SLI & Centrino 2: Gaming Laptops Battle

SLI & Centrino 2: Gaming Laptops Battle

Roundups of any sort are always tricky. Matching apples to apples is rarely possible, and the brand loyalists are always quick to defend their build of choice. So we made this roundup easy. We reached out to some of the most prolific names in gaming notebooks and asked them to send us their best and brightest example of a gaming machine. Price be damned, we wanted to see some stunning performance numbers.


Four vendors—Alienware, ASUS, Eurocom, and Killer Notebooks—responded to our call. The other big names you might expect to see in a cage match like this all came up with reasons to pass. Dell preferred to have Alienware represent its best efforts (R.I.P. XPS?). VoodooPC’s Envy is armed with Intel’s GMA X3100 integrated graphics core and is not suitable for gaming in any capacity. Falcon Northwest wanted to wait for new graphics adapters, and though they became available toward the tail end of our testing, the show had to go on. And OCZ’s Hypersonic brand didn’t have anything available at retail. Nevertheless, we still managed to round up a motley crew of performance-oriented systems at a number of different price points.

The first, Alienware’s m17x, got out of the gate before anyone else with Nvidia’s new GeForce 9800M GT graphics adapters—in SLI, thanks to a bridge chip mated to Intel’s PM965 chipset. It also boasts 1 TB of storage, a Core 2 Extreme CPU, and perhaps the classiest chassis design we’ve ever seen. Last month we took a look at Alienware’s smaller m15x. While that notebook was a solid piece of kit, the Area-51 m17x is decidedly more tenacious in its approach to mobile performance.

Next up, ASUS’ G71 represents the first Centrino 2 laptop design to land in our labs. Its hardware manifesto is significantly more mainstream than the configuration that Alienware sent in. However, there’s something to be said for a fully modern notebook with the latest power-saving technology. We expect the G71 to serve up a better balance between price, performance, and battery life.

Eurocom’s exotically-named Montebello is the third offering in our line of potent portables. Smaller than the other three contenders with a 15.4” LCD, it effectively hides Intel’s fastest dual-core mobile processor, the latest Centrino 2 platform, and an Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT graphics card inside a fairly pedestrian shell. This one’s probably the biggest surprise in the bunch.



Finally, Killer Notebooks submitted its own weapon of mass destruction, the Odachi. Laden with a 3 GHz desktop processor, two of the fastest mobile GeForces in SLI, three 7,200 RPM hard drives striped together, and 4 GB of DDR2 memory, it’s the gun in this knife fight. But you do give up some aesthetic appeal in favor of all that muscle.

Read on as we introduce the hardware in each notebook, get hands-on with look and feel, and benchmark each machine in our standard suite of tests.

Hardware Comparison

Model	Alienware m17x	ASUS G71	Eurocom Montebello	Killer Notebooks Odachi
CPU	Core 2 Extreme X9000	Core 2 Duo T9400	Core 2 Extreme X9100	Core 2 Quad Q9650
Memory	4 GB DDR2-800	4 GB DDR3-1333	2 GB DDR3-1333	4GB DDR2-800
Chipset	PM965	PM45	PM45	P965
Graphics	2 x GeForce 9800M GT	GeForce 9700M GT	GeForce 9800M GT	2 x GeForce 8800M GTX
LCD	17” (1920x1200)	17” (1920x1200)	15” (1680x1050)	17” (1920x1200)
Chassis	Alienware	ASUS	Clevo	Clevo
Storage	2 x Samsung 500GB SpinPoint H6	2 x WD 250GB Scorpio Blue	1 x Hitachi 320GB Travelstar 7K320	3 x WD 160GB Scorpio Black
Networking	GbE + 4965AGN	GbE + WiFi Link 5100	GbE + WiFi Link 5300	GbE + 4965AGN
Battery	6,600 mAh	5,200 mAh	4,400 mAh	6,600 mAh
Camera	2 MP	2MP	2MP	2MP
Optical	2x DL BR, DVD+/-R/RW Combo	DVD+/-R/RW Combo	DVD+/-R/RW Combo	DVD+/-R/RW Combo
Warranty	Up to 3-year 24/7 phone w/on-site service (extra $300)	2-year hardware/1-year battery/30-day zero bright dot + free two-way overnight shipping	Up to 3-year return to depot with tech support ($245 extra)	1-year global warranty/30-day dead pixel guarantee

Benchmarks and Settings

3D-Games Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
Crysis	Version: 1.2.1 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 Overall Quality: High Demo: CPU-Benchmark2 + Tom’s Hardware Tool
Unreal Tournament 3	Version: 1.2 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1200 Sound and DirectX10; Window off Video Quality: Texture Details: 1, Level Details: 1, Demo: WAR-OnyxCoast-FPS Time: 12/60
World in Conflict	Version: 1.0.0.9 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 Video Quality: low details Demo: Game-Benchmark
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance	Version: 1.5.3599 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 Video Quality: game default Demo: WallaceTX_006_006 Benchmark: Fraps 2.9.4 - Build 7037 Start time 00:48:20 (60 seconds) realtime play

Audio Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
iTunes	Version: 7.7.0.43, Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 min, Default format AAC

Video Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
TMPEG 4.5	Version: 4.5.1.254 Video: Terminator 2 SE DVD (720x576, 16:9) 5 Minutes Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, 6-Channel, English Advanced Acoustic Engine MP3 Encoder (160 kbps, 44.1 KHz)
DivX 6.8.3	Version: 6.8.3 - Main Menu - default - Codec Menu - Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading Enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search - Video Menu - Quantization: MPEG-2
XviD 1.1.3	Version: 1.1.3 - Other Options / Encoder Menu - Display encoding status = off
Mainconcept Reference 1.5.1 Reference H.264 Plugin Pro 1.5.1	Version: 1.5.1 MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264) MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2) Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16 Bit, 224 kbps) Codec: H.264 Mode: PAL (25 FPS) Profile: Tom’s Hardware Settings for Qct-Core

Application Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8	Version: 8.0.134 Virus base: 270.4.5/1533 Benchmark Scan: some compressed ZIP and RAR archives
Winrar 3.80	Version 3.70 BETA 8 WinZIP Commandline Version 2.3 Compression = Best Dictionary = 4096 KB Benchmark: THG-Workload
WinZIP 11	Version 11.2 Compression = Best Benchmark: THG-Workload
Maxon Cinema 4D Release 10	Version: 10.008 Rendering from a scene (Water drop at a Rose) Resolution: 1280x1024 – 8-Bit (50 frames)
Adobe Photoshop CS 3	Version: 10.0x20070321 Filtering of a 69 MB TIF-Photo Benchmark: Tomshardware-Benchmark V1.0.0.4 Programmed by Tomshardware using Delphi 2007 Filters: Crosshatch Glass Sumi-e Accented Edges Angled Strokes Sprayed Strokes

Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
3DMark Vantage	Version: 1.02 Options: Performance Graphics Test 1 Graphics Test 2 CPU Test 1 CPU Test 2
PCMark Vantage	Version: 1.00 PCMark Benchmark Memory Benchmark Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra XII SP2	Version 2008.5.14.24 CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark