[UK] x7200

Hey forgive the noobish questions. I'm currently planning ahead to see what will be my next laptop and I'm pretty sure it will be the x7200. Just to ask If I get an older one that used to have 460m/470m/480m's would I still be able to stuff a(or a pair of) 485m into it? Is there a motherboard compatibility thing or is it just a bios upgrade? If it even needs one... I know the only place to get one here on the isles is Kobalt and it seems like they are finally stepping up their game and delivering these. I don't really want to ship one from MySN. Does anyone know where I can see one of these in person? UK Clevo owner please share some experiences thanks!

 

Kobalt have definitely been getting themselves back on track the last few weeks. My x7200 is being shipped today, after ordering near the end of November. I do feel annoyed and let down it's taken so long but Kobalt as a company aren't really at fault for it.

When I ordered I knew they were recovering from staff health issues, then the snow came and stopped the country dead until Christmas which obviously they were closed for, followed by their site's host going down over new year and deliveries were still back logged which held the build up. When it was finished being built it had a dodgey GPU and needed replacing and re-testing, which got held up in all the Sandy Bridge palaver.

Was it an unacceptable delay under normal circumstances? Totally. Could Kobalt have done anything to avoid it? Not really, it's been a series of unfortunate events and situations beyond their control which have knocked on and on. The only thing they could do is push on and try getting through it, which it looks like they are.

They have been a bit tardy on the communication front, but again given the amount they've been swamped with orders and problems I can't really complain too much as it's only ever was like a day or so before hearing back and they were as helpful and apologetic as you could hope for. Any time a company has lots of customers' orders being delayed, its going to end up with communication with some being late, especially when they need to prioritise certain customers over others.

Over all they've given me a pretty good service despite the extended wait and they have even refunded some of the money to apologise for the delays, which is ace as Kobalt's price on the x7200 is pretty much as cheap as you can get it in this country to begin with.

I'm just looking forward to it arriving in the next couple of days and I'm very happy to have stuck with them through all the delays and not impatiently cancelled when it was nearly out the door like certain other people did. Otherwise I would have had to settle for something like an ASUS G73jw or Alienware M17x, neither of which have comparable hardware yet are, as near as dammit, just as expensive.

 

yes it should be upgradeable to 485m even at sli.

 

Yes it CAN upgrade to the 485M's for sure. You will need the upgrade kit that has the NEW heatsinks for the 485M's. The heatsink is different than the 480M's and the 460M's for this model.

 

Kobalt have announced on their forums that they've hired a new member of staff. I'd imagine this bodes well for the future.

 

The 5.6KGs Inc Battery weight of the X7200 and the 30-40 minutes battery time is what puts me off it when you can get a Sandybridge with better CPU performance and a single GTX 485M that weighs 3.1KGs Inc Battery for much less cash. Not to mention around 2 hours of battery time. That is once the Sandybridge issues have been fixed of course.

I am sure that I have heard of people making appointments to travel to Kobalt HQ to see laptops in person but I am sure some one who knows for certain will comment on this.

 

AlexroseUK owns the X8100 and has travelled to Kobalt a few times in person, PM to get more details or see if a reply is posted here in person.