Just ordered an AS 8950 froM NewEgg

Sandy Bridge is fixed. It came out 100 off 1499. Ordered a SSD from BUY.com (kingston 128GB). Kingston comes with to clone HD thats comes with it.

 

I really look forward to your review. Just saw it while looking for something else. If they made that machine in a 15" version I'd want one.

So, there's one review on newegg, and the guy's complaining about short battery life. Srsly, WTH? Is he somehow confusing the 8950G with the 4820 or 1810 or something? It's a friggin gaming laptop with a friggin 6850M in it and a bright 18" screen. Duh, of course it gets poor battery life. It's like buying a Mercedes S class and complaining it's a little heavy. Let's hope people who have a clue review it after this. jeez.

Edit: So I see it's got GDDR3 in it. grrrr, why couldn't acer put gddr5 in this machine?! dangit.

 

5950g is the 15" version.

 

Ok i will review it. I'm adding a 129 gig Kingston SSD since the HD is a 750 gig 5400 rpm. I was looking at this and the Toshiba. The Toshiba does come with a 7200 rpm hd and a 64 GB SSD but costs more.

 

Hey Buckeye, let me know if that second hard drive fits in the cradle. The original pre-sandy bridge 8943g came with a second hard drive cover that was too small to fit an actual second hard drive. I was planning on getting one months ago but the sandy bridge recall nixed my plans. I just ended up ordering an Alienware M17x r3 yesterday but if your review is good, I might end up cancelling my order and getting the 8950g instead.

 

Any one know when the 8943g 2720qm 18.4 inch will be available?

whoa - just realized it's now the 8950g - been searching for the wrong thing forever.

ok - but where is the 2720qm, I just see the 2630qm at newegg

 

It would make very little difference.

 

Really? it looks like a pretty big difference on the passmark CPU benchmark...

7576 for the 2720qm
fs
6296 for the 2630qm

so about 20%.

PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End

 

Also, any idea where to order with 16gb? either that or 2gb so there is not so much waste when upgrading to 16gb.

 

Considering that it at most has a 15% clock speed advantage I find that highly suspect.

I would guess at 10-15% performance difference in CPU limited tasks. Considering you have 8 threads anyway its not really needed.

Plus note the 2720QM is listed as being faster than the 2820QM........

 

Don't bet the farm on those passmark scores.

Bronsky

 

does anyone know if the 8950 has the new sata 3 6 gig ports or just sata 2 . if u install one of the new intel 510 sata 3s will it work at fill speed. also what about the ram if u upgarde it to 8 gigs of 1333 ddr3 will it just down clock it to 1066 or does it support 1333.

 

It should be SATA3. It's integrated into the chipset so they would be totally insane not to.

 

Hey buckeye, I just noticed you put up a mini review on the acer 8950G newegg page. Will you be providing an in depth review as well?

 

Well i purchased the SSD and cloned it and when i open up the second bay there isn't anything to connect to the drive. It looks like there is a connector for an adapter. I got on the technical chat twice with Acer one guy told me you cant use 2 drive but the specs definitely say one or two drives supported. It looks like the drive fits into the bay i just need to find out how to connect it. Right now in have the SSD drive in which is 128 gig and the 750 gig HD that came with it in have in the external case that i used to clone the drive. I hope someone can help me here. other then that I love the laptop.

 

its probly the same as the 7745g i got the conntoer for the second drive is angled up rather then sideways.

call acer and get on with level 2 tech and tel them u want part# 20.PUM07.001. the part cost $7.22 plus shipping

u might also need part# 42.PUM07.005 if the door isn't flat on the bottom as the door they normaly put on when these isn't a second drive by defualt it usely has platic parts that stick down making it so u can't put the door on.

this is the part# 33.PUM07.003 this is for the metal bracket that screws on to the hard drive

all the parts are $7.22 ea plus shipping and tax

just call and get them to send u though to level 2 as the level 1 techs won't know what ur talking about.

 

Thanks I will call them tonight.
-----------------
Well I called anf got 2nd level support and they won't sell me those parts. They said this laptop wasn't made for using a 2nd drive.

 

is there a conntor in the second drive bay that looks like a sata connector but in angled up insted of to the left

 

There is some type on connector but doesn't look like a SATA. I will leave the SSD drive in till i run out of space. I do have a 2 TB exernal drive.

 

Does it look like this would kind of fit:

http://i.ebayimg.com/24/!B2Yypr!CWk~$(KGrHqN,!icE)q9ZvYr6BMiSbFcQKg~~_12.JPG

See that bit included in the middle which plugs into the HDD and leaves metal fingers that would slot into a connector?

Does it look like something like that would work?

 

the tech u got on the phone probly just don't know what hes talking about. i saw this acer laptop forsale on some aussy sites in a 1tb config. and if u check the ad on amazon.com it states in mutipule spots that it supports dual hard drives. might want to try calling back and get a differant agent on the phone.

 

Yes one guy even made a comment they already told me. He said the model I have the mobo doesn't support 2 drives.

 

Well that one is easy to explain. Acer puts out the specs for the 8950 and it says one or dual drives supported. In Australia they have 2 models available. The AS8950G-2638G1.5 and AS8950G-263875. In the USA they have the AS8950G-9839. Guess what the mobo for the 2638 has the interface for 2 hard drives and Acer sells one with2 or 1 drives. In the USA they use the mobo with only one HD interface. They both use the same case hense you have an unusable HD bay. I guess unusable isn't the word to use because you could use to store and jump drive if you want to carry a screwdriver around wit you.

No but I still like the machine and i left the 128 SSD drive and If needed I can replace it with the slower 5400 RPM drive or buy a 7200 RPM drive and clone it.

By the way my windows index score went from 5.9 to 6.5 using the SSD. I thought I would see a much better score since some people have reported a 7.6 using the 8943G. The SSD I got is an older model model from Kingston which isn't as fast (but cheaper) as some of the competition. I paid 204 minus a $75.00 rebate which isn't bad. But I did see a 7200 RPM Seagate for 88 which may be better for a single drive system.

 

Any idea where to order the 16b flavor? I know I could just dump the 8gb and buy 16gb, but hoping to avoid that.

And did I read correctly, the 8950 off newegg DOES NOT support a 2nd drive?

18" monster, no 2nd drive? insane.

 

I'm going to start a 8950G owners lounge and move the conversations there. I will give my 2 cents on your post there.

 

Great! need more characters for the comment so here a some more characters

 

I'm not sure. I've created the 8950g lounge so we can discuss this there. The connector is on on the bottom of the bay and not o the side. I've never seen a connector like it. I do figure it's not there for just looks and it's to be used for something. Its not the normal Sata connection. That why i figured an adapter need t be used to connect a drive.