Review: Alienware M11x Gaming Netbook

[Guest]

Lead in: Have we discovered the holy grail of netbooks? This tiny Alienware beast shatters every preconceived notion we had about tiny laptops.

Review: Alienware M11x Gaming Netbook : Read more

 

[welshmousepk]

Desktop users with a gtx 240? Might want to fix that.
Nice review though, if a little late.

I still think this is the best product alienware offer. Excellent value for money, and perfect for somelike me who attends alot of LANs. Shame I can't afford one.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

"....beast shatters every preconceived notion we had about tiny laptops."

Wish I could actually see one try it out for myself. When I think of netbooks I think of tiny screens.

 

[warezme]

It is a small portable machine but can really only "game" at low resolution (limited by screen resolution) with low settings in game settings.

Compared to GT 240?? I don't think so, more like 9600 at best.

 

[Doctor-boom]

Warezme, you might want to check your fact before talking. This thing played everything I threw at it :dawn of war II, ddo unlimited, dragon age, warhammer online. on medium-high settings (very high for ddo-U). There is no comparison between the mx11 and a laptop with a 9600 (I have both, I can compare). And why would you want a higher resolution on a 11.6" inch screen? The human eye isn't going to see a difference.

 

[Guest]

pffff...this is not a netbook...but an ultraportable,and a great one.

 

[jamezrp]

warezme, we didn't test on an external monitor, as explained, because it's a laptop and most users will not play on an external monitor. That doesn't mean that because it can play games at 1366x768 at high spec that it's a weak GPU. On the contrary, the fact that a small laptop of it's size can do that is quite amazing. No other laptop can do this today.

While I'm still testing the machine (and am in fact using it as a desktop and laptop replacement, a story for another time), I can say without a doubt that it is awesome. And I don't mean awesome like people use today, like finding only green markers in the store on Saint Patrick's Day. I mean Thor jumping out from the sky and hand delivering dinner awesome. Why? Because it can do anything both a laptop and desktop can do, for a low price and a most excellent size and weight.

Sure, the CPU is pretty slow (and as we showed with GTAIV), and that stinks. And sure, the keyboard and trackpad isn't perfect. And it doesn't have Optimus. But you know what? There is nothing like it around, and for the price, it's a no-brainer.

I'll see about getting some more benchmarks up as well.

 

[drizzt396]

meh, I can play Morrowind and WoW on my Eee with my 360 controller so I think I'll just stick with that...

 

[airborne11b]

The perfect gaming laptop is the Sager 15" with the GTX 280. It'll play just about every game on max setting, screen is big enough to enjoy gaming but not too small like the 11" junk. Graphics, ram, and CPU in the new 15" sager are top notch. I've owned a sager for 2 years and never had any problems rocking games. UT3, L4D2, CoH, and Assassin's Creed run at max settings on my 17" 9262 I bought over 2 years ago. BTW, incase you don't know, Clevo/sager make the base parts that are used in alienware laptops. Pay for the hardware, not the name imo.

 

[jamezrp]

airborne11b, Sager may make a good laptop, but a 15" laptop is larger than most people want today. Hell, it's more than we want. There's a reason netbooks have succeeded against all the criticism against it. Size matters.

So, while our DSi XL review proved that bigger is better, indeed Alienware has proven here that smaller can be pretty darned good too.

 

[playingwithplato]

jamezrp,
I do think Alienware hit a home run with this model.
Do you think the m11x can run Sims 3 well? My wife's birthday comes up next month and she likes this a lot. Her only requirment: Sims 3. EA states that with Vista/7 you need a 2.2 Ghz CPU, so this makes me sad. What do you think? Also, how long till Alienware puts a i3 or maybe i5 in this? And if it had a ATI 5xxx DirectX 11 low voltage GPU it would be perfect. ha ha You can't have everything.

Good review, I appreciate Tom's staying involved with their readers

 

[Guest]

I tried out this little beast of a machine this past weekend at PAX East. I played Left for Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Bad Company 2 and Aliens vs Predator. All were on med-high settings. All played like a dream. I was so impressed I just ordered one for myself to replace my Dell Mini 10 (yea.. laugh.. I do every time I turn it on). Decked it out with the top processor offered, 4GB RAM and the 256GB SSD option. Now I just have to wait for it to ship... the waiting is the worst.

 

[jamezrp]

playingwithplato, you can absolutely run Sims 3 on the M11x. The 2.2GHz CPU requirement is for a single core processor, whereas the M11x only comes with dual core processors. So you're in the clear!

As for when i3, i5 or other CPUs will be on such a machine, it's hard to say. The reason they chose the current CPUs is because they use relatively low power and don't stress the machine much. Intel is always making changes and updates to their CPUs to make them more efficient, but I don't expect a gaming laptop of this size to really incorporate it and still manage excellent battery life for at least another year.

And aminojaku, yes, the waiting totally sucked. Waited a 2 monthes personally, and that was after seeing it at CES.

 

[sdedalus83]

The new TimelineX with a Core i series processor and an HD5650 will make this a much less appealing choice.

It's still cool nonetheless.

 

[rtfm]

[citation][nom]sdedalus83[/nom]The new TimelineX with a Core i series processor and an HD5650 will make this a much less appealing choice.It's still cool nonetheless.[/citation]

The TimelineX is a much bigger laptop though. I would love the Alienware but the price - ouch!

 

[babybeluga]

[citation][nom]jamezrp[/nom]I mean Thor jumping out from the sky and hand delivering dinner awesome.[/citation]

Did you really just say that? You must be hammered...

...I'll mark that joke as a win in my books!

 

[dreamphantom_1977]

OH, I see, if you take an average pc, and drop the res enough it becomes a gaming pc........ Thats a negative.

 

[dreamphantom_1977]

Even at that low res only 2 games out of 6 push playable frame rates.

 

[jamezrp]

[citation][nom]babybeluga[/nom]Did you really just say that? You must be hammered......I'll mark that joke as a win in my books![/citation]

I enjoyed coming up with it as much as you enjoyed reading it!

dreamphantom_1977, it's a laptop. Most people, gamer or not, use the screen built into the machine, to play games. Not external ones. That's why we tested only on the smaller screen.

Just the same, it played games like a champ considering the given parts. If you must play Far Cry 2 at mass spec, then yes, stick with your triple-SLI machine.

 

[Guest]

Would you say that this is a good choice for a person who does not play games? I have an Envy 13 but this has me interested...