Alienware M11x R3 review (Core i7 2630UM)

1. Introduction2. Alienware M11x R3 (Bundle & Packaging)3. Alienware M11x R3 (The System - 1)4. Alienware M11x R3 (The System - 2)5. Bios and Hardware6. Testing Methodology7. Synthetic: Heaven Benchmark8. Synthetic: 3Dmark 119. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra10. Synthetic: Aida 6411. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.512. Synthetic: HDTach & CrystalMark13. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark V214. Real World: Solid State Drive Performance15. Real World: Media Encoding with Cyberlink Media Espresso16. Real World: BluRay Playback with Power DVD 10 Ultra17. Real World: Flash HD Media Performance18. Gaming: Call Of Duty: Black Ops19. Gaming: Bulletstorm20. Gaming: Battlefield: Bad Company 221. Gaming: F1 201022. Gaming: Lost Planet 223. Gaming: Total War: Shogun 224. Gaming: Home Front25. Gaming: Assassins Creed: Brotherhood26. Technical: Acoustic Performance27. Technical: Thermal Dynamics28. Technical: Screen Quality29. Technical: Battery Life30. Closing Thoughts31. View All Pages

The M11x has been a big seller for Alienware, and rightly so because it combines class leading performance in a thin and light, custom chassis design. The newest R3 revision has been in the Kitguru labs for some time now and today we present our analysis. ‘Not another ATOM netbook!?' we hear you cry. Fear not, for the Sandybridge system we are reviewing today is powered by a new ultra low voltage Core i7 2630UM processor and is supplied with a whopping 8GB of DDR3 memory.

The Alienware M11x R3 is targeted towards gamers and demanding enthusiast users who can't bear to live with an Intel Atom or AMD Fusion system. Those who not only want to work, but who want to game on the move and have access to similar performance levels of a decent desktop computer. The Alienware M11x R3 is set to keep the compromises to a minimum.

Is this the ultimate superportable gaming laptop?

The Alienware M11x R3 is supplied in a beautiful, and very futuristically designed black box. There is a handle on top so if you need to transport the product at a later date, it is easily moved.

Inside there are two heavy duty foam packing pieces on either side of the box. The peripherals are stored separately in a black and blue accented box.

The power supply is a thin brick design, which never got hot, even during extended heavy duty gaming sessions. It is a FA90PE1-00 model which is a 19.5V – 4.62A design.

The laptop ships within a protective felt cover pouch. Let's take a look at the machine itself.

The Alienware M11x R3 is marketed as a powerful, yet highly portable system. Aficionados of the company will be pleased to see that the traditional, stylish angular curves are still apparent.

The design has changed a little cosmetically, but it remains true to the Alienware heritage. Aerodynamically it has been enhanced and as expected the Alienware head is visible on the lid. I liked the paintwork, it had an almost automotive appearance under certain lighting conditions.

The grills on the front are still in place, and have been reshaped and adjusted to suit the new design. These are lighted and the colours can be changed.

Connectivity is strong. On the left side (from front to back), there is an IE94 port, an MMC-SD-MS/PRO card reader, Gigabit lan port, USB port as well as HDMI and DisplayPort connectors. At the back is a Kensington security lock. On the right side are two headphone ports, a microphone port and another two USB 2.0 ports. This is a very strong layout, it is not often for instance that you see an 11 inch laptop shipping with both HDMI and Displayport capabilities. Due to the size constraints there is no optical drive, but it is possible to purchase a USB powered optical drive for £30 now online.

The power connector is at the rear of the chassis and the more observant among you will see that the battery is not accessible without removing the underside panel.

This is a prototype build of the system designed for internal use, so there may be small adjustments and improvements to the finished appearance when it hits retail.

Underneath is an Alienware plaque, this can be etched with the customers name before shipment. Alienware have cleverly designed the airflow system to exhaust air away from the user, making an ‘on the lap' experience hopefully more enjoyable. The onboard sound system is supplied by Klipsch, and this is also branded into the underside of the chassis. The battery can be tested with the system powered down by simply pressing a button. The higher the feedback count the longer the battery will last.

The 11.6 inch screen (1366×768 pixels) is highly reflective, as can be seen in the image above. The hinge strength is good, with no movement apparent under normal use.

System Dimensions
Height: 32.7mm (1.29 inches)
Depth: 233.3mm (9.19 inches)
Width: 285.7mm (11.25 inches)
Starting at Weight: 2.0 kg (4.4lbs)

Alienware use the ‘Star Trek' futuristic font for their keyboards, and it gives the machine a totally unique appearance.

The keyboard, while not full size is well spaced for typing and we liked the overall layout structure. There are a row of keys along the top which offer various functionality, such as screen brightness and volume and media control. The FN key needs to be pressed simultaneously for these to work.

Keyboard flex will be experienced if the keyboard is pressed very hard, however it is not really noticeable under general use and certainly we can't see an end user applying the same force as we did in the video above.

The Synaptics trackpad is supplied with a textured surface which helps to ensure accurate movement.

The software allows for quite detailed configurations, and an area of the touchpad can also be configured for scroll bar operation. The two buttons at the bottom of the area offer a high level of feedback and while we never use a trackpad when possible, this is one of the better units we have used, much like the M17 R3 we reviewed in February.

Internally, the machine is well structured. The Samsung SDI PT6V8 battery demands a huge percentage of the real estate. It is a 63Wh model and is rated at 14.8V. The hard drive resides to the right, next to the wireless hardware. To the left is the Hynix DDR3 memory. Several small speakers are positioned to the outer left and top to help create a spacious sound field.

Preinstalled Alienware software offers a lot of control over the keyboard, logos, and side panel lights. You can ‘mix and match' the colours, pulse them or turn them off totally if you wish. We love a backlit keyboard especially on a laptop, it comes in handy when ambient light is poor.

The keyboard lighting in action.

The Alienware M11x R3 bios is developed by InsydeH20. There are many settings offered and it should cater to the audience prospective perfectly.

Alienware sent us a new bios just before we started the review, in the shape of an .exe file. Flashing is simple, double click the file within the operating system and the computer reboots and handles the work itself.

The system is shipped in a very clean state with no crapware or software bundles preinstalled. We aren't sure if this is because we received an early sample, but regardless it was refreshing to see. The overall system scores very highly and according to the Windows Experience Index is limited by the graphics.

Dell will be shipping the Alienware M11x R3 with various Intel processors. At time of publication we don't have details on the variety of models offered, but our particular review model is shipped with an engineering sample Core i7-2630UM. This is a 17 watt TDP design with a maximum turbo boost speed of 2.7ghz (x23 multiplier). It is based around 32nm architecture and has a generous 4MB of level 3 cache built in.

The system ships with both Intel HD 3000 graphics and the Nvidia Geforce GT 540M which has 2GB of GDDR3 memory onboard, connected via a 128bit memory interface.

System validation is available over here.

To test this system today we are using a mixture of synthetic and real world testing, clearly labeled into various sections. We will compare this system against several others we have tested before, to give an overview of the performance capabilities. These should not be used as a direct comparison, but more as a performance indicator when compared to other systems in different price sectors.

The ASRock Ion3D system, to give an indication of potential benefits when upgrading from an ATOM powered computer, the MSI FX 600 Laptop, which features an Intel Core i3 330M processor and the MSI FX 623 which features a Core i5 460M. Lastly we will also include some results from the Alienware M17 R3 system, which has a Core i7 2630QM installed.

Alienware M11x R3:
CPU: Intel Core i7 2630UM
Memory: 8GB DDR3 Hynix @ 1333mhz 9-9-9-24 1T
Graphics: Intel HD & Nvidia GT540M
Hard Drive: Seagate 750GB (ST9750420AS) – 7,200 rpm.
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate

Comparison Systems:
ASRock Ion3D – Atom D525 @ 1.8ghz
MSI FX600 – Intel Core i3 330M
MSI FX623 – Intel Core i5 460M
Alienware M17 R3 – Intel Core i7 2630QM

Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit
Aida 64
SiSoft Sandra
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cyberlink Media Espresso
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra V10
PCMark Vantage
3DMark 11
HQV Benchmark V 2.0
Left4Dead
Crystalmark
HDTach

Games:
Call Of Duty Black Ops
Bulletstorm
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Home Front
F1 2010
Total War: Shogun 2
Lost Planet 2
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Asus BluRay Drive
Lacie 730 Monitor (Image Quality testing)
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Nikon D300S SLR with R1C1 Kit.
Panasonic Lumix TZ10

All results are gained from multiple test runs to ensure any abnormalities are removed before publication.

Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

The Nvidia GT540M is no tessellation powerhouse struggling with this test a little, even at a fairly modest resolution.

3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance.

Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.

3DMark 11 scores verify that the system is going to struggle to power games with high image quality settings, even at 720p. We will obviously look at this in our real world gaming section of the review, later.

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
• Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
• Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
• Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

• SMP – Multi-Processor
• MC – Multi-Core
• SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
• MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
• GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
• NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
• AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
• IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

Performance from the low powered Intel Core i7 2630UM seems fairly close to the Intel Core i5 460M in the MSI CX623 laptop. Memory performance however is top of the class, scoring a very impressive 17GB/s+.

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring.

It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The Core i7 i7 2630UM in the M11X R3 is clearly no slouch, scaling down pretty well when compared to the higher cost, high power drain Intel Core i7 2630QM in the M17x R3.

CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.

Again, pretty close results from the low voltage i7 when compared directly to the Core i5 460M which is in the MSI CX623.

A very important part of overall system responsiveness is down to hard drive performance so we used two of our favourite benchmark utilities Crystalmark X64 Edition and HD Tach to rate the Seagate 750GB (ST9750420AS) – 7,200 rpm hard drive.

Hard drive performance is acceptable, if a little slow when compared with any of the recent machines we have reviewed with an SSD drive installed.

Above, the same system with a 256GB Samsung SSD installed. The performance differences are marked, and noticeable.

HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evaluate motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.

There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on BluRay. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content, so will we.

This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.

We connected the Alienware M11x R3 to an external LaCie 730 monitor for image quality testing – the nVidia discrete solution was delivering the output.

Read our initial analysis over here.

	Alienware M11x R3
Dial	4
Dial with static pattern	5
Gray Bars	5
Violin	5
Stadium 2:2	5
Stadium 3:2	5
Horizontal Text Scroll	5
Vertical Text Scroll	5
Transition to 3:2 Lock	5
Transition to 2:2 Lock	0
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video	5
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video	5
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed	5
5:5 FPS Animation	5
6:4 12 FPS Animation	5
8:7 8 FPS Animation	5
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)	5
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)	5
Random Noise: Sailboat	5
Random Noise: Flower	5
Random Noise: Sunrise	5
Random Noise: Harbour Night	5
Scrolling Text	3
Roller Coaster	3
Ferris Wheel	3
Bridge Traffic	3
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text	3
Roller Coaster	3
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Luminance Frequency Bands	5
Chrominance Frequency Bands	5
Vanishing Text	5
Resolution Enhancement	15
Theme Park	5
Driftwood	2
Ferris Wheel	3
Skin Tones	5
Total	177

The Alienware M11x R3 is clearly capable of delivering high levels of image quality.

It doesn’t matter how good any of the synthetic suites are, the real meat of the testing has to be under absolute real world conditions. This proves difficult as to record results we have to narrow down fluctuation. Therefore while we would say these are the most useful results to get from this review, there is always going to be a slight margin for error – its not absolutely scientific.

We used the 7,200 rpm mechanical drive that Alienware supplied in the system, then replaced it with a 256GB Samsung SSD drive to measure potential performance gains, in the real world.

The system takes 52 seconds to boot into Windows when using the mechanical hard drive. This is reduced to 17 seconds when we swap in the 256GB Solid State drive. If ever it could be highlighted how much of an importance an SSD drive makes to overall system performance, this is it.

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

New and Improved Features

• Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
• Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
• Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
• Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
• Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
• Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.

For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2hr 12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power.

A final time of 25 minutes is extremely impressive, and this is without hardware acceleration enabled. When we bring the Nvidia GT540M into the equation the time is reduced by a further 4 minutes to 21 minutes and 16 seconds.

Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our Bluray and conversion tests.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 is one of the finest solutions for the Blu-Ray experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the Bluray Disc of Avatar, one of our favourite sci-fi films in recent years.

The M11x scales exceptionally well, outperforming the Core i5 solutions in the other machines, and falling a few percent behind the M17x R3. The Nvidia 540M is showing to be a really good discrete solution for media playback.

Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online.

The processor is loaded to around 15 percent in total, which means there is plenty of CPU cycles left for multitasking.

Call of Duty: Black Ops takes place during the Cold War, in the 1960s. The story focuses on the CIA's Special Activities Division (SAD) Studies and Observations Group (SOG) (originally and currently called “Special Operations Group”) – backed clandestine black operations carried out behind enemy lines. These missions take place in various locations around the globe such as the Ural Mountains in central Russia, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam. The single-player campaign revolves around an experimental chemical weapon codenamed “Nova-6”.

The player mainly controls SAD/SOG special forces operative Alex Mason and occasionally CIA agent Jason Hudson, as well as other characters. Mason often works with Frank Woods and Joseph Bowman, while Hudson teams up with Grigori Weaver, a Russian-born field operative. Viktor Reznov, a key character from the Soviet campaign in World at War returns. Its Russian protagonist Dimitri Petrenko also makes an appearance. Black Ops features several historical figures: Mason meets John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro.

At these settings the system remains fully playable at all times, dropping to just under 30 fps when the action heats up. Anti Aliasing at 2x is fairly playable also, but there is more frame rate ‘juddering' in specific environmental locations.

Bulletstorm takes place in the 26th century, where the Confederation of Planets are protected by a secret black-ops army called Dead Echo. The story follows space pirate Grayson Hunt, voiced by Steve Blum, and his cyborg partner Ishi Sato, whose squad went AWOL after discovering that they were tricked into killing innocent civilians, instead of the ruthless drug dealers and mass murderers that their commanding officer General Sarrano told them they were killing.

At these settings, Bulletstorm looks and plays great, with the frame rate always in excess of 30 fps.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (also known as Bad Company 2 or BF: BC2) is a first-person shooter video game developed by the Swedish firm EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 systems. It is a part of the Battlefield series and was released worldwide in March 2010.

The game is primarily a squad-level online first person shooter based in a contemporary modern warfare setting. Additionally, the game includes a single player campaign, where the player reassumes the role of Preston Marlowe, the protagonist of the original game. The game’s Frostbite 1.5 engine allows for destructible environments, and multiplayer maps contain a wide selection of vehicles, aircraft and emplacements and allow for five different game modes.

We used ‘medium settings' as shown below.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was an enjoyable experience with the frame rates only dropping below 30 fps on a few instances, such as when during heavy firefights.

F1 2010 is a video game based on the 2010 season of the Formula One world championship. It is the sequel to the 2009 video game based on the same series. It was released in September 2010 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows platforms. The game was confirmed by Codemasters on 23 April 2009. The game engine is based on the new EGO 1.5 engine, an unofficially titled evolution of the EGO 1.0 engine that was created specially for the title.

At our selected settings, F1 2010 runs perfectly well, holding at 30fps+ or more throughout many of the tracks. Sometimes, depending on the environment it will dip a little but overall this is perfectly playable and good fun.

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates.

After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. Lost Planet 2 runs on the MT-Framework 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in several Capcom-developed games.

We tested the game with the settings below:

Lost Planet 2 is an intensive game and we were happily surprised to get good performance, even with slightly reduced image quality. We can't say this is a particularly enjoyable game to play but it looks great and is a good showcase of the hardware inside the M11x R3.

Shogun 2 is set in 16th-century feudal Japan, in the aftermath of the Ōnin War. The country is fractured into rival clans led by local warlords, each fighting for control. The player takes on the role of one of these warlords, with the goal of dominating other factions and claiming his rule over Japan. The standard edition of the game will feature a total of eight factions (plus a ninth faction for the tutorial), each with a unique starting position and different political and military strengths.

We used the ‘medium' quality settings, as shown in the image below.

Total War: Shogun 2 is an intensive game but we managed to get it playable by reducing the image quality settings. It still looked great and was playable across multiple campaigns, only dropping under 30 fps a few times with many armies on screen.

Homefront is speculative fiction, set in a near-future, post peak oil world that features a significantly diminished United States, and a united Korea that has built a massive alliance in East Asia. The Gate Corporation (a major private military company) also plays a minor role. The game focuses on the collapse of the United States, subsequent occupation by the Greater Korean Republic—a united Korea under the rule of Korea—and the American Resistance that fights said occupation. The player is invited to join the American Resistance, “using guerrilla tactics, commandeering military vehicles, and utilizing advanced drone technology”.

Homefront’s PC version has been outsourced to Digital Extremes, a Canadian developer responsible for numerous Unreal Tournament games and Bioshock ports. Frank Delise, the executive producer of the PC version has stated that the PC version of the game will feature exclusive content and dedicated servers. Additional exclusive features include clan support, DirectX 11 graphics, and first person vehicle cockpits.

We used high settings with Anti aliasing disabled, as detailed in the screenshot below.

At these settings, the game was playable and only dropped very close to the danger zone on a few of the wide open landscape environmental game sections. This is an extremely fun game to play, even if it was slated by the press when it was released.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a third person action-adventure video game with main emphasis on sandbox style gameplay in an open world of Italy. Like the previous installments, the gameplay's core mechanics are based on parkour movements, crowd-blending stealth, assassinations and melee fighting system. The combat system features several improvements and for the first time in the series, the game offers a multiplayer mode alongside 40+ hours of single-player gameplay.

The game introduces a brand-new management system: the player can recruit new members by destroying any of twelve “Borgia towers” around Rome where papal troops are stationed, then rescuing disgruntled citizens in their districts from harassing guards. The player, as Ezio, can then send them to assignments around Europe or call them for support during missions (if they are not already occupied). The assassin recruits are also able to provide arrow support for the player. Tasking the novice Assassins is essential to make them gain experience, and the player is able to customize their appearance, skills and weapon training by spending the skill points they've earned. Assassins can die on missions, from which they will not return. Ezio masters new gadgets, such as Leonardo da Vinci's parachute, which can be used when jumping from tall buildings, along with poison darts, a faster acting poison, a crossbow, and the ability to hold and throw heavier weapons like axes.

This is one of our favourite games and the PC version runs exceptionally well on the M11x with the frame rate generally hovering between 30fps and 40fps. A few options could be further adjusted to enhance performance overall, but we could live with these settings.

We measure from a distance of around 2 foot from the chassis with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The system is generally fairly quiet although fan noise can be heard when the system is under load. The full load results above are taken when running Prime 95 and Furmark together. This is a total ‘worst case scenario' however and a typical end user can expect 35 dBA or less under normal load circumstances.

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.

Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by running Furmark and Cinebench together.

This cooling system is actually very good, especially when factoring in the high level of performance components incorporated within.

Temperatures are quite good due to the clever airflow design forcing hot air out the side of the machine. That said you will need to ensure you give the side good space to circulate air.

We tested the Alienware screen with a variety of high definition movies hooked up to an ASUS USB 2.0 powered Bluray drive (model SBC-06D1S-U). We used a LaCie measurement gun for some of our analysis.

The LED panel supplied with this screen is going to be perfect for the target audience, it is a high gloss panel which is optimal for media and gaming. There is a fair level of panel reflectiveness meaning that it can be tricky to view in specific situations, such as outdoors or with a strong light behind the user.

Our colour image and grayscale testing showed that the panel was able to resolve a high level of detail, including some tests on reference HQV benchmark 1080p media. Banding is noticeable, but it is certainly at the better end of the spectrum. Focusing quality is strong across the full width although we did notice some minor inconsistency at the corners of the screen. To the naked eye we would say it would be hard to notice, but the measurement hardware we use noted some minor fluctuation. Text quality is excellent, with even fine lettering maintaining clarity.

Offset viewing is strong, both vertically and horizontally, although the glare from the gloss style screen can be somewhat distracting with light positioned behind the viewer. Obviously this is a calculated compromise necessary for rich, vibrantly rendered media. We noticed no ghosting or artifacting when playing fast paced first person shooters such as Call of Duty or Homefront. Avatar on Bluray looked fantastic and the HDMI output quality was exceptionally good thanks to the capable onboard graphics solutions.  We recorded a rating of over 400 cd/m2 at full brightness.

We used Displaymate to test the panel and overall image quality can certainly be described as ‘excellent'. The Gamut range in GamutVision was significantly above average for an 11.6 inch panel, but we could already tell this with our eyes. Colour reproduction is great, although just like the 17 inch model we reviewed a while ago, we recorded a slight pink tinge to neutral gray which can be easily tuned out with software configuration. The gamut helps to ensure that realistic images are displayed, especially when watching high quality source material from a quality BluRay pressing.

White purity shows minor shifting between 5% and 18% across the width, with it being more pronounced at the lower area of the panel. This is a very good result however and whites do tend to look clear and ‘pure' when viewing high quality 1080p material. Until the screen is calibrated however there is a very slight pink tinge, which may not be noticeable to many people. It is easily removed with a little software adjustment however.

Black definition is great, with only minor leaks on the panel edges which ruin the overall result a little. It looks worse in the image above and under real world conditions its only slightly noticeable with a pure black image on screen. There is slight highlighted leak from the bottom of the screen but we would feel that many people won't notice this, or even care if they did. It is common with laptop screens and this is actually one of the better results for a screen of this size.

To test the battery today we put the machine through three sets of real world situations. One as a media movie lover on the move, a person wanting to watch HD media on a train journey or bus with one brightness setting from maximum. Secondly as a business man, using the machine for productivity with wireless enabled and balanced power settings with a mid way (around half) brightness setting. Thirdly as a gamer on the move, playing Crysis at the highest settings at low resolution with the nVidia solution fully active and screen brightness up full (worst case scenario).

Battery life is very strong from this machine, getting close to 5 hours with our businessman test. The machine recorded close to 3 hours with our high definition media test and an hour and a half when gaming. The Alienware software is very configurable, allowing a wide gamut of settings to be fine tuned to coax additional battery life.

The Alienware M11x R3 really is an exceptional laptop and one we will be sorry to see leave our labs. The usual compromises which are generally accepted when purchasing a ‘super portable' laptop really don't apply with the M11x. Under real world situations it acts, and reacts like a powerful desktop computer.

On an appearance level, this is really going to stand out in the crowded marketplace and will suit people who want something both powerful yet attractively designed. The instantly recognisable Alienware angular sci-fi design has been streamlined and aerodynamically enhanced over the years, much like we see in the automotive industry.

Alienware have included enough connectivity to sate the demands of the digital oriented media enthusiast, with both DisplayPort and HDMI out ports offered. Unlike many other superportable laptops they have generously provided 3 USB ports, and dual headphone sockets, meaning you and a friend can watch the same movie when travelling, without annoying other commuters.

Internally, the hardware selection is very hard to fault. Our particular sample included a high performance, low power drain Core i7 2630UM which as testing indicates is capable of rolling with full power processors in delivering a responsive, and positive computing experience. You certainly won't be using the machine as a 3D rendering farm, but it is capable of handling a wide variety of duties while demanding only modest levels of power.

While no one could claim that the nVidia GT540M is a graphics powerhouse, at this modest resolution and by lowering some image quality settings, all the gaming engines we tested generated very positive frame rates throughout all our testing. When this is combined with the Core i7 processor, the M11x can be comfortably used as a gaming machine ‘on the go' without having to make many sacrifices. Within the confines of such a small machine, we can't help but feel impressed with the overall balancing.

The only area of this specific review machine that we didn't warm to was the hard drive performance, but we have gotten so accustomed to using machines with solid state drives that it seems an almost obvious statement now. As highlighted in our review we did test the M11x with a 256GB Samsung solid state drive and the differences were easily documented synthetically and more importantly felt within the real world. Boot time was dramatically decreased and overall system responsiveness reached a new plateau.

Hinting at the Apple design ethos many people might negatively comment on the concept of placing the battery internally. Personally, I don't have an issue with it, and the benefits are clear. Alienware can use a more substantial battery without having to worry about overhanging fitting issues … and our testing shows that this is a machine you could use for most of the day, without a recharge.

Keyboard and screen quality are both exceptional, and we always love a backlit keyboard, especially in poor ambient lit conditions, it makes it easier to find command and control keys. Lighting freaks will be playing with the Alienware software for some time to come, with an almost endless option for pulsating and glowing lights, all over the custom chassis design.

Pricing starts at £800, however this specific review machine is a higher specified model than the entry level model, costing £1473.99 inc vat. If you can afford it, we would recommend machine customisation with a solid state drive, or add one yourself later. This system really does come to life when you remove the mechanical drive limitations.

Customise and browse the Alienware range below.

Pros:

• stunning appearance
• screen quality is exceptionally good
• keyboard is a good size and has backlighting functionality
• very little keyboard flex
• track pad is great
• chassis design is well constructed.
• performance is class leading

Cons:

• It is costly.

KitGuru says: Stunning to look at, and equally as good to use.

Become a Patron!