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Portables Hardware Entertainment Games

The FragBook 165

Posted by michael from the lap-burning-goodness dept.
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. :)"
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The FragBook More

The FragBook

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  • Don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gilesx ( 525831 ) * on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:03AM (#9026644)
    If I want to play an FPS, I want my 21" monitor, my 6 channel surround sound with booming bass and a nice mouse to move around - I just don't think the experience could translate so well to an LCD screen, tinny laptop speaker, and a pressure pad to move about. And it'd probably cost a hell of a lot more too.

    I guess I'll just stick to using my laptop for pr0n when I'm away on business trips...

    • Re:Don't get it (Score:5, Funny)

      by Trent05 ( 70375 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:04AM (#9026648) Homepage
      Plus it won't burn your nuts after about 20 minutes!!

    • Re:Don't get it (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Squirrley ( 708130 )
      yea, nothing really beats a loaded out desktop for gaming. But for going to a lan party, those are really heavy, especially the giant monitors. If i only had enough money, it would be really schweet to have a special lan party laptop.
      • But if you had a that sort of money you could build a fairly light, compact desktop system that can be stuffed in a soft attache case for less money than a laptop.

        The only reason to use a laptop for gaming is because you need to run on carryable battery power (you can run a desktop from a car or marine battery), which doesn't describe many LAN party situations.

        KFG
    • That's crazy. a first post that is relevant to the article AND more than five words long!

      Quite frankly I agree. laptops are just not ideal for gaming, unless it's some slow moving turn based strategy thing or somesuch.

    • Re:Don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)

      by zakezuke ( 229119 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:15AM (#9026670)
      If I want to play an FPS, I want my 21" monitor, my 6 channel surround sound with booming bass and a nice mouse to move around - I just don't think the experience could translate so well to an LCD screen, tinny laptop speaker, and a pressure pad to move about. And it'd probably cost a hell of a lot more too.

      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.

      I have played quake many a time on a laptop... pentium II class, headphones and a tiny trackball control. While there was no contast between it an my desktop system, I could pick it up and take it with me.

      • Re:Don't get it (Score:5, Informative)

        by irc.goatse.cx troll ( 593289 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @07:10AM (#9026780) Journal

        "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 [chambergates.com] is good for gaming.

        That site(thegamercompany.com [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.
        • You should RTFA. Fragbooks "apparently" come with absolutely no dead pixels, guaranteed.

        • Re:Don't get it (Score:3, Informative)

          by zaffir ( 546764 )
          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 vid
        • 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.

          I just want to say thanks. I've been looking for decent cheap headphones. Every review I've seen has $100+ headphones, and I just won't pay that much.

    • bah. (Score:2)

      by dj245 ( 732906 )
      i I just don't think the experience could translate so well to an LCD screen, tinny laptop speaker, and a pressure pad to move about. Mod parent troll. Thats why we have 16" widescreens. Surround sound headphones. Usb wireless mice. Sure, it adds bulk. But there's a reason they are called "Portable Desktops"- the majority of people don't move them frequently. If mobility was high on their priority list, they would chose something smaller.

      Obviously you, with a big stack of desktop gear, don't value m

      • "Could you fit it in a duffel?"

        why yes. yes, I could.

        An LCD screen, keyboard and the right case will do just fine. IMHO laptops are best reserved for travel, where other passengers would complain about you carrying around a full PC and car battery.

        And it's sheer power to cash outlay ratio where laptops always fall down. In fact, a friend of mine constructed a fantastic "luggable" from off-the-shelf components fitted to a flight case because he thought laptops simply didn't justify their cost/benifit rati
    • If you are away from your custom home gaming rig and want to frag in your hotel room, in-laws, airplane, Starbucks, or what have you, you can at least get a laptop with decent enough hardware to get the job done.

      Nothing will replace or duplicate the gaming desktop PC experience, but if you must frag on the go, these high-end laptops work great (albeit with a USB mouse plugged in).
    • I think laptops are excellent for lan parties. At least one can play a lot of good games on an average laptop being sold now. No, you won't get the huge framerates, but at least you can play everywhere where your desktop isn't, and without having to tear down the desktop to do it.

      I don't know about your machine, but my base system (case + internals) weighs 50 pounds, and carrying that again with a 21" CRT, plus the keyboard, mouse and sound system is too much.

      I think the "Desknotes" are ludicrous anyway

    • Re:Don't get it (Score:3, Interesting)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      I'm happy cleaning house at the lan games with my 17" tibook. Granted, the external speakers and usb trackball are somewhat manditory, but that still fits well within my definition of "portable". Sadly, it's over 2 years old and the graphics chipset is showing its age when I play UT 2004, but I foresee an upgrade next year sometime to put my fps back in the high double digits where they belong.

      And the ironic part... the lan games are hosted at -my- house, and almost without exception, all the guests brin

  • My laptop is running Windows (Score:5, Funny)

    by jabbadabbadoo ( 599681 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:14AM (#9026669)
    My laptop's running Windows.

    I call it the DeFragBook.

    • Guess I'll be the first to make the obligatory "Read it as 'fagbook'." joke.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • Not to mention hundreds of dollars cheaper and about 10 pounds lighter.

            Seriously, folks, the Powerbook I just bought looked major expensive until I tried finding a PC laptop that was roughly the same size and weight with a pleasant look. The closest competetors were from voodoopc ($500 more expensive) and the Acer Ferrari (same price, but I've heard iffy reports on the quality).

            There's something nice about a machine that has a big enough screen for p-shop and gaming, runs (relatively) cool for 4 hours an
    • "My laptop's running Windows."

      congratulations.

      My laptop keeps running from Windows.

  • I tried (Score:5, Informative)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:17AM (#9026672)
    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.

    • Re:I tried (Score:5, Informative)

      by jollis ( 691129 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @07:16AM (#9026792)
      Disabling vertical sync can help, since it unclamps FPS from your monitor refresh.

      A few hints on the fps/refresh subject:
      • For Q3A/RtCW engine based games, there's a console variable called 'r_displayRefresh'. This allows you to have the game set its own display refresh. I personally use r_displayRefresh 120 @ 800x600x32. Make sure you don't exceed your monitor's specifications.
      • Disabling vertical sync can greatly improve game performance for those stuck with low refresh rates. For example, one can easily do steady 125+ FPS while the monitor runs as 60Hz.
      • Use a mouse with a decent sampling rate and/or check its settings. Choppy performance (during turns especially) can often be attributed to low mouse rates and not frame rates.
      • It was my believe you had to enable vsync to get a better expierence.
        High and sudden differences in fps (200, 90, 150, ...) can give a weird mouselag sensation. Enabling vsync would cap the fps for example on 80hz, which gives a nice steady expierience. (whell, this was true for UT1, don't know 'bout other games actually)
    • That's funny. I use my I8200 as my primary gaming rig. It's got a slightly slower processor than my desktop, slightly (very slightly) better graphics than my desktop and slower memory than my desktop. It still works a hell of a lot better for gaming. For sound, I use headphones. Not much point having everybody turn up their sound all the way at a LAN party. You just get a big jumble of sound.

  • Absolutely... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:17AM (#9026673) Homepage
    ...if you're staying in one place. If you're going to gatherings, LAN with friends or otherwise move the machine round alot (e.g. because you need to put it away to make room), all the cables and weight is a hassle.

    If I was about 15-18 somewhere again I might have gotten one of these (translation: I may have suckered my parents into buying me one). Would be perfect for the kind of computer use I had back then. Newer LCDs work very good at games, just add an USB mouse and some good headphones. It's a gaming system in a backpack.

    Kjella

  • except (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    those companies listed just sell rebranded generic crap at a premium, why keep paying the middlemen ? i thought that was the whole point of this interweb cut out the hangers-on

  • can anyone tell me why?

    • Re:raid in a notebook?!? (Score:2, Informative)

      by kfg ( 145172 )
      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
      • its a notebook tho...its supposed to be light and compact. What happens when your not connected to power and you have to use your notebook on battery? Thats twice the drain for a that singular amount of storage (unless they are running it in a striped array).

        • Re:raid in a notebook?!? (Score:5, Informative)

          by kfg ( 145172 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:53AM (#9026758)
          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
          • If you don't want to lug your tower, monitor, keyboard, and metric assload of cords, then it's perfect.

            Not all people go to a LAN party to show off their UBER-1337 gaming rigs. Some people go to have fun, and don't mind only getting 64 fps, instead of 184 fps.
            • My friends like to joke that at the rate I'm upgrading my "UBER-1337" system I should join the 21st century sometime around 2010. That would put me a full generation behind on the Clarke scale.

              I get a pretty solid 36 fps with all the graphical candy turned on, and I like it.

              It requires a metric purseload (much smaller than the SAE purseload) of cords, which I admit take about 15 seconds more to get up and running than your laptop. When using a laptop where it's going to be used in a desktop like situation

              • Your money is your own to do with as you please and I'm perfectly content with your using it to do nothing more than making your insides feel all warm and fuzzy.

                Phhbt. I'm a poor college student. And by poor, I mean I survived a semester on Burritos and PB&J sandwiches. I had a 266mhz machine until I was forced to upgrade for college (Min. System requirements).

                That being said, with a gaming laptop, even if you're taking a keyboard and mouse, can fit in a backpack, no problem. I can't even fit a mini

  • I've been needing a hyper-fast notebook (portability) so I can have a "black box" style satisfiability solver written in assembly on it. Add a program to convert different problems to 3-sat on it, and I'll be set to go.....

  • Build a system (Score:3, Informative)

    by Like2Byte ( 542992 ) <Like2Byte@yah3.14159oo.com minus pi> on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:22AM (#9026693) Homepage

    I just built a system using some of the high end hardware on their System Configuration Page. [falcon-nw.com] 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 [usatoday.com] do it.

    • Billy always has done the rock star thing a bit different. Become rich and famous. . . buy a 2CV.

      Yeah, ok, it's a tarted up "Charleston" 2CV, but it's still just a 2CV. Reminds me of a P.J. O'Rourke maxim:

      "Never buy a French car unless you are in France."

      Couple of years ago I was walking down the main drag in my town and one of the orginal versions of these drove by, in that black and burgundy that's really kinda classy (classy 2CV. Oxymoron?) I stopped walking to watch it go by and man sitting on a st

  • professional use (Score:5, Insightful)

    by scheveningen ( 305408 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:26AM (#9026705)
    The first time I saw a gaming labtop was during a meeting. Discussing CAD or visual simulation works fairly well on such machines!
    It is great to see all you gamers drive the market, so I can work better.
    • No kidding! I've been looking at these laptops for awhile now - not to game, but to do my work!

      I move around so often that it begins to be a real strain when I cannot have my entire work with me at all times. It's quite impressive to be able to make changes on a 3D model on demand from the client. That subsequently saves back and forth time, as the client inevitably says, "No, that's not what I was thinking.. it was more like this."

      So yes, I agree - Gamers, keep driving that market!

  • ARGHHOOOOOWWWW (Score:3, Funny)

    by moxruby ( 152805 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:30AM (#9026712)
    Hark!

    Hear the cry of a thousand geeks who gamed too long with a laptop on their lap. May their manhood rest in piece.
  • 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. I can dual-boot Mac OS X and Yellow-Dog Linux (which is kind of like RedHat/Mandrake, with excellent hardware support for my existing Powerbook 15" 667). That alongside with IBM's Thinkpad 3.0ghz, for only $1400 (yes, I prefer to use several machines simultaneously - or rather, while the other one is compiling, I'm a programmer). Now that's some SERIOUS horsepower for very cheap!

    • Actually, wrong thread for Mac advocacy (Score:5, Informative)

      by Trurl's Machine ( 651488 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @07:36AM (#9026819) Journal
      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.
      • 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.

        It's hard for me to believe that statement. Performance is a relation of execution time. Execution time = #Instructions * Instructions/Cycle * Clock Cycle.

        Your thinking is exactly what Intel has spent millions of dollars on advertising for. Apple and AMD has spent money trying to convince us that a lower IPC is what makes a computer

        • Except IPC varies greatly with type of instruction. With integer stuff, the G4 has at most a minimal advantage over the P4 (shorter pipeline to flush on prediction misses, but not a much higher dispatch rate). For floating point stuff, the G4 has a small but significant advantage -- certainly less than a factor of two; this is mostly because the P4 floating point architecture is painfully byzantine. For vector stuff, the G4 has a significant advantage, around a factor of two, assuming equal optimizations on
        • It's hard for me to believe that statement. Performance is a relation of execution time. Execution time = #Instructions * Instructions/Cycle * Clock Cycle.

          You are right, of course - maybe I just didn't make my point clear enough, sorry for that. I didn't mean that 1 GHz of one CPU can be compared to 1 GHz of another. What I said that in games there is no noticeable difference. Most likely, the reason is not the CPU architecture itself but the way the games are being ported to MacOS. In a (sad) majority o
      • We're a pro video shop using Final Cut Pro so we have a fair few G4 and G5 Macs around - the evenings tend to be taken up with stress busting LAN games.

        Usually Team Arena, sometimes standard Q3A. Sure, there are more modern games out there, but it's hard to beat Quake 3 for its gameplay and feel and it runs perfectly well on a modest G4 system all the way up to our DP 2gig G5. Hell, it even runs on my 600Mhz iBook in a pinch, although the graphics system is what lets it down there - only 8Mb VRAM).
  • Is it just me, or does the FragBook TL (Thin and Light) not really live up to its name...
    well, it might be thin, but weighing in at 6.5 pounds, it is definately not light.
  • The Fragbook DR seems quite similar to the Voodoo m:750. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the exact same Compal notebook, actually. And the Voodoo can be had for less money. I wonder whether Falcon are going to have any success with this one.
    • Yes, the TL model is the Compal CL56. This is available through dealers such as chemusa (www.chemusa.com) Its amazing because the dealer prices start around $1500 for that laptop nicely equipped.

      The other fragbook is a Clevo (www.clevo.com.tw) and the most well known reseller is Sager - www.sagernotebook.com. Again, much cheaper than this place.
  • "The computer you want always costs $5000".

    I can't remember who said it but it remains true. Fully tricked out this baby is a 5G+ machine.
    I specked it with RAID 0 (yes, on a laptop), DVDRW (With a RAID 0 your Documents must go elsware), TV Card, Bluetooth, 1 GB RAM, 3 year warranty and little else. Now if they could offer an unpainted version and pass on the savings from that...

    I care about how my PC runs, not how it looks.

    PS: I chose XP Home (-$70) because I know I don't need pro to play games. I have herd that XPHome functions better under gamming loads than Pro. Is this true?

  • Ugly resolutions (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mrshowtime ( 562809 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:50AM (#9026753)
    Whats with the 1400x900 screen res? How good is the lcd going to perform when it has to scale to another resolution? At least on the dell you have true HDTV resolution on a smaller screen. I love the custom paint jobs offerred, but how much? Their "american flag" job costs almost $250.

    • Re:Ugly resolutions (Score:4, Informative)

      by TrancePhreak ( 576593 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @07:12AM (#9026783)
      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.
    • Yeah, I was going to mention the same thing.

      My Dell C840 does 1600x1200 on its 15" screen... This thing is 17" and only 1440x900?! Sounds too much like a Mac.

      The real stinker for this machine is that you can't get a nVidia card. Sorry, but I've been burned too many times by ATI. I only use nVidia and just that feature alone could determine if I buy a particular machine. nVidia "just works" whether I'm running Windows, Linux, whatever, and it performs well.

      For that DR model (the one with the desktop

  • We are high. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 01, 2004 @06:52AM (#9026756)
    The benefactors of the boom economy and the tech era have lost touch with reality. A 3000 dollar game machine? Get some perspective! Where can your head be if you would actually buy something like this. I mean, sure, you are rich compared to the rest of the world, but, thats not the issue, its that you choose to spend your supposedly valuable time playing video games on a hyper expensive yet inferior machine.
    Looking on how the other 99% live maybe we should realize that our prosperity is an aberation, and use our money and time more wisely.
  • 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 [tuxmobil.org]. The FragBook DR comes with a 17" display. Here is some generic information about Linux on laptops with 17" display [tuxmobil.org].
  • Does anyone have any good recommendations for a good gaming laptop? I'm going off to college (Stanford) next year, and I want a laptop good enough to game. But I don't want one too heavy, and I do want to install Linux on it. Are these gaming laptops worth it for the extra price and weight, or would I be best just getting a top-end Dell or IBM laptop? They should be very good too, and I'd think the hardware would be more standard.
    • You are going to college and you want a gaming laptop? For what purpose? You can buy a desktop system that kills any laptop for $1500. You then have $2500+ left compared to a gaming laptop to spend on a "basic" laptop to type documents on.
    • Let me stand on a soap box for a bit.

      First gaming and laptop don't get well together. Now matter what they try to sell you.

      Secondly at college you'll most likely end up online 24/7 sucking the juice of p2p. Which is what many of my friends did (I just graduated). I haven't seen anyone's desktop die cause of being on too much but at least 5 laptops have died after being used 24/7 for a few months or so.

      Last but seriously not least are you sure you want something you will bring to the library that you can

  • What a rip... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Falkentyne ( 760418 )
    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 $33

  • Or... (Score:2, Informative)

    by no-arg constructor ( 775215 )
    you could go here and save about 7000 bucks ;) Puget Systems [pugetsystems.com]

  • Astroturfing today (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sgs-Cruz ( 526085 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @08:20AM (#9026924) Homepage Journal
    The last two articles...

    First "TheTechLounge" writes about an article on... thetechlounge.com! Not that I'm complaining about the content, it's a good article, but why couldn't you have just posted it on Slashdot directly?

    Then this article, does anyone else think that this was written by the guy that makes these laptops? I suppose it still has some interest to nerds (and people who care about what matters), but it doesn't seem right to allow free advertising like this...

  • Some things to remember... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Mindcry ( 596198 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @08:33AM (#9026955)
    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...

    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 ;) ) 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.
    • Just cause it says 9700 pro doesn't mean that it is

      I think the more important point is that there isn't an option. Compare to the Alienware notebook with modular video so you can choose between ATI or NVidia and then upgrade in the future.
  • the lcd is only WXGA... you can get laptops with much higher pixel density from many non-high end manufacturers now... first step up is usually only like 50$ more (1680x1050), than 100$ or so for another step up (1920x1200)...

    either way, i still can't believe they charge that much... maybe some people really love the paint job.
  • Centrino....I can't belive Intel get's away with marketing that crap. Anyway, No AMD = No thanks. The notebooks at ibuypower.com are much better. Anyway, why is slashdot such a advertisment pit as of late?!?!

  • It seems it is not an original manufacturer (Score:3, Informative)

    by S3D ( 745318 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @09:37AM (#9027164)
    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.

  • Hmm, where have I seen this before? (Score:3, Informative)

    by zsazsa ( 141679 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @10:05AM (#9027280) Homepage
    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 [discountlaptops.com] which you can get at places like Discount Laptops and Power Notebooks with the same specs and much, much cheaper.

  • Sager (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rinisari ( 521266 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @10:15AM (#9027318) Homepage Journal
    Get yourself a Sager Notebook [sagernotebook.com] from PC Torque [pctorque.com] and save yourself a couple thousand dollars.

  • Disappointed in Falcon-Northwest (Score:4, Informative)

    by SilentChris ( 452960 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @11:11AM (#9027532) Homepage
    I purchased one of their Fragboxes [falcon-nw.com] a few weeks ago, and was terribly dismayed by their service, construction and performance. My first Fragbox took over 10 days to arrive when the website originally said it'd take 2-3 to process the order (they since changed the website). When it did come, it came with a screw lying on the box floor (someone, when putting it together, had tried to bend a chassis panel that wasn't meant to bend; anyone could tell that's not good for durability). I returned it and they sent me another one, which was fine construction-wise but a dismal performer on benchmarks and games.

    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.

  • Geez, I feel stupid. As my glazed eyes scanned the article, I was thinking, wow, a book of notes (notebook) on gaming... Maybe the best strategies on winning FPS games, or even notes on designing/programming great games...

  • This is nothing special! (Score:4, Informative)

    by poofmeisterp ( 650750 ) on Saturday May 01, 2004 @02:14PM (#9028629) Journal
    You can get a gaming laptop that's of equal or better quality at JS Custom PCs [jscustompcs.com] 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 [jscustompcs.com]. 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.
    • Good advice, but check this out:

      PowerNotebooks [powernotebooks.com]

      For less than $1500.00 (!!) you can get a fully loaded PowerPro 5:6 [powernotebooks.com] which has a Radeon Mobility 9700 with 128 megs of ram and a 1.5 ghz Centrino (or get a 1.7 ghz for $1650.) They also have crazy desktop replacement models at great prices also (10 pounds though!)

      These guys also have an incredible Reseller Rating [resellerratings.com] from ResellerRatings.com.

      I did a bunch of research into gaming laptops a week ago and these guys came out on top. I also sent them an email i

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