I recieved my 8790 4 days ago. It is replacing my "old" 8887, which I am selling to a friend at a very friendly price to him. The 8887 is a 3 gig processor, 1 gig RAM, 80 gig drive (I had a 40 gig in it as the 2nd drive, but moved that to the 8790) with the 16.1" 1600 x 1200 dpi (UXGA) monitor. I bought it in Feb 03 from PC Torque and was very happy with that machine.
My 8790 is the 3.4 Northwood, WSXGA with 1 gig of RAM an 80 gig primary drive with both the sub-woofer and TV card. I'm very happy with this machine. No dead pixels on either one of them. Until I got the 8790 the 8887 was the best laptop monitor I had ever seen. The 8790 blows it away. I'm guessing it is displaying more colors since the resolution is less, but pictures look a lot sharper. Yes, I use max colors on each. I was used to the UXGA text so the WSXGA text looks large to me. Of course it is substantially faster than the 8887. The sound is much better, but not as good as a friends Toshiba with the built in Bose speakers. I think it will be much easier to just plug in speakers when I can and leave the TV card where it is. I utilized the TV card in the 8887 a lot for converting old video tapes. I plan to do the same with the 8790. I like the new software that came with it. I really like the new wireless management software. I've been using wirless since 802.11b was new and have used several different brands. This is the best card management software I have seen. I bought a Netgear WGT624 wireless router a few weeks before I bought the 8790. It is turbo G, has the maximum rated range, maximum rated through put and it works flawlessly with the Gigabyte wireless adapter.
BTW, I did screw up when installing XP Pro. I missed the part about disabling the 7in1 card reader first. Therefore my primary drive was installed as drive H. However, it works just fine that way. The weird thing is that when I put in the old 40 gig as the 2nd drive it set it up as C drive. I still works fine though. Since it all works right I haven't done a re-install to fix it and I doubt I will. I wouldn't do it on purpose, but it's kind of a small security feature. It really confuses anyone else who tries to explore the machine.
All in all, the upgrade was worth it. I didn't see as much difference as when I bought the 8887 to replace an old P3 Toshiba, but I didn't expect to either. I'll miss the 8887, but the 8790 is a welcome replacement.
P.S. I still hate all touch pads. They all get in the way when typing unless completely disabled.
My 8790 is the 3.4 Northwood, WSXGA with 1 gig of RAM an 80 gig primary drive with both the sub-woofer and TV card. I'm very happy with this machine. No dead pixels on either one of them. Until I got the 8790 the 8887 was the best laptop monitor I had ever seen. The 8790 blows it away. I'm guessing it is displaying more colors since the resolution is less, but pictures look a lot sharper. Yes, I use max colors on each. I was used to the UXGA text so the WSXGA text looks large to me. Of course it is substantially faster than the 8887. The sound is much better, but not as good as a friends Toshiba with the built in Bose speakers. I think it will be much easier to just plug in speakers when I can and leave the TV card where it is. I utilized the TV card in the 8887 a lot for converting old video tapes. I plan to do the same with the 8790. I like the new software that came with it. I really like the new wireless management software. I've been using wirless since 802.11b was new and have used several different brands. This is the best card management software I have seen. I bought a Netgear WGT624 wireless router a few weeks before I bought the 8790. It is turbo G, has the maximum rated range, maximum rated through put and it works flawlessly with the Gigabyte wireless adapter.
BTW, I did screw up when installing XP Pro. I missed the part about disabling the 7in1 card reader first. Therefore my primary drive was installed as drive H. However, it works just fine that way. The weird thing is that when I put in the old 40 gig as the 2nd drive it set it up as C drive. I still works fine though. Since it all works right I haven't done a re-install to fix it and I doubt I will. I wouldn't do it on purpose, but it's kind of a small security feature. It really confuses anyone else who tries to explore the machine.
All in all, the upgrade was worth it. I didn't see as much difference as when I bought the 8887 to replace an old P3 Toshiba, but I didn't expect to either. I'll miss the 8887, but the 8790 is a welcome replacement.
P.S. I still hate all touch pads. They all get in the way when typing unless completely disabled.
