Compal NBLB5 Owners Lounge

I have today got my new Compal NBLB5 and thought therefore that it would be nice to have a new topic, only for this computer.

I would therefore like to ask all of you out there who are a lucky owner of a Compal NBLB5 whether to post your experiences with the computer. Software tips, driver tips and more in this thread.

 

Hey, i'm really thinking about getting this as Barebones. The laptop looks great... what i'm wondering is, are all of them shipped at 1080p display, or are some at 720p (1366x768) ?? Some of the retailers selling "NBLB5 Barebones Brown Box, i3/i5/i7, ATI - NO DVD" don't list the resolution .

The laptop looks great... and it looks almost identical to NBLB2 except all black and eSATA! Really tempted to get it barebones and throw an i7-620m in there.

Would love to know more about it first though. Thanks!

 

I've only seen the NBLB5 barebone with an anti-glare 1366x768 screen.

not an owner yet, but I think I'm going to order one next week. 370,41Euro appear to be quite a good deal:

http://www.plexcom.de/Barebone-Notebook:::411.html

 

Received my barebone today and have a good first impression regarding build quality. It certainly feels a good step up from my old fl90.
Unfortunately, I bought the CPU from another source and that's taking ages, so I can't yet say anything else.
Will start assembling all the parts as soon as the CPU is with me, and then I think I'll write some more.

 

I just received a barebones version of this model, I'm gonna swap the i5 cpu and ram from my dell studio 1558 into this laptop and post my experiences here.

 

My bad, I downloaded the wrong bios version....
Compal only has the bios for nblb2, got the correct one from Marasst.
What is the unlockME file in the package for btw?

 

It's been quite a while until I had all the parts together, but now at last I've been able to enjoy my new laptop for about two weeks.
First off, I really like my new machine!

I got the Compal NBLB5 Barebone for 260€, and it's good I ordered it so early because the price started to skyrocket just a few days later until it reached about 550€ and now Plexcom doesn't seem to have any left. The reason for that is proabably because Compal's upcoming Sandy Bridge model PLB21 seems to be just around the corner.

Now firstly, what is the Compal NBLB5?
In short, it's the younger sibling/successor of the NBLB2.

What's the difference between the NBLB2 and the NBLB3/5?
Well, firstly, the NBLB3 and the NBLB5 come in all black covers.
They're
-slightly slimmer and lighter than the NBLB2: 376.5mm(W) x 250.5mm(D)x 20.7mm-34.9mm(H), 2.5kg
-sport the Intel HM55 Chipset
-lack the Fingerprint Reader
-lack the CIR and TV-Tuner capability
-have 3 USB 2.0 Ports (one of which comes combined with an e-SATA)
-1.3MP WebCam instead of 2.0
-have the same chassis the SandyBridge successor will get ( PBL21)

The rest is all there (all the other stuff you get on the NBLB2).

Now what sets the Compal NBLB5 apart is the fact that it's capable of AMD's Switchable Graphics! (This seems to be the only difference to the NBLB3 btw).
So, while I'm on the road I mostly use the Intel GMA on the i5, and enjoy the 1Gig Radeon HD 5650 at home.
Unfortunately, only retailers seem to get the Full HD glossy screen for the NBLB5, so I have to make do with the 1366x768, non reflective screen the barebones come with. The viewing angles are great, though. So, I'm not too bothered.

Now, I did take a few pictures while putting all the parts together, but I have yet to upload them. Hope to have that accomplished soon.
Otherwise, all I have really checked out until now is the battery. Does the SG make any difference? Well...it seems I had to be a bit dissappointed there. I had the laptop running on battery with only the Intel GPU running a few times and still only a mere 2.5 hours (Surfing the Net, the inevitable Facebook, watching some Youtube, doing office work).

That's not that much, or was I expecting too much?

 

I know this is not about NBLB5, but for NBLB3,

If i get NBLB3, am i only limited to i3/i5/i7 processors arrandale cpu?
Or can i put a Core 2 duo or Pentium processor?

Also what is PCI Express x16

 

It's the same on desktops and portable pcs. new generation equals new cpu design and new mainboard, so it's naturally Arrendale only

NBLB3

 

Is it possible to update bios to support Intel-VT?