Okay, I've had my K320 1BU for about three weeks, and time for me to stop playing and post some comments. The 1BU is the Intel i5 machine, with 6gb/640gb/GF310 graphics/tuner. The Lenovo 1EU is almost identical, except with 4gb and perhaps no tuner.
Overall, how much do you like the machine?
Overall, great. It is light years ahead of my old Pentium machine, and works very well.
How stable has the hardware and software been?
Mostly okay. No problems with the hardware at all. The Windows 7 is fine, I really like the new interface. It does, however have occasional hiccups and freezes that require reboots. I guess there is no way to avoid that with a Microsoft machine. Also, the NVIDIA graphics card has trouble returning from full screen mode and resets itself. It does this almost instantly so not a problem.
Is it as fast as you'd hoped?
Here I have a bit of concern. The machine does just fine on HD video in any mode, so no problems there. And it does video editing that I could never even dream of on my old machine. However, video editing, especially converting formats, does slow it down more than I had hoped. It can take up to ten minutes to convert ten minutes of uncompressed AVI into MP4. I had thought with all those cores, it would chew video up for lunch. Also, the graphics are just acceptable for a relatively high-end machine, with 20 to 40 frame rates on games that I thought would fly based on their hype, and some jerky pauses if the machine is doing anything else while I play a game. If I make sure everything else is off, including the automatic backup, it is pretty smooth, but any other CPU intensive activities are really noticeable. I'm not a tuning wiz, but I think the problem is with the hard drive, because when I notice problems, the CPU is still just at 30% or so and only a third of the memory is in use.
Also, I don't notice any huge "Enhanced Experience" improvement. It takes a standard two or three minutes to boot up completely. If this is EE, I'd hate to see native Windows!
How are the graphics? For games, HD videos and/or video editing?
See above.
How quiet is it?
Almost silent in all modes. Really great.
Have you made any modifications?
No, other than removing junkware.
Is there any software you had problems running?
Surprisingly, almost none. After all the fuss about Windows 7/64 not running old 32 bit programs, it ran all my favorites just fine, even programs over ten years old. I only had problems with two commercial programs that I was able to download free upgrades for. No need to upgrade to Windows 7 Pro and run the XP virtual machine.
Is the power setting switch useful, or just a gimmick?
Mostly gimmick, but it does seem to work. I leave it on blue (auto) most of the time and it just hums along. I put it on "Turbo" when I'm hitting a game hard, and maybe I see a bit of improvement.
Do you actually use the power setting switch, or just leave it on one setting?
See above. The blinking colors are pretty and my kids like it. You can turn it off easily. Several of my friends think it looks really cool.
Do you think it was a good value, and would you recommend it?
Overall, I think it is a really fair value for around $800. I don't think the disk drive and other hardware are keeping up with the i5 chip. If you are looking for a real hard core gamer or video machine, I'd spend $1200 plus elsewhere, but for the price it works well. Since the i7 versions have most of the same hardware, I really wouldn't wait or bother with the additional expense.
The build looks really good, and I think I'll be really happy with the machine for about three to four years, then I'll pass it on to the kids.
Any questions?
Brian