Alienware M11x R2: A Legend Reborn
by Jarred Walton on July 9, 2010 4:05 AM ESTOverclocked Performance: Win Some, Lose Some
Like the M11x and ASUS' UL series of CULV laptops, the M11x R2 allows you to try overclocking the CPU via the BIOS. Whereas we could simply set the bus speed to 166MHz (from the default 133) with the other laptops we've tested, this is our first Arrandale ULV processor and it didn't quite make it to a 166 bus. At 166, the system would reboot twice and revert to 133. A 164MHz bus on the other hand would boot Windows most of the time, but various games and applications would crash. Eventually we settled on 160MHz and achieved full stability.
Note that the stock multiplier for the i7-640UM is 9x, but with Turbo Boost it can go as high as 17x. You can disable Turbo Boost in the BIOS, but even at a 166 bus speed you would then be stuck with a constant CPU clock of only 1500MHz. At 160MHz we still saw multipliers as high as 17x, but not as often as when we were on the stock 133MHz bus. What's more, in heavily threaded benchmarks the multipliers were much lower on average, with the system often running at the "minimum" 9x. (SpeedStep can still drop down to a 5x multiplier, but under load we always stayed above 9x.)
So, what does overclocking get you? In certain situations we got much better performance, but overall it wasn't worth the effort in our opinion. Here's a table of our results.
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M11x R2 Overclocking Gains - Applications 160MHz Base Bus |
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| Application | Stock | 160 Bus | Percentage |
| 3DMark03 | 15421 | 16096 | 104% |
| 3DMark05 | 11015 | 12124 | 110% |
| 3DMark06 | 6973 | 6990 | 100% |
| 3DMark Vantage (Entry) | 14441 | 14484 | 100% |
| PCMark05 | 4597 | 4822 | 105% |
| PCMark Vantage | 5329 | 5339 | 100% |
| Peacekeeper | 2916 | 3247 | 111% |
| Cinebench 1CPU | 2940 | 3429 | 117% |
| Cinebench xCPU | 5713 | 5241 | 92% |
| x264 Pass 1 | 29.72 | 29.23 | 98% |
| x264 Pass 2 | 7.68 | 7.23 | 94% |
The workloads that are primarily single-threaded in nature showed the biggest improvements. 3DMark03/05 both increased, with Peacekeeper and the single-threaded Cinebench result showing the greatest benefit. Most of the remaining tests showed no benefit, and in the case of heavily threaded tasks the bus overclock actually reduced performance. So from a general application standpoint, we can't see a reason to bother with the overclock; let Intel's Turbo Boost do its thing and be happy. But then, this is a gaming laptop and games are sometimes more single-threaded in nature. Can any games benefit from overclocking?
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M11x R2 Overclocking Gains - Gaming 160MHz Base Bus |
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| Game Title | Stock | 160 Bus | Percentage |
| Batman: Arkham Asylum (Very High) | 63 | 62 | 98% |
| Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Medium) | 31.6 | 32.1 | 102% |
| Crysis: Warhead (Mainstream) | 32.5 | 36 | 111% |
| DiRT 2 (Medium) | 34.8 | 36.1 | 104% |
| Empire: Total War (Medium) | 51 | 51.4 | 101% |
| Far Cry 2 (Medium DX9) | 38 | 40.7 | 107% |
| Left 4 Dead 2 (Very High) | 43.2 | 43.4 | 100% |
| Mass Effect 2 (Max) | 37.2 | 38.6 | 104% |
| STALKER: Call of Pripyat (Med. + Full Dyn.) | 57.5 | 61.6 | 107% |
In general, the answer is no, though we do see minor improvements of 4-7% in several titles. The biggest increase was Crysis: Warhead at 11%, but even there the difference will be difficult to notice without benchmarks.
Overall, overclocking turned out to be of little use, but we do have one final disclaimer. We're using the i7-640UM processor, which runs at 1.20GHz to a maximum Turbo speed of 2.27GHz. It's possible that the i5-520UM with its lower speed range of 1.07GHz to 1.87GHz might benefit more, but without testing we can't say for sure. We do know that on an ASUS Core i7-720QM notebook our results were similar—overclocking caused Turbo Modes to kick in less, resulting in generally lower performance—so while you can get some impressive overclocks out of i5/i7 desktop processors, in a notebook you're likely best off just going with the stock speed and Turbo Boost.
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dumpsterj - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
ive got one on order and i cant wait for it. im glad the battlefield benchmarks saw such an improvement , as thats one reason i decided to replace my old asus f3sv w/ its 8600gs. It cant play bf 2 for crap. thanks for the awesome review. i know what to expect but im still happy im getting it. when i get it ill update in the comments.Mark McGann - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Does anyone know if the SSD option for this laptop supports TRIM?I've never been able to find any definitive information on this, which leads me to believe it doesn't.
JarredWalton - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Pretty sure the 256GB SSD is a Samsung model, and if it's one of the newer ones it supports TRIM. But honestly, I would NOT pay the outrageous $600 upgrade price to get it pre-installed. You can buy a 256GB for $525 online if you really want to:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Better still, if you really want an SSD and are willing to pay for it, get an SSD that's worth having, like the RealSSD C300 from Crucial or a SandForce SSD. $600 for the Samsung drive from Dell, or $600 for a 240GB SandForce 1200 SSD, or even $640 for the 256GB C300. I think the choice is clear:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Friendly0Fire - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Of all the review, what piqued my interest the most is the mention of a new U30Jc with a better GPU... Where did you hear that rumor? Any details on it? Honestly the M11x R2 is a nice laptop but I just don't really like the aesthetics and the screen size. A U30Jc with a GT335M or above would be the ideal laptop.JarredWalton - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Not a rumor... it's what we *want* to see. Will ASUS make that? I hope so, but right now it looks like the U series is still getting saddled with G310M. :-\MaxGeek - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
I'm a M11x R2 owner and one thing I ran into is that the NVidia GPU throttling is sometimes broken. The GPU is suppose to be 450MHZ, but often it will only throttle up to 405MHZ from 135MHZ even when plugged in and gaming. This can cost you a fair amount of performance. This is an app out there called PowerMizer Manager that can fix this.Also as far as overclocking I've found it to be pretty significant. Once the system gets decently hot from gaming Intel Turbo boost won't kick in, so overclocking ensures you get consistent performance. Combined with GPU overclock, overclocking the CPU adds additional performance over a GPU overclock at stock CPU speeds. I found that Resident Evil 5 is also CPU limited and GPU overclocking didn't improve performance until the CPU was also overclocked.
MaxGeek - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Sorry for the Engrish, I can't edit my post...Roland00 - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
I am glad for smaller gaming computers, but I rather have one of these. Add 3/4 lb of weight and 1 inch bigger; and in return you get faster, cheaper, and with an optical drive. All for 3/4 of a lbASUS K42JV-X1
I5-450m 2.4 GHZ, Nvidia GT335m, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HD, DVD Burner, 1366x768, 4400mAH, 14 Inch, 4.8 lbs, $949
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
AS4820TG-3195 (Acer Timeline X)
I5-450m 2.4 GHZ, ATI HD5650, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HD, DVD Burner, 1366x768, 6000mAH, 14 Inch, 4.9 lbs, $899
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....
JarredWalton - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
We should be getting the N82Jv in the near future (as soon as it shows up in the US). It's basically the same as the K42Jv you just listed, except with an 84Wh battery. That's the only downfall with the current K42: 48Wh battery means 3-4 hours battery life.erple2 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 - link
Interesting... Are you all also getting any of the hp Envy's (including the "new" 5830 Envy 15)?