Give us a review when you get your laptop (from the seller's service to the laptop itself).

Hey guys, I'm planning to buy the NP8690. The specs and everything else are awesome. A question tho. Is it worth it to get the No Dead Pixel warranty? What about those who have had other models/same one? Any dead pixel issues?

Hmmm... What about warranty? Would a year be enough or should I get 2 years? I'm talking about the OFFICIAL warranty from Sager.

Just got my NP8690. IT's awesome! Although a bit heavy but it doesn't matter! Must do more testing later. Muahahahahahah! Thanks Mucro!

Price (excluding delivery) = RM 59xx
Specs: Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz
nVidiaGeForce GTX 280M
FHD WUXGA/GT Screen
4GB DDR3 RAM
320GB 7200RPM SATA II HDD
The rest are all stock. I seriously love the keyboard. Spacious and easy to type.

A total of 15 days. I ordered on the 10th of February. Payment made on the 11th and received on the 25th of February at 11am. The status was changed to 'Shipped' on the 21st of February.

Fuuhhh... The appearance... It's just superb. The screen is very clear and bright. The build quality is great. The LCD hinge feels a bit loose but it's OK for me. When I hold the laptop, I feel like I can't drop it even if I wanted to cuz it feels very solid.

A question: Do I need to keep the charger plugged in when I want to power on the laptop or can I remove the battery and keep the charger plugged in?

Maybe in a couple of days or maybe none at all. Since there are many people who have posted reviews of the laptop online. XD Annnnnndddddddd......... I just found 1 DEAD PIXEL!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! If I didn't find it.... I wouldn't be looking for it and now I'm doing exactly that.

I thought the battery would overheat @ lose some of it's charge if I turned on the charger for a long time? Or am I wrong? Any ideas on how I can lower my CPU temps? It's running at 5x on idle. My GPU on the other hand, 4x degrees.

Performance, that's true! It's just awesome to see so many windows of Paint opened at once to edit pictures.

I just took off the plastic that was covering the CPU heatsink. Temps dropped to <47 degrees with occasional 50s'. Woooohhhhoooo! I'm loving this laptop a lot. Too bad not much time to play with it since I have to work on my GF's Vostro which is on the verge of dying (aged 2 years) from dots across the screen. ~_~

Baaahhhhh.... If I waited another week to get the NP8960, I would've gotten the ATi HD5870 as an option. I wonder if I can upgrade to it. Mucro, any chance of this happening?

Refer to the link below and if you can't see the attached pictures, click on the thumbnail:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.p...5&postcount=269

There seems to be noticeable difference between the GTX285M and HD5870. The main point for me is that it runs cooler and that it is somewhat future proof. I can't and probably won't change laptops for another 3 years or so. Hopefully Mucro would be kind enough to let me swap my GTX280M for the HD5870.

Update:
Some updated Benchmarks:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.p...3&postcount=332
Hmmmm..... The MSAA: C16xQ seems to be a bummer. 0 FPS on both tests. @_@

And the price is much cheaper too! Tried the same configuration as my current laptop but with the HD5870 and the price came back at 5.5k excluding shipping. I really should've waited. But then again, I didn't know when the HD5870 would've come out. Oh well. Here's keeping my fingers crossed in hopes of swapping my GTX to HD5870.

This post has been edited by SonicSpyro: Mar 6 2010, 03:41 AM

Nah, it doesn't void your warranty in any way if you open the back cover. Besides, you most probably would need to re-do the thermal paste. I took a look at mine and the paste was basically, a very bad job. They put in too much. I read that many recommend the AS5 as a replacement thermal paste although Shin-Etsu X23-7783D is far better but that paste costs a bomb. Right now, I'm waiting to see if I can swap the cards and only then I'd re-do the thermal paste.

Right now, I'm doubtful of being able to swap it. I even contacted SagerNotebook.com and even they said I need to purchase the HD5870m. The disadvantages of purchasing from a reseller and also for living in MY. We don't get that many good deals, although Mucro's prices are already very cheap. Hopefully, something would work out and they'll accept a trade-in. I don't mind if I have to send back my system to them. I'll gladly pay for the shipping if it means getting the new card for free or something.

Update:
There's no chance for me to swap the cards, even though I pay for the difference in price between the cards and for shipment. Oh well.

This post has been edited by SonicSpyro: Mar 6 2010, 03:24 PM

Get the FHD screen if you have the extra cash. It's worth it. Trust me. I have the screen and I'm very satisfied. The GPU that you have there, is the fastest in the mobile computing world. The rest, are all good. Where are you ordering from? Xoticpc.com or Mucro.asia or SagerNotebook.com?

Edit:
Take a look at this review of the W870CU with HD5870 by The_Moo™:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=465201

Phenomenal performance and temp (after re-application of paste of course). I'm so gonna get the card now.

This post has been edited by SonicSpyro: Mar 7 2010, 06:48 PM

I kinda regret for not dealing with xoticpc.com. Their prices are just so much cheaper.

Extend warranty if you're living in US because you'd have to send it back there to fix. Otherwise, as stated by Mucro.Asia in this thread, you can go to Vital Computers at Lowyat to fix your laptop. I'm too lazy to search and properly quote the post. You can look it up yourself.

I opened up my laptop and saw:

GPU:


CPU:


Now I need to wait for the AS5 I ordered to re-do the paste job.

Stock paste job from Sager. @_@ So far it's all good. Waiting for my order to arrive then I re-do.

It is horrible but after I opened it up and spread the paste a bit more, temps actually went down by a bit. Before, I ran Granado Espada and got around 70 on CPU and 68 on GPU. Now, 66 on CPU and 60's on GPU. Haih.... I was wondering why my idle and load temps were too high. The ambient temperature here in MY is not THAT hot since it already started to rain again.

Hahahahaha. Yeah, that's the stock paste job from Sager. That's the first thing I noticed when I read through other forums. Many complained that their temps were too high and when some suggested that they check their paste job, they found a result which is almost similar to mine.

Ideal temps? The highest I've ever pushed on this laptop for CPU was 84 on 1 core. That is still within the safe limits. Be reminded that this was when the core was fully stressed. The max I got when I was gaming, GTA IV, after about 2 hours, for all the cores, was around 77 and for the GPU, 74. These are quite cool actually. Idle temps, should be around 40s' for the GPU and mid 40s' to low 50s' for the CPU.

No need to worry about it exploding. The laptop's heatsinks are massive and very cooling. Muahahahahah!

I'm staying in a room without air-cond and not using a cooler. Just using the table and the ceiling fan.

Here are my current temps (GE ran the whole night):


See how nice and cool that is. I imagine it to be cooler when I re-paste the CPU + GPU. Also, I've read that the laptop doesn't really need a cooler as the cooler only supplements it. Wait and see how yours goes first, then you will know if you need a cooler or not.

It's quite safe. I doubt that you'll get a screen that is so bad that you can't see anything. My screen, overall is perfect but it has one stuck pixel. Others have reported that their screens came in perfect. So, I doubt you'd have much to worry if you don't purchase the extra warranty.

@amduser:

What temps are you idling at? Using air-cond or cooler or something else? Could you post your temps at full load and at idle?