P105-s921

I've been using this beauty for about a week. I will be reviewing it for the site soon. But I thought you guys might want to ask questions or tell me to test any particular aspect.

So far the experience is awesome. The laptop works great and my only complain is that is have to much work to do before testing it fully.

Questions? Ideas for the review?

 

you should do the following things:

3dmark/superpi
battery test
pictures of screen
see if there is light leakage
test for screen/keyboard flex
check heat
fan/hd/optical drive noise
and some people might want to see the fps you get with certain games.

i am sure there are other things, but i can't think of them right now...

 

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What's the fan noise/heat like?! Very interested in one of these beasts.

 

hows the keyboard?
how is the portability of one of those suckers?

i love the look of the screen, but i think it may be too big for meto lug around campus, any thoughts?

 

If you're looking for portability and battery life, don't even look at 17" notebooks - way too big. I'd look at mid-range and smaller sized notebooks - I wouldn't go any larger than a 15.4" in other words, if portabilty and battery life mean anything to you.

 

I have been using mine now for wabout 2 weeks and love it. my battery life was about two hours of normal office use (i.e. not gaming) so I expect it to be much less while gaming.

Keyboard is a typical laptom with very little travel. for serious use a real keyboard wis better.

my question is. How does the IR remote work? There is is not an IR remote sensor on the machine.

I ran a 3Dmark03 (to compare it agains my old desk top) and it pulled a 13760 in 1024x768, so not to shappy,

 

How is the fan noise of this laptop? Like in a dead quiet room, is the fan enough to annoy? or is it passive enough to ignore?

My test is if you can sleep with it on, it's quiet enough.

 

It is completely silent until the video card's fan turns on. But even then it is only a faint whisper.

Very comfortable. The full size kb does help a lot. Keys are a bit hard for my taste but i'm used to MS' natural keyboard. I'm gettng used.

Portability? This is a DTR. It's not light to carry it on you, but once you find a desk you are all set to go. If you want portability get a slim laptop.

I slept with the laptop right next to me and I didn't notice. My GF noticed only because of the clickety-clickety on the trackball (I don't use the touch pad but a usb-trackball).

In General the experience is awesome. The laptop is awesome. The 7900 GS runs Doom 3, Battlefield 2, Oblivion, UT2004 in all their glory. Battlefield 2 does a bit of swapping but its nothing serious. I might upgrade to 4gigs of ram only if necessary.

 

Is there any word on if this will come to the UK? and if so any idea when? I have heard some things stating that the p105 series are US only, but it cant hurt to ask.

 

You can always buy it from an online store and ship it to the UK. That's how I got mine, though in my case 'home' is in South America. I'm never one to believe in the 'Only for ' tag anyways.

 

have you tried any games yet oblivion fear etc if so what kind of frame rates ya getting im seriously thinking about getting one of these thats why im asking i see one thing about it right off hand id replace and that is the slow 4200rpm hdd
other than that all the specs look very good how hot does that thing get to is another curiosity i have about it

 

So far this is what I have tried: Doom 3, Battlefield 2, Oblivion, Serious Sam 2, Unreal Tournament 2004 and nVidia's Gelato. All the games run completely perfectly at their max settings and resolution of 1440x900. They look completely stunning. Please mind that I cannot overclock either the CPU or the card. There are no bios options to allow me to overclock. And coolbits doesn't enable the overclocking tab on this laptop or I haven't found where it is placed.

3dMark 06: 3727 points

If you want my advise: buy it . You wont be dissapointed because this laptop delivers without breaking the bank. I wouldn't say the hard drive feels too slow, though sometimes I think having a 7200 RPM might help. Problem is I use this laptop for work as well and a blazing fast hdd might also cook the palm of my left hand (the hdd is right under it).

 

cool thanks for the response if that machine will play oblivion maxed out it can basically play anything maxed thanks again this was some info i really needed in making my buying decision i am a good bit closer to that decision now

 

I believe this is a MXM notebook. Still looking for someone to verify it.

How about forfeiting your warranty and risk loosing some screws and destroying your notebook by opening her up?

 

hmmm very interesting find ice i will dig around and try to find out

 

well i called toshiba 800 technical number and according to them its not an upgradeable model so i guess you better run and hide from the people on laptop video 2 go i found a post from you on this subject lol while doing some research

 

Heheh... Won't be running just yet. I found this in the driver...

Code:

HKLM, "Software\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak",MXMThermalControl,%REG_DWORD%,1

I didn't find a specific 'VGA' part in the Bios either. It can sometimes be found when the cards are not modular.

It is a Quanta machine. Quanta uses MXM.

In short: I actually don't know for sure, but I'd sure loike to know

 

now its totally possible i got in touch with a noob at toshiba that just didnt know for sure so he answers no who knows you might be on to something interesting indeed

 

A n00b at Toshiba Support? Surely you jest!

Actually, Toshiba has been a strange case this far. I'd love some real info fpr once :s

 

Actually, I already tried to open the laptop. I never trust a maker to build his own pcs right. And since I read Conroe will be pin compatible with the chipset 945gm I thought I might upgrade some day . But I couldn't get past the point to extract the DVD. There's no screw holding yet it won't come out!.

Any ideas about how to open this laptop might be helpful. Please mind that if they were able to build it without breaking anything, someone can be able to diassemble it without breaking it either.

 

lol.... that might work yeah.

 

I've been researching this laptop vs others, looks like a great deal. Couple of questions: None of the major chains seem to want to carry it (compusa, circuit city, etc) in their stores, although they carry the more expensive Q series. Office Depot's highest model is the P105-S6014, which has the inferior graphic chipset, etc (although that's tempting..on sale for 1200.00 now). Can't get the S921 on toshiba's direct site, it used to be on Circuit City's website but strangely disappeared. Don't understand the crazy marketing of this. Any one know why this is?

Also, if I have to buy it online, anyone have recommendations as to who to buy it from? I don't trust Amazon anymore, too many "in stock" things that strangely get out of stock. Also have seen some reviews of online vendors that are leaving customers voicemails to "call..it's urgent about your order"..only to find they try to push some accessory.

thx

 

Best Buy has it. At least my local store does.

 

I got mine from Amazon.

 

Costco online has it for $1800 + 25 shipping. You can still get it if you are not a member, although there will be a 5% surcharge, not sure how much that equals out to be.

I have a ton of BestBuys around me ( NYC ) and only one store had this laptop.

 

thx for the suggestions, I'll check around best buy although they usually are not competetive on price. Costco is a good suggestion, their normal membership is $50, so that's less than 5% of their $1800 price, so it would pay to buy the membership and use it for other stuff if you can.

 

this is so bizarre..now it's disappeared from costco's site, the closest one they market is the 6014 model with the intel graphics chipset. Can't find it at Circuit City's site anymore. Best Buy has it on their site but on backordered status, perhaps that's why it's not on the other sites. Looked around a few best buy stored in FL but they don't stock it there. Well, patience is a virtue in this instance I guess.

 

Yes! It has gone from Costco's site - and my order is still "in process" so I gave them a call yesterday and was told that it would ship within 3-4 days.

I'm thinking either:

1. It's very new and has been sold out...everywhere.
2. Err...? Time will tell

 

Circuit City had a sort of neat feature at their site in that you could sign up for an email notification when it was back in stock..which I did a while back and it worked. But now this model is completely gone (last I checked). Could be because of an inventory problem. For anyone that has a brain this model is a better buy than the high end ones already on the store shelves.

Had a funny situation in Office Depot by the way, they had two high-end Toshiba laptops next to each other, I wanted to look at the 17" model (6019 model I believe), but it was locked out with a fingerprint lock. OD clerk walked by and I asked if could be unlocked, he shrugged and said no, but the other model was the same features (hmm..which is why it's a different model).

Few minutes later the rather "Patton-like" (I heard him earlier giving out orders to the other employees) manager came by, asked if anything I need..I pointed to the locked system and commented would be neat to be able to play with it, but it's locked. Patton calls the clerk over..barks at said clerk..ouch..well, the clerk meekly replies, some customer used the fingerprint security to lock the whole system out. Patton rightly asks.."what did Toshiba say..?". Clerk sheepishly (while looking at shoes) says "well sir I have not called Toshiba..". So of course shortly after that he was calling, but I left before that got resolved.

 

Yesterday it re-appeared on Costco's site, so I ordered it. Now I'm in "partially processed" status whatever that means. Will now need to look for some memory to pimp it up with. Woohoo!!

BTW, it's also carried at Radio Shack's site. They list it as 'in stock'.

 

Anyone buy xtra memory for this, if so from where? A little confused, as laptop specs ( http://tinyurl.com/onub6) show max 4gb ram, two slots of PC5300 DDR2 667Mhz. So far I can only find 1gb sticks for that type.

hmm..most turn out to be *kits* of two sticks, but found this:

http://www.bytewizecomputers.com/products/7/10/911/11776

If anyone finds another supplier of 2GB sticks for this laptop please post the link.

thks

 

I originally was going to buy an m1710, but after going to the local dell and comp-usa stores and after checking out and comparing a 1705 with a p105 I changed my mind.The screen and the speakers looked and sounded much better on the toshiba, plus I really liked the overall design much more than the dell.I ordered my p105 the day before yesterday and it's in state now and due to arrive tomorrow.**** costco works fast, good price too.

 

Just got confirm that I'll receive it on Monday..

 

Ordered mine through CDW. It says 2weeks + on shipping, but since work is paying for it, you have to go through their vendor.

 

Interesting, I just noticed that the p105-S921 seems to have disappeared from BestBuy.com (I am pretty sure it was there yesterday).

 

That means they are sold out, and are way over extended on backorders.

 

Try Newegg.com

 

uh it is now discontinued the model now is p100 st9212, with a faster but smaller hard rive 5400 rpm...and bluetoohh added..........that is why it isn't around, if someone has it in stock that is only way to get it. To be honest the st9212 is sold only through toshiba and price is 1899 manufactures price 100 dollars less then the original s921. I know I have the st9212..lol it rocks...still can use a 7200 rpm hard drive, but.....for now i can live with it.

 

Regards the memory availability issue, further research found that the link I provided above is not the correct memory..5300 vs 5400 I think. Anyhow, checked with kingston who had the toshiba model listed with 1GB sticks available and 2GB sticks "when available". I sent them an email..their response:

"Thank you for your interest in Kingston Technology.

The 2GB module is expected to be released by the end of this year. You can check back with us later on this year and we should have more information available. "

So it looks like the chipset is a little ahead of the memory manufacturing curve, I'll wait for kingston or someone else to pump out a 2gb stick.

 

well the p105 is still on the website even though u can' buy direct (but u can't buy direct any of the p105 models for that matter)
and the p100 st9212 says limited quantity so if anything this is the one that's gonna be discontinued very soon
also there's the slower memory to contend with

 

a faster hard drive...and going to upgrade the ram anyway.....seriously lol you want to max out the ram..at least to 2 gigs..so and yes the st9212 was limited quantities and love the idea of having a rare system.....LOL and toshiba , be honest here is taking names and numbers. LOL seriously

 

4GB of memory! Two 1GB stick are going to run anywhere from $140-$160. I'm sure the 2GB sticks will run somewhere around $400 each (or $800 for 4GB). That's the price of a cheap laptop!

I could see upgrading if you are running a 64Bit OS and needing some serious database power, but for Windows XP and gaming 2GB is probably all you need.