PCMW Blackhawk Quad (9262) Review

2 weeks ago I received my 9262 from PCMW with the following stats:

Q9550
1920 x 1200 glossy
4GB
8800 SLI
3 200 GB 7200 RPM
Vista Ultimate 64bit
Diamond protection (3 year, accidental damage, no dead pixel)

Buying:
Painless. I configured everthing on the site and saved my order. The PCMW ordering system did not allow the use of American Express so I called the 800 #. Sales sent a google checkout link so I could the the Amex. No problems.

Packaging:
Packaged well. Laptop in standard foam brackets. Everthing else packed into the cheesy laptop bag that was included. Nice plastic bound folder with order info plus warranty info including beginning and end dates. No problems here.

First impressions:
Nice glossy finish on laptop. Good dark color scheme. Feels a bit lighter than my 9750 and consequently a little less sturdy. Not flimsy by any means but after 2.5 years of the 9750 the 9262 just feels a little less rigid. Turns out the glossy finish looks nice but shows dirt and smudges from your hands way too easily. A matte finish is more practical.

First boot up:
Issue here. When I ordered I specified 2 drives in Raid 0 and 1 drive stand alone. System was configured with all 3 drives in Raid 0. Re-install here I come. Video drivers were not installed. This could be because the video drivers turned out to be a major pain to install. I installed the drivers from the included disk and on reboot got a blue screen that would not go away. This led to the reinstall which I had to do anyway to break up the 3 drive raid 0. After re-install I got the blue screen several more times during the video driver install and kept rolling back via system restore. Finally LV2Go 175.75 drivers let me install and turn on SLI without bluescreening. Yay!

Ongoing Useage impressions:
Screen is beautiful. Looks nicer than my 9750 side by side. Aero glass probably helps here.

Very fast, quad rules the world. I use the machine for gaming and work and love it so far.

As a left handed user I really appreciate moving the USB ports to the right side of the machine. I also appreciated moving the video card exhaust to the back of the machine. On my 9750 the hot exhaust was constantly blowing on my mouse hand (left side).

So far I have played the following games:
Neverwinter Nights 2 - 1920x1200 no problems
Sins of a Solar Empire - 1920x1200 no problems
Medievil Total War II - 1920x1200 no problems
Company of Heroes -1920x1200 Seems to have problems with dx10. Full screen dx10 has all kinds of video corruption. The game runs but artifacts and off screen color all over the place unpalyable. DX10 windowed mode shows no video corruption but mouse detection is all wrong. It seems to be treating the mouse as if in full screen mode so putting the mouse over a button does not highlight the button. You have to put the mouse a certain distance away and then the button highlights, very odd. DX9 full screen work fine and looks great.

Unfortunately I don't have any other DX10 games to try so I am not sure if it is DX10 only problem.

3kmark06 installed after fresh OS install. I ran this with nothing tweaked just 175.75 drivers and typical Vista services running (no Vista tweaks).

1 card: 10243 3Dmarks
SLI: 13773 3Dmarks

Let me know if you have any questions. I will happily respond.

 

Congratulations and welcome to club.

 

Good review. Any chance of pix?

 

Probably not. But if i get ambitious I will edit the first post.

 

i think the blue screen video card drivers occur with ALOT of people. THeres a special way to install your cards, one at a time to stop this. So thats an issue many ppl had with SLI. Other than that. ENjoy. Im glad to see you have the Q9550 in there too. Not many resellers offer it cause it might be "unstable", but... i doubt that.

 

hmm daikyu those sli scores are a bit low for your rig.?? is the bottlenecking issue playing up on this rig too as what shyster and wu jen were saying.?

 

i completely agree that the 9262 is not as sturdy as the older models. my 9860 is sturdier. the 9262 cracks, creaks, and rattles more. the keyboard ont he 9262 also has more flex since the under-plating only has 2 screws securing it compared to the 4 or 5 screws of the 9860. the under-plate also has more "void" space underneath due to the configuration of the laptop.

also, the plastic just above the f-keys can get scorching hot (the area above where the gpu's are located) duing heavy gaming. in sli mode and gaming, this section will get as hot as the power brick.

good for you the usb's went to the right side, bad for me and all the other right-handers, lol. this was my biggest gripe about the laptop. after recieving it i was pleasantly surprised that the laptop is raised in the rear and this also raises the usb ports allowing a full mouse to somewhat slide underneath it so you do not run into the cords.

 

Somewhere the Evercool Magic Notebook Cooler is posted. For SLI, place one per video card exhaust. These fans will help power [pull rather than push] the heat out of the notebook and really does make a difference you can feel. Caution, they have a goofy two speed button control and can easily be running on low. As they are quiet, at 120v supply to the Laptop, might as well run on high!

The E8400 cpu makes a difference in generated heat that you can feel the absence of on the notebook surface. You can pick up for $180 US or less and it posted 3dmark06 scores that were about 100 points higher than the Q9550 generated for this posting. When the E8500 are approved and are readily available, the E8400's will drop thru the floor.

I find it interesting that the pricing for the E6700 is running at or above the pricing for the E8400. I can't explain why this is....

BTW, got my Laptop back for repairs to defective [m/b] upgrades. I have a Super Talent 120gb SSD to drop in as Drive1. I will post some test numbers.

Specs are: D901C with E8400, 4gb OCZ PC2-6400, 8800 SLI, Drive1 120gb SSD, Drive2 and Drive3 160gb Seagate SATA2's, WUXGA 1920x1200 LCD, Lexar 16gb Expresscard SSD Drive, Windows XP Home w/SP3, Zalman2000 and (3) Evercool Fans.

 

@ARGH ,hmm, so the D901C gets scorching hot you say?
Funny,everyone's temps indicate a good cooling sollution

 

temps are good. i am talking about the plastic chasis right above the f1-f6 keys can get scorching hot because the gpu's are right underneath them.

i want to add that running max fans does help alot with cooling everything down.

 

Oh yea, +1 for max fan speed function
Although I don't need it, max temps never exceed 65C , whenever is hotter outside, I kick em in full grind and keep thing coolio.

 

Wow congrats on the new rig. I have a 9750 also and it's pretty much and was looking at the 9262 as well. Seems like it's beating every laptop out there

 

Congrats on your new system. I have played Assassin's Creed with dx10 enable @1920x1200 with no problems at all. Good luck with her, may she serve you well for many years.