First off I would like to appologize for the long wait. I have been very busy since recieving my comp on the 2nd and have had little time to even set it up. But over the last few hours I have had some time to sit down and get right down to business with this thing and the results have been wonderful.
First off I just want to say that while the forum seems to have nothing but negative feedback for AW customer service my experience was flawless. I ordered on Jan. 5th with an estimated ship date of Feb. 7th and even changed my order 4 times during the first two weeks and it never slowed me down one bit. On the 27th of Jan. my computer shipped out. Which was already way ahead of schedule. When the second of Jan. arrived I waited around all day but much to my dismay it came about 4 minutes before I had to leave for work. Although I did take a few minutes to simply setup windows boot her up and make sure she was in generally good working order which she was. But then it was off to work for me for what was seemingly the longest 8 hours of my life.
Now on to some specs and my general review....
-p4 3.4
-1 Gig ram
-Sxga display w/camera
-2 40 Gb 7200 rpm Hd's in raid 0
-optical1 dvdr
-optical2 cdr
-Geforce 6800 Go
My first impression of the lappy was that it was HUGE if you havent seen one yet do not be surprised if it is absolutely enormous. I know everyone has been sayin this for months but I was astonished at how big it was. While it is huge it is also beautiful the Sxga display is worth every cent the upgrade costed me and I would have payed double that for this screen it is amazingly clear. I havent gotten to in depth with much software yet but I have installed pccillin and Half life 2. I have not had a problem with half life 2 yet and I havent even begun to OC the video card. Everything I have done with this lappy so far has looked absolutely gorgeous.
After using this laptop for 15 minutes on a full charge I have noticed the battery has dropped from 100% to 79% and that is just while typing this review and nothing else running in the background so I am guessing the battery life leaves alot to be desired and for all of you considering this laptop for school use or "on the go" computing I might consider something smaller with better battery life. Now I know I did say that the laptop was very large but at the same time it doesnt present much of a challenge to carry around well at least for myself anyways. Its not very heavy at about 12 pounds and I dont even notice it is in my backpack when I take it somewhere.
I have also noticed that even on some of the more routine applications this laptop tends to run very hot. After surfing these boards for several months and doing some research I decided I would order the pacific breeze notebook cooler. (Model no. cf300-neb) from newegg for 17.99, which to me is a great value and almost a must have for the 7700. The pacific breeze is nice because it is very small and does an amazing job of cooling my notebook. You simply put it Under the rear portion of your notebook plug it in to the usb and turn it on. It also provides a nice angle for typing on the laptop with the rear end raised just a bit. An ease of use factor that I could not go without after being so lucky to enjoy.
To tote this large lappy around I chose the Targus XL backpack. The laptop fits inside rather nicely and the backpack has pleanty of room for other things as well.
basicly folks this laptop is fast and has handles everything I have thrown at it without ever even coming close to showing a sign it was being tested. I have not done any benchmarking yet because I would like to at least have my gpu clocked at 300/300 before performing these tests. Pics will hopefully soon follow as I almost have enough money to get myself a decent digital camera.
Pros- Insanely Blisteringly fast, beautiful in everyway,Just about everything about this machine is a pro in my mind.
Cons- Very large, runs very hot (which is easily fixed by purchasing the cooler I mentioned above.) Sound could be better (it squeaks every now and then on mine) The wireless pcmcia card they provided me since I chose that option was an effin joke I went down and got the linksys and now I get signal from nearly anywhere on my street. DO NOT ORDER AW'S PCMCIA it just doesnt work at least from my experience.
Well folks I am 200% satisfied with AW, whether you are talkin about customer service or with the actual product itself they did their job and they did it to perfection. I will definetely be an AW customer for many years to come and I hope everyone out there who is reading all those bad reviews reads mine as well because it is far to often the people with bad experiences speak out but not often enough the satisfied customers speak their minds.
Hope that helps guys, I will work on some pics and things in the near future (Lappy ate up all my money so digital camera has to wait a few more days.) I appreciate all the help all of you have give me since I have been here and if this helps even one person than it was worth writing. Any questions feel free to ask.
First off I just want to say that while the forum seems to have nothing but negative feedback for AW customer service my experience was flawless. I ordered on Jan. 5th with an estimated ship date of Feb. 7th and even changed my order 4 times during the first two weeks and it never slowed me down one bit. On the 27th of Jan. my computer shipped out. Which was already way ahead of schedule. When the second of Jan. arrived I waited around all day but much to my dismay it came about 4 minutes before I had to leave for work. Although I did take a few minutes to simply setup windows boot her up and make sure she was in generally good working order which she was. But then it was off to work for me for what was seemingly the longest 8 hours of my life.
Now on to some specs and my general review....
-p4 3.4
-1 Gig ram
-Sxga display w/camera
-2 40 Gb 7200 rpm Hd's in raid 0
-optical1 dvdr
-optical2 cdr
-Geforce 6800 Go
My first impression of the lappy was that it was HUGE if you havent seen one yet do not be surprised if it is absolutely enormous. I know everyone has been sayin this for months but I was astonished at how big it was. While it is huge it is also beautiful the Sxga display is worth every cent the upgrade costed me and I would have payed double that for this screen it is amazingly clear. I havent gotten to in depth with much software yet but I have installed pccillin and Half life 2. I have not had a problem with half life 2 yet and I havent even begun to OC the video card. Everything I have done with this lappy so far has looked absolutely gorgeous.
After using this laptop for 15 minutes on a full charge I have noticed the battery has dropped from 100% to 79% and that is just while typing this review and nothing else running in the background so I am guessing the battery life leaves alot to be desired and for all of you considering this laptop for school use or "on the go" computing I might consider something smaller with better battery life. Now I know I did say that the laptop was very large but at the same time it doesnt present much of a challenge to carry around well at least for myself anyways. Its not very heavy at about 12 pounds and I dont even notice it is in my backpack when I take it somewhere.
I have also noticed that even on some of the more routine applications this laptop tends to run very hot. After surfing these boards for several months and doing some research I decided I would order the pacific breeze notebook cooler. (Model no. cf300-neb) from newegg for 17.99, which to me is a great value and almost a must have for the 7700. The pacific breeze is nice because it is very small and does an amazing job of cooling my notebook. You simply put it Under the rear portion of your notebook plug it in to the usb and turn it on. It also provides a nice angle for typing on the laptop with the rear end raised just a bit. An ease of use factor that I could not go without after being so lucky to enjoy.
To tote this large lappy around I chose the Targus XL backpack. The laptop fits inside rather nicely and the backpack has pleanty of room for other things as well.
basicly folks this laptop is fast and has handles everything I have thrown at it without ever even coming close to showing a sign it was being tested. I have not done any benchmarking yet because I would like to at least have my gpu clocked at 300/300 before performing these tests. Pics will hopefully soon follow as I almost have enough money to get myself a decent digital camera.
Pros- Insanely Blisteringly fast, beautiful in everyway,Just about everything about this machine is a pro in my mind.
Cons- Very large, runs very hot (which is easily fixed by purchasing the cooler I mentioned above.) Sound could be better (it squeaks every now and then on mine) The wireless pcmcia card they provided me since I chose that option was an effin joke I went down and got the linksys and now I get signal from nearly anywhere on my street. DO NOT ORDER AW'S PCMCIA it just doesnt work at least from my experience.
Well folks I am 200% satisfied with AW, whether you are talkin about customer service or with the actual product itself they did their job and they did it to perfection. I will definetely be an AW customer for many years to come and I hope everyone out there who is reading all those bad reviews reads mine as well because it is far to often the people with bad experiences speak out but not often enough the satisfied customers speak their minds.
Hope that helps guys, I will work on some pics and things in the near future (Lappy ate up all my money so digital camera has to wait a few more days.) I appreciate all the help all of you have give me since I have been here and if this helps even one person than it was worth writing. Any questions feel free to ask.
