Here is my review of the system so far. Keep in mind that I have never owned a laptop and all of this is merely my opinion of the system so far. It's long and drawn out, but I hope to help anybody that was in my shoes who never owned a laptop, but is thinking of getting one, and one that is just all sorts of fast. So here goes...
I recieved my 8790 the other day and I am very impressed with this system.
It has : 3.0 northwood, 1gig memory, 2x 60 @ 7200 hard drives on a raid 0, along with the other snazzy stuff that came with it.
Had to chase down the UPS guy practically to get it. Luckily they were nice enough to drop back by my house friday instead of making me go meet him at their station or wherever else. They tried to deliver at 1 in the afternoon, but since I was at work (and since they make it hard to make arrangements to get a package at a certain time and place) they kidnapped my laptop and left a note on the door. Yet at the end of the day, I had my system.
Upon opening the box I notice laptop is heavier than expected. No problem though, I don't mind weight. Laptop looks very nice. Notice that targus backpack I ordered was not in the box, but standard case was. Everything else appeared to be OK as far as contents. Noticed that XP disk was not standalone disk of xp profesional. It's a system restore disk for Midern systems so I doubt I'll be able to use this OS on other systems..which kinda sucks, but oh well.
Plugged everything in and pushed the power on button to see how well she struts. Machine fires up quickly, screen just looks amazing. I had my doubts about the 17" screen, but all i can say after seeing it is WOW. Rich and crisp colors that look lifelike and vibrant. Please note that this is coming from somebody who has never used a laptop or lcd monitor, but only a CRT monitor. Even so, this screen seems to look better than the ones on laptops I scoped out at best buy and circuit city.
Then I fideled with the wallpaper and noticed a small problem. There was one stuck pixel (white) in the upper portion of my screen an inch or so off to the right. This was very noticable on any dark image or dark area of an image where this pixel was. Not pleasant at all. Like having a white spec of dust glaring at you. I like clean screens, so I begin the process of debating on whether or not I can live with it and so forth.
Then I notice machine fans will kick into overdrive and run full tilt at unexpected (and semmingly unnecessary) intervals. I don't mind noise so much as long as it is consistent. It can be kinda startling to be sitting in a nearly silent environment and have this thing suddenly go UUUUWWWoooouuuu. I have machine sitting on a flat metal surface (side of old pc case) while setting it on bed so I can access it and be at my desk at the same time since desk is a little small. When downstairs I have it setting on a coffee table - so I know the fans aren't blocked or anything, and machine really doesn't need to be doing anything special for these fans to come on. I can click on the 'clear desktop' button or open any window and it kicks these fans into overdrive. Just plain nerveracking.
I begin installing my flight simulator game. It's 4 disks and takes longer than I thought it would. Not sure if the raid is really worth it. I will try some video editing and see if I notice anything really impressive.
Flight simulator gets installed and then I test it out. WOW. Very nice looking graphics. Everything set on super high settings and still no slideshow effects while making sharp turning banks in planes. Guages and knobs in cockpit look almost real enough to adjust on the screen. The clouds and sky effects are mindblowing. This is where the system shines IMO. Sweet to say the least.
Misc stuff..
Very nice keyboard. A lot sturdier and quieter than I thought a notebook keyboard would be. Handy cam at the top of the screen. No special image quality, but it works fine. Battery lives a short and anxious life. Not a problem though since I use my system mainly around wall outlets. It's cool how I can unplug machine and it will automatically switch over to battery power while I take system downstairs, and then pick back up on outlet power without missing a beat. Screen is brighter and things go a little faster on outlet power than on battery. Dvd playback is cool. Movie image quality is slightly lower than I expected, but still very nice. I thought it would be about as nice as one of those high definition screens, but it's not quite there. Motion picture on dvd through Intervideo? and media player looks a tiny bit grainy. Game and picture quality on desktop well outweighs any small disapointment. Speakers.. nothing real special. I didn't order subwoofer with the system as I plan on getting some good headphones. Still puts out some decent sound for as small as they are. Area under the keyboard where writss will rest while typing does get warm. Left wrist area is a little squeaky down by where it meets the adjoining edge. All other edge seem solid.
The networking... Ugh.
I also purchased the Gigabyte router with this along with the included internal wireless g card. I spent hours friday evening trying to get this to work. I will admit that I am a newbie at networking, but I am somewhat tech savvy (I have set up wired network on win98 before). This gigabyte wireless network isn't exactly newbie user friendly. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and after a good few hours was able to finally get both the laptop and desktop connected to the internet through the router while using encryption. I am still working at the file sharing part of it, though. I can't seem to be able to connect the two computers together and file share. I am one of those RTFM guys and tried researching on the net, to no avail. I feel I should have checked into getting a router that is more popular and user friendly to the person trying to configure and set it up.
I get tired and decide to get some sleep.
....................................................
Next morning.
I turn the laptop on, low and behold - I notice that little white stuck pixel now has a sibling. Yes there happened to be 2 stuck pixels on the screen. New one is blue and sat more in the center and off to the left on the screen. I decide that laptop is going back. Two different colored stuck pixels, noisy fans, ..for $3000 I want a system either perfect, or damn close to it and it has fallen out of that category IMO. I email pctorque and inform them of the pixels and missing backpack.
I get home from work and still have the pixels and jack-in-the-box fan effects going on. I install encarta reference library 2004 and still am unimpressed with installation speed. I know everybody has tastes, opinions, etc, but I just thought it would install stuff faster.
I took laptop over to cousin's house and show it off. The standard case really seems to work fine for this. I think I will still try the targus out though, should it arrive, and see what it's about since I will probably need something a little more durable for when I take this to forida.
Cousin was amazed at laptop. He is using an old 500 megahertz system though with 64 mb of memory
and then I notice....
THE STUCK PIXELS VANISHED. Yep - they done packed their bags and left the building. I put desktop on solid black and white backgrouds and screen was clean. So I dunno what all that was about, maybe they will stay gone? I am going to do some more stuff on here, if I notice them pop back up then I will probably go ahead and get a replacement. I won't be comfortable with pixels that come and go as they please.
I bought a targus laptop cooler at best buy for $30. It doesn't seem to help the fan issue. I get home late at night and hit the sack.
...............
Today.
Things are still well with the screen. No revisiting pixel problems yet. Still no network either, though
. Fans are still competing with my desktop's thermaltake case (which has 7 fans and a noisy cpu fan which needs replaced). Not to sound bitchy over the noise, but this just seems abnormal. So no - I really don't feel like hearing anything about not doing research or understanding these machines will be loud, it's all opinion, and I've shared one backed up by weeks of prior-to-buying research.
Still no word from pctorque. It's the weekend so maybe they are closed? When they email me back I will update them - though they will probably read this review and have an idea of what's going on.
Bottom line - even if I do end up sending this thing back because of the pixels and/or bad fan activity - she's a keeper, unless something else goes down or gets funky on me. I still need to check tv tuner, video editing abilities, cd burner abilities, and try some other games. Also plan on checking benchmarks and checking into temperatures - though I'm not real familiar with checking these things and running tests like that. I may take some pictures if people want. I have to say I do like the way this bitch struts. Desktop has all but been forgotten.
I will update this as I continue forward with Sager and PC Torque through what appears to be a pleasant, but challenge-riddled experience.
Any advice or info on networks and fans would be much appreciated
I recieved my 8790 the other day and I am very impressed with this system.
It has : 3.0 northwood, 1gig memory, 2x 60 @ 7200 hard drives on a raid 0, along with the other snazzy stuff that came with it.
Had to chase down the UPS guy practically to get it. Luckily they were nice enough to drop back by my house friday instead of making me go meet him at their station or wherever else. They tried to deliver at 1 in the afternoon, but since I was at work (and since they make it hard to make arrangements to get a package at a certain time and place) they kidnapped my laptop and left a note on the door. Yet at the end of the day, I had my system.
Upon opening the box I notice laptop is heavier than expected. No problem though, I don't mind weight. Laptop looks very nice. Notice that targus backpack I ordered was not in the box, but standard case was. Everything else appeared to be OK as far as contents. Noticed that XP disk was not standalone disk of xp profesional. It's a system restore disk for Midern systems so I doubt I'll be able to use this OS on other systems..which kinda sucks, but oh well.
Plugged everything in and pushed the power on button to see how well she struts. Machine fires up quickly, screen just looks amazing. I had my doubts about the 17" screen, but all i can say after seeing it is WOW. Rich and crisp colors that look lifelike and vibrant. Please note that this is coming from somebody who has never used a laptop or lcd monitor, but only a CRT monitor. Even so, this screen seems to look better than the ones on laptops I scoped out at best buy and circuit city.
Then I fideled with the wallpaper and noticed a small problem. There was one stuck pixel (white) in the upper portion of my screen an inch or so off to the right. This was very noticable on any dark image or dark area of an image where this pixel was. Not pleasant at all. Like having a white spec of dust glaring at you. I like clean screens, so I begin the process of debating on whether or not I can live with it and so forth.
Then I notice machine fans will kick into overdrive and run full tilt at unexpected (and semmingly unnecessary) intervals. I don't mind noise so much as long as it is consistent. It can be kinda startling to be sitting in a nearly silent environment and have this thing suddenly go UUUUWWWoooouuuu. I have machine sitting on a flat metal surface (side of old pc case) while setting it on bed so I can access it and be at my desk at the same time since desk is a little small. When downstairs I have it setting on a coffee table - so I know the fans aren't blocked or anything, and machine really doesn't need to be doing anything special for these fans to come on. I can click on the 'clear desktop' button or open any window and it kicks these fans into overdrive. Just plain nerveracking.
I begin installing my flight simulator game. It's 4 disks and takes longer than I thought it would. Not sure if the raid is really worth it. I will try some video editing and see if I notice anything really impressive.
Flight simulator gets installed and then I test it out. WOW. Very nice looking graphics. Everything set on super high settings and still no slideshow effects while making sharp turning banks in planes. Guages and knobs in cockpit look almost real enough to adjust on the screen. The clouds and sky effects are mindblowing. This is where the system shines IMO. Sweet to say the least.
Misc stuff..
Very nice keyboard. A lot sturdier and quieter than I thought a notebook keyboard would be. Handy cam at the top of the screen. No special image quality, but it works fine. Battery lives a short and anxious life. Not a problem though since I use my system mainly around wall outlets. It's cool how I can unplug machine and it will automatically switch over to battery power while I take system downstairs, and then pick back up on outlet power without missing a beat. Screen is brighter and things go a little faster on outlet power than on battery. Dvd playback is cool. Movie image quality is slightly lower than I expected, but still very nice. I thought it would be about as nice as one of those high definition screens, but it's not quite there. Motion picture on dvd through Intervideo? and media player looks a tiny bit grainy. Game and picture quality on desktop well outweighs any small disapointment. Speakers.. nothing real special. I didn't order subwoofer with the system as I plan on getting some good headphones. Still puts out some decent sound for as small as they are. Area under the keyboard where writss will rest while typing does get warm. Left wrist area is a little squeaky down by where it meets the adjoining edge. All other edge seem solid.
The networking... Ugh.
I also purchased the Gigabyte router with this along with the included internal wireless g card. I spent hours friday evening trying to get this to work. I will admit that I am a newbie at networking, but I am somewhat tech savvy (I have set up wired network on win98 before). This gigabyte wireless network isn't exactly newbie user friendly. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and after a good few hours was able to finally get both the laptop and desktop connected to the internet through the router while using encryption. I am still working at the file sharing part of it, though. I can't seem to be able to connect the two computers together and file share. I am one of those RTFM guys and tried researching on the net, to no avail. I feel I should have checked into getting a router that is more popular and user friendly to the person trying to configure and set it up.
I get tired and decide to get some sleep.
....................................................
Next morning.
I turn the laptop on, low and behold - I notice that little white stuck pixel now has a sibling. Yes there happened to be 2 stuck pixels on the screen. New one is blue and sat more in the center and off to the left on the screen. I decide that laptop is going back. Two different colored stuck pixels, noisy fans, ..for $3000 I want a system either perfect, or damn close to it and it has fallen out of that category IMO. I email pctorque and inform them of the pixels and missing backpack.
I get home from work and still have the pixels and jack-in-the-box fan effects going on. I install encarta reference library 2004 and still am unimpressed with installation speed. I know everybody has tastes, opinions, etc, but I just thought it would install stuff faster.
I took laptop over to cousin's house and show it off. The standard case really seems to work fine for this. I think I will still try the targus out though, should it arrive, and see what it's about since I will probably need something a little more durable for when I take this to forida.
Cousin was amazed at laptop. He is using an old 500 megahertz system though with 64 mb of memory
and then I notice....THE STUCK PIXELS VANISHED. Yep - they done packed their bags and left the building. I put desktop on solid black and white backgrouds and screen was clean. So I dunno what all that was about, maybe they will stay gone? I am going to do some more stuff on here, if I notice them pop back up then I will probably go ahead and get a replacement. I won't be comfortable with pixels that come and go as they please.
I bought a targus laptop cooler at best buy for $30. It doesn't seem to help the fan issue. I get home late at night and hit the sack.
...............
Today.
Things are still well with the screen. No revisiting pixel problems yet. Still no network either, though
. Fans are still competing with my desktop's thermaltake case (which has 7 fans and a noisy cpu fan which needs replaced). Not to sound bitchy over the noise, but this just seems abnormal. So no - I really don't feel like hearing anything about not doing research or understanding these machines will be loud, it's all opinion, and I've shared one backed up by weeks of prior-to-buying research.Still no word from pctorque. It's the weekend so maybe they are closed? When they email me back I will update them - though they will probably read this review and have an idea of what's going on.
Bottom line - even if I do end up sending this thing back because of the pixels and/or bad fan activity - she's a keeper, unless something else goes down or gets funky on me. I still need to check tv tuner, video editing abilities, cd burner abilities, and try some other games. Also plan on checking benchmarks and checking into temperatures - though I'm not real familiar with checking these things and running tests like that. I may take some pictures if people want. I have to say I do like the way this bitch struts. Desktop has all but been forgotten.
I will update this as I continue forward with Sager and PC Torque through what appears to be a pleasant, but challenge-riddled experience.
Any advice or info on networks and fans would be much appreciated
) then the 8790. The HP was only runnig a 2.4ghz 400fsb w/32mb Radeon 7500. In my opinion the 8790 is not louder then most laptops, its alot quieter then a desktop. SO why complain? Rember its running a desktop chip and a kick ass GPU.
