Xtreme Laptop??

[charlie]

All
Sorry, I know it's not Xtreme OC, but I need a quick answer :D and I KNOW my XS m8's will know the answer!!!!

I was shopping Laptops over the weekend at Fry's and Best Buy, and found this REALLY COOL model:
TOSHIBA
Satellite P25 Key Features

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processorª with Hyper-Threading Technology
Microsoft® Windows XP Media Center Edition or Home Edition
17.0" diagonal Wide-Screen XGA display* (1440 x 900)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX Go5200 high performance graphics
80GB¹ hard drive
DVD Multi Drive—functions as a DVD burner (DVD-R/RW) and 2nd HDD (DVD-RAM) with up to 9.4GB storage capacity using DVD-RAM media
harman/kardon® stereo speakers
Integrated Wi-Fiâ„¢ (802.11a/g)
Cisco Compatible Extensions Program Certified
Warranty: 1-year parts and labor, 1-year battery

in particular, the S609

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.0GHz
Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2004
1024MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (512MB x 2)
17" diagonal Wide-Screen XGA Display (1440 x 900)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX Go5200 GPU w/64MB DDR memory
80GB HDD (5400 rpm)
DVD Multi (CD/CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
Integrated Wi-Fiâ„¢ (IEEE 802.11a/g)
Microsoft® Works, Drag’n Drop CD+DVD Software, InterVideo® WinDVD Creator Plus, Sonic PrimeTime™
4-USB (2.0) ports
iLINK (IEEE 1394) port
1-FIR port
SD media slot
TV-Out (S-Video) port
10/100 Ethernet
V.92/56K modemº
Parallel port



HERE'S what I NEED from a laptop...

1) I need a laptop for air flights... I want to play like BF1942/Halo... on air flights. Oh and watch dvd's too. Several times a year I fly 10+ hours. Battery life?
2) I want to be able to access internet wirelessly from anywhere (cellular).
3) ??

pulling the trigger in 24-48 hrs...
C
2)

[Techmasta]

http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/m855.aspx :slobber:

[PyroTeknik]

if you want long battle life you need to get the pentium m the desktop processors suck batteries like no ones business read 2 hours on a brand new battery maybe....

[charlie]

Nice, I configured a 3200+ with 9600/128M for $2800...
but really wanted to put it on my Fry's card?? What do you think of the Toshiba?? How is the NVidia 64mB FX5200 GO??

[kromosto]

just find something with a better vga like go420 go5600 or mobility 9600

[charlie]

Originally posted by PyroTeknik
if you want long battle life you need to get the pentium m the desktop processors suck batteries like no ones business read 2 hours on a brand new battery maybe....

So what I need is like a Pentium M 1.7 Centrino with a 9600Pro/128M???? Is the 1.7 fast?? Me likes fast proc's :D

C

[sandman]

Yea, get a decent centrino and the 9600mobility one.

It'll play your games well, and should last a while on batteries. I doubt you'll get 10 hours, but you might get 5 or so.

You could always buy another battery too.........

[charlie]

Look at this biotch....she's beautiful!
A bit heavy, but look at the 17" widescreen monitor!!!! Has anyone ever gotten dirty looks on a flight if you're like fragging the heck out of aliens on Halo or something with the old person next to you on the plane?? now if the battery is good for 2 hours, that's bad :( if the fx5200GO is bad...then that's bad, too. Hmmm...back to the drawing board???

C

[Techmasta]

http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/m460.aspx

[charlie]

oh here's the pic of the toshiba

[charlie]

Originally posted by Techmasta
http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/m460.aspx

yes....:slobber: very :slobber:
but $3400 for a 1.7/1gB/9600

[Techmasta]

Yeah I know it's quite spendy. That toshiba would be awesome if it had a mobility 9600 instead of the fx5200.

[EmineM]

Get the new mobiles with the Dothan cpu it has 2mb of l2 cache.. just wait 2 more months and it'll be in retail.. and get the M10 ( 9600 ) the 5200go just suxx^^

[OC_Newbee]

Originally posted by charlie
oh here's the pic of the toshiba

My cousin have one of those, he bought his at Costco for a little over $2000. It looks pretty good when I game on it with that nice 17inch wide screen they have. Him and I were playing Splinter Cell on it. I don't know how good the fx5200 is, but it seem to be running Splinter Cell pretty good.

[drunkenmaster]

My m8 just brought a ath 3200+ mobile + 9600 pro mobility +, hmm, not sure if it was 1 gig or 512 ram, with standard stuff you need, 80gig hdd, blah blah blah, for like £1300, thats about $1900. they look good on teh bang per buck, and the mobile ath 64's are lookign pretty power efficient.

remember, a cheaper one and then spending an extra $100 on a spare battery would be a good idea. Rather than spend $$$'s extra for the latest mos texpensive power efficient(centrino) stuff and a system set for battery efficiency, slower components and so on.

9600 is also cheapish when it comes to laptop models and i think spanks nvidia counterparts power wise and speed wise(as in power usage).


If you want it for gaming on flights, well, if thats it, fast processor would be nice but not 00% necessary, better gfx will completely own getting a much faster processor, will also be quieter with a slightly less top of the range cpu and use teh batt's up less quickly leaving more power for the gfx which is what you will need for 1942.

From what i've seen of laptop reviews, 2 hours is fairly optimistic, a lot only really run for say 2 hours while playing a dvd, that would be way under 100% load on both gfx and cpu, i think 100 mins or less might be a real figure you're looking at.

Do a lot of research, but a cheaper, desktop parts system thats more powerful then spending the extra on spare batts is probo best bet for a mobile gaming comp. IMHO

[saaya]

dont the mobile fs chips run pretty hot and are power hungry?
screw the dx compability as you wont be able to play any dx9 games on a laptop anyways and go with a geforce 4go series laptop!

if you want a new laptop go for the 5600 or 9600 graphics! (forget about the 9600m+ , the m+ version only runs 1% faster than the 9600m graphics)

oh, and if you can wait some more do so, as voodoopc will release a new laptop with some sort of an agp slot to be able to upgrade graphics! :)

[JBELL]

www.internetishop.com

[kromosto]

charlie for a comprasion here is a 3dmark with centrino 1.4 and mobility 9200 this system performs very good on call of duty

http://mail.baskent.edu.tr/~97131018/mobility.jpg

[charlie]

So maybe a full size A64/9600 rig?? And buy extra batteries??
Who (besides Voodoo) builds a64 laptops?? Oh and is HT (intel) a big advantage on laptops??

C

[Underwater Mike]

Good luck trying to fit one of those monsters on a coach-class airline tray! Dirty looks from other passengers is the least of your worries. I could never fit my Presario 2700 -- now I try to travel with only my PocketPC and keyboard.

[charlie]

I would have to learn to control my uttered phrases during game play:
During Halo, early levels
"You nasty son of a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:, get the §§§§ off of my ASS! That's a plasma grenade, §§§§face....

Later levels...
"You disgusting zombie/flood thing, bend the §§§§ over and take THIS!!!!!! GGrrr.......... Plasma rifle, baby...

BF 1942,
"Stick your §§§§ing c*cksucker helmet out of that doorway again and say HELLO to my LITTLE FRIEND!!!

lol

[charlie]

How bout this Gateway?
17" widescreen, 3.0ghz/800fsb/865PE/9600-64mb mobility 8.8#

Gateway M675X

PRODUCT DETAILS

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

Application Software: Microsoft® Works 7.0

AntiVirus Software: Norton AntiVirus 90 day Introductory Offer

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.0GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology

Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM (2-256MB modules)

Hard Drive: 60GB ultra ATA hard drive

Floppy Drive: Modular 6-in-1 memory card reader

Optical Drive: Modular DVD-R/-RW/CD-RW Recorder

Extended Service Plan Including Limited Warranty: Value Service Plan-3Yr Parts/Labor/No Onsite/3 Yr Technical Support

Expansion Slots: One Type II PC Card Slot

External Ports: (4) USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), VGA, Parallel, TV Out, S-Video

Screen: 17.1" WXGA TFT Active Matrix

Video: ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 8x AGP w/ 64MB DDR video memory

Keyboard and Mouse: Full-Sized Keyboard and EZ Pad® Pointing Device

Multimedia Package: Integrated sound and stereo speakers, headphone/speaker jack, line-in and mic jacks

Speakers: External speakers not selected

Battery: High-capacity lithium ion battery with AC pack and 1 yr. limited battery warranty

Modem: Integrated V.92 56K modem

Network Adapter: Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

Internet Service Provider: Six months America Online® Internet access

Wireless Networking Adapter: Integrated 802.11g wireless networking card

Carrying Case: Targus BlackTop Deluxe Carrying Case






ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Chipset:
Intel 865PE System Chipset
ICH5
PCI Bus V2.3
Phoenix NoteBIOS 6.0
512 KB flash ROM
SMBIOS (DMI) 2.3 Support
Full ACPI Support

Memory Slots:
Two 200-pin SO-DIMM Sockets on Motherboard
0MB On-Board Memory

Display:
17.1" WXGA TFT Active Matrix Color Display
1440 x 900 @ 18-Bit (262K) colors

Disk Controller:
Supports Ultra DMA and up to PIO mode 4
100 MB/s maximum data transfer rate

Audio:
Sigmatel STAC9758, 6 channel AC97 2.3 Codec
Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound
SoundBlaster® Pro, MIDI and Windows® Sound System Compatible
3D Sound Support
Integrated Speakers

Dimensions:
15.75" (W) x 10.63" (D) x 1.52" (H)

Weight:
8.8 Pounds

[Penti]

I vote for Pentium-M and mobility 9600 pro.
Pentium-M is more lika a P3 processor and it's faster then a P4. Article/review and some tests of Pentium M @ cpuid.com (http://www.cpuid.com/PentiumM/index.php)
I mean just look at this!
http://www.cpuid.com/PentiumM/SuperPI.gif
From the cpuid Pentium M article/review

[afireinside]

I dont know anything about laptops but battery life and power are going to be hard to get together...

And I couldent game on a plane. Not enough room. Wheres the ratpadz gona fit ;)

[Tedinde]

I have that laptop the toshiba. Charlie, i bought it 4 months ago from costco "warehouse local store" for $1899-2% cash back. Cheaper in store.

http://www.costco.com/frameset.asp?trg=subcat%2Easp&catid=84&subid=1674&hierid=1675&log=&NavTop=

They sell them online @ costco.com for $1949 if i remember, members only place though.

Yeah it's big. But people love the screen. Wifi, i never have a problem with on it.

Worried about battery liife on the plane. Hell put a 350 UPS in your carry on!!!!! Easy to find in the $30's and even 500va's in that range.

I tell you what, the screen is bright, no one will be sleeping anywhere around you on that flight.

[saaya]

lol, ever tried to play a shooter with the integrated touch pad? roflmao :rotf:

[charlie]

Ted,
Yeah, great deal... but does the fx5200 display games well????

C

[Speed_Mechanic]

If your gonna be playing games like BF42, then the mobile hard drive is something you also have to pay attention to. Long loads and long waits with a 4200RPM mobile compared to Hitachi's 7200RPM mobile HD's. Try to look for laptop's with Hitachi's 7200RPM 60GB drive, maybe?

Intel's Dothan is due out sometime between Q2 2004 and oblivion (Intel sure like's it's delays), although I would lean more towards mid-Q2 2004. Although you don't really know until someone respectable benches it, the Dothan NV will offer 1.8A, 1.7A, and 1.6A versions. It has a low, but not extremely low, ~21W consumption. If you want longer battery life, the Dothan LV's (1.3A) are rated at only ~10W. Maybe wait?

edit, 533FSB Dothans are still a ways off, with them coming around the end of 2004 (Q4) and consuming 30W instead of 21W.

The Radeon 9600 (there isn't too much of a distinction between mobile 9600's and mobile 9600's Pro's) is probably the best overall mobile graphics card out now. If you purchase an Alienware or VooDoo laptop that offers upgradability (a trend that the Alienware is pushing to try to make mainstream), then all's the better.Intel's Plans for Mobile CPU/Wattage (http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/0122/ubiq02l.gif)

[saaya]

i wouldnt trust it...

and dude... yur buying a new laptop, why get 5200 graphics when there is 9600 and 5600 graphics solutions out? its really not worth the little money you save...

id say wait until cebit is over, there will be completely new laptops out then, and you can either get the latest and greatest or you can get the same laptops your interested in now for a few hundret less...

[Tedinde]

You can play battlefield on it no problem. you cant turn up the eye candy. But it's pleanty playable. even @ the native resolution of 1440 x 900.

If you can find a mobile 9600 based one. i'd go that way.

But hard to find that lovely 17" screen. I've been looking. I've got someone that wants mine for $2k, even though i got it cheaper. Regular stores prices are murder!!!

First laptop i've had that i can call a desktop replacement, well almost.

[Kanavit]

Charlie, I saw that toshiba satellite at compusa. It's really really nice, a P4 2.8ghz M for only $1949.

http://image.compusa.com/prodimages/14/cae933ae-fa80-4368-8e3f-f9ef0ed3a54d.gif
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?ref=CJ&product_code=306199&pfp=cat3

Satellite P25-S509 Notebook
Intel Pentium 4 Processor, 2.8GHz, with Hyper-Threading Technology, 512MB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, 17-inch WXGA TFT Display, 2X DVD-R/RW Drive, Microsoft Windows XP Home

[charlie]

To bad you can't open her up and replace vid cards, lol

[Tedinde]

Some you can change the cards. I've been in the dell forums, and a few have successfully. hard to get the parts, you have to order from small business.

I've upgraded CPU's in laptops no problems. Pop out the junkie orignal celeron for a P3. And Duron to XP. But have never came across the vid being accessable.

I remember somewhere Alienware's you could but they had to do it. They wont just sell it to you.

[Kanavit]

Originally posted by charlie
To bad you can't open her up and replace vid cards, lol Yea, it comes with an NVIDIA® GeForce FX Go5200
Installed Video Memory: 32 MB , hmm is 32mb even enough these days? maybe that's why it's so cheap. Not intended for gaming , probably surfing.

[charlie]

I saw a review the fx5200 GO gets CRUSHED by the mobility 9200...and I mean CRUSHED hard. In 3DMk03 it was like 1200 to 700 scores..
Why in the world would Toshiba install THAT card in such a desirable laptop?? I dunno'.
And good point, TED...that screen would light up half the cabin at night, lol especially with the flashes from guns and explosions, lol. But on airplanes I'd also like to play turn based strategy games...probably a lot easier to render...

C

[saaya]

as i said before there will be notebooks with an exchangable graphics card so you can upgrade it. you will only be able to buy special upgrade cards but you will be able to upgrade them, wich is a huge advantage over normal laptops if you ask me.

dont remember whther it was voodoo or alienwares... ive read about it on theinquirer... those notebooks are supposed to be presented to the public on cebit iirc... so pretty soon.

[PGgagne]

To bad you can't open her up and replace vid cards, lol

charlie go look at the alienware laptops, u can replce the vid card on one of there lapies.

[saaya]

http://www.alienware.com/review_pages/review_template.aspx?FileName=review_maxpc_0204.as p
lol

http://www.alienware.com/Images/main_images/main_upgrade51m.jpg

[charlie]

Anyone knpw anything about Gateway notebooks??
M675X $1999
has 17" WXGA (btw what's with all UXGA, WXGA UXGA BGA WUGA??)
comes with 3.0ghZ, 865PE, 9600/128M

C

[charlie]

Yeah,
the upgradeable Alienware looks great...
Now about the P4 in the notebooks... is it a normal 2.8/3.0/3.2 P4C like we all know and love?? SO.....(evil grin) I could buy one with the 2.8C and upgrade to a muuuhahahahaha...3.4 Northie or even a Prescott (Dr Evil pinkie to mouth) It's an 865PE chipset, I believe....
How hard is it to change out a notebook CPU?? And how in the world do they keep one of these beasts cool?

edit: actually it uses the new SiS648FX chipset which benches higher than 875P .....maybe SiS even has a BIOS update to the 3.4EE???????

[saaya]

exchanging cpus shouldnt be a problem, i dont know what volts those cpus run at though... i guess a bit less than desktop cpus. about prescotts... even if its possible (not sure if the power circuicity of the board can feed a prescott with all the amps it needs) i dont think you want to upgrade to a prescott at a later time... way more heat and it would eat up your battery in no time... the only diference between the performence and enthusiast model is the hd? why the big price gap? lol, check if you can find the 60gb 8mb cache 7200 mobile hd somewhere and get the cheapest of the three and upgrade it...

[Mrk200]

One of the best notebooks is the IBM T41, but it only has an ati 9000.

Personally, I'm waiting until next week to see if the rumors (Feb 2/3) about the pricedrop/upgrade of powerbooks are true.

[charlie]

Powerbook...

McIntosh??? (stunned look)

[gokickrocks]

you probably wont be able to resist long enough, but ati is coming out with the m11s based on the 9700

[charlie]

Originally posted by saaya
lol, ever tried to play a shooter with the integrated touch pad? roflmao :rotf:

Saaya,
You can get a handheld controller that just plugs into a USB port, lol SO I'd be good to go!

C

[skate2snow]

I think the Alienware is just what you whant. W/ a extra batterie pack.

And yes theyre normal 2.8/3.0/3.2, but the batterie is down after a min

[PGgagne]

skate what do u meen by "but the batterie is down after a min" do u meen that the batterie doesn't last. Oh and charlie u shou buy 2 batteire or so. lol

[skate2snow]

I meen: whit a 2.8C+(normal) they sucks all the batteries juice;)

[charlie]

Do yo think the Vid card (9600 Pro 128) will be the bottleneck?? aka, the jump from 2.8 to 3.4 will give 0+ FPS in gaming??


C

[Techmasta]

Originally posted by charlie
Yeah,
the upgradeable Alienware looks great...
Now about the P4 in the notebooks... is it a normal 2.8/3.0/3.2 P4C like we all know and love?? SO.....(evil grin) I could buy one with the 2.8C and upgrade to a muuuhahahahaha...3.4 Northie or even a Prescott (Dr Evil pinkie to mouth) It's an 865PE chipset, I believe....
How hard is it to change out a notebook CPU?? And how in the world do they keep one of these beasts cool?

edit: actually it uses the new SiS648FX chipset which benches higher than 875P .....maybe SiS even has a BIOS update to the 3.4EE???????

Prescott would probably put off too much heat for a laptop.

[Shade00]

Best Buy has an Emachines laptop with a 3000+ and 9600 for under $1600. I can't tell you much beyond that, but those who have purchased that one seem to be very pleased with it. I would go with that over a system with a 5200 any day.

[charlie]

Yeah,
here it is...
the screen is 15", resolution is down a bit at 1280 x 800
but it has the 3000+ 9600/64M and under 8 pounds!
$1549 after rebates...nice.
Good find, Shade00

C

[Shade00]

Yeah, it's a great deal for a laptop. I've been considering selling off my desktop stuff and going in for a good laptop, so I've been keeping myself up to date on laptop deals. You could get a few extra batteries with that laptop for the price of any of the others. ;)

[Shade00]

Oh my... I just looked at the Best Buy site and apparently the laptop has a $150 rebate AND a $100 rebate. With an original price of $1549, that would bring the price down to $1549 + tax - $250 in rebates... less than $1400 for an A64 laptop! Sweet.

[STEvil]

Pentum-M and 9600 is the way to go, no way around it :D

EDIT

Well, could go A64/FX-51.... ;)

[Shade00]

Can you find a P-M and 9600 for $1600 or less? I've been shopping around to see if I can find something suitable to replace my old Athlon 4. I wouldn't mind finding a Celeron-M/9600 solution, as I'd imagine it would be considerably cheaper, but the only Celeron-Ms I can find have Intel's 'Extreme' graphics built-in.

[charlie]

You're right, it's 1299.99 after $25 mail in rebates!!!!!!! Abso-freekin' lutely outrageous.

C

[Penti]

Originally posted by charlie
Anyone knpw anything about Gateway notebooks??
M675X $1999
has 17" WXGA (btw what's with all UXGA, WXGA UXGA BGA WUGA??)
comes with 3.0ghZ, 865PE, 9600/128M
C

XGA stands for eXtended Graphics Array (1024x768). Its a video standard like svga/vga and its the native resultion of the monitor.
UXGA is Ultra XGA. I thinks its resolution is 1600x1200 4:3 and om Wide XGA (WXGA) widescreen 16:9 1280x768 and the WSXGA+ Wide Super XGA+ or whatever the alienware is, its 1680x1050 native. SXGA is 1280x1024 and so on..


I would still go with a Pentium-M and 9600 though, i wouldn't like to switch out the battery after 3 hours of normal use. How far can go gaming then? Not long i guess. Dunno how good the battery is on the alienwares though.

[saaya]

what about those battery packs you can plug to your notebook? ive seen a few packs wich are too big to fit into the notebook itself, its like an external battery pack and lasts a lot longer. the boss of the architecture office i used to work in had one of those. it was running for hours and hours and didnt weight too much... 1 or 2 kilos max.

OUCH! the alienware notebook only lasts 90 minutes when gaming? :stick: :eek:

[TheDude]

I recently got a Compaq XT1000. Never thought I would buy a Compaq, but I love this one. Check them out...perfect for what you want. Centrino and Graphics plus 5 hour battery,
http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/computer_store/computer_landing_view.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1950319 123.1075205125@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccddadckiemljmjcfngcfkmdflldfjk.0&landing=notebooks
[I took mine on flight over the Holidays....great DVD and game play.

[Tettejaak]

offtopic:
Something i always wondered: If you had a nice chip in your laptop(like an athlon xp that does stock @1.1-1.2V or so) and you'd be able to reduce voltage in bios. Would it give you extra battery life?
:)

[Daywalker]

I've got a Dell Inspiron 8500 with a P4-M 2.6/512 MB PC2100/GeForce 4200 Go. It plays games well enough and looks good on the 15.4 widescreen WUXGA screen - 1920x1200 native resolution. Supposedly you can upgrade the video card also.

Now they have the 8600 with the P-M chip and the 9600 available. I know it's a Dell but c'mon - it's a laptop.

[prommy_fan]

what a nice toy with big screen! :D
http://www.ixbt.com/portopc/toshiba/p20/45revview.jpg

4 me P4-M + 5600Go is a best buy but actually I don't play games on laptop so I own IBM T40 and this thing is damn nice!

[Warden]

Best Buy has the new AMD 64 3000 or 3200 (cant recall which) with teh ATI 9600 Mobility chipset from E-Machines for $1,299 after rebate. Easily the best bargain on a power laptop I have ever seen :)

Warden

[Speed_Mechanic]

Originally posted by Shade00
Can you find a P-M and 9600 for $1600 or less? I've been shopping around to see if I can find something suitable to replace my old Athlon 4. I wouldn't mind finding a Celeron-M/9600 solution, as I'd imagine it would be considerably cheaper, but the only Celeron-Ms I can find have Intel's 'Extreme' graphics built-in.

VooDooPC is only assembler that I noticed that was offering Pentium-M laptops w/ ATI 9600's. But their price is quite xtreme, $3000+ for their envy M:460-line. It offers 4 hour battery life doing basic work - don't know how less playing games would take off that.

The mobile A64 puts out a max of around 65W (actual prolly around ~45W), which is less then a Pentium4 DTR (75W), but still high compared to a Pentium-M (25W).

[Kanavit]

I just checked Newegg, and I found a Toshiba Satellite P25-S607 Notebook Pentium4 2.8G, 17"TFT, NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5600 , 512MB, 60GB, DVD-Multi, 56K, Wireless LAN, WinXP MCE. $1,899.00

Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=34-114-038&depa=3)

a few screenies..
http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/34-114-038-01.JPG
http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/34-114-038-09.JPG
http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/34-114-038-10.JPG
http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/34-114-038-02.JPG

I would trade my desktop for this machine...

[prommy_fan]

only one I thing I dislike in this lapie - why place 14.1 format notebook's keyboard in notebook with 17.1 matrix???
Of course it's heavy and battery wouldn't last long (max 2.5 hours I suppose)
if someone know nice translator from russian2english they may give a try to read a nice review of P20 here - http://www.ixbt.com/portopc/toshiba-p20.shtml

[TheDude]

My XT1000 has Centrino and 9600...at least check them out man.

[Speed_Mechanic]

Originally posted by TheDude
My XT1000 has Centrino and 9600...at least check them out man.

Where can you upgrade from the mobile Radeon 9200 64MB to a mobile Radeon 9600 128MB on the Compaq XT1000 series? I know people can, but can't find it on the HP/Compaq website.

Also, a Dell Inspiron 8600 configured top-of-the-line with a 15.4" WUXGA Display, Pentium-M 1.7GHz WUXGA, 1GB DDR333, 128MB 9600 Pro Turbo, 4X DVD+RW, 60GB 7200RPM HD, 802.11g wireless, Windows XP Pro, and MS Works Suite comes at little over 3 grand. Playing with the configuration a bit, and using Dell's multitude of special offers, could bring down the price of a powerful little laptop to around $2,500 or less.

There's a bunch of special offers on Compaq/HP laptops out there as well that could bring the price of a XT1000 down further.

[nikhsub1]

Originally posted by charlie

How hard is it to change out a notebook CPU?? And how in the world do they keep one of these beasts cool?

I have the older 3.06 with HT machine on the 845 chipset. This is the one I recommend: http://pctorque.com/builder.php?type=16 you can get the EE CPU if you want too. With the 3.2HT, UXGA screen and the 7200 RPM 60 GIG drive it runs about 2k and includes the 9600 pro vid. Get the additional battery and you are good for 2.5 - 3 hours. About swapping the CPU:

http://www.netbetty.com/lappy/guts.jpg

And keeping it cool:
http://www.netbetty.com/lappy/hsf.jpg

[nikhsub1]

Or wait till Feb for the Prescott 17" WXGA machine found here:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=9961

[Speed_Mechanic]

How long does a top-line Sager go on a single battery while using up the CPU/GPU (playing games)? 60-90 minutes or less?

[saaya]

60min id say...

[nikhsub1]

Originally posted by Speed_Mechanic
How long does a top-line Sager go on a single battery while using up the CPU/GPU (playing games)? 60-90 minutes or less?
Yeah, 60-90 would be my guess. They really are kinda useless without the second battery though. I mean, for those of you with battery life needs, Centrino is the way to go. Me, well I tote mine between my office and my house mostly, and it is plugged in pretty much everywhere I go. The performance though is truly desktop.

[D/SCoNn3Ct3D]

Get the a64 laptop imho. I cant imagine having a prescott in a lapyop. The problem is that laptops already have insufficient cooling and with a prescott in there you will be at 70C load :D

[Kanavit]

Originally posted by prommy_fan
[B]only one I thing I dislike in this lapie - why place 14.1 format notebook's keyboard in notebook with 17.1 matrix???
Of course it's heavy and battery wouldn't last long (max 2.5 hours I suppose)
I think Toshiba Satellite P25 looks sweet though, i don't mind the keyboard size. I love the looks. I like the speakers on the front end and the quality it's impeccable. Picture can't justify how it looks in real life. I saw one at Compusa in display. I can say that Intel owns the laptop market. Also, I think most people won't be carrying that thing around either. It's a small desktop rather than mobile notebook. I can use that while watching Cable tv and lay it on my stomach surfing the net at the same time.

[charlie]

I like the emachines A64 3000+/9600-64M wide screen rig, but the resolution on it's 15.4 screen is like 1280 x 800, not real super. But it's $1299
The Toshiba Satellite 2.8/FX go5600 ROXXXXX but the vid card is limp, and anandtech's reviews said compared to 9600-128M you have to cripple your dx9 games like disabling fog, etc...
Only Voodoo has centrino/9600 models for like $3000+, no thanks.
Still don't know what to do :(

C

[charlie]

but in a perfect world, I'd drop the $$$

[Kanavit]

The Centrinos are sweet, a 1.7ghz P-m is equal to a 2.60ghz P4-m in mobilemark2002. So, no question about cpu power there. I still think the toshiba satellite P25 would be my choice though. The $1800 is way to appealing for a P4-m 2.80ghz, and 17" tft screen. And the FX 5600 go isn't half as bad for dx8 games imo. There are still only a few DX9 titles out now. I don't think the 9600pro is hardly good enough for me to take into consideration when choosing to buy a laptop. maybe a 9800 pro mobile.

[Shade00]

That Compaq x1000 would be a sweet laptop if you could upgrade the 9200 to a 9600. Otherwise I would definitely go with the Emachines Athlon 64.

[saaya]

the 5600go is crap... for dx9 games and even more for dx8 games where the go420 easily beats it...

i think the most important things are the graphics, the chipset and the display, cpu power doesnt really make a diference... unless you encode music/movies or wanna run seti on your laptop cpu power is unimportant. a faster cpu might give you a few fps extra, thats it... it'll only suck dry your battery and burn your laps ;)

id get any laptop with 9600 graphics and a 17" display.

[Kanavit]

I think the 5600go is better than the go420. i had a fx 5600nu and it beat the g4 mx440 easily, i have both cards. besides, i think most people using laptops are not using it for games primarly. since you don't have a mouse only touch pad.

i'd settle for intel extreme graphics and a 17"tft display on a laptop.

[saaya]

i meant go4200, sorry.

the go5700 is out already? should be a nice alternative as its faster than the 9600!

[doctorcod]

Originally posted by Kanavit
I think the 5600go is better than the go420. i had a fx 5600nu and it beat the g4 mx440 easily, i have both cards. besides, i think most people using laptops are not using it for games primarly. since you don't have a mouse only touch pad.

i'd settle for intel extreme graphics and a 17"tft display on a laptop.
this guy wants to game with it, and i would assume most of the people on this board would want the option of gamin with it. as far as that horrible situation of having the touch pad, there is a really ingenious remedy, PLUG IN A USB MOUSE.

[charlie]

Even better, grab a usb game controller...looks like an XBOX controller...very cool.

C

[Tedinde]

Just sold mine today Charlie, the one from the front page. And made $100 after using it for 6 months, Never scratched it.

An old customer of about 4 years came by, and Architect i built a few rigs for in the past. Most recent one was 3 weeks ago. It went along with a pair of the new Dell fp2001 20" 16ms response LCD's

I bought 3 at that time. Love that LCD.

So now i need a new lappy myself. Glad you guys are doing all the work hunting for charlie, Your helping me too.

you have your mind made up, I gotta have a 17" LCD im spoiled with big screens.

It's funny how my 20" LCD looks bigger than my 21" monitor.

[Minnyboy]

Hey Charlie,
Wait a bit I reckon, there's a new kid on the block.
Mobility Radeon 9700 (well an updated 9600XT kinda)
According to THG, it performs nearly as good as the desktop parts. I know I should believe a word THG says but maybe you should have a cjeck on perfomance against AMD64 & 9600, Dell 8600 with GFX Go5650 & 2.4Ghz 800fsb (Toshiba me thinks as it has an 865PE chipset). Not bad results if you can believ the hype as it's up against some killer laptops...

just my little 2 cents..
DAMMIT, I should never have bought this laptop of mine 2 months ago... Godd gfx but s**t chipset (Sis645DX)...


Not an R300 but an RV360 with low-K like 9600XT... 450 core & maybe 550mem..
Cheers..

[Kanavit]

I just saw that too at anandtech. ATI releases mobility Radeon 9700! Charlie, i think this is what your want for laptop.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1957&p=1

VoodooPC laptops are one of the few vendors, ATI partner launching the new mobile chip.

[El Spic]

Emachines makes a
athlon 64 3000+ chip with a 9600 mobile w/ a 15 inch wide screen
for $1500
and in the next few weeks a 17" widescreen version with the 9700 mobile for $2000 bucks. Since emachines has been bought out by gateway you can expect good things!

[Speed_Mechanic]

With discount's available, the Dell Inspiron 8600 is the best buy.

For about $2000-shipped, you can get a slightly-comprimised 1.7GHz Pentium-M system with a 15.4" WUXGA display, 2x256MB DDR333 (a slight comprimise - saves $550 over going with 1GB), 60GB 7200RPM HD, 24X CD-RW, 128MB Radeon 9600 Pro-Turbo (this is now ;)), Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Works Suite 2003, and a 1-yr warrenty (another comprimise).

Now wait a week or so, and add a 9700 (9600 XT) Mobility to this and you got something that could perform on-par with $3000+ VooDoo PC's. Saves alot of battery, and still offers amazing performance, when compared to a Sager top-of-the-line model (which costs alot of $$$).

[Kanavit]

I just spotted a this HP 17" laptop at a local best buy today. I came home, and looked it up on the net. here it is..
http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/6138/6138869_ra.jpgpretty sweet, i must say, i think better than the toshiba P25 counter part.

HPHewlett-Packard Pavilion Notebook with Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.06GHz (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1066094444802&skuId=6138869&type=product)

[TheDude]

It ought to be nice for $2600. My XT1000 is almost that nice and $1100 cheaper.

[`schr0et]

You guys make me want to buy a xtreme laptop rofl! :(

[LilGator]

Mobile 9700 :D mmmm

And Tendinde, your 20'' FP2001 should be larger than your 21'' CRT, the viewable area on your LCD is 20", wheras the CRT's viewable is more like 19-19.5''

(If that one on the right is a CRT) kinda looks like the Dell FP2000 too :D

[texuspete00]

Originally posted by `schr0et
You guys make me want to buy a xtreme laptop rofl! :(

and prometias, mobile barton, athlon 64......

I'm sure I could think of more. Always do :p:

Emachines deal is great. Cool and quiet and gaming prowess makes an A64 laptop real attractive. I do believe the mobility 9700 is a nice boost though. The name had me thinking 8 pipes and stuff but its just good old clever numbering.

[=w=]

Sorry if I'm a little late with this post, but I find this an awfully good deal :slobber:

http://www.ibuypower.com/mall/notebook.asp

[blinky]

charlie i think IBMs T42 series is for u

is uses dothan and 9600 series vid cards, u can even get a fireGL in it. its pretty slim, plays games VERY well, gets 4-5 hours on one battery , and u can buy a second battery to put in the drive bay in place of the optical drive,
its around 1500-2500$

[Çhrist0ph]

Originally posted by =w=
Sorry if I'm a little late with this post, but I find this an awfully good deal :slobber:

http://www.ibuypower.com/mall/notebook.asp

really? Im pretty sure charlie got his lappy a loooonnnggg time ago....

[ColdFlare]

IBM with Centrino gets my vote. Over 5 hours of battery life!!.

The regular p4s on laptops wont even last more than 2 hours. I suggest you get the Centrinos. I'm using a dell 600m with a 1.4 p4m and its comparable to a p4 2.4ghz.

[Johnny Bravo]

*CRAP*

Didn't realise Charlie had bought his laptop already!

:rolleyes:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
charlie, what about one of these (http://www.savrow.com/site/laptops.html)

Just ordered one of the Razors myself, seriously light yet well speced.Some of the other laptop models may interest you as well.

http://www.savrow.com/news/images/razornewhex.jpg

[Gogeta]

Its not xtreme, but its xtremely small!

Those Banias ULV procs sure do make for long battery life :D

Nice 10.6" widescreen on it too.

http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/imagesProducts/MoreImages/tr3a_7.jpg

http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/imagesProducts/MoreImages/tr3a_5.jpg

http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/imagesProducts/MoreImages/tr3a_1.jpg

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=cxiJIRNheqiJglODpuODKlxs1WYMPXklUlw=?Cat egoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_TRSeries&Dept=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers&TemplateName=item%2fsy_item_b&ProductSKU=PCGTR3AP1

[kromosto]

waow it has been a long time to see this thread

[Gogeta]

haha, no kidding.

I didn't see that the original post date was way back in January!