New Alienware AM11x laptop, drive options?

New Alienware AM11x laptop, drive options?

I bought a new "mini" Alienware laptop today. I also have a big gaming PC for real use. I was hoping this laptop can play my TF2 perfectly so i could part out my PC, but I dont think its quite strong enough.

So, I have a OCZ Vertez Agility 120gb SSD drive in my PC. I am trying to find out if this is a direct bolt-in to my new laptop. I would rather have the killer laptop, and it needs the speed improvement more. Anyone know if its a straight bolt up?

 

They're both standard 2.5" drives.

 

thanks, i guess i should have read a little lower to find a similar thread to mine.

If this laptop can play TF2 at 1650x1050 (on my monitor) just as well as my PC's HD4870 card, then i may just sell my PC. But I seriously doubt it will play it just as good..

 

The main issue is CPU power. The Source engine (which TF2 uses) doesn't demand very much from graphics cards, but it is a bit more CPU-heavy than many other modern game engines. The M11x uses a relatively underpowered low-voltage processor, so TF2 may not perform as well as it does on your desktop.

Either way, I guess the only way to find out for sure is to try it.

 

trying to run TF2 at 1650x1050 using this alienware laptop source was a joke. 2-3 frames a second, totally unplayable.

 

Running games on external monitor kind of really kills the purpose of a "netbook". Its better used on a bed, while on the toilet or something.

 

Now that surprises me...the M11x doesn't use the highest-end parts, but they should do better than that. I mean, my netbook (specs in sig) usually gets at least 10-20fps in TF2. What settings were you playing with?

 

well, same as my pc settings..

1650x1050 or whatever.. and all settings maxed.

my 4870 card on my pc runs it like glass.

 

Maxed out settings are a bit unrealistic for the M11x.

 

Well, I screwed up the first phase of my disk install.. I tried that Win 7 backup/recover image method.. I first made a system image on my external USB storage drive. Worked fine. Then I unplugged my SSD drive from my PC, leaving a blank 300GB Velocirator in there. (I deleted all my files.). I then boot off the recovery DVD and try to restore the image onto my Velociraptor. The system finds my image just fine. And it also finds the Veloci drive. But every time i click finish, it fails and says coule not restore image.

I have given up on this half of the work and I am just re-installing my Win 7 OS from scratch onto my PC. That will work fine and I'll be back up by tomorrow.

But that still leaves me in a bind to get this SSD put into the laptop. Now my Alienware did come with a windows 7 DVD, I wonder if I can just install from scratch onto the SSD using it? I didnt want to screw up any OS serial numbers or anything like that..

 

Well crap... this laptop doesnt have a DVD drive. And I don't have an external.. Guess I'll have to buy one tomorrow.

 

downloaded a trial of Acronis Home edition. It is copying to my SSD now. I was prepared to buy it, but not if I don't need to. As long as this works I will not need it again. Seems like its a fully functional trial edition?

 

I hope you are Cloning your HD to the SSD and not "copying" or creating an "image" as neither of those options will work.

You will find the "Clone Disk" option in the Tools drop down menu or the "Utilities" menu. At least that is where it is in Acronis TI 2009

 

yup. i been building pcs since the late 80's. I wouldnt make that mistake. Hopefully the SSD bolts right in and boots right up. If it does, I'll be pretty amazed..

 

Deleted post. Not relevant.

 

omg, it WORKED first try!! I carefully installed my SSD drive and it boot right up. (Almost twice as fast mind you..) When I had it open it looked like both ram slots were used up with the 4GB it came with, I don't need more than that. But it also looked like the CPU or VID isn't really upgradeable, or not very easy at best. Not in a big rush anyway, but i wouldnt have minded a little faster CPU if it all possible..

 

you know what im thinking.. maybe i ran that game test using my slow graphics. I am learning I have two graphic options and I didnt switch it. I think the default is the slow graphics chip.

 

My Windows score with the integrated graphics:
4.1
4.7
3.2
3.2
6.8

My Windows score with the discrete graphics:
4.1
4.7
6.5
6.5
6.8

Now I feel a bit better.. Do most of you just leave it in the nice graphics and disable switching the bios?

Compared to my gaming PC:
7.3
7.3
7.5
7.5
5.9 (cuz i stole its SSD for the laptop, used to be 6.8)

 

My OCZ Agility SSD 128GB drive I just installed in this laptop just isnt very fast. Only a 135Mb/s average read. Compare that with my PC's Intel X25 SSD which has an average read of 240MB/s or something..

And... I have one unknown device in my device manager.. dont know how I will figure out what it is.

 

I improved my SSD drive performance! I think the thing that did it was installing something called Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver off Dells website.

My OCZ SSD drive went from a 159MB/s burst to 234MB/s burst. I know burst doesnt mean much, but ill take better numbers anywhere..

 

Even though I thought my SSD performance is pretty poor.. when compared to my oem its a lot better. The access time is miles apart, and the average read is a lot better too.

Alienware M11X OEM 250GB drive:



Alienware M11X OCZ Agility 128GB drive:



And compare that with my proper gaming PC, with an Intel X25 80GB SSD drive: