**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

among the gaes you mentioned i have batman and dead space on the 8690. i play them both at 1080p and max settings, and yes they should look much better than on an xbox360/ps3. i didnt bench the frame rate but it believe it was quite high and very playable

 

Absolutely. I run everything at 1080, and 280 is powerful enough to probably perform notably better. I can barely get my card to run over 60°C while playing so the cooling is obviously good enough for overclocking.

I would not bother with it myself though. I like my warranty, and do not really need extra power.

 

Thanks for the info! Looks like I'll be all set then hopefully - might have to order Empire: Total War and Mass Effect 2 soon if most games run that well

 

I think you are underestimating the power of this machine. You will be able to run Crysis at 1600 X 900 on a mixture of high/med settings. A mixture of Medium / low settings at full HD might even be running reasonably.

Some Crysis benchmarks from this thread show

So if you run Crysis on a mixture of medium and high at either 1600 X 900 or full HD you should get reasonable results. With some extra tweaking even better.

I have not received my new laptop yet but I know you will be able to run GTA IV at high settings and still get over 30 fps, even up to 40 fps. However, going with the 1600 X 900 screen would have given you better gaming performance without having to lower the res.

In summary, you have no worries about any of those games you mentioned, it was not a rash decision and you also have the option of upgrading the GPU in the future since it is MXM 3.0B. Game on.

 

I was tempted by the lower res screen but I hear that this model's screen is of great quality and lowering the res down fron anything other than it's native settings doesn't look odd as it can do on some other laptops. Plus I have a lot of 2 year old PC games that I've been meaning to catch up on and those I should be able to run at full HD without too many issues (Mirror's Edge, Medieval 2 Total War etc.)

That's all good to know - and I was curious as to which number the MXM was on this model - I hear it would be compatible with the 380m? That's awesome news.

Now I just need the guys over at Gentech to finally send me their bank account details so I can start the international bank transfer and confirm the purchase (so far all I have is an order number and no proper confirmation due to paypal's refusal to accept my Father's work card due to different last names).

Crysis on High at 1600x800? I can barely wait

 

You will still get a blurry screen when you play in lower res regardless of screen quality but some say that it is not as bad as other ones, perhaps it is subjective. I just found that I couldn't stand even slightly lower than native in any game.

I have noticed that the performance difference between the two res choices can be anywhere from 8-9 fps or more which can make a huge difference in some titles, especially if any of them have a lower minimum fps.


Regarding the GPU, since it has its own fan and seperate heatsink, already your upgrading potential has been increased a lot, especially when compared to the previous model (NP8662) which had one fan and the GPU / CPU sharing the same heatsink.

Apparently there is also a GPU refresh planned for the W860CU in a few months, think GDDR5 and ATI, although they will probably stay with a 128 Bit bus which would be a shame.

In the future, I plan to upgrade to the 2.0 Ghz i7 (intel Core i7 920QM), might get an ES or something. At the moment, the ES is only £77 cheaper than getting an OEM so not sure yet.

 

as a reply to the high frequent sound..(really got on my nerves..)
Because of SovietSunrise (thank you very much!!) i got to think..
if it is from some electornic devices interfearing the driver of the speaker..just give the speaker a signal.
i tried it with a gadget for windows (Swiss Webradio Gadget), but you can use anykind of program using sound.
just start the webradio, set the volume to 0 (so you dont hear the music or something, because most of the programs still send an audiosignal) and voila! the pieping is gone
its not the best solution but it is one. i am really glad i found it.
because if you concentrate on this sound you really can get headache

..
and maybe somebody know (or writes ) a program for using a soundcard you can can set, so if the usb sound is activated it still uses the built-in.
and then just send a signal with no audible range.
would be awesome!

 

I'm such an idiot. I cancelled my Asus G73 and ordered this again because the reseller I'm buying it from had a price drop. Time for the long wait again...

 

That hardly makes you an idiot - I did the same thing. Best to go with something that's tried and tested and has good reviews than a model which is basically an unknown quantity at this point and which may not be released for another month still

 

Yea, I did it for that reason. I'm an idiot for cancelling the W860CU for the G73 in the first place. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise because I'm paying a few less benjamins.

 

I'd be more than willing to wait 1 month to save $150. 2 months? Less so but maybe. 3 months or more then I'd be kicking myself. But as the G73JH-A1 was only announced a month or so ago - I think we both made the right decision in the end.

Plus this one's upgradeable and Sager build quality is generally far superior to Asus so fingers crossed our choice will be validated further down the line. Now I just wish it wasn't going to take another 2/3 weeks for it to ship and arrive in the UK...

 

Where did you order from? You can get Clevos from UK directly... Although I think the Germans do beat them in pricing.

 

Good evening all! Taking a break from the Viking/Ain'ts game to write this... Go Dallas I've had my 8690 for 1 week now... very happy indeed! No excessive fan problems, sound is up to par for a laptop without a sub, one intermittent stuck pixel and I took advice to remove the cooling disk with obvious cooling improvements.... thank you all for the productive advice But I do have an irritation as of 3 days ago...BSOD! I've read most of this forum and no one has posted BSOD issues. So I'm assuming this is off topic stuff but I'm open to some diagnostic advice. I encounter this during windows boot and also during various apps after several minutes of productive use. There are many sites out there that cover BSOD but none with the sager 8690 and windows 7. Ideas?

 

Did you happen to catch the specific details for the BSOD?

 

Why didn't you buy one from the UK like Gagis said, it'll cost you a lot more with the shipping included and you'll be stuck with a warranty in a different continent?

I recently pulled the trigger on a Kobalt G860 (counting the days till it arrives ) and looked at pricing from Sager, MYSN and a couple of others before decding. Sagers price worked out a little cheaper than Kobalt but then there's over $200 for shipping and then there's the warranty which could be costly. MYSN was more expensive that Kobalt, about £70 I think which surprised me!

 

I realized that I didn't feel safe buying a laptop that was just announced and so little information is known about it.

 

When did you order from Kobalt and how long have you been waiting already? Any updates yet?

 

So it seems. It was the other way around when I ordered... and now it seems notebookguru.de beats them both with a special offer... A better configuration that I got for less than I paid in December. When I ordered they had the same prices as mySN does.

Ah well. A month can change prices disturbingly much. In two these will cost half of what they do now. ;P

 

I didn't find any UK resellers with decent prices and managed to get a quote of $139 from Gentech for shipping fully insured and that made it come to a total of around £1050 (with a full HD screen, 4GB Ram and 320GB 7400RPM HDD) - unless you know of somewhere that could beat that price?

I really struggled in finding reputable resellers here with prices that weren't nearly double that of the US.

Edit: Just went on the listed Clevo resellers page and looked at Kobalt - Total Cost £1364.80, way over my budget.

 

You can read about customer experience with German resellers on http://www.notebookjournal.de/forum/showthread.php?t=13330 if you speak German otherwise use google translator. I didn't consider notebookguru because they sometimes don't communicate with customer for quite long period (several weeks) and used to install ES processors into laptops without customer approval. I considered mySN too but they didn't answer emails either so I couldn't arrange no dead pixel warranty with them. Hawkforce had positive customer reports, cheapest prices and also arranged 1 year no dead pixel warranty. Another advantage German resellers have is they ship much faster than UK resellers, within a few working days.

 

Thanks for all the info! I think I'm still going to go with the US retailers though - I would be saving around £300 or more to get a similar spec'ed out laptop than if I were to get it from Europe and that includes shipping/taxes.

My budget is stretched thin as is so I really can't afford to risk it - plus I hear that Sager build quality is excellent and I doubt I'll have too much need to dip into that warranty any time soon. They only come with 1 years parts warranty regardless (and I really doubt anything will happen within the first year of use) and I'd still get all the e-mail help from the sellers if I did run into trouble.

Plus, maybe I'll be able to exchange the warranty for a fee? I'm looking into it at the moment

 

I don't like vendors who offer separate dead pixel warranty. One of the reasons I picked mySN.

 

You could end up paying over £200 for import VAT, in fact, even up to £400+ in some cases. Also if you ever have to RMA it, more time consuming and more cost. The only way you will avoid import VAT is..........illegal.

 

I take it your price is without an OS and only 1 year warranty, can't really compare it then.

I hate to break it to you but if the laptop is costing you £1050 you will have to pay the delivery driver £185.00 VAT and probably a couple of quid extra for their handling fees or he'll take it back to the depot until you pay Only trying to give you some advice.


EDIT Haha, LaptopNut you beat me to it! Oh and I literally only ordered it over the weekend.

 

VAT for Laptops in the UK is 17.5% so it would come out to around £180.

Plus it is only a 1 year labour warranty and 3 year service - I doubt anything would happen within the first 12 months if Sager build quality is that good (heck, my old Assus F3jp is still going fine and I've had that for nearly 3 years and will likely treat my NP8690 in much the same way I did this one) and I'd still get all the e-mail support I need.

It's still a saving of at least £200 and for me that's a lot of money.

And since my Father's a university lecturer, he gets Windows 7 at a huge discount so I'll likely end up getting that off him. The lack of OS isn't really an issue - at least it means the laptop won't come with a lot of bloat-ware that I then need to promptly uninstall.

With regard to RMA, I have relatives who occasionally go back to the US to visit family so that would save me some money, if not any time.

EDIT: Just looked at Novatech and the same laptop would cost me £1337 with free shipping and a warehouse in my home town (Reading). I'm seeing how far I could stretch my budget and if you guys genuinely think that it would be better to buy it here rather than from the US... I have little experience in these things so appreciate your advice - even if I do seem quite resistant to the idea of spending more than I have to.

 

Hi guys, I just joined yesterday. I just bought a 8690 from PC Torque last week and now im waiting for it to come in the mail...the wait is longer since im deployed I can't wait anymore!!!

 

So looks like I might be about to pull the trigger on the 8690 from either Novatech or Kobalt (the X70 CA 15.6" or G860 15.6” as they respectively call them) - has anyone had any previous dealings with these company and am I right in assuming that this particular model of laptop is basically identical to the NP 8690 I was going to purchase beforehand (once I upgrade a few choice components of course - full HD and 4GB of Ram are a must)?

And, most importantly, would it still be upgradeable and compatible with the upcoming 380m?

 

sounds good. hd and 4gb is a +. I just went ahead and put 6gb in mine lol.

 

That model will be the same as the NP8690, they go under many different rebrand / names. I have no experience with Novatech and ordered from Kobalt UK simply because I have dealt with them previously on many occasions and Kobalt build the laptop up themselves so are in control of quality and testing as opposed to others who are just shipped the pre built laptops. The only issue is build times are 7-12 days and sometimes more, especially if burn in tests are failed or they find faulty components. When they are really busy you could be waiting up to 3 weeks but at the moment they estimate about 10-14 days for delivery.


Still, much Better than you finding a faulty component and having to RMA it. Kobalt also have a European collect and return warranty of 2 years standard on that model.

If the upcoming GPU is MXM 3.0 compatible then I can't see why you wouldn't be able to upgrade. Just beware that GPU's can be extremely expensive, anywhere from £300+ in many cases.

After what you mentioned, you can order the laptop in Kobalt without an OS and get a £75 cashback, also you could stay with the default CPU to save a further £128. You could also stay with the default HDD to save a little cash and later on when you have a bit more cash get one. Even if they do install the OS for you, you will not get any bloatware at all, guaranteed.

Buying overseas might save you money in the short term but will you really want the hassle of import VAT, hoping some one is traveling over there and the increased time it will take to get your laptop back if anything went wrong?

Nothing can beat same day collect and return in the UK.

By the way, if you are more interested in raw gaming performance you might want to consider that the 1600 X 900 res vs the full HD can be a 10 fps difference in performance in some games. That's if you are bothered by the blurry non native res anyway.

 

well said zordon

 

Damn you're useful to have around - thanks! I'd give you more rep if I hadn't already done so a few days back.

Novatech have offices in my home town but slightly more expensive price it seems - I spoke to their sales team and they said to email the specs I was after and they'd see if they could match Kobalt's price which I promptly did and am now waiting on a reply. I think I'd get faster shipping times and the convenience of having laptop repair a stone's throw away from my backyard if I went through them but the fact that Kobalt seem to be so rigorous in their testing does make them quite tempting. Didn't know about the OS cashback either - as my dad can probably buy Windows 7 64 bit from his university for about £40, that would add to the saving.

Do you know what kind of thermal compound they use when building laptops? Most US retailers list various options but I see that the UK ones don't even mention that it is included.

Looks like you guys convinced me to go European after all - most of those reasons make sense, especially now that my savings by buying it from overseas would only amount to around £100 (other UK retailers I had found previously only had similarly spec'ed out models for around £1700 total)

 

Ok - I'm about to pull the trigger on the following set up from kobaltcomputers.co.uk:

G860
Chassis - :: G860 Black/Silver
Screen - :: 15.6" 1920x1080 Full HD+ X-Glass
Processor - :: Intel® Core i7 720QM Quad Core 1.60GHz - 2.80GHz 6MB Cache
Video Card - :: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M 1GB GDDR3
Memory 1 - :: 4GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz CAS9 2x 2GB DIMMs
Hard Drive - :: 320GB 7,200rpm SATA-II with 16MB Cache
Operating system 1 - :: No Operating System Required - £75 Cash Back after purchase!
Optical Device 1 - :: 8x DVD±R/W
Bluetooth - :: Bluetooth V2.0 Module
7 in 1 card reader - :: 7 in 1 card reader
Keyboard - :: English UK
Soundcard - :: Integrated High Definition Audio
Headsets - :: None Selected
External Keyboard - :: None Selected
Mouse - :: None Selected
Mouse Mats - :: None Selected
Power Cable - :: UK
Extra Battery - :: None Selected
2nd AC Adapter - :: None Selected
Warranty - :: 2 Year - European Collect & Return
Dead Pixel Guarantee - :: None Selected
Business Software - :: None selected
System Recovery - :: None Selected
System Recovery - External Image - :: None Selected
Carry Case - :: None Selected

I'm probably going to complete the order tomorrow morning - what do you guys think? Anything I'm missing from this setup?

 

I would recommend no dead pixel warranty. If you have tight budget then select worse display or smaller HDD. It's better to have 1600x900 screen without bad pixels than 1920x1080 with them. In my opinion more than 1600x900 is not good for 15" laptop anyway. If you want your laptop primarily for gamming, then lower native resolution will also give you higher FPS.

 

Hi Vitor

Just to answer your query about this:

we use MX2 on the CPU and GPU as standard

 

True but I hear that the screen on this model is really good at displaying different resolutions with little image degradation so if I need the FPS, I can always drop down to meet my requirements. Plus, I've got a huge back catalogue of old PC games I need to catch up on (the past 2 years more or less) and, as the 280m can pretty much max out those games, I'd like the extra eye candy.

Thanks! Always nice to see active company representatives on the forums - makes a good impression.

As for the dead pixel issue - £90 seems a bit much and as its only £22 for the higher res screen, the saving wouldn't be enough.

Plus, am I right in assuming that you guys build and check all your laptops before sending them out? So I'd imagine you wouldn't knowingly send out a unit with a clearly visible dead pixel.

If the other specs are all fine (mainly gaming orientated - and I'm pretty sure the 280m is the best single GPU solution out there right now), then I might order this later tonight

EDIT: Ahhhhh - just noticed that the 17.3" is only £100 more... soooooo tempted.... Not sure if I can stretch the budget though

EDIT 2: Wait, I was originally planning on only spending £800 on a new laptop for my 21st Birthday, then it became £1050 a few weeks ago and has finally settled at £1300. I really shouldn't shove an extra £100 on top of that. Moment of temptation passed...

 

Why did the H get added **OFFICIAL W860CUH/NP8690 Owners Lounge**?

 

Arctic MX2 is great stuff but I thought I read in one of your faq's that you now use MX3 as standard. Maybe I was mistaken.

EDIT: Yep, I had another look and in your Notebook FAQ's it says

I don't know if there is much difference between the two either way.

(Maybe the W860CUH is a new model kept secret).

 

I asked them to add it to my thread but it looks like they added it to this one instead. I'll see if they can fix it.

 

can i upgrade my gpu in the near future???thanxxx!!

 

If another GPU comes out that has the same power and thermal requirements as the present one there usually is not a problem with upgrading.

 

I would imagine that with the W860CU having its own GPU fan, this should give you better upgrade options than the previous model too.

 

G870
Chassis - :: G870 Black/Silver
Screen - :: 17.3" 1920x1080 Full HD+ X-Glass
Processor - :: Intel® Core i7 720QM Quad Core 1.60GHz - 2.80GHz 6MB Cache
Video Card - :: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M 1GB GDDR3
Memory 1 - :: 4GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz CAS9 2x 2GB DIMMs
Hard Drive 1 - :: 320GB 7,200rpm SATA-II with 16MB Cache
Hard Drive 2 - :: None Selected
Hard Drive Config 1 - :: No RAID
Operating system 1 - :: No Operating System Required - £75 Cash Back after purchase!
Optical Device 1 - :: 8x DVD±R/W
Bluetooth - :: Bluetooth V2.0 Module
7 in 1 card reader - :: 7 in 1 card reader
Keyboard - :: English UK
Soundcard - :: Integrated High Definition Audio
Headsets - :: None Selected
External Keyboard - :: None Selected
Mouse - :: None Selected
Mouse Mats - :: None Selected
Power Cable - :: UK 1
Extra Battery - :: None Selected
2nd AC Adapter - :: None Selected
Warranty - :: 2 Year - European Collect & Return
Dead Pixel Guarantee - :: None Selected
Business Software - :: None selected
System Recovery - :: None Selected
System Recovery - External Image - :: None Selected
Carry Case - :: None Selected


Laptop bought from Kobalt

Now the wait begins...

 

Why order now, when the GTX 285M is imminent?

 

Because the price will go back up when the 285 is released. This gives people an option to get the notebook but with a smaller price tag.

 

Ok so lately I've been having the following problem with my W860cu:

On random intervals (about 1-2 a day on average) my optical drive opens up for no reason. It just pops out without me doing anything. :s

I should note tho that the loading time of my optical drive is also beyond normal. (it takes well over 30sec. after inserting a disc, before it reads the disc)


Could my drive be broken somehow ?

 

Possibly. Are running any background programs that interact with the drive at all?

 

if the power requirements are lower?what do you mean thermal requirements?thanxx!!

 

He means that if the new card doesn't draw more power or output more heat than the notebook can handle, it will work.

 

I have a feeling the GTX 285M will go to the W870, and 5870 to the W860. Doesn't make sense, but whateva!

 

Apparently the GTX 285M is merely a higher clocked GTX 280M (according to a China reseller). If it was a completely different GPU then that would be a different case. I hope it will be but I doubt it.