Using a Alienware m11x today

I

iKokomo

Member
I am getting rid of a bunch of old computers I don't need anymore on eBay and I was thinking of trading them all up for a used Alienware m11x. I know it is an older computer but it seems very capable, especially for the size and for the price I can get it at. (400 or less, USD). It has up to an (older) i7 with a 1GB video card. I can update it with max RAM and SSD which seems like it would be a great computer for many more years to come.

Is this a good idea?

Thanks!
 
If you want to play games, then no with a 1GB card, but it seems strange that an Alienware would have such a poor GPU.. but I'm not sure just how old it is.

Do you have this machine right now?
 
I do not, it is from 2011-2013ish! Now, I am not looking at the lastest greatest PC games
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Just some older ones, (Like the Bioshock's, Mass Effect and the F.E.A.R. Series and others like that) and some Sony Vegas Video/ Photoshop photo editing and Cakewalk Music Editing / Recording.
 
Can you provide the specifics of the machine.. like the CPU, GPU..etc .Initial thoughts might be that your gonna struggle with the type of usage you do ...
 
  • Intel Core i7-2617M ((2x1.5GHz + HTT, 32nm, 4MB L3, Turbo to 2.6GHz)
  • 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 (2 x 2GB) (Will Upgrade)
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
  • 11.6″ glossy WideHD LED Backlit display (1366×768)
  • 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive (Will Upgrade)
  • Nvidia GeForce GT 540M Discrete Graphics (1GB GDDR3) with switchable Intel HD integrated graphics
It does seem like a better computer than most for under 4 (my budget). I have seen videos of Bioshock running on High on youtube on older models than this :)
 
The age, in theory, doesn't matter.. what matters is the components within the machine. You could have a 5 year old machine that destroys a brand new 2016 laptop--all depends on whats in its guts!

My 2 cents would be this, dont buy this machine, save a bit more..expand that budget and look at something a bit more feature rich and robust to carry you forward!
 
Yeah I agree. The spec isn't bad at all for $400. 4GB of RAM is a little low, you can probably put at least 8GB in it or maybe even 16GB and buy an SSD, but once you've spent the money on that you could have probably afforded a newer machine with better specs to begin with. Or you could have spent a bit more and got something nicer if $500 or $600 or so isn't enough to beat this. The screen resolution and the graphics card also really let this machine down. I know you're not after gaming performance but the 540M with its 1GB of RAM is going to be slow, I'm afraid, probably even for the games you want to play. Certainly no good for newer titles, probably not even at at the 720p resolution of the laptop's display.
 
True! Thanks, but I also do have a spare SSD sitting around doing nothing :) so I was thinking of just popping that one in.
 
An SSD wont change the other issues outlined by spirit though. Saving a little bit longer will definitely be to your benefit!!
 
To be honest with you pretty much any new laptop with an i5 and 8GB of RAM and a dedicated GPU will be faster than this old Alienware and likely not a whole lot more expensive once you accounted for the various upgrades that you'd do to it to bring it out of 2011 and into 2016. It has an older i7, I'm sure the newer i5s are faster, especially if you get a machine with an i5 M and not an i5 U.
 
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