The Hunt for a New Notebook

Hello all, I just joined the forum after being entertained extensively by the quality of the posts here! I hope I can contribute to that.

Anyways, I am in the market for a new laptop for gaming and other general needs. I've been looking mainly at rebranded Clevos, particularly Sager and the NP 8690, 8760, and 9280 all at Xotic Pc whom I've been hearing many great things about. I'm looking to spend around 2k. This will be used at a university so portability, while not a necessity, is appreciated. Basically, I'm ruling out 18+".

I've been reading a lot about the 8760 lately and I'm now leaning towards that. If anyone could share any opinions regarding this notebook or the others I've listed it would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

 

I as well as several others here would give the 8760 a 'big thumbs up'! For a 8lb notebook it is very capable, fast, a great gaming rig, and very easy to upgrade for the consumer. The LED LCD is beautiful as well. Great choice!

 

Excellent! I actually just spent a good hour or so reading through the "Official Owners Lounge" thread for that notebook here and definitely saw that consensus.
My only reservation to it is that the NP9280 can be had for a few hundred more and features the all more powerful desktop i7. If its motherboard could handle the ATI 5870 I'd be all over it...

Any thoughts on how the i7 840qm handles in the real world?

Benchmark-wise I'm sure the desktop i7 soars above it, but most of the games today don't really optimize 4 cores if I'm not mistaken; so would the mobile i7's, like the 840qm, have more of a fighting chance against them when turbo boost is taken into account?

Ahhh I've been going mad jumping around as to which I'm purchasing, reading so many articles, threads, etc. I'm ready to just make a decision and stick with it! Haha

 

As you will read repeatedly, the 8760/W870CU is a great notebook, but it is a desktop replacement unit, with all the benefits and limitations the label implies. Properly equipped, and the i7-840QM is a fine foundation, it is a marvelous platform for gaming or nearly any other use. However, portability is restricted by its size and limited battery life. This notebook is meant to be plugged in, and it is not happy on battery power. With those qualifications, I would recommend it very highly.

 

The Revelator brings up a good point; as long as you're not planning on carrying it with you all the time with portability being the most important factor to you, the W870CU has a fantastic amount of power packed into it. The W880CU is also something to look into, as it has the GTX 480M graphics option.

 

Personally, I am holding-out for a refresh to the 8760 model that was released in late September 2009.

I hope that additional improvements (we can dream right?) are made:

• Replace the Sentilic touchpads (tap-to-scroll) with the Synaptics touchpads to allow finger-slide scrolling.
• Replace all USB 2.0 ports with USB 3.0 ports rather than just offer one USB 3.0 port since USB 3.0 is backwards compatible to 2.0 & 1.0 USB.
• Redesign rear view of the laptop to remove the rear cover panel/door.
• Quieter cooling fans.
• 1920x1200 RGB LED screen.
• Integrated graphics and switchable graphics to extend usage when on battery.
• Adjustable backlit keyboard.
• IEEE 1394b port FireWire 800
• Improved speaker clarity.

 

Let me add to that: a bigger battery and an insignificant price change.

 

Agreed. Bigger and/or longer lasting batteries without the battery "hump" as found on extended batteries.

 

i'll say the 8760 is awesome, and imo is fairly portable, not a good machine for going to class etc, but its easy to toss in a bag and head out.

 

I'm starting to see that the 8760 is fairly large.

If the 8760 and the 9280 are around the same size and get about the same battery life would the 9280 be the obvious choice because it's a better performer?

 

The 9280 is about 4 pounds heavier plus the power brick compared to the 8760...

Also the 9280 does not offer the 5870 so you either get the 285m or the 480m add $500.00

The 8760 is a great choice for price/power/portability...

 

Right, and the 480m is too expensive for me to ever justify buying it when the 5870 exists with around the same performance.

I like the idea of having desktop i7 performance in a laptop but I have some qualms about the size of that 9280.

It's definitely a trade-off and I feel like I'm headed towards the 8760.

 

If you are concerned about size at all then stay away from the 9280 since battery life is not good on either model but toting that extra large brick on top of the huge machine is not going to be much fun if you have to do it all the time...

The brick for the 8760 is rather tiny and more manageable...

 

EDIT: Ops. Did not see the newer posts which cover my respones.

I believe that the 9280/85 will be discontinue soon. You might want to wait for the replacement model if you want a desktop processor in a laptop.

8760 is smaller, lighter and uses moble processors (better on battery) than the 9280/85.

8760:
CLEVO - Products

9280/85:
CLEVO - Products

 

Ok cool, thanks for your advice guys.

 

the 9280 is huge in comparison. the 8760 with power brick is pretty manageable, alltho i wouldn't take it to class.

 

Why would you not take the 8760 to class?

 

Allthough I have a D900F myself, I would not advice you to get one, unless you have a specific need for the superior processing power it has.
If you're a "normal" user and/or gamer, the W860, W870 or W880 would be a better choice.

 

Its to big to lug around to class, it has horrid battery life, its not a go to class PC, no gaming notebooks are besides the alienware mx11.