win7 / core i7 / custom build / recommendations

eske

need help with mid to high end desktop replacement after horrible laptopsdirect experience

I've recently had a particularly horrendous experience with laptops direct . (have returned 4 laptops this year)

I bought an asus w90vp ASUS W90 Core™2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz) 6GB ram 640GB HD, 18.4" WUXGA, 1GB dedicated graphic memory Blu-ray etc
all very nice for £1890 sterling, (buyitdirect's prices rock even if their customer support sucksass)
and it is a simply gorgeous multitasking beast

but I've returned 3 of them now all with the same overheating fault (product wide? maybe? )

so I'm still looking for a similar spec-ed machine

my questions are

1. windows 7 is released in less than a month. (the sales guy i spoke to told me you won't see it bundled with new machines till Christmas but this sounds like bull to me)
do I wait? what do you guys think? I reckon that retailers will be selling it on new machines the day it comes out? no? thoughts?

2. is there ANYWHERE in Dublin doing custom laptops build?

3. is core i7 as sh*t hot as it's made out to be - ie is it worth waiting for ?

4. any other recommendations for similarly spec-ed machines (and retailer)- big screen and hdmi post a must - sony vaio ax maybe? (would pay up to €2500)

any assistance appreciated

cheers eske

Voodu Child

1. Its worth waiting for Win7, definitely. You don't always have to wait though - some laptops have 'upgrade' packages (they ship with Vista and send you a Win7 disc later).

2. Not that I know of.

3. Mobile Corei7 is pretty much out already, there are early reviews and plenty of laptops ready to pre-order (AW M15X, HP Envy 15, Toshiba X500, Dell Studio XPS 16, etc). The i7 mobiles are faster than the previous Core2Quad processors (ie Q9000, QX9300) if that's what you're asking. And obviously they're miles faster than Core2Duo's. On the flip side, they use more power, 45W TDP for the bottom two (720QM, 820QM) and 55W for the top (920QM)

4. http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/g870_overview.php

Thats a Clevo W870. Core i7, GTX280M, twin HDD bays, 17". Its a custom build in the sense that Clevo supply the chassis, motherboard etc, and Kobalt build the rest laptop to your specs.

eske

@Voodu Child cheers man thats great

the comanche could be an option.

the prices seem pretty keen too.

have u used these guys before?

Voodu Child

No, havent used them yet, but of all the Clevo custom builders (and theres plenty in the UK and Europe) they seem to have the best reputation. Their extended warranties are very cheap also compared to the likes of Dell.

The Commanche SLI is very powerful also. But that particular chassis design (Clevo M980NU) isn't expected to be upgraded to the mobile i7 platform for at least 6 months. Depends what you're after really.

eske

@Voodu Child - dude that was a fantastic recommendation.
I've been doing a fair bit of due diligence on them before ordering and I can only find priase for their products and support.

I have fired off a few queries directly to them aswell and I've been impressed with the speed and quality of the replies.

my new laptop will be from kobalt

cheers

ShaneU

Voodu Child wrote: »

3. Mobile Corei7 is pretty much out already, there are early reviews and plenty of laptops ready to pre-order (AW M15X, HP Envy 15, Toshiba X500, Dell Studio XPS 16, etc). The i7 mobiles are faster than the previous Core2Quad processors (ie Q9000, QX9300) if that's what you're asking. And obviously they're miles faster than Core2Duo's. On the flip side, they use more power, 45W TDP for the bottom two (720QM, 820QM) and 55W for the top (920QM)

4. http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/g870_overview.php

Thats a Clevo W870. Core i7, GTX280M, twin HDD bays, 17". Its a custom build in the sense that Clevo supply the chassis, motherboard etc, and Kobalt build the rest laptop to your specs.

I'm interested in buying a core i7 laptop with win7 on the 22nd

A lot of people say that alienware is overpriced, but at €1500 delivered it's cheaper than any of the others you mentioned with similar specs (clevo is €1580 excl. delivery, I think the HP Envy and the Qosmio x500 are going to be €1800+ going by the American prices I seen.

So will there be a laptop at the win7 launch with similar specs to the AW M15x for around the same price? I don't particularly want a laptop that looks like the inside of a spaceship (just a personal preference)

Voodu Child

ShaneU wrote: »

I'm interested in buying a core i7 laptop with win7 on the 22nd

A lot of people say that alienware is overpriced, but at €1500 delivered it's cheaper than any of the others you mentioned with similar specs (clevo is €1580 excl. delivery, I think the HP Envy and the Qosmio x500 are going to be €1800+ going by the American prices I seen.

So will there be a laptop at the win7 launch with similar specs to the AW M15x for around the same price? I don't particularly want a laptop that looks like the inside of a spaceship (just a personal preference)

Depends what specs you're looking for. There will be cheaper i7 laptops definitely - just ones with lower spec graphics cards etc. Anything with a GTX260M or GTX280M is definitely going to cost around €1500+ because those cards cost a lot.

The HP Envy 15 is only £1050-£1150 ish going by Google UK product search. HP have a few other models also with i7 processors - the DV6, DV7, DV8, starting from around £900 for the smallest one.

MSI will have i7 in the GT640 and GT740, maybe somewhere in the €1300-1500 range depending where you buy. The graphics cards in these arent quite at the upper end though.

If you are comparing the M15x to the Clevo, don't forget to compare the graphics cards. The M15x has the GT240M as standard, which is a complete joke. It is basically a mid-range card. Whereas the Clevo ships with GTX280M which is Nvidias highest mobile card at the moment.

ShaneU

Voodu Child wrote: »

Depends what specs you're looking for. There will be cheaper i7 laptops definitely - just ones with lower spec graphics cards etc. Anything with a GTX260M or GTX280M is definitely going to cost around €1500+ because those cards cost a lot.

The HP Envy 15 is only £1050-£1150 ish going by Google UK product search. HP have a few other models also with i7 processors - the DV6, DV7, DV8, starting from around £900 for the smallest one.

MSI will have i7 in the GT640 and GT740, maybe somewhere in the €1300-1500 range depending where you buy. The graphics cards in these arent quite at the upper end though.

If you are comparing the M15x to the Clevo, don't forget to compare the graphics cards. The M15x has the GT240M as standard, which is a complete joke. It is basically a mid-range card. Whereas the Clevo ships with GTX280M which is Nvidias highest mobile card at the moment.

Thanks, guess I'll go with the clevo then. Are there any disadvantages in adding a second hard drive, or should I upgrade the 320gb to 500gb?

Voodu Child

ShaneU wrote: »

Are there any disadvantages in adding a second hard drive, or should I upgrade the 320gb to 500gb?

A second drive would use more power, so shorten your battery life a little. To be honest, with a 45W processor and a 75W graphics card, laptops like this have very short battery life anyway. Couple of hours max. I would not recommend these kinds of laptops (anything powerful or with a quadcore) if battery life is a concern.

I would go with two hard-drives if you wanted a lot of storage space. Or if you were thinking of running a SSD for the primary drive (OS) and a regular drive to augment the storage for music/movies etc. To be honest you can always put the second drive in yourself later if you can't decide.

There is a cheaper i7 based Clevo if you don't need the large screen and dual HDD bays. It has the same GTX280M so would be just as good for gaming, and is about €200 less. link

People have just started to receive them now, so you might see some reviews on Notebookreview: link. Kobalt call it the G860, but its also known as the Clevo W860CU or SagerNP8690. Very confusing!! :pac: