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Retailer Planning Laptops With Intel Core i7 Chips

Posted by kdawson on from the can-you-say-luggable dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian PC retailer Eurocom is planning to ship a 12-pound laptop with Intel's Core i7 chip, which might go down well with deep-pocketed geeks. The Core i7 was designed with desktop computers and servers in mind; later members of the Nehalem chip family are planned to address portables. The 17" notebook's price, not yet announced, will certainly be in excess of $5,000."

35 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Desktop Replacement by ushering05401 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whatever happened to the 'desktop replacement' designation for mobile but not lightweight platforms?

    This reminds me of the first laptop I ever owned:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64.

    1. Re:Desktop Replacement by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 3, Funny
      Wikipedia says:

      The Commodore SX-64, also known as the Executive 64, or VIP-64...

      Funny, the name implies it was for business use and yet the picture shows it with a pair of joysticks...

    2. Re:Desktop Replacement by obarthelemy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Reasons for needing such a powerful but heavy and battery-challenged "laptop".

      Taking your apps+docs (let alone taking you OS) with you on an HD/USB key doesn't really work for most OSes and Apps. Especially if you need specialty apps, like video/CAD... or whetever really NEEDS an i7.

      Being certain you'll have an up-to spec PC wherever youre going, without being dependant on someone to book it + set it up for you.

      Gaming in small appartments (I assume the vid card is nice, too).

      Of course, being able to maybe use the laptop a little while NOT connected to the mains is.. a nice bonus.

      I've been reading forever that Intel+AMD are including "laptop" power-management features in their "desktop" parts. Maybe with heavy underclocking one can actually watch a full DVD on a single charge ?

      --
      The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
    3. Re:Desktop Replacement by Carbon016 · · Score: 3, Funny

      There's a spec for that. It's called "micro-ATX".

    4. Re:Desktop Replacement by laejoh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Did you read the wikipedia entry? It brings back the spirit of the C64:

      (This was, however, often easily overcome by the user simply entering the appropriate BASIC POKE commands to change screen colors and keystroke to change the cursor color to mimic the C64's default colors prior to loading of the program.)

  2. A laptop... by 2Bits · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... that's not supposed to be put on your lap, unless you are sure you don't want to have offspring. Given that this is designed for the /. kind of geek, the question of offspring is probably not too much of a problem anyway :)

    1. Re:A laptop... by WSOGMM · · Score: 4, Funny

      ... that's not supposed to be put on your lap, unless you are sure you don't want to have offspring. Given that this is designed for the /. kind of geek, the question of offspring is probably not too much of a problem anyway :)

      Oh yeah? Well, your laptop is so fat that a...

    2. Re:A laptop... by AuMatar · · Score: 4, Funny

      If you're single and still getting some, a temporary decrease in fertility is a feature not a bug.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  3. Just plain silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The problem with this design is that the i7 chips put out 130 watts TDP. Even if this laptop has a battery, it's going to last less than an hour.

    I should I know. I have a toshiba laptop that has a desktop P4 in it. 1 hour.

    1. Re:Just plain silly by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Funny

      The laptop is 12 pounds: two pounds for the laptop, ten pounds for the batteries.

    2. Re:Just plain silly by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      At my company *everyone* has a laptop. The battery just needs to last long enough that I can make it to the meeting rooms and back. 'Mobile' computers have more use than just using them away from power for long periods of time. You can sit at another desk, on a whim go out on location with all your files, etc.

      I'd love something like this for Matlab processing.

      And weight isn't an issue because we all have laptop bags or backpacks. A 20 lb laptop would still be lighter than the books I carried in college.

    3. Re:Just plain silly by Thanshin · · Score: 3, Funny

      The laptop is 12 pounds: two pounds for the laptop, ten pounds for the batteries.

      Which gives you an autonomy of 1+t hours; being "t" the amount of time you're able to keep your cycling power over 1000 watts.

    4. Re:Just plain silly by Kjella · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The problem with this design is that the i7 chips put out 130 watts TDP. Even if this laptop has a battery, it's going to last less than an hour.

      Depending on who you are, that might not matter. Believe it or not, but there's a market for "portable" in the "movable" sense meaning that you unhook it at one location and plug it in at another location. The alternative isn't a laptop, it's a box, monitor, keyboard and so on. Having it all rolled up into one box is a lot easier than the alternative, and the ability to open the lid and check something or bring it to a meeting for half an hour's demo without plugging in is just bonus. My dream work laptop has a quad core cpu, min. 4GB ram, min. >200GB SSD and hardware support for virtualization and virtualized IO. I don't even care if it has a working battery or not, in fact my last one I used for a long time even though the battery was bad and would last seconds.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re:Just plain silly by DiLLeMaN · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My dream work laptop has a quad core cpu, min. 4GB ram, min. >200GB SSD and hardware support for virtualization and virtualized IO. I don't even care if it has a working battery or not, in fact my last one I used for a long time even though the battery was bad and would last seconds.

      That's not a laptop, that's an all-in-one. Apple calls them iMacs, and I believe HP Gateway have knock-offs of it.

      --
      /var/run/twitter.sock is a twitter socket puppet.
    6. Re:Just plain silly by jsoderba · · Score: 3, Insightful

      An all-in-one doesn't fold up in a handy package that protects the screen and input devices, nor does it include a keyboard and pointing device. Desktop replacements do have legitimate uses.

    7. Re:Just plain silly by cerberusss · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And weight isn't an issue because we all have laptop bags or backpacks

      It happens to me that I'm walking around for 30-60 minutes on the airport with a laptop bag hanging on one shoulder and rolling luggage on the other hand.

      I'll tell you I'm pretty glad if I get to sit down and let the laptop slide off the shoulder.

      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    8. Re:Just plain silly by mgblst · · Score: 4, Funny

      THe good thing is, if you leave your lights on, you can use the battery to start your truck.

    9. Re:Just plain silly by volsung · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you are putting 130W into the CPU, then I would expect nearly 130W coming out in heat. Otherwise, that means the CPU is storing energy somewhere. Initially, it will store some energy as the chip heats to above room temperature, but then it should rapidly hit a steady state where power in = power out.

    10. Re:Just plain silly by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm a Mechanical Engineer. I take lots of data from test cells and process it. Gigs of data sometimes, so you can't just install it where ever. Matlab, Vector CANape and the other programs I use aren't cheap and network licenses are even more expensive.

      I may have 1 meeting a day, all I said is that the laptop has to last until I make it there, I didn't say that all I did all day was run around to meetings.

      It may have to last long enough for me to get to the DC/AC inverter in the test rig or until I walk down to the test cell. Or be light enough that I can take my work home.

      Weight might be an issue to you, it is to me.

      No one is forcing you to buy this.

      If you need the computational horsepower and portability, why not have a desktop and VNC into it through your laptop?

      VNC sucks, it's good for maybe setting up something on a computer or two, but you can't work through it 8 hours a day. Plus, then my company would have 2x the computers.

    11. Re:Just plain silly by cerberusss · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Several reasons I could think of:
      - on my back it's not easily reachable (think being able to fetch PDA, phone, wallet, passport or agenda)
      - but much more easily reachable by others
      - company doesn't supply a backpack
      - when you wear a suit or any other business-like attire, you ruin the jacket with a backpack

      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    12. Re:Just plain silly by funkatron · · Score: 2, Funny

      £12? Bargain. Bet it's heavy tho.

      Sorry

      --
      "Welcome to our world. We are the wasted youth. And we are the future too." Yes, I know these are stupid lyrics.
    13. Re:Just plain silly by D+Ninja · · Score: 2, Funny

      A 20 lb laptop would still be lighter than the cases of beer I carried in college.

      Fixed that for you.

  4. 5 grand?! by Mad+Merlin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What I'd like to know is how on earth they can justify charging 5 grand for a laptop that has nothing special about it except being absurdly heavy and featuring an i7.

    For that size and weight, you could just throw a desktop motherboard in some plastic, tape a screen and battery on, then ship it out! This machine might justify the price if it clocked in at under 5 pounds.

    --
    Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
  5. For more information... by bazald · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...on the expected hardware specifications, see Notebook Review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=348239

    --
    Insert self-referential sig here.
  6. Desktop replacement by Eun-HjZjiNeD · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I had an Toshiba P-10 a few years ago. It had an Intel P4 3.2ghz socket 478 desktop chip in it. It was a beast.

    I miss having a laptop though, as I don't have much time at home.

    This 12pound monster is a little bit overkill unless it has 6gb ddr3 a pair of 500gb or 1tb drives in RAID and a SLI or crossfire-x solution in it.

    Then it would almost be worth it if you just had to spend 5k on a laptop.

    --
    ..::ALWAYS : watching::..
  7. It's not a laptop ... by bigsteve@dstc · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... it is a compact electric (gonad) cooker. :-)

  8. PC architecture is not ready! by VincenzoRomano · · Score: 2, Funny

    All that power will prove being useless because of constraints on the PC architecture.
    Because of I/O bottlenecks, on a gaming laptop with 64-bit dual core system and 2+ GB RAM, burning a DVD while copying a file from disk to disk (SATA) will kill the system to low responsiveness.
    In theory the CPU is powerful enough to juggle the I/O requests (SATA, nvidia, keyboard and mouse) with the actual computing things in a manner that the user won't experience low responsiveness a-la pre-1990.
    In the practice all that power is weasted, unless you run tasks with low I/O needs.

    --
    Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
    For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
    1. Re:PC architecture is not ready! by arogier · · Score: 2, Funny

      Damn there goes my hopes of using atom scale holograms anytime soon for storage. At least with my limited PC architecture. Guess my computer's going to be stuck folding proteins for quite a while.

      --
      http://www.aaronrogier.net
    2. Re:PC architecture is not ready! by XDirtypunkX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The PC architecture? Your laptop motherboard chipset with a cheap integrated SATA controller maybe. Nothing about the PC architecture limits you from designing a laptop with a PCIe 8x connected dedicated SATA/SAS controller.

      Of course, if it's all from the same hard drive and you're using rotating media, it's the media that is fault not the PC bus architecture responsible for your slow down. The PC architecture is approaching 30 years of scalability.

  9. Deep-pocketed... by Shag · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...enough so to afford a Sherpa to carry the thing?

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  10. Canada != Europe by registered_after_8_y · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps a bit off topic, but why is a Canadian retailer named Eurocom? Some identity crisis going on here? Of course, planning on sticking an i7 in a laptop does seem to indicate some mental instability...

  11. 12 pounds by nmg196 · · Score: 2, Funny

    12 pounds is quite cheap for a laptop of this spec. But I expect once it reaches the UK, it'll be more like 24 pounds. :)

  12. Exchange rate? by jrumney · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...is planning to ship a 12-pound laptop with Intel's Core i7 chip...The 17" notebook's price, not yet announced, will certainly be in excess of $5,000.

    I know the dollar has taken a hammering lately, but its not really that bad yet is it?

  13. Re:Crazy talk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Going really into off-topic territory, but how would you know the birth control pill has failed right away in order to take the other one?

  14. Re:Crazy talk by hobbit · · Score: 2, Funny

    Only if the girl's birth control pill fails to work, and in that case the after-oops pill will work just as fine.

    That attitude really must have women beating down your door.

    From the inside.

    --
    "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato