What to buy!??! M11X or M1340 ???

Well i currently have a m1330 best laptop ive ever owned. It serves as my only computer. I have the 9cell which is awesome. I take it to class all day and down to the lab to take data on. I dont play many games any more but id like to be able to if i wanted to. I mainly use it for internet browsing, listening to music, school work (excel, word, etc.), and occasional games.

The deal is my HD went on my m1330 and my mom has always liked it. so ive decided to fix the hd and hand it to her... she currently has a 17'' laptop that she hates lugging around. I know i hated my 9300 for the same reason... 12lb monster. Im looking to spend around $1000

I can get the m11x built on dell epp with a 1.3 dual core. 4gb ram. 1gb video. 500gb HD for only $1050

OR i can pick up a m1340 on ebay since they are not on the website anymore for some reason... with a 2.5 dual core. 320-500gb hd. 4gb ram. and either a 9500M or 210M card... i dont know the differences...


So what should i do... both fit what i want... the alienware only with the 1.3 dual core worries me... the m1340 seems to have it beat as far as processing power...

im also not sure if 11'' is going to be too small for a main computer... but most would say that about a 13'' and i loved that thing... even slept with it next to my bed.

So what should i do??? i hate 15'' laptops... too big for me... ...

Ive owned a 12'' alienware sentia and loved it... i had to sell it to pick up my current m1330 specs on that are (8400gs,2.2 t7500,2000gb 7200RPM drive, 2gb ram) i just want what ever i get to be a upgrade and not a down grade.

 

also just saw this:
http://www.amazon.com/UL30Vt-X1-13-3-Inch-Laptop-Windows-Premium/dp/B002XZLURC/ref=pd_cp_pc_1

Which doesent look bad besides the 1.3 dual core...

 

You could pick up a refurb XPS M1340, scratch or dent, or previously ordered new off the Dell outlet site. And you can save a few bucks. Personally, I would wait to see what is going to take the XPS 1340s place. But, some of the refurbs are tempting.

 

What ever takes its place will be out of my price range anyway the xps 13'' line started at like 1.4k new iirc

 

Well if you do look at the Refurbs look at ones with the G210M-512 video card, windows 7, LED screen etc. I have the 210M video card so far it's OK. Seems, some software items don't work real good together with the hardware configuration. Like the Facial recognition software. It works as far as log in/ sign on to my desk top and web pages but it is a CPU resource hog. I have been disabling it when I get into my desk top. The Latest 14 inch Inspiron Dell is offering looks like a nice machine also.

And I guess you have read all the Horror stories about the XPS1340 Being a blast furnace. It does get hot if you are going to game. For just internet operation, word processing it's fine. But it does have known issues. Oh, and if you do buy a XPS 1340, I would definetly buy one of the refurbs from Dell and add some warranty at checkout.

 

my xps1330 has many more bad stories then the m1340... gpu issues with these like crazy... BUt even if i ebay it ill be getting a extended warranty through dell...

g210M better then the 9500M i know its more memory however... but im not seeing any refurbed 1340's on their site...

 

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/laptops.to?Screen%20Size=13%22%20-%2014%22

check out the Satellite M500-ST54X1, at 799, same as the asus, but its 14 inch and has a T6600 C2D.

 

I've got two of the M11x on order, looking forward to getting them .They are supposed to be fantastic

 

interesting people are going nuts over a 11 inch laptop.. and ugly one at that. may i ask why? i understand its suppose to be good at gaming but jesus its ugly

 

price isnt bad... and its got alot in that 11''s

 

im glad im not the only one who did the his and hers thing

 

The M11X seems great but how is it really a "powerful, portable, gaming machine" ? That wimpy processor scared me away from it lol.

 

only thing keeping me off of it...

 

Ditto. Anything you run on it will end up bottlenecked by the CPU

 

For me its the looks. Incredibly ugly little machines the Alienwares.

Im rather desperately waiting for the Studio 13 refresh, it will both drive down the cost of used current gen models and hopefully the new one will be anyway

 

You said you were looking for around 1000 bucks to spend, why not get a basic Studio XPS 1640? You can get one new for $949.00 The 1640 is not too heavy as I carry it to class everyday. The basic has a 2.2GHz dual core and a 512MB GPU so it is pretty good for what you want to do and it looks great. ;-)

 

The CPU can be OCed in the BIOS to 1.73GHz... and if you go read some reviews on it (all of the ones you find will be with the CPU at 1.3GHz) you'll see that it does just fine on all the current games at medium or better settings.

I don't think they're all that ugly. They are a bit on the edge, but thats the whole point/idea. Alienware has always had "that look" to it even before Dell bought them.

Definitely do some research on the M11x and read some reviews before shunning it. You got to keep it in perspective: This thing is 1 inch bigger then a netbook.

 

I'm waiting for the SXPS 13 refresh, and then I'll make a decision. It's a given that the new SXPS 13 will have considerably faster CPU's than the M11x, but it's also a given that the GPU won't be as strong.

So, for me anyway, it'll be down to how much weaker the GPU is. Both are portable to me, and have very similar screen resolutions. The screen size in the M11x is only 2" smaller so that doesn't bother me that much, but I would prefer the slightly larger 13.3" screen.

I have a feeling Dell might be holding back the SXPS 13 refresh to encourage sales of the M11x, so I might have to wait a couple more weeks.

 

I'm taking the plunge and going from a 13 in my Dell and Sony to the 11 in the m11x. The Sony CW was also in the mix... But with the EPP discount and the temporarily stack-able coupons I couldn't pass up the deal on the Alienware. I used to have a xps1210 and since the m11x is technically a 11.6 inch screen I don't think I should have any major issues. The CPU did/does scare me, but my work Vostro is just a 1.5 C2D and it does pretty much everything I need it do with only 2mb of ram... With the overclocking option I think I should be safe...

I'd be pretty disappointed if the next gen sxps 13 had 1600x900, a core i5 and had a comparable 128 bit gfx card all in the same price range... But that is probably unlikely?

 

I do not want bigger then a 13.3'' at all...I like my 13.3'' ive had 17'' laptops 15'' laptops... and i hated moving them anywhere... and the battery life was crap.

 

Not necessarily. The Asus UL80Vt has the same CPU (albeit better battery life) but a worse GPU and can still go through Modern Warfare 2 better than my SXPS 13 (P8700 + 9500M GE) could.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCYRO9MvAv0

For an 11" notebook/netbook/whatever_you_want_to_call_it, it should be fairly impressive performance wise.

 

i am considering the m11x also. the cpu has a turbo mode or whatever and clocks it to 1.6 ghz. between that and the gpu it should be able to handle all kinds of stuff. also its 11.6 inches. it basically works out to 12 inches. ive used a 12 and its very playable. its all relative what your used to.

the only thing that sucks is build times and waiting

i say get the m11x

 

Errm, no it doesn't. The CPU is a CULV Core 2 Duo. Only Core i5/i7 models feature Turbo Boost.

 

Does anybody have any pics comparing the m11x to any 13 inch laptop? I'm really curious about the screen size.

I don't know anything about cpu's but isn't it likely the m11x will offer those low clocked 1.2ghz corei7 cpu's in the future? They have a real low voltage and would make it less scary for most of us 'noobs' (who think the higher clocks, the better) to buy a lower clocked cpu than we already have.

 

I actually expected them to initially and was somewhat disappointed they didn't (albeit I expected a higher price). A Core i7 620UM would provide a clock speed of 1.06GHz and would turbo boost up to 2.13GHz. The upgrade to the Core i7 640UM would add ~133MHz to both of those numbers.

 

If that turbo mode is 2.13 ghz on both cores, and not only one core, then i'm definitly going to consider it, even if it would cost 100-200€ more.

 

Intel Turbo Boost overclocks the frequency of all cores on all variants of mobile Core i5/i7 CPU's, but by different amounts. The max turbo frequency listed on Intel's website always refers to the boosted frequency of a single-core only.

Take the ULV i7-620UM mentioned above for instance. While boosting one core only, it has a max turbo frequency of 2.13GHz. While boosting both cores, it's maximum frequency on both cores is 1.73GHz.

Obviously it's not as good as being able to boost both cores to 2.13GHz like you were hoping for, but at least it boosts them somewhat, to 1.73GHz. The i7-640UM (the CPU I'm hoping for eventually in the M11x) will boost a single core to 2.26GHz and both cores to 1.87GHz. With hyper-threading also, it will be a very neat CPU to have in such a small notebook.

Have a look at this table created for the quad-core mobile i7 CPU's. It lists the max turbo frequencies when boosting different amounts of cores.

 

@ rpg-xps
I guess my fear was correct, namely that the boost will not be that high for the two cores. But then again, 1.73ghz isn't that low, and perhaps might be even faster than an 'old' core 2 duo @ 2ghz thx to newer architecture.

 

May I suggest a fully loaded Vostro 1220? (see specs below). $800 total, and it runs Rome/Medieval/Empire Total War, CoD MW2 and several other games at native res and medium/high settings.

Plus it has a CD/DVD drive for movies, and a processor that absolutely crushes the M11x.

Whaddya guys think?

 

dont need a cd/dvd the 1.3 c2d can over clock in bios to a 1.73 that is covered under the warranty... i think that will handle more then the stuff i do anyway

 

Vostro? it is limited by integrated intel graphics only, not even in the same ballpark

 

I used a friend's one and one thing is a bit annoying with the m11x, It is the noise when you game or are pushing it a bit, i do not know if it is specific to this unit but damn it is noisy like an old vacuum cleaner. pretty quiet at idle though