**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

Yeah they have been out for couple days now. Just check shirley's cpu and extremeprocessor. They have them for $356 & $358 respectively. Get them while they are around and cheap.

 

no he he, but its not in stock yet, but they are expecting more. and i belive my source is the same as yours. thats why you got to talk and ask questions

 

i7 Q820 For $358

 

1st post updated with User Manual.

 

Does anyone know if the W860CU will have the fan toggle ability where you can switch the fans on maximum?

 

I think you are referring to Silent Mode. Yes Silent Mode is still a feature.

 

I though you can also turn the fans on full so you can keep the CPU/GPU temps low

 

No you can't manually do it. The fan speed is determined by the temperature of the ACPI.

 

Looks like my NP8690 should be here at some point tomorrow.

 

Be sure to post your impressions here.

 

You got it! I ordered it without an OS so I may not have it up and running until Tuesday night. I did dump Window 7 Ultimate x64 RTM onto my thumb drive so it's ready to go.

 

Boxcar if you could do me a huge favour.
Once you get the laptop, can you test browsing just on firefox on powersave with the light dimmed and see what it says about time left?

Thanks

And tell me how ftw it is!

 

Not a problem at all. Most of my day is spent emailing and web browsing so that one should be easy.

Can anyone recommend a program that will record the amount of time I'm running the system during individual logins? Not battery time left or estimates but the actual time in minutes or hours that I spent using the Windows OS for each login. Otherwise I'll just have to remember to grab a stop watch.

 

Uhh you may need a stopwatch I cant think of anything that'll do that.

Congrats on your laptop! Im getting a 720qm not 820, its already 2,400 in canada I cant add another $350
lol

Thanks though, and where did you order it from?

 

Going to look forward for some test numbers and benchmarks
So very tempted to get one and eventually will, man I have no self control
Congrats bro!

 

Are there any real drawbacks to using 1066MHz RAM in this machine instead of 1333MHz?

 

If you have the ability to increase the ram frequency the latency will be worse with 1066 memory. I think heat becomes an issue also but I haven't finished testing that.

 

I have a few questions. Does this laptop have smart optical bay? I wanna have second HDD. Also, is it called Sager or Clevo in Europe? Is there any problems if buying it in UK? Like super-long delivery time or problems with service.

 

iPhone/iPod...

 

Dont think the optical bay can be swopped for a second HDD in the W860CU (anyone please correct me there if I am wrong), The W870CU has a second HDD bay if that is of interest to you.

There are a couple of companies that offer Clevo laptops in Europe. In the UK specifically they are offered by:

http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/g860_overview.php or
http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/g870_overview.php

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/x70ca15.6.html or
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/x80ca17.3.html

I pre-ordered mine with Kobalt and witha delivery ETA sometime next week, provided Kobalt receive the barebones from their own suppliers.

 

Goodness me, I didn't even notice Novatech refreshing their line-up.

 

Yes that's what I was originally going to get in mine. I didn't see much resale value in the 720 though. Wasn't sure the effort of trying to sell the 720 and purchasing the 820 was going to get me a better price then just buying it in the first place. It's not exactly cheap but I think it's worth it. I'm sure you'll really enjoy the NP8690 with any of the CPU offerings.

I purchased my NP8690 from Power Notebooks. I had originally ordered the NP8662 and of course the NP8690 was released the day after it showed up at my door. lol Both Tim and Donald were great about the return and replacement. I'm so used to dealing with big companies that I forgot just how great a purchase can be. No stress, no up sells and they both know me now. It's always the same 2 guys and Charlotte I talk to when I call. She's cool too. Donald even went as far as to stay in contact with me by email and phone while he was home sick. I call that some serious costumer service!

Thanks. I'll do what I can.

I'm not sure if it will work yet but I have a SATA smart bay from a Leveno sitting on my desk. I purchased it to use in the NP8662 but I never got the chance. I'll definitely try to install it in the NP8690.

Good point. I forgot about the stopwatch function.

 

W860CU has a non-standard optical bay so you can't put a HDD caddy in it...

 

When I looked at the tear down pics it seemed pretty normal except for the bezel. There was also post on here stating it would accept the Panasonic Blueray drive. That would make it a standard SATA connector inside. I guess no one will know for sure until they give it a shot. Unless it uses a proprietary connector I couldn't see why it wouldn't work. I have no problem chopping up the smart bay if that's what it takes.

 

Kobalt is a far better priced machine.

 

Eurocom sells overpriced hard-drive optical bay caddies for the W860CU.

 

OMG that's something like the best news of my week if I can find it at a nice price ^^
Asked to Kobalt if they can have it too =p

I think my 80Go Postville will be quickly saturated otherwise =/

 

Mine reaches my friend's home in Florida tomorrow, and my CPU on Friday. Hopefully I'll get it down to where I live by next week.

 

* I lost my entire post when Firefox crashed on my old laptop Sorry but it's hard to show the same excitement the second time around.

I received my NP8662. I have to say it looks much better in person. What looked like plain old black plastic to me in the pictures is actually a nice matte black finish with metallic flake. While I didn't purchase this laptop for looks I am more than happy with its appearance. Have you even been to a car dealer's website, browsed the options, thought a color or option was ugly and then when you saw it in person you thought it was great? That's pretty much what I felt like this afternoon.

My Windows 7 installation went much smoother than it did on the NP8662. I no longer had to check any other options in the bios other then moving my thumb drive to the first spot in the boot order list. The driver disk now has a folder marked Windows 7. I didn't have to track down a single driver this time around.

Two more surprises appeared as I finished installing the drivers. The touch pad does have multi touch and gesture functions. It also appears to have the option to assign gestures by program. On top of that all the NP8662 shortcut buttons above the keyboard made their way to the NP8690. They are now completely flush. I don't think it's a touch panel but its cool none the less.

Other then that, I haven't had much time to play. I'm downloading 3dMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage as I type this out on an old laptop. The only thing I have so far are the Windows 7 scores. I'm probably done for the night so I'll try to get some benchmarks for you guys tomorrow.


Unboxing Pictures:
















More unboxing pictures in higher resolution: Link

 

Thanks for that post Boxcar +rep for you. I have also added your post to the 1st post.

 

thanks box, I cant find the +Rep button but ill keep on looking!
Once your done with 3dmark, etc. Can you tell me how much battery it says it has left on battery save mode with the screen dimmed and a browser open?
Thanks, also how heavy is it?

 

You know what, Im getting this!
It looks amazing, and Ive been told by around 10 retaillers that battery can be 2+hours with screen dimmed on wifi browsing,
we should start a club! box, chin and me im the odd one out though as im getting the 720qm

 

Boxcar, thanks for the pics. Do you mind commenting on the screen quality? Is it bright and colorful? Is it glossy likes it's advertised? Can you compare it to any other popular screens out there (like the Dell Studio XPS 16 or a glossy Macbook Pro)?

 

It will be difficult if he doesn't have any of these laptops =p

 

Well Im sure he can tell us how it is, i for one dont really care. Its a fine laptop, that except for at school will be hooked up to a 22" fhd Lcd monitor or a 60" hdtv, so yea

 

Don't forget me! I ordered Friday 10/9 and my status is at Phase 2 (Sent for Custom Building / Testing / Burn In & Final QA) 3-7 Business Days. I ordered a i7-720QM too.

Also spybenj the "1900x1200 15.6" screen" you mention in your sig is not available on the W860CU. It's 1920x1080 or 1600x900.

 

I also ordered this laptop with a i7-720QM, should be arriving on Thursday. Sadly, I will not be able to get my hands on it until November. (I live overseas, having a friend bring it over.)

 

Ah man that sucks - the wait that is. You can't have your friend ship it to you?

 

Yea, wrote down the wrong thing.
Im so excited, your in the club jqs, the nbr w860cu club!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/reputation.php?p=5401656

It's that funny little icon in between the Online/Offline indicator and the Report Post button on the left at the bottom of the post box.

I gave +1 Rep too.

 

I am living in China. The cheapest and most reliable transit would be as carry-on luggage through a trusted person. Through UPS it's a $200 cost w/out even looking at brokerage. Anyways, it's free if I wait two more weeks which gives me more wiggle room for my peripherals and entertainment. I ordered a Sennheiser PC-350, Zalman NC-2000 (they will arrive on the 18th), an Orochi and a Kabuto mouse pad (arriving on the 24th) and then, roughly a week after, my brand new laptop will arrive.

 

I have to get to the questions later. I figured I could run the benchmarks while I get some work done. What settings should I be using for 3dMark Vantage? If there's any other benchmarks you want me to run please name them and tell me the setting for the tests. Thanks.

 

Interesting article about the mobile core i7's and the future chipset platforms -

Mobile Core i7-920XM: Power Is The Price For Better Performance
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mobile-core-i7,2443.html

 

Just run the test with the default settings. Both 3dmark vantage and 3dmark 06.

 

Just got my official quote(I'm starting to feel poor)
But yea, Im ordering it within 7 hours!

 

i just set this thing up to do 2 finger scrolling... amazing.

The screen seems significantly brighter than the 1680x1050 screen on my np8660.

 

Sounds good! Have you tried to watch a Blu-Ray or other HD video? The screen is one of the biggest things I am looking for. I watch a lot of movies and play a lot of games (and once in a while do some work) so screen quality is a big issue for me.

 

Looks like we are getting some good feedbacks coming in so far with the looks and the screen brightness. Eventually benchmarks will start piling in thats if the early adopters will stop drooling already about whats sitting in front of them and get to work. I just got a phone call from Ken@GentechPc telling me that mine will be coming to me friday. Will be the longest 3 days ever.

 

Alright I have the 3dMark Vantage benchmark for those that wanted it. I used the default settings in 3DMark Vantage. The laptop was plugged in, I set the power option to High Performance in Windows 7 and normal in the Sager provided "Power Consumption Modes" app. No overclocking involved. I also didn't turn my AV software off for the test. Not sure that matters but I tested the system as I intend to use it.

3DMark Vantage Score P6613

CPU Score 28589

Graphics Score 5264

http://service.futuremark.com/home.action?resultId=1497705&resultType=19


Windows 7 Score: 5.9 "Determined by lowest subscore"
CPU 7.3
RAM 7.4
Graphics 6.8
Gaming Graphics 6.8
Hard Drive 5.9

 

What is 2 finger scrolling? Is it using 2 fingers on the mousepad to scroll up and down (similar to the macbook)?

Also, was it hard to set up?

I am expecting my NP8690 any day now.