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Another interesting review at Notebook Review. The Toshiba Satellite Pro A210 is not a powerful laptop but, according to the review, is well-built and stays cool. You can find the full review here.
From my sponsors, TheNerds.net have the same configuration for 886.95 USD:
The guys at Extremetech have been talking about gaming laptops lately, and today they publish a roundup of 3 gaming laptops. Conclussion: in spite of the Alienware Area-51 m9750 being the best performer, the Asus G1S is considered the best in the roundup because of its good performance/price ratio. It is also one of my favorite laptops in the article about powerful laptops I am preparing. Stay tuned!
Below you have the Asus G1S configurations offered by my sponsors:
1850.99 USD at Buy.com: Asus Ensemble G1S-B1 Gaming Laptop Computer Bundle-Santa Rosa,15.4 WSXGA+,Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4GHz 800FSB,NVIDIA 8600M GT 256MB,2GB DDR2-667,LightScribe DVDRW,2
2002.99 USD at Buy.com: ASUS G1S B2 Gaming Laptop Computer Core 2 Duo T7700 / 2.4 GHz – Centrino Duo – RAM 3 GB – HDD 200 GB – DVD RW / DVD-RAM – GF 8600M GT – Gigabit Ethernet – WLAN
1844,27 at TheNerds.net: ASUSTeK G1S-B1 Notebook
1168.54 GBP at Shop.com (UK): Notepad G1s-ak005c Core 2 Duo T7500 2gb 160gb 15.4-tft Dvd-rw Vista Hprem
(I know, the links look ugly, but I don’t have permission to change them!)
A vulnerability has been found in some HP laptops that could compromise its security. The list of affected laptops can be found here. The patch to repair the vulnerability can be downloaded here.
Source: Laptop Logic.
Two good reviews of good laptops:
Laptop Magazine reviews HP’s Pavilion dv6500z, a home laptop with 15.4″ screen and Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT graphics card that scores 4/5.
CNet Reviews reviews Dell’s XPS M1530, a highly configurable laptop with 15.4″ screen that scores 7.8/10.
Notebookjournal.de benchmarks a laptop sporting a Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX and an Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900. The article is in german, you can use Babelfish to translate it or skip directly to the graphs.
I think you would like to know this: Crysis demo at 1600×1200, medium shadows and the rest of the settings at high or very high scores an average of 24 FPS. Not bad for a laptop!
Nvidia has just launched the GeForce 8800M, you can find the relevant info at Nvidia’s web. Simultaneously Alienware has made (finally!) public the new laptops sporting this card.
AnandTech has talked to Nvidia and explains a few points about the 8800M and gaming laptops. Sadly, there is no an actual review of the hardware…
Much later than Intel, AMD launches (finally!) its quad-core processors for desktop computers. Phenom processors are aimed to the middle-range, offering performance and price just below that of Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q6600. Along with the Phenom, AMD unveils the 790FX chipset. Both products, plus Radeon HD3800, define the Spider platform. Phenom processors can be used both in AM2 and AM2+ motherboards, and up to four Radeon HD 3800 cards can be used in CrossFire mode, so the Spider platform is a very scalable one.
We find mixed feelings in the media: while at Tom’s Hardware (where you can find a 42-page review) they think it is a very promising platform, for AnandTech (11-page review) it is a weak release that cannot solve AMD’s problems. And according to CNet it is an irrelevant launch: desktop computers are becoming less and less important, because the only important thing now are laptop computers.
Think about it: take a look to the “launch” of Intel’s QX9770. Maybe Phenom is something to worry about.
Rumors say that Alienware is about to offer its 15.4″ laptop M15x with the option of a Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX and the 17″ laptop with the option of two 8800M GTX in SLI. It seems that the info has been momentarily available at Alienware’s site but has been removed.
More info: Notebookreview. News found in Xataka.
Think about it:this laptop has to be hot. Really.
The first bechmarks for the new Radeon generation are out! And, know what? Things are getting very interesting.
AnandTech publishes extensive benchmarks and TG Daily too.
A few conclusions from the tests:
1) The ATI Radeon HD 3870 performance is a bit lower than that of the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT at a price slightly lower too, so it is an equally good option. As you know, 8800 GT has been very welcome because of its excellent performance/price ratio.
2) The ATI Radeon HD 3850 offers lower performance, but greatly outperforms the Radeon 2600 XT and GeForce 8600 GTS.
3) The new Radeon generation is compatible with DirecX 10.1 and, according to the preliminary results, do offer a good scalability (two 3850 Crossfire offer the same performance as a single 8800 GTX at a lower price), so they seem more future-proof.
We can say that the middle range is healthy again: we have several options offering good performance at around 200 $. We know nothing about next generation high-end ATI cards, but looking at its middle range products, things seem very promising.
Think about it: power consumption data in AnandTech’s report show that the HD 3850 uses an amount of power similar to the 8600 GTS while offering much better performance. Should ATI launch a similar card for 15.4″ laptops (GeForce 8600M GT is the most powerful option at the moment for laptops this size) mobile users would get a great performance increase.
It is well known that hard disks are the main bottleneck for today computer’s performance. Several aproaches based on Flash storage, with better transfer rates and access times, have been tried to enhance computer responsiveness, but hybrid hard disks and Intel Turbo Memory do not seem to improve anything, and solid state disks are at the moment too limited and too expensive. The new player in the game is SanDisk’s Vaulter Disk and it looks, at least to me, as a winner.
Vaulter Disk is a PCI Express module (available for both desktop and laptop computers) sporting 8 or 16 GB of Flash storage, that work in conjunction with the conventional hard disk. Contrarily to hybrid hard disks or Turbo Memory, the Vaulter Disk is big enough to store the Operating System, virtual memory and frequently accessed data, so the performance improvement is likely to be real, and the smaller size will keep the cost much lower than that of a 32 or 64 GB SSD.
Vaulter Disk is expected for early 2008, so we can expect to have pricing information and reviews very soon.
More info at LaptopLogic.
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