Toshiba T115D - AMD/HD3200 11.6 thread

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9484_15931,00.html

 

FYI: go to Bing.com and type "laptop" as your search. After you click search, find the one with tigerdirect.com on it. You will get 15% bing cash back through tigerdirect.com. Save you $75 on the 1125 model!!!! On the 1120 model I think you get $65 or so off.

I have been looking for a netbook. I wanted a small netbook that had decent battery life. I wanted 720p resolution with HD playback capabilities. For the $499 minus bing cash I can get this near notebook for $425 ish with free shipping. A decent "netbook" looks to be priced around $299 and for HD playback, you are looking near $400. So I am thinking for $125 more than a standard netbook I should get the 1125 model.

Thanks for all the info on this thread! It was a huge help!

 

I knew about that but want to know specifically whether it was working on the T115D. Mine stays at 1.5GHz all the time no matter what the power schemes. If power-now was functioning then the cpu should clock down to 800MHz at idle and run at 1.5GHz on demand.

 

I was in the same boat, look at the T115, Dell 11z, Asus Ul20 etc, 1201N etc. I was looking for a second computer for travel. I was about the push the botton on a Ul20 (after giving the T115d a long look because of the 3200 gpu). However, I stumbled on a discovery this week (new to me at least). In the middle of searching, I found a new (not refurb) HP Elitebook 2530p. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Elitebook line, it is HP's high-end enterprise line, which starts at around $1,500 for a base model. I would never bring up the 2530p in a forum like this because comparing a 2530p to a tosh t115/135 (although a great little computer) is like comparing a honda accord to a mercedes S550.

Things have changed however. HP is bringing out the 2540p in the next few months and is clearing inventory. The 2530p can be found for anywhere from $470 to 800. For 470, you can get a 2530p, equipped with a SU9300 (1.2gig core 2 duo with a huge 6mb of cache), 160gb hdd, 12.1 screen (1280x800) with LED backlighting (not 16:9, but still HD, and it is a matte finish!), 2gigs of ram, X4500MHD, Intel 5100 a/b/g/n wireless card and bluetooth 2.0+edr built in, and 6 cell batter 5600mwh. For 600+ it can be equipped with an SL9400 (1.86gig core 2 duo, with 6mb cache), 1033 front side bus, and an optical drive built in!!!

I opted for a compromise this weekend. I went for the SL9400 (an SL9300 is also available), with all other specs being the same. For those of you who aren't shy about opening a computer and aren't impressed with a 160gig hdd, the 2530p has two(!!!) drive bays (1.8" and a 2.5"). One can be used for a optical drive, if that's something you care about. Since the 2530p is an enterpise computer, it's easy to play with. For $70, I bought a Western Digital blue 640gb hdd and drop it in the open hdd bay. I am toying with buying a 64gig SSD (intel) off of ebay for $64 and running the OS from that drive to boost speed. There are also open slots to upgrade and it is possible to add a discrete graphics card, although this is diffinitely not a gaming rig. In total, I dropped $570 on the computer (including 12% back from bing). I also purchased the WD drive (described above). I had an extra 2gig DDR2 kit 800, that i didn't have to pay for (but would cost around $45). As updated, the total unit as equipped would cost less than $700.

In term of benchmarks, the official Notebook Review review achieved 5.5 at the high performance setting and screen brightness at 100% on a similarly configured computer. A similarly equiped unit scores a 5,787 on PCMark05. For any chip, particularly a low voltage chip, that's impressive!!!--besting almost all of the 25 watt penryn core 2 duos (P8600 i am looking at you). Credit the cache for that performance. Even though this is an older chip design (launching in 4th quarter 2008), it still kicks a@@!! It will run circules around the AMD L325/335, SU4100/7300/9300. On graphics, this computer scores a less impressive 898 on 36mark06, held back by the intel integrated graphics. Still, with this much CPU power, you can handle light gaming and hd video (playback not editing). This is definitely not a gaming rig though, but given the superior firepower of the gpu, you should be able to get this unit to fly through WOW and other less graphics intensive games (with appropriate settings). Seriously, how high do you need the settings on a 12.1 screen anyway???? I tried crysis at 1024x600 res, with everything set to low and was able to get 17fps [Update: it will play smoothly, but slowly-but freezes up intermittently. I would not describe this game as playable by any means, but it was worth a shot]. On quake 3 (old, but still fun), I got 138fps. I have not tried any other games yet and probably won't have a chance for a few days, but I will update when I have the time.

Last night, I watched the last three episodes of legend of the seeker last night in 720p (no stuttering at all) and listening on my samsung bluetooth headphones. I was surfing at the same time, so wifi on. CPU useage hovered around 25% using VLC media player. I then watched the 2 hour season opener of lost in HD on hulu. Throw in another 20 minutes of random web surfing, and I was using the computer for around 310 minutes and I still had 35% (1:15min) of the battery life remaining in a balanced power setting. By the way, no problems streaming hulu in hd!!!! Eight hours is definitely doable on this computer. With a 9 cell, it should be good for 10 hours in real world useage. [Update: After I wrote the review, I watched a bluray rip of terminator salvation in 1080p. Granted, the computer can't display at this resolution, but it had no problems at all playing the file on VLC. I would love to see this play on my sony 40" at 1080p, but alas, there is no HDMI outThis is, however, a business oriented computer and hdmi out's are not typically something businesses look for on their computers. The new 2540p's won't have hdmi connections either, although they will introduce display ports.


In terms of negatives, there aren't many. I prefer a 16:9 aspect ration, but the 2530p continues to use the 16:10 ration at a resolution of 1280x800. This resolution is perfectly fine on a 12.1" screen and is preferable when working in Microsoft Office. Although I prefer the 16:9 ration, I would gladly give it up for a matte finish (which is what you get with a 2530p). At 3.75 pounds with a 6 cell (3.2 pounds with the flush fitting 3 cell), it's not the lightest in its class, but the weight is due to the magnesium/aluminum case that can withstand 2000 pounds of pressure. For this kind of construction, I can handle the weight (it's not a fatty by any means). One big negative is the lack of an HDMI input (discussed above). There are, however, 3 USB's (2 if you get the optional internal CD/DVD Rom), firewire (haven't used than in a while!), kensington lock, vga, 1 mic and 1 headphone jack, s-video jack (yes, the design is a bit 2008).

Bonus features: dual navig devices-- a touch pad and a pointer (like on the lenovo lappies), each with separate left/right buttons--nice!!! It also has an led light that illuminates the keyboard, 2 megapixel webcam, a fingerprint scanner (biometric), a built in business card scanner and an external LED guage to tell available battery power without having to boot the computer. The keyboard is full size, despite the small chasis and the bottons are island style and made out of rubber (no plastic!). Most importantly, the computer comes with a 3 year parts and labor warranty, including next business day on site repair. I don't know of any consumer lappie that has that kind of warranty. If you go for a factory certified refurb, you get a 1 year parts and labor warranty.


This computer blows the doors off the T115d, Asus ul20/ul30a and Acer 1810T. For computing power, nothing comes close for less than a $1000. You would have start with an alienware M110 (starting for $300 more) before you can find a competitor (although they do serve very different markets).
Check this computer out before you drop $500 on a T115D/T135. Even if it costs you an extra $100 bucks (which it shouldn't), this is the best money you'll spend for a computer IMO.

 

Can you provide some links to these computers for that price? I don't see any under $1000.

 

Here's a recert one for $552 at newegg.com, but currently out of stock:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=2530p

 

This is, as you pointed out, out of stock, but also recertified.

Where did you get this for ~$600 and new?

 

Tiger direct 699 NEW
www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...?EdpNo=5500232&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs

 

Tiger Direct has 6% bing cash back, so this unit comes down to $657.

There are a bunch of them out there closer to the $500 range. I bought the last one available for the spec I described from Tech for Less (see below). Here's one, from Costcentral.com for $625 (no sales tax and free shipping) and it's a higher spec model with the built in DVD Rom:

http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/HP_EliteBook_2530p/FV879AWRABA/10922710

Another from CompUSA for $669, but there is a 10% bing cash back discount, reducing it to $600.

http://www.compusa.com/applications...FISHUSA&cm_mmc_o=2mHCjC3wkkYubltCjCVqHCjCdwwp

Another from Lowmarkup.com..this is for the same computer I bought:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-ELITEBOOK-25...iewItemQQptZLaptops_Nov05?hash=item1c0fdf0b68

Lowmarkup.com is a real bm store and you can see the listings on their website. I am giving the link to an ebay ad they posted because if you use bing to link to ebay you get an extra 8% cash back. Here, this is a factory refurb (HP 1 year parts and labor warranty). The price is $495 ($539-8%), no tax and free shipping!!!

I am not saying it's easy to find for under $500, but I saw a number of 2530p with the base spec (SU9300) for around $500 give or take with bing money. I got the last one of my spec at "Tech for Less". There are other configurations there. Tech for less has 12% bing cash back across the board. It a good store, the product came as promised and they give a 30 day satisfaction guaranty (return any item, including computers, within 30 days cash back, no restocking fee). They charged for shipping, but it was only $10 " and I didn't have to pay sales tax (8.65% where I live). A T115D through amazon would run me $550 (amazon charges tax). I paid $570 total for my 2530p ($635 -12% bing cash). It was a no brainer. Btw, I deliberately avoided the models with built in dvd drives, because they have a 1.8" hdd. I am using it as a media player and need maximum storage capacity. The 1.8" hdd's are harder to find and more expensive, although you could get a 250gig toshiba or hitachi hdd (7200 rpm) for around $150. I am putting in a 640gig hdd and am toying with putting in an 1.8" SSD to run the O/S. For those who have a DVD Rom, a popular mod is to drop in an ssd into the 1.8" bay and turn the dvd rom slot into a hot swappable hdd/dvd slot.

Btw, the unit comes with vista professiona/downgrade to XP professional. There was no bloatware to speak of since this is a business machine. I did, however, installed Windows 7 immediately.

 

Well I finally joined the club once tigerdirect BCB was at 15% so I got it for 425 after cashback.

So far, I love it. I'll get more into detail once I remove some of the pre-installed programs and can test it.

IMO, it seems Toshiba's come with a lot of little add ons.... like the clock, bulletin board, etc. Also, under my uninstall programs there were 4 versions of C++.

 

Well - you guys are lucky - NONE of these machines area available outside the US! I'm drooling at the accounts of the 115D tx and MSI U230 (nobody's mentioned the X350, though?), only to find they're not even listed here yet. . . At least by the time they finally reach the rest of the world you'll have completely dismembered them and our choices will be informed. (Very well informed - this is a great thread).

 

Just ordered the T115D-S1125 from Amazon. When I got done with the process it gave me a delivery date of the end of March! I sent them a polite email pointing out the absurdity of an almost six week wait. I'll post their reply.

I chose this unit based on the info in this thread. A big thank you to all who contributed. The deciding factor for me was the GPU, HDMI and the general overall quality. Once I receive it (could be awhile ) I'll post up my impressions.

 

Amazon sent a form reply that really didn't say anything. I followed up with a second email as follows;

Thank you for your reply on my query as to the extreme time period for fulfilling this order. However I noticed that after my inquiry the web page for the Toshiba computer was changed to show a second party vendor at a lower price as the default view. Unfortunately I cannot cancel my order and reorder through this vendor as I have to use Amazon gift cards that I'm told may only be used through direct Amazon product sales.

My question is simply why does it take so long for Amazon to fulfill this order? It is a standard configuration computer product that does not require a special order construction and should be readily available through the manufacturer and its distributors. I'm left to conclude that your policy is to simply accumulate a larger number of orders to minimize your acquisition costs or to delay fulfillment to the end of the quarter to artificially maximize your profits and boost your stock price.

I'm sorry - I just can't imagine a defensible reason for this from your point of view as a reseller and can't express strongly enough my dissatisfaction with the extended wait.

 

Mmmmm, I just got my T115D-S1125 yesterday and it's behaving exactly the same as what Miner had described. The core speed stays constantly at 1.5GHz no matter what I do thus the PowerNow! feature isn't working. No idea if it's the board's problem or if it's the CPU itself because the MSI U230 with the L335 chip works just fine with the PowerNow!, see this youtube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwQTonnstjw

I'm considering returning it.

 

Has anyone cracked the case and seen if the wireless card is able to be upgraded? It would be nice to have wireless N capability.

Has anyone had problems booting from non-Toshiba external DVD drives?

 

There is no error with Toshiba's implementation that is preventing the PowerNow! feature from working, it just doesn't exist on the L325. So no worries that your chipset/MB is broken, its just feature that was probably cut for budget reasons.

Source

 

So do you think there is significant power savings/battery life with the Neo L625 versus the L325?

This would be in real-world activities (i.e. browsing the web, listening to music, etc). I would assume if the L625 stayed in its low power state 100% of the time it would be more efficient and use less battery.

 

Thanks for the source info. Is there a similar doc with the L335 specs?

 

http://www.yugatech.com/pclabs/amd-athlon-neo-x2-l335-1-6ghz-benchmark/

thats the closest i can find to a spec page

 

Got mine in red on Friday. Spent some of the weekend uninstalling crap I don't need. Not to bad though! It's so light compared to my sony. Still gotta get a 2nd strip of ram. My buddy picked up a stick of 667 so I'm gonna return it tomorrow and probably grab some of newegg instead.

 

So, I used to have a Samsung N510, slow out of the box. I got my money back and bought a T115D-S1125RD and stuck an extra 2G of RAM in. Now I want to put a Crucial M225 SSD in. Has anyone on the board done this? If so, how's the performance?

 

Could anyone with one of these do me a huge favor and run a Wolfenstein Enemy Territory benchmark? The game is a free download.

1) Download Wolfenstein ET Client from here: http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/files/files.shtml (patches and client are available elsewhere if you hate fileplanet)
2) Install patches 2.60 and 2.60b (available from same site or elsewhere) I'm not sure this part is even necessary.
3) Download this demo file: http://returntocastlewolfenstein.filefront.com/file/Carmas_Battery_Demo;20069
4) Extract the demo file to [wolf et install dir]\etmain\demos (demos folder will need to be created)
5) Rename the extracted file to anything that is easy to remember, lets say demo.dm_83
6) Run Wolf:ET
7) Go to graphic options (under system or options?) and set to High, then choose resolution. It will list custom after manual selection a resolution.
8) ~ to bring up console
9) timedemo 1 [enter] demo demo [enter]
10) Let demo run (about ~3minutes on my old test machine)
11) ~ again to bring console back up, last line should list fps.

If you could run it 640x480 and 1024x768 or 1152x864.

 

The reason why the MSI U230 is 32-bit is because of the L335 being only 32-bit, therefore you will NOT be able to go 64-bit with it! I am surprised this has not popped up before

I myself and looking around... So far, the ones that have caught my attention are the acer 1410 su2300 or su4100 versions, this toshiba, and last but not least, the refurbished 2530p from HP (THANK YOU WHOEVER TALKED ABOUT THIS!)

The cheap 2530p s ARE REFURBISHED, but they come with 1 year warranty. They can be found at around 600-700$ - Bing cashback. The SL9400 or even the SL9300 are very powerful! Obviously the GPU isn't great, but if you aren't gaming, this is the way to go for SURE! The build quality is EXTRAORDINARY! The SL9300 usually come with 160gb HD or 80GB HD and a Webcam and DVDRW, while the SL9400 NO webcam but DVDRW and 120gb HD (my choice )... I will probably be buying one of these tomorrow... I do like this toshiba though... It is 100-200$ less and has nice graphics...


Can anyone compare this Neo vs SU4100 or SU7300?

 

Practical performance tie with 70% of the battery life and price

 

I would 2nd that plus add better integrated graphics with AMD...

 

I'll try to do this for you. I'd imagine it will run, though, because I'm able to get quite a few games to run okay on it - Dragon Age plays okay at 1366x768 with textures at medium and graphics to low, with HDR off.

I'll let you know what I get with WolfET

 

Awesome, thanks Aerows. Would it be possible for you to snap a GPU-Z pic as well? I had some one run a demo on a similar machine as this, but after some research it seems that his machine used a 3200hd that included onboard memory. I was disappointed with his results, but my research seems to show that the onboard memory only has a 32bit bus! It depends on the speed of the onboard ram, but that could be a significant drawback compared to system ram, especially if it was run dual channel.

 

it hasnt popped up before because the L335 is 64bit


I am assuming (i dont know for sure) that it is shipping with a 32bit operating system becasue stock systems are shipped with 2gb of ram and 32bit win 7 run better on 2gb than 64bit win 7, i bilieve if they shipped with stock 4gb win 7 64bit would be the os default

the dm3 from hp uses the L335 and it ships with win 7 64 bit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157108

 

im looking to get a neoprene case for the t115d but I wanted to make sure what i bought was going to fit perfectly first. has anyone bought one and does it fit snugly and where did you get it from>

 

Office depot has a sweet deal on the T135 ($529), and I'm thinking about going for it. Eventually get a 7200rpm to replace the drive in there currently and put the 320GB in an enclosure. Any thoughts?

There's also a dm3-1130us at Staples for $549 ($499 after MIR) with display cache and a 7200rpm drive, but it has the L335 instead of L625, and no eSATA....decisions decisions...any suggestions?

 

I made the mistake of buying one of these "New" 2530p's problem is it is NOT new it was an open box buy so it still had 25 months of the 36 month warranty still available. That rubbed me wrong so I played with it over the weekend. The 9300su is just barely faster than an atom 280 w/2 gig ram.
The SL9400 would be a LOT faster. I don't recomend the su9300 .
Even with 3 gig ram it is SLOW

 

oh man how did i miss this.

couple of quick questions aspologies if already been asked.

battery life?

is heat an issue like was with the dv2 (bigger gpu mind u)?

will it likely run medevil total war on low settings?

oh so stoked i got hold of this thread.

 

Ive been getting around 5 hours of battery life with it set to eco mode and just doing web browsing. Like every other computer, it will decrease with more intensive tasks.

The left side does warm up a little bit, but I think its within the normal realm of heat given off from laptops.

And I cant comment on the game....... because ive only had it for a few weeks and Ive only installed warcraft 3 on it.

 

Has anyone tried booting from a non-toshiba external dvd drive? I've heard people had problems getting their drives recognized by the BIOS on the T135s

 

I assume you mean Medieval Total War II, right? The first one will definitely play. As for the second, it should play on the T115D. Dragon Age is running alright for me at medium detail, and Europa Universalis: Rome runs no problem.

I can't promise you it'll run, but I sure bet it does! I've had this computer for a week now and it is excellent!

 

yeah sorry i mean medeival 2. yeah i think it should run.

im confused whether to go the u230 or t115d.......

i read somewhere some dude said he only gets like 90 minutes battery on the u230, but i cant believe that. maybe he has his settings at highest and is playing a really intense game or something. any thoughts on that?

my eeepc gets about 8 on really low, but its so gutless and im over the screen resolution (size is fine)

 

Hey Philter25,

The perfect bag for the T115D can be had from Office Depot it is the Case Logic
7-10" for ultra-portable PC. Dimensions 11x9.1x2.4" item number 085854170970 picked it up on sale for 11.89 about 20 bucks most other places. It fits like a glove ans is neoprene. Hope this helps

 

I saw both units last weekend at office depot, I left feeling a bit sour on both tbh.

It may just have been an issue with the display model, but the T135 was by a wide margin the most sluggish laptop displayed. 2-3 seconds to open the start tab, 4-5 seconds populate components under the system tab and >14 seconds to open IE.

Also, the mouse pointer lagged to the point that tabbing/scrolling was quite frustrating. Lastly, the display seemed particularly grainy and dark, relative to other units.

I'm not used to working with netbooks and honestly don't know if this level of performance is common or if this unit was faulty.

The dm3 was snappy by comparison and exhibited none of the lagging I found on the Tosh's mouse pointer, (which further signals a defect in my mind). the display seemed brighter, crisper and had more vivid colors.

The low points were emissions and the touchpad. The unit ran hotter then any other on display when idle and the fan was likewise the most audible, but not necessarily loud. After a bit of web browsing (only get one page), and playing that wildlife movie the touchpad became uncomfortably hot.

The standout unit for me was the dv4. Both units (i3 and i5) had great display quality, were quiet and seemed well built. Bestbuy has the Amd dv4 which seemed almost as nice, but ran slightly hotter.

 

I purchased the T115D-S1125 from Tiger Direct for 424.99 (499.00 - 75.00 cashback) yesterday and it's due for delivery on Monday. I had an Alienware M11X on order and decided I did not need that much power. I have a desktop for gaming plus I saved over 500.00. Looking forward to trying it out on Monday...

 

I did the Tigerdirect deal with the 15% BCB only bummer was I couldn't get red. But I wasn't about to pay that much more for a color. Also, while purchasing I went ahead and picked up a 2 gig stick of extra ram and a D-Link wireless USB N adapter. Now with all that and a USB Bluetooth dongle I already have this should be good to go. Laptop specs with netbook size that fits in a 7-10 inch netbook sleeve for not alot of cash. Would have loved something this size with an i5 but nothing out there yet and wouldn't be this kind of money.

 

I am going to get the extra memory too but wanted to make sure first that it was only 1 2Gb stick before ordering. Some of them supposedly have 2 1GB sticks.

 

I haven't been able to install Catalyst 10.1 or 10.2 on mine, it seems there are no compatible drivers yet for the 3200.

I was able to install 9.9 beta or something from AMD's site. How do we update to 10.X for the T115D?

 

this is probably asking a bit much, but do you think with an OC this rig might play anno 1404 at low settings?

 

How did you get 15% BCB?

 

I received the T115D-S1125 yesterday and all I can say is that I am VERY impressed with the performance of this laptop so far (even with 2GB of memory). I owned the HP dv2-1110us (also with an AMD neo processor) and returned it after a week due to slow performance.

Compared to regular Atom netbooks, the difference is night and day. It instantly picked up my network with no issues. Too much blotware for sure but I uninstalled alot of it using Revo Uninstaller. Man, it's amazing how much junk (registry entries and files) the regular uninstall of these programs leave behind. Revo makes a huge difference.

I installed Steam and downloaded Titan Quest last night. I will try it out tonight and see how it goes. I plan on playing only older games on this - leave the newer ones for the desktop.

My complaints are minor...the trackpad is not the greatest but I use a mouse most of the time. The speakers are average but that's really expected in this price range. The keyboard has very minor flex but not too much. Try some of the MSI ones in their gaming laptops and you will see what too much flex is.

Toshiba has a winner for sure with this model.

 

I need some help guys im having directx problems.

I put warcraft 3 using the no-cd and transferred it to my laptop through a thumb drive. The game worked perfectly for a few weeks. Yesterday, I tried to play it and I got a directX error message thT "warcraft 3 as unable to initilize directx"

I tried to open up chess, and I got the mssage that chess couldnt initialize direct3d, please make sure I have the latest version of directx installed and to make sure that it was installed with the header files that match the directX DLLs. I re-downloaded direct x 9.0c from the microsoft directx site and im still having the same problem.

Also, not I cant get any video to play in windows media player. It plays audio, but not the video. They were working flawlessly since I got the machine and just started not to work.

Any ideas? I thought windows 7 came preloaded with the latest version of directx. When I tried to reinstall directX, it didnt re-install because it said it detected that a newer version or the same version was already installed on my computer.

 

Has the issues with the choppy mouse pointer on this model been addressed yet?

 

Finally, got back in town and my new laptop was waiting from Tigerdirect. Everything looked great installed the extra 2 gigs of memory and installed the drivers for the D-Link DWA-140 everything is working great. My 3 year old daughter thinks it is her laptop due to the small size.

 

can someone please please please run a stratgey game and report back performance. company of heroes, civ4, something like that. ann01404 would be great, but dont think that will run.

 

Europa Universalis Rome runs flawlessly. I know its not too demanding, though.