Alienware M11X alternatives

[adreen]

So I've been looking at the ultra thin and light cats to replace my Asus netbook.
I thought I'd be satisfied with a websurfer as a laptop and a powerhouse desktop at home.
But I'm starting to hate how slow all my programs and whatnot run, anyways.
I'm seriously considering the Alienware M11X...it's compact and has enough horses to game on.
Are there any other laptops I should be considering that are reasonably priced and can support some casual gaming within the 11-13" range?

 

[frozenlead]

Gaming at 11"?

Anyway, you didn't mention how much you had to spend.

 

[welshmousepk]

the only other remotely capable sub 12" notebook is the asus N10j. it still has an atom processor but is paried with a 9300m with its own dedicated VRAM.

its considerably weaker than the m11x though.

the M11x is probably the best product alineware offer, and if you can afford it i would say its a brilliant buy.

 

[adreen]

I'm just a little concerned about how much the su7300 will limit me. I would wait for a refresh, but wouldn't a UL i3/i5 really increase the price of the m11x greatly? Right now the m11x is priced at 929 CAD for a su7300/4gb ram/320gb 7200rpm hd.
a similarily equipped albeit larger sony viao Z series with the 330m gt+i5 is at 2k+, of course high end sony's are notoriously expensive, but so is alienware with new technology.

 

[Maverick4396]

http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-u30jca1-order-p-2763.html seems like a good compromise. G310M, i3,4GB Ram and 320GB Hard Drive for less than 1000 dollars. Switchable graphics for when you want battery life or gaming. Obviously the G310M is only going to get you like the low end of medium or high end of low settings but its also not 2000+ dollars.

 

[welshmousepk]

the g310 is really at the low end of what could be used for gaming though. :S

really, i think that so long as you don't plan any heavy multitasking that the alineware PC will be fine. if i had the cash, I'd have bought one myself. they seem like the perfect balance of price/power/portability.

 

[Maverick4396]

the g310 is really at the low end of what could be used for gaming though. :S

really, i think that so long as you don't plan any heavy multitasking that the alineware PC will be fine. if i had the cash, I'd have bought one myself. they seem like the perfect balance of price/power/portability.

except that in the case of the SU7300 it is the lowest of the low in terms of CPU. Single core and all. That will be far worse than having an i3 and a G310M

 

[adreen]

it's not single core. it's dual. but it's a ul cpu. the 335m gt is an incredible gpu

 

[welshmousepk]

except that in the case of the SU7300 it is the lowest of the low in terms of CPU. Single core and all. That will be far worse than having an i3 and a G310M

the SU7300 is a dual core, and while its a low power processor, its still considerably better than an atom and does come close to a core i3.

 

[qwerty45]

except that in the case of the SU7300 it is the lowest of the low in terms of CPU. Single core and all. That will be far worse than having an i3 and a G310M

Your a joke. Not gonna lie. Yes the SU7300 is sorta a bottleneck in SOME games, (like GTAIV). But the G310m is a huuuuuge bottleneck in the i3 system and will give you terrible performance for the same price as an M11x

 

[Maverick4396]

Your a joke. Not gonna lie. Yes the SU7300 is sorta a bottleneck in SOME games, (like GTAIV). But the G310m is a huuuuuge bottleneck in the i3 system and will give you terrible performance for the same price as an M11x

If you're going to try and insult someone you might want know the proper use of the word YOU'RE (a contraction of you and are) instead of your (a posessive).

The SU7300 is a dual core, I stand corrected. It is a 1.3 GHZ dual core. You think that this CPU will compete on any level of gaming with a i3 @ 2.4GHZ + dual core even with a slightly worse GPU?

Bench them both side by side and let me know how it goes.

 

[qwerty45]

If you're going to try and insult someone you might want know the proper use of the word YOU'RE (a contraction of you and are) instead of your (a posessive).

The SU7300 is a dual core, I stand corrected. It is a 1.3 GHZ dual core. You think that this CPU will compete on any level of gaming with a i3 @ 2.4GHZ + dual core even with a slightly worse GPU?

Bench them both side by side and let me know how it goes.

You can overclock the SU7300 to 1.73 through an on-off switch (not hard) and the G310m is a terrible GPU. Sorry if my last message sounded kinda mean.

 

[Maverick4396]

You can overclock the SU7300 to 1.73 through an on-off switch (not hard) and the G310m is a terrible GPU. Sorry if my last message sounded kinda mean.

the G310M is not the best GPU, the GT335M is not the best GPU (this GPU is just a rebadged and overclocked GT135). People expect these to play games and they might, but for the most part they are going to be disappointed. If the M11x had an option to even put an i3 in it I would be all for the M11x.

 

[welshmousepk]

the G310M is not the best GPU, the GT335M is not the best GPU (this GPU is just a rebadged and overclocked GT135). People expect these to play games and they might, but for the most part they are going to be disappointed. If the M11x had an option to even put an i3 in it I would be all for the M11x.

the alienware will be far more capable of gaming than the system you linked. yes its processor is lightly weaker, but its GPU is probably twice as powerful.

 

[Maverick4396]

the alienware will be far more capable of gaming than the system you linked. yes its processor is lightly weaker, but its GPU is probably twice as powerful.

so your idea of slightly is a CPU that has 1/2 the amount of available computing power?

SU7300

# of Cores 2
# of Threads 2
Clock Speed 1.3 GHz
Intel® Smart Cache 3 MB
FSB Speed 800 MHz
Instruction Set Extensions SSE4
Embedded No
Supplemental SKU Yes
Lithography 45 nm
Max TDP 10 W

i3-350M

# of Cores 2
# of Threads 4
Clock Speed 2.26 GHz
Intel® Smart Cache 3 MB
Bus/Core Ratio 17
DMI 2.5 GT/s
Instruction Set 64-bit
Instruction Set Extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2
Embedded No
Supplemental SKU No
Lithography 32 nm
Max TDP 35 W

Sorry the SU7300 is not even 1/2 the CPU the other one is. Regardless it is not going to be a great experience playing games in general on these laptops.

CPU matters, if you think it doesn't try and see if we can get toms to do a side by side review of these setups.

 

[welshmousepk]

http://au.gear.ign.com/articles/106/1065816p1.html

games at high specs is certain to impress. We tested the M11x with a diverse collection of games, ranging from the visually jaw-dropping Mass Effect 2 to the no-frills, but relentlessly fun Left 4 Dead. The M11x met, and in most cases surpassed, our expectations with just about every game we tested. We were most surprised by the M11x's ability to run Mass Effect 2 with every visual effect turned on and resolution set to maximum (1366 x 768). Not only did Mass Effect 2 run at maxed out specs, but it consistently ran above the industry standard of 30 frames-per-second. The average framerate for Mass Effect 2 at max specs on our M11x was around 45 frames-per-second, although at times it reached up to 50 or 60 frames per second.

according to IGN, gaming on the m11x is fine.

the point is, gaming is much more dependent on the GPU than the CPU. the m11x can max out MW2 and ME2 at its native resolution and remain playable, which the laptop you linked could not dream of doing.

quote as many 'figures' as you like, but the m11x is far superior for gaming. of course its not going to be a powerhouse, its a netbook. the OP simply wants the best gaming he can get out of a netbook. and thats the m11x.

 

[adreen]

on notebookreview.com there is a comparison of the m11x vs a 2000 dollar sony viao Z model series.
the specs were by far in favour of the sony, except for it's vid card which is a 330m gt, vs the AW's 335m gt.
in GAMING performance, almost every benchmark saw better frames in the m11x.
the sony viao had a mobile i5 processor (not even ulv), and a ssd hd.
i agree that a i3 processor would be hella nice in the m11x, but for it's price, u are getting a boatload of performance at 11". mainly gaming performance though, if you're doing cpu intensive tasks like rendering/editing ur better off without the ulv cpu.
can't find the exact link atm. but the reviewer had both m11x and viao together when he compared them. it was an eye opener considering the sony cost 1000 more.

 

[knowsstuff]

I think u should wait and see if alienware upgrdes their processor in the m11x otherwise it'll just be too slow. even though it's got a superb graphics card

 

[welshmousepk]

Well done on resurrecting an old thread Know...

for what its worth, the M11x WILL be getting i5/i7 processors soon, as dell have announced. by this point i think the OP probably has his new laptop though.

in future, check the date of the last post before contributing.

 

[Haker]

if you're doing cpu intensive tasks like rendering/editing ur better off without the ulv cpu.

Interestingly enough with the move in CG happening this year towards using CUDA and OpenCL I bought the m11x for rendering with the graphics card. Oddly, over traditional rendering on my desktop with a quad core the m11x renders 20x faster when using rendering engines and other applications based around CUDA and OpenCL. So now I have a great mobile powerhouse for doing CG on the go.

I would expect to see CUDA/OpenCL taking over everything this year and the next (maybe even video rendering/photo processing?) and there is already great rendering applications for this such as Octane Render, Arion, and Studio|GPU.

 

[phx]

I personally would go for a Sony Vaio Z series, they have SSD and it's not like a box like the M11x is, also the 330m GT is enough to run your games especially on a 13"?