rock Xtreme 770 X9000-8800

It may be expensive and many bit-tech readers may guffaw and pledge continued, undying loyalty to their desktop machines

yes... There are very few people that this would be a good choice for but at least for those few, they have something that performs well.

I don't know how you can praise them putting the headphone socket on the front though - if you ahve this on a desk (which it will be most of the time) with some speakers plugged in, those ports will only get in the way. Typing with a wire hanging around under your wrists is something I find really annoying.

Other than that point, a great review I like the inclusion of performance without it being over the top.

edit:The graphics card seems to be between a 9600GT and an 8800GT so it is odd they call it an 8800GTX

Originally Posted by Cupboard
Typing with a wire hanging around under your wrists is something I find really annoying.

how about putting the wire under the laptop?

Originally Posted by Cupboard
yes... There are very few people that this would be a good choice for but at least for those few, they have something that performs well.

I don't know how you can praise them putting the headphone socket on the front though - if you ahve this on a desk (which it will be most of the time) with some speakers plugged in, those ports will only get in the way. Typing with a wire hanging around under your wrists is something I find really annoying.

Other than that point, a great review I like the inclusion of performance without it being over the top.

edit:The graphics card seems to be between a 9600GT and an 8800GT so it is odd they call it an 8800GTX

Aye, the wire is more between your arms than under your wrists.

I've added a (familiar, to some of you) table to the gaming page with a summary of the settings we found to be 'best playable' for the games tested. :)

I do a fair bit of LAN gaming and would like to buy something like this as my laptop is no longer gaming capable, my water cooled gaming PC is a bit of a chore to take to foreign events, what is its power consumption like on this, if its not too harsh I might consider it as a replacement laptop, I'm guessing its under 90w?

You can get the same sort of spec (inlcuding e8400) for £1900 in.vat. At http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/comanche_specifications.php
£299 LESS. WOW

We'll be having a look at a Kobalt machine soon. :)

I will be looking forward to it :)

be warned, if this is the clevo chasis which i think it is clevo doesnt seem to do bios updates at all. Well they dont for my Evesham Voyager 720DC aka Clevo 575u
and i really need a bios update so can boot from network and hopefully fix a bios bug that causes Ubuntu to stop my cdrom working in ubuntu and in windows and also unable to get nvidia drivers to work in ubuntu

but otherwise awesome laptop hopefully without the bios bug of my clevo

Nice Review.

I looked at Rock laptops a while ago whilst researching my next purchase. They didnt quite do one that fitted my needs.

Ive also read a few reports about low build quality on their 680 series Pegasus machines. What about this laptop ? People have said before that they preferred the Orange trim versions to the new silver trim models.

There are a number of things which put me off this laptop.

1. Size and weight.
2. Cost
3. GLOSSY SCREEN. Arrrrrgh! Why no option for a non glossy screen. I hate those reflective mirrors on laptops, and refuse to buy one with a glossy screen. Some (HP ... Im looking at you) are absolutely apalling.

Seriously... are Apple and Lenovo the only laptop makers left that offer a glossy/non glossy choice ? In some environments they are unusable unless you like staring at your own face and reflected lights all day long. I got rid of a macbook for this reason after trying to use it for 3 weeks. Traded up to a non glossy Macbook pro.

Its weird .. some manufacturers like Dell offer non glossy on some models (1525) but non on the more stylish 1330. Bizarre.

Rock.. it appears don't give you a choice.

Does anybody has a number of what is the exact weight of the beast including the power adapter??

I was looking into getting it but decided to wait for montevina refresh and to see what ATI will be able to deliver... :D

Great review and looking forward to future ones regarding gaming laptops.. :D

I see that you mention the fact that it is not exactly a portable solution for gaming, in which case, have you had a look at the zepto range of notebooks? I know you have them advertised on the site (i actually bought one) and it is great, seems to fill that niche between size and performance (i have a 6224W).

Nice review though, thanks for taking the time to test the best playable settings as well Tim/Joe.

Originally Posted by Mo_
You can get the same sort of spec (inlcuding e8400) for £1900 in.vat. At http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/comanche_specifications.php
£299 LESS. WOW

Yep thats where i got mine from. its an excellent machine. I use it for uni as its easily brought home every week!! I got the Mojavi XI though which is the same as the rock only better service :) and cheaper

I bought a rock laptop at the beginning of last year on a friends recommendation, and found it to be really good for my needs at the time - i was travelling alot with my job for extended periods, and also like to attend lans. The laptop was definately heavy when carrying it through airports, and the battery life was laughable, but apart from that it was great. Was capable of playing UT2004 (my game of choice at the time) at 60fps on high settings and meant i could do everything i could on my desktop while out and about - always a chuckle to see the envious glances at lans when you stroll in with a bag on your shoulder past the people with their huge watercooled behemoths.
I guess it depends what you need - i was more after a portable gaming system than a mobile one, and for that the Rock laptops are perfect. Customer service with them was also really friendly, which imo counts for something :)
I admit though that i did buy a top of the range desktop a couple of months ago rather than another laptop - you still get more bang for your buck with a desktop which of course makes it last longer between upgrades.

I bought a Rock laptop at the end of last year but I sent it back.
I quite liked the machine but the chassis just didn't cut it for me.
The speakers were piss-poor.

Rock's customer service were top-notch though and allowed me to return it for a refund which I used to buy my Toshiba X200 (see sig).
This laptop is great, just wish it had the ability to raid the 2 HDDs and had the 8800M GTX instead of the 8700M GT. :(

I've bought two Rock lappys in the past, a Pegasus Ti that I returned after a week in 2004 due to multiple dead pixels, which was unfortnuate as it was otherwise a very nice little laptop, and a Pegasus 665 that I cancelled after there was an unspecified delay due to a component shortage - after which I bought a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi1536 that uses the same chassis and offered more hardware at a lower price.

IMO Rocks price premium could be justified by the longer warranty period and support, but newer models lack that extra something to really sell it (the older pegasus ti allowed you to choose the colour of you laptop, which was enough of a bump to sell me on it :D)

Of course the whole 'extreme laptop' concept is another issue altogether which I can't quite understand, as you end up with a system that underperforms as both a laptop and a desktop. If you spent the same ammount and bought both a desktop and a more modest laptop you would have a gaming system that is far superior, and a laptop that is far more portable; so logically an extreme laptop would seem to make sense only for those whom want a powerful system that is easier to store and transport than a desktop, but who don't neccesarily want a fully portable laptop. So whilst some students might find it more convenient, I fail to see the value in such a system.

niece but think what you could put in a desktop for $4000+ it would put this to shame and
in the long run there will be over heating in this lappie !

This laptop is probably going to eat through battery power faster than a bad curry through a thin man

lol, disturbing

Pictures b19.jpg and b21.jpg are mixed up.

Originally Posted by PhenomRed
This laptop is probably going to eat through battery power faster than a bad curry through a thin man

lol, disturbing

probably accurate thou

the links to most of the images werent links to the right ones.....good article though. I never thoughti'd go for a gaming laptop, with the compromise between heat and performance i had wondered if too much was sacrificed, looks like they started making it really happen for laptops now.

peace

fatman

Pics are severely messed up.
Look at that tiny battery !
To quote the heavy in TF2 : "It's so small it's funny!"

I wouldn't mind having such a beast. The battery is just here for when you unplug from a socket and plug it back into another...just across the room, not more.

I have a Rock laptop recently purchased and must say really really impressed but the only bad comment I have is the battery life but in saying this, you can't have everything