Alienware M11X - the first ultra-portable gaming machine!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I hope more companies come up with similar machines:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=21848

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/18253

http://www.alienware.com/microsite/m11x/m11x.aspx

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptop...ming-Mobile/p1

It has the following graphics card:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...M.24060.0.html

[mercyground]

Shame its DX10 only. Look closely at the specification page.

[scaryjim]

It looks like a decent, midrange DX10 mobile GPU to me. 72 shaders and a 128bit GDDR3 bus should provide reasonable mobile performance. As I said in the Hexus review thread, if it can come in at the right price and weight it should be a decent mobile gaming machine.

[baius]

Anyone know what this new GPU is comparable to? (IE is it, for instance, roughly equivalent to a desktop 8800gt?)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Anyone know what this new GPU is comparable to? (IE is it, for instance, roughly equivalent to a desktop 8800gt?)

The graphics card would be between a 9500GT and 9600GT in performance IMHO.

[pollaxe]

Apart from the dayglow lighting I quite like the look of this.
Hopefully the shape of things to come in terms of performance and size though I wonder what gaming on that screen would be like?

[baius]

The graphics card would be between a 9500GT and 9600GT in performance IMHO.

Right, thanks. Well if it matched my 9600GT (which is actually quite similar to an 8800GT isn't it?) then cramming that into an 11" laptop is seriously clever.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The notebooks is now available in the UK for around £750:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home...=ukdhs1&~ck=mn

In the US it is available for 799 USD!!

With the current exchange rate it seems we are paying 1199 USD.

Looks like the combined UK import duty and VAT must be around 50%!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here are some reviews of the notebook:

http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/106/1065816p1.html

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...d=924&pageid=1

[scaryjim]

Right, thanks. Well if it matched my 9600GT (which is actually quite similar to an 8800GT isn't it?) then cramming that into an 11" laptop is seriously clever.

Erm.... no. A 9600GT isn't much more than half an 8800GT in terms of shaders, although it has similar memory bandwidth. But it's quite a long way behind in terms of performance. The 8800GT is *very* similar to the 9800GT (i.e. it's actually the exact same GPU). So it's a full class of performance above a 9600GT.

Based on reviews of the nvidia GT200 series cards, the newer DX10.1 architecture (which the G300M series seems to be based on) is low-clocked on the shaders and has rather lack-lustre performance - the DDR5 96 shader GT240 performs similarly to a 9600GT: which is rather dissappointing, frankly. So (given this card has less shaders and less memory bandwidth than a GT240) I doubt this would even match a 9600GT. It's still pretty good for a mobile GPU, but doesn't really compare with a mid to high end desktop GPU...

[McPhee]

Here are some reviews of the notebook:

http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/106/1065816p1.html

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...d=924&pageid=1

I wanted one. Until I saw the UK price.

I guess it's another device to add to the "when someone I know goes to the states" list

[Pob255]

Yes $799 or £749 That's some great currency conversion rates by dell/alienware

[Covenant]

US price is quoted exclude sales tax and excl. delivery. Also if you visit the US site, you see that the $799 offer is with the 160gig instead of the 320gb default in the UK one so you add an extra $75 to match the spec.

So a fair comparison would be:
US Price: ($799+$75) x 117.5% (UK VAT) = $1,027 excl delivery
UK Price: £749 x 1.59077 (£/$ XE rate) = $1,192 incl delivery

We still pay more, but at least it's not a ridiculous difference. Obviously sales tax in the US would be less then the 17.5%, but that's not Dell's fault.

[McPhee]

The 320GB drive is worth nothing if you don't need it It's an excuse rather than a reason. Taking in to account the UK's VAT rate (but disregarding the HDD upgrade) the US customers are paying around £590 for this machine. £650 would seem acceptable (and competitive to similar devices). £750 is taking the pee.

Personally, for the £300+ difference I think I'll look at picking up the Acer Ferrari One in a month or two.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The 320GB drive is worth nothing if you don't need it It's an excuse rather than a reason. Taking in to account the UK's VAT rate (but disregarding the HDD upgrade) the US customers are paying around £590 for this machine. £650 would seem acceptable (and competitive to similar devices). £750 is taking the pee.

Personally, for the £300+ difference I think I'll look at picking up the Acer Ferrari One in a month or two.

The Acer also has an XGP port which can be used with an external graphics card:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...i-netbook.aspx

AFAIK and XGP graphics cards should be able to run the notebook display too.

[Antagram]

I wonder how much longer the battery would last if the lighting was disabled (not read any reviews to know if the user can turn lights off).

If you do get a it from the USA you might have to use Window's on screen keyboard, as my U.S. Asus \ key doesn't work with region set to UK English, and it has the / and \ are the same location. And I've not found it assigned to another key, although I've not gone through the whole keyboard yet.