About to order W860CU ... and need help!

hi folks,...

I am about to pull the trigger on the W860CU system.
I am planning to buy this from pro-star.com

The config:
i7-620M (which is currently only offered by pro-star)
15.6” Full HD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) with Super Clear Glare Type Screen
Intel® PM55 Chipset
4 GB RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 285M with 1GB DDR3 Video Memory Gaphics
500GB 7200 RPM HDD
1 Year Premium Parts Warranty + 3 Year Labor

-- for appx $1700


Before I buy.. i had the following questions...

1. how good is pro-star support ?

2. Would the drivers released for NP8690 (sager) work for this system (since it exactly the same).

3. i7-620m is offered by pro-star only.. and when i spoke to their sales, they were pretty confident that there was no known issues. But xotic pc sales told me that this cpu is unstable on pm55 chipset which is used in w860cu. Can i pull the trigger with this?

4. Is this a good deal ?



I have been with dell for long.. but now i am sick and tiered of the service and support offered by dell.... and ready to try something different. So far, I have heard only praises for this model.

 

Why are you getting dual core? Just curious--

EDIT: I see. 25W TDP-

Some NBR members have ordered from ProStar and comments have been positive.

 

Right - less power - less heat - newer technology (32nm)... and when in turbo-boost mode, its faster than the quad cores ...

Also, most apps that i run won't use all 4 cores, so i expect it would be turbo-boost mode for majority of the time.

 

Looks like a good deal to me.
ProStar has a good rep around here so if the say the i7-620 works than it works. Ask if they tested the system with that CPU's and do a burn test.

 

im also looking to pick that guy up, i talked to someone at prostar and they told me the new ATI DX11 5870 will be avail at the end of this month....i'm waiting.

 

Available for the W860CU?

 

ya...thats the big boy 15 incher.

 

What apps do you run? If you are not planning to run current or future games in max details, why get the GTX 285M if your concerned about heat? If you wanna play future games, a quad core is a very good investment as most upcoming and a lot of newer games already support them.

Most apps and almost all games support dual-core now. The 3,33GHz tubro boost is for single-core applications and games and if you mainly play single-core games or run single-core apps, again, there would be no sense in buying such a strong GPU.

 

To answer your question, Pro-Star has really good service and they are quite reliable. I just ordered my laptop from them last week and got it today.

I would also suggest you get the quad core i7 processors. It's more future proof and if you're going to spend over $1500, why not just pay $100-200 more for a better processor?

Also, Xotic and ProStar offer notebooks at around the same price (give or take $30-40)

 

Well, I dont game much...... my typical use is :
Browsing, music, post processing raw images from my dslr, HD video capture and processing using vegas, watching HD movies,

Most of the apps that i use would not be multithreaded...

I am inclined to the i7-620m - since its newer processor based on 32nm technology.. and its faster on turboboost mode - compared to the quad cores...

Right now, only prostar offers this processor on the W860CU.

 

I hate to say it, but why dont you guy a different notebook? This is a gaming notebook by design, you can save your self some cash, and definitely weight... And for the things you listed, you really dont need all this hardware.

 

Can you suggest a model number ?
I am open for sager/clevo/Asus

 

Off the top i can't, id have to browse their selections. At work i use a Dell Lattittude e6400, its small and very fast, would totally suffice for what you want...I've had 2 Asus's and 3 Sagers and have loved them all, but if i was just after the type stuff you are, i Don't think id go with a Sager since their focus is desktop replacements, Asus does have quite a few smallerish machines, But why not look at something like a Dell?

 

Well, if you look at my signature, i have a dell xps1647 on order since 1/16, which has not be delivered. I dont see dell delivering it soo., besides, i am sick and tiered dealing with the 'pathetic' dell customer care folks.

The latitude series (i too use them at work), is good for work. i am looking for a powerful entertainment/multimedia laptop - with all kinds of ports, connectivity, webcam... and the bells and whistles.

eg: i need firewire port to capture hd video from my camcorder............ HDMI out put is also needed.... ..

btw, the new latitude series have the throttling problem - which dell has refused to fix - saying its business laptop!

 

ic, well imo as a power user, Asus makes better, smaller machines for what your looking for. Sager is awesome, but not so portable... Both also have good customer service, especially Asus, they replaced a out of warranty keyboard for me for free.

 

I would buy something like this. It's based on the Clevo W760C barebone. The design is similar to the W860CU you wanted to buy anyway but suits your tasks better. You can also order it with a 620M - at least with my reseller (mySN) but that one is based in Germany, however, quite a few people here have bought their laptop at mySN even though they don't live in Germany which is no problem. But since it's a Clevo barebone you should find it at your seller.

 

well, on the W760C series, the graphics card is weak.. HD 4570 with 512MB... would like something newer/better

 

Well, maybe W860CU is the way to go....if you want a better video card then you must be gaming or rendering....for movies, you dont need all that much.

 

You do not need a strong GPU - actually the HD 4570 is just an option, I would just get an i5 with integrated hardware. The real argument against the W760C is that it has no FullHD Display, so if watching FullHD movies is your desire then you should not go for the W760C. Although keep in mind that there is not really a difference between HD movies and DVD movies if you watch them on a 15,4" display and sit only about 1m away. Even the internal GPU could play HD movies via HDMI. But well, if you want the W860CU at least save some money and get the GTX 260M. The GTX 285M is just a waist of money for the tasks you need. And keep in mind that the W860CU is no silent notebook, although the fans make a deep sound that is not very annoying they will always be present. You would also save considerable money in the long run since the W860CU consumes much more power than the W760C, but it's your decision. But thats how most big brands make money, they sell hardware to users that is not suited their tasks... If you wanna be prepared for everything including possible future gaming spend some more money and go for a quadcore otherwise save alot of money and buy a more fitting soution.

 

Daniel Hahn, is a smart man. I also say think size and portability, theres just no point in buying a 8 pound notebook for the stuff you want to do when a 4.5 pound notebook thats 40% less will do the same.

 

as a gamer and video editor by hobby i strongly recommend the w860cu.
actually video editing/transcoding and photo editing are teo apps where you will see major performance differences when using an i7 as long as your program supports multi cores. im not sure if vegas pro is already multithreaded but its only a matter of time if it aint. i believe photoshop is.
also, newer video editors will use the video card to speed up rendering significantly. again im not sure if this is already supported in vegas, but then again its only a matter of time.
believe me when i say hd video editing can bring even the most powerful desktops to its knees. with that in mind, try to get the most powerful laptop you can ( the w860cu will do for light to med hd editing), anything less will probably just get you frustrated by its slowness

 

Sorry to change the subject, but I am too in the same boat as the OP. I was wondering if it's possible for me to just get i5 540m right now, and upgrade the cpu as I feel need to? like once the price on i7 920xm settles?

I've been browsing here and there on here, but I get different vibes from people. If the chipset supports it then I can upgrade the cpu, correct?

 

I guess the price for the i7 920XQM will not really settle and stay quite high and even if it drops you have to add the money you spend for the i5 540M into your calculation so in the end you will win nothing (because of the poor price/performance ratio). It will stay expensive since Intel produced only a few of them and there is no big demand. The i7 820QM has a much better price/performance ratio as you will not notice the difference between a 920XQM and a 820QM in most instances. Besides the whole chipset problem that could arise I would go for the 820QM. If your considering buying getting an i5 540M right now you will obviously not need the performance of a 920XQM. However, it again depends on what you are doing, what games you wanna play and what applications you wanna run. But a quadcore is more future proof.

 

The only reason to go for the 920 is to overclock it. As daniel states the 820 is not far behind it in standard performance but the cost jump is pretty considerable. If you dont intend to overclock then just get the 820 now it will be a fine processor for 2 or 3 years

A very useful breakdown of CPU performance can be found at this LINK

 

Thanks for your inputs guys. Yeah I currently have C2D e8400 OC'd to 4 ghz with HD4870 1 gig for my desktop. I want a desktop replacement laptop that is going to last quite a while and the beautiful thing I found out about these clevos is the fact that I can upgrade like desktops.

I'm quite silly when it comes to using my computer on daily basis. I'd like to unzip blueray quality movies (3~4gig) while I have WoW on in the window mod in sitting in Dalaran, downloading 2~3 files at the speed of 100~300kb/sec each and have multiple IEs running in the background. sometimes I feel my e8400 to be lil slow when doing all that tasks(or maybe I'm just speed spoiled) maybe changing my OS HDD to SSD would be more beneficial?

on RJtech.com i5 540m is $300, and i7 820QM is $600. I'm still skeptical about the performance of i7s and I need more assurance from you guys to make me wanna spend another 300 on it :/

so would I benefit more from going i7 820qm or SSD? or both?

Thanks and sorry for hijacking thread XD

 

To be honest you may be better off looking at the D900F. You could get the Desktop i7 920 version of the D900F for a better price than the 920 Mobile.

Both laptops have the same GFX card so game performance will be very similar but CPU performance will be a huge boost

 

Well, if you do that many tasks at once a quad-core would obviously be better than a dual core. What OS do you run? As long as you run Vista or Windows 7 it should be alright. SSDs always increase overall performance especially HDD heavy tasks like unzipping files or multiple downloades.

However, keep in mind that upgrading a laptop is not that easy as upgrading desktops is. You will be able to upgrade to the next GPU generation, propably even the one after that, but then they will likely change the MXM standard and you cannot upgrade anymore. CPU upgrade is limited by the chipset, but with this system you could always upgrade to a i7 920XQM or just overclock the i7 820QM although that would be pointless at the moment. Plus upgrades are much more expensive... the single GPUs and CPUs are so expensive that - if possible and logical - you should choose the best hardware right away.

I would not suggest the D900F unless you are really into rendering videos and stuff like that - and I mean really into it like every day work. Otherwise you will just have a totally overpowered CPU in your laptop. Besides I still don't like the chassis, the W860CU and W870CU just look awesome, but thats my personal opinion.