Need Core i7 QM (quad core) with USB 3.0 .. sigh

[enxidi]

Hi all,

Trying to track down a machine with native USB 3.0, also with a Core i7 quad core (Sandy Bridge). Also need a high res screen (at minimum 1600x900, 1920x1080 or 1200 preferred) Other specs aren't super important.

On a side note, I plan also to get a ExpressCard USB 3.0 expansion for this machine as well, to test against both of these methods of attaching 3.0-compatible devices. Is there any real difference between USB 3.0 ExpressCard expansion and native 3.0 support in the machine?

Thanks for any input you can provide...

 

[mnewsham]

The SAGER NP8130 (Clevo P151HM1) Has USB 3.0 1920x1080 and an i7-2630QM (standard). I am not however aware of any laptops that still come with an ExpressCard expansion slot. And i dont think ExpressCard 2.0 ever launched, at least not in a big way.

 

[gamefreakgcb]

MSI GT680R has those. But it also costs about $1500 on newegg. I got one here and it is a powerful laptop.

 

[enxidi]

Nice suggestion, thank you. Lots of machine for the price. However, I don't need the dedicated graphics, and it's a bit larger than I'd normally prefer. Hoping for some other suggestions, keep 'em coming!

 

[mnewsham]

MSI GT680R has those. But it also costs about $1500 on newegg. I got one here and it is a powerful laptop.

Go to the MSI webpage.

Express Card N/A

 

[gsaldivar]

Lenovo Thinkpad series should meet all your requirements.

I just picked up a W520 with i7-2820QM (quad core), the upgraded screen (15" at 1920x1080), and USB 3.0/eSATA/ExpressCard. The W-series is workstation class and has 4 RAM slots that can take up to a total of 16GB of RAM. You also get an mSATA slot so you can add an SSD in addition to your hard drive + Ultrabay device. That means you can do dual-hard drives and SSD on a 15" laptop if you want...

If you don't need the workstation features, you can step down to a T520 and still get a i7 quad with the high res screen and USB 3.0...

 

[enxidi]

Believe me, I wish the T series would work. The only T series that has USB 3.0 is the T420s, which isn't available with the i7-QM. Sigh.

W series is a bit beyond what I need, again with the graphics card premium (Quadro 1000 mandatory) there.

 

[gsaldivar]

No USB 3.0 on the T520, I misread the spec sheet sorry!

 

[enxidi]

Any other ideas here guys? Thanks in advance.

 

[alyarb]

Expresscard 2.0 is rated for 500 MB/s, which corresponds directly to a 1x PCI-e 2.0 lane. This is not by accident as expresscard is closely derived from PCI-express, which is the same bus that a board-integrated USB 3.0 chip would use. Almost all USB 3.0 hosts use the same NEC chipset anyway because intel and AMD haven't yet made their next gen peripheral controllers widely available. So an expresscard containing the NEC controller or a laptop board containing the NEC controller will give about the same performance.

 

[mnewsham]

Expresscard 2.0 is rated for 500 MB/s, which corresponds directly to a 1x PCI-e 2.0 lane. This is not by accident as expresscard is closely derived from PCI-express, which is the same bus that a board-integrated USB 3.0 chip would use. Almost all USB 3.0 hosts use the same NEC chipset anyway because intel and AMD haven't yet made their next gen peripheral controllers widely available. So an expresscard containing the NEC controller or a laptop board containing the NEC controller will give about the same performance.

AFAIK you still cant even find ExpressCard 2.0 in ANY laptops, do you have a link to one?

 

[alyarb]

Well I would definitely avoid expresscard like the plague then and go with a laptop with integrated PCI-e USB 3.0. On May 27 CyberPower will have their X6 series laptops available and they seem pretty good for the money.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplorer_X6-9100_Gaming_Notebook/

They start at $719 with a 2630QM, 4GB DDR3, 15.6" 1920x1080 LED and uses the intel HD 3000 video, and the integrated USB 3.0. Here is the review

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4297/cyberpower-xplorer-x6-9100-gamers-need-not-apply

Battery life could be better and I'm not crazy about the glossy chassis, but at $719 it's less than half as much as the Dell XPS 15 and offers everything you need.

 

[buzzsaw13]

I just bought a Sager NP5160 with a i7 2630, GT 540M, 1920x1080 screen, and USB 3.0 ports for around 900 shipped from xoticpc. Very happy with the build quality on Sager/Clevo laptops.

 

[wwswimming]

that Cyberpower with the SandyBridge Quad Core is an amazing deal for $719 ! ... unless there's a catch.

 

[fire400]

sager

 

[Piano Man]

HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition now has a 1080p screen and a good rebate going on now:

I specced this out and it came to $959 before tax:


Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
i7-2630QM (2.0 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
1GB GDDR5 Radeon HD 6770M Graphics
6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
No Additional Office Software
6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.5 hours of battery life +++
15.6" diagonal Full HD HP Anti-glare LED Display (1920 x 1080)
Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support



Quad Core SB, 1080p Anti-Glare, Blu-Ray, WiDi, 750GB 7200RPM HDD, 6GB DDR3, and AMD 6770M GPU for $960 is pretty sweet. It also has Beats Audio, but that could just be a gimmick rather than better than normal sound.

The refreshed look is pretty nice as well.

Coupon is at techbargains (not sure if I can link it or not).