Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C with AMD Radeon HD 7970M/Geforce GTX 675M

[nizmoz]

Sorry guys, actually canceled my ordered and went with the XPS. Main reason I am buying a laptop is power but also portability and carrying that thing was just not going to be that easy.

Maybe in the future.

[Phistachio]

Sorry guys, actually canceled my ordered and went with the XPS. Main reason I am buying a laptop is power but also portability and carrying that thing was just not going to be that easy.

Maybe in the future.

What are the specs of the XPS 15? What about its weight?

[nizmoz]

5.8 lb, i7 3612QM, 8gb 1600mhz ram, Nvidia 640M 2gb (I don't play games often on my laptop since I have a powerful home desktop for that), 15.6" FHD WLED 1080P 1920x1080 (just as good as the Samsung I have been told but not 120hz). 4W Waves MAXX Audio speakers, 750GB 7200rpm HD 32Msata, blu-ray dvd-rw, chicklet backlite keyboard, alum casing like the Macbook pro, Magnesium palmrest with soft touch paint, 9 cel battery.

I will upgrade the ram soon, and maybe the HD to SSD but no hurry on that.

All set and done about $150 cheaper than the Samsung after the discounts, and ecoupon.

[hsncool]

Glad you're happy with it! This laptop is indeed a masterpiece! It's perfect for people that like to game but are also non-gamers in real life, so people will see that you have an awesome business laptop, and not a overly-gamer looking laptop like the Alienware

Plus, the backlight in the keyboard is about perfect!

The design of this Samsung is genius IMO, and I would take a 40% worse GPU (GTX675M vs 7970M) for a better more mature design any day

i couldn't agree with you more! i was close to getting a clevo, with a better spec for less money, but so glad i didnt. this keyboard is amazing, and i know i would be so frustrated with the clevo one.. it doesnt even have a context-menu key which i use a lot! (even though you do need the fn key to use it on the samsung)

yeah, to be fair, im not really a gamer either, so im not massively fussed about the 7970, but i would have liked the 3d aspect, i wouldn't have minded getting into producing some 3d video, so would have gone nicely with my 3d camcorder and tv's. that was the main reason i wanted it... hopefully someone will make a workaround of nvidia drivers to get the kit working though...

since having the laptop, ive not been using it for anything major, as im waiting for the delivery of a samsung 830 256gb ssd and i'm only going to have to reinstall windows again, so its been more a case of just trying stuff out on it....
i've noticed i've "started to game" a little, i think i wasnt a gamer before because i never invested into good graphics lol.

i love the laptop, tis great. its big, but to be honest, no more effort to hurl around than my old 17", the thickness makes it feel its just on a tiny laptop stand.

it does get marked very easily, the keys, touchpad and palmrest, and lid is extremely prone to acquiring marks, grease and dirt that u have no idea where came from.

it does annoy me that the 120hz only works on higher levels of brightness.

also, the lighting could be slightly better, the red of the WASD keys is noticeably lacking towards the right of the D... the blue bar that separates trackpad from buttons is brighter on the edges, and annoyingly, i have a tiny non-lit section in the middle.....


it looks like i'm being really picky, but it doesnt capture well on camera due to the light, its much more noticable and annoying..

other annoyances, gaming mode, they've made a full 1080p swf transition, and a full 1080p background, but the screensaver is sooo damn pixelated its disgusting!

gestures wise, i have likes and dislikes...
i like the 2finger scroll. i have very strong negative feelings towards apple as a company, but credit where credit's due, their 2finger scroll is flawless!
instead of scrolling in chunks of lines like other laptops, the samsung tries to be as smooth as possible, BUT if u let go of the trackpad mid scroll, allowing the computer to keep scrolling to a gradual halt, its quite jumpy and actually slows down your productivity in scrolling through a page. if you want to quickly get to the bottom of a long page with multiple scrolling swipes, you've actually got to scroll and stop before letting go and re-swiping... im sorry if this doesnt make sense..

what i really like however is,
"3 fingers up" = opens my computer SO USEFUL!
"3fingers down" = flick between tasks, much easier than alt-tab if using 1hand
"3fingers left and right" = back and forward...
i love these, but i feel like apple will have patents... hope they dont ban the laptop lol.

also, a question, has any1 noticed that theres noticably more heat and air throughput on the left vent than the right? are these two independent heatsinks? is one graphics and one cpu?

and has anyone worked out an order to reinstall drivers? when i get my ssd, i could just use the recovery disks, but i have a licence for win7pro, so would rather use that. i feel like this sandisk 8gb chache ssd is going to cause driver problems if not installed in the correct order...

[smdnote]

and has anyone worked out an order to reinstall drivers? when i get my ssd, i could just use the recovery disks, but i have a licence for win7pro, so would rather use that. i feel like this sandisk 8gb chache ssd is going to cause driver problems if not installed in the correct order...

Driver Installation Sequence

1. Chipset Driver

2. ExpressCache Driver

3. USB 3.0 Driver

4. Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver

5. HECI Driver

6. NVIDIA Graphics Driver

7. HDMI Driver

8. Audio Driver

9. LAN Driver

10. Wireless Network Driver

11. Bluetooth Driver

12. Media Card Reader Driver

13. Touchpad Driver

*NOTE: Restart laptop after each driver install.*

[PubFiction]

What do you mean your not a gamer in real life but you are a gamer. Is that like a closet gamer?
I swear this beastly computer is just for excel guys. lol

[dragonwolf8504]

also, a question, has any1 noticed that theres noticably more heat and air throughput on the left vent than the right? are these two independent heatsinks? is one graphics and one cpu?

Yes there is separate cooling for the graphics and cpu. As you noticed. The left contains the heatsink for the gpu and the right is the cpu. Due to the fact the gpu produces more heat it's more noticeable. My Asus G73JH and 53SW was the same way, though reversed. So it's not entirely new to me. But I know others this may be the first time. It is a smart design and helps keep things cooler when compared to the single vent system. Compared to my other laptops this is a really nice one and I love it. The only true concern I have is: How long will the Express Cache last? I'm sure it'll last for the time I own the laptop (a couple of years at least) but I do worry about what happens when it degrades in performance just like any other flash chip will over time. Anyone hear about a life expectancy on the Cache System? And if it'll cut down on performance once it dies? Maybe disable it? (How would I do that? Specially if I install an SSD.) Other than that nothing else bad for me.

[dragonwolf8504]

It comes with a dvd, doesn't that have everything you need? I would hope so in the case that there is a hardware failure with the main drive that has the recovery partition.

A little late in responding, sorry. I have a DVD but when I looked at the contents it just shows Windows 7 stuff. I didn't see a Drivers install or anything. So unless I missed something (possible) or Samsung slipstreamed the drivers into the install (also possible considering the disc states for use with the laptop) I can't find the drivers on a disc. (unless I am missing the driver disc.) I know I can download them and did that. But that wouldn't solve anything if someone did a fresh install and didn't know the disc didn't have the drivers.

[bhorrar]

Is anyone having issues with the backlight/brightness of the screen only having on/off functionality? The slider does nothing until you hit 50% and then the backlight cuts off and there is no visibility.

[zziplex]

can the cpu be replaced?