Toshiba P200 or X205?

After reading many of your reviews, I was about to purchase the X205 (the lower end one). However, I realized that it is possible to customize the P200 on Toshiba's site. After selecting the following characteristics, the P200 would be $1,483.20:

- Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic 32-Bit
- Microsoft® Office 2007 Suite Ready
- 2048MB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM (1024MBx2)
- 17.0" Diagonal Widescreen WSXGA+ TruBrite® display (1680x1050)
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 2600 with 256MB GDDR2 discrete memory
- 2 x 120GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA)
- DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive
- Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965 AGN (802.11a/g/n)
- harman/kardon® stereo speakers
- (6-Cell, 4000mAh) Lithium Ion battery

The P200 with this configuration would be $350 dollars cheaper than the X205. Besides, the X205 has an older and slower processor.

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that fan noise is a big concern. Thanks again.

 

Uh, if I remember, the T7100 came out at exactly the same time. Proc is the same series, and the 8700M GT pwns the HD 2600. Not to mention Home Basic kinda sucks (no premium UI & no media center). Real diffs

P200 Your Config
* Better Screen
* Beter Proc

X205 Base
* Better Graphics
* Better Battery
* Better OS
* HD-DVD Drive
EDIT:
* Bluetooth
* Flare Carmine -- AWW YEAH!

If the P200 benefits and price difference are enough to sway you, I'm not going to say the P200 isn't a good choice. The X205 would be better for gaming and a good stop gap solution for HD-DVD playback if you didn't want to pay $$$ for an HD-DVD player. For me, it was worth it. And honestly if you buy from Amazon with the $100 rebate, you're looking at $1750, only 250 more, not 350.

 

Thank you for your reply.

Concerning the operating system, I am surprised that I am only given a 32-bit OS option. The X205 also has a 32 bit OS. I thought that the Core 2 Duo was supposed to handle the 64 bit version without any problems... Thanks again

 

Oh, interestingly enough, the P200 configured on Toshiba Direct is $1701.60 with the only diff being the lid and graphics card. I think the benefits of the X205 @ Amazon $1750 far outweigh the benefits of the P200, even configured at a lower level. Honestly, I would have been interested in the P200 if it was an HD 2600 XT

Honestly, the T7300 and the SXGA+ screen are things I had in my Dell 1520 on order, and HATED giving up, but in the end, I'm happy with my purchase, and i could always upgrade later, as the screen and proc are both replaceable. Figure I'll wait for a mobile quad core before I upgrade though (and the end of my 1 year warrenty ).

 

Absolutely! The proc is 64-bit capable, but I don't think Toshiba really wants to support (driver wise and otherwise) the 64-bit OS. Honestly I can't blame them, as the 64-bit OS offers little in performance over 32-bit. You could always just upgrade to 64-bit, I think MS offers a key trade from 32-bit to 64-bit, at least they did back in the XP Pro days.

 

This article explains the reasoning behind most of this:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1426/vista_64_bit_or_32_bit_version_x64_vs_x86

Mind you, the article is dated, but still relevant. Driver support is still somewhat shoddy on 64-bit, and the performance difference is minimal.

Plus, how will you play your favorite DOS games??? ;-)

 

Thanks a ton for the replys. The only feature that is holding me back from getting the X205 is the HD DVD playback. I mean, it would be a nice feature to have but I don't really need it. Concerning the graphics cards, I've heard that the 8700M GT is indeed superior to the HD 2600, but not by a HUGE amount. I'll let you know when I have made my final decision. Thanks a lot.

 

I think that graphics capabilities are an important thing to consider. I mean - its something you'll NEVER be able to upgrade...

 

Is the 8700M GT way superior than the HD 2600?

 

According to notebookcheck.net, the HD 2600 is in competion with the 8600 so that would make the 8700 a better card.

The HD 2600 is a class 2 card and the 8700 is a class 1 card.

 

Thanks ojchillinndc. Would I definitely be able to tell the difference visually? Will the graphics look way better with 8700? Thanks again.

 

Way better looking, no. Smoother, maybe (depending on the games you want to play). Something like BioShock, probably a lot smoother.