The Arima W840 DI Thread

As many of you know, and has been stated in various other forums, Arima (now owned by Flextronics) has released the specs of their new W840 DI. It is also known as the Digital Storm Gaming Dominator, OCZNBIM17A, and the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme M1. Its specs are:

Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600, P9500, T9400, P8600, P8400
Mobile Intel® GM47, GM45, and PM45 Express Chipsets with ICH9M or ICH9M Enhanced
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Mobile Processor
Core™2 Extreme X9100
ATI M88XT CrossFire™ DirectX 10.1 Compatible (option for single NVIDIA® 8800 GTX)
Upgradeable MXM 2 Graphics Slots
Up to 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR3-1066
17" WUXGA (1920x1200)
High Definition integrated stereo sound
Maxim® Amplifier
Audigy® HD Software Edition Option
2W/CH, Stereo, Two Channel, Subwoofer
Full Sized Keyboard 2.5mm Stroke, Vista Key
Intel® 802.11a/g/n wireless LAN (MIMO)
Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR
Built-in 2.0MP Digital Video Camera
Fingerprint Reader

So what are your thoughts on this? Are you planning to buy it? Do you like the idea of Crossfire? How do you think it will hold up? - Arima was spiraling downward until it was bought over by Flextronics.

Also, if you have any questions, I'm currently in talks with OCZ about possibly offering the notebook to customers and I can pass the questions on to them.

 

I really like it but I have posted on www.techpond.co.uk (UK forum) where there are representatives from Rock, Novatech and Kobalt and Kobalt are the only ones who are even considering the chassis so I don't think it will be avaiable in the UK

I think this chassis has everything a 17" notebook should have... Dual Hard Drives, Dual GPUs, Extreme Processors in a reasonable sized chassis... It seems to me a much better option than the M570TU

EDIT:

BENCHMARKS PLEASE!!!

 

Thanks for starting this thread DarkSmiley. Arima only sold their notebook and server subdivision to Flextronics. I hope you'll price this one competitively as it is a perfect fit between the too bulky, no HDMI Clevo D901C and the single HD single GPU Clevo M570TU. Back lit keys too, hoorrah!

 

I beg to differ with you that Flextronics/Arima doesn't have the greatest of reputation. Before Arima sold their notebooks & server business to Flextronics, Arima had supplied chassis to Alienware & Voodoo PC for years through exclusive contracts. I would argue that the Arima has some of the sleekest looking ones out there.

In addition to Digital Storm, RKC, and CyberPowerPC:

http://www.guruofgaming.com/modules...topic&t=2202&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Killernotebooks will also be offering this notebook. Mark is testing one with the Mobile Quad Core Q9100.

 

I would like to see a full review for this notebook chassis. It looks like a solid alternative to Clevo/Sager. The ATI GPU is particularly attractive right now--Will the 4850 or 4870 be available on this?

 

Okay, sorry guys. First off some replies:

@henrybutt: sorry, no benchmarks yet. I'm still trying to get the total information, specs, and prices from OCZ. I have no idea if they have run benchmarks yet.

@dit_xi: Thanks for the correction about only the notebooks and servers being bought out by Flextronics. But the fact remains that they were spiraling downward, due to not being able to keep up with demand and providing poor support. I won't say that they're not sleek looking though :]

@NGH: It's a single 8800M GT, a single mobile 3870, or dual mobile 3870s.

@Everybody: I very much want to build on this notebook platform, so I;m currently in talks with OCZ about parts. My main concern is a year down the road, if anything goes wrong, I won't be able to fulfill my warranties. If I can get that settled, though, I'm hoping to build & sell it. My goal is to price the base system at under $2,000

 

Under $2000. Me likey!

 

under $2000! I buy one. (or two)

It says "(option for single NVIDIA® 8800 GTX)
Upgradeable MXM 2 Graphics Slots" so I suppose a 9800M GT will have to fit, no idea about 9800M GTX. no SLI support I guess.
Ask them about the graphic card upgrade. If they use MXM modules that respect the original specifications or if they use the usual proprietary format by arima (usually bigger a bigger module). Ask them if it will be possible to upgrade to 9800M GTX or a 9800M GT SLI or not.

 

@__-_-_-__: Yeah, there's no SLI support and no support for 9000 series GPUs (at least not yet). I'd get definite answers to your other questions, but I called OCZ and their product manager is out on vacation or something.

Funny that the product manager seems to be the single person in the entire company to know the specs of the laptops...

 

Can you please ask if their going to release an updated 15 in. chassis. Besides the one they have in DIY OCZ?

thanks in advance

 

@mrblur: They're currently working on testing models for a new 15in. chassis, but currently nothing's panned out. So, it's in the works, just no ETA.

@__-_-_-__: I'm pretty sure it's the normal MXMII format, and it is possible to upgrade to the 9800GTX. However, we do not currently offer that option.

Oh, and guess what? It's now available for pre-order, starting at $1,550.00 at www.darksmileysystems.com/criterion.htm

 

I'm a bit confused on the pricing on the website. For instance, it says base price for labor, etc. is $49.00, then it says as the first option that the barebone itself costs $2089. Maybe it's a typo, but that might confuse a lot of people.

Also, will you sell just the barebone only or does it have to include memory, HD, etc.?

 

Try refreshing the page. We had an old stand-in page before that was there for web-design and configuration purposes. All new prices are now reflected.

 

DS,

Is the T9600 a quad core CPU? And is the P9400 listed on the pre-order page suppose to be the T9400? When will the 9800gtx be available? Are there any additional discounts for NBR members?

 

Sorry for the typos *cringe* - new page, new errors. P9400 is dual-core, and it was supposed to be the T9400. Both updated

9800GTX eta is unavailable, but if you can obtain one on your own, be happy to pop it in. I'm waiting for confirmation from OCZ before I sell them.

For a NBR member quote, please PM me.

 

1 question, does the $1550 deal come with the ATi card or the NVidia card?

 

9800M GTX it's MXM type HE (or IV) not II and 9800M GT its type III not II.
also, no SLI support?

I really like the notebook but some questions need to be clarified...

 

@ichme: the NVIDIA card.

@__-_-_-__: As I stated before, there is no SLI support, and I can't really say about the slots, I may have read wrong. All I can say is that OCZ confirmed that you could use the 9800M GTX with it, but it's not officially supported.

 

How about a Mobile Quad Core? Custom paint job or skins?

 

Mobile quad core support hasn't been confirmed yet. We don't do custom paint jobs or skins, but we recommend http://www.schtickers.com/ to get any skins

 

It should support it, at least according to flextronics' website.

 

Well as soon as it's released for sale, I'll be calling up OCZ

 

alright, thanks alot shane, very helpful. so im just wondering now, while looking at your site, what is the logo on the criterion? is it the symbol in your sig or what? it looks a little different, colour and shape wise

also, is it possibe for me to order the system with say an 8800M GTX and purchase the ati x2 in crossfire and have it shipped with my computer and not built in? id like to have both to do some real benchmarking of both.

on that note, is it easy to swap out the 8800 and put in the ati's or is it some major modding. id like to be able to switch between the two with no more than a screwdriver and reinstalling the driver.

 

The symbol in my sig & my avatar is a variation on the official logo of Dark Smiley Systems:

​

The symbol on the back of the Criterion in the picture is the logo above with the brackets a bit fatter. As an interesting note, the logo is a derivative of }:], and is created in photoshop using the Ocra 10 font.

I'll look into you purchasing a graphics card separately, but it would probably come with the crossfire installed and the 8800s out of the box. Oh, and if you screw something up with 'em, remember that it would void your warranty - but on the video cards only. You'd still have a warranty on the rest of the system. I'm trying to find more out about this; I called OCZ but my account manager is away at lunch.

On a different note, going back to the previous posts about the QX9300, it has been released by Intel but I'm trying to find out where the heck I can buy it - my technology distributor (D&H) said they're not planning on carrying it, and Intel won't let me order directly from them.

What a world we live in.

 

$500 for BluRay? That's steep

 

It is a blu-ray writer

 

Do you have any idea if you'll be able to offer the system with a lower screen resolution (1440x900 or 1680x1050)? WUXGA is great, but for me that's a little too big for a 17", especially since most games won't run maxed at WUXGA, but they will on WSXGA+. BTW, do you have any idea how thick it's going to be?

 

As far as I know, it's currently only WUXGA, but I'll see if they offer lower resolution screens. And on thickness I'd say your information was relatively correct, I'm thinking 1.6" EDIT: 1.67" in, to be exact. Hopefully OCZ's product manager will return with the full specs soon.

 

That would be really sweet if it was 1.6" thick. If it'll run SLI 9800M GTX I'll probably consider getting it over a 15", especially at that price. Thanks for the quick response!

 

i love that white logo, its very sharp

 

I thought the Chassis was pretty much identical to the M9750 which is like 1.5" thick?

 

You know what? I was right before I corrected myself. I thought it would be thicker due to it's crossfire and dual hard drives, but the exact specs that I just received say 1.67".

 

Do you know anything else about the Criterion, like the exact dimensions or anything else that OCZ told you about it? 1.67" sounds pretty good for a 17". I really hope that it does SLI, too. Do you know the specs of the ATI 3870? Sorry for asking so many questions .

EDIT: Nevermind, I found the specs of the ATI 3870:

http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityradeonhd3800/specs.html

Wow, a 256-bit memory interface with 320 stream processors. That must be really fast, faster than the 9800M GTX...

 

Exact dimensions:
15.59"x11.79"x1.67"

 

it actually looks a bit thicker than the M9750 (I have it), and it should be a good thing b/c it would have enough space to dissipate heat better. My single 7950GTX runs relatively hot when playing games at 1440x900 and even at 1280x800.

 

if thats the case, i hope that the cooling system on this computer is better. it should have better airflow if its slightly bigger.

 

I can't remember where I saw the picture but the one I saw had an extra vent on the left hand side

 

It's not the same Arima chassis as the Alienware m9750. It's an improved second generation with Montevina platform. Arima have recently sold their server and notebook business to Flextronics. This latest chassis, the Flextronics W840-DI has eSATA, HDMI, back lit keys, dual HD's, biometric fingerprint sensor, 7-in-1 media card reader, 3 USB 2.0 ports, DDR3 memory, 12-cells battery, 2MP webcam, express slot, IEEE 1394, etc... Screen options include WUXGA (1920 X 1200) and WXGA (1440 x 900). It only comes in 17". Graphics options include single NVIDIA 8800GTX card (believed to be compatible with 9800GTX), single ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3870, or dual Crossfire 3870. At 395.9 x 299.45 x 42.56 mm in dimension and weighing 9 lbs. with power brick included, this notebook an ideal mix of portability and power. Not too bulky like the Clevo D901C, more versatile than the Clevo M570TU...what's not to love? Still waiting for some bench marks on the Crossfire 3870 before I make my strike. Supposedly, it's comparable, perhaps even slightly better, than SLI 8800GTX.

 

thanks for the infro dit, it makes it very clear and easy to understand.

for me i think im decided on preordering this with the 8800M GTX. i also think you meant that the 8800M GTX is comparable to the 9800M GT, not GTX

so at least were not going to be shocked by some design flaws as long as is an updated chasis of the 9750.

rep+

 

+rep to dit_xi as well. The specs are available at http://www.flextronics.com/arima/ViewProduct.asp?View=174.

To clarify, I am not offering any WSXGA+ (1440x900) models as of yet. Everything else you'll find in the notebook is available in the link above, as well as in dit_xi's post. Oh, and here's a large picture of the notebook for you:

http://www.flextronics.com/arima/pim/Pp174-1.jpg

 

Thanks for the +rep. I meant the Crossfire 3870 are comparable to the 8800M GTX in SLI.

 

Thanks for offering it at an awesome price, DS.

 

You're very welcome. Oddly enough, I make over 3x more selling these than I do selling Sagers...so I like selling this better

 

Shane, that USB Rocket Launcher sounds interwesting! Got a link?

 

USB Rocket Launcher Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVgRjrXAqr8

 

Is that really a picture of the Criterion? In the other pictures it has a blue backlit keyboard and looks glossy.

 

In that picture, the computer is not turned on (no backlighting), and until I get one in my hands, I'm assuming that only the back panel is glossy while the rest is matte.

 

that may be a good idea, it wont attract finger prints and smudges as much. id really like to see a big pic like that with the backlit keyboard on

 

Yup, I so wanna get one! I just wanna see benchmarks and hope there's no issues like overheating down-clocking hinge-breaking ******-*****ing

(I just made that last one up)

 

omfg, i just noticed it has media buttons!

def getting this notebook!

how do you find the price on the configurator on dark smiley.com