Cowboom - Samsung Series 7 17.3" Laptop 3615QM, 8GB, 1TB, GT650m $693.49+tax shipped

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MissJ84

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These are pre-owned and it looks like they have plenty of grade 8s. They do 30 day returns/exchanges with no questions asked. Free shipping both ways - http://www.cowboom.com/product/999057
Use promo code Holiday5 to get the price down to $693.49 before tax. Comes out to ~$750 after tax for me.

I picked up this laptop from Cowboom for $799.99 back in August and it looked brand new when I got it. I replaced the HDD & DVD with two 256GB SSDs, because mechanical HDD noise drives me crazy. The main bay runs Sata III, while the the ODD bay runs Sata II, but Samsung definitely didn't limit either of them like some other manufacturers do. It's small for a 17.3" (15.9" x 10.3) due to the slim bezel, as thin as a 17" MBP (.98"), and it's pretty light for one as well coming in at 6.26lbs. Anyway, I love this thing and wanted to share this even better deal.

AS SSD Scores - I didn't want to clutter this post even more than it already is (lol) with photos, so here are the links.
M5P - OS drive (Sata III) - http://imageshack.us/a/img856/285/m5p95.jpg
M3 - Game drive (Sata II) - http://imageshack.us/a/img411/6025/m395.jpg

There's a pretty good review over at Anand, but keep in mind the reviewer tested this thing in August, had no AC, and did all of the testing in an 80+F environment. The reviewer complained about the temps, but I thought it was a bit silly given their ambient temps - http://www.anandtech.com/show/6149/samsung-series-7-notebook-review

Link to product on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-NP700Z7C-S01US-17-3-Inch-Laptop/dp/B006MX0WPW

Edit: Forgot to mention that the panel on this thing is much better than what Samsung offers with the 15" flavor. It's not the best panel out there, but it's pretty good for a TN without even factoring in the price and how thin it is (.98")

Review of the panel - Samsung Series 7 LCD: About As Good As TN Gets

Edit2: - Obviously these don't come with a Windows 7 disc. I personally installed Win 7 Ult x64 with my own personal copy, but you can get Win & Home Preomium x64 from here and just use the key on the bottom of the laptop - http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/

You want X17-58997.iso
 
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It means that there isn't an OS installed. Also, I clicked the "more images" link and downloaded them to analyze before picking the lot I wanted. The one I picked had nothing like, scratches on edges, top case, etc. and I'd look for the same if you decide to purchase. Like I said, mine looked brand new when I got it.

Edit: Oh and if you buy an 8, make sure it's not missing something like the power adapter. It'll be in the description if it is.
 
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I've got the 15.6" version of this laptop, but for the price wouldn't mind a larger screen. Think it would be a significant enough upgrade to warrant the purchase of grade 8?

Edit: On all other fronts it handles the job of SW and gaming just fine. But when ever I switch to my desktop with a Asus Vh242h it makes me sad how much better it looks than my laptop.
 
cmadki4 said:
I've got the 15.6" version of this laptop, but for the price wouldn't mind a larger screen. Think it would be a significant enough upgrade to warrant the purchase of grade 8?

On all other fronts it handles the job of SW and gaming just fine. But when ever I switch to my desktop with a Asus Vh242h it makes me sad how much better it looks than my laptop.
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I've owned the 15" before. The panel and speakers alone make this version so much better. If you can live with your screen, I'd pass, but if you want a better panel I'd pick this up. Go look at the screen review I linked above. It's in the middle for whites, but up top in every other category.

Edit: I just saw your edit about the Asus Monitor and I know exactly how you feel. I have a 2209WA that always left me wanting more from the 15" Chronos, but I rarely use the Dell now that I have the 17" Chronos.
 
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MissJ84 said:
I've owned the 15" before. The panel and speakers alone make this version so much better. If you can live with your screen, I'd pass, but if you want a better panel I'd pick this up. Go look at the screen review I linked above.

Edit: I just saw your edit about the Asus Monitor and I know exactly how you feel. I have a 2209WA that always left me wanting more from the 15" Chronos, but I rarely use the Dell now that I have the 17" Chronos.
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Read the review you linked. Good info to say the least. I may just pull the trigger on this. I wonder what my 15" could go for on here to help off set the cost....

Would you say, from your personal experience, that the screen on the 17" Chronos is on par or at least in the same league as a monitor such as my VH242h or your 2209WA?
 
cmadki4 said:
Read the review you linked. Good info to say the least. I may just pull the trigger on this. I wonder what my 15" could go for on here to help off set the cost....

Would you say, from your personal experience, that the screen on the 17" Chronos is on par or at least in the same league as a monitor such as my VH242h or your 2209WA?
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Sold my 15" on OCN for $625 shipped back in Sepetember. It's the best site to sell laptops imo and keep in mind this was the 2675qm version, not the 3610qm version.

Well the 2209WA is e-ips and LCD, while the Chronos is TN and LED. I'd call them somewhat comparable, and all I can tell you is that I rarely (make that never) use the Dell now that I have the 17.3". When I had the 15.6", I'd almost always be using it as an external. Anyway, I haven't owned one, but I'd think this would be comparable or better than the VH242h due to the Asus being an LCD and also being a TN.
I wish you could go to best buy and compare the 15" screen to the 17" screen. It makes the 15" look so horrible in every respect, especially when it comes to viewing angle & the way colors pop. Oh and 1080p on 17" is so wonderful!

FWIW - I'd just buy one now then compare/decide between now and the next 30 days. They don't charge a restocking fee and they pay for return shipping.
 
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MissJ84 said:
Does cowboom sell anything that's new? I'm going to go with common knowledge on this one :p
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Common knowledge assumes a lot. I've never purchased from cowboom b4 and based on thread title, figured it was a refurb till reading the thread. Good find tho so /salute

Price has jumped to $729, but after reading the Anandtech review, that doesn't sound too bad if you can find a grade 8. Main downsides are that it's a near-requirement to replace the hdd, and summertime here in LA is gonna push temps into throttling the cpu/gpu. All told, this thing could make a pretty nice desktop replacement for people not stressing the hardware too heavily.
 
coconutboy said:
Common knowledge assumes a lot. I've never purchased from cowboom b4 and based on thread title, figured it was a refurb till reading the thread. Good find tho so /salute

Price has jumped to $729, but after reading the Anandtech review, that doesn't sound too bad if you can find a grade 8. Main downsides are that it's a near-requirement to replace the hdd, and summertime here in LA is gonna push temps into throttling the cpu/gpu. All told, this thing could make a pretty nice desktop replacement for people not stressing the hardware too heavily.
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Yeah I'm not an overly serious person, so don't take anything I say personally. I added it to the beginning of the thread, but unfortunately titles on [H] are only editable for a few minutes after posting.

Price has not jumped to $729. You need to use promo code Holiday5 to get 5% off, thus bringing the price down to $693.49 before tax. Also, maybe outside but summertime in LA + AC shouldn't create a problem. Like I mentioned, the reviewer was testing this thing in 80F+ ambient. After you tweak the trackpad to your liking, and I'd argue it's even better than that of a MBP in a windows environment, this thing basically is a non glossy MBP that has better specs (GT 650M with 2 GB GDDR5 vs Apples 1 GB GDDR5), runs much cooler, and costs 1/4-1/3 of the price. Oh and yes I know it won't have as much resale value in a year or two in case someone plans to add that. Last thing I want to add is that 4GB DDR3 is soldered onto the board, but you can upgrade one of the sticks to 8GB. I ran HWinfo saw it was using 4GB of Elpida and picked up an 8GB stick of the exact same memory from Ebay for ~$22.

Oh and about the HDD, I would always rather have a laptop come with one instead of a jenky SSD. Either way I'm going to replace the HDD/SSD if I can and the HDD keeps the price of the laptop down. If anyone picked one of these up and plans to replace the HDD with an SSD there's a good video in the first post of this thread - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...00z7c-s01us-laptop-i7-3615qm-650m-review.html

I used a spudger I picked up for $1 from ifixit and it was a lot easier than I thought it'd be.

img20120926192905.jpg
 
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Well, thanks for the find and promo code MissJ84. I pulled the trigger on on a grade 8. Like you said, I figured it's worth a shot to see if it's any better than what I've got. If not? I'll just turn it around and ship it back! But based on the reviews and your own experience it's bound to be an improvement over my 15" Chronos! And more screen real estate! I'll drop one of my 256GB 830s in there and hopefully be pleased as punch.

Edit: oh, and I'll likely sell my 15" if this deal works out well.
 
cmadki4 said:
Well, thanks for the find and promo code MissJ84. I pulled the trigger on on a grade 8. Like you said, I figured it's worth a shot to see if it's any better than what I've got. If not? I'll just turn it around and ship it back! But based on the reviews and your own experience it's bound to be an improvement over my 15" Chronos! And more screen real estate! I'll drop one of my 256GB 830s in there and hopefully be pleased as punch.

Edit: oh, and I'll likely sell my 15" if this deal works out well.
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Two more things I want to add. You can get a $15 Windows upgrade with this purchase through MS. I got mine, but I kept Win 7 on the laptop. The second thing is about using as little Samsung software as possible. I'd download all the drivers (Wireless, Intel & Nvidia video, Realtek Audio, etc,.) directly from those vendors or station drivers. The only thing I downloaded from Samsung for the laptop was SW Update and Easy Settings, now know as Settings.

You can download SW update here - http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/DR/201211/20121120210418340/SWUpdate_2.1.5.30.ZIP

Open it up, type NP700Z7C-S01US in the upper right, then click on NP700Z7C-S01US below. Pick Windows 8 (It'll download Win 7 as well), uncheck everything besides settings, export it, then install the version in the Windows 7 folder. You can obviously install drivers with this method too, but I like always having the newest ones installed and choose not to use this method. This version of Easy Settings/Settings is so much better than the past versions. When I first bought it, things like opening/closing lid to make the computer sleep/wake wouldn't always work. I read that it was related to Easy Settings (something kernel related?) over at Notebookreview.com, so I had to install Easy Settings, copy and paste that folder somewhere else. create a new start up item for it, then uninstall the original version. Needless to say, the newer version I explained how to download above has been working flawlessly for the past month, needs no kind of work around like previous versions, and I urge people to use it.

Lastly, make sure you're on bios P05AAE. Some of the last ones seemed to be a little unstable with memory usage, but this update that was released in Novemeber made my Chonos run perfect. The bios updater can be found here - http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/FM/201203/20120305100525911/BIOSUpdate.exe

I forgot you already have the 15.6", so maybe you're already familiar with some of this stuff. If anyone buys this laptop, feel free to PM me if you have any set up questions or have trouble finding drivers.
 
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MissJ84 said:
I forgot you already have the 15.6", so maybe you're already familiar with some of this stuff. If anyone buys this laptop, feel free to PM me if you have any set up questions or have trouble finding drivers.
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No, thanks for the info! I'll need it. When I put the SSD in my 15.6" I used the lazy method of Acronis. I'll be doing it properly this time around, though the Acronis method was quite simple and seemingly effective.
 
Bought a Samsung NP300E5A-A02UB from cowboom Grade 7, looked like new, was never registered so registered to me full warranty.
Nuisance loading operating system and drivers but " price man, the price"
Should be a very good deal, usually good deals sell out fast. watch for "grade" and "included'
 
wtourist said:
Bought a Samsung NP300E5A-A02UB from cowboom Grade 7, looked like new, was never registered so registered to me full warranty.
Nuisance loading operating system and drivers but " price man, the price"
Should be a very good deal, usually good deals sell out fast. watch for "grade" and "included'
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Sounds like you got a great deal there! I went with a Grade8, so hopefully I will get a laptop that's in good shape with no glaring cosmetic issues. Or any issue for that matter. I really like 15.6", so I'm hoping this on trumps it in the screen quality factor. Solidworks on that screen leaves a lot to be desired.

EDIT: I emailed cowboom for confirmation of the condition. They said it has scratches on the top cover, worn keys and scratches on the bottom. This was not stated on the one I selected. Only the "screen flashes on startup" was stated for mine. I'm asking them to truly confirm this and switch it out if possible.
 
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I wish I'd known there was so much demand. This same model was part of the cowboom laptop flash sale about 4 days ago and kept coming up for $619...I kept passing because I didn't want a 17" laptop. They also had the 15.6" version for $429, but I couldn't grab one before they sold out.

The Series 7 are really nice machines overall.
 
cmadki4 said:
Sounds like you got a great deal there! I went with a Grade8, so hopefully I will get a laptop that's in good shape with no glaring cosmetic issues. Or any issue for that matter. I really like 15.6", so I'm hoping this on trumps it in the screen quality factor. Solidworks on that screen leaves a lot to be desired.

EDIT: I emailed cowboom for confirmation of the condition. They said it has scratches on the top cover, worn keys and scratches on the bottom. This was not stated on the one I selected. Only the "screen flashes on startup" was stated for mine. I'm asking them to truly confirm this and switch it out if possible.
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FWIW, you can always exchange it and they will send out the same grade. Like I said I downloaded and looked at "more images" prior to buying. Some people buy 2-3 of them and keep the best of the bunch.

Kueller said:
I wish I'd known there was so much demand. This same model was part of the cowboom laptop flash sale about 4 days ago and kept coming up for $619...I kept passing because I didn't want a 17" laptop. They also had the 15.6" version for $429, but I couldn't grab one before they sold out.

The Series 7 are really nice machines overall.
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I could be wrong, but I believe there were no grade 8s and all the 7s came without a power adapter.
 
Lost my natural mind and pulled the trigger on a Grade 8...I guess that's my Christmas gift to myself. :)
 
Redshirt #24 said:
Lost my natural mind and pulled the trigger on a Grade 8...I guess that's my Christmas gift to myself. :)
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Nice. I rationalized my purchased by saying I'll say 15.6" Chronos, haha. You'll have to keep us posted when it arrives. I'll do the same.
 
Mine just came today. PRISTINE... Not a scratch or mark on it anywhere. Loading it up now. I've got it side by side with my 15.6" and can tell a difference already.
 
No grade 8's left, only grade 7's with worn keyboards. Does anyone to what degree they'll be worn? I mean, these are relatively new laptops, no?
 
cmadki4 said:
Mine just came today. PRISTINE... Not a scratch or mark on it anywhere. Loading it up now. I've got it side by side with my 15.6" and can tell a difference already.
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Glad to hear :)

DarkStar02 said:
No grade 8's left, only grade 7's with worn keyboards. Does anyone to what degree they'll be worn? I mean, these are relatively new laptops, no?
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I was originally going to tell you to wait, seeing as this laptop deal with grade 8s pops up at least once a month, but I don't think it could hurt to try considering the 30 day return policy coupled with no out of pocket shipping cost. I've never bought anything 7 from Cowboom, but I've seen people claim to get items that looked new. All I can recommend is for you to click more images then copy past the link of the first photo. Paste in your browser, download all the photos, zoom in and look for flaws.

For example, the second grade 7 on page 4 are these photos. I'm not saying this is the one to get, but it's nice seeing one with the top case along with the screen open all the way.
http://images.cowboom.com/items/fullsize/LOT_25674709_1.jpg
http://images.cowboom.com/items/fullsize/LOT_25674709_2.jpg
 
Anyone have a good recommendation on a sleeve for this thing? For my 15.6" Chronos I use an Incase Alloy meant for the MBP. Love this sleeve. Nice wrinkled exterior, faux-fur interior. Nice fit. I'd like something similar for my 17". Pretty sure Incase doesn't make the alloy in this size though... :(

Also: anyone with this laptop feel like the sound is unbalanced, bias to the right?
 
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Kicking myself for not just buying one of the grade 7's when I had a chance. Now they only have grade 6 and below available. :(
 
Swapped in a 256GB 830, installed all the latest drivers and reinstalling all my critical software. I'm loving it so far. I also picked up a sleeve for it at TJMaxx for $8. Deals all over the place! It's just meant to be. ;)
 
Mine just showed up...one vote for utter truth in advertising, since this was all I got:

box_zps087d3d51.jpg


The original setup guide, surprisingly, was stuck underneath the...packaging. That aside, apart from one blemish below the keyboard, the laptop appears virtually pristine and at least powered up to a boot device prompt. (I'm admittedly curious why someone disabled hyperthreading in the BIOS at some point, but that's just a quirk.) So hey...assuming the HD holds up, I think I'm okay with this.
 
My 7/10 showed up today. There's one small scratch on the underside next to one of the feet. What the hell does an 8, 9, or 10 look like? Laptop is a beast. Loving it so far. Need to find a good SSD now.
 
I'm glad an 8 was not currently available, saved me a few hundred. I'm bit now though, so will keep watching. I've wanted one of these. I should just grab a 7.
 
I was one of the lucky/unlucky ones who got an 8 and yes it was perfect. I believe it was in perfect condition because it wouldn't boot at all. It powered on for 2 seconds then shut off, over and over and over, even if you closed the lid the power cycle continued.

I own a computer repair business and decided to take it apart. Very compact indeed. 4GB of the memory is embedded in the mobo underneath and it is very cumbersome to remove it. Everything checked out therefore the mobo must be the culprit.

The positive out of the whole issue was dealing with Samsung. Instead of returning it for a refund I decided to give Samsung a shot. I had never dealt with them on a PC level and decided to give them a call. After ten minutes on the phone I had a return shipping label in my possession and the assurance that it would be replaced by the same or equivalent model. Also the repair center is only 5 hours away and hopefully I will get another next week.
 
chuckd007 said:
I was one of the lucky/unlucky ones who got an 8 and yes it was perfect. I believe it was in perfect condition because it wouldn't boot at all. It powered on for 2 seconds then shut off, over and over and over, even if you closed the lid the power cycle continued.

I own a computer repair business and decided to take it apart. Very compact indeed. 4GB of the memory is embedded in the mobo underneath and it is very cumbersome to remove it. Everything checked out therefore the mobo must be the culprit.

The positive out of the whole issue was dealing with Samsung. Instead of returning it for a refund I decided to give Samsung a shot. I had never dealt with them on a PC level and decided to give them a call. After ten minutes on the phone I had a return shipping label in my possession and the assurance that it would be replaced by the same or equivalent model. Also the repair center is only 5 hours away and hopefully I will get another next week.
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Being a computer repair business owner I'm sure you know this, so at the risk of sounding like a newb, there is no OS installed. Mine did the same until I installed Win764. Obvious, I know... Sorry :( But the cycle continuing with the lid closed is curious...
 
cmadki4 said:
Being a computer repair business owner I'm sure you know this, so at the risk of sounding like a newb, there is no OS installed. Mine did the same until I installed Win764. Obvious, I know... Sorry :( But the cycle continuing with the lid closed is curious...
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This^ I have owned three Samsung laptops in the past two years and each one of them did this when no OS was installed. I'm pretty sure it has to do with Samsung's bios implementation and/or their Fast Boot.
It's good Samsung is sending you another one Chuck, but I can almost guarantee that it would have been fine after installing Windows :p
 
I just bought this laptop and was wondering if anyone has any concerns with heat while gaming on it? Are there any tools to force the fans to run at certain speeds?
 
Mine doesn't get particularly hot when running Skyrim, Torchlight 2, Forge, etc., but it's always on a desk while gaming. To keep CPU temps down a little, I have the maximum processor state at 99%, which prevents turbo from kicking on and this keeps CPU temps below 90C and GPU Temps below 80C.

Unless Samsung made changes to the most recent bios (P05AAe), I don't think there is a way to control the fans, however I'm almost positive they're running at full speed while gaming. Also worth mentioning, is that if you use a tool like MSI Afterburner, Evga Precision, GpuZ, etc and have them start up with windows, you're 650m will never actually turn off. If you're in 2D mode and have any application like this running, your 650m will be running and adding heat, but will not actually be rendering anything. This is a little unrelated to what doggyworld asked, but my suggestion is to turn on "Display GPU activity icon in notification tray", so you know when the 650m is turned on and off. I only mention this because it took me days to figure out the whole Optimus thing.

Edit: I have friends who game in Windows on Macbook Pros, have been doing so for years without problems, and they get way hotter than this Samsung. I think it was smart of Samsung to make the bottom plastic instead a full aluminum case.
 
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MissJ84, there are some sevens that do not say "scratches and worn keys". No flaws are mentioned. I wonder what the difference is between 7 & 8?

Also, how often do we see eights appear between sell outs. (I'm lusting after one)

You seem to be the CowBoom guru;)

Thank you, by the way, for mentioning this deal and providing such detailed information.
 
Syngensmyth said:
MissJ84, there are some sevens that do not say "scratches and worn keys". No flaws are mentioned. I wonder what the difference is between 7 & 8?

Also, how often do we see eights appear between sell outs. (I'm lusting after one)

You seem to be the CowBoom guru;)
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As I'm sure you're aware of I do not work for Cowboom lol and I'm really not so much of a Cowboom guru as I am an AnythingIWantToLearnAbout guru. I just do A LOT of searching via Google whenever I want to learn or find out about something. I also choose "discussions" via google when doing searches, and this only helps me to find what I want to know in a more efficient manner. I guess you could say I'm a Google search fanatic or the opposite of an uninformed consumer lol. I attribute my ability to think critically, to good parenting :)

FWIW, I've heard of people getting flawless 7s, in fact I'd say this happens more times than not. I've also read about a few people who got faulty 8s, but this is a rarity. Keep in mind that the people who have gotten faulty 8s, have usually been people buying 4-5 Macbook Pros from Cowboom with the intention of keeping the best of the bunch and sending the rest back for a full return.

Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, I'd personally wait for this to pop up again and add a deal alert for "Cowboom" or "np700z7c-s01us" over at Slickdeals. I got in on this deal back in August and this is probably the 7th or 8th time these have popped up with plenty of grade 8s. When I first posted this deal, there were plenty of 8s for a good 16 hours.

If you're in a rush, buy a 7 as you really have nothing to lose considering they pay full shipping both ways and will give you a full return. Just make sure that it comes with the power adapter and read the description slowly.

Edit: One other thing I'd like to add is the reason I love this laptop. It's a rant, but it's a positive rant :
Whenever I want to buy something like a laptop, phone, etc., there's always at least one huge thing that I want missing from the device. I wanted thin, light, dedicated GPU, 1080p, backlit keyboard, and not $2000+. Until this laptop was released (May of 2012), I don't think such a laptop even existed. There is not a single laptop on the market, that comes even close to this thing in weight (6.26), thickness (.98"), with a backlit keyboard, 1080p, and decent dedicated GPU for this kind of price. That's not even taking into account extras like the JBL speakers that are out of this world for a laptop or the fact that the bezel is so small that it's footprint is closer to that of an average 15.6" laptop than that of an average 17.3" laptop. Even if Cowboom didn't have these deals, I've seen it on Amazon as low as $1300 and I still would have bought it. Yes I own a MBP, which my partner currently uses as her main computer, but this thing is a lot less expensive than any new non retina MBP, runs a lot cooler, and is specced exactly the same. The only exception, and it would actually be the opposite of an exception lol, would be that the Samsung comes with 2GB GDDR5 vs the MBP which only offers 512MB for $1800 or 1GB for a whopping $2200.

Edit2: Oh and Samsung did the exact same thing with the Galaxy Note 2. Screen & Screen size OMG, Battery life OMFG, Best DAC on any android device (These are the only three I really care about). Call me a Samsung whore or whatever, but they're the only company that gives the consumer everything they want in a device.
 
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doggyworld said:
How do you set the processor state? Wouldnt setting it to 99% make it hotter?
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No, because the minimum is set to 0% FWIW Most of my knowledge on this laptop and most laptops in general came from Notebookreview.com
This thread specifically - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...00z7c-s01us-laptop-i7-3615qm-650m-review.html
It only makes sense that I'd go to notebookreview for laptop info just like I come to [H] for SFF/SSD/PSU info. People on this forum are wonderful, usually mature, and typically have more knowledge about components and a lot of other specialties.

derpai.jpg
 
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