x205 9800 Should I buy?

I'm thinking about buying the X205 9800, but would like to hear some user opinions before I spend my $1350. I plan on doing a lot of gaming on my laptop, but don't have $1800+ to spend. Help me out. Thanks.

 

i thoroughly enjoy my x205-s9800. i'm able to play COD 4 at 1440 x 900 at 45 to 60 fps, and crysis at around 30 fps at the same resolution. no overclocking of the video card either....but then again, i did upgrade to 4gb ram and vista ultimate x64

 

Too bad you don't have $1800+ because I enjoy my x205-SLi4 a lot. They are coming down in price and you can get one for like $2100 and they have nearly double the graphics rendering power of the single 8700 (especially when overclocked)

-J.B.

 

I think it's a decent machine for the price. Just got one myself. Many nice features and should play most games fine. Yes, I drooled over the SLI4 and others, but I really can't justify spending that much. If it lasts me a couple of years, I'll be happy.

 

Here are just a few comments from actual owners I found at NewEgg.com:

"Other Thoughts: If you have the extra money for this, buy it. You will love this, especially if you're a gamer. My friend plays COD 4, CSS, and he just bought Crysis, WHICH DOES RUN ON THIS. this is an amazing laptop and definitely worth the money."
---
"Pros: Large HD, Great Graphics Card, Large Screen. This is not the best gaming computer but for the price it is the best. Runs all of my games just fine including BIOSHOCK and I have had no problems with the computer."
---
"plays crysis on medium settings fairly smoothly"
---

So if it runs Bioshock fine, Crysis at medium settings, COD4, CSS, etc. then maybe not a top end gaming rig, but for casual gaming I think it will do fine.

 

Does anyone know if the graphics memory on this is DDR2 or DDR3? Thanks...

 

It's DDR3 on the graphics card.

I've been playing around with my S9800 for just a couple of days and it's a very nice machine. To my surprise, Vista performance is very snappy (this is my first Vista machine, I have XP on my others). The audio on this thing is by far the best I've ever heard from a laptop. Excellent presence and clarity - the first laptop I've ever not needed headphones to listen to music.

Beautiful screen, clear, sharp and very, very bright. I had to turn the brightness down several notches. This is a good thing. Also has a nice quality feel. Solid construction. Good design. Not sure I like having all my USB ports crammed on the sides, but I can live with it.

Easy setup and everything has gone very smoothly (knock on wood!). Looking forward to having some more time to play this weekend.

 

Bron5 - Thanks for your detailed reply. I'm glad to hear that its DDR3 and that must be part of the reason everyone is so happy with their -9800. LCD quality is important to me too and it sounds like yours is very good. Regarding Vista, I have installed SP1 and I use a boot defrag script which I found here on NBR, and I'm pretty happy with Vista at this point. I found, by accident, that my current favorite game, SWAT 4, plays noticeably better in Vista versus XP. Plus, as you stated, the sound on my old Dell 1520 was an order of magnitude better in Vista than in XP. A couple of the NewEgger's commented on the scratch-ability of the lid - has this been an issue for you? And, sorry, one more question - what are your WEI scores for video? Thanks...

 

You're welcome. The LCD quality is very, very good to my eyes. Yes, much to my surprise, Vista is running fine. I'm glad, because I'd rather not go through the hassle of loading up XP. I'll have to check out SWAT 4. I love Rainbow 6 games, I assume it's a similar style game.

Here are my straight out of the box WEI scores:

Processor - 4.8 (1.83 Ghz)
Memory (RAM) - 4.5 (2 GB)
Graphics - 5.9 (8700M GT)
Gaming Grphcs - 5.5
Hard Disk - 5.3 (5400 RPM)

The processor is definitely the weak link here. I was surprised the disk score was high. I don't really know that much about WEI spores yet (being a die hard XP guy here to date), but I think anything over 5 is good, correct? Anyway, to give you a better idea, I downloaded the Crysis demo and without any driver updates or anything, and just a wee bit of tinkering with the settings, I can play at native 1440x900, medium settings except HIGH textures, LOW Shadows, HIGH shaders, LOW water. No particular reason for these settings, just what I tried to see if I could improve over the straight medium settings Crysis determined as "optimal". Game seems to play fine at these settings, but I've only played a few times, maybe an hour.

For some reason, I had horrible frame rates at the very beginning. But after I went in and set things up a time or two, suddenly everything started to perform much better. It might be because I turned off the AA which I had at 4x (or 8?) to start with. Not sure what happened, but very happy as the game seems to play fine, no noticeable lag (yet anyway) and looks pretty good.

What is clear to me is that with a bit of experimentation this game will play very well on this rig. I'm sure over time, by sharing on sites like this, we'll find the truly optimal settings for Crysis. As it is, I could play fine and be happy with things just as they are. But, of course, I'll still try to tweak it further. My problem is I'm not savvy enough to know the effects of the various settings, so it's just trial and error. (From the little I know, I felt like bumping up textures and shaders might be a good place to start, and I reduced shadows and water because they're not that important in the jungle setting for this level.)

Anyway, to be able to run Crysis at all, makes me a happy camper, and to run it this well comes as a welcome surprise. I didn't notice any comments at NewEgg about scratching, just went and looked. Are you sure? Anyway, looking at it, I guess you could scratch it. It looks like sort of a resin coating - very nice, but I suppose it could scratch. Guess one should be careful. But that's the price you pay for a gorgeous finish, I guess.

That said, I'm not sure it's any worse than any other similar lid. (Btw, I just got an HP Pavillion 9700t as well and that came with a small scratch right at the front lid edge, not very noticeable, but there. So, I guess all these snazzy new lids will have that worry. The HP also has a very nice screen, btw. But an 8600M GS, so bit weaker on the graphics end.) [I may need to borrow your sig line soon about getting a second job to pay for all this.]

You can see my review of the A205-S9800 on NewEgg, too, by the way. Just posted.

Bron

 

The review by Chaz here is one of the best I've found. This is of an earlier model (S9349) but most holds true for the S9800 as well.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3856

He mentions possible scratching of the lid. Oh, and note the comment about viewing angles. I, too, did find this in the S9800, the vertical angels are very narrow, so you have to angle the screen just so for best viewing. However, I find this to be true on all LCD screens, notebooks, TV's, whatever. Horizontal is much better.

Anyway, a very nice product for the price asked.

 

Is there any xp drivers for the card that dont give you the BSOD?

 

Well i've been using the 174.70 for a week now without a BSOD... I installed XP after having several BSOD with vista (don't know why, maybe i move the wrong setting in some place trying to "tweak" vista)... The point is, it's running flawessly since the change and like a said, not a single BSOD till now (knock on wood )

 

I am running 174.31 on my sli1 that my son is using now since I got my XPX M1730 and he has not gotten any bsod's at all.

 

Just ordered the x205-9800 from CC. Got it for $1070 +tax after the $50 rebate. You can't beat that price!

The 9810 ($1449) is replacing it and the main differences are the 320gb hd and the 2.0 ghz cpu. It's not worth the $379 I'm saving.

 

graz - I just checked Circuit City and I see that this system is from the CC Outlet - these aren't refurbs or anything like that are they?? TIA...

 

Man, you got a great deal! I got one just last month from NewEgg for $1249 and thought that was a deal. $1070 is a steal! I don't think there's many other choices that can touch it at that price.

Congrats!

P.S. JellyGeo - I checked - these are new units at CC. I'm tempted to buy another one. LOL!

 

P.P.S. I've got the Crysis Demo running smooth as silk with very decent frame rates. I'm going to post in the forum later as to the tweaks I found that work best after I get the full game and experiment some more.

Other games I've tried so far e.g. Pariah (All settings maxed, turn off post-FX [bug in their code], Battlestations Midway, X3: The Reunion, etc. all run great. Very pleased so far.

Screen is way too bright as it comes, I went into the Nvidia controls and turned the brightness way, way down.

 

JellyGeo,

The laptop should be new, but I'll know tomorrow when it arrives. I ordered it Monday night and paid $4.99 for shipping because I wanted it before the weekend, but CC is offering free shipping and 3 months no interest/payments. I'd get a CC credit card and use it to pay the difference. When they're gone, they're gone and you can't beat that price for a 17" Toshiba laptop with a 8700 GT (DirectX 10) vid card and Harmon Kardon speakers. It's a gaming laptop man! I bet it's gone by the end of next week.

I was looking at a somewhat similar Alienware laptop that I was planning on buying in May. The main differences between the Toshiba and Alienware are listed below.

Toshiba / Alienware
1.83 CPU / 1.66 CPU

250GB HD / 120GB HD

2GB RAM / 1GB RAM (Alienware wants an extra $150 for 2GB RAM...lol) Newegg 4GB Corsair $75 free shipping and is in the mail.

$1137 / $1562 this includes shipping, 6% tax, and the $50 CC rebate for the Toshiba.

The Alienware M9750 is a SWEET looking laptop, but it's $425 extra with fewer options. I put that money towards the 4GB Ram, 17" Rosewill laptop cooler, and a SwissGear backpack (holds a 17" laptop and costs around $40 at Sam's).

Bron5,

I couldn't believe I got a laptop like that for a price like that! I was just messing around and looking at the CC laptops. I clicked the button that said see sales price in cart cause they weren't showing the price on the website and I just about ..... when I saw the price. I couldn't believe the price after I looked at the specs.

Because of the good reviews I've read on the Toshiba and that price difference, I decided to get the Toshiba instead of the Alienware.

 

I was going to get one too, but the T5xxx series CPU bothers me...that's like 3 generations back no? For about 1250 I can get a Sager2092 with a Penryn T8100.
Am I wrong? Does the older CPU not matter so much when paired up with the 8700GT?

 

let me put it this way...i'm able to run crysis on medium for most settings at 1440 x 900 resolution at 30 fps, COD4 at an average of 75-90 fps (i play it on low because i dont want it to possibly stutter while im playing multiplayer on a 48 player server) and when im not playing games, im watching movies, browsing, running messengers, and editing a video (sometimes) at the same time without a problem.

 

graz1, you're more than welcome, man, I am so happy for you! I've scored a few deals in my time, too, and it's always *sweet* and makes up for some of life's other foibles. LOL.

Enjoy, buddy! This laptop is a "sleeper" and an awesome gaming machine for the money. Vista performance is very snappy, too, a nice plus. (Really surprised me given all the comments about Vista I see.)

Have fun!

Bron

 

Yes, the CPU is the weakest component in the mix, but it's still a very good CPU and only by contrast with the new "hot" chips does it seem less than stellar.

But if it's gaming you are interested in, the GPU has the most impact (for most games) on gaming performance and here the S9800 hits the sweet spot for a laptop in this price range. Most would have an 8600 GS or 8400M or something similar (if you're lucky). The 8700M GT kicks butt. (At 1440x900 anyway, not so much as you increase the res - but 1440x900 is the native res for the S9800 so that's what you care about.)

Anyway, the performance seems great to me, very snappy for web browsing and watching DVD's, loading apps, etc. and great for games. More CPU is always nice, but at these prices, I'm happy.

 

My experience as well. My Crysis frame rates vary dramatically with location from low 20's to 30's in general, but occasionally in the 45-50 range in some areas (which has me baffled a bit, actually, but I'm not complaining). And I still have more tweaking to do!

Yes, I can bring her to her knees by turning up settings to the max (5-7 FPS) but it still runs! That's amazing in itself. I can run with textures and shaders at High (looks great!) and it's still playable for the most part. But straight medium runs great, very smooth and responsive. And, actually, medium looks pretty damn good!

All "normal" games I've tried so far I can max out with no problem. Not bad for a grand or slightly more. Most comparable rigs were 2 grand or better not long ago, and most now are $400-500 more. (Exception the Gateway, but I'm gun-shy on gateway [no offense to anyone who's not].)

My only problem so far is finding enough time to play!

 

Just got this laptop last Friday. It looks great and I can play WoW without any lag. I got my Ventrilo hooked up and used the HDMI cable to hook it up the our 52" TV. WoW is all I can say.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the Circuit City website today to see if the 9800 was still available. The price has jumped up to $1399 after the $50 rebate. I'm glad I jumped at the $1070 price last Monday!

It's hard to believe you can get a laptop like this for the price I paid. The Harmon Kardon speakers are good for a laptop. I've got my gaming laptop for when I have to go out of town for work. I'm using this laptop in the backyard surfing the web and playing my games. Life is good.

 

Ha ha, graz1, indeed, you did good! Life is good!

The speakers are pretty awesome for a laptop. The best I've ever heard. Extremely crisp and present. Enjoy, my friend!

 

Would there be any advantage to go with the x205-9810 NVIDIA SLI Dual GeForce 8600M GT over the one with the NVIDIA GeForce 8700 gt?

 

The X205-9810 is not the 1 with the dual 8600m's the 9810 is with a different cpu and bigger hd. I ordered 1 thursday from Newegg and fingers crossed that I will receive it monday.

Was looking to buy the Asus M serie laptop but it comes with the 9500m and that gpu is not faster then the 8700GT with the ddr3 memory so decided finaly to get the Toshiba.

I have a Asus G1 now for about a year and a 1/2 and I love to be able to play games where ever I go.

Any of you overclocking the 8700 yet and if so what are your settings ??

 

Not doing any over-clocking yet, have seen no need so far (other than for fun, of course). I have the 9800 and think the 8700 GT w/DDR3 is a great GPU, a bit over-looked and underrated, in my opinion, as it was not very widely used and the 256-bit cards which soon followed found favor, especially at higher resolutions. But at the 1440x900 native res of the 9800/10, it seems very well matched to me. I'm still using the stock machine with Vista and have not even upgraded any video drivers yet (I prefer to stay with the base unit until I know it better before making any changes, just my way, I guess).

Have fun with your new 9810!

Bron

 

Does this look wierd to you guys?
It is taken straight from the Sears.com website from the description of the x205-s9810 satilite. Did they make any with SLI video? Because according to this page this one has it.

 

These are the specs from the Toshiba site for the X205-9810
X205-S9810 : Detailed Product Specs
Operating System

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (32-bit)
Processor

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5750
Processor Type

Core™2 Duo
Processor Number

T5750
Processor Speed

2.0GHz
Front Side Bus

667MHz
Memory Size

3072MB
Memory Speed

PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM
Intel® Turbo Memory

No Turbo Memory Installed (Default)
Display Size

17.0" widescreen
Display Type

WXGA+ with TruBrite® Technology
Display Resolution

1440x900, Supports 720p content
Graphics Engine

NVIDIA® GeForce® 8700M GT
Graphics Memory

767MB total: 512MB DDR3 discrete memory + up to 255MB shared memory w/NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology
Hard Drive Size

160GB
Hard Drive Speed

5400rpm
Secondary Hard Drive Size

160GB 2nd HDD
Secondary Hard Drive Speed

5400rpm
Optical Drives

DVD-SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) with Labelflash™ drive supporting up to 11 formats
Wireless LAN

Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965 AGN (802.11a/g/n)

So i don't understand the specs on the Sears.com site.
Sucks that it says online only..otherwise you could check it out in 1 of there stores.

 

Well i am thinking about buying it just to see what it is. I do have a 30 day return policy...
Would the sli 8600gt's really be that much better than the 8700gt?
I have read conflicting reports.

 

In games where it will use the SLI it will be faster but i am not sure which games it uses it and in which games it don't. For you overall usage of the norebook it wont make much difference.

But i am not 100% sure about that.

Been reading conflicting reviews about it aswell

 

Again, Everybody says SLI works only for games who support it (like if there were just a few)...

Well This is a list of games i have played and that showed at least a 50% increase in performance VS sli disabled...

Crysis, Bioshock, UT3, TimeShift, Need For Speed ProStreet, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, Colin Mcrae: Dirt... Fifa is running maxed with one 8600 so no diff there...

Assassin's Creed is the only game in which i dont see a increase in performance with SLI enabled (no decrease either), but since it runs 25+ FPS maxed out at 1400x900, i'm ok... I guess that with future drivers (adding Sli support for AC) i'll see a performance bump...

 

My guess is that it is an error.

 

I received mine (9810) Tuesday...great laptop...
Looks very nice..plays very smoothly...
upgraded the graphics divers to 175.16 which after testing them on some games run very stable..
very pleased...
Hope you let us know Jmart if you were getting the 1 from seart what specs it has

 

What games use SLi? Practically everything that I have thrown at this machine has utilised SLi. Of course, some can throw the 'How do you know SLi is really working argument?' my way, but I don't even have to rely on the SLi bar on the left-hand side of my screen. It's a fact that most of the games I play demonstrate a very significant boost in performance when SLi is enabled. Of course, Gears of War is one nasty and annoying exception. Jose Perez, we need to talk about your GoW settings.

 

Well i've been playing GOW at 1400x900 all maxed (except AA and DX10, using XP here) at over 45 FPS average... 1 thing i did notice is that sometimes is like GOW didn't recognize the SLI and run at around 25~30 FPS... All i do when that happends is restart the game... That always works

In the Nvidia control panel, under 3D settings (select Gears of War from the game list) i choose as SLI MODE the split frame rendering 2 (actually i use that setting with all games...) that gives me the best performance...

 

Hey guys, I need some help. My friend (from Concord, CA) is buying me x205-9810 today, but he has some problems with finding it. Can anyone help me with finding a store where he can buy this lap..? I mean a regular store, not an online one. And it has to be in Concord, CA

 

Hi I'm from Europe and
I have an Toshiba X205-S9800 (from april 08 brought from USA, AAFES network) and after one month (in may 08) the laptop stoped to work (something with the mainboard). I send it to a service and they took one mont to fix it.
Now I'm not having no trust in this laptop and I'm thinking than will be a moment when he will broke again.
Also I'm not satisfy about the Window Vista that you'l get once with the laptop. Is crashing all moust all the time.