Should I clean install my new M11x r3?

[Transit]

Hello,

This site seems like the best for Alienware laptop info!

After I saw the dell outlet coupon, took 4 hours of refreshing to get a r3
with the i5-2467. Other upgrades are 750gb hd, and is the 550m standard?
Also do I need to upgrade the 4gb ram?

I think it's a great deal at $636.

Main question is how much bloatware is on it? Do I need to do a clean install of Windows after it arrives Monday?

It's replacing an Asus A8J 14" T7200 with Radeon x1700 that held together by spring loaded paper clips.

[AshK]

You shouldn't need to do a clean install if your keeping the current drive, Alienware tends to keep bloatware to a minimum.

As for the ram it depends what your doing. As far as gaming goes probably 95% of my stuff can be done with under 4gb usage. Upgrading to 6-8gb is cheap though.

[Rishwin]

There is next to zero bloatware - the only things i uninstalled was the camera & facial recognition suite and AlienRespawn after i used it to make a recovery flash drive.

As for the RAM... do not upgrade it. Dell charges absurd prices for their upgrades, you won't gain anything by upgrading it through them. Just get it with the bare minimum RAM & HDD and then once you get it buy better aftermarkets than Dell would have used for half the price if you feel that you need it.

Simply access for upgrades, just remove the bottom and yuo have full access to everything so there's no reason not to do it yourself.

[Transit]

Thanks for the replies.

How much room did the recovery take on a flash drive?

And if I buy my own memory to upgrade from 4gb, what is a good brand for this laptop?

[tomcannon]

About 6gb if I remember correctly. Crucial or Kingston seem to be the usual choice. I went for Crucial to match my Crucial M4 SSD. So if you're planning on an SSD upgrade too then I'd go those two.

[Rishwin]

Thanks for the replies.

How much room did the recovery take on a flash drive?

And if I buy my own memory to upgrade from 4gb, what is a good brand for this laptop?

I have only 4GB & 16GB USB's and it said it needed 6GB so i had to waste a 16GB on it cos you don't want to use the drive afterwards and potentially corrupt the restore. Just chuck it on and stick the drive in a drawer until you need it.

I can't flaw the Kingston Hyper-X 2x4GB 1600MHz kits. They are a little pricier @ ~70, but they run super cool thanks to the great heatsinks on them and they're Plug'n'Play so they will work in almost anything 1st time without any tinkering. Lifetime warranty too, and decent timings (8-8-8-23 @ 1.5V in the M11x R3 which throttles it to 1333MHz).

Your main performance gain will come from an SSD though. The most highly recommended drive on this board is the 128GB Crucial M4 which can be bought form Amazon/Newegg for ~$100-120. You can put this in as your main drive and then use the Dell supplied drive as an external (case can be bought for $20).

At under $200 for both RAM & SSD it's better than an upgrade Dell offers.

//Edit: Also a typo from your first post, all R3's come standard with the 1GB 540M, not the 550M. The i7 models have the option for a 2GB 540M but it's not very cost effective and provides minimal gains.

[Transit]

I have only 4GB & 16GB USB's and it said it needed 6GB so i had to waste a 16GB on it cos you don't want to use the drive afterwards and potentially corrupt the restore. Just chuck it on and stick the drive in a drawer until you need it.

I can't flaw the Kingston Hyper-X 2x4GB 1600MHz kits. They are a little pricier @ ~70, but they run super cool thanks to the great heatsinks on them and they're Plug'n'Play so they will work in almost anything 1st time without any tinkering. Lifetime warranty too, and decent timings (8-8-8-23 @ 1.5V in the M11x R3 which throttles it to 1333MHz).

Your main performance gain will come from an SSD though. The most highly recommended drive on this board is the 128GB Crucial M4 which can be bought form Amazon/Newegg for ~$100-120. You can put this in as your main drive and then use the Dell supplied drive as an external (case can be bought for $20).

At under $200 for both RAM & SSD it's better than an upgrade Dell offers.

//Edit: Also a typo from your first post, all R3's come standard with the 1GB 540M, not the 550M. The i7 models have the option for a 2GB 540M but it's not very cost effective and provides minimal gains.

I will check out the Kingston. Will it make any difference to get a 8 or 16Gb kit on performance?

Just rechecked the order and it says 550m. I read a thread on here where some say it's a typo....

The SSD sounds good, but I hate having external drives. I have a decent XPS desktop I bought last year, this is for use in bed or at work. Will check out higher capacity ssd.

[CEUOTC]

I have found the Crucial M4 series to be rock solid, have one in my M11x and two in my Desktop, went for a Sandisk Extreme SSD 240GB in my N55SF.

Here are some results from my systems:

Desktop
Crucial 256 M4
Disk Mark: 2702.0 MB/Sec
Disk Sequential Read: 447.6 MB/Sec
Disk Sequential Write: 251.0 MB/Sec
Disk Random Seek + RW: 48.6 MB/Sec

M11x R3
Crucial 256 M4
Disk Mark: 2653.1 MB/Sec
Disk Sequential Read: 426.9 MB/Sec
Disk Sequential Write: 252.7 MB/Sec
Disk Random Seek + RW: 49.0 MB/Sec

N55SF
Sandisk Extreme SSD 240GB
Disk Mark: 3881.3 MB/Sec
Disk Sequential Read: 453.7 MB/Sec
Disk Sequential Write: 195.4 MB/Sec
Disk Random Seek + RW: 424.1 MB/Sec

The Sandisk Extreme SSD is generally quicker however in real life performance l can't tell the difference between my systems.

Regards.

C.

[Rishwin]

I will check out the Kingston. Will it make any difference to get a 8 or 16Gb kit on performance?

Just rechecked the order and it says 550m. I read a thread on here where some say it's a typo....

The SSD sounds good, but I hate having external drives. I have a decent XPS desktop I bought last year, this is for use in bed or at work. Will check out higher capacity ssd.

8->16GB gives next to no performance gains. Also note that the M11x only has 2 RAM slots so if you're looking at 16GB you need 2x8GB sticks which TBH really are not worth the money at all, especially in these things.

8GB is more than enough, and keep in mind i'm talking about a 2.5" USB-powered external not a full-sized desktop hard drive in a case requiring an AC adapter and all that crap. That's just what i would do with the extra drive though, i guess you could always sell it and try to make back some money... but tbh i'd rather have it lying around until i need it one day rather than sell it 2nd hand for $50 then have to fork out $100 for another drive if and then ultimately be out of pocket $50.

[Idarzoid]

The 'bloatware' it comes with isn't that bad, just some camera software.

First thing you should do is to update the Nvidia graphics drivers and it's all good.

4GB RAM is the minimum you should be using with this machine. (Mine came with 6GB and I have 2x4GB sticks lying around somewhere, but 6GB on this machine is enough for now.)

Get yourself a USB 3.0 external hard drive or large USB 3 flash drive and storage is stored.