Clevo W870CU

The problem with the Clarksfield CPUs is that when the 32nm refresh will come, it will use a different Chipset. I am not even sure if the new Chipset will even support the first generation of Clarksfield, but the new 32nm CPUs (including Arrandale) will not work on the first generation Clarksfield Chipset, just so you know.

Personally I liked the design of the M570 and I wouldn't mind if they will keep another 10 years from now. The new design is also really good, I like it, but for now I am not that enthusiastic because of the 16:9 screen. I heard they will still keep the 16:10 ration in the business notebook sector, so I might look into those in the next fallowing years.

 

Ugh, there are no specific details on whether they'll even be 32mn quad Arrandales yet. All the proposed releases, coming out in the next six months for arrandale mobile CPU's are dual-core, with the ability to run 4 threads.

As for any further refresh, well that's at least 9 months off. I can't see Intel wanting to rush those in straight after just after releasing the Dual-core Arrandale (Westmere) and Quad-core Clarksfield. Proof in my theory? - They've already delayed the release of these ranges to clear out the back-catalogue of C2D's. I can't imagine that they are gonna change this gameplan and make this release out-dated within a few months. They'll wanna sap it for all the money they can first, even if it means delaying technological progress.

 

There will be 32nm Clarksfield refresh in early summer 2010.
Arrandale is 2 cores on 32nm.

The 32nm Clarksfield will use the same chipset as Arrandale and will have IGP just like Arrandale. The current Clarksfield's don't have IGP.

 

That's good to know about the 'future proof' of the mobile Nehalem notebooks.
Since the desktop Nehalem cpus seem to have a better life expectancy, the best choice will probably be the offsprings of the D900F. Of course, not before SATA-600, PCIe 3.0, USB 3.0 and GT300 SLI .

 

The latest chipset has rarely been forward-compatible to its predecessor so we'll take that as a given in arguments. We're not all silly enough to either overlook this element or use it as an excuse in a debate.

Thanks for reiterating the bit about the 32nm Arrandales. As for the Clarksfield, well we're just seeing the end of summer, that's all still nine-ten months away. Though I'm sure it will go quick enough, I'm not fooling myself into thinking it's less than that. Also, Intel in all likelyhood could delay this for all we know. Previous post as to why I feel this.

As for the IGP bit, you're right. T'is a shame we won't get it much earlier. But then gaming on the run, away from a direct power link was never my thing.

 

There's tentatively one 45nm refresh to bridge the gap before 32nm.

 

Maybe I wasn't very clear, but, I completely agree. You are speaking the point I was trying to make that because there is no competition from AMD, Sandy Bridge will likely arrive late.

For you guys that have current gen Clevo, I wouldn't be in any hurry to upgrade to a W870CU/860CU. I don't think the mobile Core i7 is going to be fast enough to justify it. Further, I don't think MXM3.0b is worth the upgrade either. You could easily wait for mobile Sandy Bridge or at least Westmere quads before you even think about upgrading.

For me, the only laptop I have is a black Macbook circa 2006. I want to upgrade sometime between now and Christmas so the W860CU is calling my name.

 

Sakura? She's not Sakura. And those are drumsticks.

I guess people seeking a lower-tier Clevo have something to look forward to.

 

It wasn't about THIS deal, but the possibility that AMD might want to get into the high performance notebooks business, which is probably a good thing for competition. Personally, I don't care much even about this ...

 

I'm going to wait for reviewers, benchmarkers, GT300/RV870, and 32nm i7 before I sell. But the W870CU looks like a winner too me. Not sure if I even need RAID, but it's nice to know it's there. RAID 0 Intel SSDs would be killer fast...

As it stands, the base CPU is unappealing at 1.6ghz. $1k is far too costly of an upgrade to the extreme i7, and it will take time until there are engineering samples on Ebay.

EDIT: forgot to mention, based on the specs of the 5870, Sli notebooks will be pointless. Crysis at 1080p, DX10 Very High, 4x AA 16x AF easily over 30 FPS on a mobile card...

 

never have enough power

 

I think I'm going to leave the second HDD bay empty. My little 250GB 7200.4 is more than enough for my needs and by the time I need to replace my notebook, larger hard drives will be out.

 

Engineering samples almost always hit the 'bay early. My only question is, how much of a discount will they offer? Depending on how the price jumps between 720M -> 820M -> 920XM turns out to be, I may opt to stay with the basic CPU. I'll check the ES, or wait for the 2010 refresh.

I'm 80% an RTS player, so any i7 will blaze my games.

This is all assuming that I sell my notebook, which I doubt I'll do.

 

Did I hear right about there being an RGB LED in the 17.3" ?

 

There are rumours, yes.

 

Deviltech already has a configurator for the W870CU.

 

Where have you seen that the 32nm Clarksfield will have an IGP?
From what I've seen only dual core 32nm are getting an IGP. Thats not to say that 32nm Clarksfield won't have an IGP, but there are 32nm Westmere without an IGP(Gulftown, for instance).
I do think there is a really good chance the next Clarksfield refresh will have an IGP but I'm not sure it is as certain as you make it sound, unless I'm missed something.

 

I've read this some time ago, on two different news sites.

 

Where did these rumors start?

 

It says 6mb of L3 cache memory for the core i7 extreme, 2 MB less than the 1.73 ghz option. Is this true?

 

W860CU is now released so it's only a matter of time (month? or less maybe?) for the W870CU.

I didn't start the rumor but "I heard" rumors are always started by someone's mouth running off... lol

 

That is correct. The W870CU will release about a month after the W860CU.

 

Anandtech has put up what is essentially a review of the W870CU. They've got a lot of pics, and compare the performance when teamed with the 920XM and 280M to the M980nu with QX9300 and single or dual 280M, as well as the 280M and i7 975 in the D900F. It's basically what we've always wanted, a proper set of CPU gaming benchmarks. And it comes down to the presumed conclusion that what we're really waiting for are next-gen GPUs...

So, can I have my W870CU with 32nm extreme mobile i7, GTX 380M, and RAID 0 Intel SSDs now, please?

 

So does it come with WLED OR RGB LED?

 

RGB LED. 10char

 

Whoa nice, got a source/link?

 

Seeing as how Anand had a W90vp with a Q9000 Quad OC'd at 2.27GHZ for the comparison, I thought I would run some of the same benchmarks on my W90vp-X1 T9600 Dual Core OC'd at 3.289Ghz for comparison.

And, the first result indicates to me that the high end i7 920 Mobile isn't all that much faster than what we have now for Mobile CPU's.

The 920XM Quad runs 2.0Ghz base, but Turbo's to 3.2Ghz for 1/2 cores
The W90vp-X2 Quad runs OC'd at 2.27Ghz
The W90vp-x1 Core2 Duo runs OC'd at 3.289Ghz (running Windows Vista Ultimate x64)

Code:

Cinebench R10 64-bit
              Clevo W870CU    W90vp-X1     W90vp-X2
Single CPU       4055            4038         2755
Multi CPU        11948           7804         9875
Multi x          2.94            1.93         3.58
Multi Efficiency .735            .965         .895

It looks like the low base speed when running all 4 cores, coupled with higher speed for single/dual core work, lowers the overall efficiency of the i7 920XM Quad vs. the Q9000 Quad.

Also, the single core speed at the max turbo of the 920XM @ 3.2Ghz is barely faster than the T9600 at the Asus TurboGear 17% OC.

The great thing about the new i7's is the power saving. With the small amount of info I have so far, it looks like the new i7's will get much longer battery life. From the Anand article it looks like the battery is smaller in the Clevo, as the W90vp gets longer run times on it's battery, even though the Clevo gets 2x better min/Whr efficiency.

Too bad they are so expensive. I priced out my Clevo with the 920XM at $3818 (920XM, 1 SO-DIMM 4GB mem, 500GB, Vista Home Ultimate, Blue-Ray reader, Intel 802.11, Bluetooth, 3Meg Camera). Here:

https://web.eurocom.com/EC/ec_model_config1(1,208,0)

 

Lalala. Buying the Asus G51vx and finding out four days later that work will no longer let us use our own laptops , I'm now seeing the i7 and nvidia 280 being put into notebooks. I'm not listening. Lalala.

 

That sucks. I have been places, as a consultant, that make it very difficult on their employee's to have their own laptops, for security reasons.

There are generally 2 fears. First, that you will transfer documents / etc from the corporate network, and second, that you will hook up disk drives and copy data.

The way I get around it (with Permission first!!), is to use an EVDO USB network connection (AT&T), instead of the corporate network, or even Guest networks. Don't forget to turn off Bluetooth and 802.11 radios in your laptop!!

And, I don't bring external drives, and only use the clients USB thumb / hard drives for data transfer at their initiation (manager monitored).

Also, glitzly laptops will get disapproval from coworkers, unless you downplay their evident coolness. Simply saying, "hey it's a Laptop", seems adequate.

Hope that helps.

 

hmscott- Yes. When we move to the new building, there was to be no more notebooks as they will provide the "testing" computer for us. But I had at least 3 more months which is why I bought the notebook when I did. Something else happened at work (In another dept) that caused all departments to have no personal items on the desk. Since the notebook would be considered personal and even though I was using it for work, now I can't.

 

Ahh, that's the other thing, concern over expensive personal property on site. The company doesn't want to be responsible for expensive personal property gone missing.

I always harness and lock up my laptop/bag to something immovable, or I take it with me, even for a short time. I even use audible / visual alarms on the lock and chain.

Again, that sucks.

 

As usual with gaming, it comes down to GPU dependency so only when we get much better and higher end next gen GPU's will we really see significant gaming performance increases in my opinion.

Some of the benchs I have seen aren't much better than my stock Q9000 with my GTX 260M and they were using a GTX 280M.

 

Still, the i7 920XM is a sexy CPU / chipset

The overall package is an improvement in power usage and finesse, if not a major performance improvement, it is a step in the right direction.

And, the Clevo 870CU appears to be an excellent implementation.

Lets see those NBR user reviews / benchmarks!

 

Nice, just noticed there's a cover for the back ports. Looks pretty slick with it closed

 

The Sager NP8760 (W870CU) pre orders will be starting today and is expected to start shipping approximately in middle October.

 

Thanks Justin, I fancy that beauty

 

Didn't see this posted in this thread but here's a video review of the W870CU
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This is just me sounding off on my plans for my next Clevo. This is not a response to anyone's post in this thread.

It seems that Clevo has taken a unified approach towards their new notebooks. Both the W860CU and the W870CU design has been heavily adopted from the M980NU. Both machines use identical parts and have almost identical motherboards, which is very convenient for vendors as replacement parts will be more readily available for multiple systems. Aside from that, because the W860CU and W870CU both have identical cooling capabilities, my needs would fit more with the W860CU. The W870CU has four speakers and a subwoofer compared to only two speakers on the W860CU. I can care less about the speakers so my vote goes to the W860CU. The W870CU has twin HDD bays with the capability for hardware RAID, in which I also have absolutely no use for. The W870CU with the 17.3 WUXGA screen has a pixel density of 128ppi. The W860CU with the 15.6 WUXGA screen has a pixel density of 142ppi. My old M38AW, and the current M860TU, has a pixel density of 147ppi on the 15.4 WUXGA screen, and my M570TU has a pixel density of 133ppi on the 17.1 WUXGA screen. It wouldn't mind at all going back to a 15 inch WUXGA screen which has a pixel density fairly similar to my old M38AW. I would also enjoy the portability as the W860CU is slightly smaller than my M570TU, but with the benefits of superior cooling adopted from the M980NU that we all have been wishing for. I'd say that when I am in the market again to replace my M570TU in H1 2011 and if Clevo keeps the W860CU fairly similar to the W870CU in everything except size and a few other minor aspects, I'll be looking to go back to the 15 inch world where I originally started. I will say it again, the future of Clevo looks to be very, very bright. I believe us Clevo users will be entering a technological Renaissance with these unified designs.

 

unified as in unified field theory ???



how come Sakura's hand's all bandaged up ???

Sparky894

 

No and no.

 

Well if the W860CU comes with the most powerful mobile processor, and the most powerful videocard, then I see absolutely no reason to go with the W870CU.

 

Unless you prefer a bigger 17inch screen, as I do.

 

Having a larger screen...

Since it's my desktop replacement, and it undergoes limited daily travel (but travel nonetheless), I can appreciate the size of a 17" screen. Sli notebooks are monstrous though, I can't see myself using one of those on a daily basis. They're just so.... big. I'd be the laughingstock.

 

Yes, that is perhaps the primary reason why I am shifting over to the W860CU along with the rest of the prospective Clevo buyers in the immediate market.

I love the 17 inch screen. It's simply stunning. However, I grew up on a 15 inch notebooks and I would like to go back to it. The W870CU is a step too big for me compared to the M570TU, and the W860CU is only slightly smaller but retains most of the key aspects that attracted me to the W870CU. Clevo answered the prayers of many M860TU users wanting all of the power of a 17 incher in a smaller package. Though the shift to 16:9 making the 15.6 inch chassis almost as big as a 16:10 17.3 inch chassis is mainly responsible for it. Also, the availability of accessories for 16:9 17 inchers is limited. I would not be able to fit the W870CU in my 17 inch Zeroshock, moreso in my Wenger Ibex. With the W860CU, I can still use that as well as have a slightly smaller and lighter load. The W860CU would also fit my Xpad better than the W870CU. And the list goes on and on.

 

That's exactly how I see things as well.

I see, I thought that the W870CU was the same size as the current M570TU, just... you know, different aspect ration (damn I hate 16:9 ).
If it's bigger, then I will probably opt for a W860 in the future. But to be fair, I might just have to deep into the business notebooks. DELL's M6400 Precission is very nice, good GPU, screen size, decent weight (less than 4kg), but expensive as hell!

 

I use a Targus 17" messenger bag, I think they call it the Miami. If I need to, I can even slip the NC2000 in there, there's 3 compartments in the bag so it's safe from scratching the laptop. I think a W870CU will fit just fine, compared to the M570TU, it's less than an inch more wide, and half an inch less deep.

I'm beginning to like the idea having a 1080p 16:9 screen. I'll likely get the Blu Ray drive as well...

 

that slick port cover in the back will be excellent with a nano mouse. Absolutely no need to ever unplug the receiver again. I love the 17 inch screen, and the laptop isn't actually very hard to carry around. 8 lbs is nothing. I feel bad typing this on my 5797, knowing that she will be outmoded in a month (sob)

 

I do love the W870CU, but I just can't move up to another larger notebook. I would rather stay around the same sized machine as my old M38AW, and the W860CU brings me closer to that. It like with the Saturn Vue and the Honda Pilot. Both of them use the same Honda J engine, but the Vue is slightly smaller and retains most of the features that the Pilot offers.

My logic professor from a few semesters back had one of those bags for his Toshiba. That bag can take a whole lot of cargo.

That is actually a very clever point, grayman19. One can get one of those Logitech mice with the mini dongle and hide that sucker in the back USB port and never think about it again, haha.

 

Not a fan at all of 16:9. I think 15.6 is a little too small, while 18.4 is a little to big. I've seen the asus monster laptops with 18.4inch screens and those things are not laptops. 17inch is still portable to me, but 15.6 is just a tad small for a desktop replacement.

 

I'm disappointed the W870CU doesn't have a 1600x900 option resolution wise and it is a bit chunkier.

The W860CU is a bit smaller, lighter and has the 1600x900 option on the 15.6" yet packs all the fire power and keyboard of the W870CU.

Unless the W860CU has heating issues the W870CU does not, the W860CU really is a good sweet spot IMHO.