How upgradable is the 9262?

Hey everyone, I am still trying to decide between a 8660 and a 9262. What I like most about the 9262 is it's upgradability, however i would like to know how upgradable it is with its current motherboard. Also, will I be able to upgrade beyond the 9800 GTX?

I am really looking forward to the reviews on the 8660 and am not sure this is the one I will buy. But I want to know if the 9262's upgradability is worth it before I decide.

What I want is the most future-proof laptop by a significant margin. If it's between the 8660 and the 9262, is the 9262 that much more future-proof?

Thanks to all for their opinions and comments.

 

why the 8660 and not the 5796?... why not compare a 17" to another instead of a 17 to a 15

that being said the 5796 can have the 9800M GTX as where the 8660 cannot (as far as i know)

so for me im going with the 5796 over the 9262 because i like the looks of it alot more and its more power than i need

 

Never understood this myself, looking at a 17" is different than looking at a 15".
The 9262 is supposed to be like really upgradeable, to the point where the other 17" 5796 went through I think two model changes, where this was able to take the parts with no complications anyway.

 

if only i can upgrade the lid to something that looks good than id get it

 

upgrade the lid? as in, design? companies like XoticPC do custom painting/skinning..


in reply to OT's question, the 9800GTX is already fast and 9800GT in SLi is able to run crysis even at high settings without putting in too much effort.. with a 3.0Ghz quad, its already pretty fast...

 

In the NP9262 you can upgrade the processor, replacing it with any desktop processor that fits the power requirements, you can upgrade the ram, the hard drive, and the graphics card (of course, depending on how tech savvy you are, you can do this on most other laptops too). You could only upgrade past the 9800 GTX if Clevo releases a bios update to support it.

And in future-proofing, the 9262 will always have better processors than the others, since the newest and fastest processors come out for desktops first. That's why it has the Q9650 and other laptops don't even have quad-core yet.

 

You can get a skin for looks.I have done so for mine.

 

so can you not upgrade 8660 as easily?

 

It should be just as easy, if you need some help upgrading, check this sticky by chaz: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=125803.

 

Clevo notebooks are the most upgradeable on the market. DarkSmiley covered just about everything.

Regarding upgrading . . . I suggest getting at least the processor and video card you want when you buy the machine. They are the least cost-efficient to upgrade - you would have to replace the part you already have in there.

 

That's not an upgrade, that's a mere customization. As others have said, there are plenty of places that'll do a paint job or a skin job, heck, if you're willing to pay for it, I'm sure you can find someone to gussy it up with fibreglass and bondo.

 

What I meant was at which point timewize would I be unable to buy a new graphic card or a processor so I could upgrade my 9262?

I want to know if the weight is worth the hassle for the upgradeability.

 

1) There is no way to tell; however, given the imminent release of Nehalem, which will be incompatible with every system currently out, you'll be able to upgrade for as long as you can find Q9650's for sale. On GPUs, you'll be able to upgrade so long as you can find 9800M GTX's for sale.

And before you (or anyone else) goes off - when it comes to upgrading a notebook, the only thing you can count on is upgrading to the equipment that you already know fits the system. Meaning that "will it work" questions about unreleased/as-yet-undesigned hardware is a fool's errand and should not be asked. It's entirely possible (in a theoretical sense ) that NVidia could release the 10800M, the 11800M and etc... prior to the time the current D901C/NP9262 is replaced; however, there is no point in asking if you'll be able to upgrade to those (hypothetical) GPUs, so for the time being, until they are actually released, you must proceed on the assumption that you will not be able to upgrade to them.

2) Most definitely, the weight is worth dealing with because of the upgradeability.

 

timewise, it really depends on how much performance you want. if you max out your performance now with the 3.0Ghz quad and 2 9800GT in SLi, then the performance should be able to last you for more than a year..

however, if you're going with a tight budget now, picking the single 9800GT and a quad at lower clock speed, and a minimal HDD, then you might want to change the parts in a few months time, just that you have to DIY..

or, you might be preferring the duo processor now, but want a quad processor in the future (like me), and that's where the upgradebility comes in.. when you need it. so its really a personal decision to take..

 

What I finally want to know is by what margin is the 9262 more future-proof than the 8660??

I want a very future-proof gaming laptop, but want to be sure that it will be upgradable with more than one upcoming product (9800 GTX....SLI???). The processor is the most upgradable part I see for now, but it isn't such a priority as the GPU is or should it be??

 

The 8660 as far as I can tell will not support SLI.
I don't think there is enough space for 2 graphic cards in this laptop.

 

future-proofing is impossible with all that's coming up now..

but to make it more future friendly, then the 9262 still offers more options, as someone said earlier, cos procs get released for desktops 1st, and is widely avaliable.. 9800GTX SLI isn't out yet... but 9800GT SLI is already fast enough to play games 1 year down the road... and when sager has finalised that this mobo can run on 9800GTX in SLI, then yep, you can just get 2 of those and plug it into your com..

 

So is the 9800 GT SLI worth the hassle of the weight compared to a single one in the 8660?

 

It's not that much heavier!
Well thats really up to you of course.
Yes the 9262 is thicker and heavier but IMO you get a much more upgradable laptop thats obviously much more powerful in SLI than a single GTX.

 

From what I understand, you can upgrade a lot on it. The GPU, the CPU, hard drives, etc.

I don't own one though (yet )

 

I know what I can upgrade on the laptop. The thing that worries me is that I will be able to upgrade from 9800 GT to 9800 GTX and no more after that. I wish I could be able to upgrade it with products still to come for some time.

I want to know that the upgradeability is worth the effort and price.

I see the 8660 and I really like it more due to look and size, but the specs on the 9262 are way better.

 

well, if you compare weight wise, its only a slightly heavier.. (gets you stronger lugging this thing around too!)

but if you compare performance wise, 9800GT in SLI is twice the performance compared to a 9800GT... so.......

 

Powerful GPUs, long battery life, weight, portability......it all comes down to what you are going to be using the laptop for and how often you will be moving it around. For those who say the weight difference is not that much, I don't think they are counting the weight of the power brick for the 9262 which by itself weighs nearly as much as an 8660.

You are looking at about 20lbs of laptop to lug around. I bought my 9262 because I only move it around maybe once a month when I travel. I used to own a 15.4 Asus when I traveled more often and took my laptop with me back and forth to work.

Do not buy something with the idea that you will be able to upgrade it later on, not the graphics at least (of course hard drives, ram and CPUs are easy to change). Many people have faced much dissapointment because of this. If you can upgrade to the next big GPU when comes out, bonus, if not, no big surprise.

Buy something with the knowledge that it is the best available at the time and it will serve you well for at least a couple years.

 

You might as well be wishing that the tooth-fairy were real.

You should be operating on the premise - applicable to every computer - that you cannot upgrade to any future, as-yet-unreleased components until/unless the component is actually released and your systems manufacturer tells you (or you get solid, detailed data from another trustworthy source) that the component is supported in a particular system.

A quick tour through this forum alone should be enough to convince you that (1) such information is simply impossible to obtain, and generally anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to pull a fast one on you, and (2) people who make their buying decisions on the premise that they will be able to upgrade to as-yet-unreleased components are often sorely disappointed when the component is released and proves to be incompatible.

Bottom line - this is a truly horrendous issue on which to base a buying decision.

Then sit down and consider long and hard whether the 9262, as it currently exists, is worth more to you than the 8660. Then make your buying decision. If the only thing keeping you from the 8660 is the hope/belief that the 9262 will be able to support as-yet-unreleased components, then you would be best served by getting the 8660 instead.

 

Thanks for all the opinions and advice. I think that while I save up the money I'll wait for and read the 8660 reviews and benchmarks.