Alienware m11x core 2 duo

[bigbubba3]

Hey I have a question for ya'll

I'm looking at buying an alienware m11x with the core 2 duo. Right now there around 600 from Dell. And yes I know must alienware products are shear ripoffs but i gotta say it fits just about all my needs (long battery life, ability to do a little gaming, good cooling, and dell reliability)

I plan to do a few upgrades to it if i get it, a new ssd, and new ram.

New ram is 8 gb ddr3 1600, stock is 2gb ddr3 800, so there should be a substantial boost just off that.

This is where my question comes in. In most computers the hdd is the bottleneck, however the core 2 duo is clocked to 1.3 ghz which is pretty slow.

At a clock speed this slow is there actually a bottleneck between hdd and cpu?

Also if I were to upgrade the hdd to a ssd, such as a crucial c300 would the bottleneck shift from hdd to ssd,

OR as in a desktop would there still be a bottleneck on the drive side?

I know there will be a performance increase but at such a low clock speed im wondering just how great it will be

Thanks

 

[endlessmike133]

NCIXUS.com

Assemble all your parts and for an extra $50 dollars they'll get you build it for you.

I'm positive that by doing it the way I suggest you'll get much better performance than that Alienware at a lower/same price!

 

[mnewsham]

Full specs please?

 

[mnewsham]

NCIXUS.com

Assemble all your parts and for an extra $50 dollars they'll get you build it for you.

I'm positive that by doing it the way I suggest you'll get much better performance than that Alienware at a lower/same price!

It's a laptop you dolt.

 

[fffblackmage]

This is where my question comes in. In most computers the hdd is the bottleneck, however the core 2 duo is clocked to 1.3 ghz which is pretty slow.

At a clock speed this slow is there actually a bottleneck between hdd and cpu?

No. You need to realize that the CPU is by far the fastest piece of hardware in a computer (even if it's only 1.3GHz). Cache is a bit slower, memory is slower than that, and then HDDs are slower than snails.

Also if I were to upgrade the hdd to a ssd, such as a crucial c300 would the bottleneck shift from hdd to ssd,

OR as in a desktop would there still be a bottleneck on the drive side?

I'm not sure what you're asking here. HDDs are slower than SSDs. If you replace the M11x's HDDs with the SSD, then the SSD would be the slowest part.

I know there will be a performance increase but at such a low clock speed im wondering just how great it will be

A C2D @ 1.3GHz is kinda slow, but it hardly matters. For everyday use, it's plenty fast. For gaming, it most likely won't matter, as the GPU will be the bottleneck.

 

[bigbubba3]

Full specs:

STOCK
intel core 2 duo SU7300 at 1.3 ghz. 3mb cache

2 gb ddr3 ram 800

1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M

1366x768 LED

160GB SATAII 5,400RPM

Upgrade:

8gb ddr3 1600

64gb crucial c300 ssd. sata 2 285mb/s read 75 mbs write
sate 3 355 mb/s read 75 mbs write

 

[Zap]

Full specs:

STOCK
intel core 2 duo SU7300 at 1.3 ghz. 3mb cache

2 gb ddr3 ram 800

1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M

1366x768 LED

160GB SATAII 5,400RPM

Upgrade:

8gb ddr3 1600

64gb crucial c300 ssd. sata 2 285mb/s read 75 mbs write
sate 3 355 mb/s read 75 mbs write

You are right to give the RAM and HDD a boost, but you are going about it all wrong, for these reasons.

1) If you are going to immediately dump a few hundred into the notebook immediately after buying it, then why not wait for a newer version of the notebook or another notebook? If using as-is, that's fine, but otherwise you're dumping big money into a platform that dates back several years.

2) The RAM needs an upgrade for sure, but that's because of the insufficient amount. First thing is to make sure the notebook actually comes with a 64-bit version of Windows, because if it doesn't, you will be limited to 3.XGB RAM regardless of how much you load in there. Second thing is that faster RAM may not matter because notebook BIOSes are often locked to a certain speed, plus RAM speed is the least of your concerns with such a slow CPU (I'm typing this using a Dell Latitude 13 with Core 2 Duo SU7300 right now, so I know EXACTLY how the CPU performs). You should upgrade the RAM but you probably don't need to go any higher speed than stock, nor any higher capacity than 4GB.

3) The 5400RPM HDD really needs an upgrade. 64GB is pretty limiting, so consider a higher capacity, or something like the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid for the capacity. Also, the notebook is limited in SATA performance so going 6Gbps won't do a thing other than waste money.