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The FragBook
Petaris writes "For all of you hard core gamers out there a new choice is availiable for gaming notebooks. Introducing the Falcon Northwest FragBook. This notebook will be in direct competition with gaming notebooks from several competetors including Alienware and VooDoo. Falcon-nw, VooDoo, and more recently Alienware are the place to look for insanely high end and usually fairly expensive gaming systems. The gaming notebook, a more recent arrival in the industry, promises more recent processors than are commonly available for notebooks. Just make sure you stock up on batteries or settle in next to an outlet. :)"
Gaming a while ago on my Inspiron 8200 which has well better specs than my normal destop and it came nowhere near the performance on my desktop. The sceen refresh seemed to be struggling badly to keep up with the game. Crappy sound takes a lot away from enjoyment of the game as well.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I just built a system using some of the high end hardware on their System Configuration Page. The cost? Over $8700 using a 19" CRT instead of their ~$1500 21" LCD.
Of course, if I wanted to park something that costs as much as a compact car on my desk I'd let Billy Joel do it.
Data redundency of course.
If you're traveling 500 miles each way for a weekend long fragfest that you've already spent hundreds of dollars to attend you don't want to miss the whole thing because a drive crapped out.
KFG
I couldn't find a Linux installation report about a FragBook yet. But since the FragBook TL is based on Intel's Centrino technology here is some generic information about Linux on Centrino laptops. The FragBook DR comes with a 17" display. Here is some generic information about Linux on laptops with 17" display.
No, you don't use it for striping in a gaming system. It's purely a hardware failsafe. Level 1 mirroring. Pure redundency.
You only need to spin the drive when you write to it, which in a gaming system is a very occasional occurance. We're not talking "Enterprise" order processing database here. We're talking writing back to the config file after a gaming session is over and the ability to switch to that drive if the primary drive fails while actually gaming.
So it's a drain on the battery, but nowhere near twice the drain.
And I certainly never said that using a laptop for a LAN party makes a lot of sense anyway.
KFG
"Call me silly, when I go FPS, for audio I go headphones. Laptops amazingly enough are much closer to you then your 21inch screen. I'm a full yard back from my 20inch and am perfectly comfortable. Most people i've observed choose a monitor placement that is roughly the same as a piece of paper letter sized at arms lengh."
Not at all silly. As a 'Professional Gamer' (as in, I compete in leauges and attend large lan competitions), I can safely say any gamer worth anything has headphones. Most popular are the plantronics Audio.90's which are nice, decent quality, and insanely cheap($30). A lot of people say theirs broke easy, but at $30, its worth the risk. Then theres more expensive stuff like the pc150's and other high end phones. Pretty much anything listed here is good for gaming.
That site(thegamercompany.com) is filled with great hardware for gaming.
My oppinion is a nice high end desktop for gaming, maybe a lower end shuttle for lanning (which can double as your desktop, depending on pricerange), and a fujitsu lifebook for actually working. The only gaming I'd want on a laptop would be simple things like 16bit console emulation, anything more just wouldn't work. Laptop lcds are small and can ghost/have dead pixels. Laptop keyboards are flimsy plastic (as is the Logitech Elite keyboard which has became standard, but of course I won't abandon my model-m). And of course you'll need an external mouse and power source for any real use.
If you really wanted to make a FragBook (LanBook?) I'd say build a laptop without a keyboard and just a real nice screen thats durable, easy access to plug in keyboard/mouse/cat5/power, and just market it for the lanners.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
almost all LCD's look poor when you have to scale. That being said, most modern video cards (NVidia does it, I can only guess ATI does too) should run in that resolution if your output device supports it. I have a laptop that runs at 1400x1050 and it looks really nice. I play games on it in that res too. It looks very very clean and has a good sharp picture.
-]Phreak Out[-
A 17" PowerBook for unixy needs (i.e. Mac OS X and Linux). That 1.5ghz is roughly equivalent to a P4 running at 2.5 ghz
In many applications it really is, but unfortunately, gaming is not one of them. In games, 1 GHz of a G4 is actually quite like 1 GHz of a P4 (there's no noticeable difference to the player, that is). No, I made no scientific research on this topic, but I played a lot on Macs and PCs since many years. There's also circumstantial evidence to my claim - system requirements of Mac game ports usually state the same CPU clock as their Windows equivalents. Being as much a Mac addict as I am, I wouldn't recommend powerbook as a "fragbook", even if the recent models should be quite capable with the 128 VRAM Radeon 9700 Mobility cards. But even if you put the lack of some titles aside (what if the LAN party you are invited to plays "Counterstrike"?), the 1.5 GHz CPU is exactly what it is, a 1.5 GHz CPU.
I am a Mac user. I am even a Mac gamer. I am even a Mac LAN gamer (as a geek parent, I play strategy games with my kids on iBooks/iMacs connected via Airport). I agree that Macs have interesting advantages in this case, like the incredible ease of the wireless LAN creation. But I wouldn't qualify any of the current Apple machines as a "fragbook" - and they certainly don't need that kind of publicity.
I didn't spec out a laptop as it's difficult to compare that to another company's offering but I did spec out a desktop model. Came to $3175.00 (before shipping/tax) Specced it out with almost exact system at newegg.com and it came out to $2195.17 with shipping included (couldn't find exact psu or hsf) Ahhh but wait! You ask.. where does my extra $1000 go? If you read the fine print on FNW's website it says this: You get FOR FREE: Falcon T-Shirt, Custom Mousing Surface and a 3.5" Floppy drive That $333 T-Shirt better be 100% cotton!!@)&@%#
you could go here and save about 7000 bucks ;)
Puget Systems
Just cause it says 9700 pro doesn't mean that it is... the mobile cards go a good bit slower than the equivalently rated desktop parts...
;) ) constraints, they're not gonna be as cool as the upper end desktops... but then again, that has always and will always remain true. On the plus side, they're easy to carry and the wifi is nice.
techbargains.com + dell OR powernotebooks.com will save you a good bit over your voodoos and alienwares...
also busses/ram/hard drives tend to be slower in laptops as well, just a few things to remember. Laptops have come a long way, and now they'll even play the newest games at good res without freezing, but due to heat and size (and therefore monetary
It seems this laptop is just rebranded Clevo. Compare with clevo pictures. Nothing new here. Clevo is a Taiwan manufacturer and have a lot of rebranded resellers in US and Europe.
Almost all of these "gaming laptops" are Sagers with a slick paint job and a huge markup. The Fragbook DR is actually a Sager NP8790 which you can get at places like Discount Laptops and Power Notebooks with the same specs and much, much cheaper.
Get yourself a Sager Notebook from PC Torque and save yourself a couple thousand dollars.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
Now, granted, this is a box that was meant to be more portable than powerful, with limited upgradability, but I sent it back. Since then, I've purchased parts for a fairly decent Athlon 64 system which should wipe the floor with the Fragbox for a few hundred more. It's one of those "If you want it right, build it yourself" things.
"The computer you want always costs $5000"
. as p
That's Machrone's Law, named for a PC Magazine editor.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1545647,00
http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/hardware/ups/btups/
For LAN gaming, nothing beats a Shuttle + LCD combo. While slightly less portable than a laptop, you can actually upgrade them - unlike laptops - and they're far less costly. My current shuttle setup - SN45G w/ 3200+ athlon XP, Radeon 9700 pro, and the other essentials - would cost about $1200 including my Viewsonic VP171B 17" LCD (which is perfect for gaming, btw). It's far more portable than a regular desktop, and costs half as much as any of these new gaming laptops. Plus i can throw in a new CPU or video card (or even a new motherboard with some work) and get a noticable speed increase. With these laptops you need to buy a new one to upgrade, or send it in to the company and have them upgrade it for you.
"Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
You can get a gaming laptop that's of equal or better quality at JS Custom PCs for less money. You get a 3-year warranty in some cases. You get the no-dead-pixel guarantee. JS Custom PCs was actually ranking higher on Google searches for custom gaming laptops until Alienware bought a higher rank.
Why would you pay $500 more for a laptop to get a little green guy or a threatening-looking face sticker? You can get a damn good laptop from the place I mentioned and stick your own threatening-looking sticker on it for $2. *shakes head in disbelief*
Look here for the already-configured laptops. You can click on the "customize" link and trick it out even more.
It's a shame to see a great company like this go unnoticed. I love my JS systems and recommend them to everyone.