8887 Faq

Habib, thanks for the input. Here is a first cut at a FAQ for the 8887. Hopefully, Adam/PCTorque will be able to change a lot of the 'don't knows' to definitive answers, and to review the other info for accuracy. There's no place in a FAQ for "I think's", "Probably's" , "As far as I knows" or inaccurate information.

Maybe this could be made "sticky" and PCTorque could accept questions in this thread, but answer them by appending them to the end of the FAQ and putting the answer there? It would be nice if all this info were in one concise spot instead of scattered across multiple forums and pages and pages (and pages...) of posts.

Maybe it should also be moved to the News and Information forum, too. Not my call.

Adding more questions like "where can I download the xxx driver/update", with answers, would be great also.

- Stu

1) What are the specs for the new UXGA screen that is in the 8887-X? Resolution? Contrast ratio? Brightness? Response time? Viewing angle?

A: 16.1" diagonal viewing area. Max resolution is 1600 x 1200. All else: Don't know.

2) What is the chipset in the MiniPCI wireless card? Hermes? Prism? Something else?

A: Don't know.

3) Is the MiniPCI wireless card 802.11b? .11a? .11g?

A: Don't know.

4) If I get it without the MP3 player, will it then just have a gaping hole in the side where the MP3 player would normally reside?

A: No, door flaps close from the inside to seal the hole.

5) Is there a DC-DC power supply available for it?

A: Yes.

6) Will the DC-DC power supply run off a standard airplane seat power connection, or only a cigarette lighter power hole?

A: No, only a cigarette plug. If you can find an airplane power to cigarette plug adapter, then you could plug the Sager DC-DC power supply into that for use on an airplane. But, the 8887 draws so much power that you will probably not be able to charge the batteries while you are using it on an airplane.

7) Does having a 6-pin Firewire port mean it is a powered port?

A: No, it is an unpowered 6-pin port.

8) It has 4 USB 2.0 ports. Are they divided up onto 2 separate physical hubs internally? If so, then that means I can use 2 of them to run USB 1.1 devices, and still use the other 2 to run USB 2.0 devices at full speed, right?

A: Don't know. If you have a USB 1.1 device and a USB 2.0 device plugged into two different ports that are connected to the same internal USB hub, both devices will run at USB 1.1 speeds. The 8887 has two internal USB controllers, but it is unknown which are connected to what. It could be that one is connected to the four ports on the back and the other is connected to the USB port that the internal MP3 player connects to. If that is the case, then plugging any USB 1.1 device into the back of an 8887 will make ALL USB devices plugged into the back run at USB 1.1 speeds.

9) How much is a bracket for a hard drive to use in the Media Bay?

A: $30.

10) Will the primary hard drive bay accept 12.5 mm height drives, or only 9.5 mm?

A: No, it will only accept 9.5 mm drives.

11) What height drives will the media bay accept for a secondary hard drive?

A: Only 9.5 mm, not 12.5 mm.

12) Is there any GUARANTEE that a BIOS update WILL come out for the 8887 that will enable Hyper-Threading? Or is it possible that at some future date, Sager/Clevo will announce that enabling HT on an 8887 is not feasible and HT will become available starting with the new 88xx model?

A: No. Your 8887 purchased today might never have HyperThreading enabled.

13) Is the included TV tuner an ATI device?

A: No. It is an Aver tuner.

14) Is the TV tuner removable?

A: Yes, it is removable.

15) What is the TV tuner's system interface? Is it MiniPCI?

A: Don't know.

16) Will the ATI Media Center software work with the included TV Tuner to allow me to schedule recording of upcoming TV programs?

A: Don't know. Other software is available that will let you schedule recording of TV programs.

17) Why is the 4 year warranty about $50 ($230 vs. $180) more if I start configuring with an 8887-X vs. configuring the exact same thing, but starting with the 8886/8887?

A: Don't know.

18) When the MP3 player is in its internal compartment, with an SD card in its slot, does it show up as another drive in Windows Explorer? I.e. when it's in can you drag and drop files onto it?

A: Yes.

19) Is the MP3 player USB 2.0?

A: Yes.

20) Does the MP3 player include a cable to connect it to other computers that have a USB port?

A: Yes.

21) Does the 8887 come with a remote control?

A: Yes.

22) What can you control with it? I.e. can you control more than just the CD player/Jukebox function?

A: It will control the CD player with the lid closed and the CPU powered off. It will also operate as a remote mouse and let you control various applications, when the CPU is running, such as DVD player software, etc..

Another question for the FAQ:

) Can the internal MiniPCI WLAN card be powered off when not in use? If so, how? Example: The Toshiba 5205-s703 has a switch on the front, side of the unit to turn its internal WLAN card off, to conserve power when you're running on battery and aren't connected to a network.

- Stu

And there's the rub. The CPU has HT capability, but, apparently, the Operating System can't take advantage of it without BIOS support. So it actually does you NO good, as it comes now. IMO, it would suck to buy it expecting to get a BIOS update to enable the OS to use HT, then find out later that there were some "technical issues" that prevent the manufacturer from providing BIOS support for HT on that motherboard. I can see it now: "The next release of the 8887 will ship with HyperThreading support in the BIOS."

That would sound reasonable, except that you've got it backwards. The pre-configured version (8887-X) is the one that's got the MORE expensive warranty. The version where I started with a base model and add all the same options that the X has comes out to a slightly higher price, but the extended warranty is cheaper.

I'm guessing that the answer to this is that the price of the warranty is based on the price of the system, and the configurator is not smart enough to change the warranty price based on the final configured price of the PC. It bases it on the Base Price - and the Base Price of the base 8886 is a lot lower than the Base Price of the 8887-X package.

- Stu

Yes, I read Habib's post as well. The problem is your answer is "I believe" and his is "as far as I know". I don't think those kind of answers are appropriate for a FAQ. I *think* you're both correct also. But I haven't verified it myself, I haven't seen this question answered by anybody who has, and I haven't seen any specs in writing that say this.

Thus, I left the answer as "Don't know."

And, in case it's not clear, I don't want to own this FAQ, I just hoped to help everybody by getting it started. I'm hoping Adam/PCTorque or somebody who has a vested interested in selling these will take over ownership. I think it can only be to their benefit to have a good FAQ available for any PC they sell. It would certainly cut down a lot on getting the same old questions rehashed over and over again on this BBS. And, *I* think, boost sales.

Potential customers who come looking and find that the 8887 has really good support with easy access to any and all information they might want about it are more likely to buy one. It is often the case, at least with professional users like myself, that when one is researching a purchase, if you find a product that looks good on cursory inspection, if you go to drill deeper, for more info, and can't find it fairly easily, you'll just move on and look for something else. In a professional environment, you don't generally want to invest in products that may require hours of research (hunting and searching around BBSs and the Web) just to get basic info on it.

- Stu

ps. If the antenna works with .11b, it should work with .11g, if somebody bothers to make a MiniPCI .11g card. b and g are the same frequency, which is all that would matter to the antenna specs .