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Benchmark Results: Synthetics

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1:30 AM - 09/24/2008 by Chris Angelini

Our scores here represent a mix of graphics and processing performance. The overall 3DMark score clearly favors the two GeForce 8800M GTXs in Killer Notebooks’ Odachi, followed by Alienware’s pair of GeForce 9800M GTs in SLI. Eurocom places third with its single 9800M GT and ASUS pulls up the rear with the 9700M GT.

The CPU score accurately reflects how we’d expect to see each machine’s processor rank. The desktop Core 2 Quad Q9650 clearly has an upper hand given the threaded nature of this test. Way behind is Eurocom’s dual-core Core 2 Extreme X9100. The X9000 in Alienware’s m17x is just behind that, and ASUS’ T9400 places last.

Finally, the GPU score reflects the same order seen in 3DMark’s overall metric—naturally the SLI configurations take a commanding lead.

In a synthetic suite like PCMark Vantage, variations in hardware are exacerbated in relation to real-world benchmarks. The overall PCMark score demonstrates the performance advantage of Killer Notebooks’ quad-core processor. Next up is the Alienware machine, with its powerful SLI graphics config and striped storage array. ASUS places third and, although it showed better in our real-world tests, Eurocom’s Montebello pulls up the rear.

As you sort through the individual suites, it becomes clear where each notebook’s advantages lay. Perhaps the most surprising results are Alienware’s last-place finish in the Gaming subset and its poor finish in the HDD test.

Sandra correctly places each processor where we’d expect it to fall. More interesting, perhaps, are the memory bandwidth numbers, which clearly favor the quad-core platform, but also show the DDR3-equipped Centrino 2 systems serving up reasonable throughput.

Talkback
kitsilencer 09/24/2008 11:05 AM
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From a money point of view, it's never going to make sense buying a gaming laptop. Scaled down performance and inability to upgrade are issues.

But it sure as hell feels good having one ^___^

Anonymous 09/24/2008 12:57 PM
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Hey, that aint green...

neiroatopelcc 09/24/2008 1:24 PM
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http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 023-6.html
"shipped the system with a 64-bit copy of Vista Ultimate (Alienware included x32 Home Premium)."

ap90033 09/24/2008 2:01 PM
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4 Grand? Are you guys nuts? I would say that right there would rule out about 90% of us normal gmaers..

Besides the gaming scores looked weak imo..

I personally thought it was a better idea to go get a Gateway P7811FX with a single Geforce 9800GTS. It plays Call of Duty at 1920x1200 max settings around 50FPS. AND it cost me ONLY $1249 (Plus Best Buy let me pick any game I wanted for FREE!)

jas39 09/24/2008 3:01 PM
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Anonymous 09/24/2008 3:07 PM
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ap90033 09/24/2008 4:10 PM
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oops cant spell "gamers" lol

ap90033 09/24/2008 4:13 PM
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Not true my "Gmaing Laptop" is great at LAN Parties and I play it for 6-8 Hours straight there...

I think maybe you had a bad experience with a laptop that claimed to be a "gaming" laptop. I bought one before like that and it have an 8600M Geforce and it Sucked bad... If you get a good laptop with say a 9800gts or so you would be suprised...

GlItCh017 09/24/2008 4:15 PM
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ap90033 :
4 Grand? Are you guys nuts? I would say that right there would rule out about 90% of us normal gmaers..


99.90%

ap90033 09/24/2008 4:22 PM
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PS gaming laptops hold value much better than desktops. I had one I paid 1250 for, had it for a year, then sold it for $1100 and bought the newer "upgraded" model that just came out for $1250. I got an Upgraded CPU (From Core 2 1.67 GHZ to Core 2 Centrino 2 2.26 GHZ), Memory (from 3 Gigs DDR2 667MHZ to 4 Gigs DDR3 1066MHZ), Hard Drive (faster), Video Card (from 8800gts to 9800GTS), Screen (from 1440x800 to 1920x1200) and OS (From 32 bit to 64 bit). Not bad upgrade for $150 or so!

frozenlead 09/24/2008 4:43 PM
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Yeah, I'm a student at a university, and I find my laptop invaluable. Saves tons of space on my desk, and can play any game maxed out - save crysis, where I have to lower the res - with 60fps or more. I payed $2500 for it, too. It gets 2 hours on the battery. I haven't ever run into a situation where I needed it and it was dead.

Groo 09/24/2008 5:50 PM
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There are many types of people that I can think of that would be better off with a gaming laptop.
Truck driver's, students, profesionals on the move or frequent travelers.
then there are people who like low electrical bills.

and most of these people can use thier laptop plugged in.

Anonymous 09/24/2008 7:00 PM
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"Although they come from a previous generation of named graphics processors, the GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs used in Killer Notebooks’ Odachi are actually better than the 9800M GTs used in Alienware’s m17x. Again, chalk it up to poor naming on Nvidia’s part.

From an architecture standpoint, the two mobile components are similar. Both center on the G92M GPU manufactured at 65 nm. Both include 96 unified shader processors fed by 512 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 256-bit bus. Where the components differ is clock speed. The 8800M GTXs boast 560 MHz clocks, 1,400 MHz shaders, and 900 MHz memory. All three figures are faster than what you’ll get from the 9800M GTs."

These are overclocked, it has nothing to do with poor naming by Nvidia.

theworminator 09/24/2008 8:07 PM
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Gaming laptops have their niche in the computer world. It's obviously not as big as a gaming desktop, but it's definitely there. This is also a competition of which laptop is the best (in performance, value etc), not if gaming laptops are viable.

Either way, it's always fun to watch Alienware's overpriced creations get thrashed. Go Killer Notebooks :D

Anonymous 09/24/2008 8:48 PM
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Well, the review does a great job of pimping Alienware & one of the most expensive Clevo resellers (Go KillerNotebooks? They're way overpriced too). You can get equivalent ones cheaper at other resellers, and no, it's not $4k at these places, for the same notebooks.

Try $1800ish for the 15inch Montebello equivalents (same as Eurocom's price or thereabouts), with a much better cooling design than cheaper systems (Gateway 7811x's - which should have also been reviewed in here, as well as a few others). Ah well.

Anonymous 09/24/2008 8:54 PM
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Base price for the D901C at other resellers (Power Notebooks, XoticPc - Sager resellers, ProStar, Lynnbay, Eurocom) is $2090 starting. Sure you can put in overpriced (currently) dual cards and tack on $1200, and put 3 overpriced RAID'd hard drives and pay a lot more, or you can do it yourself, save money and/or put one card in and upgrade later. So yeah, pretty over the top pricing estimates (And I've priced KillerNotebooks, at least for the M860TU 15.4inchers, and they've come out to $700 more - ouch).

Decide what's worth the price. $850 extra for an extreme CPU? No.

Anonymous 09/24/2008 10:31 PM
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Um, isn't the point of all this to build the fastest notebook? Money no object?

Well Done Killer Notebooks!

The Silk Pigs

radguy 09/24/2008 10:55 PM
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Its nice to see these charts but I watched prices at bestbuy on the gateways P-6860FX all summer and picked it up when it hit 1150. I wanted something that could play games on the go and I think the 1000-1500 dollar gaming notebook range is about to really open up. As price is really an issue for most of us and while they sacrafice some specs they can play games. Maybe we can get some more reviews on cheaper gaming notebooks hint hint.
Side note: I really wanted something smaller so I'm hoping that the 15.4 inch gaming notebooks become more affordable.

Luscious 09/25/2008 12:34 PM
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The Gateway P-7811FX is a useless piece of trash. I went through 5 bad units from two different BB stores because they would all lock-up and freeze 5-20 minutes into any game I played.

About the only positive I could say about it was that the CPU, RAM, HDD and optical drive were all user-replaceable. The WUXGA screen had backlight bleeding problems and the GPU gave decent framerates in Crysis at 1920x1200, until the damn thing froze...

I find it difficult to see that there is no viable option between a $1300 Gateway and a $4000 boutique build. $2000 could get you all the parts for a top-performing 17" gaming laptop. Why those wingnuts haven't figured it out yet is beyond me.

jtnstnt 09/25/2008 12:45 PM
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Well the 6860-fx is now $809 dollars at select best buys with 1.83ghz dual core and 8800gtx gpu and a 320gb hard drive


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