Upgrade capability

1. Absolutely, yes. Trust me.
2. I have been told the CX7 can take a merom, I would call hypersonic and ask to be sure.
3. The Athlon system runs hotter, has less battery life, and is like 6 or more pounds heavier. The extra frames in the benchmarks are not worth it imo, get a t2600 and you are golden until vista and 64 bit apps actually appear.

Whatever you do go with the 1920x1200 rez, seeing certain things on mine is the first time my brain is actually kind of tricked into thinking that what I'm seeing through the screen is real (i.e. landscapes). Download some of these 1920 backgrounds and you will see what I mean.
http://www.graffitiwallpaper.com/index.php?size=6
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/index.php?sort=date

what about video cards

512 cards are better for futureproofing as well as current games like bf2 and wow, the more onboard ram the better for the huge maps they run nowadays. It all depends on if you care enough to pay for those extra frames/eye candy/higher rez.

I know alot of people here are fans of the dead pixel guarentee, but if your on a budget, like i was, i wouldnt get it. There dead pixel policy is the best in the industry (No more than 1 dead/stuck pixel on the whole screen, none in the center) so even if you get stuck with one dead pixel it will not be in the center. I ordered my CX7 with teh 1900x1200 screen without the dead pixel guarentee and it came with a pixel stuck dark blue about an inch from the lower left side of the screen. It took me 3 days to notice this. If i had the chance now i still wouldnt pay $100 to get rid of it. IMO its not worth it and the one dead pixel would not bother me but I guess it depends on the person.

And i agree with s1999, go with the 1900x1200 screen, its worth it.

Just my .02, good luck with your purchase

A couple extra cents to throw in here.

First - toxicity57 has a good point. I am a firm believer of the dead pixel guarantee and it has saved me previously. So I know that it is worth it. However - if you are limited - I would much rather go for a longer warranty than the dead pixel guarantee. Just remember - if you get caught - I won't say I told you say.

Second - regarding upgrades. I have to say this to make it fair for Hypersonic (and other similar companies). The CX7 Duo and other machines are built with the capability to be upgraded (video, processor, etc). However - if the manufacturers of these parts decide to go on a different route on architecture that requires more space, more power, etc, it is not the fault of Hypersonic. These companies are at the mercy of the part manufacturers, just as we are. Just keep this in mind.

I state this because some of us with the earlier version of the CX7 don't have the upgrade capabilities as the CX7 Duo. We can moan and complain about it (I do), but in the end - technology changed and we got left with minimal chances to upgrade. I am not sure if the chasis is the same to allow us to just replace the systemboard. Will find out later.

That being said - the CX7 is an awesome machine. I know the CX7 Duo must be even better and I can't imagine how much. You can't go wrong going with it.

Good luck!

Sli - hmmmm. The benches I saw with 2 7900gs's vs. 1 7900gtx had the sli's only 30% faster, if the extra $$$/weight/heat/power consumption is worth that then go for it. Not worth it imo, if you are looking for that kind of speed then get a desktop .

Well ive been battling back and forth with support on the older cx7's and this is one of the replies i got when asking about the possibilities of a dx10 upgrade when they become available.


There is no way for us to tell whether or not a specific component will be able to work with your current configuration. Once the DX10 cards are released, we can test it out and will know what options we have to upgrade. If a component comes out later that requires more power to a system, or is plain incompatible, that is something we cannot predict.

I am being as honest as I can at the present time. We will have to wait and see what upgrades are feasible after they have been fully tested.



Regards,



Patrick Collins

Hypersonic PC Systems

Technical Support Team

Tel. 800.520.0498

Email. Support@hypersonic-pc.com


Also another email i recieved back basically said if we wanted we CAN upgrade the older cx7's BUT it would require new mobo, new chassis, new processor, and possibly RAM. Really sucks to find out 6 months after a $3,000 purchase and even after the sales team verified that there will be video upgrades available in the near future. Now this was applied only to the 512 7900's so what I would like to know is if a 256 7900 would work or not? Never got a reply back on that question.

I know that Hypersonic is working on identifying what upgrade options (cost) would be possible for the older CX7s - and I am in the same boat as you.

But as I stated above - Hypersonic can only go off what is provided by the manufacturer. If Clevo states that the systems can be easily upgraded because of the PCI-Express (or whatnot) and then the card vendors decide to change specs/requirements - Hypersonic can't do anything about it. And not only was there a change of requirements - but Clevo went all out and changed the system board to handle the duo processors as well.

You're right - it does suck to see the new items out there and not be able to upgrade as expected. But we have to channel our frustration to the right party.

That being said - maybe we can identify what can be upgraded (and the max)in the older CX7s and then sticky it for others. And the upgrade to the CX7 duo is not expected to be cheap.

I am happy that I got my lightscribe though.

How About Motherboards on the FX-7 and EX-7? Are those upgradable through Hypersonic? Therefore you can keep the price down as technology progresses.