| #42. Posted at 12:50 PM on Feb 16th 2009 | Edit Reply |
|
blubje |
minor correction "and is design is more tasteful than most gaming notebooks" first is --> its, no?
 |
| Edit Reply |
|
derFunkenstein |
Given the price, it's hard to complain about anything. But still, a 1280x800 resolution on a 15" screen? Why not a minimum of 1440x900? 1280x800 might be OK for most people, but I need more height and width.
Still, at $800, you can take $250-300 of what you saved and get a decent monitor for use at home and still come out way cheaper than the compared ASUS machine. |
| Edit Reply |
|
ssidbroadcast |
point-counter-point:
enough to handle gaming at the GX630's native 1280x800 display resolution. Yes. Finally. A display resolution that is appropriate for a limited GPU. I'll take fluid frames-per-second over image crispness any day of the week. Compared to more audacious gaming laptops, the GX630 isn't as gaudy, or as liable to embarrass you in public. Yeah, I've actually seen some dudes at coffee shops bring their Gateway FX gaming monstrosities. They really are embarrassing, and the juxtaposition of a coffee drinker doing his email on one of those things is just... emasculating. The overall build quality of the GX630 is another in a series of trade-offs. Damn, this could be a turn off for me... except that it's only $800. I guess you get what you pay for. Question: How much does a macbook weigh? For comparison curiosity. That said, there are only two USB ports: one per side. YESS! Christ-in-heaven this--THIS is how it should be! If you must have two AND ONLY two USB ports, for GOD'S sakes put one on each side!! This has vexed my Macbook ever since I got it. limiting the number of USB ports seems counter-productive, especially given the real estate the four audio minijacks take up on the left side. No, shush. They did the right thing. You'll need those ports for 5.1+mic headsets. MSI equips the system with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, Service Pack 1, and fairly minimal bloatware. However, considering that the GX630 ships with 4GB of memory, a 64-bit version of Vista would have been more appropriate. What. The. Hell? Are the 4GB even accessible/addressable straight out of the box? |
| Edit Reply |
|
OneArmedScissor |
Thank you. Now, maybe people will stfu n0Ob about how cheap graphics cards and laptop graphics are completely useless and can't play anything made after 2003. That sort of GPU will be integrated soon enough, which I think says a lot about what modern, and for once, AFFORDABLE, laptops are capable of.
I also quite like that it uses an X2, and a low power one at that...and it's still fine. This would have been a nice review even if it had a Core 2, but that makes it all the more interesting and informative. |
| Edit Reply |
|
Gerbil Jedidiah |
This seems like a good deal relatively speaking. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050055&st=asus+lapto...
|
| Edit Reply |
|
ish718 |
Theres a newer version already available at newegg, GX710 for $700
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152097 It has a 17" LCD with 1920x1200 max resolution HD2600 4gbs ram 320GB HDD AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-66 2.3G |
| Edit Reply |
|
shiznit |
Good laptop and as someone else said, finally an appropriate resolution for the gimp mobile gpu.
But the athlon is seriously gimped compared to the mobile Penryn's why couldn't they make it intel based? I would gladly pay another $50-100 for a 45nm C2D option. |
| Edit Reply |
|
eofpi |
Where's the trackpoint?
A gaming laptop should be able to be gamed upon with just what's inside it. Trackpads and FPSes do not play well together. Trackpoints and FPSes, however, do. |
| Edit Reply |
|
grantmeaname |
The QL-62 inside the GX630 runs at 80% of the clock speed of the G50V's Core 2 Duo, yet it consistently takes about 50% longer to complete the same tasks.
Well, if it's running at 80% the speed, it's not that surprising that it performs 67% as fast. That's not nearly as big a difference as the sentence makes it sound |
| Edit Reply |
|
derFunkenstein |
The link on the comments page that reads "the ideal system for the mobile gamer on a budget?" links to an Intel SSD article.
|
| Edit Reply |
|
flip-mode |
This article attains an impressive number of quote worthy remarks. killing swimmers.... portable rave machines....
Good writing. |
| Edit Reply |
|
Jypster |
"takes about 50% longer to complete the same tasks"
While I admit is has been over 20 years since I went to school I think that the average not including the Nero test is only 34% slower. Seeing that the AMD chip is 20% slower and using 667 compared to 800 it doesn't show itself to bad. Great reveiw though and I think I shall keep an eye out for one of these for my wife. |
| Edit Reply |
|
shank15217 |
AMD desperately needs to release a shanghai based mobile chip.
|