The Alienware series has become synonymous with gaming on an ultraportable machine, with the M11X being the most successful entry in the series. It is an 11.6 inch notebook with a very solid hardware line up, but make sure you’re packing around one grand if you want to have it. The niche of gaming laptops is a pretty extravagant one when it comes to prices, but the M11X might worth every penny if you’re a gamer that needs an ultra portable machine for your favorite pass time.
Basically, this mini laptop is a mixture between a gaming console and mini laptop or netbook, how they are called. If you put together the prices of a console and a decent laptop, you’re starting to lurk in M11X territory. The M11X had a serious revamp a short while back and it’s now probably the best mini laptop for gaming that money can buy. The older, slower Core 2 Duo processor was swapped for a Core i5 or i7 chip-basically the best mobile processor Intel can deliver right now. Sure, it’s still an ultra low power solution, but it’s considerably faster than C2D solutions and thanks to the Turbo Boost technology, it can have a maximum core speed of 2.3 GHZ for the i5 and 2.6 GHZ for the i7.
As for system memory, you can cram in as much as 16 GB of DDR3 RAM, which should be more than enough for blitzkrieg multitasking and smooth gaming. But nothing compares to the video card when it comes to gaming and the M11X lets you choose from a bunch of options. There are two versions of the NVIDIA® GeForce® GT540M, one with 1 GB and the other one with 2 GB of dedicated memory. Although the numbers seem pretty high, the memory bus is of only 128 bits in both cases.
The keyboard's backlit color is also customizable
The notebook supports Optimus technology, that lets you switch between on board and dedicated graphics without restarting your computer, as well as being compatible with DirectX 11 and Shader 5.0. The video card can handle 2010 games fairly good, with titles as Call of Duty: Black Ops and Star Craft 2 running on high detail without a glitch. Newer titles will still work, but you’ll have to hose down the detail slider.
Anyway, if you’re intending to use the M11X mainly for MMO games, the video card should be more than enough, as online gaming usually requires less firepower than traditional games. The video card is also able to deal with Blu Ray sound quality and you can enjoy fantastic sound on a likewise system via the HDMI port.
The M11X is quite flexible also when it comes to storage. You can choose between a standard hard disk drive with up to 750 GB of storage and a solid state disk with as much as 250 GB of storage space. The second one, although with less running space and a tad more expensive, is much more energy savvy and much lighter than a traditional HDD, so if you’re after enhanced mobility, a solid state disk is the way to go.
That's why it's called Alienware. Or also because of that.
The gaming mini laptop has an HD screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution, which will display 720p content without a problem. The OS on board is of course Windows, and you can choose between Home, Professional and Ultimate. Other features include a 2.0 MP web cam above the display, support for 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound (the later via the HDMI port) and WiFi for connectivity.
Sure, there are a couple of superior connectivity options, including Bluetooth 3.0 and 3G from both AT&T and Verizon. The Alienware M11X has a starting price of $699, but a top configuration will cost well over $1000. It’s a price you’ll have to pay if you want an ultra portable computer that can feed your gaming addiction everywhere you go, in a package not much heavier than a regular netbook.
Related posts: