Update on Radeon 7970m (Sager/Resellers)

However, it did not. I have not had a similar experience with Nvidia as long as I have dealt with them.

I am certain that I would blame them if it cracked before ever having been received, instigating an investigation into their manufacturing processes that left a hole in my wall where my previous window had been for 2 months.

 

Wow you never heard of bumpgate did you?

You know that caused a massive lawsuit and tens of thousands of chip failures?

That was Nvidia's fault as it was the soldering of the chip to the package that was to blame.

Let me put it this way.

If you ordered a car, and in that car the housing that mounted the engine had a flaw so your car got delayed, you would blame the manufacturer of the engine, rather than the car?

 

I suppose we shall have to differ on this point. I would indeed "blame" the manufacturer, but the fact that the brand of car you bought relies on such shoddy manufacturers must give you pause when considering the overall reliability of the product.

*Edit: I have no reason not to believe that Nvidia has had similar problems in the past. However, my admittedly anecdotal experiences with them have been nothing but positive. As a penniless graduate student, however, I am not disposed to spend the premium for an Nvidia GPU.

 

Ok but none of that goes to the engine manufacturer.

The idea they would have to vet every product from every company they sold to is ludicrous.

Also they never shipped a bad product, it was caught in testing and resolved. These things happen in tech.

At least unlike Nvidia they decided not to just keep shipping it and decide what would happen next in court.

 

I am not sure what this statement means.

If you mean they would have to vet all of the components that they purchase to include in their cars/computers/whatever, I do think that is a necessary step in delivering a quality product. Perhaps I am more old-fashioned, but I expect a car manufacturer, for example, to stand behind both the whole product and the individual components.

Agreed. I made mention of this earlier.

Yes, they happen with all manner of businesses. That does not endear potential customers to those companies, however. The car situation is a good example because, when I was shopping for a car to lease for grad school, I was trying to choose between a Subaru Legacy and a Nissan Altima. On the day that I was going to lease the Legacy, they noticed an engine component was off-kilter and returned it for service.
I could have lauded their QA efforts and waited for the service to be completed. However, it raised red flags that the product may have been prone to such small errancies. I apologize if I am not making the logic clear.

I perceive that you have had bad experiences with Nvidia in the past. How recent is their track record of loose soldering?

 

Clevo - car manufacturer.
AMD - Engine manufacturer.
Other company - Engine housing.

Blame sager/clevo if you like, but not AMD.

 

I am not in the business of blame. I am simply stating that there is a hierarchical ordering of responsibility in which members higher up in a chain of assembly are all complicit in the goal of delivering a functioning end product. I would indeed question an engine's reliability if a component failed before delivery, even though the engine manufacturer points a finger at their supplier. Who is to say their other component suppliers are not equally suspect? I fear that I am appearing recalcitrant by belaboring the matter, so will abrogate further explanation of my position.

 

EVERYONE involved has said that AMD's GPUs have performed PERFECTLY to specifications and they have no blame in this.

I am going to stop beating my head against your wall of wilful ignorance now.

 

Can't we all just get along? ;_;

 

I am sorry if I offended you in some way. That was not my intention.

 

If you take out the AMD chips and put it on an alienware, it will work 100% fine... it wasn't AMD's fault. AMD chips on clevo/sager had a 20% failure rate and the problem is now identified and fixed by clevo.

 

I watched Mars Attacks! last night lol

 

Doesn't really matter who is to blame... there are no winners in this, AMD and Clevo/sager look bad coz their stuff has failed/been delayed, and dodgy yumcha factory hopefully gets a BIIIIG letter of demand for all losses.

 

I know w/ my laptop that is now dead (bad motherboard), I went through 2 bad video cards on it by Nvidia, the 8400m. They are no saints either

 

Had a similar thing myself. I find it annoying when people think that nVidia is somehow worth spending more money on based on a false notion of better quality. A company that will happily sell a product they know to be faulty isn't a good quality company.

 

I guess people forget what happened a few years back when nvidia released a bad batch of drivers and fried thousands of graphic cards including mine on my desktop. As a computer technician i don't have any favorite brands. I always go for whatever is best at the specific time. There are times when nvidia is ahead and times when ATI is ahead. The same goes for Intel and AMD or chipsets. Right now ATI and nvidia are pretty much even so the only factor is the price and clearly ATI is the winner.

 

+1. I don't have a favorite either way. I have a 280m now and haven't had any problems. It was the best at the time I bought it. The next laptop is a 7970m because Physx and Cuda don't matter much to me, so I can't justify a 680m for $300 extra unless a huge performance difference existed, and it doesn't.

 

IMO, that sentence identifies the problem that faced Clevo with that second batch of 7970m cards. At 20% initial failure rate (IIRC), they, hoping the cards would not die after leaving their facilities, could have shipped the supposedly functional (80%) cards to consumers and crossed their fingers. Customers receiving their laptops "on time" = happy customers.

At first.

So, yes, this waiting is awful and frustrating and other synonyms for "it sucks," but I am thankful that these manufacturers, for selfish or unselfish (Hey! It could happen! Right? Right? Maybe not.) reasons, decided not to ship them.

Still sucks, though.

 

Do we know what's typical for what sort of quality control Clevo does? They might just test the components that will for sure be in every chassis (i.e. motherboard, screen, fans, etc.) and let Sager test the changeable components (i.e. cpu, gpu, etc.). I'm just wondering because I don't know who actually does what quality control testing.

 

Good question. Someone mentioned earlier that the faulty cards might not have reached Sager, so I assumed they stopped at Clevo. I would be interested in knowing as well.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...2-official-sager-news-thread.html#post8564613

 

Since it is still very early on the West Coast we will not know a update on arrival until later today. We have been confirmed they are in route from China.

 

That is awesome news.

BTW when did Xotic start carrying Alienware or did I just miss this.

 

We just started..

 

So if someone ordered on 5/18, can they expect their laptop soon?

 

PCS have said their cards are currently going through UK customs, so they expect delivery later today/tomorrow (That should mean they can put the cards into laptops tomorrow and begin deliveries to customers)

 

I can't wait. If they do get here today I am hoping for my laptop by early next week.

I just noticed this as well. Along with crucial M4 SSD's for sager models and the standard matte screen upgrade for the NP9170em which was not available when I ordered 2 weeks ago. Nice job on keeping your products current Xotic.

 

So is it still possible Xoticpc will get the 7970s today?

 

I think I'm going to call Sager and explain to them that today is my birthday and I would appreciate it if they would send out my laptop today. That will work right?

 

Don't ruin your birthday by bickering with Sager customer service reps!

 

It is highly likely they may arrive today. As of Friday they were in transit from China.

Happy Birthday btw! Unfortunately it would not work...

 

Woot! And for those of us in the 2nd batch, how long can we expect before it ships to us? We are priority right ?

 

For starters...many that ordered in the 2nd and 3rd week in May are scheduled to ship sometime this week...

-

 

nice to hear this, does that mean people ordered before the 2nd week will definitely get it ship this week?

 

From what we are hearing, you should be in the first batch that would ship.

Of course please check with your dealer or reseller.

_

 

I wonder how I'm affected. I ordered APRIL 24th (many moons ago), but didn't pay until Xoticpc informed me they received the cards, paid MAY 18th. I feel like I've been waiting forever lol

Edit: They also miscalculated what I was supposed to pay, and I had to charge the rest on my CC on MAY 22nd. I really hope that mess didn't put me in the back of the line.

 

Finally...my order that started over a month ago (May 2) is finally coming to an end. Thanks for the updates guys.

 

So now I have to ask when the NEXT batch is expected in since I am guessing that some of us who ordered last week or so may not make the cut in the batch due in today?

 

I think we need to find out first if this shipment even clears the orders from apr/may.

Not sure if this has been explained before but does Sager let the resellers know where their orders stand? Maybe their allocation from a given shipment.

Just checked Sager and all 1080p screens for the 9150 are backordered with a eta of 6/13. 9130 still shows 1080p instock.

 

Does that affect everyone waiting from 2nd batch? Or just new orders?

 

Anyone from Mythlogic wish to chime in on the status of their 7970s? Sounds like Xotic and LPC are looking promising.

 

Everyone is gonna be happy the 7970m comes in but half the laptops aren't going to ship because the Killer network card is on back order now.

 

*sigh* Whyyyyyy

 

Ordered may 2nd, payment received may 16th, changed order from 9150 to 9170 June 2nd, still phase 1

 

lmao, good thing i got the stock wifi card, i can always upgrade it later if i get problems connecting to my campus wifi.

i've been waiting since may 15th and my order was confirmed to be in the second batch. two more weeks max until i finally get my hands on it lol

 

here is the anoucement we got from Sager about the bigfoot killer.
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Please temporally remove the Killer 1103 wireless card from all your configuration pages, and stop accepting orders for the card.

At this time bigfoot networks is unable to provide us with a firm ETA of when the next shipment will come in, therefore we are unable to take additional orders of this card atm.


This is what I got from my reseller. And from what I gather about this they will fulfill all orders made before they were back ordered. Cause they aren't taking additional orders. Maybe ease some people.

 

most likely due to the 1202 that's going to release soon

 

This still concerns me. If we made an order with Xoticpc with the bigfoot card and it supposedly went through, are we alright? If not, can we still modify our orders to an intel card so we don't have to continue this waiting game? Argh.

 

I'm more concerned for the screen. Someone said the 1080p screens for the 9150 are on backorder. What about if we are already in Phase 2? Does this affect us that have been waiting and waiting?

 

Yes I think this is definately the issue. AW has a exclusive on the 1202 until the end of June. So no cards for anyone else at least until then.

Have no idea about those who already machines with them on order.