Merlin_0525
08-04-2008, 08:41 PM
Going to try reposting here, since posting in the "Which laptop should I buy" forum seems to be broken for me...Does anyone else see my topic but get emptiness when they click on it?
I'm pretty much deciding between the NP7680 and the Force 3551. I just included the NP2096 because it seems to be popular, and I'm not completely decided yet. The other Centrino 2 laptops are either out of my budget (around $1500) or have better "bang for the buck" competitors (GS vs GT).
I'm going to be using the laptop for basic university stuff: classes and (light) gaming. For class, I'd like a laptop that is silent and has a decent battery life (in case there isn't an outlet). For gaming, I will probably be playing games like Guild Wars, Warcraft III, Starcraft II, Guild Wars II, etc. Nothing too graphically demanding like Crysis or other FPS's. I also don't mind playing in medium-low graphics: I'm more concerned about fps than looks, although looks are always nice.
I configured the three laptops similarly, and got, in terms of differences:
Sager NP7680: 256MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9300M GS w/ up to 512MB Turbo Cache DDR2 DX10, 7-in-1 Card Reader, 6-Cell, 64&32 Bit Vista CD's, Fingerprint Reader
Sager NP2096: 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR2 DX10, 3-in-1 Card Reader, 9-Cell, 64&32 Bit Vista CD's, Fingerprint Reader
Force-3551: 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR3 DX10, 4-in-1 Card Reader, 6-Cell, 64 Bit Vista CD, Number Pad
Essentially, $95 to go from 9300GS to 9600GT, and $150 to go from DDR2 to DDR3.
The things that worry me are the heatsink on the right side on the Force, the port placement above the heat sink on the 7680, and the battery on the 2096. The hinges on the Sager also look fragile in the pictures.
Any thoughts? Opinions? Recommendations?
Also, a few questions:
1. WSXGA vs. WSXGA+ - Does one use up more power than the other? I would assume that the WSXGA+ screen, having more pixels, would require more power. Exactly how much, however, I don't know, as well as whether any change in battery life would be noticeable.
2. P8400 vs P9500 - I read that the P8400 processor is a better value than the P9500 processor. From what I understand, the 6MB vs 3MB cache will only offer about a 5% performance boost, fairly unnoticeable in real world use, while the minor clock speed increase is negligible. Is the correct?
3. Custom Skinning - Where does the skin go? In the Exterior Finish FAQ Article thing (http://www.xoticpc.com/exterior-finish-option-a-10.html), some of the pictures show the Lid and Keyboard/Touch pad as...er...colored. Also, will the skin cover the entire laptop lid like the first picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/nvidia5793.gif), or only part of it like the third picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/9262nightmare1.jpg)?
I also do not know much about skins...Are they essentially stickers? Do they tend to peel at the corners with time? Do they leave a sticky residue once removed (I read somewhere that they don't)? And once removed, can they be reattached?
4. Robson Turbo Memory - I understand its fairly useless right now, and in fact may even slow down performance in some cases. But I read that an update from Intel will essentially make this a small SSD for loading applications. Would this be worth the $45?
5. I read somewhere that the Force 3551's logo is the XoticPC logo. What does this look like? (eg. Blue like the top of this forum, red like on the website, is it just the or is XoticPC next to it?)
6. When can we expect reviews for the Clevo-M762TU, Compal JHL90, and MSI-1651? I know some of these notebooks haven't been released yet...but around how long after they're released before we see reviews?
Thanks for reading!
I'm pretty much deciding between the NP7680 and the Force 3551. I just included the NP2096 because it seems to be popular, and I'm not completely decided yet. The other Centrino 2 laptops are either out of my budget (around $1500) or have better "bang for the buck" competitors (GS vs GT).
I'm going to be using the laptop for basic university stuff: classes and (light) gaming. For class, I'd like a laptop that is silent and has a decent battery life (in case there isn't an outlet). For gaming, I will probably be playing games like Guild Wars, Warcraft III, Starcraft II, Guild Wars II, etc. Nothing too graphically demanding like Crysis or other FPS's. I also don't mind playing in medium-low graphics: I'm more concerned about fps than looks, although looks are always nice.
I configured the three laptops similarly, and got, in terms of differences:
Sager NP7680: 256MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9300M GS w/ up to 512MB Turbo Cache DDR2 DX10, 7-in-1 Card Reader, 6-Cell, 64&32 Bit Vista CD's, Fingerprint Reader
Sager NP2096: 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR2 DX10, 3-in-1 Card Reader, 9-Cell, 64&32 Bit Vista CD's, Fingerprint Reader
Force-3551: 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 9600M GT DDR3 DX10, 4-in-1 Card Reader, 6-Cell, 64 Bit Vista CD, Number Pad
Essentially, $95 to go from 9300GS to 9600GT, and $150 to go from DDR2 to DDR3.
The things that worry me are the heatsink on the right side on the Force, the port placement above the heat sink on the 7680, and the battery on the 2096. The hinges on the Sager also look fragile in the pictures.
Any thoughts? Opinions? Recommendations?
Also, a few questions:
1. WSXGA vs. WSXGA+ - Does one use up more power than the other? I would assume that the WSXGA+ screen, having more pixels, would require more power. Exactly how much, however, I don't know, as well as whether any change in battery life would be noticeable.
2. P8400 vs P9500 - I read that the P8400 processor is a better value than the P9500 processor. From what I understand, the 6MB vs 3MB cache will only offer about a 5% performance boost, fairly unnoticeable in real world use, while the minor clock speed increase is negligible. Is the correct?
3. Custom Skinning - Where does the skin go? In the Exterior Finish FAQ Article thing (http://www.xoticpc.com/exterior-finish-option-a-10.html), some of the pictures show the Lid and Keyboard/Touch pad as...er...colored. Also, will the skin cover the entire laptop lid like the first picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/nvidia5793.gif), or only part of it like the third picture (http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish/9262nightmare1.jpg)?
I also do not know much about skins...Are they essentially stickers? Do they tend to peel at the corners with time? Do they leave a sticky residue once removed (I read somewhere that they don't)? And once removed, can they be reattached?
4. Robson Turbo Memory - I understand its fairly useless right now, and in fact may even slow down performance in some cases. But I read that an update from Intel will essentially make this a small SSD for loading applications. Would this be worth the $45?
5. I read somewhere that the Force 3551's logo is the XoticPC logo. What does this look like? (eg. Blue like the top of this forum, red like on the website, is it just the or is XoticPC next to it?)
6. When can we expect reviews for the Clevo-M762TU, Compal JHL90, and MSI-1651? I know some of these notebooks haven't been released yet...but around how long after they're released before we see reviews?
Thanks for reading!