Suggestions for configuration 8660?

Hello all

I had been waiting for some of the reviews to come in before I took the plunge in ordering a new laptop to replace my dead sager. After seeing the initial reviews i am pretty satisfied that the 8660 is the right laptop for me.

I pretty much know my configuration but I thought I would throw a few questions to the group and see what peoples thoughts were. As a note I will actually travel with this laptop every week on planes. So no matter how much babying I will do it is will gets its share of travel bumps. I also cant see traveling with a cooler or at least I travel as light as possible and carrying 2 laptops is already more then enough. So trying to look for heat efficiency and damage resistance.

P9500 - Already decided

320 GB hardrive - Should I go for the 5400 or 7200?

Robson Turbo II - Not asking if it is bang for the buck but will it hurt anything? Otherwise will get it on the theory that every little but helps.

Any thoughts on skins or painting? I like the idea of having a nice looking laptop but I am more worried about scratches and the like. My old sager got several scratches from being put in and out of my laptop bag and it had the aluminum top and it still got scratched. I was wondering if a skin might help?

Any thoughts on the 3 year warrently? My last sager died just a few months after the 2 year mark so was thinking of getting the 3 year especially with traveling 52 weeks a year with a laptop.

I appreciate your opinions

 

Hopefully you don't mind the added weight since you travel a lot.

go for the 5400 rpm because it is cooler, and should be fast enough for everything.

I still don't think Robson Turbo II is ready yet, maybe give it a few month to see how they run on others' laptops.

I heard the Sager resellers especially XoticPC gives really good painting, though I am not sure if you really need them or want them.

I would say get the 3 year warrenty since you will be traveling a lot, though if you can replace parts yourself one year warrenty is sufficient, you will just have to pay for parts after the first year.

 

You forgot to mention the $13.00 Ebay notebook cooler.

 

I agree with youdontneedtoknow. I would go with the 5400 drive to save a few bucks over the 7200 unless you are a performance nut. The difference in performance though is hardly noticable under normal circumstances.

The turbo memory, most people who have it report no noticable increases in performance what so ever. I credit this mostly to it being a new option and mostly likely not being properly implemented. Time will tell. Save your money.

Paint jobs and skins. All personal choice man. I have stickers I save up from motocycle stuff and music bands. I slowly mod the look of my lappies over time, covering up scratches with stickers as needed. So far my 9262 is still clean.....for now.

 

Ya and don't get 13 dollars cooler from ebay!

 

I don't understand why people that read this forum so often continue to dish out poor advice regarding Turbo Memory 2.0. Do a search for some of Paladin's posts on the subject. In short, performance is expected to be much improved. "Pinning" will allow you to specify (within a dashboard) which programs/files will utilize the memory; this will essentially allow it to act as a pseudo SSD for specified programs.

For less than 100 dollars when you're already spending at least $2K, you will likely see dramatic (or at least noticeable) improvements in application load times/responsiveness.

Edit: Even if the drivers aren't ready yet (though they are already available), they will be soon enough to warrant including it in the purchase. It can only help.

Go for the Turbo Memory.

 

This is why I said it was most likely not properly implemented. In other words, the people who have it were not using it properly if it all, expecting it to be used automatically by Vista and make things faster.

 

do u think going for the slower 2.4gig processor with only 3mb L2 will be a big issue for me.?

i mainly will use it for gaming.. but 3dsmax maya Zbrush and photoshop will be used as well.

I plan on upgrading to a quadcore mobile in a year or so thou... and they have 12mb of L2cach so i thought i would save the money now on a cheaper duelcore.

 

how much ram will you be getting Talosm.
it has been reported that if you are getting 4gb ram then the turbo memory doesnt do a lot.

 

Of course the Cache will definitely help in Maya. However, as you said, you would upgrade to a quadcore mobile next year so....Honestly, I'd say go with the 2.4 for now. It should not disappoint. The dual core architecture by itself is amazing enough to handle whatever you'd like to do in those programs anyway.

 

It has also been reported that the Turbo Memory 2 is an overall different beast and may very well be the best thing to have if you have certain programs you open up a lot in a multitasking environment. For example the Office Suite or the Creative Suite.

 

I will be going with 4gig Ram and the Vista 64.

Any thoughts on the skins or paint scratching?

 

Talosm...i'm gettin my NP8660 skined as we speak...

Hopefully i will have it by Labor Day Weekend or early the following week and i can tell ya what i think...

BTW i thought that the quads produced to much heat and it would overheat the system...this still true?

 

anyone think that turbo memory may be the answer to our M860tu's hot hard drive area?
Perhaps if used correctly, turbo memory will cause the hard drive to not be used that often.

 

Just use stickers! Totally personalized customization! BTW, that is not my laptop.....