Arima W840 DI questions

How many of the rebranded Arima W840 DI laptops out there? The only one that i know is the OCZ extreme 840 from xoticpc.com.

 

There's Criterion through myself, the RKC-1756 from RKC Notebooks, the Nagamaki from Killer Notebooks, the Gamer Xtreme M1 from CyberPowerPC, and the Gaming Dominator from Digital Storm.

 

Can we give credit where credit is due? It's no longer Arima, it's Flextronics! The Flextronics W840 DI.

 

Well the web address on the flextronics site is flextronics.com /arima, so I don't know what they're officially branding it as

 

i just found out that the alienware m9750 is a rebranded arima w840 too is that right?

Out of all the rebrand arima w840 which one is the most powerful?

 

The W840 DI is the updated model of the W840 the Alienware was built on. And every reseller's laptop named above is equally as powerful as another.

 

You will have to wait for the systems to launch and be reviewed. Systems will perform differently depending on the components you choose, or your reseller offers. Any type of tweaks, drivers, or modifications a reseller adds to his system will increase or could decrease the performance.

 

Almost correctamundo. The AW m9750 is based on the first generation Arima chassis. Arima has since sold their server and notebook business to Flextronics. The W840-DI is a second generation chassis that includes Montevina platform, HDMI, eSATA, 2MP webcam, dual HDD, ATI Crossfire, etc...

There are resellers who just...well, resell, like a middle man. And then there are builders who overclock, mod, and tweak the heck out of their systems to achieve maximum performance. So not every vendor is the same. If it's just the base system with similar components, then there's really no difference. However, if is a customized product (like what Killernotebooks.com offer with tweaked OS, cooling mod, OC CPU, etc...), then the performance should be better, but expect to pay a li'l more, of course. So far, to my knowledge, K|N does not yet have a system in hand to mod and tweak. But I expect once he does, Mark'll squeeze every juice out of the system for peak, bleeding edge performance. K|N price for this particular W840-DI system (called the Nagamaki) so far has been very competitive compared to all the others.

Personally, I prefer a vendor with "build" experience over a clueless reseller.

 

I'm interested in this notebook, but I have some additional questions that maybe someone can help me find answers to:

1) Is the X9100 worth the premium over the P9500? I realize that when it comes to benchmark suites, it will make a dramatic difference, but how about real world gaming performance? I'm pretty deep into PC gaming and even a 10-15 FPS difference (especially on the min. FPS end) would seriously make me consider the premium.. but the price difference is out of this world.

2) If I did get a P9500, would there be any overclocking potential down the road? Is this the same chipset that the new NP5796 uses.. which is as of yet not overclockable via software bus control? How stable is this form of overclocking, anyway? Would it be possible to achieve a *STABLE* 3GHz overclock via bus manipulation.

3) If I got a P9500 and Intel released a compatible non-extreme 3+GHz C2D down the line at a reasonable price, would it be difficult to upgrade myself?

4) Is the Intel Turbo Memory easy to install yourself, if you want to get it after the fact?

and finally.. for now..

5) I noticed that there's no DVI port on this PC. Would I be able to hook this up to a 24" LCD via an HDMI-to-DVI adapter? This is pretty important to me. If I spent this much on a laptop I would have the expectation that I could hook it up to external devices at home, because I would be using it as my primary work computer as well (Graphic Design).

I've been lurking around these parts for a while, so thanks in advance for any additional helpful information you guys could provide. I was considering the NP5796 for the longest time, but the crossfire ATI setup in this lappy is very tempting. I want kick *** gaming performance that will last me for years, hopefully.. but I'm also conscious of the premium that the extreme processors come with. I'm sure I'll have more questions before I make the plunge, but this is a good start

 

1) Is the X9100 worth the premium over the P9500? I realize that when it comes to benchmark suites, it will make a dramatic difference, but how about real world gaming performance? I'm pretty deep into PC gaming and even a 10-15 FPS difference (especially on the min. FPS end) would seriously make me consider the premium.. but the price difference is out of this world.

A T9600 would get you through most.............

2) If I did get a P9500, would there be any overclocking potential down the road? Is this the same chipset that the new NP5796 uses.. which is as of yet not overclockable via software bus control? How stable is this form of overclocking, anyway? Would it be possible to achieve a *STABLE* 3GHz overclock via bus manipulation.

As per the current info we received from OCZ; this model will not overclock at all.... True? cannot tell you for sure until we receive one at the end of the week to actually test. If you were choosing a P9500, go for a T9400 in this system.........

3) If I got a P9500 and Intel released a compatible non-extreme 3+GHz C2D down the line at a reasonable price, would it be difficult to upgrade myself?

Same platform and socket, no not difficult at all...

4) Is the Intel Turbo Memory easy to install yourself, if you want to get it after the fact?

Same, not difficult at all.........

and finally.. for now..

5) I noticed that there's no DVI port on this PC. Would I be able to hook this up to a 24" LCD via an HDMI-to-DVI adapter? This is pretty important to me. If I spent this much on a laptop I would have the expectation that I could hook it up to external devices at home, because I would be using it as my primary work computer as well (Graphic Design).

Never used an HDMI to DVI adapter, if you have one should not be a problem..............

 

i used hdmi to dvi and use my dell monitor to play xbox360 games and it was bad, it seems laggy to me not as smooth as hdmi to hdtv, i was disappointed to see no dvi, its a high end laptop too

 

Thanks! +rep and all that. Number five (as you'll see below) is becoming the most important issue in deciding what platform to purchase it seems. I really want the best GPU performance I can get.. at least in a best-bang-for-the-buck sort of way.. but using external devices with my laptop is also very important. Picking a CPU will wind up being an important task as well, but hopefully some users here will post gaming benchmarks that compare the crossfire 3870's performance with different models. I know we'll see some 3D Mark numbers, but what really matters is how it plays out in the real world.

I am a little confused by your CPU recommendation though. You say the T9600 would get me through most, but recommend the P9400? Do the 35W versions of these CPU's generate more heat than the 25W versions?

My only other concern is with build quality, but we should hear some solid info on that from third party reviews soon enough. I'm also not a big fan of the big exposed screws on the back of the unit (especially the hinges), but what can ya do? The gloss finish seems like a bit of a nightmare too (fingerprints!) especially on the wrist area.. but it's what's inside that really counts.

Well.. that and its ports.

That's pretty discouraging, but it could have been a scaling issue with the Xbox 360. Were you outputting in 1080p? If so I would imagine that your Dell should have handled that well. I require the best possible image quality to my external monitor, and the suggestion that there might be lag and IQ problems really worries me.

VGA is not a viable solution either. I need picture perfect DVI @ 1920x1200. I would hope that the video drivers would treat them HDMI port just like a DVI port, so far as resolution and refresh options go, and that the output is crystal clear. I need to be able to work and game on my external monitors while I'm at a desk.

Does anyone who is getting this beast in the near future think they could test this out? Would one of the resellers be willing to provide more information on this issue? This might seriously change my opinion of this notebook, which would be a bummer, because nearly everything else looks so very nice.

 

i have a dell 20inch 1680x1050, and yes JustinW from xoticpc will test out the laptop, pretty sure others will too

 

I'm sure they'll do an awesome job testing the laptop, and I'm sure people here will write some fantastic reviews too, but I'm talking more specifically about HDMI-to-DVI. I need to know if it will achieve what I need it to.

EDIT: And I have another, perhaps stupid question..

It's running @ a 16:10 resolution, but do these 17" laptops really have 16:10 screens?

 

I have a lot of questions regarding the cpu and gpu. I'm not an expert when it comes to computer but i'm learning a lot after joining the forum.
First of all, i want to ask about the cpu on this system. Do you have to go with a certain type of cpu that has a certain type of socket and platform to be able to upgrade later on? Will every retailer use the same motherboard on this model? Cuz i do see a lot of different cpu they have for this model. Also, can you be able to install the desktop version cpu that the np9260 has on this notebook?
Second is the gpu. I don't much about gpu but i'm very familiar with Nvidia gpu. When it comes to ATI gpu i'm clueless. So with some retailers have Nvidia for this machine and some retailers stick to the ATI brand, I want to know what's the difference between the two? As for the two ATI graphics card that most of the retailers provide for this notebook. Which one is good enough for gaming, photoshop editing, CAD and such.

 

This notebook is only available in the Montevina platform and supports Intel Penryn processors.

Yes. It comes with the barebone.

The NP9262 uses desktop CPUs, not GPUs. And you can't install a desktop version of either in this laptop.

Only the ATI cards are available at the moment, while NVIDIA cards for this laptop will be released later on. The difference is performance - these ATI cards are supposedly faster than the NVVIDIA cards. They will all be good enough for gaming, with the 8800M GTX being the worst (of the best), and dual 3870s in crossfire being the best. The crossfire will also be the best for CAD. Photoshop doesn't require a graphics card, so any should be fine for that.

 

Thanks for the info regarding the build quality of the previous editions of this line. That's pretty comforting. I still wish they would have gone with a matte finish for the entire unit, especially the area around the keyboard, but I'm not after looks alone. The potential performance of this machine is what really makes it appealing.

As for the VGA versus DVI discussion, it's been my experience that VGA output on LCD displays is not quite as crisp as digital output. This could have been due to the graphics adapter in use, as well, or the display itself.. but it's a risk I would rather not take. If I could gain some assurance from someone first hand who has the oppertunity to connect this machine to a large display (24") that would really set my mind at ease.

I still wonder why they would opt for analog output over DVI. Who still uses VGA anyway? This is, as someone has previously said, a high end machine.. so give us high end options! I would like to do some serious graphic design work on this baby, and I need to know I can get beautiful output to an LCD computer monitor from that HDMI if possible.

..for gaming at home too

Creative Suite will never require a GPU, but CS4 (or "CS Next") will offer GPU acceleration which is pretty awesome.

 

HDMI will be you best source for high def audio and video, this is capable of 1080P, if you monitor is too then there will be no problem.

 

i think you should find a friend with a laptop with hdmi and test it out on your monitor, it should be the same results for most hdmi output, or even go to best buy or somewhere and ask them to test for you

 

thanks for all the info. That really helps a lot. oh yeah about the gpu that i mentioned on the np9262 that was a typo i went back and fix that already.
anyway, with the sli crossfire HD3870 bein the best then which will be the second best? the 9800m gtx or the 512MB ATI HD3870?

which cpu would be the best for this laptop? core duo 2 or quad core or extreme?

This newer model and the previous model what is the difference in dimension? is the newer model bigger and thicker?

And between this and np9262 which is better? Or the np9262 still remains the king of laptop?

 

Can you adjust the resolution and refresh rate of the desktop via the video card's control panel for the HDMI, as if it were any other output? Will it output 1920x1200, or perhaps even higher resolutions as a DVI port would? It seems odd to me that they wouldn't include an option for digital video out to PC monitors via a PC standard.

I found this, which makes me worry: http://discuss.extremetech.com/forums/thread/1004396334.aspx

This is why I need concrete answers. Sorry about all the questions.

 

Depends on what you are looking for in a gaming notebook. The Sager will be the more powerful one (can hold 3 hard drives and uses a desktop CPU), but the Arima is more mobile (i.e thinner and can downclock + toggle with the chipset to conserve power).

 

one of the most important features of photoshop cs4 it's using the gpu.

 

better than 9800m GTX sli?? sure? do u have gaming bench marks?
i am currently deciding between the 2 would like to know the % in performace difference..

 

This quote was referring to the 8800M GTX option to be released later for this laptop. At the moment I don't have any information whether or not these dual 3870s in crossfire stand up to the 9800M GTX in SLI or not.

 

Shane, why don't you buy these systems from a distributor like XoticPC does so you can offer them again? He probably has them built there too.

 

Well, I'd much rather build my own to offer them to customers at the best prices possible. I'm talking to OCZ and they'll now sell to me in quantities of 10 instead of 100, so once I get the capital they'll be available for sale once again.

 

I currently use an hdmi to dvi converter to play my xbox360 on my dell 20" monitor. I have also hooked the converter up to my laptop's hdmi output...the picture is excellent on both. You simply need to set the proper output resolution on the 360 but as far as the laptop i really didn't need to change any settings.