Toshiba X305-Q725: Quad-Core Gaming Notebook
by Jarred Walton on March 11, 2009 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Power Requirements
Power requirements when a laptop is plugged in don't necessarily reflect power requirements when a laptop is on battery power. In particular, high-end GPUs run at lower maximum clock speeds when using the battery power. Keep this in mind when looking at the following numbers. We test under idle conditions, with a 100% load placed on the CPU via Folding@Home SMP, and finally at maximum load by running FAH SMP at the same time as we loop 3DMark06 (at the native LCD resolution).
Power requirements are actually pretty reasonable, considering the components in the X305-Q725. The Alienware m15x we tested last year consumes more power when its 8800M GTX is active, so the 45nm quad-core CPU at 2.0GHz uses substantially less power than the dual-core 2.8GHz X9000 in the m15x. The Gateway P-171XL also has higher power requirements (it has an X7900 CPU), and naturally the Clevo D901C is in a league of its own.
Noise Levels
We also ran noise testing using an SPL meter at 24" under the same conditions as our power tests.
Despite the high-end components, the X305 remains relatively quiet during operation. The large chassis has plenty of room for air circulation, and noise levels are competitive with most other notebooks. The Alienware m15x with its smaller chassis is noticeably louder, for example. Temperatures are also quite reasonable for the X305, with the bottom of the laptop measuring 25-28C under load, except for the very back edge that reached 33C in places. Exhaust temperatures at load are much warmer at up to 45C, however, so you definitely don't want to block the back of the system. While many would assume that such a large, powerful notebook would be hot enough to fry eggs, the reality is that it often runs cooler than midrange options simply because of the size of the heatsinks and fans.
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Dfere - Thursday, March 12, 2009 - link
A business power user needs some mobility. I use a laptop as my main business computer. It would be nice to have something to play games at an ok rate. But given the bugs, let alone the power issues, I wouldn't. I need some mobility and I need my data and system operational to make revenue.A plain gamer/laptop lover wouldn't because it isn't a top performer, and thats why they buy.
JimmiG - Thursday, March 12, 2009 - link
I used to travel a lot between point A and point B and wanted a good gaming system at both places. I was considering a gaming laptop for a while but ended up building myself a Shuttle SFF system instead. Fit perfectly in the backpack together with my other belongings, cost about 1/4th of a gaming laptop and offered 95% of the performance of a full tower system. I just used a cheap 19" CRT monitor at one place and the LCD at the other. Amazing how small and light that system was.Of course if you travel a lot between many different location, this kind of laptop might make sense. Just hook it up when you arrive at the hotel room, cabin etc., and you've got a full gaming setup. Of course, if you don't care about games, you'd be better served by a netbook or 13" laptop...
Enoc - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - link
with the AMD/Ati 4850 and 4870 for mobile... why these companies still use the renamed 9400/9500/9600/9800gt/gtx...? and what it worse some people think the GTX 280M is the same as the deskstop counterpart but is really a 9800GTX...
AMD has a good oportunity if more OEM embrace the 4850/4870 for the enthusiast notebook segment like MSI has done and if they introduce low power(HE) quads and triple cores for this segment that would be a nice move...
with $1500+- you could build something better with a compal/saeger barebone...
JarredWalton - Thursday, March 12, 2009 - link
Sager doesn't make barebones, I don't think; they use Clevo offerings. But yes, you can put together a better custom system I think. Pricing might not be much better, though.Memph - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - link
I'v had similar expiriences with my qosmio. The problems in the old drivers. have to uninstall them (twice) from the safe mode. and then install the newest nvidia drivers. Mine used to lock up randomly. Now everything works perfectly.jabber - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - link
I've had several laptops over the years. Best fix I've found for stability is to blitz the manufacturers build asap and slap on a fresh build with the latest OS. Go to the manufacturers site for drivers that you cant find elsewhere as they will generally be two or three versions on from the ones the laptop came with.There will also be a new BIOS update usually.
Has always got rid of the quirks for me.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - link
FWIW, the instability issue always cropped up with a graphics application - game - running. (Well, there was the SysInfo issue with 3D/PCMark Vantage, but that's clearly a driver problem that they addressed.) I did run Folding@Home SMP on the laptop non-stop for several days with no crashes caused there. I did not test the GPU folding client, though, which would have been interesting to check now that I think about it.Personally, I do not run Folding@Home on laptops (anymore); it just places a huge load on the system and is almost asking your laptop to die a premature death. For that matter, I've stopped running it on most of my desktops as well - power costs for all the running computers were too much, so it's much cheaper to just leave them off when they're not in use.
Wolfpup - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - link
Be funny to people? My notebook is my main system...I mean why not?Anyway, I'm so glad Anandtech is continuing to cover power laptops!
I hate how gaudy this is, but I'd certainly consider it if not for the lack of Blu Ray and LED backlight. I actually prefer the single high end GPU route...
Plus obviously the instability is disturbing. Must be a hardware defect somewhere, or else a bad driver. I've been Folding non stop on the CPU and GPU of my (much lower end) Asus n80 with a Penryn/Geforce 9650GT and it hasn't crashed once.
piroroadkill - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - link
17" is too large for a notebook in my opinion, even a gaming one. 15.4" widescreen @ 1680x1050 would be perfect. Also how did they manage to make this thing so goddamn thick?!Blahman - Friday, March 13, 2009 - link
Check this one out, matches your requirements exactly: http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?c...">http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?c...