Whitebook / Sager 8660

I've been jumping back and forth between these notebooks for a week now. I plan on using them for gaming primarily. I'd like to be able to play Starcraft 2 and Darkfall online when they come out soon. However, the system reqs are unknown for these games and I don't know if crossfire would even be supported.

Obviously, the M17/whitebook would perform better but what if neither of these games support crossfire? It would perform worse than the Sager and the extra $$ would be for nill. Also, the M17/whitebook has the potential to upgrade to the 48XX series when they roll out making it scale for the future a little bitter.

Can anyone sway me either way? Do I gamble and potentially waste $ or gain performance? Do I play it safe spending less with still a decent laptop?

I'd really like to snag the whitebook but I'm scared to pull the trigger because it may be a powerful gaming solution overall -- it may not cater to the games i'm interested in.

 

between them two...the whitebook is going to be the better choice. the crossfire problem was more about drivers than the cards them selves... and now that ati may be very well getting on the ball..then that crossfire will work quite a bit better than one 9800m gtx. and if im not mistaken...the 8660 is a 9800m gts with 64/sp. so that would be far lower than the 9800m gtx in performance.

 

To go along with what john said, and to reiterate your point about the potential upgrades, all indications, including OCZ's driver page indicate it will support the 4870. Everything is pretty easy to access so it wouldn't/shouldn't be terribly difficult to upgrade.

Full Disclosure: I have a whitebook and love it. Wouldn't buy anything else.

 

what about updated drivers?

 

Unless your buying from either of these companies below, don't expect any updated drivers:

RK Computers:

http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=page_view&p=ocz_drivers

Killer Notebooks:

http://www.killernotebooks.com/nagamaki/nagamaki_support.html

They are the ONLY two i have seen providing any driver support.

 

KN used my mod.. not sure bout RK

 

I distribute E-wrecked's mod with all my whitebooks as well

 

Actually Mark made his own MOD. Not really yht epoint of the thread just for clarification because I assited him wiht testing it =)

 

What I was trying to say here is that these two companies (correct me if I am wrong) are the only two i can find and have spoke with that have updated drivers for ALL the notebook hardware. Yes the VGA is important but these two offer updated drivers for all the hardware. They are also the only two that I have seen supporting XP installations with all the available drivers and install directions.

I have spoken to a few other's before i purchased and they said they use the drivers supplied by OCZ (these are quite dated).

"""Unless your buying from either of these companies below, don't expect any updated drivers:

RK Computers:

http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnoteboo...&p=ocz_drivers

Killer Notebooks:

http://www.killernotebooks.com/nagam...i_support.html

They are the ONLY two i have seen providing any driver support."""

 

I spoke with RK Computers a few times, they do not use your's. They MOD their own drivers. When the 8.11's were released on their site I had a few scaling issues. I called them and they fixed the drivers and had the new version up on their site within 8 hours.

 

So does the whitebook have the potential to fit any of the GT, GTX etc. nvidia cards as well? Though it won't work without proper drivers? Could SLI for dual nvidias eventually be supported? Could better ATI cards come out in the future that the whitebook could use?

Also is there a link somewhere for specific hardware stats I would like to see if I could use some parts from my old laptop.

 

There is currently no nvidia support, single or SLI. 48xx card support is due out in Q2 (march)

 

it is said to run one 8800m gtx..... at least.

 

Not supported or sold by the ODM, may be possible but not an oficially supported card.

 

so will we see the 48xx in these shipping in march? or just support for them first?

 

Yes these are supposed to be shipping in Q2 (ETA)

 

Let's stay on-topic in this thread, thanks. I had to delete a few posts.

 

would this processor from my old laptop the Core 2 Duo T5600 1.83G/2ML2/667 fit in a clevo? would it hinder performance much?

 

Probably not due to the T5600 being a Socket M processor. And if it were to fit, it would significantly hinder overall performance.

 

I'm kind of in the same boat between these two laptops. The problem for me is one of quality. The Whitebook has been getting rave reviews from those who own one here, but I just don't know if this machine is in it for the long haul.

Sager--or rather Clevo--has a long history of quality (with the exception of hinge cracking--not relevent for the 8660--and a couple of particularly finicky models.)

The OCZ whitebook was built by the ODM Arima, recently purchased by Flextronics. Arima has been the ODM for some poor quality HPs and Compaqs over the years, and some lower-end Alienware models.

I think it is pretty clear this laptop is a winner out of the box, but historically speaking the Arima ODM connection worries me.

 

IMHO HPs are built like a brick house. I've had 3, and *never* had a single issue. So..not worried bout the HP/Arima connection personally, it only gives me more reason to have confidence in my rig. While Sager/Clevo are great built machines, with high-quality and high standards.. They'll also come at a higher price. There's always a give an take..

 

Well, I confess that I haven't had too many issues with more current HPs--I speak mainly of older models--but at the same time, most of the HPs I see now are hardly on the cutting edge like the Whitebook.

This is really only Arima's second foray into the high end--the first I think was the Alienware m9750--but by all appearances, they seem to have slammed this one out of the park.

Nevertheless, something about it leaves me uncomfortable. Not sure what--I think it is pretty obvious after reading you for a while that you know your stuff, so that alone ought to reassure me, but I've seen some truly dreadful Compaqs and HPs over the years that came out of the Arima factories.

 

I believe its Flextronics now not Arima.

 

It is, but Flextronics bought Arima. Arima is the ODM...Flextronics owns Arima.

Now, it's worth noting that a) Flextronics purchase' may mean higher standards, or b) the quality of the notebook is as good as the comapny that created the specs for Arima to build for them (arima/ocz?) if the relationship is like the old IBM Lenovo relationship.

I just don't know.

 

I can say its an extremly solid build.

It is one thing they did exceptionally well.

 

Ya, I have to agree with hooper and e-wrecked. The system is solid as a rock.

 

Feel free to see my post for a quick review on this notebook.

 

can this notebook play crysis or other heavy games like it??????????

 

Did you read anything in this sub-forum?

There are countless benchmark threads that see the WB achieve some of the highest gaming scores and fps in notebook gaming.

To answer your question: YES.

 

what highest gaming scores?

 

u guys could get this for the price of 2,299

model Name: Falcon 17 Inch Crossfire Notebook

CPU: **SALE** Core™2 Quad Q9100 (2.26GHz/1066MHz/12MB)
Memory: 4096MB Ultra Speed DDR3 1333MHz Extreme Performance Memory
Primary Hard Drive: 320GB 7200RPM Seagate Momentus 7200.3 89MB/s Read | 89MB/s Write
Primary Optical Drive: Standard 8X High Speed DVD-RW / CD-RW DL Burner
External Storage: No External Storage
Display: 17" 1200P HD WUXGA 1920x1200 Crystal-View X-treme Bright LCD
Graphics Adapter: Crossfire Dual ATI HD 3870 1024MB EXTREME PCI-X GPUs
Wireless Adapter: Built in Intel 5300 802.11AGN 300+mbps Wireless Adapter

pc microworks

 

okay i figured out how but make sure they know that is without a os at that price..

 

Yes thats not an extreme processor.

 

no os, i have my own ultra vista

 

oh thats fine but i thought people should know there was no os

 

well, looks like i will not be able to get this. my car need a blood tranfusion and bypass surgery. so i will be waiting a while longer.