider that weak in your world (and if you do then you really are a hardcore gamer) but for the vast majority of people that's powerful.

(end wall of text)

 

To those who way this isn't for gaming or heavy usage, point you to the Alienware website describes the m11x as an "Ultra Mobile Gaming Laptop"

To those who claim this is a netbook: I point you to my Dell Latitude D420. It's 12" with a 1.2Ghz ULV Core Duo processor and an Intel GMA 950. Is that a netbook? No, the term hadn't even been invented then. So why is an 11" Alienware with significantly more power being called a netbook?

Netbooks have:

• 8"-11" screen
• Intel Atom processor
• Low-end/integrated graphics card
• No more than 1GB RAM
• Price of around $300-400

M11x has:

• 11" screen
• Core 2 Duo processor
• Reasonable dedicated graphics card
• 4GB RAM
• Price $799+

The only way in which they're similar is the screen size.

To be honest, I believe that the processor is weak but that it doesn't really matter for this laptop. For a gaming machine, the GPU is far more important and for work it's powerful enough.

 

Thank you. I'm so tired of people calling this a netbook. Seriously, it's not even close to a netbook. Netbooks dont even have 1mb of l2 cache.


Ok the processor isnt' great. Early adopters will probably cry when the revision 2 is released in the summer.

But such is the price for being the cool kids on the block for 4 months, I'll take it.

 

I think everybody's missed the point here.... Has anybody seen the i3/i5 or i7 chipset with "Hybrid" graphics??? I don't think there is such a chipset yet otherwise we would see this in the M17x would we not??? Perhaps this is the real reason we are seeing the M11x still with the C2D's

Please correct me if I am wrong and show me another lappy with the "i-chipset" WITH Hybrid graphics which allows for longer mobility and battery life....