eklavya
Right off the assembly line
REVIEW of samsung NP550P5C-S01IN NowWith WINDOWS8 AND Benchmarks!!
NOTE: As a review, i have made this post here. If i have violated any rules i apologize to the owner, administrators and moderators. i did not mean to offend. if any of the staff feels this post belongs somewhere else; please do move it. Thanks for the tolerance from everyone for my transgressions.
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THE REViEW:
Basically I am a desktop person. The power the platform offers can never be matched with laptops; but with the new generation of silicon I have to admit they come pretty close to the desktop performance and matching it in specific configuration’s which does not break the bank for an average consumer to purchase. This laptop in particular has a CPU (core i5 3210m) which is more or less equal to the desktop core i3 2100 and a GPU (Nvidia GT 650M) which is roughly equal to GT 450 in performance. I have to praise Samsung for this good price to performance configuration but cannot shake the feeling that the deal could have been better priced. So is this a good value? well read on to find it out.
I needed something powerful enough to game on the go with decent display and size and battery performance. Also it needed to be close to my desktop (a phenom2 quad core @ 3.2 GHz with GTX 570 and 6TB of storage).
So i thought I'd finally bite the bullet and buy a laptop . This is my first ever laptop, i am 30 yrs of age and never needed one till now. Have had desktop all the way from home, office, college etc; upgrading; configuring; and enjoying the fruits of my labour all the way. (Have a cooler master 692 II advance, a micro atx in HTPC, nada nada)
The final push was given by the launch of the TRiNiTY laptops with 7670m working in crossfire, i decided to buy that and went to the local mart.But while surfing and researching the "god of all answers" Google told me in a whispering note, about the new Samsung. So i thought i will take a demo, and then rest is history.
It took my heart in a beat.
I kept this and the trinity HP laptop side by side and used them and this is far more superior in build quality, looks, and BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!
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THE MODEL: Samsung NP550P5C-S01IN (india)
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/70312c66.jpg
THE CONFIG:
*CPU- i5 3210m 2.5Ghz turbo to 3.10 Ghz
*RAM- 6GB DDR3 System Memory at 1,600MHz (4GB x 1 + 2GB x 1)
* Enormous 1 TB of storage @ 5400 RPM (samsung hd)
*39.62cm (15.6) SuperBright 300nit HD+LED Display (1600 x 900), "Anti-Reflective"
*NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M Graphics, with Optimus<<<<<<LOVE IT>>>>>>>
*JBL 3 Speakers (With sub-Woofer) AWESOME SOUND!!!
* weight - 2.5 kg
* physical dimension - 367.9 x 242.8 x 29.9 ~ 30.4mm
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/b4fc7b39.png
the display as said is ANTI REFLECTIVE and it looks great, the resolution of 1600-900 gives depth to the viewer surpassing the normal 1366-768 on a 15.6 screen and results into more "space" on the screen for your use ( i particularly hated the glossy reflective finish on the HP laptop). The skin is LUNA port for windows 7.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/a13cc06b.jpg
The laptop is metallic grey in single colour finish but the textured finish on the sides of touch-pad, smooth finish on keyboard, and JBL speakers above the keypad give it a nice variation in aesthetics. (pic below)
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/e5d50918.jpg
the webcam is of good quality too: 1.3 megapixel HD Webcam, and is positioned on top bezel above screen. The sound quality is both loud and great, with little sub-woofer at the bottom above the vent for graphic card, it provided some bass to the dialogues while watching movies. while gaming, peak sound varies with game to game and i will say it can be enough in some to inaudible in others.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/8e61e69e.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/b9888857.jpg
Overall the model is sleek and maintains the illusion of being lightweight perfectly. It is circular around the edges and overall the shape and size is very pleasing.
it does not have the BLiNG quotient but maintains a very executive feel.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/5bd77898.jpg
AND IT HAS INTERNATIONAL WARRANT, with all the stickers of branding the one in "all black" left to nvidia optimus says so....
It has on left side two usb 3.0 ports, a HDMI and a VGA port, with charging and ethernet port on top side (next to esc key). on the other side it has two USB 2.0 port.
now for some screenshots of the system: ( i will add 3D mark and other such synthetics benchmarks later...too much work load in office)
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/c6226865.png
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/fcfa63f8.png
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Screenshot23_zps8d62f682.png
This is Hardware monitor for temperatures, cpu-z and gpu-z.
Mass Effect 3
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/2aab8b5e.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/9c7fc3e4.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/e6991a8a.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/027c16b8.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/7ea345bd.jpg
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UPDATE TO THE ABOVE POST:
i am truly sorry everyone for having this review too short, and leaving few vital points to the mist. i bought this laptop for 51,900/- RS.
As for the gaming performance and the temperatures, i will say, THIS LAPTOP BEHAVES NORMALLY CONSIDERING THE HARDWARE AND THE AMBIENT TEMPERATURES. Please we all need to understand we may compare apple and oranges while making one such between this and other laptops. This one has GT650m (GeForce GT 650M | Specifications | GeForce), as one can see it has "384 CORES working at 900 Mhz -peak" and for example the GT630m has "96 CORES working at 800 Mgz -peak". so OBVIOUSLY this will produce a tad more heat. The temperature i was able to see while gaming for 20-30 min was highest at 70 degree centigrade--- with out a/c switched on in normal afternoon here in india. This laptop can be used like any other on your "lap" -- IF you are not gaming.
Having said that, the HEAT VENTS on this machine are double the width of that on HP trinity laptop. i was able too see the aluminum fins inside the vent. the heat dissipation is good, and the palm rest area with all the keyboard remain pretty cool in normal usage and for the little time i was able to game on this it was cool too. in any case i have ordered a cooler master U2 with fans which can be relocated as the need, for my gaming sessions; a review of which will be due shortly. This laptop is for casual gamers but i can't see anything stopping me from gaming on this for 6-8 HRs on weekends. "Extreme gaming" is something i define as :: all settings high, with long hours, with top end hardware. Now at least for me this one checks all the boxes all right, remember you will pay around 25,000/- Rs. more for nearly same config on a ASUS gaming series, coupled with other goodies like backlit keyboard, full HD etc, but considering the price of this at 51,900/-, i say it is damm good bang for your buck- and how can i say that.... 'cause I SPENT MY HARD EARNED SAVINGS ON IT. Never before have we Indians had the opportunity to experience such gaming performance in this price range...the reason i love desktop's, but with Kepler's launch Nvidia changed all that; top that cake with the ivy bridge launch and you have a hard to resist sweet deal.
The body as far as i can tell comprises mostly plastic (including the front cover) but one can hardly differentiate from afar that it is not aluminum. The fit and finish is of top most quality. The key press is NOT DEEP like that on mechanical or tactile kayboards ( as i use razor mouse and keybord on my desktop), i will say i prefer the ViAO "C" series chiclet keyboard to this one's as it has more depth. But none the less the keys feel extremely responsive with long typing sessions being less tardy.
And i am a big fan of the classics. Having being born in early 1980's i consider our generation a bit privileged to witness the IT revolution in India. i remember my father brought a CUSTOMS registered SIEMENS phone the size of your DTH remote control for 25,000/- in early 1995. that still works by the way. even when i dipped it in ocean once........., anyway i have since used windows 93, 98, ME, xp, loved vista ultimate in terms of it looks, and now 7, and have pre-booked windows 8 pro. so i do miss sometimes my old PC looks and hence the modding of the desktop interface, into XP luna theme on windows 7.
i will keep updating as i go with time adding synthetics benchmarks in the following days.
i thank again all of you dear one's for taking the time to read and comment. hope i was not offending.
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PART 2 WINDOW 8 AND SOME BENCHMARKS
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Okay folks I have to apologize for being “soooooo” late with this.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Screenshot3_zps917fa0ca.png
But being late has offered me an opportunity to put up a review of Windows 8; as an early adopter and the rock bottom price of the upgrade i.e. Rs 699/- I jumped on the bandwagon. Anyone who has/will purchase a new PC/laptop with windows preinstalled between June \2 \2011 and till end of Feb next year has an opportunity to register at “windowsupgradeoffer.com” and can do the upgrade for 699/- here in India. At the time of registration I was asked to enter a username password and a valid e-mail. The e-mail is extremely important as you will receive the “KEY” after purchase to the said account.
The upgrade process went fine with the download of the “upgrade assistant” link of which was sent to me in the mail via Microsoft. At the upgrade assistant screen the payment mode was “credit card” and “PayPal” only; I selected credit card and made the payment through my “DEBIT CARD”; an option for which I feel is needed to be provided to the user as debit cards have more market penetration than the credit card here in our great Nation.
This is important to remember:
1. Register with the Pc you brought for this offer as registration from any other pc may fail.
2. Provide a valid email address.
3. The purchase is to be made via the upgrade assistant.
4. Use the promo code you receive in the mail for applying the discount on the checkout screen of the upgrade assistant.
5. Then you will receive the key in the email you provided (a mail courtesy of Microsoft). You can use this key to install the “WiNDOWS 8 Pro” edition only.
6. Also for some time the date exactly is January 31st 2013, you can receive a free KEY to install “Windows Media Centre” which is by default not included in the OS. Go to Add features - Microsoft Windows and you enter a valid email to receive the key.
7. Also the key can install the OS on any PC i.e. IT IS NOT RESTRICTED TO BE USED ON THE PC YOU REGISTERED WITH (i.e. install on wife’s laptop for example). This is as per my knowledge but to be safe do some research.
8. You DO NOT NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE OS FROM UPGRADE ASSISTANT; I had an original Microsoft MSDN image of windows 8 and I used it to install a fresh copy NOT UPGRADE on my laptop.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Chickens_zps80dd91dc.png
i love this new theme of Microsoft : Chickens cannot fly hehe.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Dektop_zps9746ab09.png
My desktop with system view in control panel.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Screenshot24_zps8c7bed94.png
this is the screenshot of "pokki" an alternate start button fopr windows 8 and by far this is the best i have yet encountered with no bugs. It does have a little impact on desktop start up, but the system boot to your start screen remains the same and snappy.
My impressions of Windows 8:
The operating software in itself is GOOD. But it does feel like it is a un finished gem in the Microsoft world. I say that because the applications running in the MODERN UI or formerly Metro (I will call the new UI Metro from now on more easy to type….) have no connection with the desktop and same goes for the desktop applications. Communication between the two is ummm lets say is like an Indian trying to communicate with a Chinese person in French. They just don’t bloody understand each other so well. Also using Metro on desktop with mouse was not that difficult and pleasurable at times but it is no doubt way too confusing… simply put the learning curve is there and it is not easy. For example it was tough to play video on Metro UI or songs , while making a playlist and even so without the OS trying to load results from the internet from XBOX live, Microsoft store etc. I DON’T WANT THAT I just want my stupid playlist to play and being able to shuffle through it. Every time I play a song I don’t want whole internet library loaded in front of me; just give the old media player (which is by the way IS PRESENT IN DESKTOP and you can set it as default). The shifting between the two interfaces Metro and desktop is SEEMLESS. Do not worry about that, my only complains are from the Metro UI. It is beautiful good to use as a “glorified” start button but it should not take over other application playback, in normal non touch desktop say for example opening pictures is a pain in Metro; so I set the default “windows photo viewer” and all set, exactly like your windows 7.
The OS itself is not that different to operate from windows 7, it also feels more stable to me in operation and boot and shut down are also a bit faster but not always. One good thing about the windows 8 is that it is SNAPPY. And I mean it. the user account control warning… that which makes your desktop go dark with a pop up is faster than windows 7 I still have to encounter where it makes my system hangs and believe me I have that issue in 7 many a times. I installed tons of programs like system explorer, cpu-z, winrar, firefox , flash, java, bs player, km player, vlc, chrome, mIRC, net meter and many many more after the fresh install of OS and in 7 if I went too fast the pop would hang but not on this baby.
I would go so far to say that the snappiness of this version reminds me of windows xp. It’s like Windows 7 on RED BULL. It just goes wheeee and round the block…faster.
Gaming on windows 8 is not that different from windows 7. All the games load in the same time FPS is almost the same too, so in that ways I still have to discover any plus over windows 7.
Okay so closing thoughts on windows 8…
It’s a good OS. Better than 7: YES; it has lots of new features the best I like is “Storage pool” and the ability to directly mount images or ISO file from file explorer. Should you upgrade? For 699/- yes but for more it’s up to you (there is an offer for 1,999/ for early adopters). Personally if this offer was not there I would not have upgraded and waited for the next edition of windows AND would have PRAYED for better support of gaming on Linux (come to think of it I am kind of praying for it every day with valve porting on Linux and all that news).
I would rank the OS as : (out of ten)
Looks : 9
Usability : 7.5 (hindered and in some cases and is improved in some by new Metro UI)
Security and stability : 8 (windows defender is slow on folders with large amount of files, I will replace with Avast when new version is out and I love Comodo Firewall)
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And now for your pleasure here are some benchmarks for this laptop:
Operating Software is Windows 8 Version 6.2.9200 X64.
The driver version for this was “No.306.92” for Nvidia, (driver version “9.18.13.697”) and for Intel HD graphics 4000 driver version is “9.17.10.2857”.
First up is the 3D mark 11:
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/3DmarkScore-1.png
This score is right up to a desktop core i3 2100 plus GT 450 (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i3-2100 Processor,MSI H67MA-ED55 (MS-7676) score: P2308 3DMarks)
3D Mark Vantage did run through but it encountered error while uploading the results, hence I left that one out; if in coming days I am able to run it properly I will upload the results.
Next up the ally is the Uniengine Sanctuary and tropics; to save the available bandwidth (free account can only go so far) and for convenient for viewing and comparison I edited and combined the results in one picture.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/UniSancTroALL.png
Right now about some info about above pic. In Sanctuary the first pic is of Directx10 with2x antialiasing, High shaders and Textures and 4x anisotropic filtering the average FPS is 43.4; very playable settings.
Next one in sanctuary is with direct x11 with 8X Antialiasing both shaders and textures turned to HIGH, and 16X anisotropic. Highest and toughest settings and still a playable good FPS of 33.5. Great result for this baby. Even the minimum fps hovers around 25 (according to NVidia website you need to have minimum 25 fps for smooth gameplay)
Next is sanctuary with directx 11 with LOW shaders Textures were kept HIGH, 2x anisotropic and AA turned off. Result? Average FPS of 73.0. W-O-W and at these settings the display of the images in the suite was not bad at all. Very crisp and good looking. Minimum FPS was 50.8 with MAX FPS of 110.4 (at this point I had to physically restrain myself from yelling GO-BABY-GO, with my wife in other room would have given a wrong impression….)
Next I tried DrictX9 at toughest and highest. 16X Antialiasing, High Shaders, High Textures, 16x Anisotropic filtering with transparency, parallax, and reflections TURNED ON. Result are GOOD, with minimum FPS of 30.8, MAX FPS of 54.0 and average FPS of 42.7; wonderful.
You can see the tropics demo. In this turning antialiasing over 4x would dramatically reduce the FPS,otherwise same as sanctuary results. You can see with all settings high but AA turned on I got MAX FPS of 115.5 with average FPS of 43.4. Good result. But in next result if I turned AA to 8X and anisotropic to 16X average FPS dips to 21.1 -àNot good. You need above 25 average FPS minimum for smooth game experience. But none the less one can turn both Antialiasing and anisotropic filtering down in the setting, and without it we touch over 100 FPS.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/UniHaven.png
Uniengine Heaven: in this I had to turn down the settings I forgot to turn the textures to low and turn few other things off which I feel if would have been done would have improved the results dramatically.
But in the next pic I turned down the settings as low as possible and the result is good, good smooth playback with nice looking demo.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Heavenlow_zpsa9182f2e.png
And some more screenshots of the games and how they look on this baby. (with vsync on my FPS in all the games I have played so far like mass effect 2 and 3, dragon age-all dlc,hunted, anno, dishonored, kingdom of amalur etc is around 60. it dips but nothing below 40 and that too for like a second while playing). So far I have to yet encounter throttling of CPU or GPU due to heat, BUT I do game like 45 minutes in a stretch with a little break for net surfing; which I think provided the breathing space to this laptop. The only game I played continuously for hours was torchlight 1 and 2 and they ran fine (may be due to their low requirements).
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Reckoning2012-11-0513-32-30-08_zpsadcc45d6.jpg
Kingdoms Of Amalur (Average FPS 60+)
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/daorigins2012-11-0511-50-54-25_zps8b607412.jpg
dragon Age ..looking good Ogre i wonder how he broshes those teeth.....may be with that toilet brush.......
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Torchlight22012-11-0513-34-55-25_zps87d04f7a.jpg
torchlight 2
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Dishonored2012-11-0511-24-47-82.png
Dishonored looking good too (average FPS 60+)
Thanks to all who read and provided some comment!!
cheers
NOTE: As a review, i have made this post here. If i have violated any rules i apologize to the owner, administrators and moderators. i did not mean to offend. if any of the staff feels this post belongs somewhere else; please do move it. Thanks for the tolerance from everyone for my transgressions.
======================================================================================================================
THE REViEW:
Basically I am a desktop person. The power the platform offers can never be matched with laptops; but with the new generation of silicon I have to admit they come pretty close to the desktop performance and matching it in specific configuration’s which does not break the bank for an average consumer to purchase. This laptop in particular has a CPU (core i5 3210m) which is more or less equal to the desktop core i3 2100 and a GPU (Nvidia GT 650M) which is roughly equal to GT 450 in performance. I have to praise Samsung for this good price to performance configuration but cannot shake the feeling that the deal could have been better priced. So is this a good value? well read on to find it out.
I needed something powerful enough to game on the go with decent display and size and battery performance. Also it needed to be close to my desktop (a phenom2 quad core @ 3.2 GHz with GTX 570 and 6TB of storage).
So i thought I'd finally bite the bullet and buy a laptop . This is my first ever laptop, i am 30 yrs of age and never needed one till now. Have had desktop all the way from home, office, college etc; upgrading; configuring; and enjoying the fruits of my labour all the way. (Have a cooler master 692 II advance, a micro atx in HTPC, nada nada)
The final push was given by the launch of the TRiNiTY laptops with 7670m working in crossfire, i decided to buy that and went to the local mart.But while surfing and researching the "god of all answers" Google told me in a whispering note, about the new Samsung. So i thought i will take a demo, and then rest is history.
It took my heart in a beat. I kept this and the trinity HP laptop side by side and used them and this is far more superior in build quality, looks, and BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!
======================================================================================================================
THE MODEL: Samsung NP550P5C-S01IN (india)
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/70312c66.jpg
THE CONFIG:
*CPU- i5 3210m 2.5Ghz turbo to 3.10 Ghz
*RAM- 6GB DDR3 System Memory at 1,600MHz (4GB x 1 + 2GB x 1)
* Enormous 1 TB of storage @ 5400 RPM (samsung hd)
*39.62cm (15.6) SuperBright 300nit HD+LED Display (1600 x 900), "Anti-Reflective"
*NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M Graphics, with Optimus<<<<<<LOVE IT>>>>>>>
*JBL 3 Speakers (With sub-Woofer) AWESOME SOUND!!!
* weight - 2.5 kg
* physical dimension - 367.9 x 242.8 x 29.9 ~ 30.4mm
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/b4fc7b39.png
the display as said is ANTI REFLECTIVE and it looks great, the resolution of 1600-900 gives depth to the viewer surpassing the normal 1366-768 on a 15.6 screen and results into more "space" on the screen for your use ( i particularly hated the glossy reflective finish on the HP laptop). The skin is LUNA port for windows 7.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/a13cc06b.jpg
The laptop is metallic grey in single colour finish but the textured finish on the sides of touch-pad, smooth finish on keyboard, and JBL speakers above the keypad give it a nice variation in aesthetics. (pic below)
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/e5d50918.jpg
the webcam is of good quality too: 1.3 megapixel HD Webcam, and is positioned on top bezel above screen. The sound quality is both loud and great, with little sub-woofer at the bottom above the vent for graphic card, it provided some bass to the dialogues while watching movies. while gaming, peak sound varies with game to game and i will say it can be enough in some to inaudible in others.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/8e61e69e.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/b9888857.jpg
Overall the model is sleek and maintains the illusion of being lightweight perfectly. It is circular around the edges and overall the shape and size is very pleasing.
it does not have the BLiNG quotient but maintains a very executive feel.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/5bd77898.jpg
AND IT HAS INTERNATIONAL WARRANT, with all the stickers of branding the one in "all black" left to nvidia optimus says so....
It has on left side two usb 3.0 ports, a HDMI and a VGA port, with charging and ethernet port on top side (next to esc key). on the other side it has two USB 2.0 port.
now for some screenshots of the system: ( i will add 3D mark and other such synthetics benchmarks later...too much work load in office)
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/c6226865.png
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/fcfa63f8.png
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Screenshot23_zps8d62f682.png
This is Hardware monitor for temperatures, cpu-z and gpu-z.
Mass Effect 3
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/2aab8b5e.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/9c7fc3e4.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/e6991a8a.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/027c16b8.jpg
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/tech%20review/7ea345bd.jpg
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UPDATE TO THE ABOVE POST:
i am truly sorry everyone for having this review too short, and leaving few vital points to the mist. i bought this laptop for 51,900/- RS.
As for the gaming performance and the temperatures, i will say, THIS LAPTOP BEHAVES NORMALLY CONSIDERING THE HARDWARE AND THE AMBIENT TEMPERATURES. Please we all need to understand we may compare apple and oranges while making one such between this and other laptops. This one has GT650m (GeForce GT 650M | Specifications | GeForce), as one can see it has "384 CORES working at 900 Mhz -peak" and for example the GT630m has "96 CORES working at 800 Mgz -peak". so OBVIOUSLY this will produce a tad more heat. The temperature i was able to see while gaming for 20-30 min was highest at 70 degree centigrade--- with out a/c switched on in normal afternoon here in india. This laptop can be used like any other on your "lap" -- IF you are not gaming.
Having said that, the HEAT VENTS on this machine are double the width of that on HP trinity laptop. i was able too see the aluminum fins inside the vent. the heat dissipation is good, and the palm rest area with all the keyboard remain pretty cool in normal usage and for the little time i was able to game on this it was cool too. in any case i have ordered a cooler master U2 with fans which can be relocated as the need, for my gaming sessions; a review of which will be due shortly. This laptop is for casual gamers but i can't see anything stopping me from gaming on this for 6-8 HRs on weekends. "Extreme gaming" is something i define as :: all settings high, with long hours, with top end hardware. Now at least for me this one checks all the boxes all right, remember you will pay around 25,000/- Rs. more for nearly same config on a ASUS gaming series, coupled with other goodies like backlit keyboard, full HD etc, but considering the price of this at 51,900/-, i say it is damm good bang for your buck- and how can i say that.... 'cause I SPENT MY HARD EARNED SAVINGS ON IT. Never before have we Indians had the opportunity to experience such gaming performance in this price range...the reason i love desktop's, but with Kepler's launch Nvidia changed all that; top that cake with the ivy bridge launch and you have a hard to resist sweet deal.
The body as far as i can tell comprises mostly plastic (including the front cover) but one can hardly differentiate from afar that it is not aluminum. The fit and finish is of top most quality. The key press is NOT DEEP like that on mechanical or tactile kayboards ( as i use razor mouse and keybord on my desktop), i will say i prefer the ViAO "C" series chiclet keyboard to this one's as it has more depth. But none the less the keys feel extremely responsive with long typing sessions being less tardy.
And i am a big fan of the classics. Having being born in early 1980's i consider our generation a bit privileged to witness the IT revolution in India. i remember my father brought a CUSTOMS registered SIEMENS phone the size of your DTH remote control for 25,000/- in early 1995. that still works by the way. even when i dipped it in ocean once........., anyway i have since used windows 93, 98, ME, xp, loved vista ultimate in terms of it looks, and now 7, and have pre-booked windows 8 pro. so i do miss sometimes my old PC looks and hence the modding of the desktop interface, into XP luna theme on windows 7.
i will keep updating as i go with time adding synthetics benchmarks in the following days.
i thank again all of you dear one's for taking the time to read and comment. hope i was not offending.
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PART 2 WINDOW 8 AND SOME BENCHMARKS
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Okay folks I have to apologize for being “soooooo” late with this.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Screenshot3_zps917fa0ca.png
But being late has offered me an opportunity to put up a review of Windows 8; as an early adopter and the rock bottom price of the upgrade i.e. Rs 699/- I jumped on the bandwagon. Anyone who has/will purchase a new PC/laptop with windows preinstalled between June \2 \2011 and till end of Feb next year has an opportunity to register at “windowsupgradeoffer.com” and can do the upgrade for 699/- here in India. At the time of registration I was asked to enter a username password and a valid e-mail. The e-mail is extremely important as you will receive the “KEY” after purchase to the said account.
The upgrade process went fine with the download of the “upgrade assistant” link of which was sent to me in the mail via Microsoft. At the upgrade assistant screen the payment mode was “credit card” and “PayPal” only; I selected credit card and made the payment through my “DEBIT CARD”; an option for which I feel is needed to be provided to the user as debit cards have more market penetration than the credit card here in our great Nation.
This is important to remember:
1. Register with the Pc you brought for this offer as registration from any other pc may fail.
2. Provide a valid email address.
3. The purchase is to be made via the upgrade assistant.
4. Use the promo code you receive in the mail for applying the discount on the checkout screen of the upgrade assistant.
5. Then you will receive the key in the email you provided (a mail courtesy of Microsoft). You can use this key to install the “WiNDOWS 8 Pro” edition only.
6. Also for some time the date exactly is January 31st 2013, you can receive a free KEY to install “Windows Media Centre” which is by default not included in the OS. Go to Add features - Microsoft Windows and you enter a valid email to receive the key.
7. Also the key can install the OS on any PC i.e. IT IS NOT RESTRICTED TO BE USED ON THE PC YOU REGISTERED WITH (i.e. install on wife’s laptop for example). This is as per my knowledge but to be safe do some research.
8. You DO NOT NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE OS FROM UPGRADE ASSISTANT; I had an original Microsoft MSDN image of windows 8 and I used it to install a fresh copy NOT UPGRADE on my laptop.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Chickens_zps80dd91dc.png
i love this new theme of Microsoft : Chickens cannot fly hehe.
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My desktop with system view in control panel.
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this is the screenshot of "pokki" an alternate start button fopr windows 8 and by far this is the best i have yet encountered with no bugs. It does have a little impact on desktop start up, but the system boot to your start screen remains the same and snappy.
My impressions of Windows 8:
The operating software in itself is GOOD. But it does feel like it is a un finished gem in the Microsoft world. I say that because the applications running in the MODERN UI or formerly Metro (I will call the new UI Metro from now on more easy to type….) have no connection with the desktop and same goes for the desktop applications. Communication between the two is ummm lets say is like an Indian trying to communicate with a Chinese person in French. They just don’t bloody understand each other so well. Also using Metro on desktop with mouse was not that difficult and pleasurable at times but it is no doubt way too confusing… simply put the learning curve is there and it is not easy. For example it was tough to play video on Metro UI or songs , while making a playlist and even so without the OS trying to load results from the internet from XBOX live, Microsoft store etc. I DON’T WANT THAT I just want my stupid playlist to play and being able to shuffle through it. Every time I play a song I don’t want whole internet library loaded in front of me; just give the old media player (which is by the way IS PRESENT IN DESKTOP and you can set it as default). The shifting between the two interfaces Metro and desktop is SEEMLESS. Do not worry about that, my only complains are from the Metro UI. It is beautiful good to use as a “glorified” start button but it should not take over other application playback, in normal non touch desktop say for example opening pictures is a pain in Metro; so I set the default “windows photo viewer” and all set, exactly like your windows 7.
The OS itself is not that different to operate from windows 7, it also feels more stable to me in operation and boot and shut down are also a bit faster but not always. One good thing about the windows 8 is that it is SNAPPY. And I mean it. the user account control warning… that which makes your desktop go dark with a pop up is faster than windows 7 I still have to encounter where it makes my system hangs and believe me I have that issue in 7 many a times. I installed tons of programs like system explorer, cpu-z, winrar, firefox , flash, java, bs player, km player, vlc, chrome, mIRC, net meter and many many more after the fresh install of OS and in 7 if I went too fast the pop would hang but not on this baby.
I would go so far to say that the snappiness of this version reminds me of windows xp. It’s like Windows 7 on RED BULL. It just goes wheeee and round the block…faster.
Gaming on windows 8 is not that different from windows 7. All the games load in the same time FPS is almost the same too, so in that ways I still have to discover any plus over windows 7.
Okay so closing thoughts on windows 8…
It’s a good OS. Better than 7: YES; it has lots of new features the best I like is “Storage pool” and the ability to directly mount images or ISO file from file explorer. Should you upgrade? For 699/- yes but for more it’s up to you (there is an offer for 1,999/ for early adopters). Personally if this offer was not there I would not have upgraded and waited for the next edition of windows AND would have PRAYED for better support of gaming on Linux (come to think of it I am kind of praying for it every day with valve porting on Linux and all that news).
I would rank the OS as : (out of ten)
Looks : 9
Usability : 7.5 (hindered and in some cases and is improved in some by new Metro UI)
Security and stability : 8 (windows defender is slow on folders with large amount of files, I will replace with Avast when new version is out and I love Comodo Firewall)
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And now for your pleasure here are some benchmarks for this laptop:
Operating Software is Windows 8 Version 6.2.9200 X64.
The driver version for this was “No.306.92” for Nvidia, (driver version “9.18.13.697”) and for Intel HD graphics 4000 driver version is “9.17.10.2857”.
First up is the 3D mark 11:
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/3DmarkScore-1.png
This score is right up to a desktop core i3 2100 plus GT 450 (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i3-2100 Processor,MSI H67MA-ED55 (MS-7676) score: P2308 3DMarks)
3D Mark Vantage did run through but it encountered error while uploading the results, hence I left that one out; if in coming days I am able to run it properly I will upload the results.
Next up the ally is the Uniengine Sanctuary and tropics; to save the available bandwidth (free account can only go so far) and for convenient for viewing and comparison I edited and combined the results in one picture.
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/UniSancTroALL.png
Right now about some info about above pic. In Sanctuary the first pic is of Directx10 with2x antialiasing, High shaders and Textures and 4x anisotropic filtering the average FPS is 43.4; very playable settings.
Next one in sanctuary is with direct x11 with 8X Antialiasing both shaders and textures turned to HIGH, and 16X anisotropic. Highest and toughest settings and still a playable good FPS of 33.5. Great result for this baby. Even the minimum fps hovers around 25 (according to NVidia website you need to have minimum 25 fps for smooth gameplay)
Next is sanctuary with directx 11 with LOW shaders Textures were kept HIGH, 2x anisotropic and AA turned off. Result? Average FPS of 73.0. W-O-W and at these settings the display of the images in the suite was not bad at all. Very crisp and good looking. Minimum FPS was 50.8 with MAX FPS of 110.4 (at this point I had to physically restrain myself from yelling GO-BABY-GO, with my wife in other room would have given a wrong impression….)
Next I tried DrictX9 at toughest and highest. 16X Antialiasing, High Shaders, High Textures, 16x Anisotropic filtering with transparency, parallax, and reflections TURNED ON. Result are GOOD, with minimum FPS of 30.8, MAX FPS of 54.0 and average FPS of 42.7; wonderful.
You can see the tropics demo. In this turning antialiasing over 4x would dramatically reduce the FPS,otherwise same as sanctuary results. You can see with all settings high but AA turned on I got MAX FPS of 115.5 with average FPS of 43.4. Good result. But in next result if I turned AA to 8X and anisotropic to 16X average FPS dips to 21.1 -àNot good. You need above 25 average FPS minimum for smooth game experience. But none the less one can turn both Antialiasing and anisotropic filtering down in the setting, and without it we touch over 100 FPS.
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Uniengine Heaven: in this I had to turn down the settings I forgot to turn the textures to low and turn few other things off which I feel if would have been done would have improved the results dramatically.
But in the next pic I turned down the settings as low as possible and the result is good, good smooth playback with nice looking demo.
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And some more screenshots of the games and how they look on this baby. (with vsync on my FPS in all the games I have played so far like mass effect 2 and 3, dragon age-all dlc,hunted, anno, dishonored, kingdom of amalur etc is around 60. it dips but nothing below 40 and that too for like a second while playing). So far I have to yet encounter throttling of CPU or GPU due to heat, BUT I do game like 45 minutes in a stretch with a little break for net surfing; which I think provided the breathing space to this laptop. The only game I played continuously for hours was torchlight 1 and 2 and they ran fine (may be due to their low requirements).
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Reckoning2012-11-0513-32-30-08_zpsadcc45d6.jpg
Kingdoms Of Amalur (Average FPS 60+)
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dragon Age ..looking good Ogre i wonder how he broshes those teeth.....may be with that toilet brush.......
*i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad91/kiuske/Benchmarks/Torchlight22012-11-0513-34-55-25_zps87d04f7a.jpg
torchlight 2
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Dishonored looking good too (average FPS 60+)
Thanks to all who read and provided some comment!!
cheers
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