Asus has a hot litle number that just popped up on www.bestbuy.com.
Very similar to the G50Vm-X1 that just came out a couple of months ago, this new model packs a GeForce 9800m GS. This is a lower clocked GTS - but on the plus side it has the same number of shader units and the same 256 bit memory. Good stuff!
What else do you get for $1,250?
It’s taken me a few days to shake off the disappointment and post about how bad these new Apple notebooks are. In particular I feel an obligation to point out the poor value compared to their predecessors.
Maybe it was the talk of lower margins in Q3 (you remember, during Apple’s August investor conference call) that had me primed for a value priced Mac portable. Clearly neither of these two new notebooks is going to deliver Macs to the masses. Even worse, the remaining last-gen units on the Apple store are barely marketed down and this is more than a little insulting.
Sure, there are notebooks available today that use this mobile video card format but can anyone really say that the concept has achieved success?
A few years ago when Nvidia and ATI launched MXM and Axiom there was reason to be excited. One of the key reasons that notebooks lagged desktops was that they were a dead end in many ways - most had their CPUs and GPUs soldered to the motherboard. These new card formats would make the GPU upgradable.
Today, socketed CPUs are common. Axiom is gone, but MXM modules abound. You would never know this though. Many notebooks designs effectively lock the MXM module by hiding it away from access panels. This diminishes the likleyhood of users attempting upgrades. The Toshiba A300 is an example of this.
Another issue is the lack of add in boards. Users looking to upgrade have to seek out a small number of vendors who sell the MXM boards. Its up to the user to educate themselves on the three form factors and to research what video bios works on their hardware. The upgrades are typically not supported - even if you use a module from your vendor. Recently I reviewed the Acer Aspire 6920G and it fell into this category.
Compatibility seems to be broken on a regular basis too. Whether its the heat interface or the electronics, it seems very few people who bought MXM compatible notebooks one generation ago have the ability to upgrade to today’s GPUs. I am thinking specifically of people who bought Dell XPS 17″ notebooks. Those would still be viable gaming systems with an Nvidia 9800m GT GPU.
I guess the point of this post is to remind you not to get hung up on a feature like MXM. Most future proofing features are of dubious value. In future reviews I will point out wheather this feature is present and list compatible modules - clearly pointing out when none exist.
Newegg launched their highly anticpated Canadian store this week with a resounding thud.
In addition to offering crap like Phenom X4 9600 CPUs (with its TLB bug) the prices are nothing special and the selection is poor. Sadly, there is more bad news:
The first two items are deal breakers, the latter will be corrected when someone points it out to them.
UPS is a terrible substiture for Canada Post. When it comes to parcels Brown are slower, more expensive and charge criminally high brokerage fees.
I recently ordered an $800 notebook. I was hit with GST - fair eough - but UPS made me pay a $70 brokerage fee. That was almost double the tax!
If you are a Canadian looking for PC Hardware deals, stick to NCIX.
I like to take stabs at guessing what Apple has in the pipeline as much as anyone else. Although I can’t claim to have any degree of accuracy it’s still fun. Very few people read this site so it spares me from embarrasment when I miss the mark.
My prediction: Read the rest of this entry »
Because I have a serious crush on their version of Gateway’s P-7811FX gaming notebook.
As you probably know, Gateway and Packard Bell were consumed by Acer a few years back. Packard Bell had been languishing under the rudderless NEC Corporation - a company that can not decide what exactly it does from one day to the next. I really expected Packard Bell to go the way of Commodore - a curious footnote in the PC history books like Wang and Olivetti.
But Acer has big plans for Packard Bell - its going to be the hip brand in Europe. Wow. Can this be done? Is it a sign of insanity to even attempt this? You could easily answer yes to either of these questions - but I like how Acer has started.
Delivering gaming products through the Packard Bell iPower line is a good idea. These computers are essentially identical to the well received FX series from Gateway. The FX series really put Gateway back on the map.
This is marketing 101 - get the ‘influencers’ interested in your brand and saying good things about it. That is exactly what has occurred in North America. Gateway’s FX notebooks routinely sell out at Best Buy because they offer terrific performance at a fraction of the competition’s price. Even if you thumb your nose at the brand, you can’t say anything bad about the specifications delivered for the price. The success of the Gateway P-6831fx, P-6860fx and P-7811fx prove this.
Acer’s buying power easily trumps whatever goodwill and gamer cred Alienware and Voodoo have earned for their owners (Dell and HP). Now they will put this to work in Europe.
And boy are the Europeans ever lucky. Look at the specs delivered for 1400 Euros:
I’ll be leaning on my family in Europe to send me one when this notebook launches in October.
The Asus N10 netbook gets a preview over at Mobile Computer Mag. A short video demo is included.
Based on the reviewer’s video, calling it a ‘gaming netbook’ might be a bit of a stretch even if it has the Nvidia 9300m GPU. Perhaps someone who knows their way around a setting screen could coax its true potential. Fast paced games need smooth frame rates in order to be fully enjoyed.
The reviewer demonstrates the N10 running Call of Duty 4 at what appears to 15 fps. Admittedly, he chooses some pretty silly settings such as 2x AA and ignores the advanced settings screen where the textures and geometry detail can be scaled back to a playable level.
As a comparison, the Asus VX3 Lamborghini I recently reviewed has the same GPU as the N10, but added a Core 2 Duo T9300 CPU at 2.5 GHz and 4 GB RAM. The VX3 could only play CoD4 smoothly at ‘low’ settings at 1280×800 resolution.
What’s my point? I think calling the N10 a gaming netbook is a bad idea and sets unrealistic expectations. Asus has not realy explained what market they feel this netbook serves, but I don’t know if they will label it as a gaming platform.
There does not seem to be much consumer advocacy in reviews these days. Everyone panders to the PC makers in order to secure review samples. A shame because there are some real dogs out there.
Why are these idiots perturbed? MS promised periodic upates and freebees as enticement to buy the top of the line edition of Vista, but so far substantive add-ons have not materialized. MS is never one to walk away from a quick dishonest buck.
This got me thinking about the kind of person that trusts MS enough to pay in advance for features. Is trusting the starlet of multiple anti-trust lawsuits on pretty much every continent with a civilization ever a good idea? It is when you are an idiot, I guess.
You might ask; what features are worth such a hefty sum? What extensions to Vista - universally decried for being a step backwards from XP - could possibly be worth paying for?* To date there have been only a handful of underwhelming downloads - we are talking screensavers and casual games.
Screenshot taken from Asus VX3 review sample - no hipocracy here
I pondered the value proposition of an OS. Even one packed with as many trivial unfinished trinkets as vanilla Vista is pretty useless at the end of the day without some good apps. What the hell did people expect to be doing in the OS that could compel them to pay $399?
For comparison’s sake, Apple’s infinitely superior OS X 10.5 Leopard is just $125. A child can hack it to run on generic WinTel. You could almost buy a basic PC and Leopard for just the cost of Vista.
Alternatively, a store bought PC can be had at Best buy for about $400. This will come with Vista Home Premium that while lacking the superlative suffix it is exactly the OS delivered to date to folks who bought Vista Ultimate. Perhaps Vista Ulimate’s shiny black box caught the idiot’s eye, but I would rather have a nice case, dual core CPU with motherboard, 3 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, DVD-RW, keyboard and mouse included free with my OS.
Hopefully MS does the right thing by giving Vista retail customers a free copy of Windows 7.
* Yes, it was universally decried because the opinions expressed by MS’s legion of paid minions/shills does not count. Not here anyway.
Toshiba is showing a pretty amazing piece of kit. A projector that is pocket sized, runs on batteries and can display a large enough image for a group presentation. You can see the details here.
Here is something similar using the same technology DLP lit by LED.
Pretty amazing. It’s always good to show up at a client’s office with a better projector than theirs and having this new Toshiba would trump everything else. I can’t wait!
Intel’s dominance of the notebook market the last few years has made reviewing a little less interesting. There are only so many ways to heap praise on Centrino. As we near the end of our wait for AMD’s long overdue response to Centrino, Intel has fired another salvo; Centrino 2. This Toshiba Satellite A300-02C is my first notebook using Intel’s latest bits and I am giddy like a school girl to test it out.
