X305. Omg!

tsaijo, any chance of trying some games with it and letting us know how it is?

Also, you have the 9700m gts model, right? How is the noise and heat under working/playing conditions?

 

In a way yes, more than likely the graphics cards are soldered to the motherboard making it almost impossible to just swap the graphics cards, but since the case design for the high and low end x305 is exactly the same you should be able to just swap out all the internal components. People with the old x205 sli and non sli laptops where able to swap the internal guts.

 

thats an amazing laptop, i have two questions how does the touchpad feel and what comes in the box? Thanks in advance!

 

Interesting, but my guess is by the time you need something faster than the 9700GTS, the new ones might not be compatible with it.

 

Its a lot quieter than my DV9500T was. I only launched WoW on it recently and I was getting smoother FPS with it than compared to my 8600M GS, but you know thats expected. I'll run 3dMark06 and post the results on it later.
Touchpad is a bit rough, but I personally hardly ever use the Touchpad so not that concerning to me. Do wonder why they don't have a button to disable the touchpad, thats a negative imo. Notebook also runs cooler than my DV9500t did. The Realtek Sound is a lot better than the Realtek one on the HP one i had.

Box comes with the Battery (believe its a 6 cell), 180W AC adaptor (thing is HUGE), Notebook, polish cloth, and documentation. No Recovery CD. On boot you get to select either 32bit vista or 64 bit vista. I booted, created the recovery disks (2 recovery, 1 windows recovery, 1 driver recovery DVD) and did the ABR to install a fresh copy of Vista on it. Toshiba's website's quite useless tbh for this notebook, Bestbuy's not much better.

 

Do you know how much the notebook + the cables + AC adaptor weigh?

 

I decided to take a look at bestbuy and check the x305 out. I was pretty suprised how good it looked in person. It looks kind of like toy, but it still looks pretty decent. The first thing I did notice though was the horrible screen. It was sitting right next to a asus and you could easily tell the difference between the two screens. The laptop was completely quiet also.

 

Explain whats so horrible about the screen

 

Im guessing he means the LCD panel quality is a TN panel.
btw, just ran 3dmark06, got 7334 points. Some strange reason it said it wasn't default settings, so i can't post the exact link.

 

Like I said in my previous post, 3 main things that deterred me from the notebook.

- Screen quality, it was blurry, a lot of light bleeding on the edges, and the colors just didn't look very vibrant. Very disappointed about the screen.

- The touchpad is a joke, it has no speed scroll, it was tiny for a large body.

- The bottom pan is quite thick, it will cause wrist problem unless you have a low desk.

I took another look at the notebook, spent about 30mins playing with it. The keyboard wasn't bad, a little smudgy but very good keys.

Just noticed one of the vents on the bottom is a subwoofer, pretty neat. The sound card is decent and the speakers were pretty good but I am surprised the speakers are not loud at all even when cranked to the max.

I think for me to purchase this laptop, the price has to be less than $1399, about $1199 would be the going rate, since the new Gateway gaming notebook will be out in middle of August and judging from the current out-going model, it will be a very good notebook for $1400.

 

The light bleed is terrible, it almost adds a blur effect to the screen, while the asus screen was crystal clear.

 

yeah, the screen, glossy keyboard, bumpy touchscreen with no toggle button really turned me off this laptop. still, to each his own.

 

It wasn't default settings as 3dmark06 defaults are at 1280 x 1024, which doesn't work for this laptop due to its 1440 x 900 resolution. Did you get that result on 1280 x 800 or 1280 x 854?

I'm curious as you scored a fair bit lower than the other user with the same model.

 

- BlueMak

Hey bluemak the site emailed me back and said it was mistake they changed their listings it now says DDR3

 

Thank you, good to know.

I am torn between getting this one or a 100-150 euro more expensive clevo model with a different graphics card (9800M GT).

I only plan on using it for games already out since I will focus my future gaming of hardware intensive games on a Xbox 360, but....

I still think the X305 looks great and at its price, at least in europe, has the best price/performance ratio with all the extra goodies.

I still have a couple of weeks before ordering one, but tough choices lol.

I would love to know how the X305/300 with the 9700M GTS handles modern 3D games. (no, not Crysis)

 

That can't be the issue as Im using the free trial of 3DMark06 and you can't change any settings on it.

 

Can I coax someone to run 3dmark06 with an external monitor please for the 1280x1024 score?

(it defaults to 1280x1024, but if you have a 1440x900 screen, you will do lesser resolutions.)


FYI, while I don't know about the new series' builds, I do know x205s had completely modular builds with GPUs which were completely separate from the motherboard.

 

What can't be the issue?

 

I finally saw the X305 today. I do not like the keyboard at all. The gloss makes it feel sticky. The screen looked good. The back panel didn't like stupid at all. I think I might be going with a Sager NP9262 though.

 

I went to Best Buy today. They didn't have an X305 on display, but I asked about it and they put one on display for me to look at.

The screen was actually pretty nice for a single lamp screen -- among the best screens at Best Buy. Light bleed was minimal -- just a little at the bottom and only visible on a black screen. The screen was fairly evenly lit, though not perfectly. Whites were nice and white. Vertical angles could have been a little better, but were no worse than most. It was an LG Phillips screen -- Hardware ID in Device Manager was MONITOR\LPLA101

I would have preferred WSXGA+ resolution. Print looked a little jagged because of the resolution.

The touchpad was an ALPS, and had the usual scrolling problems. I didn't like the rough bumpy feel of the touchpad. Too bad it didn't have a nice smooth Synaptics touchpad.

The hard drive was made by Toshiba. It seemed reasonably quiet, but then Best Buy is a noisy store so I might not have heard clicking or ticking sounds.

I thought the keyboard was reasonably good, and I liked the feel of the keys. But what a fingerprint magnet this laptop is! I'd be wiping the keys off all the time because fingerprints are really obvious on those shiny keys.

The webcam had really bad colors -- nothing like what they're supposed to look like. There are some options to tweak colors for indoor or outdoor light, but you can't improve one color without making another look worse. Royal blue showed up as a bright teal, but a medium green showed up blue-grayish and washed out.

I noticed the word "Qosmio" at the bottom of the screen was starting to peel off on the right side. I pushed it back on, but about half an hour later I noticed it was starting to peel up again. The bottom of the screen gets a bit warm, though not hot. I was surprised to see something like that happening on a computer that had only been out of the box less than an hour.

I didn't buy it. The word Qosmio peeling off the monitor seemed like a bad omen, and though the screen was nice, I think I'd rather have a higher resolution.

 

Was it the protective nylon or whatever it is, of the word qosmio or the actual plastic?

 

I dunno, my Qosmio on the monitor isn't a sticker, its like etched into the LCD.
3dmark06 bench results:


I'll prob run it again just to see if there's any difference. I'll also do a Crysis Tech Bench when I get the chance.

 

Looking good. That looks to be inline with the second test done. I'm wondering how the first user posted results with the X305 that scored 8200+.

 

Clean install and updated drivers maybe?

 

well, all i got in my install is clean Vista home premium and the drivers that came with the notebook, thats it.

 

It was a piece of plastic with sticky stuff on the back. The plastic was the shape of the word Qosmio and Qosmio was printed on the front of it in silver. The red plastic under the display had a sort of indentation in the shape of the word Qosmio that the Qosmio piece fit into. It's thicker than a normal label. The right side of it would start to curl up. Until I saw it doing that I didn't realize it was only stuck on. Otherwise it would look like it was carved into the red plastic under the display. Too bad I didn't have a camera.

 

Well, of the two tests I've seen one scored in the 7300s, azanai's. E-wrecked is way higher. 1000 points or so and 4-5 FPS in the games.

Even with drivers, that's a pretty amazing increase.

 

My x205 sli1 with forceware 175.19 scores 7555 (no overclock) on the trial version of 3dmark6. By now it should be about the same price as the x305 if you got it for about $1300.

 

I think what is more important is actualy game performance and not so much 3dmark points.

 

You can't really base the entire 3dmark score on how well your system can play games, because the cpu is 1/3 the score, but you can rely and compare the shader testing scores.

Dtwn, I'm starting to wonder if E-wrecked did any overclocking, the cpu scores match up almost perfectly, but the Sm scores are off. My scores went up around 400 points when I updated to the 177.39 drivers from 175.45 and a lot of people have noticed that also. If azianai could tell us what drivers he has installed that would help.

 

Yep. I noticed the same. CPU scores are in tune with azianai, but his SM 2.0 and 3.0 are much higher, inline with the 8800M GTS scores I've seen.

 

So, any owners of it have any numbers and/or experience to share with us about specific games, resolutions and performance?

 

can anyone help to find a nice backpack or a messenger bag for this laptop??? that will certainly fit and have extra space for some copybooks an stuff.

 

Well if 3dmark6 gives you a benchmark score that you can use as a reference point to compare frames per second in a game to other systems, and the significance of your computer being able to calculate those crucial frames per second which is paramount to a smooth and realistic experience in game, that score is very important toward telling you how smooth a game will play, as compared to other systems. So I know my sli1 which scored 7555 in the benchmark will put out graphics performance similar or even smoother and less choppy than the x305. Unless a better driver boosts the x305s benchmark performance.

 

I am sorry, my post was not directed to you personaly. It was a general comment about benchmarks.
So, with your 7555 score, what is the performance like in modern games at resolutions of at least 1024x768?

 

Ok these are the games I have. FEAR, Oblivion, The Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, Falcon 4, Ufo Afterlight, and BioShock. I can run all these games with graphical settings set to max at 1440x900 and they all run at a consistent 60 fps with v sync enabled and aa disabled. So I'm pretty sure the x305 can play modern games with full graphical settings at max easily at 1024x768.

 

Qosmio X305-Q701 17":
$1,399.99 + tax bought last nite, Sat. 08/02/08 @BestBuy
$1,549.99 this morning on the web

My son Loaded
+ Assasin's Creed
+ Upped Detail / Quality from 3/4 to High

What do you want tested that I can tell from in-game? He started in Vista-64 bit. I asked him to restart in Vista-32 bit.


Not Loaded yet:
- Call of Duty 4,
- FRAPS (?),
- 3DMark06, ...

The 21" hdmi monitor is not connected yet (1680 x 1050). No test results on auto-detect of resolutions. It may never get connected at this rate.


Qosmio F55-Q503 15.4"
+ 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 Processor, 9700M GTS
- Cancelled Amazon.com order this morning.

 

Do you mean when we first startup our new laptop, if we choose 64 bit, then find our software programs won't work and don't like it, can we undo 64 bit and go with 32 bit?

 

Thank you jacob.

Slackwater, FRAPS is a program that can do several things. One of the most important is that it can show in one corner of the screen, what is the current frame rate when you play a game. It can also be used to take screenshots and save them automaticaly in files, and record movies while you play the game. The last one is very demanding.

If you or him could play those two games and either load FRAPS first so that you can see the frame rate, or just share how you felt the gameplay, how smooth was the action without slowing down etc.
It would help a lot if you run those games at 1440x900 (the native resolution of the monitor) or any other resolution, so that we know how fast it really is.

Thank you for caring enough to post here.

Peter, I will call you tomorrow.

 

Ok here's some benches with the Crysis Benchmark Tool, Let me know if you guys want me to run it on any other settings. I can say the notebook runs smooth when I play WoW at 1440X900, but thats the main game i play so eh.

 

I've run Crysis benchmark (exact same settings) on my "stock" Gateway (CPU 1.67GHZ) and got average FPS: 22.495
Looks like 64(8800M GTS) vs 48(9700M GTS) shaders makes difference...at least in Crysis.

 

8-22 fps, that's unplayable in my opinion. The choppiness because of the computer struggling to paint the screen will kill any sense of reality and the experience will be unsatisfying. At least 30 fps and up would be acceptable.

 

Well depending on the resolution, i put it on the highest widescreen resolution i could see. But anyway, Crysis is the exception to the rule tbh, running crysis at like 30 FPS is considered high end.

Anyway, looking at GPU-Z, im using Forceware 175.90
Anyone have anything updated? Its the one from Toshiba.

 

I went to best buy just to check it out out today but was dissapointed in the way it felt don't get me wrong performance is pretty strong but it felt very fragile and the touchpad was to cheap looking and just felt weird, i also checked the angles on the screen and was dissapointed,1400x900 is ok,but I expected something more + the screen looked a little washed out .Maybe its because they had it locked under those stupid security bars.But does any body know why BB removed the higher end model off their website

 

Probably a sign that the 9800m gtx is gonna have a delay release.

 

Damn!
Even though it felt a little cheap how does this stackup against the gateway 6860 FX?
I also think there(BESTBUY) is coming out with a newer version called the 7811(Gateway) I think around 8/15/08?
Does anybody know if it's going to look like the old Gatway?
The Black with copper accents are a little bit of a turn off, but hey if this thing kick's ass who cares right.
Sorry to get off the subject,

 

Hi all, I ran across the forum looking for other benchmarks on the x305. I noticed that a couple of people did have comparable scores to what I posted originally, just a bit lower. As a heads up, I used the 175.90 driver from Toshiba, it seems to be the best out of 6-7 drivers tested. Just in case you were looking for original post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=277946&page=5#43

And fyi.. no OC'ing via drivers or hardware. I ran a clean install w/ 64bit Home Premium. Updated all/any drivers from Toshiba's site. Did not Flash the BIOS, as it wasn't released at the time. However I did tweak the Nvidia Control Panel settings, not clocks, in order to achieve a small gain on benchmark.

After a week of tinkering with the notebook, I returned it. I couldn't get past the fingerprints on my keyboard, palm rests, and case. Also, the new p7811-fx is being released shortly.. now on BB's site for sale, just not delivery. I'm trying to hold out for the q702, but not sure I can make it! The GTX would entice me to clean the keyboard or wear white cotton gloves, and get over the fingerprints! Well, I'll let you know what happens. I have a feeling the Gateway is in my future though.

 

is it worth buying this notebook?? does the touchpad and keybord realy turn most people off??
also I wanted to know is everything that bestbuy sells at there stores is also soled online??

 

I personally like the way everything feels, i don't use the touchpad much anyway, so maybe thats just me. But yeah i also wouldn't want to stomach the 15% restock fee lol. Maybe if the Q702 releases in the next week or so, i'll take that restock fee.

 

As far as I know there is nothing you can tweak in nvidia control panel to incease performance besides having installed ntune. Considering you are the only one who got a score that high and now you don't even have the laptop I don't think your scores are reliable at all.