Arima k730/Targa companion 811 review with pics - Page 2

Notebookshop sells 811c for 1549 (with brilliant view + 512 MB mem) whereas Masters Kersting sells for 1529 (with brilliant view + 1 GB mem). I also found out another offer for Companion 811A for 1349 (ordenary screen).
So Brilliant view must be something better!!!!

Anyone bought already Visionary / Companion 811 A / C.
Any comment/review ?????

Wireless,Fracotec.de offers Companion 811A for 1399 & 81C for 1475. The only different thing about this 2 model is 81C has brilliant view screen & pixel free guarantee, I supposed.

I bought a Targa Companion 811A recently and i have to say that i'm very pleased with it thus far... no cracked hinges (yet, at least).

Anacardo worried me a little for a while as i too have been noticing some flickering of the screen lately... happened about 3 times, hope it doesn't turn out to be anything major though.

Is it just me.. or is the power brick of this laptop noisy ?

Ashler, did you have the chance to view the so-called Brilliant view screen???

I' have noticed the same. Little whining and hissing coming out of the box. Mine also comes quite hot compared with other laptops I've had.

Thanks for the confirmation, i was afraid that something was wrong with it

I think that the Brilliant view screen only comes with the 811C, whereas mine is the 811A, but still, i'm happy with my screen

Ordered Targa Companion 811C

Hi guys,

Thursday I ordered an 811C from www.notebook-shop.de (they recently lowered their price by a 100 euros to almost up to par with the rest resellers in Germany).

Ordered a custom config, nothing fancy, just 2X512 MB Ram and a UK keyboard...everything else standard (german XP home ...soon to wipe )

...to a total of 1687 euros ..shipping included.

ETA is possibly Monday or Tuesday and as soon as I will get my hands on it and see that is in order...I'll promise to post a thorough review with pics and answer questions...in the following days

Actually I have read very good words (DE forums) about the new screen...so I cant wait to see it.

I'll keep u guys posted.
W_s

P.S.: The funny thing is that when you want to buy a Targa 811 with an English config (K/b, OS, soft..) you have to go through notebook-shop.de, and pay all these extras.....doesnt make much sense to me...since targa has a www.targa.co.uk web site servicing the UK. But after getting in touch with their customer service hotline in DE I was pointed to the reseller I finally ordered from...Maybe LIDL UK has or will have factory made UK machines.....anyway .....I digress.

Congrats on yr purchase!!
I am looking forward to reading yr review. Pls post some nice pics about the new screen. I believe it should be comparable to the new Gateway m/c.
Fyi, About a week ago I saw on Ebay UK, someone offered a brand new Targa Visionary 811A with UK OS for GBP. 999,-

I am also interested to know about VAT. Did courier automatically charge you with UK VAT? I am considering to have my friend in Holland order it for me so that he can play around with it & I have time to return it in case of any problem, but still I don't want to pay eitherGerman or Holland tax since I will have to pay that once I return back to my country.

Kirby

Thx Kirby,

Well the bad news is that the shop is waiting for the UK k/b which they said would be there by the end of this week and then send the laptop. Which means it most probably will not be here till Monday earliest ...damn!! And Monday is a holiday here in Belgium so.....say better Tuesday Wednsday.....

By the way I am Greek but live in Belgium, payed by VISA with the German VAT included, had to email them with pics of my passport and V card. Emailed then to send me a proper invoice with my VAT number and my data on it ...so I can reclaim the VAT in Greece (register it as an asset for professional use etc.).

There was word in a german forum www.discountfan.de specialising with discount bargains and such (aldi, lidl, medion..) from a guy who saw the screen in media market next to a sony x-brite and said it was on par!! (ok, more or less minus the hi-res) also check out the new Gateway7405GX pics on the gateway pics forum, its the same arima barebone with the new glossy screen which they call Ultrabrite...you can see pics of a new machine there...but alas..only from the bios and a bit low quality.....just a teaser...

Now something for the DVD drive TOS SD-R6372 ..I read that its very picky when it comes to media...writes only Ricoh or Verbatim (for DVD+R)...and there is a .pdf on Targa service site specifing which media should be used but we all know how brands use all kind of manufacturers under the same name....anybody who can shed some light into this? Which media gives good results?

Anybody knows what has happened to Anacardo????
Keep us posted on your experience if you can man (Anacardo), did you get back a new machine? screen? resolution?

Seagate has a new HD 100MB 7k2 out by the way....a nice future upgrade imo (EDIT: well, forget about that seems like there is just a misprint on the reatail box..if you can believe that!!! Its a 5400 drive but they labeled the box with 7200....someone in Seagate is going to loose his job ) Read all about it on the Gateway forum )

Regards
W_s

Look what the cat draged in....

Just a teaser guys,

today at 12.30 I got the laptop and been testing it since, no dead pixels whatsoever ...so far ...amazing screen by the way!

It has a "no dead pixel" warranty of 2 yrs by the way!!!!

The OS is German XP Home but fortunately my knowledge of the language, although not excellent, allows me to cope with it for a few hours or even days. Got the UK k/b custom fitted, nice clean job by the shop...cant notice a thing that somebody has tampered with it, 2X512 MB ram and all the rest standard.

At the process of streamlining English XP Pro with SP2 and burning some data I had on my Archos Gmini220, just to be sure and test the DVD recorder for media compatibility, bought yesterday a 5pack of Maxell +R 4X (made in Japan) and a Verbatim +R also (made in Japan) since im only interested in burning +R media and a 50 piece spindle of TDK 52X CDR's. I will report on the results btw.

Also to pair it I bought a Logitech wired cam mouse the MX510 in blue, excellent thing IMO.

Here are some pics....

New Targa model will be released. Better specs for same price!!!!!
www.redzac.de

Targa Companion 811D Athlon 64
15,4" TFT-Display WXGA (1280x800), neue "Brillant View" Technologie mit pixelfehlerfreiem Display, AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Prozessor, 512 MB DDR-RAM, Multinorm Dual DVD- +-R/RW 8x Brenner, 512 MB DDR RAM, 80 GB Festplatte (5400 U/Min.), ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro mit 128 MB DDR Ram, integriertes WLAN mit max. 54 Mbit, 7in2 FlashCard Reader, Soundsystem, 56k Modem, 10/100 LAN, 4 x USB 2.0, Firewire, TV-Out, Lithium Ionen Akku und Netzteil, MS Windows XP Home Edition (OEM Recovery-Version; Nutzbar nur in Verbindung mit dem gekauften System.), Antivirus Software, 2 Jahre Garantie mit Pick Up Service durch den Hersteller.

Angebot gilt nur vom 02.11.2004 bis zum 16.11.2004. Solange Vorrat reicht.

Well look about that?

A 811D is being released...looks like an upgrade in CPU, HD and DVD burner only difference though is that the CPU could be the DTR model and not a mobile one (81.5 Watt versus 62 W) we will have to wait to find out.
Edit: Well looks like it is the DTR model but I see ATI 9700 Pro as different
from my spec. Hmmm....

http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=18518

But the larger HD would be welcome and the 8x recorder of course.

By the way I am thrilled of my 811C so far, real quiet in laptop mode and fans kick in every 4-5 for 30 seconds in desktop mode. Things would be much worse with the new CPU IMO, so people should take this into acount when deciding C or D.

Haven't formatted it yet though since I was away for 4 days and have been testing it and downloading drivers, benchs, burn in utils and needed software .

So the review will have to wait a little bit longer guys.......

But the screen!!!! what a feast on the eyes....bright rich vibrant colors...and no dead pixels so far..!!

regards
W_s

DTR???? Oh no!! I live in a very hot climate. Mobile proc will suit me better.
How about the battery life of yr 811C? HOw about the hinge??
Can't wait for yr complete review

Anybody knows the difference between MR 9700 & MR 9700 pro???

hello,
im am new to this forum and came across the thread about the targa companion series D laptop.
I have been looking about getting a notebook for a long time and discovered this via my tutor. He says the people he works for ordered one more than what they needed and so is going to sell it to me for 1500 euro. this is exceptionally cheap for the spec, a great value notebook. but i have never heard of the manufacturer before this time, are they reliable on the warranty etc?

thanks

The new 811D is offered for 1399 Euro only. If you can get 1500 Euro with 1 Gig memory then that is a good price. The Targa Companion / Visionary 811 series notebook is manufactured by Arima, same as Emachines 68XX series, new Gateway 7405GX, etc.....
I have been following this typical model for a while. Apart from the crack hinge problem, this model is very reliable.

thanks kirby, got any links for me to research the product more?

I had the hinge fixed under warrenty a few months ago, but it's cracked again.

I have the Visionary 811, and did'nt really notice any differance from the spec in the companion... Maby there is some differance? Mine has a mobile 2800+, and I'm considering changing it for a low voltage cpu sometime in the future. It's fairly silent most of the time, but I consider the fan to be loud when it's running. (I'm pretty picky on noise) At work I can't hear the fan at all, but at home you really do notice it if you are in the same room. There does'nt seem to be differant speeds for the cpu-fan, it's either on or off. I think that a low voltage cpu would be cool enough that the fan would rarely spin...

I think the display is pretty good, image is sharp and clear. It's a bit thin, and I allready managed to get marks on the display from having the notebook in a backpack with some books and bicicling to work. The marks left with a bit of cleaning, and now I have a Burton backpack with a notebook compartment and no more problems. (The protection pad that came along would probably have prevented it anyway) Still compared to the display that's on my friends Dell, this is very flexible...

The keyboard feels really good. Actually in my limited experience with laptops I have not seen one with better feeling.

I upgraded the ram to 1gig and really felt a differance when using photoshop / premier. I guess the 4200rpm drive makes swapping pretty obvious. I'm waiting for the new seagate 7200rpm models to come out to change to one.

I'm not a huge fan of wxga resolution. Personally I'm used to 1600*1200 on my desktop, and this just seems tiny... There was no option to upgrade when I got it, I would definatly consider it if I had a chance.

edit:

My biggest problems have come from trying to install Linux. I still have'nt managed to get the wlan to work (everything else is ok now) properly. This probably has something to do with the fact that I'm quite a newb though.