The Official Samsung R780 Owners Lounge

Hey where is the love for the R780? I just got mines today. So to all the onwers post your stuff here. Mine is base model as in:

-Intel [email protected]
-Nvidia GT 330M 1GB DDR3
-17.3" 16:9 Gloss
-4GB DDR3



So anyone want me to run benchmarks? Anyway A review shall be imenent if you guys want

 

I think it is a SWEET notebook. I almost got one, but opted for the R580 as I pack my notebook everywhere, (I'm a photographer) and the 17" is a tad too big for that.

 

I got this notebook about two weeks ago and it's been great! Best Buy had the R780 in stock for about 3 days and I ordered one as soon as they were in stock! No problems so far.

 

Not an R780 owner, but I might be.
I've been searching for a laptop for some time now and I'm undecided between this Samsung R780 and a MacBook Pro 13".

Not at all the same, I know, but I really want a silent notebook and these are the only two with decent enough performance that are in my price range.
Love the battery life and portability of the Mac, but I'm more of a Windows guy.
Could someone please tell me what battery life they are getting? Also, is the Samsung really as quiet as the review on Notebookcheck claims.
I really need silence when I'm just browsing or watching videos.

 

I usually use my R780 plugged into the charger but when it's not plugged in I get about 2 hours browsing the internet, watching videos, etc. And yes I have noticed that it is very quiet.

 

Thanks for the info.
I have another question. I have found two versions, both with gt330m, 500GB HD and 4GB ram. One has an i3 330m for €819, the other has an i5 430m for €888.
1) Would battery life be better with the i3 version and by how much?
2) Is the i5 more futureproof considering I mostly use it for browsing, videos and Office? I would like to play a game once in a while but I don't mind low details and/or lower resolution.

 

1) Yes, battery life would be better but only by about 30-45 minutes.

2) The i5 is definitely a much stronger processor and will make a difference for gaming and videos. It would be noticeably better than the i3, so it's probably worth it to spend a little bit more. It's probably not a good idea to settle for the i3 and regret it when you could buy an R780 with an i5 for just a little bit more. That's just my opinion though.

 

LMAO yeah no problems.

only 2hrs? Depends on what you run in the back ground but at optimal performance with everything at batery life saving setting you will dish out about 2h and 30mins. The laptop is very quiet and cool to, doesn't heat up that much, unless u put stress on it though

shwh45 did u own a i3 before? Battery life can be better for atleast an extra 1hr to at battery saver setting. 30-45min is a good guess though. Yes an i5 is better, but your looking for a laptop for casual gaming and browsing right Mat? If you don't plan on CPU and GPU intensive task like scientific/engineering computation then an i3 is a better buy. Since both models come with a GT 330M gaming will be the same. So yeah. Note the difference between an i3 and an i5 is the bus width (used for scientific/engineering computation and number crunchin) the power usage and i believe some intel technologies (which won't be important if ur gonna use it for a casual stuff). i3 are dual core hyperthreaded to a quad and some i3 are clocked higher so you won't loose performance. IMO i bought the i5 version because its closely spec to a Qosmio which is a great workstation. Also think about this a R780 will give u bigger screen, better processor and a better gfx card. The GT 330M has 1GB DDR3, it can perform the same as an HD 5670MR. So gaming is good


Also a review shall come in atleast a day or to. Thanks

 

Well, my previous pc was a desktop because back then I was an architecture student and needed performance above all. I paid the premium for an X2 3800+ (state of the art back then ) and it has served me wel over the past five years.
I've never owned a laptop, but was under the impression that they typically have a much shorter lifespan, more like 2-3 years, so I felt the premium wasn't worth it.

The only cpu-intensive task I can see myself doing is transcoding video for my iPod Touch and I can easily use the GT 330M for that.
Maybe some games, but those rely mostly on GPU and not CPU so the minor difference in clock speed won't matter al that much.
I've emailed the store that sells the i5, apparently they used to give a 5% discount for students so if I can score that...
€25 is hardly a premium.

BTW: Thanks to the both of you for the feedback.

 

Life expectancy depends on usage and user requirements. Physically, if the laptop spends 90% of its life on a desk or table then it is likely to last longer than one that is opened, closed and moved around several times per day. Performance-wise the upgrade options are less than with a desktop. However, unless the CPU is at the slow end of the current range, it is likely to be able to handle programs (except 3D games) for some years to come. The biggest upgrade to everyday performance that one can invest in at the moment is a good SSD and that is one upgrade that users can do easily.

John

 

yup np. and John is right, since u don't need to do cpu intensive work get the one that is bang for the bucks. Also how does the GT 330M help you? Are you planning to run CUDA friendly encoding software? Also yes an i3 will be good for gaming.

 

That's the idea. Currently it takes 15 min to convert a 20 min episode.

 

Hi guys!

Im looking for a good and silent multimedia laptop for movies and music. I have a small and very stupid question:

Can i get Dolby Digital / DTS sound from GeForce GT330M if i connect it into my amp with HDMI?

Thanks! If this is possible, i will get R780.

 

Hi guys, just took posession of my new R780 - Samsung NP-R780-JS04UK mode.

Made the recovery DVDs, now just uninstalling the muck-ware and having a play and test. So far so good, though the left speaker is a bit "vibraty" if thats. All seems ok...have ordered a Fenvi adaptor as i intend to take out the DVD drive and use a second hard drive instead, use the DVD Drive as an external one using the sata connector/usb cable from the harddrive caddy left redundant!

Have downloaded all te x64 and XP drivers from samsung site ready for a clean installs.

Has anybody had issues with the new BIOS update 08JA ? any idea what fixes it brings?

Now got to read up on this UEFI stuff...cant seem to boot my windows 7 usb install drive..but the xp one goes fine though cant install yet until i delete a partition to make room!! Stiill not clear on the USB legacy settings.

will try the HDMI cable tonight when get back home...

Finally is there anypoint in keeping AnyPC installed? or is it just for samsung engineers to log onto my machine if i report a problem?

thanks Mikky

 

took out the 500gb drive and replaced with a pre partitioned NTFS formated 250gb....80gb for Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit...40GB for XP Pro 32bit and the rest for files n films

installed xp first then windows 7

Glad to report that all the current drivers on the samsung site worked fine.

only problem is i cant boot with the SD card in the slot (configured to always be ReadyBoost for Windows7)...cant see away of keeping the 4gb sd card in during boot...so not using for readyboost at the moment..guess the UEFI stopping that....PC boots ok with a USB 250gb drive plugged in though.

no yellow exclamations in device manager on either xp or 7. installed ie9 on windows 7....much better than8 ....thats enough for today...now going to use it for a week..tweek it up....wait for Fenvi adapater to arrive then redo it all again..dontcha just love playing with new pcs!

have not done the BIOS update yet...still trying to find info on it..

EDIT>> i set the BIOS to AHCI as manual and IDE first..have installed my preferred imaging software (Macrium) and all is good, can now see and backup the 3 partitions. (dont know if i could not see them before on the 500gb drive due to GPT records and possibly Extended partitions). Now have proper MBR boot sector and primary drives.

 

I was using a 4GiB SD card dedicated to readyboost in my R780 with no issues for a few months. This was with the stock 32 bit Win7 install. The only reason it isn't in there now is that I decided to us it in my camera.

 

decided to try the backup DVDS make sure they work! put back the 500gb drive and yep no probs but i noticed the OEM partition gone down from 7Gb to 5GB. So decided to boot up with XP disc...and installed no probs (also windows 7 x64 no probs either) OEM partition preserved too. all going well so far its a nice machine...Google earth is kewl too....battery seems good at the moment,,but then it is new and i havnt really pushed it yet. found a nice button on bottom of r780 to push and see battery status!! erm ok nice touch i guess? Will try the SD card again...also look into an express card for readyboost...even with 4GB memory its noticably snappier overall...

 

anybody know what the connector by the memory is for? is it a spare PCI connector or something? its marked 80H

 

Damn, now I'm going to have to open mine up and have a look Looking at the pictures in the review on NotebookCheck and the manual, I can't see a connector. The review for the R580 shows a different angle and I can see a connector. It doesn't look like a PCI connector and there isn't much room around it for a card or something to go.

 

yep looks to be same connector,,,had a quick count..12 pins i think....hmmm...if only we could find a service manual....

 

I've seen a little empty socket in several Samsung notebooks. See for, example, the bottom left part of the photo in my Samsung R20 review. I wonder if it is something specific to the Korean models.

John

 

must be some sort of diagnostics plug in ?

on another note...was thinking of buying a Transcent 8Gb express card/34 ....would the card fit flush with the r780 or do they kinda stick out a bit?

 

I thought that the slots had standard dimensions so that a normal card would be flush when in place (cards with external sockets would, if necessity, stick out).

John

 

thanks for that comment,,,just as i was thinking...but wanted an opinion..