More Sandy Bridge E Laptops: Eurocom Panther 4.0 and Maingear Titan 17

Clevo was the first in line to release Sandy Bridge E based laptop a couple of days ago, which naturally means that all the usual suspects that use Clevo's chassis are coming out of the woodworks as well; say hello to the Eurocom Panther 4.0 and Maingear Titan 17. 

Eurocom Panther 4.0

 

Specifications of Eurocom Panther 4.0Screen17.3" LED Backlit (Options for glossy/matte and 120Hz 3D)Resolution1920x1080ProcessorIntel Core i7-3930K (6/12, 3.2GHz/3.8GHz, 12MB L3) or
Intel Core i7-3960X (6/12, 3.3GHz/3.9GHz, 15MB L3)Graphics

NVIDIA: GTX 580M, 560M; Quadro 5010M, 4000M, 3000M (Options for SLI)
AMD: HD 6990M, 6970M (Options for CrossFire)

MemoryUp to 64GB (4x16GB) DDR3-1866StorageUp to 3x1TB (Options for SSD or hybrid drives)Optical DriveDVD-RW, BD-RW, or fourth hard driveConnectivity3x USB 3.0
2x USB 2.0
eSATA
ExpressCard 34/54
FireWire 400
DisplayPort 1.2
DL-DVI
HDMI 1.4
Gigabit Ethernet
WiFi
Audio in/outDimensions (WxDxH)16.8" x 11.4" x 2.5"Weight12.1lbPriceN/AAvailabilityMarch 15, 2012

Gallery: Eurocom Panther 4.0 Gallery

Specification wise, the Panter 4.0 is similar to Clevo's P270WM. The biggest difference is that Eurocom offers more graphics choices and the possibility for a fourth hard drive instead of an optical drive. Eurocom also supports 16GB SO-DIMMs, though pricing for such modules is extremely high right now. There is also an option for 120Hz 3D display which is something that the Clevo does not currently list. Unfortunately Eurocom has not revealed pricing so it's hard to say if Panther 4.0 is a better buy than Clevo P270WM, which is priced at $3122. If the past is any indicator, Eurocom will likely have a price premium as they like to target the Mobile Workstation market, which requires additional testing/validation on their end.

Maingear Titan 17

Specifications of Maingear Titan 17Screen17.3" LED Backlit (Option for 120Hz 3D)Resolution1920x1080ProcessorIntel Core i7-3930K (6/12, 3.2GHz/3.8GHz, 12MB L3) or
Intel Core i7-3960X (6/12, 3.3GHz/3.9GHz, 15MB L3)GraphicsNVIDIA GTX 580M with 2GB GDDR5 (Optional SLI)
NVIDIA Quadro 5010M with 4GB GDDR5MemoryUp to 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-1866StorageUp to 3x1TB (Options for SSD or hybrid)Optical DriveDVD-RW (Option for BD-RW)Ports2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, eSATA, ExpressCard 34/54, SDXC-card reader, FireWire 400, DisplayPort 1.2, DVI, HDMI 1.4, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, audio in/outDimensions (WxDxH)16.5" x 11.3" x 2.4"Weight12.1lbPriceStarts from $3499AvailabilityMarch 10, 2012

Gallery: Maingear Titan 17 Gallery

The Titan 17 follows the same pattern as Panther 4.0 and P270WM. Compared to Panther 4.0, there are fewer graphics options but the 3D display is still available, although Titan 17 loses one USB 3.0 when compared with the Clevo and Eurocom (which is probably just an error on their spec sheet, since all three notebooks use the same chassis). Price wise, Titan 17 is a couple hundreds more expensive than a similarly configured Clevo P270WM. Of course, things like support and warranty are important when buying such an expensive system, so while Clevo is cheaper it isn't necessarily a better buy.

We are working to get one of these behemoths in for review to see how they fare in actual use. If you need the most performance you can pack into a notebook, these SNB-E based offerings should fit the bill. Hopefully the issues with overloading the power brick on the X7200 have been addressed with this round of updates.

Sources: Eurocom and Maingear

]]>

Acer’s Upcoming Laptops: S5 Ultrabook with IVB, TB, and a Motor

We spent some time with Acer this afternoon looking at their upcoming products and we were able to get some hands-on time with many laptops and tablets. We’ll save the tablets for a separate article—and the most interesting tablets aren’t something we can discuss right now anyway—so let’s talk Acer laptops for a moment. First, the best news is that all the laptops we saw have ditched the floating island keyboard and most are using a typical chiclet design. We’re still not sure about the merged Enter/Backslash keys (most likely a design element for a European or Asian model), but otherwise the keyboards have a good feel and are far more usable than some older designs. Most of the laptops are updated versions of existing product lines, so we won’t focus too much on those. The most interesting laptop on display was their ultrabook S5, a follow up to the S3 we reviewed last month.

Aspire S5, atop it's predecessor the S3. Note the S5 is 15mm thick not including the footrests.

The new S5 ultrabook builds on some of the strengths of the S3, with a few interesting twists. It’s thinner than the S3 for one, and it’s also getting the Ivy Bridge treatment. Along with Ivy Bridge, the S5 also has a Thunderbolt port—one of several Windows laptops we’ve seen at CES with Thunderbolt. Where things get a little odd is with the ports on the S5. On the S3, they’re at the back of the laptop chassis, which wasn’t really a problem in our book. With the S5, they’re still on the back, but they’re hidden by default with a motorized plate that extends down about a centimeter at the press of a button. Okay, sure, it’s kind of entertaining the first few times you see it, but I can’t help but have serious concerns about the longevity of such a solution. Moving parts are always more likely to break, and hiding the ports behind a motorized latch just feels completely unnecessary. The LCD and overall build quality are also generally unchanged from the S3, so while the S5 isn’t ugly by any means, it still feels like a cheaper ultrabook with seams all around the edges.

Acer mentioned that they’re working to elevate the quality of the Acer brand, with the Gateway brand now taking over more of the value market, and that’s a good plan. They’ve made strides the last couple of years with the use of better materials and overall better designs. However, there’s still a rather sizeable gap between the build quality of an Aspire S3/S5 and something like a MacBook Air or ASUS UX31E. We also have concerns when things like the CPU throttling issue on the TimelineX 3830TG went unnoticed during validation and testing. If Acer wants to compete in the higher price arenas, they still have plenty of work to do in improving their build quality, designs, and quality assurance. Hopefully we’ll see more improvements over the coming year (like the farewell to the floating island keyboards), and we’re still waiting for a major OEM to really push for high quality displays in all of their laptops. Acer’s tablets appear to be making real strides in those areas, and we had some time to handle some unannounced tablets, so Acer just needs to apply some of those same lessons to their laptops.

Gallery: Acer’s Upcoming Laptops: S5 Ultrabook with IVB, TB, and a Motor

]]>