GONNA BUY NOTEBOOK THIS MONTH NEED HELP

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   I'm looking to purchase a new notebook this month. My budget and goal is to get the best bang for buck with a serious system that is still relatively portable at about $3000 hopefully not going above $3500.  I have priced and configured the clevo w870cu and w880cu and will choose one of these. They seem to be my best bets. I'm leaning towards the w870cu because its dramatically less and the only difference I see is the graphics card (hd 5870 vs gtx480m). Most my games i play on my xbox 360 but I'm still a casual gamer/multitasker/student/business/traveling type needing a desktop replacement I have researched as much as I could on plenty of sites and yours checking out the specs of most components and feel this is a really good system for my needs. However I still have some questions and concerns. 

When will I be able to get the i7-840qm instead of the i7-820qm? I figure that either of these choices will be my best bang for buck instead of the extreme i7's. Can these be overclocked even more? What price difference would I be looking at? 
Should I be concerned or hold on for USB 3.0? 
What about 6gb/s transfer rates becoming more standard over the 3gb/s? 
And finally just how upgradeable would this notebook be for future by me the user?  

This is the system I am leaning towards. Any comments or recommendations?

+ GAMING NOTEBOOK, Clevo W870CU Core™i7 Gaming Notebook, 17.3" Full HD TFT Glossy LCD, GeForce® GTX 285M / Radeon™ HD 5870 / Quadro® FX 2800M Graphics1

$2866.82

CLEVO, W870CU Core™ i7 Notebook Barebone, Intel® PM55, 17.3" Full HD TFT Glossy, DVD±RW SM, BT, FPR, PCIe x16 MXM-III Discrete Graphics INTEL, Core™ i7-820QM Quad-Core 1.733GHz, 2.5 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 45W, OEM TUNIQ, TX-3 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Electrically Non-Conductive ATI, ATI® Radeon™ HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Mobile Graphics Card for W870CU MUSHKIN, 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-10666 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM, CL9, Non-ECC OCZ, 120GB Vertex 2 SSD, MLC, 285/275 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, Retail SEAGATE, 500GB Momentus® XT, 7200 RPM, 32MB cache, 4GB Hybrid SLC SSD, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s NCQ, OEM RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives CLEVO, Blu-Ray Burner and Super-Multi DVD±RW Optical Drive for Clevo W870CU / W880CU NETWORK, Built-in Mbps Ethernet LAN Card INTEL, Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 Wireless Card, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, Mbps, Internal PCIe Half Mini Card CLEVO, Internal Bluetooth for W870CU / W880CU Notebooks (Included) MODEM, 56K V90/92 Fax/Modem (Integrated) NOTEBOOK ACCESSORY, AC Adapter 100-240V (Included) NOTEBOOK ACCESSORY, Built-in Fingerprint Reader (Included)

Thank You

Dominic MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition, OEM

Edited by dviper84 - 06 Jul 2010 at 12:01pm

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dviper84 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AVADirect Noob Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 3	Quote Reply Topic: GONNA BUY NOTEBOOK THIS MONTH NEED HELP Posted: 06 Jul 2010 at 2:15am
	I'm looking to purchase a new notebook this month. My budget and goal is to get the best bang for buck with a serious system that is still relatively portable at about $3000 hopefully not going above $3500. I have priced and configured the clevo w870cu and w880cu and will choose one of these. They seem to be my best bets. I'm leaning towards the w870cu because its dramatically less and the only difference I see is the graphics card (hd 5870 vs gtx480m). Most my games i play on my xbox 360 but I'm still a casual gamer/multitasker/student/business/traveling type needing a desktop replacement I have researched as much as I could on plenty of sites and yours checking out the specs of most components and feel this is a really good system for my needs. However I still have some questions and concerns. When will I be able to get the i7-840qm instead of the i7-820qm? I figure that either of these choices will be my best bang for buck instead of the extreme i7's. Can these be overclocked even more? What price difference would I be looking at? Should I be concerned or hold on for USB 3.0? What about 6gb/s transfer rates becoming more standard over the 3gb/s? And finally just how upgradeable would this notebook be for future by me the user? This is the system I am leaning towards. Any comments or recommendations? + GAMING NOTEBOOK, Clevo W870CU Core™i7 Gaming Notebook, 17.3" Full HD TFT Glossy LCD, GeForce® GTX 285M / Radeon™ HD 5870 / Quadro® FX 2800M Graphics1 $2866.82 CLEVO, W870CU Core™ i7 Notebook Barebone, Intel® PM55, 17.3" Full HD TFT Glossy, DVD±RW SM, BT, FPR, PCIe x16 MXM-III Discrete Graphics INTEL, Core™ i7-820QM Quad-Core 1.733GHz, 2.5 GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 45W, OEM TUNIQ, TX-3 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Electrically Non-Conductive ATI, ATI® Radeon™ HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Mobile Graphics Card for W870CU MUSHKIN, 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-10666 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM, CL9, Non-ECC OCZ, 120GB Vertex 2 SSD, MLC, 285/275 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, Retail SEAGATE, 500GB Momentus® XT, 7200 RPM, 32MB cache, 4GB Hybrid SLC SSD, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s NCQ, OEM RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives CLEVO, Blu-Ray Burner and Super-Multi DVD±RW Optical Drive for Clevo W870CU / W880CU NETWORK, Built-in Mbps Ethernet LAN Card INTEL, Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 Wireless Card, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, Mbps, Internal PCIe Half Mini Card CLEVO, Internal Bluetooth for W870CU / W880CU Notebooks (Included) MODEM, 56K V90/92 Fax/Modem (Integrated) NOTEBOOK ACCESSORY, AC Adapter 100-240V (Included) NOTEBOOK ACCESSORY, Built-in Fingerprint Reader (Included) Thank You Dominic MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition, OEM Edited by dviper84 - 06 Jul 2010 at 12:01pm

TravisBortz Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AVADirect Noob Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Location: Twinsburg, Ohio Posts: 24	Quote Reply Posted: 06 Jul 2010 at 5:36pm
	There is not an exact date when the i7-840QM will be available. Your are correct however, as either of these choices will be the best bang for your buck. No, you should not be concerned about the USB 3.0. As far as the 6gb/s transfer rates becoming more standard over the 3gb/s, time will tell but as it provides a faster performance, idealing it will become more standard. Yes, your notebook will be upgradeable in the future.

dviper84 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AVADirect Noob Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 3	Quote Reply Posted: 07 Jul 2010 at 12:06pm
	hey man, thanks for that info and being so quick to respond. so basically everything down to the processor and gpu is even upgradeable? Do they both run on the same motherboard? Also is the 920xm the only extreme processor the clevo can handle? So what would you recommend i do, wait for the newer i7's?

TravisBortz Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AVADirect Noob Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Location: Twinsburg, Ohio Posts: 24	Quote Reply Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 9:58am
	I can’t guarantee compatibility with the unknown, as I do not know what you will be upgrading to in the future, however the system is capable of upgrades pending compatibility. Also, remember with technology there are always newer faster components coming out for every system. If you wait for the newer i7 before you blink an eye there will be a new version coming out that’s better than that version. With that being said, its completely up to you whether you want to wait for certain components to be released or if you decide to purchase what is currently available.

dviper84 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AVADirect Noob Joined: 06 Jul 2010 Posts: 3	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 2:31am
	thanks man. you have been such a great help. don Are my options under the notebook configurater truly all i have? Am i stuck with no alternate choice of gpu on the clevo w880cu, other than the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 480M 2GB graphics. I am leaning towards this one because i feel like i would like to have the usb 3.0 onboard. I also noticed that under the processors the i7-820 has been pulled out. Any idea when it will be back or is this because the i7-840 will be carried instead of or in addition to? And i see that the gpu is on preorder, is that date given when you would revieve the gpu and start building or you just cant release the completed notebook until that date. Also, could you please recommend what you feel is the best sound card under $100 unless the onboard sound card is better than most of the choices on the configurator. Also which tv tuner item is the best choice for under $100, i have compared but can't decide just yet. i know its a lot of questions. its really appreciated though. thank you and this is my w880cu config choice, the item in red is where i would like the i7-840qm, can this be done. CLEVO W880CU Core™ i7 Notebook Barebone, Intel® PM55, 17.3" Full HD TFT Glossy, DVD±RW SM, BT, FPR, PCIe x16 MXM-III Discrete Graphics INTEL Core™ i7-720QM Quad-Core 1.6GHz, 2.5 GT/s QPI, 6MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 45W, Retail TUNIQ TX-3 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Electrically Non-Conductive NVIDIA (Pre-Order) GeForce® GTX 480M 2GB GDDR5 Mobile Graphics Card for W880CU MUSHKIN 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-10666 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM, CL9, Non-ECC OCZ 120GB Vertex 2 SSD, MLC, 285/275 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, Retail SEAGATE 500GB Momentus® XT, 7200 RPM, 32MB cache, 4GB Hybrid SLC SSD, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s NCQ, OEM RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives CLEVO Blu-Ray Burner and Super-Multi DVD±RW Optical Drive for Clevo W870CU / W880CU NETWORK Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN Card INTEL Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 Wireless Card, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, 11/54/450 Mbps, Internal PCIe Half Mini Card CLEVO Internal Bluetooth for W870CU / W880CU Notebooks (Included) MODEM 56K V90/92 Fax/Modem (Integrated) NOTEBOOK ACCESSORY AC Adapter 100-240V (Included) NOTEBOOK ACCESSORY Built-in Fingerprint Reader (Included) MICROSOFT Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition, OEM SERVICE System Binder WARRANTY Standard 1 Year Warranty for Clevo Notebooks

TravisBortz Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AVADirect Noob Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Location: Twinsburg, Ohio Posts: 24	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 3:22pm
	At the current time, yes NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480M graphic card is the only one. As stated above we do not have an exact date when the i7-840 will be released. Recommended sound card and tv tuner are as follows for under $100 CREATIVE Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Notebook, 24-bit 48KHz, ExpressCard/34 HAUPPAUGE WinTV-HVR-1500 MC-Kit TV Tuner, NSTC/ATSC/QAM, MCE Remote, ExpressCard/54, Retail