Dual-core Athlon 64 X2 Laptop Reviewed

Steve from Hexus writes "Dual core finds its way inside a laptop (albeit a not-so-portable DTR) in the form of Rockdirect's Xtreme64. The DTR features an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, two 7200rpm hard drives and a GeForce Go 6800 Ultra GPU. HEXUS.net has a review of the laptop, one of the most powerful we've seen hit the market to date." From the article: "Rather than change a formula that works, Rockdirect has opted to stick with the Clevo D900-based chassis that its other performance-based laptops use. The obvious downsides are bulkiness and weight, with the laptop sitting almost 5cm high and weighing in at 5.7kg. It's a desktop replacement in the truest sense of the words, and with an 8kg travel weight (including charger and supplied carrying case) and relatively poor battery life, it's about as portable as a concrete slab."

Comments

Tax advantage

[MichaelSmith]

At my workplace we can salary sacrifice laptops but not desktops. This means you pay for the system out of your pre-tax income, which can make a good laptop cheaper than an equivalent desktop system.

Its a silly rort, but it leads to people buying systems like this one because its portable.

Re:Tax advantage

[undeadly]

Its a silly rort, but it leads to people buying systems like this one because its portable.

It's also most likely sounds like a vacum cleaner due to fans needed to cool components in that constrained space.

Just Wait

[soda160289]

Just wait until they start throwing server parts in there. Have you ever wanted to host a giant Oracle database ON THE GO?

Re:Just Wait

[(startx)]

I thought that's what this laptop was for!

It has a parallel port

[Saven Marek]

Has anyone even seen any parallel port peripherals in the last 10 years?

And then it skimps on firewire by only giving unpowered slow firewire 400

Re:It has a parallel port

[Halfbaked Plan]

You're just mad because there's no place to plug in your ADB mouse.

Re:It has a parallel port

[zardo]

The fact that you're 20 years old doesn't mean 20 years in the industry.

You can't expect anybody to take you seriously. Parallel was the high-speed interface of the past, before USB came along.

If you'd been in the industry 20 years, you aught to know what a great deal HP printers are. I bought an HP laserjet 4P at the thrift store for $10 a few months back, they have the drum inside the toner cartridge, so a new toner cartridge is essentially a brand new printer, and I can buy them for $25, among the cheapest in the industry. I expect this printer will go on working for another 10 or 20 years, producing fine quality black and white laser prints. Parallel is the only way to connect to it. CUPS setup is a breeze. Sometimes the old hardware is still the best, like the 3com 10/100 network cards, I buy them by the dozen on ebay.

These specs are indeed impressive...

[Phariom]

...but with a battery life like that of a goldfish, why bother? Seriously save yourself hundreds of dollars and just build a comparable desktop system.

This isn't exactly the kind of system I would want to lug with me into a coffee shop either--it might break the damn table!

The only practical application of such a portable system (give the cost) that I can think of would be somewhere in the applied sciences "out in the field." However, these specs barely conform to those that many such scientists would require.

I'll admit this, though: I would love to take this bad boy to a LAN party! Perhaps that's the target market they've been looking for.

Re:These specs are indeed impressive...

[sessamoid]

What's the battery life of a goldfish?

Probably about as long as an African swallow can carry a coconut.

Re:These specs are indeed impressive...

[dodobh]

These are "desktop replacements" and sold as "gaming laptops". They aren't meant for your traditional laptop use, but for those people who need lots of computing power, and have less space, this is nice. Think of this as a powerful version of a Mac mini, including monitor and keyboard.

Some of us have access to electric power while travelling[1], but porting along a desktop is much harder.

[1] AC power supply in a train. This might not make sense to most Americans who drive or fly.

Re:These specs are indeed impressive...

[rapidweather]

Goldfish are indeed tough.
  I had a goldfish pond, and the cats used to fish them out, but usually walk away. Hours later, I would put the fish back in the pond, and after a while, it would recover. Big rain storms would wash some of them out, same result and cure.
Winter brought ice to the pond, I just took a rock and broke the ice every morning, so they could get oxygen from the surface of the water. The cold water did not harm them at all.
Kind of like a good car battery that starts the car at 5 degrees below zero.
They ate insects that jumped into the pond during the summer, I did not have to feed them except during winter.
Put some Water Hyacinths in there, and the goldfish lay their eggs on the roots, and eventually, you have little goldfish swimming around. Those that survived (again, references to battery life), replaced the older fish that died. Goldfish, in their own way, are way tougher than almost any battery. If you decide to raise them, be sure to give them a really big pond, and make it at least 5 feet deep. If you make a concrete pond, let it cure a good long while before adding the fish. Use a half-round concrete drain pipe 12 inch round or so for the bottom, with sloping sides, so you can syphon out the waste material from the resulting trough with a garden hose. Locate the pond out in the open, so they get full sunlight all day long, if possible. You may plant some shrubs on the south and west side if the sun is too strong in the afternoon. Don't put the pond on the north side of a house or fence. If you do all that, you will have some of the goldfish outlive any laptop computer. You don't have to buy goldfish, just wait till a neighborhood kid gets some for free somewhere, and offer to give it a good home. By the way, Goldfish come with their own fishtank screensaver!

Dual core...

[nurhussein]

So you can cook both of your balls at once.

Re:Dual core...

[nurhussein]

The stories about balls cooking are highly exaggerated. Only make sure you watch out when you slam down the lid! ;-)

I don't see how it's a problem unless you rest your family jewels on the touchpad.

Re:Who buys these?

[TallMatthew]

I don't understand the market for these sort of laptops. At almost 6kg, this is approaching the portability level of my desktop PC, especially since with its battery life of one hour you're still effectively tethered to power supplies anyway. And for this 'privilege' you pay far, far more than you would for an equivalent desktop system. So, where's the market?

One assumes it's easier to lug this laptop around than a desktop and a monitor and its specs make it desktop comparable, thus the moniker DTR. Using the same machine at home as you do at work makes life easier, as does taking said machine on the road. If they seldom are used without their umbellical power cords, battery life is a nonissue. This isn't a "work on a plane" laptop, clearly.

As for why it has to be this beefy, well simply because it can. The majority of machines today are overkill for what people use them for. Video editing requires certain specs, but for most people the limits of a machine never come into question. If you've decided your laptop won't be used that often away from a desk, and you make a purchasing decision based on the most bang for your buck, and if this is being paid for by your employer, then why not get the most powerful one? That's what they're banking on.

TONS of people do [long]

[DarkTempes]

Let me think. Acer I do believe sells a comparable laptop using the same chasis. They don't appear to be hurting buisness wise.

Alienware sells a comparable laptop using the same chasis + a custom lid. They definitely arn't hurting buisness wise.

I in fact bought one such laptop, mostly because I had the spare money and could, but also because I travel between two cities alot (my hometown and where I go to college).

I don't like unplugging all my desktop stuff (and I prefer leaving my desktops always on) and having to lug it back it forth. I'm also a geek and a gamer. I want to be able to play battlefield 2 perfectly wherever I am before bed.

I also have a couple of friends who have bought such laptops because that's what they wanted: they wanted a more slim/portable machine that was also as powerful as most desktops.

I don't use such a laptop for long battery life. Nor does anyone else I know. But the battery is still useful! Ever try moving your desktop from your living room to your bedroom then back 5 times fast? Or using your desktop from the sofa while watching TV? Yeah.

Also, my laptop in that chasis isn't that heavy and i'm quite a small person, so that's really no big deal. Sure I wouldn't want to carry it around all day, but it's NOT that kind of laptop.

Lastly, the bottom ventilation I find to be pretty important. Putting these laptops on a flat hard surface (read: no cloth!) greatly reduces heat and strain on the fans. There is a very small air path underneath it that is amazingly important. I also find I CAN put it on a cloth surface without serious heat problems if i put a cold/heat (you know, one of those gel packs, it need not be cold though) right underneath the graphics card area.

Having room for two hard drives with a SATA/raid controller, two optical drives, and four SODIMM (read: RAM) slots in my beast is just a nice plus too.

Oh yeah (sorry for the rambling, it's early). There ARE some serious downsides to this specific chasis that seems so popular. First it's plain ugly and the component layout is near retarded (most ports on mine plug in...upside down!). It just screams cheap high production taiwanese product. Most importantly, and something I find many laptops lack, is a good power connecter. There have been multiple reported problems both on the motherboard and adapter plug itself from most vendors who use this chasis (so it appears they mostly use the same power adapter too). Also the fans working with most of the heat are right by the power connection. Well this baby will put out some pretty hot air. Hot enough that it probably does some serious damage to your sperm count. Combine that with plastic cable and wire and possible laptop movement moving the wire around more to get a situation asking for the cable to die a slow and painful death.

With better thought and design put into the product, I could see such laptops being used alot more frequently. As it is I doubt many owners of one will buy another anytime soon and not just because of the large price tag. If you pay alot of money for a product, you expect everything to be near perfect (read: like a mac) and I have yet to see a laptop using this chasis be just that.

Re:Just last week....

[owlstead]

Fortunately, most newer software uses USB for dongles. Much better. Fewer compatibility issues, you can easily use multiple dongles at the same time. Just buy a cheap USB hub if you run out of ports. Note that you can rather easily buy USB to parallel/serial thingies. So most of the time there should not be any problems even if the parallel port is left out. All that said, I've got no personal experience with these kind of things (thank god), so if anyone has I'll be glad to know.

Re:Does it matter?

[hattig]

Yeah, the system has two cores in it, but the term dual-core really means a single chip with two processor cores on it, connected via something (the cache, the on-chip arbiter or whatever) and then attaching to the rest of the system via a single interface.

AMD's processors are dual-core as they connect via an on-chip arbiter, the SRQ. They then connect to the rest of the system via a HyperTransport link. AMD's next core revision, the F-Step, will have 4 core connections from the SRQ, allowing for future quad-core processors.

Intel's current 'dual-core' processors aren't really dual-core as they connect to the FSB independently. Indeed Intel's latest Presler processors have separate dies on the processor packaging. In practice however it doesn't really matter that much, so they get away with calling it 'dual-core' when it is technically SMP on a chip. Yonah will be Intel's first true dual-core processor because the cores are connected at the L2 cache level, which they share.

So now people defined the number of cores a processor has by the number of cores per socket in the system. In your system you have one core per socket, so the processors are single core, the system is dual-processor. In the reviewed laptop there are two cores in one socket, for the system is single-processor, but the processor is dual-core. Quite simple really.

so light!

[cout]

I dunno what y'all are talkin' about sayin' 5kg-8kg ain't portable.  That's like half the weight of my ol' Kaypro II.  Mus' be some weakling Yankee thing.

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The South shall rise again!

Rockdirect

[vorok]

Anyone else think the company's name is just a little too fitting?

I prefeer a Tadpole Bullfrog Dual Processor

[pupeno]

Tadpole Bullfrog Dual Processor http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mobil e/bullfrog-dual/:

- Dual 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC® IIIi processors
- Up to 16GB DRAM
- Large 17.1" SXGA TFT LCD Display
- Full Length, 66 MHz, 64 -bit PCI Expansion Slot
- Dual 2.5" High Performance Disk Drives
- Integrated DVD/CD-RW Drive

I'd change the operating system for a GPL one though.

Re:You are a fool.

[Tony Hoyle]

Why? This is common, and saves a lot of money on larger purchases. The company does not benefit - it's an employee perk.

In the past I've saved thousands this way.

Re:You are a fool.

[Tim C]

No, *you* are a fool - or at least ignorant of the scheme the OP is talking about.

The laptop is his, bought through a scheme which means that he effectively gets it cheaper than retail by the rate he pays income tax at. Thus if he pays income tax at 25%, he gets a £2000 laptop for £1500.

The idea is that the company benefits because having a PC at home helps to increase the PC-literateness of its employees, and the government benefits because having a (more) PC-literate population potentially gives the economy a boost as more people move into (currently) higher-paid "knowledge economy" jobs. The guy's benefit is obvious - he gets a cheaper laptop.

Re:No, YOU are a fool.

[Karma Farmer]

You know, the older I get, the more I'm coming to the conclusion that, if given the opportunity, the vast, overwhelming majority of humans will gladly, of their own free will, chose slavery over freedom.

You must still be very young. Because the older I get, the more I'm coming to the conclusion that the vast overwhelming majority of humans have already gladly, of their own free will, chosen slavery over freedom. This includes you, and it certainly includes me.

Re:You are a fool.

[fiendy]

The city where I live has offered this perquisite to its employees (my uncle being one of them). Granted its not a provincial or federal government, but I don't believe that doing so is illegal in any way. For reference, I am Canadian.