I want an i7 desktop CPU in a laptop.

The mobile i7 isn't due for a year, but I'm hoping to find one [custom] with a 920 in it. If anyone knows of one [or news of one upcoming], give me a link.


I know it is early, but I'll bump the thread from time to time. I'll also post if I find something.

Thanks.

 

The TDP of the i7s is 130W. I wouldn't count on it until they knock that down by a factor of 2 or so. That said, your best bet is probably Clevo -- they have a history of making powerful desktop replacements.

 

What do you need an i7 for that a current C2Q can't handle?

 

Not going to happen...at least not without a 17-19" notebook that is 2" thick.

 

I have a Toshiba SLi1. My next notebook I want to go all out and sli two of the best mobile GPUs and i7 scales better with multi GPUs.

And if you know how heavy the SLI1 is you know weight isn't an issue.

So while I don't expect to see anything very soon, by summer maybe with sli'd 9800m GTX or if there is news on good DX11 mobiles then, maybe that.

 

I'd rather upgrade my desktop than put that much heat into a laptop. Core i7 produces more heat than most desktop Quads and usually you need a heatsink like the following to keep it cool (especially for OCing):


Cooler Master V8 - Not necessarily required, but it's very good at keeping the i7 cool.


X58 mainboard size comparison

A desktop has more airflow, and doesn't need a heatsink if you plan to use the CPU under it's default voltage. You want a Core i7 920 into a laptop, not going to happen (unfortunately). It could be possible in a 17" or 18", I can see some like Sager or Falcon Northwest pulling it off, with extremely fat laptops, though their current mobile quads only have a TDP of around 44-45W as opposed to Core i7 920 having 130W. Also, new socket means new chipset, means new motherboard for laptops. Might take a while for manufacturers to start doing that.

 

To fit an i7 inside a laptop would need heatsink about the size of most laptops. Don't hold your breath for a laptop version any time soon and the first ones we see may only be dual core and not quad.

Currently a C2Q is on par with the i7 for most jobs you could do.

 

Well, AT WORST, I want a nehalem in my next sli laptop. If I have to wait until the end of '09 I will. Since DX11 and Windows7 will all be out by then.

As for an i7 desktop, I just got the one in my sig at the end of May. The most I'm doing with that is a pair of GTX260s in the new year.

 

Don't pair GTX260s next year, NVIDIA is launching their new 55nm cards to compete with AMDs 4870x2's Q1 2009 @ CES, which are supposedly supposed to be called the GTX295 (240 cores x 2 = 480 cores, 1.8GB VRAM). They initially had ideas to launch a GTX260x2 but rumor has they decided rather than 216 cores (or 192 for that matter) they will be going all out with 240 of them (and doubling it for a GX2 solution). So that might come out at a pretty sick price compared to the current 260s in order to keep competitive w/ AMD, just wait it out a bit to see what kind of price war we get between them.

 

That's not unreasonable. Calpella is due out Q3 2009 so you actually have less than a year to wait. Keep in mind though that while it will be a Nehalem, it probably won't match the power of the desktop Core i7s.

 

Yes I know about the GTX295 [there is no x2 at the end of it BTW]. It is dual PCB like the Gx2 and so there is more heat. Also the will be single GTX260s w/240SP [IDK if nvidia is keeping the name 260 or bumping it up to 270].

So I have 3 choices.

1-GTX295

2-SLI'd GTX270 [GTX260 w/240SP]. Two of these would likely be less than one GTX295 and the 295 may share some of the "issues" of the Gx2.

3-SLI'd GTX260 216SP with what ever the price drops to when the above mentioned comes out.

I'm not interested in 2 of the 192SP unless they hit $150 ea


It is all massive overkill for my monitor anyway, save Crysis/Warhead and Stalker: CS. I use a LG 37" 720p TV. But I don't care cause it looks real good. I might get a 42"-47" 1080p soon... or not, depending on a couple of things. But that's not why I'm considering the 260s. I just want some sick level of overkill. I don't want ATI though, or I'd have one of the x2 already.

 

You do what you want with your money. Try contacting a few vendors see what their roadmap is. In any case, INTEL has done a great job in the mobile market. I don't recall in the past notebooks to keep up with desktops the way they are doing it now. What I advise is patience. Monty just came out so INTEL needs to make profit. It will take 2 years tops for them to release a TPD processor viable for a laptop.

 

We talked about this already.

Clevo will be the first to do it.... they are usually the first for most of the performance/gaming designs.

Just wait until CeBIT2009 ..... the Clevo D901C might have a successor of being "king of notebooks."

 

Just because Clevo is the first to do it, it does not mean the price will always be acceptable.

 

...more acceptable if Sager or other good/well-priced Clevo vendors are selling it....

... as compared to Alienware and Dell XPS system, if they were to sell it overpriced with more overpriced config options.

 

I don't think the price is the real issue here. For one thing, unless you want the most powerful variety, desktop Core i7s are rather cheap -- you can buy the Gateway for $1250 and the Dell is even cheaper than that (particularly with that 25% off coupon they were offering a week ago).

The problem is that it is difficult to think of a reasonable way to cool something that hot. Even if Clevo comes up with something, it will almost certainly be huge and heavy and possibly quite noisy because of the fans. There are some people who don't mind that, but personally, I'll wait for Westmere.

 

Again, I just got my desktop at the end of May this year. I'm not interested in replacing the CPU, Mobo, and RAM. Even though my desktop is much more powerful than my laptop, I still game on my laptop 90% to my desktop's 10%. [not including my consoles]

Put plainly. I probably shouldn't have even got a desktop, so I don't need another. I'm not gettting rid of my PC because I can't recover the money I spent on it and I figure it's CPU is good enough for the next 5-6 years if I keep the GPU upgraded as needed.

I will need a insanely good gaming laptop sometime next year and I want it to have a Nehalem based CPU. Maybe I'm rushing the tech and it is wiser to time my buy so that the laptop has Nehalem AND DX11 [Cause DX11 GPUs should do DX10 well just as the 8 series handled DX9 well], but I made this thread to know where to look for a Nehalem based Laptop and one with a i7 920 if possible.

 

I'm making an i7 build next year just for Half Life 2: Episode 3, the hell with it, I'm gonna enjoy it in 2560 x 1600 resolution on max settings.

Therefore, I understand now why you want an i7 build, and by all means if you have the money, good luck.

 

That would be a 2000 euro investment in europe for a desktop .

 

You can make it possible, by building your own laptop as am I.
I am building my next laptop, specs in Sig. 8 cores amd power

And yes you can cool a 130 watt cpu in a laptop. You dont need a heatsink as big as the coolermaster V8.
I have an AMD Opteron 185 cpu in my laptop, and that consumes 125 watts. The heatsink is just over 1lb and it is quite large. So yes the i7 will probably have the same type of heatsink as did the D900K.

I wouldnt expect anything for at least 4-5 months. I doubt Clevo even has ideas for an i7 laptop now.

Plus you wouldnt really want an i7 in a laptop. They have that nasty TLB bug, which isnt going to be fixed anytime soon. And the i7 does not support ecc memory, so the bug will appear. At least with AMD, you could use ecc memory, which would cover the TLB bug, making it never show.

K-TRON

 

Why?
After the introduction of the C2D, the main performance bottleneck in laptops (really every where else) is the RAM and the HDD. I would suggest saving your money for a decent solid state drive (google.com/search?q=ssd&btnG=Search), and the best part is you wont need to buy a notebook the size of Japan.

 

i always thought the performance bottleneck was the graphics card

 

Intel claims it was fixed via a BIOS update before the launch of the platform. Until I see a trustworthy source actually show evidence of a bug rather than errata from last year, I'm inclined to believe them.

 

Graphics cards are the bane of PC gaming precisely because they are usually the bottleneck when gaming, but beyond a certain level (think 8400M GS or probably even lower), have no impact whatsoever on the performance of the overwhelming majority of users because they don't play games.

 

X205 = 9.5lbs, the 9262 (using desktop processors) is at 12.5 lbs, that's about 30% increase in weight.

 

Yeah, I'm carrying the SLi1, the power brick [yes, it is a brick] and cord, my trackball mouse, two thick game cases filled with games [10-12 game discs] and 5-10 DVDs in a heavy duty Targus carrying case.... and I do it all the time.

 

aww, poor kids. my laptop weighs 26lbs and doesnt have SLI. grow some muscles and stop complaining.

K-TRON

 

You know, you can only pack so much before it stops becoming a practical "lap" top. And how big is your Opteron system?

Oh that explains it 26 lbs and you got a 125W CPU, reeaaaally worth it.

Conclusion? You don't need a v8 for i7! Just a 26 pound laptop and some muscles!

 

I thought we were talking about laptops .

 

oh it will happen, no one thought quad cores would work in laptops, they even have mobile versions now. Just will take some time

 

we are talking about laptops. The D900K is my 26lb machine. It came in at 17lbs with a 3lb power brick, and after mods it came to 26lbs. It is still a laptop and it can do 1hr 45 minutes battery life.

K-TRON

 

Just a note, bwhxeon's labtop project died thanks to his PSU. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with, K-Tron, should be interesting.

 

In the IT world...size does matter mate .

 

I have the same system as K-TRON ....
- Clevo D900K .... world's first dual core notebook (uses desktop Socket 939 CPUs)

I had a Opteron 180 in my notebook until recently I put a AMD FX-60 in it... OC'ed it past 3.0GHz

its ~2-inch thick from front to back, got the largest CPU heatsink ever made for a notebook AFAIK... maybe the D901C is close, has four fans (2 for CPU, 1 for RAM, 1 for GPU).

it weighs about ~12 pounds (~3 more pounds for power brick)... not too much to ask for all of that power.

Clevo still has the title of king with the current:
- Clevo D901C (aka. Sager NP9262) .... world's first quad-core system (using desktop LGA775 CPUs).

 

K-TRON,

If you end with something like this, it means you missed a screw .

 

When I see those monster heatsinks and you know that most people leave their desktop in a vertical position, I'm amazed than nobody got his to fall in his case tearing its mounts destroying the motherboard and anything under it....

 

The heatsinks are lightweight, incase you didn't know , when you jam the thing in a bolt lock with the mounting brackets and screws, its weight is pretty much negligible.

 

I have this one for quite some time now and nothing broke. It becomes a part of the mobo. It is very solid and it does not force the CPU Socket out.



I think the guys from INTEL, when they designed the Prescott, the had no idea it can run at under 40 degrees in idle with something like this.

 

first off, I am not a noob at modding. You will see the Octitron is going to be awesome. I am trying to make it as thin as possible, while still having 8 of everything, including a power supply. Its going to be like a portable 1.5U rack with a 24" screen attached.
I will document everything, and I am sure others could do the same, making a very thin desktop to lug around.

K-TRON

 

THAT is what you're making. Basically a small breakfast table.

I bet you won't have 8 DVD burners, 8 keyboards, 8 speakers, 8 microphones, 8 webcams, 8 touchpads, 8 track sticks, 8 power buttons, 8 USB ports! Only a true KTRON if it can do all of that. Otherwise, Idunwanacit.

 

I♥RAM, be serious, their is no need for 8 keyboards, 8 webcams, and such. It will have most of whats in my sig.
havent built it yet, I need to get the board first so I can take measurements and starting designing it

K-TRON

 

There's a need for 8GPU's? C'mon lol you're going to have the most future proof computer in the world, NVIDIA is still stuck at figuring out Quad-SLI setups.

 

system i built awhile back and in a regular case

heres a shot of one of my other systems



the side panal has 4 120mm fans on it bottom two are intake top two are exhaust and has two 120mm fans in the front for intake 1 120mm fan in the back for exhaust

 

Will 7950s even work in 4 way sli? I mean you could run two pairs but for what to run an external monitor too?

 

yes they do, the 7950GX2's can do octalsli,
The scaling was horribly inefficient, but it was awesome when I had it.
image:


K-TRON

 

Unless I missed something big tri-sli is the limit for Nvidia, and that is only supported on 8800GTX and above GPUs with the double sli bridge connections. Nvidia doesn't have an over PCI-E bus solution that I'm aware of, that would appear to be a pair of quad SLIs.