6860 Replacement due within 3-4 weeks

Just curious, why do you think it will go on sale in September?
Is Best Buy known for having sales during this month?

 

after checking out the Toshiba X305 today, I was dissapointed with the build quality of that laptop and now I'm back to waiting for the 7811FX to arrive. August 14 can't come soon enough.

 

Have you tried the FX series? They're decently built but share the flimsy screen issue with the X305. I really hope they changed that.

 

What flimsy screen issue?
Please explain.

 

Get your hands on a FX series, you'll see what I mean. They're not reinforced. Basically it's just the screen, lamps in the bezel, so it flexes pretty badly. As I understand it, the X305 also has that issue.

That's the biggest flaw of this notebook.

 

The screen hinge is the only complaint I have about the P-FX. It's not as bad as the m15x's or anything. (Doesn't shake when you type) The only problem is that the screen hinges don't seem as "tight" as my Sony.

 

My hinges are pretty tight, it's the lid that bugs me. You know how it flexes if you open it with one hand?

 

Hmm. I never really paid attention to the display "flex" but you are correct, it does tend to flex in certain circumstances. However, the good news is, hitting it on the backside doesn't ripple the LCD, which could be catastrophic otherwise.

 

You never noticed the flex? Odd, I found it immensely obvious.

Yep, unfortunately I also recall reading a post here that mentioned the poster seeing a new buyer break his screen in half at BB after paying for it. Thankfully for the buyer, BB took it back.

I hope I'm not scaring anyone.

 

Yikes! That was pretty decent of BB to do, as they certainly weren't obligated to do so. Every once in a while, BB surprises me.

I actually don't see the screen flex issue being too big of a problem, for me at least, as I usually hold the bottom down with one hand(my hinges are still pretty tight) and lift the screen right in the middle with the other, which causes little to no flex.

That being said, I totally agree that GW should have reinforced the back with some sort of sheet metal, as I dont think it would have added much, if anything to the price.

 

Let's put it this way, I'd pay $50-$100 for a reinforced lid, as that's my main issue with the FX series. I can ignore the warm palmrest, and faux carbon fiber, but for the love of God, give the lid some reinforcement! It bugs me that whenever I open up the lid, it makes me feel uneasy.

Yep, it was really good of BB to do so, I was impressed.

 

Roger that! That is totally a sensible request!

 

I guess I never noticed the flex, but now that you say so, when I take a hold of each side of the monitor and "bend", it does have some flex to it!

I open my notebook from the center... I'm extremely anal about taking care of stuff. (No drinks within 2- feet of the notebook, no drinks or food on the desk, wash hands before using keyboard, etc.)

 

Lmao.. Wash hands before using?

 

Yes sir. Obviously you haven't been a notebook user for long.


Greasy hands will wear the "coat" off of the keys, making them looking shiny, and eventually wearing the letter off.

 

Not to thread-jack, but anyone got any info on any 14-16" lappies coming out soon, with ATI GPU but better-than-HD2600? say, 3670/3850/3870/etc..?


T

 

Depends on the keyboard too.

That was random. lol

Haven't heard anything.

 

REEALLY OT!

Heh - reminds me of a co-worker...

Feb we went to LA (Port at Long Beach) and on the way from LAX to the pier, we stopped at an In 'n Out burger joint...

We go to the bathroom, dude washes his hands, THEN pees, then washes his hands again.

I asked him WTF? He says he's not touching it without washing his hands...and then washes afterwards, too..

Dang - some people are SO high maintenance!!!


T

 

Haha. I, too, am anal about keeping my lapppy perfect. I blow off the daily dust and air debris with canned air, then take a lens cloth to the whole thing to wipe off the fingerprints. And before its said, NO, I do NOT wipe it down with baby oil!

 

Just yourself. With the baby oil. Locked away. In private.

Sorry for spilling your dirty secret.

 

Damn. Now everybody knows. The next thing I know, you'll be telling them about my obsession with gopher po_n.

 

You mean the REAL reason why you subscribe to "Animal Planet"?

 

Uhh...
So... why would the chances of the notebook going on sale in Sept be higher?

 

No clue. The FX series tend to go on sale every 2 months or so though.

 

I'm actually suprised the 6860 isn't on sale since it's about to be replaced.

 

High Def Animal Planet at that!

 

Oh I see. Gotcha.

I wish there were a freely available 3D Model of this thing out there...
I've got 3ds Max... I'd just zoom around it and rotate the cam all day.

 

Oh you would, you naughty boy you.

Great.. so now we have fascination with animals and fascination with laptops....

My thoughts as well Chase, I suspect they might just wait till the 7811s arrive and get as many sales as possible in the mean time.

 

Yar, I'm waiting for the 7811FX to come out so I can go check out that one and see. Just really turned off by some design aspects of the X305 along with the flexy screen (glossy fingerprint magnet keyboard, touchpad).

 

Bummer! I know you were pretty stocked about picking the x305 up. I also know how much it sucks to be so excited about something and then find it to not be what you had expected.

I think you will be pretty satisfied with the new FX, once it comes out. These are good machines for the price paid.

 

Replace "this thing" with the word "her" and your at stalker territory now

If the bestbuy near where you live has the 6860 then you can pretty much check on out now. The abilities of the 7811 will be a bit higher, but the overall construction should remain pretty much identical. They use the same case and set up it will only really be a hard ware change out internally.

The FX line has a bit of the flexy screen problem too. Its not bad if you always open in the middle, but opening it from the side makes me fear that the screen will split. And its a horrible fingeprint magnet as well. I keep a microfiber cloth in my case to wipe it down about every day (sometimes more than once a day due to fingerprints)

I really wish they would have changed the lid to a nice matte black carbon fiber look with just the FX being glossy... that would have been so nice.

 

why would you open with the side anyways?

i just open it one handed, push the button and lift with my thumb.

 

I dont know, i've opened all my previous notebooks anyway the mood struck me. But i cant now as the screen of the FX line just cant handle it. Most companies put supports in the lid so it doesnt matter.

I understand its another of the ways gateway saved money on this machine (and i appreciate it as its a great machine for cheap) but still its a bother for alot of people.

 

If i wanted to trade in my 6860 which i bought july 4th..no warranty will bestbuy honor a refund or exchange for the new laptop? just wondering.

 

doubtful. I would think that the best case senerio is you return it with a restocking fee

But best buy has been really nice to everyone lately it seems...so who knows

But if you didnt even buy the warrenty then i dont know how nice they are really going to be. Thats a large place they make money (due to low average returns on most everything purchased)

 

When I talk about the Qosmio X305 being a fingerprint magnet, I mean on the inside with the keyboard and surrounding area. The keys and the whole inside was glossy. When I was checking it out yesterday at BestBuy I could see all the fingerprints from people handling the laptop. I currently have a HP laptop with the imprint finish and we all know what kind of fingerprint magnet that is . I have looked at and handled a 6860 when they had some stock last month or so and I liked the overall design of the Gateway over the Toshiba. I didn't think it would be a big deal with the Toshiba, but after looking at it in person, I just didn't like it at all. I also didn't like the layout/feel of the Toshiba touchpad. Hope they use your matte black carbon fiber suggestion in the new model, but if it's the same as the 6860, that's no big deal to me.

 

Dont forget that the 6860 is still no slouch. It is still a sweet gaming rig even with the new model out.

 

I'd love to see what it scores on 3d mark.

 

Ditto. Im thinking with the 6860 doing 7-7.8k Id like to see the new one touch the 10k mark, now that would be sweet. Although I know this wont happen since the 9800gts is just a die shrink of the 8800gts so maybe 9k is a closer prediction.

 

Well, keep in mind the T5550 holds the 3DMark score back quite a bit. With users upgrading to the T9300/X9000's they are getting in the high 8's and low 9's.

 

Hello all,

The local BB has the p-7811 coming on 8-3-2008 and sell date of 8-16-2008. I saw the RSS screen with an employee and a manager. So it's coming soon.

BTW how many P-173XL FX were available and who got one to see if it's worth it. Price just came down to $1630 at Tiger direct. It has 2-7200 speed HDD's and 8800M GTS?

Or how about HDX 9494 with 8800M and 4 gigs plus Blu-ray and 2-160 GB HDDs plus 20.1" screen at 1680x1050...... for $1549 at newegg??

Tough choices for desktop replacements right now. BTW Toshiba has 2 higher versions of the Qosmio at BB. But they cost more too....

Anyway lloks like at least a a wait till 2nd week of August before final decision.

Thanks for replies,
Brad

 

1. Having two 7200rpm drives will produce alot of heat. It's cheaper to buy another drive and just use it instead of buying it directly.

2. Why would you consider the HDX? It's practically a desktop and it's much cheaper to build a desktop that's more powerful and $500 less.

Overall, the Gateway P-6860 and its new refresh are still the best value gaming laptops out there.

 

It depends on person I have nice desktop PC (Q6600 at 3.2Ghz + 2x 8800GTX + full tower case + 4 HDD + 4GB of DDR2 at 1066Mhz) but I'm going to sell it and buy a laptop with gaming capabilities. My desktop PC + LCD monitor are taking too much space in the room

I've just started to consider that HDX laptop at newegg

 

Sooooo, hopefully this will go on sale online before it does in stores? I can order my laptop starting on the 10th and it'd be sweet if I didn't have to wait another week for it. School starts on the 20th and I'm hoping to have it all setup by then. Does XP work on these laptops?

 

I just checked out that HDX and I must say all of that with a Blu-Ray drive to boot really does make it tempting. I wont be moving my laptop around very much, but every once and a while the occasion may come up. I wonder how hard it would be to move that baby lol.

 

Not if you add a decent LCD Monitor to boot.(and why wouldn't you, considering you want to get the best out of your gaming PC)
28" Viewsonic is $500 alone.
And decent spec PC is close to $1K
which brings the total up to $1.5K, give or take,
so desktop price advantage vanishes.

You still have the upgradeability, but lose portability.


BTW why would you want to pay $1630 for 173XL - FX at this point when the P7811 model is better and costs $1400?

 

I know and with the higher FSB 9k should be easy. But also keep in mind the 9800gts is just a die shrunk 8800gts and not an entirely new card. Had it been a new card 10k would be a joke for this rig.

For the price of the HDX I could build an awesome desktop that would destroy the HDX in gaming all while buying a sweet lcd and new keyboard and mouse. The HDX appeals to me still though because even though its immense size its still ALOT more portable then a desktop and can still game very well on top of having a 20in LCD. But as for price/performance, for the same money youll get a killer rig over an HDX.

 

Whoah! 8-3-2008!?

That's in like... 4 Days!
I'm surprised there still isn't any more info on the net about it...
When do you think the earliest we will be able to buy it be?

Or do I have to wait for the 16th...

 

Not very. It weights like 13lbs or so if i remember correctly, so its not like its a Huge amount of weight to carry around. The biggest problem would to be finding something that you could put it in. Most bags and briefcases are simply to small to hold the thing. So protection would be a big concern.

My biggest problem with the HDX is the fact that it has SO much interior realistate on teh inside but they dont use it. Seeing what all Sager can put in a 17in laptop...the HDX has a HUGE potential to be the most powerful laptop on the planet. Yet they dont use it. So its mostly a really big screen for no tangable benefit except the screen size.

Now put an SLI setup with 4 hard drives and i would be willing to pay alot for that true desktop replacement as its now a beast of a machine with alot of ability. But mostly i think its the same motherboard they use in the 9700 series with cables to reach the exterior when they are too short... sad really.

See what you get for being so overexcited... now we have to wait 2 days longer

Not sure. More than likely individual Best buys will use the 16th as the date that all 6860's need to be sold by so to make room for the 7811's. But i assume they will have some lean way if they sell out of the old models quicker... but i wouldnt expect any store to just have them the 4th or anything.

 

I might just go ahead and upgrade the processor.