Clevo 9800m GTX Laptop

[Franklinwallbrown]

I was just wondering what parts you guys could find for this Clevo laptop. It would seem to me that you could buy the base with the better screen and the 9800m GTX for $2500 and the get the BluRay drive, Better CPU (if you want one), HDD, Turbo Memory Card, RAM, and wireless card. I know they soder in the VGA (right?), so , you can't upgrade that. I have found the wireless card and turbo memory card (I found the 2gb model, but it doesn't look like you can trust the sites), but they are both Mini PCIe and I don't know if you can have both. I found cheaper bluray drives (shopping on google), but I don't know which ones would fit. RAM is easy. OSs are easy. What do you guys think?

The cheapest 2gb turbo memory card I could find came to $47.53 shipped. So, it really isn't worth it to buy a turbo memory card aftermarket.

I tried to find a cheaper screen for it, but I couldn't. Can you buy better quality screens for Laptops?

I found a cheap slim Blu Ray drive. Any good?

If you would want the x9100 it would be cheaper to get it from them (according to my research), but I believe all the other CPUs would be better to purchase aftermarket (according to my research the t9600 would be the best deal).

[irongun324]

I have the previous model with the 8800M GTX, and I wasn't aware that they soldered the GPU in as PCMW indicates wholesale upgrades and whatnot with their warranty. I believe these GPU's are a socket type that can be interchanged (MXM III-modular in the case of the 88/9800 GTX's.)

Either way, the laptop runs great, but I wouldn't consider the TurboMem too much, my laptop doesn't have the module installed according to their tech guys it causes too many problems with Vista on this laptop.

For the options, the deal they were running at time of my purchase (Memorial day weekend) had the 4gb ram, wireless-n, and the 2.5 cpu at fairly discounted upgrades. The laptop was about $2000 for me, $2400 total with warranty and change. Might see if they will run similar sales around Labor day weekend.

My Specs:
2.5GHZ Intel Dual core
4gb ddr3 ram
8800M GTX 512mb
1900x1200 resolution (WUXGA? I forget)
Vista Home Premium 64bit.

Not to tread on TPU forum space, but I found a great source of laptop specific knowledge at forums.notebookreview.com .

[Franklinwallbrown]

What about with XP64 (is it viable anymore?)?
How is DDR3 doing in general?
How would you go about purchasing a mobile vga (if you can?)?

[irongun324]

Updated my system specs. I was incorrect as to the ram and believe I actually have dd2 ram. Sorry!

I had actually planned on using XP64 with my laptop, I still had a copy to install. However, I had a really hard time getting everything to work properly on the laptop. It was one thing after another getting drivers to recognize hardware and work at appropriate speeds. In the end VHP64 was a breeze compared to the xp64. Only had to call the tech guys once to get an updated card-reader driver, as the one on my cd was corrupt or something (caused pc to almost completely lock up, killing most programs/applications when i plugged in an SD card).

Also, I haven't check in a while, but I had to do a bit of driver swapping to get a decent one to work. I was comparing against my old desktop (athlon 64 x2 4400+, 7600 GT, 2gb ram) and was getting half or worse framerates until I found a decent set of drivers (ended up using desktop drivers with a modded config to work on laptop). Once setup it works great, and is about 3x faster than my desktop (all stock, no overclocks - yet).

I haven't called the company about it yet, but I get the impression its a pretty normal process with PCMW to call and order the new VGA over the phone and either ship the laptop to have it exchanged, or they also seem pretty keen on letting you swap it yourself with instructions over the phone to maintain warranty.

[Franklinwallbrown]

VHP64 FTW!

I hate drivers!

I didn't know you could call a company to get a new mobile vga. Why doesn't Newegg carry them?

I found the 8800m on their website, but I didn't find the 9800m.

[irongun324]

I don't know specifically, I imagine because swapping mobile parts is a bit more involved usually.

As for calling the company, that's going to depend on the company. When i shopped for my laptop, I made sure to calculate their warranty costs, benefits into my decision because being a laptop I wanted to make sure it would last. Part of my warranty is the trade up/wholesale upgrade option. I'm not really sure if it's all its cracked up to be, but we'll see.

[Franklinwallbrown]

Keep me posted.