Alienware M11x now up for pre-order, reporting for duty March 1st
By Ross Miller 
posted February 1st 2010 5:51PM
posted February 1st 2010 5:51PM
Far be it for Japan to steal the Dell store's thunder, but the pre-order page for Alienware's M11x. The "not a netbook, not yet a gaming rig" is retaining its previously-heard $799 price tag, and with it comes a 1.3GHz Pentium SU4100, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT335M, 2GB of memory, and 160GB HDD. Wanting to customize? Turn that processor into a 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 for $100, up the RAM to 8GB for $350, and swap the HDD with a 256GB SSD for $570. Mobile broadband is available via either Verizon or AT&T for another $125. It's all starting to add up mighty fast, but hey, at least it started small. Ship date is March 1st, which is just around the corner. You can be patient.
It does not seems good combiation with low-voltage CPU and high performance GPU.
I hate the expanding comment replys.
Sorry. Turns out that I am a whining baby.
@Radukk ITs a killer combo if your going for a gaming capable small laptop. The size, lowbattery life and prize of general Gaming laptops make them unfeaseable. This one on the other hand managed to pull a prius and gives you more then decent battery life. When you can plug in, crack up the graphics baby.
@Radukk The GPU switched over to run on integrated graphics.
@Radukk I wouldn't call it a HIGH performance GPU by any means, unless just comparing it to similar form-factor systems.
Its definitely respectable though, especially in such a small package.
@Radukk perhaps this is a stupid question , i'm not sure , it doesn't have a disc drive right?
@Radukk Yeah, Seeing it played 50FPS Crysis, 30FPS Call of Duty on High Settings, with Nvidia GT335. And now 800 USD only... Is pretty amazing for a netbook at that price... More of the M11x for gamers: http://bit.ly/alienware-m11x-details
Add up the needed features on other recently announced devices and it is much pricer than this computer. I said computer because thats what this is, not like other crappy toy tablets that use a crippled and hobbled phone os.
wheres pre order for UK?
@ahanslot
Oh it's there, just for £749 which is ridiculous, which when $799 converts to £500 is a 50% markup (I know ye, rainman, I get it). Won't be buying one of these as Alienware/Dell are clearly rip off merchants. Really like this as well and only thought mark up would see an increase of about £100, not £250 :-(
the starting price is pretty reasonable and C2D cpu upgrade isnt that expensive, using a laptop for gaming isn't such a good idea though
Man, that thing ain't worth it for $800. Look at my config. specs:
Alienware M11x
Starting Price $1,019
+ Tech Specs
As low as $31/month**
Update Price & Ship Date
Discount Details
Preliminary Ship Date: 3/1/2010
Software & Services
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Intel® Pentium™ SU4100 1.3GHz (2MB Cache)
1 Year Basic Plan
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
500GB SATAII 7,200RPM
Bluetooth Module, 2.1+ Enhanced Data Rate
No Internal WWAN Antenna Installed
Personalize
Quasar Blue
Alienhead 3D
Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed
Also Includes
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
Internal High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Integrated 10/100 Network Interface Card
Automatic Updates: On
1.3MP Web Cam
Standard Nameplate
@N900
In what context though.
I could spend the same amount on a laptop with similar specs with a much worse graphics card (at least here in the UK)
so to me it's definitely worth the price even with all the extra costs for more ram and hdd space etc.
But for Americans perhaps it is an awful deal (I wouldn't know)
@N900 Well ya, you put in a 500GB harddrive... in a netbook. How many HD movies do you need to store on it that you need that much space? If you drop that to 160GB, it reduces the price by $150. Switching to a Core 2 Duo instead of the 500GB harddrive brings it down to $969, which is an amazing price considering what you're getting.
@MarcusMaximus and @everyone Sorry about that. I'm real biased when it comes to hard-drives. It's because I always pick the max storage space option there. =S
@MarcusMaximus this thing is NOT a netbook. good lord. at the rate the "netbook" definition is expanding, it won't be long before people are calling 18" desktop replacements "netbooks."
@N900 Screw that, I'll take a nice fast SSD anyday on my mobile device. Crazy fast startups and application launches.
With ORB, just put all your stuff on bigass storage platters on a intel atom based home server.
@N900 You could just use Borders Rewards to get a discount on Dell & Alienware products, so I think it's still a great deal
@N900 Buy it with the CPU you want now and upgrade the HD and RAM more cheaply later on.
@N900
The upgraded processor and the 4gb ram are the only thing essential. You can upgrade to 8gb later in a year or so for half that when DDR3 prices fall and don't get me started on how much bank they're making off HDD"s...
Won't it be kind of slow with a 1.3 ghz processor?
@FauxReal core 2 architecture is pretty damn fast(compared to, say, atom), irrespective of clock speed. You're not going to be able to play Crysis at full blast, but it should do some decent gaming.
@MarcusMaximus
SU4100 is not Core2, it's the ugly pentium.
It would be best to configure with a SU7300 or SU9400 which is Core2
Does the M11x have user accessible hard drive and RAM? I'd like to know so I can just get the cheapest configuration and upgrade it myself.
@blicious
that's what I'd like to know.
@n8equalsd same. it would be much cheaper..
@blicious Come on this is not like an Apple. I looked at the unit and on the back there is a panel to remove the hard drive and RAM.
I'm off to pre order asap
shame it's not this month though
I get a corporate discount with Dell and Alienware. It won't knock a whole heck of a lot off the price, but I sure as hell am getting the 8GB RAM option because of it!
Does it come with iBooks and OS 3.1.2 and a built in iSight?
Wait....
@Jaylittles531 No, but you can see 720p HD movies, in a real 720p screen!
But where's the 9.7 inch glossy multitouch screen?
@tacovsgrilledcheese It's in a locker somewhere in Cupertino, right next to the Flash support and the eInk display.
Not bad, but you at least need the Core 2 Duo ULV
I'd personally would have 3 upgrades..
Intel® Core™2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache) +$100
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz +$50
250GB SATAII 7,200RPM +$50
The Ram / HDD can be had cheaper... but for the convenience (at least with me it takes forever for me to actually buy those upgrades but I'll complain about wanting it forever...)
@Tenny
It's not worth it to get the CPU upgrade. The SU4100 is already dual core. The only thing you're really missing out on, in comparison to the C2D, is 1mb of extra L2 cache.
@Tenny That CPU upgrade isn't worth $100 IMO, and I'd rather throw in my own SSD the next time another decent one shows up on slickdeals.
@Tenny The main advantage of the Core 2 is that it supports hardware virtualization (intel vt-x).
For me, this is a must-have. For others, this probably doesn't matter and they might be better off saving the $100 (or spending it on other upgrades). Benchmarks don't show much of an advantage for the Core 2 duo in this case.
Hey, you can get WoW pre-installed... LOL
Why don't Dell offer a cheaper 128GB SSD option? The 256GB SSD for $570 is too hard to swallow.
@pika2000 Amen, but even that is excessive. I have no problem fitting anything on even a 40GB SSD, and a nice high performance TRIM 64GB for around $200 would be perfect.
With internet access, there is no reason to have to store everything on the laptop itself, and beside I can always get a little tiny USB 500GB for movies on flights or what not. =)
Where can you see the preorder page?
@FauxReal right here: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&kc=&oc=dkccmp3&dgc=AF&cid=51991&lid=1346583
@AirieFenix thankee
What I hate is the fact that dell will only let you have 2 or 8gb of ram. 2 will bottleneck some games while 8 is overkill.
@Giac There is also a 4GB option.
@philburkhardt
ahh my bad lol
I can't really make my mind up on this, I don't know whether it'll be a success or a failure. It's certainly impressive how much GPU they shoe-horned in there, but at the same time I feel this product will have to struggle to carve out a market for itself, in much the same way the iPad will have to. It's certainly not going to steal away many potential netbook buyers with its $800 price tag and it hasn't got enough of the raw processor power to really take the place of some of the workhorses around that price...we will have to see how it fairs.
So no I5 or I7. AND total with SSD Is 1800$ ouch.
@moosc Ok, the SSD are too expensives right now. But yes, a Core i3 or at least a Core 2 Duo at 2GHz would be nice.
@moosc core i5 is the second one
No Internal WWAN Antenna Installed
whats the card then>?