alienware m11x as a HTPC

[Atti2d]

So, I'm considering buying an alienware m11x. I travel alot, so a netbook would be great. I play a lot of games on the road from hotels, so this particular netbook would be great. When i'm home, I want to be able to slap an HDMI cable in my laptop and play movies on my 56" tv (my tv supports 1080p). Is 1080p possible or is the highest I can go 720?

Can someone more verse in HTPC land please tell me why this laptop would or wouldn't be great at functioning as an HTPC? I'm not interested in recording live tv (comcast see's fit to bless me with a DVR). I have a modded wii that can stream movies from my main computer, however the opera browser on my wii makes the stream look like garbage (using orb).

I just want to be able to download movies on the internet and play them with good quality on my tv. The movies I download are dvd quality...

Link to the m11x:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/alienware-m11x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

 

[KrylonArt]

Maybe this will help you out. Nvidia spec sheet on the GT 335M. 2560x1600 max digital resolution.

Hardware Heaven has a review that covers everything from media encoding, to gaming and 1080p playback. Might help a bit more.

MKV Playback: Our test file was a 1080p .mkv file which was taken from a 1080p source and converted into this format.

Due to the inclusion of a HDMI port the M11x is very easy to connect to a HDTV so we were keen to see how it would handle playback of 1080p content. A machine such as this which can playback 1080p could well make the ideal basis for a home theatre system.

The CPU result for the graph above shows the performance of the system when our SU7300 processor is handling the playback of our MKV file. The playback is smooth however it does come very close to hitting 100% CPU use, if a more demanding clip was released this could result in dropped frames.

Thankfully this is another area where we can take advantage of the GPU computing features of the GeForce GT 335M. By installing CoreAVC we are able to pass the processing of HD video content from the CPU to GPU simply by ticking a box in the codec options. With GPU acceleration enabled the processor use drops to as low as 7% with an average of 15%. Not only does this mean that we can play 1080p (and 720p) files with ease, it also ensures there are resources free to perform other tasks while HD content is playing.

Read more: Alienware M11x Notebook Review - High-Definition Playback - HardwareHeaven.com http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?reviewid=924&pageid=16#ixzz0ePnmcnWG

 

[dotCapone]

The M11x is MORE than enough for a makeshift HTPC. You shouldn't have any problems.

 

[lowteckh]

^ what he said. A ULV notebook w/ 4500MHD is enough to handle 1080p already.

 

[IRSmurf]

WOOHOO! I bought a laptop for $1,040.41 with tax with 12 months no interest.

(125.80 EPP - $100 coupon - $50 coupon)

CPU upgrade (1.6ghz by flipping a switch in the BIOS!), 4GB DDR3, 250gb 7200rpm (500gb isn't worth it... it's cheaper to buy it yourself when you need it), integrated Bluetooth, and most importantly a FOUR-freakin-YEAR WARRANTY!

This thing is going to run HOT HOT HOT! The review of this thing says it runs just over 70°C while gaming. That's HOT. You're going to need that warranty. I bet I'll get two new motherboards out of this, of the next four years!

I am so excited. I'm glad I waited for the $100 coupon that came out minutes ago! It ships on 3/5.

I got this primary as my HTPC... the XBOX 360 just can't stream it all. I can't believe I got a four year warranty for this little money.

 

[lowteckh]

4 years with a ULV cpu. Have fun with that.

 

[Atti2d]

WOOHOO! I bought a laptop for $1,040.41 with tax with 12 months no interest.

(125.80 EPP - $100 coupon - $50 coupon)

CPU upgrade (1.6ghz by flipping a switch in the BIOS!), 4GB DDR3, 250gb 7200rpm (500gb isn't worth it... it's cheaper to buy it yourself when you need it), integrated Bluetooth, and most importantly a FOUR-freakin-YEAR WARRANTY!

This thing is going to run HOT HOT HOT! The review of this thing says it runs just over 70°C while gaming. That's HOT. You're going to need that warranty. I bet I'll get two new motherboards out of this, of the next four years!

I am so excited. I'm glad I waited for the $100 coupon that came out minutes ago! It ships on 3/5.

I got this primary as my HTPC... the XBOX 360 just can't stream it all. I can't believe I got a four year warranty for this little money.

Where did you get the $100 coupon?!?!?!

edit: I contacted Dell and there is NO coupons available, can you confirm that you bought the alienware m11x with a coupon?

 

[Atti2d]

So, I have serious problems with alienware's customer support...here's how the story begins:

2003: Takes months to get my laptop, and when the laptop arrives the power supply causes system stability issues. I'm deployed to Iraq, so there is nothing I can do about it.

Try to get my issue resolved when I return to the states, and noone can do anything, I can't get any parts to fix it with warranty.

I vowed to never buy another alienware...

Now Dell owns alienware, so I'm caught in a bind. I love Dell's support, or I did, before I chatted with a dell representative, and they told me that even though I'm an alienware member since 2003 (which was supposed to give me advantages & bonuses) Dell says that holds no weight with their company.

I spent $3,000 on the alienware laptop I bought in 2003, and they said I'd have membership bonuses when purchasing future equipment.

FAIL

[/end rant]

To buy a m11x or not to buy an m11x...

 

[magnetik]

^^^^^
my roomate had the same issue. I would say buy it. it's not like the old school desktop extreme cpu alienwares with this version. (at least that's what I'm telling myself)

 

[IRSmurf]

Where did you get the $100 coupon?!?!?!

edit: I contacted Dell and there is NO coupons available, can you confirm that you bought the alienware m11x with a coupon?

I apologize for my tardiness, I just got out of work. The $100 coupon came to my email after signing up for Dell's EPP newsletter the day previous.

You can no longer stack the $50 coupon for signing up for the EPP newsletter and the $100 coupon from the email... that ended late this afternoon.

4 years with a ULV cpu. Have fun with that.

1.6ghz core 2 duo on my new HTPC isn't good enough? What kind of cynical attitude is that?

I've got a fantastic desktop and I needed to upgrade my netbook. This was a fantastic value.

To buy a m11x or not to buy an m11x...

It's an excellent value for a general purpose computer. It can play games well enough, it can view any video your throw at it, it's super light, it's super portable, and you have a real choice between 6 hours battery life with the gpu off (real world test) and 2 hours battery life with the gpu turned on with both cpu and gpu running full blast.

What more could you want from a laptop under $1,000? Nothing for that price is going to beat this laptop, with the exception of some GIGANTIC Gateway laptops on clearance at a Best Buy.

 

[lowteckh]

Is actually a pretty terrible "general purpose computer". You're paying ~$400 premium for the GPU itself for the base model, the rest of the parts are nothing to write anywhere about considering it uses an aging CPU. It's *just* an Acer Timeline with a much better GPU and lots of lights.

And as just an HTPC..... $1000. Your money, have fun with that but don't make this into some halo uber value notebook because it's not. There's nothing like this on the market so for gaming there's not much to say, but for the other 2 things you make this out to be, noop, it's not a value.

 

[IRSmurf]

The base model is very similar to this, just without bluetooth and with a 5400rpm hard drive, 2gb of ddr3, and the same speed cpu without VT. It also has a one year warranty. It was $680 after the coupons. That is a great value for a thin and light laptop.

However, I have never seen a better laptop computer with a four year warranty for just north of $1,000. Much less with the ability to play 1080p MKVs while using 7% of it's CPU. You are certainly welcome to introduce me to one, if it exists.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Wow. That's pretty, grotesquely, overpriced for what is essentially a netbook.

 

[IRSmurf]

Wow. That's pretty, grotesquely, overpriced for what is essentially a netbook.

It's not a budget computer, but I wouldn't call it overpriced.

Under $1020 after tax and shipping, ($982 before):
1.3GHz Core 2 Duo ULV (Overclocks to 1.73GHz by flipping a flag in Alienware's BIOS with only 1°C increase in temperature)
4gb ddr3 (albeit slow DDR3, but probably faster than fast DDR2)
250gb 7200rpm HDD (NAS > Long term Internal storage of video)
Bluetooth (Dell's Bluetooth stack is pretty good... much unlike Toshiba's horrible stack)
Engraved personalized plaque (May not float everyone's boat... but it floats mine)
four year warranty (This thing is totally getting replaced by the time I'm ready to upgrade)
next day shipping (Even though it's not shipping until 3/5, I want it yesterday!)

I wouldn't call it a rip off. The CPU, running at 1.6ghz, puts up cpu benchmarks very close to the T7300.

This isn't an Atom processor. We should all know by now that raw GHz aren't the best metric to measure performance.

More information can be found in this review: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?reviewid=924&pageid=18

I am very excited for this laptop. However, I also expect it to have XBOX-360-RROD-style problem. The CPU and GPU both run at 70°C under the stress of gaming. I bet that four year warranty is going to be a wise decision.

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035285618&postcount=9

 

[magnetik]

Wow. That's pretty, grotesquely, overpriced for what is essentially a netbook.

find me a sub 12" netbook that runs MW2 w/ visuals cranked and is upgradeable to 8GB ddr3, with switchable on the fly graphics card and I'll agree with you.