Digital Trends
Toshiba has added two more SLi-capable notebooks to its Satellite X205 line in the form of the X205-SLi5 and X205-SLi6. Toshiba is positioning the notebooks as the perfect companions for serious gamers, offering 17-inch screens, plenty of RAM and hard drive storage, HDMI and S/PDIF output, and (of course) dual Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics. The new notebooks follow up on Toshiba’s first X205 SLI notebook offerings introduced last September.
Toshiba has added Intel’s Penryn-class Core 2 Duo T8100 processors to it’s Satellite X205 and U305 offerings, giving both gamers and the light-and-portable crowds reasons to celebrate. The Satellite U305-S2816 caters to customers looking for a thin notebook with peak performance, while the substantial X205-SLi2 and X205-SLi4 cater to serious gamers.
Starting at $1,349.99, the U305-S2816 offers a 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo T8100 processor with 23 MB of L2 cache, 2 GB of RAM (expandable to 4 GB), a 250 MB hard disk drive, a DVD±RW dual-layer DVD burner, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, and a 13.3-inch LCD display. Weighing in at 4.6 pounds, the U305-S2816 also features 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, an embedded Webcam and microphone, and an integrated fingerprint reader.
Graphics developer Nvidia is known for producing high performance—and high-priced—computer video systems, but hardcore action gamers have taken a shine to the company’s SLI technology, which enables gamers to apply the processing torque of two high-end graphics cards to their display, providing high resolution, high frame-rate action on their favorite titles. Ever mindful of extreme gamers’ needs, Nvidia has decided to up the ante, extending its SLI technology to enable gamers to tap up to three GeForce graphics cards.
Toshiba has announced revisions to its Satellite X205 family of 17-inch notebook computers aimed primarily at gamers and folks who want premium digital entertainment in a conceivably-portable package. The Satellite X205-SLI1 nd X205-SLI3 both feature Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics controllers with a combined 512 MB of dedicated video memory and full DirectX 10 compatibility.
"Last year, Toshiba launched their gaming notebook lineup with NVIDIA GPUs, evolving the notebook gaming experience with a unique blend of sheer performance, practical versatility, and elegant style," said Nvidia SLI technology manager Rene Haas, in a statement. "Toshiba’s addition of NVIDIA SLI technology to their gaming notebooks further demonstrates their commitment to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience to gamers on the go."
If the Falcon Northwest FragBook TLX wasn’t enough to get your juices flowing, PC MicroWorks would like you to consider their new Vega Super Notebook. PC MicroWorks claims to offer the fastest consumer systems in the world, and the Vega looks to be their big for the ultimate desktop replacement system, sporting an AMD Dual Core Turion TL-60 X2 processor, up to 600 GB of storage, support for 4 GB of memory, and a massive 20.1-inch LCD display with dual SLI Nvidia 7950GTX X-treme GPUs with a up to a gig of video RAM. And did we mention the optional Blu-ray burner?
Nvidia today unveiled a new SLI media and communications processor (MCP) targeted towards creating the ultimate gaming platform for the latest and upcoming x86 PC platforms. The new Nvidia nForce 590 SLI MCP should be available from a variety of system builders and motherboard manufacturers shortly.
The Nvidia nForce 590 SLI MCP, said its developer, can utilize the power of up to one, two, or even four NVIDIA GeForce GPUs for high-definition gaming. Features of this SLI MCP include a complete over-clocking solution, optimized networking technology that gives higher priority to network game traffic, a core-logic solution to take advantage of the new Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) memory specification, support for up to 6 SATA 3GB/sec hard drives and support for dual RAID 5 configurations.
Nvidia said yesterday they were bringing Quad SLI technology to PC system builders to create the fastest class of commercially available gaming computers. Examples of these new souped up gaming PCs are the Raptor Signature Edition from Velocity Micro and the Aurora ALX from Alienware.
Nvidia’s Quad SLI technology, said the graphics company, features four graphics processing units (GPUs) from the of the newly announced Nvidia GeForce 7900 Series with a Nvidia nForce 4 SLI motherboard. The graphics generated by this Quad SLI technology will reportedly allow gamers to set their monitors to HD resolutions, including 2560×1600, while still maintaining smooth frame rates. Support is also available for a new 32x antialiasing mode, and 16x anisotropic filtering reportedly enables better visuals and image quality.
Alienware has announced the availability of its Area-51 7500 desktop system featuring dual-core processing and Nvidia SLI graphics for high systems and graphics performance. The heart of the Area-51 7500 offers the dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition 840 at 3.2 GHz with 2 MB of Level-2 cache and an 800 MHz frontside bus, although models are also available with Pentium 830s, and Pentium 4 processors at speeds from 3.4 to 3.8 GHz. The display system is driven by Nvidia SLI technology utilizing two graphics controllers working together to form a single display image, roughly doubling graphics performance compared to non-SLI systems.
Quote from the review at The TechReport (why do they send so much infor for us to post!):
“CORE LOGIC CHIPSETS. I’ve spent the last six days knee deep in ‘em, those unappreciated chips that glue everything together inside of a system. Back in my Amiga days, the core logic chips were stars, a constellation of sexy custom chips that provided what was then considered amazing audio and fluid, colorful graphics. But that was long ago. Nowadays, core logic chips aren’t considered very exciting, except by what they enable the more exciting chips, like CPUs and GPUs, to do. Fortunately, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition’s would-be role as an enabler is quite the proposition: this chipset will allow a Pentium 4 processor to team up with a pair of GeForce 6 GPUs in SLI mode and pump out tasty eye candy by the bucketload.
Their system, which included a special liquid nitrogen cooling system, utilized XFX’s NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT SLI card. As a result, they were able to increase the power supply to the memory modules and achieve a core clock of 575 MHz with a memory speed of 1300 MHz to produce a screaming 3DMark Score of 12,483.
This was no easy victory. The two XFX GeForce 6800 GTs with NVIDIA SLI technology were pitted against imposing opposition — including SLI enabled GeForce 6800 Ultras and, against all odds and mind-boggling improbability, they were able to surpass the competition by leaps and bounds.
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