Alienware m11x

It's not totally you're fault. The m11x rubber feet that are supposed to keep the screen off the keyboard are too short. The screens also have a hinge defect, which might make the problem worse. I noticed the key board marks as well on my machine when I first started using it.

Which reminds me...if your machine is eligible for the recall screen hinge fix, you might get a new panel out of it. I believe the warranty is for the R1, but not sure.

heavyfeul wrote:

It's not totally you're fault. The m11x rubber feet that are supposed to keep the screen off the keyboard are too short. The screens also have a hinge defect, which might make the problem worse. I noticed the key board marks as well on my machine when I first started using it.

Which reminds me...if your machine is eligible for the recall screen hinge fix, you might get a new panel out of it. I believe the warranty is for the R1, but not sure.

Well, I will probably give them a call at the very least. I might get lucky.

I have been loving my m11x r2 since I got it about a year ago. I will say it is a chunky 11" and they could have gotten a 12" or larger screen in to the chassis. Still love it.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I just realized I screwed up my screen surface. I had noticed the screen tended to get dirty with the outlines of the keys so I used a square of the material that is used to wrap monitors, TVs, etc in between the keyboard and screen when closed. I went to clean it today and realized there are key outline marks which I can't get rid of. I didn't think that stuff would be bad for it. Boy was I wrong.

Oh man, that made me panic. I figured those lines were just finger-grease transferring from the keyboard, but I didn't expect it to be permanent. Mine just cleaned off okay, but I'm going to find something to stuff in there to protect it now.

VeggiePirate wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I just realized I screwed up my screen surface. I had noticed the screen tended to get dirty with the outlines of the keys so I used a square of the material that is used to wrap monitors, TVs, etc in between the keyboard and screen when closed. I went to clean it today and realized there are key outline marks which I can't get rid of. I didn't think that stuff would be bad for it. Boy was I wrong.

Oh man, that made me panic. I figured those lines were just finger-grease transferring from the keyboard, but I didn't expect it to be permanent. Mine just cleaned off okay, but I'm going to find something to stuff in there to protect it now.

Just don't use what I used.

Hurray! I started looking up the hinge issue replacement and found that they have to replace the whole monitor in the process. I will hopefully prevent future hinge issues and get my ruined screen replaced. I'm going to call them now and will post what happens.

Edit: Well, I ended up already having the new hinge, but I was able to order the part for 82.99. That's not too bad in my opinion considering it's the whole upper assembly. I ordered that and the anti glare screen protector for 30, so I should be set and won't be annoyed by my monitor. Another plus is that I'll have my blemished screen in case I crack the new one or something terrible.

As laptop parts go, that's very reasonable. You got away cheap.

Malor wrote:

As laptop parts go, that's very reasonable. You got away cheap.

I fully expected it to be 200 (a price I would have to think hard about) or so and did a double take when the guy quoted me the price.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I fully expected it to be 200 (a price I would have to think hard about) or so and did a double take when the guy quoted me the price.

Are you guys talking about the screen...?

Mysteri0 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I fully expected it to be 200 (a price I would have to think hard about) or so and did a double take when the guy quoted me the price.

Are you guys talking about the screen...?

Yup.

Wow... That's insanely cheap for a laptop screen..

After thinking about it, I wonder if you ordered the plastic parts around the screen, rather than the actual LCD panel? That's awfully, awfully cheap for a laptop panel, even a crappy one.

Malor wrote:

After thinking about it, I wonder if you ordered the plastic parts around the screen, rather than the actual LCD panel? That's awfully, awfully cheap for a laptop panel, even a crappy one.

I'm 95% sure that it is the full upper assembly. With the recent hinge recall, they had to replace the full upper assembly (includes LCD, hinge, and the plastic that covers the LCD). I just ordered that specific part number.

It is a really cheap LCD they used in the m11x. They could have fit something nicer but I guess they chose to keep the cost down which I'm okay with because the LCD works fine.

Of course, if that's not what I get, I'll be sure to rant about it later.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Of course, if that's not what I get, I'll be sure to rant about it later. :)

Let us know what happens. At that price, it's tempting to order a spare now, just in case it fails later and the parts get difficult to find.

Mua mua...

Yeah, they totally screwed up. They turned my order into a replacement palmrest assembly for 82.99 and the LCD Assembly for 274.99. So, I'm returning all of it and will live with my keyboard marks. I'll just put the anti-glare screen protector on and hope that it's hard to notice the marks.

I'm not particularly pissed at them. They handled everything fine except for the ball got dropped somewhere. They fixed everything when I called them back up.

I will just have to dream of an 82.99 LCD assembly.

That's still not a bad price for a replacement LCD, honestly. It's just not astonishingly good anymore.

I might be skimming filthily here, but was wondering if any m11x owner can comment on the difference in battery life and heat when turning turbo on? According to specs it's a pretty big boost in clock speed, so I'm wondering if it's something that should be used sparingly, or can just be left on when plugged into the wall.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

I might be skimming filthily here, but was wondering if any m11x owner can comment on the difference in battery life and heat when turning turbo on? According to specs it's a pretty big boost in clock speed, so I'm wondering if it's something that should be used sparingly, or can just be left on when plugged into the wall.

So, in a non-gaming mode, you will probably get about 4-5 hours with turbo mode on. Gaming, you would get 2-2.5 hours I think. The thing is, with Intel's Speedstep tech on, the CPU will stay at a low clock speed unless you are gaming or something. How bright you have the screen will probably make far more of a difference on your battery life with this computer than whether or not you have turbo mode on. All in all, I don't think it's something you need to worry about.

You can also go in and overclock the CPU and use ThrottleStop to get more power/less battery life. I haven't played around with this too much because it isn't worth it to me at the moment.

Thanks tuffalo.

More questions--anyone get the m11x with i7? Worth it? Or would I be better off with the i5? (i.e. is performance gain worth the battery life hit?)

Also, the R3 may be coming soon:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/23/a...

No mention about which GPU it will have though.

Anyone looking to upgrade to an SSD might want to check out the Kingston V100 series. I just put one in my netbook and it makes a huge difference. There are definitely faster SSDs out there, but they're also quite a bit more expensive. I got the 128gb from buy.com with a $50 rebate that brought it down to about $160.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Thanks tuffalo.

More questions--anyone get the m11x with i7? Worth it? Or would I be better off with the i5? (i.e. is performance gain worth the battery life hit?)

Also, the R3 may be coming soon:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/23/a...

No mention about which GPU it will have though.

Anyone looking to upgrade to an SSD might want to check out the Kingston V100 series. I just put one in my netbook and it makes a huge difference. There are definitely faster SSDs out there, but they're also quite a bit more expensive. I got the 128gb from buy.com with a $50 rebate that brought it down to about $160.

The i7 is not worth it gaming-wise (Edit: they even stopped giving the option in the U.S. some time ago because of this). It'll just suck up more juice from what I have read. SSDs are awesome. I put a 128 GB Vertex 2 in mine and it rocks. The R3 should be a very significant update from R2. Sandybridge and a DX11 GPU should be a huge upgrade. Hopefully they throw in USB 3.0 as well.

This is always a good source of information: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The i7 is not worth it gaming-wise (Edit: they even stopped giving the option in the U.S. some time ago because of this). It'll just suck up more juice from what I have read. SSDs are awesome. I put a 128 GB Vertex 2 in mine and it rocks. The R3 should be a very significant update from R2. Sandybridge and a DX11 GPU should be a huge upgrade. Hopefully they throw in USB 3.0 as well.

This is always a good source of information: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...

Hmm when I go here: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...

It seems the i7 is still being sold? Confusing because the ad copy on the model selection page does say i5, but when I select the top model, it still seems to come with the i7. Either way, if it doesn't make much diff to framerates, I'll prob skip it.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The i7 is not worth it gaming-wise (Edit: they even stopped giving the option in the U.S. some time ago because of this). It'll just suck up more juice from what I have read. SSDs are awesome. I put a 128 GB Vertex 2 in mine and it rocks. The R3 should be a very significant update from R2. Sandybridge and a DX11 GPU should be a huge upgrade. Hopefully they throw in USB 3.0 as well.

This is always a good source of information: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...

Hmm when I go here: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...

It seems the i7 is still being sold? Confusing because the ad copy on the model selection page does say i5, but when I select the top model, it still seems to come with the i7. Either way, if it doesn't make much diff to framerates, I'll prob skip it.

Hmm. I guess they are still selling it. The main bottleneck is going to be the 335M GPU. With the R3 model coming out soon it is completely worth waiting for that. You could at least get one of the current models on the cheap when the R3 is released. The current models are a bit long in the tooth now.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Hmm. I guess they are still selling it. The main bottleneck is going to be the 335M GPU. With the R3 model coming out soon it is completely worth waiting for that. You could at least get one of the current models on the cheap when the R3 is released. The current models are a bit long in the tooth now.

Agreed. Right now you can't configure the m11x much on the site so I'm guessing they're selling off stock and getting ready to launch the new version. I won't be back to the US till later this year, so I've got some time to wait and see what comes.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Anyone looking to upgrade to an SSD might want to check out the Kingston V100 series. I just put one in my netbook and it makes a huge difference. There are definitely faster SSDs out there, but they're also quite a bit more expensive. I got the 128gb from buy.com with a $50 rebate that brought it down to about $160.

Just thought I'd point out Kingston's V+ 128gb now has a buy.com rebate, making it almost the same price I got the V100 at, and I believe it is a bit faster:

http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-128...

Interesting. Leak of an M14x and an M18x.

Not sure I understand what they are saying about the graphics.

The Alienware M14X features a 14-inch display, and Nvidia GeForce GT 555m, AMD Radeon HD 6730M or 6770M dedicated graphics card.

That mean you have a choice between the three? We'll see soon I hope.

Glossy screens

MannishBoy wrote:

Interesting. Leak of an M14x and an M18x.

Not sure I understand what they are saying about the graphics.

The Alienware M14X features a 14-inch display, and Nvidia GeForce GT 555m, AMD Radeon HD 6730M or 6770M dedicated graphics card.

That mean you have a choice between the three? We'll see soon I hope.

Glossy screens :(

Interesting. Are those 18" behemoths really that popular? There seemed to be a brief period where they were, but I thought that was a passing fad. It sounds like that will be a monstrously fast computer though.

I almost wish they'd have considered doing a 12" rather than a 14". 14" just isn't that much more portable than the 15", whereas I think 12 would be a sweetspot in size vs. performance

When I was shopping for a laptop comprable top the m11x, I tried really hard to find something in the 13" range. As happy as I am with the m11x, I would seriously consider something in the 13-14" range if it had significantly more horsepower. Plus, they usually come with optical drives, so you could remove that and do an SSD/HDD type of setup.

Edit: I should add at the time, I couldn't find anything in the 13-14" range that made it worth it.

MannishBoy wrote:

Interesting. Leak of an M14x and an M18x.

Not sure I understand what they are saying about the graphics.

The Alienware M14X features a 14-inch display, and Nvidia GeForce GT 555m, AMD Radeon HD 6730M or 6770M dedicated graphics card.

That mean you have a choice between the three? We'll see soon I hope.

Glossy screens :(

The glossy screens are a bummer. Portables really benefit from matte screens. Plus, the screens on the m11x are terrible. They have very narrow viewing angles. If they are using similar panels on these larger models, it would be a deal breaker for me. The screen was my biggest complaint about the m11x. A nice screen might jack the price up too much for them or something.

I like that they are trying to get their laptops cheaper, but if they stop making well engineered laptops, the resale value goes out the window. One of the nice things about buying a premium laptop is that you can turn around and sell it 18 months down the road for a good price.

heavyfeul wrote:

The glossy screens are a bummer. Portables really benefit from matte screens.

Everything benefits from matte screens. I don't want shiny on anything.

Why Samsung puts shiny glass on the front of their LCD TVs is a mystery to me. Yeah, it might "pop" a bit more in store, but lack of reflections is one of the big LCD advantages.

MannishBoy wrote:
heavyfeul wrote:

The glossy screens are a bummer. Portables really benefit from matte screens.

Everything benefits from matte screens. I don't want shiny on anything.

Can you even get a laptop with a matte screen any more? It seems like everyone wants an iPad-shiny laptop nowadays.

I'd still consider getting the m14 when laptop replacement time comes around though -- the m11 was just a little too small for me.