Core i7 Laptop Maker Talks to Us About Merits

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Intel's Core i7 is one of the most innovative CPU releases to date. It's fast, efficient, and cutting edge. The thing about cutting edge though, is that you'll often pay a premium to gain access.

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16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Why not throw something more power efficient in there? A 95w Core2 or AM3 Phenom II quad is a much better choice for something like this, not a 130w quad that runs at 80c(probably hotter in a laptop). I'm going to laugh if they get sued out of existence because people are getting 3rd degree burns from it.
    Reply
  • well i think if you use one of those rolling bags it's a great laptop otherwise a big back pain
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  • Greatwalrus
    LawsuitFanboyWhy not throw something more power efficient in there? A 95w Core2 or AM3 Phenom II quad is a much better choice for something like this, not a 130w quad that runs at 80c(probably hotter in a laptop). I'm going to laugh if they get sued out of existence because people are getting 3rd degree burns from it.
    I agree, especially if the consumer is going to take the system to LAN parties and use it mainly for gaming. Go for (good) dual or tri core processor and a better video card.
    Reply
  • leafblower29
    That must run very hot.
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  • fulle
    Its a balancing act between the Graphics card and the Processor. If you have a really fast graphics card, and a slow processor, you get bottle-necked by the processor. If you have a really fast Processor, with a slower Graphics card, you get bottle-necked by the Graphics card. This isn't rocket science.

    So, when you have a little GeForce GTX 280M Graphics w/1GB GDDR3 graphics card, you can only get so much out of it. You need a processor that's fast enough not to bottleneck the graphics card, but once you hit a certain point diminishing returns really start to set in, and it becomes pointless. Considering the power of the GTX 280M... the i7 CPU is waaay overkill, and completely unnecessary, just making the system less power efficient, and hot.

    With laptops especially, its imporntant to have a well balanced machine. If its matching components that don't pair well, its price performance ratio really suffers, battery life suffers, and people don't buy it. There's not going to be too many of these sold... I'd be surprised if there is any difference in gaming FPS on a Sager NP5797 vs a Sager NP9280.
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  • porksmuggler
    it screams niche market, there will always be people sold on the newest components, regardless of value/performance. go for it, how else to boutique builders keep their margin.
    Reply
  • RADIO_ACTIVE
    I'm running a Sager NP9262 with an E6850 in it and 2 7950gtx cards in it. The thing is a beast! I like it because its easy to move anywhere, where as my desktop is very stationary (Thermaltake Armor case HUGE!) and both play games very well.
    Reply
  • jaragon13
    LawsuitFanboyWhy not throw something more power efficient in there? A 95w Core2 or AM3 Phenom II quad is a much better choice for something like this, not a 130w quad that runs at 80c(probably hotter in a laptop). I'm going to laugh if they get sued out of existence because people are getting 3rd degree burns from it.Well, AMD really invented the Core i7 for Intel, Intel packaged it with their 10 billion dollars of development money.
    Truly, I want to see a laptop that features a Server CPU rather than a desktop or laptop - something with desktop speed abilities, but doesn't take as much power ( server CPU's are certified to run on less )
    Reply
  • frozenlead
    They seem to be talking a lot about the chassis which they didn't even make. That's a Clevo product, there.
    Reply
  • nittanylancer
    Don't buy an AVADirect. Seriously, don't. I worked for a major defense contractor and we were forced to buy their boxed due to their minority ownership and status as a preferred vendor.

    We never, ever, ever got a box that lasted more than 6 months before a major part failure. Usually they wouldn't last 6 days. We had scores die from bad power supplies. We had a good number come HORRIBLY configured (IE Linux boxes that wouldn't even boot into the OS). We had boxes come in missing software licenses (which we were required to have for auditing purposes) and were often told they don't provide licenses... even after we would pay for them and EXPLICITLY require them.

    Our systems engineers would call their rep, who's name I believe was "Misha" or something, on a daily basis to get a part replaced or send a whole box back. Their QA and assembly was horrific... they sent us pics once and it looked to be teenagers in a garage.

    Side by side, you'd see a dozen AVADirect boxes die with a dozen Dell's (actually Concurrent re-badges) run fine and dandy.

    Seriously, we ordered HUNDREDS of systems over the years, and wasted millions of dollars in man-hours fixing their delivered products. It's not like we got a bad systems here or there... we NEVER got a good one.

    Do yourself a favor and avoid.
    Reply