My X205-SLi3 arrives today

Well, my X205-SLi3 is "out for delivery" according to my lastest UPS tracking. So i will have it in my hands sometime today. I plan on running 3dmark on it as soon as i can so i can compare it to my 8700GT X205. I'll keep you all posted on what i find out.

-Scotty

 

OMG... I really want know about the SLi3's performance... thanks for the reference shboyles! You must be pcyphic, I really searched the whole net to find any news about the SLi3's performance....

 

Yeah, definately interested to see what ya find! Thanks for keeping us updated! Tryin to decide myself which way to go... keep the 7483 and throw a faster chip in it or go ahead and just get one of the SLi's.... good luck!

 

Yeah basically im in the same boat...I alreadyhave a 7483 and i put a T7500 in it. Even after doing that it costs MUCH less than the SLi3 unit....basically if the scores arent too impressive ill stick with 7483....(also depends on stability of the SLI unit as well)

 

ya cant wait to see some scores on the sli unit. im on the fence about getting the bestbuy deal as well and throwing in a 7700 . my biggest concern about sli is that one app say 3dmark may give awsome numbers but then certain games that dont have good or any sli profiles will default to one card and thats when things will get slower but how much slower is the question, cause an 8700 is essentially an OC 8600 and the sli ones are ddr3 so they may OC like crazy.

 

One thing is for sure, it cannot compete with Dell's new monster the XPS M1730 with dual 8700M GT and Aegia Physics Card, but Dell cannot compete with Toshiba's awsome price! the Dell must be like 4500 bucks!

 

I would like to see how the performance of this baby is...

 

We look forward to your compare and contrast summary once you've had a chance to play around with it.

In addition to the performance difference between the 8700 and the SLI 8600s it would be interesting to see what differences there are (if any) between the battery life, weight, and heat of the two systems.

Finally the least important question of all:
.....
....
...
..
.
If your 7483 came with a blue Ghost Recon sticker, and the new one comes with the Gears of War sticker. Which sticker do you like best?

 

Dammit! The European versions don't have fancy stickers like these... only those dull "Vista", "Intel Core 2 Duo/Centino", "For Sale in EMEA countries" and "HD-DVD" stickers.

I always wanted a laptop that comess with stickers like this...

Evil Toshiba! You care only about the west! LoL, just kiddin'!

Would anyone keep the stickers on the laptop? I mean, yeah, they are pretty, but

 

i was kinda hoping for someone to scan their sticker and upload it!

 

Tomorrow, my first job is to go to a printing center and make accurate copies of the sticker! But hey! The european has the "For Sale in EMEA countries" sticker! The American models does not! HAHAHAHA! In ya face X205! The X200 still has features you dont have!

 

Oh wow, this is what I've been waiting for. Thank you soooooo much for the info.

 

I threw my sticker out...

 

Sinner! I hope God (or anyone you believe to, I respect all religions) will forgive you!

 

I am tired of my boss asking me if it's "business enabled".

/shrug I prefer what it looks like without the sticker thanks.

 

My X205 came with the Ghost Recon sticker, I would have liked the Gear of War sticker better as I am am a big fan of Gear of War, , anyway it looks just like the X205 and I am still curious as to weather they are using the same motherboard so maybe we would have a chance at upgrading to sli if they do use the same mobo with a 7950GX2 style sli card setup with the 2 boards sandwiched toghether. That would be cool if that was the case and someone had those video cards up for sale somewhere on the web.

 

I want to remove the sticker from mine but I wonder how much of a pain that will be to remove.

 

Ok it arrived...Drum roll.....

I ran preliminary benchmarks with the stock drivers.
8600Gt in NON-SLI mode scored just at 3700 in 3Dmark06 (1280x1024)
8600GT in SLI mode scored 6530!

I'll have to run more stuff on it later and try overclocking and different drivers, but i am going out tonight, so it will have to wait.

-Scotty

 

If you run it with video card drivers other than the ones supplied by toshiba you will not be able to use sli unless you find modded drivers that will enable sli on intel chipsets. Keep us posted!!.

 

I figure if I decided to get a x205 I'd want to keep the sticker on as it looks pretty plain without (as others have mentioned), and I figured I'd try and find a way to preserve the sticker.
I can see what you mean that the sticker might not fit in when you're in a business environment.

back to the subject at hand....shboyles findings on the x205 SLI.

 

So after removing some junk shutting down some services and some new working drivers along with a hefty OC were prolly looking at 1000 more onto that 3dmark maybe a tad more so say 7500 maxish which is pretty nice, but now the question is when you cant get a game to run in sli or it runs worse in sli you will have to fall back on one card. damn its gonna be a tough choice between this and the 8700 if i do decide to pull the trigger.

 

I got myX205 3 weeks ago and I was trying to decide on sli or the 8700M GT and just pulled the trigger on the 8700M GT because of the sli drivers issue with Itel chipsets.

 

I have been looking for a gaming laptop. I was pretty set on the Sli3. However I found that I can get Sli 8700s and a Quad core, with faster memory for only about $120 more if I get the Sager NP9261. (From Xotic PC)

I do sacrifice HDD size down to 80GB, but its 7200rpm and there's room for 2 more when I want more space. Also there's no HD-DVD on the Sager and no TV tuner. I'm mostly looking at the stuff that seems important to me: CPU, GPU(s), RAM, HDD Speed.

So with these recent posts of the 3D mark score of the 8600s Sli I feel like going for my set up of the NP9261 for $2,620 is a much better choice than the Sli3 for $2,500.

I'm worried that I'm missing some information. Other than saving $120 is there any reason that I should go for the Sli3 over the NP9261 for mobile gaming?

 

Nvidia has a list of games that are pre-configured to work with SLI (and they continually adding to it):
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_game.html

When a game isn't pre-configured for SLI you can make your own profile for it:
http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_appprofile.html

when you build your own profile you can configure it to run in one of three ways:
Split frame rendering
Alternate frame rendering 1
Alternate frame rendering 2

you could also choose to run one of your cards to do Antialiasing instead:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_sliAA_howto2.html

With those as options I don't think you'll ever have to run it as one card by itself, and leave the other doing nothing.

 

The 9261 is a true desktop replacement because it runs on a desktop processer, so its not really mobile per say but it is a beast and it will be alot faster then the x205 and with that said the x205 runs on a mobile processer and has decent battery life but it weighs alot for a 17inch book probably close to the 9261 so you just have to pick whats most important ie battery life and good performance or no battery life and awsome performance and again most people that buy these are not looking at battery life at all.

i have an 8800GTXOC desktop with a 3.2ghz quadcore but im looking for something that has good to decent performance and i wouldnt mind some good battery life and i was looking at the bestbuy model cause its 1349 and i can toss in a beefy processer down the road if i feel like it .

 

ya i know theres lots of choices when it comes to sli and yet i never see people totally satisfied with it, not to mention the intel version SLI i think atm is shoddy at best but im sure as time presses on there will be many advances in that tech just not sure how soonish .

 

I am happy with my X205, since I already have a gaming desktop with a Quad core Q6600 and 2 8800GTX sli setup with 4 Gigs of Memory. I wanted a descent gaming laptop with good battery life so I could play some of my games when I am on the road and the X205 fits that niche perfectly for me.

 

The other things to consider in an x205-sli3 vs np9261 debate is portability (weight and battery life), support, and additional features.

The x205-sli3 should weight less than the np9261 by a couple of pounds (hopefully shboyles aka: Scotty can confirm the weight of the x205 for us).

If you will be using the notebook unplugged battery life will probably be an important factor for you too. (Hopefully Scotty can give us results of a battery test as well ).

From a support standpoint XoticPC is renowned for excellent customer and technical support while Toshiba's support is mixed (some people love them, and some people hate them).

As far as additional features I know that the x205 has a finger print reader, but according to what I know of the 9261 it does not include a finger print reader.

The 9261 gpus are listed as MxM, so you may be able to upgrade them in the future.

One final thing to consider is heat. The Toshiba x205 in past reviews has been discribed as cool running (the SLI systems may or may not be different). The quad core in the 9261 is going to run a lot hotter than the processor in the x205, so it may not run as cool or quiet (with fans kicking in) as the Toshiba x205.

If you are not in a rush I recommend you wait and read Scotty's findings as well as findings/testing results on the 9261 before you make your purchase.

 

Thanks for all the input! These forums are great.

I'll be holding on to see some more of Scotty's findings before I buy anything. However I'm mostly looking for power over battery life as I'm going to be on the move for the next year and won't be in once place long enough to have a desktop to use as a gaming system.

 

Well, for your needs the Sager would be a good choice. I customized that to what I would have bought it with if I did not have the X205 and it would cost about $4200 with all the options that I would like to have on it.

 

"Ok it arrived...Drum roll.....

I ran preliminary benchmarks with the stock drivers.
8600Gt in NON-SLI mode scored just at 3700 in 3Dmark06 (1280x1024)
8600GT in SLI mode scored 6530!"


WOW those scores are freaking great man i guess i should have waited and got one of the sli systems.. holy crap....

 

plz help me

i buy x205 -9349 just for two day and i can not play any thing withe it becuse after 8-10 minute of playing game the sysytem gone crash and i must restart it
i test game such as graw2 and taibrium war and....

satellite x205-9349
1.8GH T7100
2 GRAM
240GIG HARD

 

Ok im back...so one the games i play alot of on my laptops is WoW.. is WoW a non-sli supported game...i believe i saw it listed as one on the SLI website over at nvidia (that was linked in this post).
It seems to run about the same..maybe even a few FPS slower than the 8700.
I am currently messing around with seeing if i can get any other drivers to work.
Meanwhile is there any other demo/benchmarks i should run?

-Scotty

 

maybe grab the bioshock demo , oblivion if you have
that, cause its a shader intensive game , world in conflict has a demo with a benchmark built in and direct x 10 support as well . those are a few decent suggestions of stuff to give a whirl at .

 

Yes. WOW is supported. You did get all the drivers updated to the lastest version right? Oh and did you remove most of the bloatware? How does the notebook feel? Does it seem as faster or faster than the other?

 

I actually did a fresh install.....actually ..what i did so that i could test it fast is i took I cloned my BB machine install, and then updated the drivers from the toshiba website for this model (basically both models have the same motherboard, etc....just different video card)...so there is no bloatware.
Because i upgraded the CPU on my BB x205 to a t7500 both machines feel the same....the SLI machine does have the back light touchpad though with the shortcut buttons you can press.....also as you may have guessed when using SLI this machine makes a little more fan noise than the BB 8700GT unit.....but its not really loud or anything..just more noticable than the BB machine.

 

Sweet, that is exactly what I wanted to hear. So how would you rate it so far? And would you recommend it?

 

Well to be honest...considering you can get the BB 8700GT model for just 1400.00 bucks...and its 1100.00 more to get teh high end SLI3 unit...im not sure it is worth it..but then again i really havent played any other games on it yet...i do think its a good cheaper alternative to the Dell XPS unit.
I think the true test of this machine will be on next gen games (DX10 games)..instead of my WoW stuff.

 

That's understandable. I think I am going to continue to monitor the SLi3 and around decemeber I will probably purchase one, assuming the 8800M's aren't out yet.

 

Yeah im not sure what im going to do yet..im gonna give this machine a week..and then if i decide it isnt worth it i may send it back...keep the cheaper x205 from BB and wait for the next gen laptop/video tech from nvidia

 

Since you have both models infront of you maybe when you have the time you can load up some of the demos i hinted at and turn on fraps using the same settings for both and see what kind of numbers you get.

 

Did the Best Buy system not have the dual function feature on the touch pad?

Does the system seem any warmer than the BB system, or does it stay cool to the touch?

Does it feel any heavier than the BB model? When you have a free moment would you weight your self with each system, and see if there is a difference?

If you have time would you run a battery test (of your choosing) and see if there is a difference in the battery life between the two systems? (Perhaps basic Internet browsing, watching a DVD on each, or using it for the normal tasks you do). (3dmark06 or gaming may not be a good way to compare the batteries as it may pull heavily from both gpus in the sli system making it loose battery faster than it would under general load).

 

Damn...my 3-week old $2399 of x205-S9359 from amazon just managed 4407 3dmarks06...
If I have known toshy planned SLi coming out in just 3 weeks, I would have waited...
toshy not so truthful to their first-adopter customers!...its so agonizing.
anyway to get back any thing from toshy or amazon to smoothen our ruffled feathers??

 

The BB unit just has a normal touchpad...not the dual function
Both systems stay equally cool from what i can see.
I'll try to do a battery test when i can, but im sure ill get about 15-20 percent less battery life from the sli unit.
The wieght seems the same.
Honestly im probably going to send the SLI unit back...if the BB unit didnt come along i would keep the SLI unit..but considering the BB unit is SO much cheaper

 

I've read some posts that people with sli systems were able to get better performance in some games (including WoW) by using it in conjunction with NHancer. If you feel like taking the time give NHancer a shot and see if it makes any difference for you.
http://www.nhancer.com/

I also saw a post that stated that enabling vsync in control panel or WoW disables SLI mode in WoW.

 

I'm with 'ya dude.... Its the price we pay for livin' on the edge I guess..

Just remember - You've still got an awesome laptop - people still stare with envious glances at mine...And money comes and goes....

 

Sweet score, interewsting information. Thanks a lot shboyles!. However, after you play some games on it, we can then have a clearer image of the performance in the Dual 8600M GT's

Again, thanks for posting the results!

 

Yap I understand. It's so agonizing...
BTW, could we write to toshiba or something to express our unhappiness, as we have made uninformed decisions due their choosing to withheld information?

 

Before you get too unhappy, I still think you got a good deal if you look at other computers with a 8700gt. The x205 has a lot to offer for the money, and the price on toshiba direct is about the same, it's the resellers that are cutting the cost.

 

so just curious, wouldn't the SLi1 be a good compromise then between the BB model and the SLi3? Save ya $500 and all i can see that really matters that's different is the chip... and ya already upgraded the BB unit anyway? Curious because i've actually got the BB model right here I'm playin with, and thinkin I might swap it for an SLi1 to go ahead and get the SLi setup, then if it ever matters upgrade the cpu later.... but, still waitin to see if the Dual 8600's are worth even that hassle over a single 8700