PCMicroworks and the Blackhawk XR-5

Lately it seems there has been some strife regarding the way PCMW has handled the XR-5 with the 8800GTX mobile. They have received some mixed reviews, unfortunately a lot of it negative. My experience with them relative to my XR-5 has also been handled with mixed success, but I would like to objectively present it to those of you who are still waiting to hear what's going on with systems you may have ordered as long as two months ago. That being said, I am not trying to create an argument, and if you'd like to bash PCMW, please don't clutter my well-intentioned thread with it. My goal is only to provide some info to those who may not yet know the status of their system.

I ordered my XR-5 on Nov. 20th, 2007 with the following specs:

E6750 2.66ghz Core 2 Duo
2gb 800mhz performance RAM
8800M GTX 512MB Single, not SLI
100gb SATA-150 7,200RPM drive
no extras

Upon ordering, I was told that nVidia had promised the first shipment of 8800GTX chips by Christmas at the latest, and that I would either have my system just in time for Christmas or shortly after. Well we all know that nVidia did not deliver and that PCMW received their first shipment of the cards around a week and a half ago. So over the last two weeks the updated shipping times became pushed back by a few factors. First, the supply of batteries they had was not sufficient to meet the number of orders they lined up. I don't have any knowledge as to whether this was under their control, but they are currently working to get this taken care of. The second, which was not under their control, was the number of cards they received. The first shipment of 8800GTX 512mb cards to come from nVidia was only 20. They have slightly over 200 orders to fill.

Moving back to my order, I was promised earlier this week that my order would definitely ship out by today. Unfortunately, during the burn-in process, the hard drive in the system reported an error. Rather irate at this point, I explained to a customer service representative that I had been told for nearly two months that my order would ship in just a few days, only to have it delayed repeatedly. I also explained that as my system was ordered on my father's credit card, I would have him get in touch with them to resolve the issue, and hung up the phone. About 20 minutes later, the manager called me, personally apologized for the delay, and offered a few upgrades free of charge. I won't disclose what those were because I know there are people here who will start causing problems with PCMW just to get free upgrades. Shame on you if you are one of those people. The important thing here is that PCMW as a company is doing the best they can with the resources they currently have to get these systems shipped out. Unfortunately, they are not a gigantic corporation like Dell, HP, or Sony that can put serious pressure on nVidia to work faster. That is something that takes a lot of time and money, and quite frankly could put an honest company out of business if it doesn't work out in their favor. They are getting through their order list as fast as they can, and they are delaying any systems that don't pass any single part of the burn-in testing, rather than just replacing a faulty part and not testing the new one. Hopefully this will translate to customers who are equally or even more satisfied than those who have purchased from any of the other resellers.

In terms of actual satisfaction with my laptop, I'll be posting as soon as it arrives and I can get it set up. Hopefully this information will be new to some of you and will ease any worries if you feel you've been left in limbo. Also please not that I am not in any way affiliated with PCMW, and they sure aren't paying me to write this. I won't answer any questing regarding when I think your order is going to ship, because I don't know. They have 200+ orders to fill for this specific model, and I have no information regarding whether they have received enough components or when they will receive all of them.

 

Thank you for the information. Good writing! Really nice to read

..and now to those free upgrades. Was it extra RAM? Come on, tell us.. I'm going to call them now and demand more RAM for free. I think they might be responisible for the cold I've got. All this waiting could have caused it. More RAM to meee!!

 

I am ok with waiting. I will trade time for quality. Of course, I can't even put my hands on my system until Mid-Feb. As long as my computer is at my house in time for me to do my game installs, patch downloads and little tweaks, I will be patient.

I really want to go back to Iraq with both my video cards, hitting 15K+ on 3DMark06 and playing Crysis on max.

 

Well written. I am in the same boat as well unfortunately.

Well, lets hope they are able to resolve the issue and fulfill those orders the people have paid hard cold cash (not inc' credit cards) for their machines first if relevant and in sync with first orders placed deal.

Fingers crossed Glad to see they are concentrating on a quality delivered product rahter than getting them out as fast as they can.

They said mine was on the line, and would ship by Friday just been, or this Monday at the latest. I'm 12 hours ahead currently, so I'll have to call on Monday night and seee what the E.T.A is....

-Coors916

 

I don't know if they are fulfilling cash orders first. Ideally, the orders should be shipped in the order in which they were received. If you paid cash, you already got a discount. Either way, they're working as fast as I can. Their phone system gives you a message saying they don't have any weekend hours, but I get the impression that they're working this weekend because I was told my order will probably ship out today (Saturday). This waiting is killing me!!!

 

Great info, cant wait for my system, hope it ships on Mon/Tue as they promised..

 

I got email saying sent out at 5 pm today saturday ill try review Ordered 1 - 3 days before Black Friday
Arrive probably monday January 21st

http://collegeconnectonline.com/viewtopic.php?f=205&t=13

 

I just got home, checked my e-mail, and I see that my package shipped out on the 19th. Unfortunately, FedEx tracking is down right now, but they overnighted it. I'll be updating again either Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

 

u can check it on iship.com

 

That's exciting!

 

Yeah me too!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited, it is finally on its way. Should recieve no later then the 23rd hopefully, so fingers crossed it arrives at the right address (UAE) and in good order.

Then i can install Vista Ultimate. 32 bit or 64 bit that is the question...?

 

You have to install 64 bit to use all 4 gigs of ram, don't you?

Edit: Answering my own question. You can have 4 gigs of ram in 32 bit vista, but part of that 4gb limit is allocated to virtual memory and buffers of various types, so you're only using a portion of your physical RAM. Here's an explanation: http://www.vistaclues.com/reader-question-maximum-memory-in-32-bit-windows-vista/

 

Yes, you have to have Windows x64 to use all the RAM.

 

I found this random info, thought it might be of use:

"One of the core differences between 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista is of course how much system memory the two variants of Microsoft's latest operating systems can use. You have to understand that Microsoft alone limited 32-bit Vista to a maximum of 4 GB of RAM while taking the high-end editions of 64-bit Vista up to 128 GB of RAM." - http://news.softpedia.com/news/32-bit-Windows-Vista-vs-64-bit-Windows-Vista-64312.shtml

-Coors916

 

I would just say that it was not fair of them to put advertise for pre-orders in November and claim they would deliver before Christmas unless they were certain that that was the case. They pulled in a lot of preorders this way and have in fact delivered later than other resellers

 

Right, but that was also based on the information nVidia gave them. My issue was with the fact that they delayed my order to get others out the door sooner, even though they told me I was in the first group of pre-order customers. Then they told my dad it would be guaranteed to ship Friday and it didn't. The deal with missing the Christmas deadline was out of their hands.

 

Although, it does say something, if they are willing to blindly allow preorders without having all the information in hand, knowing that if there is a delay, they can just pass it off as someone else's fault. I don't know if this is the best way to take care of customers.

So, according to your OP, they didn't know how many cards they were getting, they did not know how many batteries and they did not account for enough time to test systems, but they still took 200+ pre-orders. yikes, less than 10% orders filled.

They did not even acknowledge the fact that SLI 'may not' be working at the time and when asked about it, just kept saying that they still plan to ship, even after all the information was out about the SLI delay. ( according to the other posts on this board, as I do not have first-hand experience with this company )

I admire a company that will deliver a solid product and give the customer support that is necessary for a good experience. I have nothing against PCMicroworks and have no personal reason for being against them, only what I have read on this forum.

However, in the end, it just seems like it wasn't about the customer, it was a "Let's put out a pre-order promotion first so that more people will buy from us before others have it available" kind of deal.

Fulfilling cash orders before CC orders? For every cash customer they bump to the front, you get a happy customer and a whole bunch of less happy customers. Imagine if they did that at restaurants to people waiting for food.

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2VfdxwCo1bo

 

Nice! It was a little hard to see the computer though. Can't you film it again It's really nice to see a video insted of photos. You get a much better impression of the computer on video..

 

go my website http://collegeconnectonline.com/viewtopic.php?f=205&t=13

 

Well I got my laptop this morning. It's amazing. Unfortunately the aluminum case they sent with it is not great quality. It had a broken foot which must have happened during shipping, and there's really no useful padding inside the case. I'll be using my big Targus case which is perfect for this sort of thing. The Notepal laptop cooler they sent with it seems to do a good job of keeping the system cool, and it keeps the system at a comfortable eye-level, avoiding neck strain. I have Vista 32-bit installed now but will install 64-bit once I get back to my apartment (brought the wrong disc home). A quick test of UT3 and Bioshock gives wonderfully high frame rates on the highest detail settings at 1900x1200. I'll try Crysis once I get Vista 64-bit installed. The build quality of the laptop itself is top-notch and it seems to run with very little fan noise, even while gaming. For some reason, the dvd drive vibrated very violently during the UT3 install, but not when I installed Vista or any of the device drivers. I must have an unbalanced disc. More updates to follow once I get the right OS installed.

 

Did u bypass the raid install for windos when u try install windows?
I got a windows cannot detect my hard drive error I bought the laptop no OS.
and I believe its cause the sata drives and I cant install them because have no floppy

 

Yes I skipped the raid install because I only have one drive. I've never built a raid setup so unfortunately I have no clue how to help you.

 

Hey autobot.

Are you trying to install vista? Vista 32 or 64 bit didn't require an external floppy.

XP you will need a External floppy, hit F6 once windows goes into that blue install screen, you'll see the promp on the bottom, otherwise, XP wont recognize your raid array. I had 4 different options in terms of what drivers I could load, I picked the first one which was some desktop Raid driver.

Oh, to create the raid floppy disk, you go to another computer with the driver dvd they gave you, and create the disk. You'll need to plug up the Floppy before powering it on or else it wont recognize (Weird, I know). Also, certain brands don't work. I think Sony and NEC don't work. Not 100% positive on that.

Hope that helps

 

Looked at my email to day and found out that my Laptop has already shipped, wow, PC Microworks said they'd be 5-10 days, and they were [-EDIT- 5 business days cos my order was placed last monday, and shipped this monday].

To me as a new customer, who only started checking the forums and rep AFTER i purchased...to the moaners, you were wrong, to those who stood up for PC MW you were right.

 

Good.

I'm glad you got your Laptop so soon. Did you order an XR5 btw?

 

yah i know about that was hoping easier way then floppy cause i dont got floppy ill probably try slipstream

 

Yes i did, in fact your same spec but with 200GB raid 0 instead of 400 as the only difference

 

I am curious what everyone with the XR5 is getting for Windows Vista ratings. Mine is 5.4 because of my HDD score. Not being in raid I guess is why. Also, my GPU for gaming and production score is 5.8 and I think it should be 5.9. and my memory timings score is 5.6.

Wish these were higher is all.

 

i got it vista dont require it so ill just install x64 vista

 

o nice they gave me free 400 gig raid 0 i ordered 200 gig and free 2 gig of ram when i ordered 2 gig so i got 4 gig ram and 400 gig hard drive sweet

 

you mean 2x200 gig in raid 0 right?

Yeah they gave me an extra 200 gig drive also, for a total of 3 x 200gig

 

im happy with this laptop atm works great and does not overheat (yet) its maybe in between cool and warm

 

yah i ordered 2048 of ram they gabve me 4096 and i ordered 2x 100 gb sata 150 raid 0 they gave me 2 x 200 Guess im pretty lucky or they wanted remburse me for 2 monthes of waiting :O total cost 3,537.64 with tax and everything o yah i got 100 bucks off the diamond plan cause i called in on black friday too $249.00 for 3 yr warrentee :O

 

sweet got vista up and running will try do some video test

 

Hi !

I am a bit angry with PCMW, because I've just read that someone who ordered a XR5 last monday said his XR5 has already been shipped...I have ordered november 21st and mine hasn't yet been shipped !!!
So how are they managing their orders ?? I'm asking the question

Second when you email them they never answer, you always have to send it two or three before they answer....it's quite annoying...

Regards,

 

hmm they always answered my emails i ordered mine before urs and got mine few days ago with extra upgrades i didnt expect :O

 

im getting around 30c idle 60 full load

 

What was the wieght of your package they shipped btw? Mine is 25 lbs, siting in UAE customs waiting for me to pick it up, so I am curious to see why it weighs so much, considering the notebook is 10 lbs approx (I have 3 200gb drives in raid 5 as well = addtl weight)

-Coors916

 

Well add in the Case, Power supply...

 

Yeah true. But does the case weigh that much? And as for the power supply, I've heard it is huge, and about the same wieght as my current laptop alone

-Coors916

 

well if u go my website u can see what comes with www.collegeconnectonline.com under reviews you'll see the laptop the case which is pretty nice alittle heavy i got extra bag with a aluminum laptop cooler and battery is pretty damn big. Also I posted 3 videos on youtube of me unpacking it link is somewhere on my webpage. :O
I finaly got windows installed and nod32 and eerything gonna try see how well it will run on crysis and keep you guys updated :O

 

My case loaded with software, a few papers, the computer, mouse and power supply weights about 23 lbs according to my scale at home. It comes with a shoulder strap option too.

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2VfdxwCo1bo Video 1
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ilqLYekKZPM Video 2
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0brdehmULmU video 3

 

Oh yeah, I forgot that with the Diamond Blanket 3 year protection plan about the notebook cooler, so that it is probably where some of the weight is being attributed. Now I got to go to customs to pay duty on the import.

So should be in my hands by Friday although it is already here.

Thanks Crazy Habib & Autobot for the info.

Btw, Autobot, watched those videos last night, looked great. I'm gonna do some high def videoing of it starting up, me unpacking it, and doing some bench marks too. Case etc.. looked cool man, thanks for posting those up.

-Coors916

 

need any picture request just ask ill take it for you :O

 

Thanks dude!!!

-Coors916

 

I wanted to do benchmark with 3dmark but they dont any support dx10

 

fed ex weighed in my package at 36.4lbs

 

Doesnt matter can still do benchmark.