When we ran our review of the Alienware M11x a few months back, there were a couple of things that really didn’t sit well with us. They had decided on the older Nvidia chipset (which forced you to basically shut everything down to change from discrete to active video) and you were somewhat limited in what CPU options were available. Well, no longer.
Alienware announced today that they are switching to the new(er) Nvidia Optima chipset which allows for seamless transitions from discrete to active graphics, and also added the option to choose either the Intel Core i5 or Core i7 to the custom build. You can also choose up to 8GB of RAM, and anywhere from a 250GB to 500GB 7,200 rpm drive, or a 256GB SSD option. This makes the M11x one of the most powerful netbook style systems on the market, and definitely the choice for a gamer looking for a portable system. One item of note however, in order to be able to fit the Core i5 or i7 CPU choices, Alienware did have to remove the VGA port from the side of the machine. The rest of the ports (USB, HDMI, media card reader, etc.) are still there, but you won’t be able to connect a standard VGA connection to the M11x.