Sporting a 17” 1920x1200-pixel display, the D900F is designed to provide moderate portability with little sacrifice in performance. Its 14.4 pound transit weight (including adapter) almost tops the 17” notebook class, but much of that weight is concentrated in the extra cooling and power required for its Core i7-965 Extreme desktop processor. A sore shoulder is the price we pay for performance, and its certainly easier to lug around than a desktop, monitor, and peripherals.
Eurocom provides custom metallic paint on the display lid, highlighted with an inset brushed-aluminum panel. The base is also framed in custom high-gloss paint.
Power and DVI connectors are found on the rear panel, while HDMI is located on the left side. We would have preferred to see both connectors on the back to ease clutter on the sides, but the Core i7 processor’s extensive cooling demanded additional ventilation slots instead.
Desktop users might be surprised to see that high-end notebooks still come with telephone modems, but business travelers might find these useful for sending faxes. A high-speed path to external storage is provided in eSATA, while high-end legacy devices can instead use the 400 megabit FireWire port.
Also found on the left side are Gigabit Ethernet, an ExpressCard slot, a multi-format flash card drive, and the Blu-ray Disk player/DVD burner. Our configuration did not include a TV tuner, though the connector is still present.
The D900F Panther's right side connectors are limited to four USB 2.0 ports.
Front panel connections include line-level audio input, digital audio out, microphone, and headphone jacks. We prefer to see these on the left side, since cable clutter at the front of a notebook can be difficult to manage.
An 11A, 220W power brick almost resembles an actual brick in size, but this sort of large adapter is a requirement for the combination of Core i7-series processor and high-end graphics.
- Defining The Mobile Workstation
- Eurocom D900F Panther
- Panther Guts
- MSI GT725-212US
- Inside MSI's GT725
- Practical Notes On Using Secondary Displays
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: 3D Games
- Benchmark Results: Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Synthetic
- Power Use, Battery Life, And Efficiency
- Conclusion






Just look at the game selection, 2 games based on the same engine that heavily favor nVidia Architecture and 1 that is more processor bound.
Second fastest mobile processor vs second-fastest desktop processor, it shows the weakness of mobile CPUs AND the weakness of the latest notebook GPU's.
It had to be compared to something...and it's the only notebook platform available with Core i7 so you can forget about that type of comparison.
The real point of picking the MSI notebook was to compare the HD 4850 to the GTX 280m. None of Tom's Hardware's suppliers were able to deliver an HD 4870 notebook.
I'm not that familiar with those kinds of power supply, but isn't that way to low for these kinds of hardware setups?
Did you look at the power draw numbers on Page 12?
Just look at the game selection, 2 games based on the same engine that heavily favor nVidia Architecture and 1 that is more processor bound.
Is there a way Toms could add external temps of the casing?
Asus has actually discontinued that product, unfortunately.
So sure you can put in the extreme 965 CPU, compare it to the budget mobile quad, just cos you could; but the fact of the matter is, that’s pointless, as is this review. What you’re getting by paying the extra $3000 can only be considered diminishing return, by anyone but most demanding power users. Also Eurocom is known to list extortionate prices on their site; where as if you contact them, they would price match against other resellers, save you a lot of money.
The extra you pay on the Sager brings much greater degree of upgradability, CPU, Ram,GPU, HDD, etc, you name it.
Intel i9 is just around the corner, with wholesome 12 threads. Three Sodimm brings more affordable Ram upgrade; later GPU MMX standard is certain to support the next gen GT 300 GPU.
By contrast, if you get GT 725 now, you'd save a few hundred bucks, but would have to buy a whole new laptop if you want mobile version of i7, or next gen GPU for that matter. The Core 2 brand is being phased out, Next gen CPU, GPU, Ram, won’t work in 725, it’s a bloody dead end, and just about all the parts on 725 are soldered in. Upgradability is important aspect of an investment, if at this stage of Core 2 life cycle, you opt for a Core 2 CPU powered laptop, then you’re a fool.
The Mobility HD 4850 was the fastest ATI graphics Tom's Hardware could get for comparison, and the only notebook Tom's Hardware could get with Mobility HD 4850 was the GT725. Knowing that the HD 4850 should be competitive with any G92-based card, this shouldn't have been such a big problem in games. Unfortunately, MSI's card thermal throttled due to a cooling issue, screwing up the game results. The heat problem cannot be easily fixed, and Tom's couldn't secure a substitute ATI graphics notebook of a high-enough graphics calibre to replace the GT725.
Now, get you hands on a Alienware M17x for benching with dual graphics cards and overclockable mobile CPU.
Now, get you hands on a Alienware M17x for benching with dual graphics cards and overclockable mobile CPU.
Do you have one to lend? Because Alienware said it would take a little over a month to deliver one.
Yup. The price comparison is quite skewed. But even with the price-break diminishing-return effect on these top-end parts, it's still more money than if you bought it from another vendor. Even though Eurocom does a portion of Clevo's design work, they charge 20% more for the machine a two dozen resellers would otherwise. You'd think they'd be the guys before the middleman - so much for "buying direct", I guess.
The desktop-replacement segment has been around for some time now, so the specs of powerhouse Clevo derivatives aren't as exotic or compelling as they once were say, ten years ago.
But you are right - we are looking at a greater number of desktop parts crammed inside, so aside from the less-than-stellar graphics numbers this time around (expect a few resellers to remedy this in time), not only obviously performance, but the upgrade capability of these things remains more or less unmatched as far as notebooks go.
That (robust upgradeability that is), not ultimately price, lightweight portability, heat output, or battery life is of far more concern to its target buyers. I would think (or have thought) this was clear to most readers.
If you read the final two paragraphs of the conclusion you'll see that it's mentioned that this is an incredibly powerful workhorse notebook, and that's why the "Mobile Workstation" name make sense.