Clarification on discontinuation

Since there are multiple threads about the fallout between OCZ and Flex, I thought I would make a thread where someone could make a post laying everything out. So many people are saying many different things and some people are probably a little confused. Some people are saying there will be a new player on the scene that will pick up from OCZ or something like that, as well as other things like the status of the 4870s and whatnot.

So, if someone wouldn't mind making a post laying out the current situation, I would greatly appreciate it and I am sure others would too.

 

These are the facts:

Flextronics-Arima makes the Whitebook

Flextronics-Arima sells the laptop directly to Alienware, which slaps a different casing on it and offers a different monitor and calls it the m17

Flextronics-Arima sells the laptop directly different distributors in Europe and abroad.

Flextronic the manufacturer also sold the model to OCZ, which distributed it to a variety of resellers in the US (XoticPC, Dark Smiley, etc)

Flextronic and OCZ have had a falling out; those who know why are not telling and are likely under a Non-disclosure agreement.

Several people have said that Flextronic is trying to set up another distributorship agreement with another company in the US. We don't know who, or those who do are not telling who.

This plan to set up another North American distributor has been confirmed publicly by Justin at XoticPC, who said he expects to get additional shipments in by the end of March

Those are the facts.






OCZ

 

it's also a fact that alienware will offer the 4780 as an upgrade for their M17. confirmed by AW. ETA is unknown atm.

 

yes the 4870's are still on schedule from what i was told they just do not have a firm date yet. ati is also working on a new mobility driver i was also informed

 

Thanks for the info. Hope we will see more of Whitebook. However, during the mourning period when I thought all was lost, I read up on all the juicy info about the Clevo D90xF which sounds like is in the development phase. It sounds like a real winner but unforunately won't be out until late '09. Now I'm at another crossroads, wait again for the Whitebook/4870 to make its appearance, or hold out for the i7 beast from Clevo? *sigh*...choices...

 

meh games wont need i7 performance for awhile and the whitebook is now

 

sticky with these facts and the follow up on them?

 

nah, not necessary. Also, don't know if this section is going to be renamed seeing that OCZ is not redistributing it anymore. A more appropriate name would be Flextronics or Arima since they are the ODMs.

 

How does the discontinuation of Whitebooks effect current owners?

 

Only that you'll have a hard time finding someplace to buy the 4870 cards from. Your warranty will still be in effect if anything happens to the machine.

 

there won't be any vendors to buy the 4870s from?

 

assuming that a new Wholeseller appears and the 4870s are supported then I don't see how we are going to have a hard time finding them.

 

well he just means like finding them if one does not appear right away AW m17 owners will be in high demand .......ohhh yea

 

Okay so Flex will still offer the Whitebook through AW and the rumored new distributor but what's the word on OCZ's plans?

Are they looking for a different OEM to produce a new laptop offering or is OCZ out of the DIY notebook business?

 

i dont think ocz is done not after all the money they made on the white book. they see now its a good busneiss at least i hope

 

OCZ probably make a DIY Notebook with Clevo as its base

Do you think 4870 X2 for this laptop will need motherboard/PSU/BIOS upgrade?

I mean, AFAIK, 8800M GTX to 9800M GTX for Clevo D901 need motherboard upgrade.

 

From what we know about the 4870's is that Flextronics will likely have to do more then a motherboard upgrade for these cards. It is undetermined at this point.

 

more than motherboard upgrade??
so the heat problem is more complicated and they might have to change the chassis, which means... new model

Arima WD850-DI anyone??

 

Pretty sure that's not the case.

The 8800M GTX SLI did require a mobo upgrade though.

 

Any talk about using a 4860?

 

hmm, rather than forcing 4870 with GDDR5 into the market, why ATI didn't just make 4870 with smaller die (and smaller watt and heat) and label it HD 4890?
Easier than forcing this "old" 4870 vapourware into the market

 

No No No No, that's for nVidia. to do.

Ati doesn't do renaming games with us.

if ati was to do that i would name it 4875 so people know there getting the same thing not something better. then people all over the internet would post.
"4870 vs. 4890"

i will also look down at ati.

 

^^
LOL, ok, i got your point...

 

Hey Don, saw you over on the OCZ forums. While there, I saw this posted from Ryder:

" There will be no further updates for this platform from OCZ. This is due in part from a lack of support from our partners as well.

OCZ will be moving forward with new laptop offerings where we can get proper support for drivers in the future. "

Does that mean OCZ has completely, outside of legally binding warranty work, abandoned any updates on their own part for the Whitebook/840?

 

no they will keep supporting the current customers. but as for bios flash and driver updates. we don't know.

 

That's what I mean. If you own one, they will honor their warranty service, but in regards to maturing drivers and bios support, it seems they are abandoning ship. There's still a decent bit of stray stock out there across many resellers. They still list it on their page too under their DIY.

 

any news what new laptop OCZ will bring?

 

OCZ has a DIY netbook out but other than who knows.

If you'll settle for speculation then I can offer that since OCZ has used Compal for their 15" DIY notebooks maybe they'll rebrand the new 15.6" KHBL2 that supposed to use the ATI Mobility 4650.

It's nothing impressive to replace the Whitebook though.

 

So basically BIOS V.28 is the last from OCZ via Arima. Who is going to provide future updates from Arima besides Alienware's crippleware?

 

Bios updates will be available when the 840 comes back in toward the end of April. (Not by OCZ)

 

thanks rob. do you know if it is going to use overclocking also?

 

Thanks, that's what I was asking. I wanted to see if there was another OEM out there who would be offering the 840 and subsequent BIOS updates, since Arima won't allow downloads directly to end users.

I'm asking because I am in need of the newer BIOS *AND* potentially 2-3 Slave cards with cross over cables.

Any idea of the pricing? Comparable to OCZs? Less? More? potential 4870's? (hint hint).

 

Pricing should be about the same, nothing on the 4870's yet.

 

Yes it should support overclocking.

 

IIRC, Justin posted on another thread that W840 will need more than BIOS upgrade to be able to use the HD4870. The heat issue...

 

It was page 2 of this thread.


And my gut agrees with him...I seriously don't think upgrading to 4870s on existing Whitebooks/M17s is going to be a DIY job where you just swap the cards and the heatsinks.

 

so I guess Clevo still the best in term of DIY laptop, eh?

 

you can change the gpu's very easily

 

here is a screen shot with my phone. just one cover. and about 12 screws.

 

Thanks, but I already saw the internal part. I downloaded and read the manual PDF.

It's the fact whether we can upgrade to faster GPU with the same chassis that I'm talking about,

 

And if that was all there was to it the 4870s would be out already for this chassis... but power and heat are the big issues as well.

Is a new bios enough to handle the power issues or is a new supply needed?

Is more surface area on the heatsinks enough or will the chassis need to be modified to make room for another fan?

 

i think that the heatsinks and fan with have to be replace. i think they can put bigger heat pipes in it and a larger fan instead of two.

also the current bios is not enough for those cards. we have to get a new one.

as for the power design, it will be able to handle it. right now the qx9300 @3.2ghz and the 3870Cf at full load, only uses 180w.

the current psu is 300w with 220w or 230w can be used efficiently.

 

rk is saying they are coming back yay

 

they are .... just not from ocz. also flex already has the 4870's. they are still working out some issues though this is as far as far as my contact still tells me from flex.

 

i dont care who from i wanna know if my computer breaks i will have a wealth of people to get from incase i dont have a warrenty ... keep prices low if the parts are all around

 

great news.

any news on new laptop model from Flextronics-Arima?

 

You know Im not really questioning if it can be done Im questioning what's going to be involved to make the upgrade. We know it's going to be more complicated than swapping the cards and installing the drivers but not how much more complicated...

The more that's involved the more it's going to cost. AW for example is going to require that you send in the M17 so you don't void the warranty but that service ain't going to be free because upgrading your cards isn't a repair service that's covered by your warranty.

Once you realize there's going to be an extra cost you have to question whether the performance gain from upgrading is actually worth it. CrossfireX 4870 is better than CrossfireX3870 but is it $ xxx better?

 

+1 to that, Phinagle.

 

we shall see .... honestly i would rather pay them to do it so if i screw up i dont have to pay to fix it lol


the upgrade will be worth it look at the asus and imagine it more powerful.

the upgrade is not worth it now except to get higher 3dmark score because we can max out almost and game now with no OC

 

too bad no Flextronics reseller in my country.
at least there is one for Clevo/Sager though