C90 impressions

Figured I'd make a quick impressions thread here on the C90 after having it for several days. Basicly I just want to give a quick overview of what to realisticly expect, as well as point out a few things no one seems to be mentioning. So without further adoo:

Good:
BEAUTIFUL screen
Sleek outer design
Easy to open and replace hardware
Powerful for the price
Built in Bluetooth
Built in E-SATA
HDMI output
Media card reader


Bad:
DVD Drive loud + cheap feeling
Fans distractingly loud when under load (playing games, etc.)
runs hot to the touch (Uncomfortable, but not burning)
Battery life under an hour
Geforce8600 slower then desired (2900-3100 3dmarks at stock)
Speakers poorly located + no noticeable bass
Keyboard cramped
USB ports inconveniently located (back and underneath express port)
CPU hardly upgradeable due to chipset being outdated
RAM maxes out at 3gb (poorly chosen chipset)
Heavily incompatible with many RAM types (hopefully fixed with a firmware upgrade eventualy)
3 pronged power cord extension only about 3 feet long


Other:
for those considering the 250gb WD Scorpio, don't (reported S.M.A.R.T. failures by various reviews, something I wish I'd know beforehand)
Why is their an ON light for email?
Where are the upgrade video cards already?
Has anyone actualy got the built in MIC to work?
Even though you can overclock the GPU, its only with a handful of drivers, and even then I wouldn't recommend it due to how much heat is already being produced at stock

 

There is no other video card yet, because the 8600M GT DDR2 800 (not GDDR2 btw) is the best you can have yet.


There video card does not run hotter than any other 8600M or even desktop 8600GT with about 85C under load

 

The keyboard does not feel cramped to be, but thats because i went from a 12" powerbook

 

Ease up, the system has barely been available a month and you want an upgrade? The 2600 will come out sometime soon.

 

My take...


Good:
BEAUTIFUL screen - agree

Sleek outer design -agree, the top is nice, the grey is nothing fancy but plain is better than neon green to me like the g1s.

Easy to open and replace hardware - agree

Powerful for the price - agree

Built in Bluetooth - yep
Built in E-SATA - yep (havnt used it yet tho)

HDMI output - yep 1.3 to be exact

Media card reader - yep


Bad:
DVD Drive loud + cheap feeling - i agree, but its my first notebook I wonder if they are not all like that since they are so small, if it really is below standard it would be easy to replace with one of your choice and still have the cost way below that of competing notebooks.

Fans distractingly loud when under load (playing games, etc.) - They do get up there depending on the game but I really cant hear them over the game itself.

runs hot to the touch (Uncomfortable, but not burning) - mines not hot at all, not even warm except the exaust obviously.

Battery life under an hour - depends on what your doing... I can get over an hour easy with just web surfing.

Geforce8600 slower then desired (2900-3100 3dmarks at stock) - yep a big disapointment for all of us at first, due to the memory it uses. We thought it would be on par or better than the g1s but it wasnt, however if you are lucky enough to have a good card it can overclock very close to the same point.

Speakers poorly located + no noticeable bass - I like the location, but it depends on the enviroment. If you use it on your lap it will suck but on a desk its not bad.

Keyboard cramped - again my first notebook but I found myself able to type so well on it, just as well or better than my desktop and thats saying alot for the keyboard, when all my friends laptops have me fumbling bad so I think the keyboard is EXCELENT.

USB ports inconveniently located (back and underneath express port) - Why is that inconvienent? It keeps cords out of the way, the one on the side is for things like a usb flashdrive.

CPU hardly upgradeable due to chipset being outdated - why do you need something stronger than 2.97ghz C2D?? its like complaning you cant upgrade a viper motor from a V10 to a v12.

RAM maxes out at 3gb (poorly chosen chipset) - Yep thats unfortunate, even worse is all the ram compatability issues. so just getting a working 3gb configuration has prooven a nightmare to me. To this day I dont have one and never will.

Heavily incompatible with many RAM types (hopefully fixed with a firmware upgrade eventualy) - I hope so too.

3 pronged power cord extension only about 3 feet long


Other:
for those considering the 250gb WD Scorpio, don't (reported S.M.A.R.T. failures by various reviews, something I wish I'd know beforehand)
Why is their an ON light for email?
Where are the upgrade video cards already?
Has anyone actualy got the built in MIC to work?
Even though you can overclock the GPU, its only with a handful of drivers, and even then I wouldn't recommend it due to how much heat is already being produced at stock

I love this HDD, its huge in size, totally silent, and very fast and cool running to boot. I have not heard of the SMART issues, but thats just a feature (one that I never use personally aswell) so just pretend it doesnt have that feature and your ok.

 

Build in mics do work. Tried a voice recording and on msn messenger, both work flawlessly.

 

Mics and cam have been working great together on skype.

 

" CPU hardly upgradeable due to chipset being outdated - why do you need something stronger than 2.97ghz C2D?? its like complaning you cant upgrade a viper motor from a V10 to a v12. "

Hey Viscious - that's pretty funny!
But also correct - 2.97ghz core 2 duo is just about the highest performing cpu available. This cpu will be able to run top games for years. Not only that, but it is highly unlikely a gpu will be able to fit in a notebook such as the size of the c90s that will be bottlenecked by the 2.97ghz cpu!

 

Not bad, but compared to other laptops i've used it sounds very flat.

The keyboard is overall good, but in a few areas the keys have been narrowed (ex: arrow keys), and im not much for the position of the Fn/Ctrl/Del/PauseBreak keys, I think they should be flipped with the corresponding keys next to them as thats the standard layout for most 15' laptop keys.

I love the size, but mine worries me as its always making clicking noises, which im used to hearing on dying HDDs. Still I've run every test under the sun on it and everything checks out ok. But because of the reviews and those noises I just don't trust it :-/

 

Hmm maybe you do have an issue with your HDD because mine is silent with no noises.

 

all notebook dvdrw drives sound loud and cheap, i actually like this one better than most.

in no way is the keyboard cramped, i have no idea what keyboards your used to but this is def not cramped

my wd scorpio 250gb works fine, silent, with no errors. battery life is over 1 1/2 hours with battery mode, and you knew it wasn't going to be good going into it.

the cpu may not be too upgradable - but name me a mobile cpu that will beat this? not even in 08 will they likely have one that truely beats it. the laptop was released a month ago, they don't need new video cards just yet, they have a bit of time before they actually "need" an upgrade.


i do agree with you that this laptop isn't much more upgradable then any other laptop besides a gpu - but because this laptop is much faster than any santa rosa, im not too worried. i also agree that i wish it had 4gb compatibility, yet theres nothing that will really take advantage of it yet anyway. I can't realy complain about the ram compatibility cuz my laptop works fine. and how is the usb ports put in a bad place? any other laptop is on the side and on the back - exactly like this laptop. One thing I do completely agree with is where the speakers are because my only problem with this laptop is that its not loud enough to me, i woudl much rather have it amazingly loud and turn it down, then quiet and not able to turn it up