mlohrenz's NP8660

Just got it last night. I believe there are plenty of reviews out there for this laptop so I will not waste my time and yours doing 100 different benchmarks. I got it from Powernotebooks and am quite satisfied. I have talked with Tim Childree in sales and Travis in tech support. I upgraded the RAM to 4GB and the HDD to the 320GB 5400rpm. Otherwise it is stock.

Initial problems:

If you purchase without OS installed and plan on installing XP, you will need to make a BIOS change before the install.

CD/DVD tray is very touchy. If I touch mine, it will pop out.


Heat issues:

I have read plenty of drama about heat issues and still decided to buy this laptop. The HDD idles at about 50-51C. I purchased an external case for my old desktop's raptor. Without a fan, the raptor idles at the same temp which is cooler than it did in my desktop.

I keep my apartment between 70 and 75 degrees and I think that is a big part of some of the problems people are having. The cooling systems is a function of the ambient temperature. You can't expect a notebook in a 85 degree room to be as cool as one in a 70 degree room.


HDD:

for some reason my HDD came formatted as a FAT32 drive. Repartitioning and formatting took about 100 mins.


Overall I am very satisfied. Once I got my OS up and drivers installed I pulled out Oblivion (prettiest game I had with me at school.) It ran at Native res on ultra high with no problems. Sound is like any other laptop through the cruddy speakers, but I am rather picky and just plug it into my stereo and it sounds great.

 

good luck with your new computer and thanks for not complaining about the heat

 

ill second that

thanks for the mini review mlohrenz
when you get a chance could you fill out the mini survey in my sig please.