black-hawk xr5 From PC Microworks

Well I think I want to pre-order the black-hawk xr5, since they are offering a free upgrade from 7950 to 8800m gtx, and I am afraid that if I wait till Dec. 6th to see what xotic will offer, the deal will be over, and everyone will be charging a premium for the upgrade.

I am curious about the black-hawk xr5, and I cant find any photos of the machine, other than the front view they have on their site. It seems that they have made a few changes to the exterior of the D901c, like paint, and carbon fiber top.

Also, how is pc microworks rated? Has anyone had major problems with them? Do they generally ship on time?
I live in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, and I will going back to Oregon around christmas, to hopefully pick up the machine. This just means that if they push back there shipping from what they have stated, mid-late December, and it doesn't get there, say, before Jan. 10th, I would be kinda screwed.

 

I think if you bought from Sager, Exotic PC or Eurocom you will get a much better deal.

 

I agree with Wierd Al I have look at there website black-hawk xr5 I think that you will get a much better deal if you buy it from xotic pc which I did and I have saved a lot of money. My current configuration with sat shipping cost me 3444 at XOTIC PC. I am also waiting till December 6th to per-order the NVIDIA 8800M GTX from XOTIC PC can't wait for that

 

Well Eurocom is way too expensive for the same machine.

same settings on all, except gpu's.

WUXGA
Q6700
4096mb 800mhz ram
2x160gb sata300 7200rpm HDD's
8x dual layer dvd-rw
SLI 8800m gtx's on PCMW and Eurocom.
SLI 7950gtx's on Xotic
802.11AGN 300mbps Wireless Adapter
Vista Buisness 64bit

PCMW is $4209 usd

Eurocom is $5558 usd

Exotic is $3909.00 usd, but who knows if they will offer the free upgrade to 8800gtx like PCMW.

I kinda doubt it though, with dealers like Eurocom charging the added $952 over a single 7950gtx. They even make you add things others include on base, like webcam, the 802.11AGN wireless card, and Bluetooth. Eurocom also charges $274 for Windows Vista Buisness, while Xotic charges $127 and PCMW charges $135.

 

Don't let any of the resellers fool you. When it comes to parts/warranty they will fall back to clevo. Go with whomever is cheaper, or whomever offers you the best deal for the parts you are looking for. That's IMHO.

And please don't bash on any reseller. They are a business and are out to make money plain and simple. Some are better than others but for the most part they are all the same. No mater what hype they throw out. Go with the cheapest. It's your best option.

 

agree with you all that why you should shop at XOTIC PC and they have super support when you need help and they also have the best price for there system

 

I wanted to ask the same thing. The PCMicroWorks xr5 seems like a good deal considering preorders get the free aluminum briefcase and all. Currently XoticPC sells their 901c with equivalent specs but with dual 7950 gtx at only 200 USD cheaper. Unless they offer the same upgrade as PCMicroWorks when they begin taking preorders on the 88 GTX, I think Xotic PC will end up either the same price or more expensive.

The PCMicroWorks xr5 mentions a carbon fiber LCD panel and black gloss auto paint. Is this standard on all D901C's or is PCMicroWorks changed a bit?

 

I waited and Used xoticpc from the 9260 to the 9261 and am very happy i did and i did save money

if u have to wait till pcmicro or xotic get the 8800's i saved money with xotic but i never heard any bad things about pcmicros. it is a hard choice. it was just price and the great reviews they got here that made me wiat for them.
i think either one u choose you will be happy. you will get an awesome beast no matter where you get it from
Good luck on ur decision

 

I bought from PC MicroWorks based on some reviews and on their resellerratings.com standing. They were rated better than Sager, Xotic, and Alienware, the three other companies I was looking at. Granted they have a lower number of total reviews, but all the reviews were very positive.

 

I also bought from PCMicroworks based on their price and what few reviews I could find. Shipping was delayed by 7 or 8 days. About 2 days after the expected ship date, I called and was told there were problems getting the gpu's and they were expecting some the next day. My system would be completed by Friday, tested and shipped Monday with upgraded free overnight air. I had it by 10:30am Tuesday. They had also upgraded several of my components and threw in some much appreciated accessories. They more than made up for the delay in shipping. It's run perfectly ever since.
I couldn't be happier with the machine or their customer service, (unless it contained the 8800gtx gpu's)


Blackhawk Quad
Intel® Core™2 Quad Q6700
2048 MB Ultra Speed DDR2 800MHz
400GB RAID 0 (2x 200GB 7200rpm SATA 300)
8X High Speed Dual Layer +/- DVD-RW Drive
SLI Dual nVIDIA Geforce GO 8700m GT

 

-Atomiccow- The carbon fiber is not standard and are only sold at Pc microworks. Otherwise it's a brushed aluminium top. If you order from Xoticpc you can get the thing painted anyway you want to..

 

Well I have almost 700 posts, do I count? PcMicro is reputable. I would not hesitate to buy from them again.

 

700.. hmm.. well, ok then

Thank you!

 

I felt the same way about ordering from PCMicroworks as you, but was very happy with the price. I couldn't find anything negative online, and even searched the BBB. When my order passed the shipping date I started to get a little worried and called their customer support line. Got through immediatly to a person that answered all my questions. Two emails I'd sent were also answered within a few hours, one was on a Saturday. The 1st one I wanted to add a EVDO adaptor. They said no problem, but suggested I check with the providers first as I could get a better deal from them. I got the adaptor free from Sprint.
I would definitly buy from them again, as long as their price is competitive.


Blackhawk Quad
Intel® Core™2 Quad Q6700
2048 MB Ultra Speed DDR2 800MHz
400GB RAID 0 (2x 200GB 7200rpm SATA 300)
8X High Speed Dual Layer +/- DVD-RW Drive
SLI Dual nVIDIA Geforce GO 8700m GT

 

Yeah I just ordered a Blackhawk XR5 as well, specs below.

Intel® Core™2 Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz/1066MHz/8MB)
4096MB Ultra Speed DDR2 800MHz Extreme Performance Memory
400GB @ 7200RPM SATA300 Storage RAID 5 (3 x 200GB 7200RPM)
8X High Speed Dual Layer +/- DVD-RW Drive
SLI Dual nVIDIA Geforce GO 8800GTX 1GB DDR3 X-TREME GPU
17" HD WUXGA+ 1920x1200 Ultra Resolution GlassVision Wide Screen Cinema Display
8 Channel Advanced SRS WOW Surround Sound System
High Speed 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Networking Adapter
Internal High Speed V90k Dial Up Modem
Built In 802.11AGN 300mbps Ultra Speed Wireless Adapter
Integrated Advanced Bluetooth Wireless Adapter
Included GPS Location Technology Adapter
Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit + 32bit
MS Office SBE 2007

Really looking forward to getting this baby. Now just got to order a creative XFi express card, then that is the audio taken care of

 

good luck im sure u will be happy


P.S. if not send it to me lol

 

Caved in to Temptation.. Ordered .. Maxed out my Credit cards... Now the long wait begins...
--------------------------------------
Intel® Core™2 Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz/1066MHz/8MB)
4096MB High Speed DDR2 667MHz Extreme Performance Memory
320GB @ 14,400RPM SATA300 Storage RAID 0 (2 x 160GB 7200RPM)
8X High Speed Dual Layer +/- DVD-RW Drive
SLI Dual nVIDIA Geforce GO 8800GTX 1GB DDR3 X-TREME GPU
17" HD WUXGA+ 1920x1200 Ultra Resolution GlassVision Wide
Screen Cinema Display
Microsoft® Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64 Bit **NEW**

Am confused though with my choice of OS, should I go in for Dual boot? I run MAYA, 3d Studio Max.. Am hearing that dont work well with vista 64..

Please help.. Or if this is a thread somewhere else please direct me..

Thanks...

 

Heres a link that I found of compatibility issues with a variety of software (apps, games, developer tools and so on). There are 3 catagories, minor issues, medicore, and currently not supported. If you pull up this link and just search the page for the software (maya, 3d studio max) you will find they do have some issues but they look like they have easy work arounds.

http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List

I hope this helps!

 

Just for grins:
RJ (w. 7950sli) $3829
RJ (7950sli w. cpu/mem/HD... from zipzoomfly, newegg...) $3440

 

Thanks for the info Jikeel

 

No problem! I hope it helped out.

 

I have been doing some research, and found this that is of interest to fellow XR5 owners and others with the SLI 8800M GTX in their notebooks... check it out

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-8800M-GTX-SLI.6937.0.html

 

We need some Benchmarks!!! Framerates!!! Grrrrr!!!

*putting straight-jacket back on*

 

See the below link, aalso this one I just found which puts the performance of a single 8800M GTX on par and above a desktop 8800GTS 640MB card!! Information from Nvidia. No SLI performance given, but the benchmarks are impressive!!!

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/NVIDIA_GeForce_8800M_Preview/Default.aspx?page=2

 

Gmau-=The_|2ooster=-: how do you remember your name when you login

can someone post pics of Black-Hawk XR5 assuming they have different exterior than sager.

 

The XR5 comes with a custom Military Grade carbon fibre top

Check here for the design specs and some pics...

http://www.pcmicroworks.com/

http://www.pcmicroworks.com/blackhawk.htm

 

and when is that expected to ship? like after 10 months?

 

Well, it will arrive here in UAE during the 1st week iof the 7th. Problem from Nvidia not having the 2nd video card ready will mean the SLI config will come at a slightly later date.

 

Well, I recently went for the black hawk, tbh, i had been hanging out waiting for Alienware to finally release an 8800 GTX SLI, dual, but after CES 2008 passed and all that was showcased was the screen, well, i couldn't go for it, and then i stumbled across the blackhawk on a google search, it looked quite impressive, and i must say i was rather hasty in going ahead, but i was so relieved that there was an Dual SLI 8800 GTX machine actually available and in my excitement after holding out..hehe i stormed ahead

Since then I've seen the Sager specs, man if only i'd waited ;like 7hrs, then i discovered the ROCK which is based in the UK, and i was like DAMN... why didn't i wait.

I think the Black Hawk is the best, but it's also one of the more expensive ones when i finally finished my specifications, i have never dealt with them before, don't know what their aftercare service etc is, but neither have i dealt with alienware (tho my closest friend has, and i through him), nor Sager nor Rock, however I just feel there is an air of quality about PCMircroworks, even the sales team know their ****, unlike say .. DELL, but hey DELL's a much larger company, and for all i know, Microworks may have their engineers take turns at the phone.

So i compared the pricing for MY desires between Black Hawk, Sager, Rock and the Alienware currently available high end. Alienware were the only ones not doing the 8800 GTX, and Rock wasn't offering SLI Dual 8800 but they probably would later haven't called them up yet. My Black Hawk was CHEAPER than the Alienware, would arrive sooner AND had much better specs in almost every department from CPU, to RAM, SCREEN & GRAPHICS, the rest of the accessories were pretty much the same except blackhawk has options for some cool like EV-DO and GPS, but EV-DO is HSDPA, but in the UK vodafone offer HSUPA which goes up to 7.2, so i can give that a miss, but in the US it's still one of the best, and there are the other gadgets.

Do note that prices at different ranges would change, for e.g. I think for a lower spec machine Blackhawks offer quite good value for money, but at my end it seems to me that the Sager was the cheaper deal by some distance.

To be honest, the Black Hawk is offering a HD Screen, now this is something non of the others are offering unless Rock's Hi-res is another way of saying HD, but i don't think it is. And Sager only offering normal 1920 rez screen. Although Sager for my spec was the cheapest, followed by ROCK then BlackHawk, certain unique features are available for blackhawk that you get nowhere else, and i think ROCK was only cheaper because it wasn't offering SLI DUAL 8800 GTX on the pricing but only the single one, if it had had dual it would have been more expensive. So Alienware was the most expensive, and the least impressive, still on last years specs, whiles Black Hawk was the most impressive and the second most cheap (without the dual option, it was cheaper than ROCK)

Although with the Sager, you can custom design your laptop fram anyway you like it which is quite a cool option, I LOVE BLACK, a sleek black machine that looks really neat on the outside is really important, just a quality look, not a dull plain black, but although i haven't seen the pictures of the Black Hawk, i don't think i'd be disappointed, it seems like it's exactly my thing, but i may be jumping the gun here. I really don't like those flashy lights i saw on the M1730 Dell machine, it looks SOOO "kid" ish, if i were in high school fine, nice flashy lights to tackily show off to easily impressed teens.

but when i switch of the lights and play my games or watch my movies, I DO NOT WANT BRIGHT lights glowing up the surroundings behind, it just looks tacky, i know some like it. but i don't. You see, i quuite like how Toshibas laptops look, sleek look when they close, the design suits me perfectly, a graduate professional, i feel totally comfortably whipping it out at work amongst suits, or in conferences or seminars just as i do in the lab or home, i couldn't do that with that flashy kiddy like Dell looks i'd die of embarrassment, like i played with toys you have expect the laptop to make some kiddy lazer gun repettive sound when the thing flashes (or expect it to flash as i'm not sure whether it does flash or not), and I must say Alienware's machine defintely has the Plus on DEll in that department, but there's just something i don't quite like about the Alienware design, but then i'm going by pics here. Couldn't make out any pics of the Rocko or the Sager, but judging by the previous models...NO to the Sager, Rocko looks good though. I must say from the angle they shot the front of the black hawk, it doesn't look nice, but i'm enough of an artist to realise that it doesn't tell the whole picture, afterall the Toshiba looks rather plain in pics, but up front, clean, on show, it looks sweet, in fact i remember buying my previous laptop (Toshiba Satellite) as opposed to a slightly better specced HP machine with an NVidia GO 8600, and it's just as well, b/c i might not have been buying black hawk if i had bought that.


Anything else I can think off?

Well, i was so pleased Microworks shipped to the UK, as the previous laptop company i had tried pre-christmas (i only heard of blackhawk like 3days ago), didn't ship to the UK, and now i'm a bit gutted that i discovered Rock only a few hours later after discovering and buying blackhawk, but the more i look into the competition the more I think in the long run i made the better choice. If i had waited, i'd probably still be deciding which to go for and probably gone for the ROCK if they would offer an upgrade to SLI DUAL seeing that I live in the UK and therefore wouldn't have to worry about import tax.

i wouldn't say black hawk was a totally impulsive buy, i had been intending to get a top end laptop for a while and was waiting for alienware, i remember calling alienware early december and trying to fish out from the rep a release estimate for the 8800 GTX, one eventually would give me, but only after several calls hinting that early this year, i.e January or latest early February would be the time... the option at the time was to either get a 7950 SLI dual or the 8700, and i think they'd have preferred me to get one of those, but I think that would have been really impulsive of me as i'd have known a more superior card was round the corner and still gone for the older one at the price the new one would be going at on release.

at the time i looked very closely at the reviews of both the dual sli 7950GTX and 8700GT, the 7950 was outperforming the 8700 in many environments, not all, but this was attributed to VISTA issues and corresponding driver difficulties (as is the case with brand new major operating software, it takes time to get optimal settings, leave it 6months at least), also the 8700 ran at 128 bit and the 7950 at 256, NOT GOOD, whiles drivers may be fixed, i did not think it was worth spending a little extra on 8700 that was handicapped like this, and i didn't want to go for 7950 because i upgrade like once every 3 years, and 7950 was not DIRECT X 10 and was XP based, and would likely force an upgrade on me later this year or next year when vista direct x 10 really started pulling through [i tend to upgrade with a new Direct X, been doing that from Direct X 7). Vista might have problems now, but those problems WILL be sorted out, better drivers and displays would come. Gaming is a MAJOR market and making it work would be one of the TOP priorities at Microsoft, better get a system now that is DIrect X10 now, suffer slightly less performance, than the older model and enjoy when it kicks in.

However, i DID NOT like the fact i would be spending TOP END PRICE on a card like the 8700 when imminently a far superior 8800 with the X suffix would be released and cost exactly the same, and upgrading from 8700 to 8800 would be quite costly. So I'd rather wait. Secondly after talking to lots of sales reps and technical support, and finally recently confirmed in online reviews and NVIDIA.. The 8800 GTX will be running on different motherboards than the 8700/7950 ... upgrading from the 8700/7950 systems is going to be major if at all offered, with alienware saying they weren't going to offer upgrades on the m7950 with 8800GTX cards. I was not going to spend money on the 8700 when the n 7950 was more often than not out performing it, and i was not going to spend top dollar on the 7950 when it was limited to DIrect X9 really and far smoother on XP than vista... despite the fact that Vista has issues and i read another thread on these forums where some guy was vigorously advising people to go for XP now and upgrad later, i was like... nah, i won't, because the problems would be sorted out within the year and i'd be stuck having to pay for a brand new operating system the hassle of installing..nope.

Another thing folk haven't realised or forgotten is you can't have 4GB ram on XP, it can only support 3 GB RAM max they say, so you may be sold 4, but it would be useless until you got 64-BIT Windows Vista, so not even the 32-bit windows vista would do. The list goes on and on


Suffice it to say, my mind was made up, I would get the 8800 GTX card laptops, SLI DUAL definitely as i'd only get to wait a month perhaps. But it was such a wait, having no christmas presents and spending tons of money on others, well i broke, i felt i had to treat myself, so all i had to do was wait for alienware, but i got fed up of waiting, and literally not long after looking on the web i stumbled across blackhawk and bingo.

Now I've ordered, i'm told my machine MAY(and I stress MAY) not come with the SLI dual within the promised delivery time but i could still have within the promised time with only a single and when the second one arrives it would be sent at no extra charge, the alternative would be to wait a little bit longer if that was the case. Well i don't mind going with singletbh, i'd rather get my laptop now, and add the card when it comes, afterall, i don't expect any really taxing applications till about Easter /Summer 2008 by which time i'd have long since got mine. I'd be quite delighted if i got the dual SLI, but hey. Also i'm assured adding the second chip is as simple as plugging in which takes no more than 5 mins to do.

Since i already bought mine, i've spent the last couple of days doing research on this by checking out the competition and finding out if I got a really good deal, so far i think maybe i could have gotten value for money but i think i have found an exceptionally good company, who's quality beats all it's competitors, so it may not have been the cheapest for the spec i wanted, but i think it's the best, let's just hope that this surprisingly not as yet proved confidence is rewarded.

I MOST CERTAINLY shall be posting on here when I get mine and you'd hear the superlatives roll in if it really does WoW me, and the cusses fly if i start getting problems.

 

I admit I didn't read the entire novel above...a bit on the rambling side heh no offense. But good choice regardless...any of those will be better than the overpriced, overhyped, underspeced Alienware.

btw a WUXGA screen is already full HD...so any of those notebooks will support full HD if configured with WUXGA not just Rock.

 

yeah just found that out.

All in all, i discovered the Rocko aren't yet offering the SLI dual, they can do 1 GTX 8800 onto the 770 series, but for the SLI Dual will have to change the Chassis they say, and don't really have an ETA on it, check back with them next month they say.

Sager are like microworks already taking orders on the DUAL SLI 8800 GTX but they've stated on their website that it won't be available till Feb but is a user-installable upgrade.. this is what PC mircroworks is telling buyers also that have ordered the Blackhawk, we'll send your extra GPU to u as soon as we get it and it's user installable.

Atm, the price deal for Top top end is on Sager's favour, but for middle top end in microworks favour, sadly i went too soon for top top end with microworks, but i'm seeing now that for the UK it was my only option for dual sli atm, i'm sure dell and alienware will be coming out with theirs in Feb, i'd have got my system by then..but hey

 

Their site is so good. I love looking at all the models (girls) on it! not sure about their prices and reliability though..

 

Yeah, the models/laptops look good

Hoppefully we'll get our orders next week. Mine is being "extensively tested" and "custom built" for the past month and I can't wait !!

 

I still don't get why the models are all messy? Wierd first impression...

Got stuff Like the gaming mouse from Logitech, preordered games, LCD Cleaning Kit, Compressed Air for the fans but no Laptop

 

their reliabiltiy seems first class to me, despite the price, if you were going for 2 Gig ram, 200 GB HDD, 2.2 GHz proceessor, one Nvidia 8800 GTX etc.. they are cheaper than Sager, i think wen u add things like Blu-ray, SLI, 26-2.9 GHz CPU etc is wen the price climbs highter, but u should look into this yourself.

They seem to porvide top service though, much better to deal with than Alienware or Dell, and the grade of the parts they use is quite high, unlike some others, even though they havnen't specified the brand.

They're a newer business i believe, as you can tell, they don't have quite the detail as some of the older boys, it keeps coming, and i think they really went out at a stretch to make this one. All companies need a one very good year, or top a.s.s system that really breaks the recordes etc to kick them off, didn't alienware do that for 2 yaers. anyway, i'm rambling agin, i don't know tha much about them, it seems good so far.