X305-Q708...What do you think?

I was looking at the Toshiba website today to see the latest model of the X305 to go on sale.

$4200 is pretty steep for a laptop, and while I like the 708's internals, there are some things that just really annoy me.

1. For $4200 I expect to see nothing less than a WUXGA 1920x1200 display. They've been around for almost 4 years and Toshiba had it available on their old G45 if I remember right. Why can't Toshiba put these on a laptop designed for gaming??? Memo to Toshiba - Gamers like to play on high res!!! You've already got 2 smokin' GPU's crammed in there able to push high framerates at high res, so give us a display that can match and amaze us. Putting a 17" screen with a 1440x900 resolution is a joke. Putting a 17" screen at 1440x900 and calling it a gaming laptop is total product failure.

2. While Toshiba execs will cringe at the though, Blu-ray drives have been getting more common, and at $4200 I would expect to see at least a BD-ROM drive in there.

3. Is the SSD really necessary? Two 7200RPM drives in RAID0 would be cheaper and still provide good performance for gaming.

4. Make it available in stores - for $4200 I like to see and touch (and benchmark) before I buy.

5. Minor nag, but a stereo mic jack would serve well for folks like me who do line-in audio recording, especially considering the amazing speakers on the X305's. The current mono mic jack is simply useless.

Finally, gamers are a unique breed of pc users who are heavy into customizing their rigs and like to stand out. Toshiba should consider offering the option for gamers to customize X305 laptops on the Toshiba website. That way every gamer can get the unit with the CPU, GPU, screen and hard drive as they want to and at a budget that fits. Many other brands like HP and Dell offer online customization for their laptops, and it is a shame that Toshiba does not offer this ability for the X305 gaming line.

Hopefully somebody at Toshiba gets to read this, and other gamers out there also share their opinion. I have yet to get my hands on this unit, but I would definitely like to. This is, with the exception of the points mentioned above, the best-equipped laptop I've seen in a long time.

 

the 708 is a test run of an upgraded 701. They took a stock q701 let some gamer enthusiat take it apart and then gave him the cards and harddrive and cpu to install, to test to see how practical it would be to let us current 701 owners upgrade to sli.

 

The 708 is both a disappointment, a wallet burner, and a lackluster "gaming" laptop. it puts shame to the x305 line and the qosmio line period.

 

For that price you may as well hit up a Sager NP9262..

Similarily prices.. with blue-ray read + write.. better cards.. 2X 9800m GTX... chuck in the desktop CPU C2Q Q9550... 2X 320 5400rpm hd (can add a third) etc

 

for that price i would max out the ocz whitebook, with ati 3870x2 in crossfire (upwards of 14,000 3d 06 score) and its only around 3,000$

 

Those are both true, but the point is you SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SPEND $4000 or even $3000 to get a "decent gaming experience".

For around $2100 msrp today I should be able to get the following notebook configuration:

-T9400 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo
-17" 1920x1200 WUXGA display
-320GB 7200RPM HDD
-4GB RAM
-Vista 64
-9800M GTS 1GB
-DVD burner
-AGN wireless/Bluetooth/Webcam
-HDMI/eSata/SD slot

ALL these components are available today and it is easily doable. Toshiba ALMOST had it right with the X305-Q706, for $2000 they had everything in there except the 1920x1200 display.

Not everybody can afford $2000-plus for a laptop. Manufacturers (listen up Toshiba) need to understand that gamers look for "bang-for-the-buck". It's been one of the reasons why they overclock. But with the right components at the right price, putting together a great gaming laptop that gamers will WANT and BUY is definitely possible.

Gateway almost had a winner with the 7811FX, but they cut corners with reliability, stability and quality control - I went through 5 bad units myself and from the forum posts over at Gateway lots of other folks also got burned. Now they have a 7801u model, same terrible keyboard/speakers, but hopefully with the other kinks worked out LOL. Thanks, but no thanks.

Toshiba seems committed to making laptops for gamers, which is great. And they've made big improvements, but they're still not there. They still have yet to put together a machine that really has the right stuff.

All it takes is around $2000, not $4000. Put those components mentioned above together in a unit and slap a gaming sticker on it. Now you have a gaming laptop that will not only attract gamers, but will provide a decent gaming experience.

 

get a $1000 desktop & lcd combo please.

 

Yup, I love to carry a desktop with the LCD around or to work everyday.

 

Wow its like alienware recommended that price to toshiba

 

haha..I agree about the alienware bit... as nice as Alienware is....it is way too expensive for the average gamers ( most are just college students still with no proper income besides parents )... the X305 is a budget gaming laptop that could perform almost as well as the Alienware...but probably about twice the price if you max out an Alienware laptop.... I do wish Alienware starts thinking about people on a much smaller budget but still wants to play good games. I believe Toshiba has the right mindset, purpose and aim about the X305 line-up (aside from the Q708 which is ridiculously unnecessary)
I hope Toshiba keeps up the good work and makes future high performance gaming laptops at the price of $2000 and under.
Us college students will very much appreciate that.

 

Toshiba is playing hardball and is gonna make strides in the gaming notebook market. They pick and choose high end components and package it in quality yet budget casing. They try and give us consumers the best tech and try to keep prices way lower than the competition without sacraficing too much i.e Gateway P 7811 fx.

The Gateway was powerful but you actually just paid 1300 bucks for the 9800m gts and all the extras like blutooth, usb port, speakers, new casing to accomodate more heat, had to be sacraficed in order to keep the price from sky rocketing. I doubt if Alienware, Sager, Clevo, Dell or the other hardcore gaming brands will be able to deliver price to performance ratio along with quality that Toshiba is giving us now. And Toshiba calling themselves the leader is so fitting since they were the first to implement SLI tech into a laptop (x205 series) and now they're the first to implement Hybrid SLI and solid state hard drive. State of the art.

 

I have no problem with the approach Toshiba is taking, except that I want a choice in components that I can select myself. Offering different pre-configured models is not the issue, but as a gamer I want to configure a unit with the CPU, GPU, display etc. that can do what I need within whatever my budget is. All other big name manufacturers are doing it, I don't see why Toshiba shouldn't follow.

And I don't disagree with what you say about quality and price. Sure, there's a difference between cheap and inexpensive, except that you don't need $4000 to get quality. $2000 today can get good quality and good performance. The problem with the Gateway P7811-FX was lack of quality control and reliability - the two very things a manufacturer should NEVER overlook just to keep price down.

BTW: X205 was NOT the first SLI notebook. Clevo had the revised D900 chassis on sale back in March of last year - see here. A lot of people back then though that Clevo laptop was all BS too...

 

I am using x305 now, and the case is DEFINITELY NOT a $4000 case. My old m1710 case is way sturdier than this.
The x305 feels more like a $1600 NB.

Check M17 out.

 

Of course, the X305 is not a $4000 quality notebook. The Core 2 Extreme processor and SSD in the X305-Q708 model accounts for that price. I haven't priced it out, but I'm betting you could just buy the Q706 model and upgrade the processor to it and add an SSD and it'd be identical but cheaper than the Q708.

The processor and SSD are the only differences between the Q706 and Q708.

 

a M17 with same spec except M17 is 1900 resol, and 1 320gb 7200rpm hd is priced at $3449.

ncix is selling 320gb hd at $100, how much is the ssd?

but I think the toshie has better speakers.

 

I think the whole point to the x305 chassis is that in development Toshiba was thinking mobility and took into account weight, at the same time it had to be practical to accomodate a powerful sli setup in later versions (q708)and yet be just tough enough to hold everything together all the while finding budget, strong material to keeping prices low.

Compared to my x205, the predecessor of the x305 gaming notebook, it seems Toshiba shaved a few ounces of the total weight, which is very important and which is something all notebook manufacturers will have to figure out in the future.

The fiery red design keeps with the "hardcore gamer theme" which the notebook actually is targeted for and is easily a $200+ paint job which I find a work of art with the LEDs glowing inside the beautiful interior and all is attractive and quite impressive build using cheap materials.

The only reason why people complain about the look and color ,is because they want to come of looking like some sophisticated mature business man in public when going to a hotspot. I can relate to that, but I've had foxy babes tell me what a nice looking laptop I have, while staring at the buldge between my legs.

 

Long post, but I only see the word "Cheap materials".

There is nothing wrong with using cheap material, as long as the price reflects that and is suitable for its target customer. Hey, I am using it now.

But for a $4000, i would choose a sturdier case, or at least a case that I feel it's sturdy enough to last few more years. Again, the look is not suitable for a $4000 NB. There are many better NB out there at that price.

You wouldn't want to buy a S-class Mercedes that looks like a Corolla.

 

The 706 would scream with a 2.5 or a 2.8 C2D in there and a WUXGA display. The speakers on the X305 are close to hifi quality - amazing sound.

I won't get into the argument over $4000 quality. I bought a 17" HP zd7000 four years ago for $2000. It's built like a tank, runs non-stop, has never broken down and has darn good speakers. It's also a great space heater. Spending more than 2 grand on a laptop only really gives you added performance or features, not necessarily any better quality. I think for what Toshiba have done with the X305 they nailed it for quality, but the 708 is an over-the-top exaggeration. There are more sensible ways to configure a gaming notebook.

I'd love to see a 706 with a WUXGA display and 2.8 C2D. Price it at $2400, sell it through Circuit City and I'm on board.

 

I still think the Gateway P7811-FX was the best deal around. The Q708 is a joke. I can configure a OCZ whitebook at better specs for around $2500.

Quality isn't really a factor for me when buying a laptop. I could buy 3 $1300 Gateways that break in 1 year each, or I could buy 1 Q708 that will last me 3 years. I would rather get something new every year because there's no guarantee something will still be powerful in 3 years. Most of the electronics I've owned haven't broken, they are just outdated.

 

$4000+ ???

If you are going to spend that kind of money, then get one of these.

$3100 [@ Avadirect]

CLEVO, D901C/NB9E/SG Core 2 Duo Notebook Barebone, Intel® P965, 17.1" TFT WSXGA+ Glossy, PCIe x16 MXM-IV/III Discrete Graphics
INTEL, Core™ 2 Duo E8600 Dual-Core, 3.33GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache, 45nm, 65W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
ARCTIC COOLING, MX-2 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Non-Electrical Conductive
VIDEO, 2 x NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT 512MB GDDR3 Mobile Graphics Card for D901C, SLI Configuration
CRUCIAL, 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz SDRAM SODIMM, CL6, Non-ECC
SEAGATE, 320GB Momentus 7200.3, 7200 RPM, 16MB cache, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, w/ G-Force Protection, OEM
RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
CLEVO, Blu-Ray Reader and Super-Multi DVD±RW Optical Drive for Clevo D901C
ACCESSORY, Built-In 4-in-1 Card Reader (Integrated)
NETWORK, Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN Card
INTEL, Wireless WiFi Link 5300, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/Draft N, 11/54/450 Mbps, Internal PCIe Mini Card
ACCESSORY, Bluetooth Card (Integrated)
MODEM, 56K V90/92 Fax/Modem (Integrated)
NOTEBOOK ACCESSORIES, AC Adapter 100/240V (Included)
ACCESSORY, Standard Carrying Bag w/ Strap Included (Choose upgrade)
MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
SERVICE, OEM System Recovery (secure HDD partition only)
SERVICE, System Binder
WARRANTY, Standard 1 Year Warranty for Clevo Notebooks


OR


$3800 for SLI 9800m GTX [also @ avadirect]
https://www.sagernotebook.com/process_cart.php?xcSID=rr4ko0lc7ibl2ompbb1fruulj3

 

The 708 has a qx9300, the quad extreme is alone is like $1k. But again the 708 is $1k over priced, for its a 706 ($2000) + quad ($1000) + sdd ($200) = $3200...but sold at $4200.

 

I would redo that math a little.

The 706 comes with a P8400 which retails for ~$220. Swapping it for a quad core should bump the price up by $800 on that alone. Then add a 128GB SSD which sells for ~$350 online. Finally, add the upgrade from Vista Premium to Ultimate, which is about $160 from MS, which should bring the true price to around $3300.

It's also possible Toshiba has listed the specs wrong for the 706, and the 706 has 9700M GPU's. But that difference in price still is not a $900 difference.

Either way, Toshiba makes a killing selling it at $4200. And whoever buys one without first doing their homework is either a blind Toshiba fanboy or has excess money to spend.

 

I would just buy an OCZ Whitebook over this.

-J.B.

 

solid state is not needed or usefu at this point in time. when they can make it around 300 gig solid state hd, then keep the price down on it, then laptops will be better and more room to get bigger and better graphic card develop for laptop gamers. i think Toshiba is on the right track, but needs to plan on how to sell it if they make it.

 

added note, Toshiba should offer different color besides the flame red and black

 

Nope your wrong. I own the Q706 and it comes with 3 GPU's, a 9400m for low power operation and two 9800M GTS chipsets.

 

NVIDIA System Information report created on: 11/13/2008 09:04:10
System name: -PC

[Display]
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz (2267 MHz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
DirectX version: 10.0
GPU processor: GeForce 9400M G
ForceWare version: 176.49
Total available graphics memory: 1151 MB
Dedicated video memory: 512 MB
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 639 MB
Video BIOS version: 62.79.38.00.10
IRQ: 19
Bus: FPCI
GPU processor: GeForce 9800M GTS
ForceWare version: 176.49
Memory: 1152 MB
Video BIOS version: 62.94.50.00.17
IRQ: 0
Bus: PCI Express x8
GPU processor: GeForce 9800M GTS
ForceWare version: 176.49
Memory: 1152 MB
Video BIOS version: 62.94.50.00.16
IRQ: 0
Bus: PCI Express x8

[Components]

nvCplUIR.dll 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvCpl.cpl 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel Applet
nvExpBar.dll 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvCplUI.exe 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvViTvSR.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Video and TV Server
nvViTvS.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Video and TV Server
nvDispSR.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Display Server
NVMCTRAY.DLL 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Media Center Library
nvDispS.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Display Server
NVCPL.DLL 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Compatible Windows Vista Display driver, Version 176.49
nvGameSR.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA 3D Settings Server
nvGameS.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA 3D Settings Server


Yeah, also I'm running the 32-bit version of Vista due to some software compatibility issues.

 

How is the battery life when just surfing the web or something? I get about 3hours on my 7811. I am just curious on how well the 9400 work during low load.

EDIT: Also, what about the 3dmarks score? I didn't realize that the graphic cards operate at 8x each...but again they are in pci-e 2.0.

 

I agree with that one. And another reason why Toshiba needs to seriously make this model lineup user-configurable.

Got it! Thanks.

I'm getting my hands on a X305-Q708 tomorrow. I should be posting some scores over on my review site in about a week. Stay tuned!

 

After reading a few things about Vista 64 I decided to perform an "out of box recovery "and choose to install the 64 bit version instead of 32. All I have to say is wow, I feel pretty dumb for handicapping my laptop with the 32 bit version just so I could run a couple software programs that are not compatible with 64.

Here is an update of my specs with Vista 64

NVIDIA System Information report created on: 11/13/2008 18:22:05
System name: -PC

[Display]
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz (2267 MHz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista x64 (Service Pack 1)
DirectX version: 10.0
GPU processor: GeForce 9400M G
ForceWare version: 176.49
Total available graphics memory: 2175 MB
Dedicated video memory: 512 MB
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 1663 MB
Video BIOS version: 62.79.38.00.10
IRQ: 19
Bus: FPCI
GPU processor: GeForce 9800M GTS
ForceWare version: 176.49
Memory: 2176 MB
Video BIOS version: 62.94.50.00.17
IRQ: 0
Bus: PCI Express x8
GPU processor: GeForce 9800M GTS
ForceWare version: 176.49
Memory: 2176 MB
Video BIOS version: 62.94.50.00.16
IRQ: 0
Bus: PCI Express x8

[Components]

nvCplUIR.dll 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvCpl.cpl 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel Applet
nvExpBar.dll 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvCplUI.exe 1.5.780.00 NVIDIA Control Panel
nvViTvSR.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Video and TV Server
nvViTvS.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Video and TV Server
nvDispSR.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Display Server
NVMCTRAY.DLL 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Media Center Library
nvDispS.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Display Server
NVCPL.DLL 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA Compatible Windows Vista Display driver, Version 176.49
nvGameSR.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA 3D Settings Server
nvGameS.dll 7.15.11.7649 NVIDIA 3D Settings Server

 

I was suddenly just wondering...

Will you be able to run the 98s in sli and use the 94 as a physx card? I heard there would be drivers coming that would do this [for desktop], I don't know if they are here yet.

 

Nope...At least I don't know how or if it's even possible.

 

where can i find benchmark like 3dmark06 for the Q708 ?
how much do you guys think ?

 

The Q708 has just been reviewed by Notebookreview, you can find all the benchmarks here.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsId=4712

 

I've also posted my review today, ironic how they're both out on the same day.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=324292