Introduction, Design, User Interface
Intel has decided to lead its introduction of Ivy Bridge for mobile with its most powerful quad-core parts. Many of these processors will end up in mainstream laptop, but they’re also great for gaming laptops. In our first look at Ivy Bridge we saw that it holds up well when paired with its own Intel HD 4000 graphics – if you keep the resolution around 1366x768. A bit more than that and the IGP just can’t hang.
Gamers will still want a beefy discrete GPU, and that’s what the G75 offers. Inside this beast you’ll find an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M. Those who were reading our Kepler coverage will remember that this is not based off Nvidia’s newest architecture but is instead a re-work of an older Fermi chip. That mean seem a bit disappointing, and it is – but the performance of Nvidia’s older mobile chips wasn’t lackluster.
So, this new laptop is packing a spanking-new Core i7-3720QM as well as Nvidia’s new GTX 670M. That’s an impressive combination, and ASUS has wisely backed it up with a well-rounded set of performance components.
Continue reading our review of the ASUS G75V Gaming Notebook!
Alienware Updates Laptop Lineup With Ivy Bridge Processors
Subject: Mobile | April 30, 2012 - 12:43 PM | Matt Smith
Tagged: news, Ivy Bridge, gaming laptop, alienware
When Alienware made some adjustments to its laptop lineup about a week before the Ivy Bridge release, many observers scratched their heads. Why update now? Was the company going to delay its introduction of Ivy Bridge laptops?
Apparently not, as they’ve now made the availability of Ivy Bridge in Alienware laptops official. The M14x, M17x and M18x can now be configured with one of several Ivy Bridge quad cores including the Core i7-3610QM, 3720QM, 3820QM, and 3920XM. The M11x, axed in the lineup change prior to Ivy Bridge's launch, remains dead.
The XM processor, which features a blazing base clock of 2.9 GHz with a maximum Turbo Boost of 3.8 GHz, is only available in the flagship M18x. If that’s still not fast enough for your tastes you can order an overclocked version that ups the Turbo Boost maximum.
While Ivy Bridge processors will be stock on the M17x and M18x, the M14x still comes standard with a Sandy Bridge dual core. This is because the new dual-cores have yet to be released into the wild. It’s all but certain that the M14x will be updated with a standard Ivy Bridge dual-core once the parts are available.
As you’d expect, Alienware is pairing the latest CPUs with the newest GPUs. The M14x now comes standard with a Kepler-based GT 650M. Buying an M17x will give you a choice between a GTX 660M, GTX 675M or a Radeon HD 7970M. And the mammoth M18x can be had with a GTX 660M, GTX 675M (single or SLI) or two Radeon HD 7970Ms in CrossFire.
If my memory is correct, none of these laptops have been slapped with a price increase. The M14x is $1099, the M17x is $1499 and the M18x is $1999 - in base form, of course.
These updates put to rest any concerns about the company’s laptop lineup. Based on our review of Ivy Bridge for mobile, we expect the new processors to provide Alienware’s products with a respectable boost in performance. They may allow the laptops to run cooler and quieter, as well.
Make the jump to read the full press release.
Asetek Demonstrates Liquid Cooling For Laptop And All-In-One PCs
Subject: Mobile | March 20, 2012 - 03:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: SFF, liquid cooling, gaming laptop, asetek, alienware
The rise of mATX boards designed for high powered gaming machines, laptops with serious mobile GPU power and All-In-One Systems have increased the problem of heat generation in small systems. A SFF system used to be a moderately powerful system good for use as a workstation or HTPC but now it could well be a multi-GPU gaming beast and the same goes for laptops.
In an effort to stop baking laps and shortening the life of components in SFF systems Asetek has been working on liquid cooling systems for these types of systems. You can see an example of a watercooling Alienware laptop on the YouTube video they produced and be sure to check out the links on this page if you are looking for more information.
Asetek Inc., the world leading supplier of liquid cooling for the computer industry announced today a new and groundbreaking slim form factor liquid cooling technology for extreme performance and workstation grade laptops and All-In-One PCs. Slim form factor liquid cooling enables laptop and AIO PC manufacturers to deliver mobility and sleek industrial designs without sacrificing performance.
“We see a growing need for higher performance personal computers, driven by ever more powerful modeling software for engineering, scientific and financial work, and for content creation and gaming,” said André S. Eriksen, Founder and CEO of Asetek. ”We also see high performance hardware expanding to more portable, sleeker devices like the highly successful M-series of notebooks from Alienware.”
“For laptops and AIOs to deliver workstation and gaming PC performance, these machines must be able to take full advantage of desktop grade performance hardware. We have identified this need and designed our cooling solution to target these thinner machines,” continued Eriksen.
The fundamental challenge in cooling desktop replacement laptops and All-In-One PCs is the lack of space for a proper thermal solution. Consequently, previous attempts at liquid cooling laptops have offered no performance improvement over traditional heat-pipe based heat sinks.
“Asetek successfully cracked the code of improving acoustic and thermal performance in a notebook without increasing the form factor,” said Ole Madsen, VP of Engineering. “Our patent protected technology allows better utilization of the thermal modules used to cool the CPU and GPUs. That, along with our optimized coldplate technology enables the use of much more powerful hardware than air cooling could ever allow”.
Asetek is showcasing its new technology in an Alienware M18x notebook with the CPU overclocked from 3.5GHz to 4.4Ghz and the GPUs overclocked from 680Mhz to 800Mhz. In addition, the M18x achieved a 23% improvement in Futuremark’s 3D Mark Vantage benchmark while reducing the noise output of the stock air-cooled laptop. A video demonstration can be found at Asetek.com.
Introduction, Design, User Interface
Gaming. Laptop. Portable. These may well be the three most contradictory words in the PC industry. It’s been possible to game on laptops for years, but making a high-quality gaming experience portable is a goal rarely achieved.
Alienware made a stab at resolving the contradiction in 2010 when it released the M11x, but the result was questionable. No one can argue that the M11x isn’t portable, but its gaming performance is no better than a 15.6” laptop with mid-range discrete graphics. There simply isn’t enough room in the chassis to cool a larger, more powerful GPU. Worse, the M11x is simply too small for most people to use every day.
Enter the Alienware M14x. The larger display size of this laptop makes it possible to equip a more powerful GPU as well as a full-power Core i5 processor rather than a low-voltage model. Let’s look at the full specifications.
We can already see that the M14x will easily outperform its smaller cousin. The better hardware increases price as well as size, however – the base is $1099 and our review unit, featuring upgrades like a quad-core processor and 1600x900 resolution, rings in at $1274.
Continue reading our review of the Alienware m14x Gaming Notebook!!
Introduction, Design, User Interface, Display And Audio Quality
We have a lot of laptop reviews here at PC Perspective. As you’d expect, we generally use the same benchmarks and use the same principles whenever reviewing a laptop.
Yet we’ve never before put all of this down in writing so that our readers could understand exactly what we’re doing. Since this is a new year with new laptops to review, now is a good time introduce new benchmarks and get rid of old ones - which also makes this a good time to share information with our readers.
Design
The first page of any laptop review here at PC Perspective is dominated by some very subjective criteria.
Design comes first, and is also the most subjective. It refers to a laptop’s build quality, general layout and attractiveness. This is where we comment on a laptop’s aesthetics, and it’s also where we comment on a laptop’s perceived durability. We look at details like the display hinges, the chassis, the display lid and overall material quality. An ideal laptop design is attractive to the eye, pleasurable to touch, and feels sturdy in normal use.
Continue reading how we test laptops at PC Perspective for insight on our methodologies!!
CyberPower's sub-$1000 gaming laptop
Subject: Mobile | November 17, 2011 - 03:27 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Cyberpower, X6 9200, gaming laptop, optimus
The name is a bit confusing, as the CyberPower X6 9200 doesn't include a Phenom II X6 1090T, it is powered by the 2.2GHz Core-i7 2670QM and NVIDIA's GT540M 2GB GPU with Optimus support. The 15.6" monitor is quite impressive, supporting full 1080p resolutions as well as the more common 1366x768 resolution for laptops, at this price one should assume it is a TN panel. Externally you can send signal via HDMI or VGA if you find the screen too small for your preferences. They've fully populated the memory capacity of the system with a pair of 4GB DDR3-1333 DIMMs and storage is a 500GB HDD. Bjorn3D had no issues with this $900 gaming laptop, but they do prefer a matte finish to the piano-style fingerprint magnet that CyberPower chose.
"Today we look at the budget friendly Cyberpower gaming notebook. A feature rich offering at a lower mid level price range, check out how well this gaming notebook does."
Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
- Toshiba Portege Z835: A New Ultrabook Appears @ AnandTech
- MSI GE620 Gaming Laptop Review @ HardwareLOOK
- The Asus Zenbook: a steely marvel with an appalling trackpad @ Ars Technica
- Dell Inspiron One 2320: Stuck in the Middle With You @ AnandTech
- Hands On With the HP Folio 13 @ TechReviewSource
- Asus G53SX Review @ TechReviewSource
- Sandberg PowerBank 8000 Portable Battery Review @ Real World Labs
- Samsung Solid Immerse Review @ Tech-Reviews
- ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Tablet Sneak Peak @ Legit Reviews
- ASUS Tegra 3 Powered Eee Pad Transformer Prime Detailed @ Tweaktown
- Motorola Droid RAZR hands-on impressions @ TechSpot
- PowerSkin for iPhone 4 Review @ ThinkComputers
- Luxa2 H4 iPad Holder Review @ eTeknix
- Nokia Lumia 800 Review: Best Windows Phone Yet @ Techspot
- Adding Vellamo to our Mobile Benchmark Suite - Six Android Phones Tested @ AnandTech
- Amazon Kindle Fire Review @ TechReviewSource
Introduction and Design
In the realm of hulking, powerful gaming laptops, Alienware remains king by popular vote. Whatever you think of their laptops (as always, popularity attracts criticism) there is no denying that the Alienware name stands for something among gamers. And to most, they're a dream machine, the laptop equivilent of a Ferrari 458 Italia.
The purpose of a review, of course, is to move past reputation and judge the true capabilities of a product. And in the case of the Alienware M17x, there's a lot to judge. We’ll talk about its bulk later, but I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying that this laptop has big bones as well as serious hardware.
One paper, the stars seem to align. But this market remains competitive, thanks to not only to boutique outfits like Origin and Maingear but also to ASUS, which is still on its gaming laptop war-path, producing affordable rigs that can be had for surprisingly little dough. With competition on all sides, can the Alienware justify its $2500 price of entry? Let’s find out.
Continue reading our review of the Alienware M17x gaming notebook!!
MSI's new mid price, moderately powerful gaming laptop
Subject: Mobile | November 8, 2011 - 02:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: msi, gaming laptop, GT683R
MSI's new gaming notebook has a 2.6GHz i5-2410M, a GTX560M 1.5GB and a strangely unbalanced RAM setup with a single 4GB and a single 2GB stick of DDR3. Externally, two USB 3.0 and two USB2.0 are available, a single eSATA port, four audio jacks, a card reader and HDMI and VGA will give you external video. The external video may be quite important to you if you plan on gaming as the default 1366x768 resolution will not stress the GTX560M. Drop by Madshrimps for a complete look at MSI's competitively priced GT683R gaming laptop.
"After testing MSI's GT780 gaming notebook I must admit I was pretty impressed by it's allround and gaming performance. Of course, a high end gaming notebook also carries a pretty beefy price tag. big screen , decent powerful GPU and CPU, 8Gb of ram, dual harddrives. Well the price tag for the included components was fair, but what happens if you want a gaming notebook and don't have 1500 euros to cash out? Todays reviewed MSI GT683R laptop might have you covered for a fraction of the price. The specifications of the GT683 don't seem that impressive at first glance, but maybe it can still pack some serious punch. Let's open the box and see what's inside."
Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
- Asus Zenbook UX31E @ The Inquirer
- Dell Vostro V131 Review @ Tech-Reviews
- Asus U46SV-DH51 Review @ TechReviewSource
- Acer Aspire 5755-6482 Review @ TechReviewSource
- HP EliteBook 8560w Review @ TechReviewSource
- HTC Titan video review @ The Inquirer
- HP TouchSmart 610: For Business or Pleasure @ AnandTech
- Samsung Galaxy Ace Review @ Tech-Reviews
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review @ Tech-Reviews
- Storage Options 7" Scroll Capacitive Multi-Touch Screen Tablet Review @ eTeknix
- AViiQ Smart Case for iPad 2 @ kitguru
- Cygnett Imperial iPhone 4 Case Review @ ThinkComputers
- Samsung’s Bada 2.0 on the Wave III @ The Inquirer
- Motorola Droid 3 Cell Phone Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Apple iPhone 4S: Thoroughly Reviewed @ AnandTech
- Apple iPhone 4S Review: iOS 5 + Siri @ Techspot
Introduction and Design
We’ve reviewed several gaming laptops here at PC Perspective, but strangely, we’ve usually reviewed systems with 15.6” displays or smaller. Although large by most any other measure, these laptops are actually small by the standards of gaming laptops. Many gamers prefer laptops with a display over 17 inches because the extra screen real estate results in a better gaming experience.
Today, however, we finally have a giant in our hands – the ASUS G74S. At first glance, this appears to be nothing more than a minor update to the original ASUS G73, adding Nvidia’s latest GTX 560M in replacement of the older GTX 460M.
Take a closer look, and it becomes apparent that laptop has been completely redesigned. While the lines of the chassis are similar, the cooling vents in the rear are larger and in different locations. A new strip of gray plastic covers the display hinge, and the optical drive has been moved further forward. All of this communicates a new internal configuration that could make or break this laptop.
Introduction and Design
Viewed from a bird’s eye, gaming laptops seem to be a homogenous bunch. Although there are rare exceptions like the Alienware M11x, most are 15.6” or 17” models with quad-core processors and discrete mobile graphics, most frequently the Nvidia GTX 460M. The two gaming laptops we’ve most recently reviewed, the ASUS G53 and MSI GT680R, most certainly fit into this mold.
Upon closer inspection, however, the market for gaming laptops begins to expand and multiply into a wide array of options. While the big players like ASUS, Toshiba and MSI are happy to offer their pre-configured models with roughly similar hardware, customized rigs are as numerous as stars in the sky. Everyone has heard of Alienware, of course, but you may not have heard of companies like Origin, Falcon Northwest, AVADirect, AFactor Gaming, Malibal, Digital Storm and Maingear, just to name a few (or if you have, you may have only heard of their desktops).
Maingear’s eX-L15 is a stereotypical example of a custom gaming laptop. It’s big and it’s bulky, but its appearance is not much different from your average laptop. Inside, however, there is a buffet of high-end hardware.
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