Hello All,

I’m in need of a more grunty laptop as my netbook is unable to cope with all the apps i need to run on it now and i wouldnt mind something that could run some modern PC games (like Skyrim)

Looking at DELL OUTLET and at the wee Alienware 11inch – portable , but can connect that up to my existing HD screen.

would the specs of “
Alienware M11x R3
Processor: Intel Core i3-2357M (1.3GHz, 3MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
2 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
250 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
11.6in Widescreen High Definition (1366X768) Truelife WLED
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)
Back Up Media Not Included
Wireless: Dell 375 Bluetooth Card
Wireless: Intel Wireless-N 1000 Card
LCD Back Cover : Stealth Black (WLAN)”

be up to scratch – or should i pay a bit more for
“Processor: Intel Core i7-2617M 1.5GHz (2.6GHz w/Turbo Boost, 4MB Cache)”
i’m assuming that its not exactly TWICE the speed of the previous?
not sure what GFX card it would have, dell outlet dont list it, and all i can find is this :
“the latest M11x has received a hardware boost, featuring a Intel 2nd generation Sandy Bridge processor as well as the Nvidia GeForce GT 540M graphics card. “
so it could be a previous generation?

any help much appreciated….

if you want a w7 laptop that’s gonna cope with something like skyrim, you want more than 2GB of RAM in it.

My laptop with an i7 processor, 8 gigs ram & 512 mb gfx card (this is the bottleneck) plays skyrim OK on low settings, I wouldn’t think it’d fair too well on that system. Although with the i7 and double the ram it might be ok.

I have no experience with netbooks but I imagine that with such a small chassis you’d have serious issues with overheating if you tried playing games like Skyrim?

hmmm ok , might think on it a bit – the bigger alien laptops seem to have better spec but they rocket up in price!

Just for a bit of balance I also tried Skyrim on my other laptop too. 4 gigs RAM, an intel core 2 duo and a 512mb radeon mobility and on the very lowest settings Skyrim was just playable but jittery. That laptop is also prone to overheating pretty bad!

2gb of ram in that spec is kinda daft. Wee hard drive too. But, the thing I’d be worrying about is the internal graphics.

alienware are so overpriced for what you get its unreal. neither of them will play the likes of witcher 2 at any decent frame rate

Overclockers have a good laptop forum…
Like STW but with people who know what they are talking about 😉

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=111

Mainly a gaming Laptop if thats what you want
meant to be good.

the thing I’d be worrying about is the internal graphics.

This. You need a discrete graphics adapter to stand any chance of gaming on a laptop, integrated graphics will suck.