C90p

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/510

"Introduction
During CES 2008 ASUS presented their forthcoming gaming laptop: C90P. This will be a high-end laptop that will allow overclocking by simply touching a button. It is not only that: it will use regular desktop CPUs, making it easier to install and upgrade the processor (the product is based on Intel CPUs), lowering the system cost (as desktop CPUs are traditionally cheaper than mobile CPUs) and allowing faster CPUs to be installed (as usually very high-end CPUs are only released for the desktop market). Sounds interesting? Read on.

This notebook will be sold in the US as a barebone system, where you (the system integrator of your choice, actually) will need to buy and install the CPU, the video card (this laptop will use nVidia’s MXM module), memories, hard disk drive and optical drive, allowing you to have a fully customized gaming laptop, almost like one would get with a desktop PC (the only limitation is with the video card, as only very few models are available using MXM modules – this laptop only accepts up to GeForce 8700M GT). In other countries ASUS will sell C90P already built."

 

Nice find. Looks like they didn't change the looks at all.

 

I thought this was interesting "Two DDR2 SO-DIMM sockets supporting up to 4 GB of DDR2-800." Doesn't state if it will actually use that speed though.

 

Interesting. Looks like a C90 refresh which would definately support Wolfsdale processors, whichmeans higher clock speeds and lower temps. I hope that MXM port is Type III, but by the looks of it it's probably still Type II(hence 8700m)



Note the ASUS logo, are they abandoning the Whitebook idea(ie; Velocity Micro and other brands)?

 

No the display for the c90s at the show had the Asus logo too. I guess just to show the name for everyone to see.

 

Well, it is the same case book with a new motherboard inside (well, not so new but a modification of the original one) I was told via email ASUS could not solve the trouble with the 3GB DDR2 RAM mem and they were working on a new board (well and reconfig board) version with just 2 slots with full 4 GB support. This confirm the info and they told the release could be around next fall. Anyway, I would not buy another C90 model or type until they really redesign the case and find more efficient ways of board design. Asus offered a lot with the c90s but so many issues that If I knew about it I would have gone with another more expensive model (from ASUS as well) because there is not real upgrade on the video side. People who has the time to play with the notebook to get the max out of it could be worthy for them but time for me is money so I would never advise this notebook to a professional designer like me....

regards,

RG

 

This is the refresh that I debated waiting for, I suppose it would not have been worth it. P35 is a much better chipset/mobo tho and support for the newer cpu's is nice.

 

P35 is also a full fletched desktop chipset, notice the new chipset heatsinks. Plus its 100% Windows XP compatible, Asus really listens to its customers in what they want, but sadly I still have the old version. Plus only an 8700GT...they could of come up with a 8700GTS just for grins to make its customers happy.

 

You mean 8800gts?

 

you were one of the people I had in mind when I reply to this post ...best regards m8

 

I mean if they can't give use a 8800GT or even an 8800GS, why not give us a turbo charged 8700GTS?

 

So... let me guess... the things which we have in our C90's are pretty much as good as it will get and maybe a 8700mgt ?

 

Sounds about right, maybe some kind of 9600M.

 

Any chance of a motherboard swap for C90s owners???

 

And where would you get the C90P mobo, considering that just about all the C90 is. The C90P is going to be another barebone for around $900, just get that and sell you C90S as a barebone, you'll probably get $600+.

Frankly, a fully set up and functioning C90S is going to be worth alot more and with a e6700 in it, you can catch some real die hard power addicts. The e8400 is preselling for $200 right now.

 

Thats not the point... Asus promised us ugradable parts and better processors for the c90s... and now they completly forgot about it. I bought this laptop because I can upgrade stuff in it but now I cant even upgrade to anything and its been month. Whats the point of giving us a 8700m gt if it is just a 8600m gt overclocked. I was looking forward to a 8800 or 9500 but i guess thats out of question now. I feel bad that they are just gonna abandon all the people who bought their product and have problems with it.

 

There are lots of limitations with Intel chipsets, just because its socket LGA 775, doesn't mean its gonna work and the 3GB limit should of been a dead give away. If we are lucky we can get our hands on the Q6600 and Q6700 unlocked BIOS from Asus. That's something I'm kinda hoping for if I don't get a new lappy in a year.

As for the video cards; First off the 8700M base clock is that of an overclocked 8600M, but that doesn't mean it won't OC higher and we are looking at a 30%+ performance increase over the 8600M GT 512MB since its only using DDR2. Second, besides the updated shaders and stuff, there won't be any difference between the 9500M and the 8600M, just like with the 8500M and the Go 6600. Third, the original codename for the 8700M GT was 8800M GS.

 

wait plz , i don't get it how there is no diff between 9500 and 8600 !
what about

8700 vs 8800 vs 9500 ( or 9600 ) , give me in percent plz X % BETTER

 

do u mean if i buy this c90p i will have only 3 gb of ram

why it says here Two DDR2 SO-DIMM sockets supporting up to 4 GB of DDR2-800 memory !!!!!

 

I should correct my self, I meant Go 7600 instead of Go 6600 for the older video card.

8700M vs 8800M, both high end cards. I couldn't really tell you since I don't really know. It suppose to be a good improvement. As for the 9500M is only a mid range card, think night and day. First number is series, second number is place in the series, Nvidia did something similar when the mobile 8 series card first came out. The 8500M was basically on par with the Go 7600 at the time.

EDIT, He ment the 3GB limit on the C90S, not realizing A. it's a chipset limitations, hence it can never see more then 3GB and B. BIOS version 901 now allows the C90S to boot with 4GB (2x2GB) in place.

 

Thanks ASUS for using us C90S buyers as guinea pigs until you can make things better and deliver the real goods. Personally, ive had the C90S for going on 6 months now and guess what? NO UPGRADES AVAILABLE! Do I smell class action lawsuit? Maybe thats extreme though. Regardless, I still feel like the ugly girl that gets raped at by the jock at prom. Dont worry Asus, I wont tell the cops cause no one will believe me.....hell im just a consumer.

 

I mean I really love this laptop a lot... just work on it. I have no problems with it... I was just looking forward to having a new video card.

 

I'm with you, new video card is what I'm looking forward to and the only thing I was looking for when I was reading about the C90P.

 

It looks like the video card is pretty much identical. I guess it would fit in the c90s... maybe...

Nevertheless, since they put a 8700, I guess they solved heat issues huh?

I don't have hope for the batteries when I read "The battery is there to allow you to save you documents..."

 

no only new video card, the ram memory speed issue plus the turbo gear issue and nothing was really solved plus you have to get modded video drives since Asus havent delivery new official video driver for this laptop. As you can see Ranger, you put you have 2 ram at 667 while in real life this laptop just use less than the ram full speed and this is just an small example. I think swoley2k is about right now that hesaid I can said the same, we were the guinea pigs and thats all. You know what, I would ask for a RECALL exchanging my c90s for the c90p since ASUS didnt delivery what they promised, wouldnt that be nice??..Anyway, back to real life, we werejust the experiment, they worked it out and got going the new c90p so we have to live with it....

 

Yeah I feel like it a bit too.

It would be nice if the 2 shared the same video card though (wich is looking like this on the pics).

For the drivers I'm not surprised though, Dell just release the 156.xx one

 

You do know that Asus released 167.49 for Vista (working great) and 167.48 for all versions (including 664bit).

 

Are they working with the GDDR3 one ?


EDIT: Where did you see that? It hasn't been updated on asus' website

 

DX3 Or any one

1 ) is there any prices for the new c90p ??

2 ) can u overclock 8700 like 8600 or it's alredy O'C ?

3 ) how does 8800 compare to 8700 in ( games )

 

1. It's just been annoucned to exist
2. You can always overclock a video card
3. The 8800M GTS performs like the 8700M GT SLI

 

Wow like dual 8700m , that's awesome

i guss u would never be able to upgrade the 8700 duo to site the 8700m gt is already mamimum for c90p im i wrong ?

 

It's still a 15.4''. People seems to think it's a 17'' for whatever reasons. 2 cards wouldn't even fit, and you would need water cooling on a 15''

 

I don't mind that Asus used us C90s owners as a test group on a grand scale, personally I feel a little special that I might beat the wave like the people who bought the first generation ipod. Was that piece of equipment the best? Oh god no. But was it ahead of its time? You better believe it, now look - ipods everywhere.

However I am in no way trying to compare the C90 series to the ipod. Why? Asus did listen to our complaints but did not LEARN from this experience. They merely refreshed this platform with more of the same - powerful CPUs, no battery, turbo engine, high powered but still midrange gpu...it really didn't change a whole lot. The C series will definitely stall out if this keeps up for one more generation. Especially now that Asus has an SLi notebook so the C series is not in the top tier of Asus notebooks.

The C series needs
-High end gpu support as well as ati support (was promised, neevr delivered)
-Better heat management to allow for more options
-Support! Support! Support! An upgradeable machine requires...upgrades! Where are they? Oh there was the gddr3 card...which is also now pretty much nonexistant
-Battery life options? Maybe have the option to replace the turbo engine with an uber battery pack for desktop cpu power to go for business people

and finally

Options.

The C90s was in all honesty very bad when it came to a customizable notebook. I thought it would be cool to have options like SLi, high performance cooling, special case colors or lights, gpu choices...I see a lot of identical specs in people's sigs because honestly the only real choices are what processor and what hard drive. The point of a flexible notebook among other things is that these notebooks can become expressions of the user. I want a high powered ati card along with some cool lights or maybe a good sound card for music editing. I'd be fine with a more mid range cpu as well as a midrange cooling system to go with it. That would be my ideal C90. I gurantee people would have their disagreements and build a different one which is GREAT!

Asus could have the next big thing in notebooks with their EEE pc. But the C notebooks could also very well be the next big thing if they were truly customizable.

 

Again, it's 15.4''. Mid-range GPUs is what we're supposed to get. If you examine it, a bigger card can't fit and cooling will be a nightware. They updated the drivers on the website for the Mobility 2600 but it never got released, I guess there was a problem with that. They never promised a high end graphics card. I'd wait for the 9600 to be released. Since they are release the C90P right now we might see a 9600M for it (and they seem to be using the same card types)

Replace the turbo engine? How is it gonna be cooled?

 

Dont get "ability to upgrade" confused with "there will be upgrades" Seems alot of hard feelings because the upgrades are limited on the c90s, Asus said that its an upgradable laptop and it is, I think the only thing they promised was 5 video cards and that happened.

Still tho dont get so focused on the idea of what you dont have and look more at what you do have. A e6600 cpu is more than well strong enough and no laptop cpu can touch it. Maybe that will change when the next generation of cpu's comes out, but thats how technogy works something will always come along to replace it. I cant upgrade my SKT 939 desktop computer without getting a new mobo, new ram, and a new cpu because its not always as simple as just droping a new chip in, you have to pay to keep up with the times.

The only real factor limiting the gpu upgrads is heat and size, and thats what will always limit laptops due to the nature of there design, not sure if anybody has held a desktop 8800gtx in there hands and seen how big it is, or noticed how hot they run. Its simply not something you can expect to just be tossed into a small laptop of this type even after mobile modifications have been made.

When the die shrink comes thru and reduces the size/heat of a card we may see with any luck a refresh card for the c90 that we can upgrade too if we need it.

The c90 is a super cheap (by laptop standards) powerhouse, if you wanted it to be a super cheap gaming machine tho with virtually unlimited upgrade paths, you probably meant to buy a desktop (and thats not even cheap thats why my pc is 2 years old now)

 

What I would absolutely LOVE would be if they released a new bios update or something to allow us c90s owners the chance to control the turbo fans. That way, the 8600m GT wouldn't overheat so much..just a thought. If they do that for the c90p...that would definitely make it that much better.

 

Yup that's what I think. I think a 9600 is highly more, and has always been, probable than a 8800 or something. I never though we could put a 8800 in a 15.4'' before alienware decided to do it. But the laptop will probably be 2 inches thick and...

 

i don't think so .... u know why coz in the site they ... but im not disappointed at all 8700gt is great for a cheap 15.4 lappy


quote : Accordingly to ASUS the maximum graphics card this laptop accepts is GeForce 8700M. Even though this is not the most high-end nVidia graphics card for mobile computers, we think this video card provides a great performance for the mainstream gamer.

 

i belive u can ask
ViciousXUSMC

also u may buy a cooler

 

No it's blocked and we can't unlock it.

 

Thanks for the thought, but I'm not ready to do a "vicious" mod quite yet, haha. Maybe later. I'm also waiting for a cooling pad, but sadly it was on backorder so I'm just waiting for that right now.

 

I agree with most of what you said Vicious. The problem I have is that even though die shrink are happening, they arent happening in MXM-II. There were supposed to be 5 cards available....but are they really upgrades? The cards that were available at launch when we promised upgrades included the 8600m GT. The only "upgrade" from that is the 8600m GT 256mb gddr3. The question is: is that really an upgrade? I say NO. I could see if the c90s's were mostly shipping with something like a 7700 and were upgradeable all the way up to 8600M gt...but MOST of them were already shippped with the 8600M gt. So where are the upgrades? Im not that disappointed because YES of course the cpu is blowing any other laptop away. I would be completely satisfied if I could at the very least upgrade to 8700M GT. From the looks of it the card is the same size as in the C90P but I looked up the size of MXM-III vs II and its only a few mm...so its hard to tell if the c90p is MXM-III or just II. I do like the way they added the heatsink at the bottom of the gpu though. In summary, if I can get a 8700M GT MXM-II for a good price then the c90s is the best thang out! But what about all the people who didnt get a fully funcional c90s? What about the people that cant run turbogear without lockups? What about people that are having other problems that still havent been fixed 6 months later?

Oh and by the way the only way to get the correct RAM speed on the C90S is by having an e6600 and using turbogear...even though its advertised at running 667 with all cpus....

And guess what....unless you get an e6850 with the c90p you STILL wont get the correct ram speeds (333x2 at 9x multiplier). And STILL the only way you get ddr2-800 is if you do 20% overclock with the e6850 (400x2 with 9x multiplier)....and its higly unlikely 20% will be available with e6850 cause that would be 3.6ghz.....hmmm...come on asus...

 

Are you talking to me genius? about the "vicious" mod? or asking swoley something about his post?

 

still, you could get for the same price a better & more stable laptop where you dont have to expend time in configuration to get the best out of it and is not so much upgradable because you have a lot of limitation as for cpu and gpu upgrades go for. Many people in this forum have to send back their c90s, change their memory cards, and cpu config and even buy right the way the new video card because the previous wasnt working so well...SOme other were just lucky to get right config without expending any extra money for it

 

MAybe there is still hope...
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_15427,00.html

Thats the mobility 3600 hd... It looks like the asus c90 8600m gt size wize. It takes up the same wattage too.

 

People are complaining but the next generation isn't even out yet.

What card in the CURRENT gen (dx10.0) were you guys hoping to see in the C90S? A 8800? C'mon, who could have believed that a 8800 would take only 25W AND produce as mcuh or less heat than the 8600? 15.4'' get mid-range GPUs, don't get your hopes higher!

The C90S is no more a price-wise one because all the prices dropped in the last month, but when I bought in september for exemple, an Inspiron 1520 with 160GB HDD & 8600M GT was $1800 in Canada, nos it's $1200

 

i totally agree with jcms bsides

8700 is very good caed , don't care about crysis or u can just buy a desktop cheaper too :b

maybe in 17 u'll find 8800

the c90 already weak battery so thank god it's 8700

do u expect 12 min with c90p would be great ! it's not a notbook then lol !!!!

 

I don't know if this has been said yet but the C90S is not dead yet. ESPECIALLY IF THE C90P IS MXM TYPE II. Think about it...the 9x00 series is right around the corner, there is no way they WONT make a card for it. Also the HD 3600 looks ESPECIALLY INTERESTING. I just got a shot of joy when i saw that.

 

they said it's maximum @ 8700 gt look at previos page my post

 

That only includes released cards.

If you go intel's website and look for "945 chipset", you'll see "Support uptil Pentium D 940" but you can but every 1066 FSB C2D in