MX7525 any reviews?

[mellowfellow0o0]

Ok, my desktop specs

cpu - AMD 64 clawhammer 3200
mobo - Asus k8v deluxe
ram - 2x512 kingston 3200
video - nvidia 6200 256mb
hd - SATA 80gb & 150gb
optical - Sony dru-710 dual layer + no name dvd-rw
case - Lian Li ?? not sure model # but it is very nice brushed alum with window and carbon fiber like strip on top front.
PS - Antec true power 550
Never overclocked or abused in anyway and the 80gb hd is new. One of my 40+40gb raid 0 drives died

Thinking of selling this(to a friend) for 650(removing sony dvd writer and the 150gb hd) to get the money to buy the MX7525 laptop.

Think this is a good idea? I would like to free up some space in my tiny town house, and this laptop seems like a good enough to replace the desktop. I plan on upgrading the hd right away to a 7200 rpm drive and eventually upgrading the ram to 2gb. Real darn shame I missed BB's sale too.

What I guess I want to know is:

How does it do in games? I don't really care about FPS, but other games such as
NWN with settings cranked(chokes my desktop even)
Empire Earth and EE II during full scale multiplayer battle

I have seen that I could get what look like better laptops for the 1300 dollar price, but I am pretty much stuck with BB as I have a store card there and my credit has declined since I got that card, so I don't have much chance of getting that kind of credit anywhere else right now. Due to divorce, not desire or ability to pay off debits btw.

So will this puppy do what I need?

I have some reservations about this. Some due to emotional atachment to my PC. I know that is silly, but I spent many hours researching the parts to build this. Price vs need vs performance. Anyway, I also am leary of a laptop being able to actually take the place of a desktop. No matter the specs all the laptops I have used have always been slower than a similar desktop.

Sorry this is so long. I guess I am just a bit anxious about the whole idea, but if the laptop can fill this niche very excited about it as well.

Try not to laugh too hard at me

 

[Scouzer]

MX7525 = CRAP

We sell them at work...ugh, I hate those fvcking things. HUGE and SLOW! Yes, you read that right, SLOW!!! It may have a walloping processor but the sh!t ass hard drive I guess just does the trick to make it SLOW. Its not responsive at all. Blah!

Gateway = Captain of loading their computers with crapware. I hope you plan to do an immediate format! Upgrade the hard drive too...maybe that'll make it not feel like such a fat old dog.

The X600 with 128mb shared = 600 3DMark '05
X600 with 256mb dedicated = 1700 3DMark '05

 

[mellowfellow0o0]

Ah, thank you for that frank review. I would of course format and reinstall. This is a no brainer. Always prefer my copy of XP pro loaded with my software over what ever comes with the machine.

Also like I say I would definatly upgrade the hd to a 7200 rpm drive before expecting too much from it. Not sure why the would put a 4200 rpm in this to begin with, given the video and ram it would seem better to have a smaller but faster hd. Guess gateway would disagree.

Eh, anyway that drive will work just fine in my external caddy as my current drive is starting to do the thing where it just goes whirrr click, whirrrr click, ect until it is turned off and back on. Grrr, $#%#$ maxtor drives. Almost as much fun as the IBM Deathstars.

Looks of the laptop don't matter near as much to me as how well it will work and whether or not it can serve my needs. That being said I did give it a look at my local BB and I didn't think it looked bad personally.

 

[mellowfellow0o0]

Oh also anyone know how the x600 compares to the 200m IGP in performance? I haven't been able to find much on the x600 mobile and no direct comparisons. I am guessing it would blow it away. Of course if not, I could save much green by going with a lap that has the 200m IGP. Heck that Tosh deal starting tomorrow would be nice if it could be upgraded to handle my games, but I fear that would not happen.

Scouzer - The benchmarks that you have at the bottom of your post; where did you find them? That seems to be a huge difference. Is the shared 128 counting the local 128 for a total of 256 or is there an x600 that has no local and just uses 128 shared that was benched in that test?

Thanks

 

[Scouzer]

Its not bad looking at all. Its just big...bad battery life...but if you need a DTR replacement...it may be fine.

But if you plan to upgrade the HD, its probably worth considering. I'm surprised BB USA doesn't sell any better DTR gaming laptops...I work for BB Canada and we sure do!

 

[mellowfellow0o0]

Other than the Qosmio this seems to me to be the best gaming lap they offer. Too bad that one is one that I really consider ugly. The shiny case shows fingerprints and whatever very quickly and then there is the really high price tag. Seems like all the others either have the 200m IGP or the Intel graphics. I have never ever had a good experience with Intel graphics.

Still the Qosmio with the dual hd's...too bad about the sceen resolution though. I remember I had a lap at my last job that I got them to order for me to do programming on. It had a 1600x1400 res. Now that was nice. Small text but boy could you see alot at once.

Just looking at BB's new sales and I noticed the HP model dv8125nr has dual HD's but only has the 200m IGP. Now wtf?

On the good side the MX7527 is back on sale, though not as low as it was.

 

[mellowfellow0o0]

FYI I went ahead and got this laptop.
No regrets so far.
The only game I have installed thus far is Sacred. The laptop out performs my desktop when running this game. I haven't even upgraded the HD yet.
I think this has to do with the fact that the 6200 video card in my PC was a total crap. I bought it after my 5500 died on me. What a mistake.

Anyway the x600 is performing better than I expected for my needs.

If my opinion changes after trying my other games I will post an update

 

[kenan921]

I bought one of these when they were on sale for $1199 a few weeks back. Replaced the hard drive with an 80gb 7200 rpm one from newegg for $154 ebayed the 100gb 4200rpm one for $100. Fastest notebook I've ever seen. Really nice system. A true desktop replacement. I don't really game all that much at least not all these newer killer graphic games (a little half life 2, wolfenstein, c&c generals and madden). Runs everything I need fine and is a killer Audio/video editing. The Ethernet according to the driver website is a gigabit adapter. Also if you do buy this wipe it out and do a fresh install with their recovery disc. It is just windows XP Media Center edition (cp pro plus a bunch of multimedia stuff you can disable) no applications no drivers.

 

[mellowfellow0o0]

Yeah loving it so far, can't wait to upgrade the HD. I also wiped the default install and did a fresh XP Pro, and downloaded the latest drivers. Running the Omega video drivers. I guess they are supposed to have better performance than the defaults, but I run them more because I have had some problems with default ATI drivers(on other systems) when running some games that I have not had with the Omega ones.