Alienware M11x R3 Gaming Laptop

[Charlton]

Dell announced officially the new laptops Alienware M14X and M18X , and a renewed M11X R3. Dell as usual, has called the M18x "the laptop for gamers 18 inches more powerful the universe." It offers a full HD (1920 x 1080) and dual-GPU graphics options - AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI - with GDDR5 memory and an Intel Quad Core Extreme i7 overclocked to 4.0 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 and up to 32 GB of RAM. Its starting price is $ 1,999.

The M14x R3 is a portable 14-inch that weighs less than 3kg, including second-generation Core i7 processors, Nvidia GeForce GT 555m with a maximum of 3GB of video memory, up to 8GB RAM, optical drive, and optional Intel WiMAX or LTE Verizon. His asking price is USD $ 1,199 and will be available starting May 10. The M11x gamebook has the second generation Intel Core i5 and i7, GT Nvidia GeForce 540M with up to 2GB of video memory, 8-cell battery for 10 hours and the same connectivity options, the M14x. It will be available in May with a starting price of $ 999.

It runs on Intel platform Huron River with a low-power processor Sandy Bridge i5-2537 m or Core i7-2617M, which coupled to at least 4 GB of RAM to be at ease guaranteed good performance in multitasking and common use, aided by the fast hard drive at 7200 rev / min. As such, those who wish to store many files will increase to a 750 GB model or a hybrid version of 500 GB (120 while those for whom the response is very important to opt for a SSD 256 GB as long as their budget is at the height.

Features :

• 11.6-inch TrueLife LCD with LED-backlit screen;
• Processor Intel Core i5-2537M (1,4 GHz), Intel Core i7-2617M (1,5 GHz) or Intel Core i7-2657M (1,6 GHz)
• Up to 8 GB of RAM
• Discrete graphics card (the details of the model and manufacturer so far)
• Winchester up to 750GB or SSD up to 256GB
• Wireless Adapter Wi-Fi
• Module 3G or 4G (LTE or WiMAX)
• 8-cell battery

Design

The issue before us today, Dell Alienware M11x two graphics cards cannot boast, but for 11-inch laptop to filling more than impressive. However, we'll talk about it in the appropriate section, but for now let's look at the laptop itself. If it were not for the thickness of the body, the Dell M11x could be taken for the "tuned" netbook with a big screen. Alienware logo on the lid of the laptop model adds a certain charm. In the clear differences between our little "alien" and the usual netbook too little.

Case material - very pleasant to the touch matte plastic. Glossy inserts have a laptop just two - on the front panel above the keyboard. They will stain rarely and with cleaning problems should arise. But the screen, unfortunately, entirely glossy - the options M11x c matte screen from Dell is not provided.

Of course, the price for such will be biting, so if you do not want to pay extra for the SSD, you can choose a model and cheaper to upgrade later yourself. In terms of selecting the most fortunate people of the United States: the processor, memory, hard drive, the module WiMAX and much more - all this can change in the starting configuration even before you buy, the online store. In addition, if you buy a laptop through an online store, you can order engraving his name or nickname on a metal panel located on the bottom of the notebook.

Unchanged in the laptop will remain only a few parts: a 2-megapixel webcam with a pair of microphones, 11-inch glossy display and video card GeForce GT 540M. However, if you really want to get a notebook compiled by personal request, without a trip to the U.S. if you do not want to have a different language support for keyboard. You have to engrave in addition, you can use services that deal with sending mail from the States. Otherwise will have to be content with only those M11x, which come to Russia officially. About the price of laptops in the Russian media are not very many. We only know that we are considering modifying Dell Alienware M11x with conventional hard disk drive and 8 gigabytes of memory would cost roughly between 45 and 000.

[Charlton]

Video Card Support

Pro video card is worth discussing separately. NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M - model of the middle class, made on 40-nm process technology. It contains 96 core CUDA, the core and shader are 672 and 1344 MHz respectively. The memory frequency is 900 MHz and the width of its tires - 128 bits. GeForce GT 540M supports the same set of technologies that other adapters are 500-series. Most important in this situation, it seems NVIDIA Optimus, which allows you to automatically switch between discrete and integrated graphics, depending on the task. Thus, in many cases increases the battery life of the battery.

The video card is now used not only for games, its ability to gradually adapt to different tasks. Not so long ago, in March this year, was approved specification WebGL 1.0, which opens the way for us to 3D-graphics in a browser. NVIDIA, of course, refers exclusively to this initiative is positive, because when you use GPU-accelerated performance increases significantly. The new processor Intel i7 (Sandy Bridge) is not applicable to the middle class is one of the top notebook processors. However, with low teplopaketom. Its nominal frequency is only 1.5 GHz, but thanks to the Turbo Boost processor is able to increase the frequency of one core to 2.6 GHz. Such a mechanism of Turbo Boost is typical for energy-efficient processors Intel.

Support Hyper-Threading is useful in everyday work, although games often on it is useless. However, back to the appearance of our experimental. On the left side of his are connectors DisplayPort, HDMI, Ethernet, combo card reader (SD, MMC, MS / Pro), 4-pin FireWire IEEE 1394 port and one USB 2.0, which allows you to charge your device from power off the laptop. Optimus judge in real time the graphics horsepower needed to meet the tasks performed by the user. As soon as it considers the performance of the graphics Intel GMA 3000 HD insufficient, it automatically switches to the Geforce GT 540M.

Keyboard

Keyboard and Touchpad Alienware M11x is surprisingly comfortable. Let M11x keyboard more similar to those of netbooks, though its keys are slightly narrower than normal and for them the first time will have to get used to, but they are normal, mild and pleasant move. And most importantly, the keyboard does not flex when pressed. The keys W, A, S, D, there is the additional symbols - is once again points out the fact that this is not normal, and gaming laptop. The touchpad is made on the M11x with a solid top five. He was very pleasant to the touch, and thanks to cell-"cover" it is very easy to find without looking. We are also pleased that the touchpad buttons are separated by a small partition, and the buttons themselves are also very nice - a quiet, gentle and profound way.

If pro keyboard and touchpad can say only good things, then the screen - the weakest point of our experimental. About omnipresent gloss to say no, the problem is not in him. Between the matrix and the glossy screen is a gap in 1 - 2 mm, because of which highlights the already glossy screen gets bigger, and the angles of not increasing. For viewing angles, by the way, the laptop can also criticize - they are cheap at the level of TN-matrices. However, we should not forget that this is a test, not the final model laptop. Especially, the manufacturer promises to improve the display of the official release.

Conclusion

No matter how compact laptop may have been, no matter how beautifully designed it did not possess, almost always it is all about the speed of his work. In order to understand what exactly is it like to Alienware M11x, we subjected it to several tests. It is a known benchmarks and PCMark Vantage PCMark11, and gaming tests, and test the battery life. In the basic hardware features Alienware remains true to his principle and built with the Intel Core i7-2617M a ULV CPU with two cores. In addition to the integrated HD3000 graphics processor in the unit once a dedicated graphics solution is used. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M used is for us an old acquaintance, because since the launch of the second-generation Core NVIDIA Mid-range acceleration in many notebook designs have been used.

Price is always right as the M11x flexibly, Alienware makes it partly a configuration according to your own taste. Although it is not quite as flexible as some built-to-order manufacturer, which offered variations appear but definitely useful and provide enough flexibility to let your own creativity.