Clevo W880 vs W870

I thought I had this figured out, but, no, I don't.
What is the diff between the 2 models. I have read that the 880 runs cooler, but then read they were the same except diff graphics cards (which I guess would be the heat). I am buying a 17" Clevo of some sort . . . I would like the "cooler" of the two. I currently have an Acer 17" so I am familiar with all of the size/battery/etc. pitfalls.
Also, since you're listening, to mirror RAID or not to RAID, that is another question. What does RAID do to performance? It would seem,it would slow you down, alot.

 

The 880 has a USB 3.0 port

 

It's a little more than this. The w88 has better power circuitry, cooling, and run can the 480m. The 480m is the reason most people are buying it. Although I think it's overrated for the price.

 

The 880 as JohnnyFlash said, has a redesigned power circuitry to support the 100W 480M. The heat sink was also redesigned to cool the monster. This redesign makes it run cooler even with the 480M.

 

Test: click here !

 

Thanks to you all. An 880 it will be.

 

Yeah, be aware you're paying a $500 premium for a USB 3.0 port and a graphics card only marginally better than the 5870.

 

Although I agree with this sentiment, it looks like w87 may not be getting BIOS support for the net gen chips, where as the w88 will. So the $500 would be for upgrade path as well.

 

Yeah, but the W880 is also more futureproof than the W870.

 

By "next gen" you mean Sandy Bridge? Won't Sandy Bridge use different sockets than Arrandale?

 

They will use a different socket.

Isn't SB going to be released in 2011? By then, the GTX 4X0M series will be out and Clevo will most likely make revisions to the W870/W860 line to support it.

 

Next gen GPUs.

 

u guys know if there are any GTX 480M benchmarks with overclocked cores?

it is time to settle this debate for good.

 

.....

No offense but you've seen this thread right? http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/496497-clevo-d900f-sager-9285-benchmarks-thread.html

The debates already been settled really, the 480 and the 5870 perform almost the same. The only area the 480 is winning at so far are on unplayable FPS tesselated games. Future proofing with a 480 for tesselated games would be worthless since it already cant play the rudimentary tesselated games at decent settings as it is.

 

If your gaming just get the barebones w870cu with the 5870m and put an i5-520m. You'll save like around a $1000 over a GTX480m / i820 combo. If you need a quad for video editing or whatever, I still think the 870cu is the better choice unless you need usb 3.0

 

Right now, I'd choose the W88, just for the fact that the W87 is EOL, and all GPU upgrades will go to the W88.

Building a barebones W88 is the only way to go:

Barebone kit - 1619
i7-740QM - 288
4GB RAM - 90
500GB HDD - 75

Total = $2072