Benchmark: Toshiba Teca M2 3dmark2001

[cknobman]

I purchased the tecra m2 about 2 weeks ago.

My config was: 1.5 gig centrino, 60gig 5400 hd, 256mb ram (i took this out at put in 2 512 sticks for 1 gig total, much cheaper to do it myself), 64mb GeforceGo 5200 video card, and xga screen (wish I had gotten sxga, it was available).
I love this laptop. It is built wonderfully, no dead pizels on screen and no ghosting problems when I play games. The performance on this laptop is absolutely amazing for a thin and light series.

I ran 3dmark2001 seven times at all levels of resolution. My lowest score was 6307 and my highest score was 6457. This was outstanding. I can play any game I own comfortably on this baby!!

I also ran PCmark2002 and recieved good scores but I dont remeber what they were (i didnt save the scores).
The hard drive performs remarkably fast and the battery blew me away.
The toshiba website posted a average battery life of 4 hours. Two days ago I decided to see if this was close. At school running soley on the battery, I used Microsoft word, Dreamweaver, played some NES games on an emulator, and did a norton antivirus check. It took 4.5 hours for my battery to go dead. WOW my last laptop with a ATHLON4 mobile processor would barely make 1 hour.

[shaggy2003]

What was your last laptop that had an athlon64 in it? There arent that many out there. My m6805 can last up to 2:45 on battery.

[cknobman]

It was a compaq athlon4 1.2 gig that right now is about 2 years old. The processor is the old design before the xp and 64 versions.

[limey]

cknobman what is the quailty of the Tecra M2 like compared to a thinkpad? What is the keyboard like? Any issues now that you have had it for a few weeks?
Thanks

[cknobman]

:dude: I really cant say much for IBM because I have never owned one of thier laptops but I can say plenty about the M2 I have.

This thing is flawless!!! Screen is great and one of the best things about the laptop is the keyboard and mousepad. Keyboard is very top notch!! Keys are easy to press, board is not mushy or unsupported, and the keypad is great. There are so many ways you can customize the keypad I cant decide what to do. You can make the keypad scroll left right, go forward and back on your browser, practically have each corner of the keypad perform a different function.

The laptop just simply does not generate heat. Out of the previous two this is the only laptop I can leave on my lap, play games, do whatever and not feel the heat. Battery has severe lasting power(4.5 hrs) and I love to play battlefield 1942 with graphics maxed out. NOT A SKIP!!

In short this laptop is perfect and one I will be glad to own for a long time. My previous laptops were dell and compaq and I have to say, now that I own a toshiba, both of the others are CRAP compared to this one

[w00t]

How much did you pay for it ck?

[limey]

ck,
Thanks for the quick reply. Do you have any good photos of your M2? There are no reviews or good photos on the web. This seems strange for a laptop that has been out for over a month.

I just started a new thread in 'toshiba general' called 'Thinkpad T41 vs. Tecra M2'

Limey

[cknobman]

I paid 1692.00 before tax and shipping. The extra ram I bought from NewEgg.com for $150.00 (2X512mb).

[cknobman]

I have put pics of my laptop in the toshiba pics forum for anyone to see.

[Hugh Jazz]

Hello ck interested in M2 but am not sure about the graphics card how fast is it compared to a ATI 9200 ??

[cknobman]

The geforce go 5200 is the nvidia equivalent to the ati 9200 graphics card. Usually the reviews give the ati 9200 a slight edge over the nvidia. Personally on my laptop I have no trouble whatsoever playing games. I play alot of BF1942 and desert combat and my wife plays a lot of SIMS and both of those games play at max resolution without a skip.

Right now the only laptop I know of that comes equiped with the ati 9200 is a compaq and hp. The quality and overall performance does not compare with toshibas. If you are looking at either of these two laptops I would pick the toshiba everytime.

What kind of laptops are you looking at?

[Hugh Jazz]

i am looking at toshiba, Ibm (expensive) :( , HP buisness notebooks , Dell ( have heard bad things about quality). Important thing to me is quality and stability. Need it for school so it will have to last for at least 3 years. conserned about wireless preformance, Batt life and upgradability.

some one says that dothan can be use in older centrino but will companies release new models before school time? Also, can graphics be upgraded life on dell 8600?

does toshiba provide a guide showing you how to take it apart?

thanks for your help.

[cknobman]

I custom build desktops but do not work with laptops very much. I have also heard you can use the dothan in some older centrino notebooks but two things concern me: One is that dothan isnt out yet and all of this is just potentially talk and Two even if you could, cooling systems in laptops are designed specifically for a certain range of processor speeds and I am not sure even if you could put the dothan in an older platform if the cooling system would be adequate. No you cannot upgrade graphics in the Dell and yes the dell is very cheaply built. Go to the little mall outlets where you can actually put your hands on a dell and you will know what I am talking about. From what I have read the dothan is supposed to come out early to mid summer so if you can wait that is what I would suggest. Stay away from gateway and dell; their products are cheaply built with second rate components in them and aim for a toshiba, asus, maybe hp, or even fujitsu. Whatever you get make sure it is a centrino platform because battery life is outstanding in them(mine gets 4 - 5 hours on regular battery).

[Hawaii-geek]

cknobman,
Funny ... both of us build our own Desktops and we choose the Tecra M2 for a notebook :)
I don't do it for a living ... but ... I have built 5 of the 8 Towers we run in our office and home. But, now days I just don't have the time.

p.s. hate to say it now ... but the IBM R50 was my first choice ... but, it got too expensive for the same config as the M2 w/systemGuard

[cknobman]

Same here I dont build desktops for a living but I do it for extra cash, family, and friends. I find it very enjoyable and a great learning experience.

Sorry to hear tecra wasnt first choice but now that you have it how do you like it? Are you dissapointed, or wishing something was different about it? Does performance on it seem ok?
Personally I am very happy with mine. I had originally bought a sony v505 series laptop because my wife thought it was small and cute. BIG MISTAKE!! Sony build a decent laptop but they perform slow and their proprietary software is bad enough to make a person go insane!! They had the damn thing rigged so that you couldnt upgrade xp home to pro unless you bought the upgrade from them(this came straight from a help rep when I called) WHAT BS!! I took it back and bought the toshiba and told my wife that quality and usability were much more important than looks. LOL

[Hawaii-geek]

Ck,
I am actually picking it up Tomorrow from FedEx Station ... right after it gets unloaded from the container! LoL
I am going on a trip this Saturday ... and I need to load my programs and Data .. sorry no games :)
My fun on this flight is trying to learn Photoshop CS. And finishing up a web site.

Was thinking IBM only because most of my customers use IBM (corporate)
and on PCmag Service and Reliability for business Notebooks no one had a higher rating in 2003. But Toshiba is also "A" ... just not as good as IBM for business use.
That being said ... the Tecra M2 I hope is the turnaround for Toshiba.
When I was "really" into computers ... back in the early days of Win 3.11
Toshiba was the King of the Laptops. And dominated Corporate too.
Love the features of the M2, Love the Value, Love the configuration. and yes, because it's is for business I Love the fact that it does "not" come with any software.
Only XP Pro and NAV please. For me I want to load my favoite programs.
But, fyi for those that mentioned it on this site? ... MS Office is a option I think on shoptoshiba.com

* No doubt this forum and others .. has helped me decide on a M2.
Because as everyone knows by now, there is no reviews on the web yet.
And yes, ck you helped too. :)

Now I am just tring to "confirm" my decision ... which I have ... and look for what is the best accesories for my M2.

My "take" on how I will like the M2 or not, is if it can make me feel like I am on my Desktop on the Road.
Only regret I might have is not going with a 15" screen .. vs my decision to go with Lighter weight and Longer battery life. but we will see.
Problem is I am so used to using a 21" screen on my primary computer.

I am confident that the M2 will handle my needs for PS CS and MS Office XP.
Particularly with 1gig of ram.

Durability on the road will be a must, Key for me will not be performance (I am sure the M2 has enough) the Key is durability ...
Because when you are thousands of miles away from home and not in the USA, you "just" want it to work. (and not run out of power)
* only wish it had that Hard Drive the IBM R50 has.

[cknobman]

Glad to hear you decided to pick up the tecra.

I hope you will be as satisfied with your laptop as I have been with mine.
The tecra certainly has been everything I hoped it would and more considering I previously owned a POS compaq laptop!

I really hope you continue to post after you have had time to actually use your new Tecra, it will be interesting to hear what your own opinions are about it.

Im not sure if I put this in any previous posts but the only thing I was dissapointed in is the small tinny speakers of the tecra, but this wasnt huge for me as I dont use a laptop for music and movies.

GOOD LUCK and post when you return from your trip.

[stapol]

Is there a modular bay like weight saver that I can subtitute to cd / dvd rom in Tecra M2 ?

[palph]

What the difference between 32mb or 64mb vidio ram?
Will it affect the 3d mark performance a lot, say the LCD is XGA?

Does M2 support 8x AGP?

Anyone?

[palph]

Is there a modular bay like weight saver that I can subtitute to cd / dvd rom in Tecra M2 ?

Yes it does.

[cknobman]

The tecra m2 is 4x agp as many notebooks are unless you purchase extreme gaming notebooks. There is very little difference in performance of 4x agp and 8x.

As for the 32mb or 64mb of video ram. IT IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! Many games today require a minimum of 64mb of video ram. I would strongly suggest getting the 64mb of ram you wont regret it.

[genea]

I have just completed my benchmarking of my Toshiba Tecra M2: P1.7,1gb,60gb-7200rpm, Geforce Go5200 64mb

3D Mark 2003 340 score was: 1253

This is a vast improvement over the Rojak's review located here: Rojak's Review of Geforce Go5200 (http://www.rojakpot.com/(zp1fko454512bg45wcerv245)/default.aspx?location=3&var1=74&var2=0)

I have played Battlefield Vietnam on this laptop and Far Cry and both run about the same as my desktop system a P4 2.4, 1gb, 160gb 7200rpm drive with a Geforce Ti-4200 64mb.

This is a plus for the Toshiba Tecra M2. :dude:

[telias]

cknobman, just curious how long did it take for your order to ship from toshiba? Just ordered mine 2 days ago! :banana:

[cknobman]

From order time until the day it arrived on my doorstep was 10 days. It might have been faster but it took a couple of days for them to config it because I customized mine instead of buying a prebuilt one.

Ordered direct from toshiba.

Not a bad experience and plus I am 100% happy with my purchase. Smooth transaction and awesome laptop. Honestly the laptop has exceeded my expectations as far as performance and batterylife go. I used to have a POS compaq which couldnt even go 1 hour unplugged.

[telias]

That's good to know, your "review" on your experiences has basically helped decide between the Tecra M2 and the IBM T41. I was on the fence between the 2 but after comparing them, I think you get more for your money with Toshiba. I don't think it's really an issue which is better quality-wise (IMHO).

Thanks again for your opinions here, I don't know about you but I can't stop checking the damn order status hoping for a quicker turn-around lol. :eek:

[tranrick]

A review on rojakpot.com on the FX Go5200 says that Toshiba underclocks the graphic and memory core to minimize power consumption. Is this true for the M2? If so, is there a way to clock it back to normal speed? Just curious as I am very interested in this laptop.

Here is the article: http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=74&var2=0

[genea]

:bouncy: Yes the Toshiba Tecra M2 Go5200 is underclocked at the speeds listed in the rojak review. You can use a piece of software called RivaTuner to adjust the clock speeds of the Go5200 and by the way Rojak has another article about maxing out the Go5200 chipset on his web site. I did a test on my M2 with the settings he recommended and y 3D Mark 2003 returned a 1508 score which is not bad for the Go5200.

[tranrick]

Well,,,I did it. I placed the order today through Toshiba.

1.4 Ghz
512 MB
40 GB
64 MB VRAM

I had to choose the lower speed processor and the 40 GB HD because I had
a budget of $1600 from by workplace. Will let you all know what my impressions are when I receive it. You've all been great help to me deciding on which notebook to go with. My other choice was a Gateway M505X, but I new that weight and portability was a concern for me, so I went with the M2.

Edit: Too bad Toshiba does not have pre-built M2's with 64 VRAM, otherwise, I would be receiving it sooner.

[telias]

Actually they do, but probably out of the 1600 range. I just got my Tecra M2 S630 2 days ago! :banana:

Getting all my dev software loaded and settling in. Wireless works great, have 2 wireless configs; one for home and one for work.

These forums were a big help in my decision as well! :cheers:

[tranrick]

I have confirmed that Toshiba has underclocked the graphics core and ramdac as mentioned in my previous posts. Now, I will like to clock it back to default speeds. I downloaded and installed Rivatuner without any success. Rivatuner will show me what the graphics is clocked at, but I am unable to make any adjustments as the features are grayed out. I am currently using Toshiba provided 46.41 drivers, because the ones from Nvidia could not be detected by the M2. I have also tried the Coolbits registry tweak, but no success there either.

Has anyone been able to clock the Go5200 graphics back to default speeds?

[cliffw]

I found the URL of the article about how to restore the speed of the go5200 on the Toshiba:

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=76&var2=0

And by the way, he mentions on page 3 that his driver is "NVIDIA ForceWare Ver. 53.03". Maybe that will help tranrick.

Cheers,

Cliff

[cknobman]

:cheers: Thanks for the post!!! :dude:

I downloaded riva tuner like the article stated and set the clock and memory speeds to what they had posted. I saw my 3dmark01se scores go from 6300 to 7750! Pretty good improvement. Like the article states you wont be able to get the clock speeds to 300/600 (which is rated speeds for the fx5200) but I did get reliable performance out of the articles speeds 243/515. I am going to try and go higher since I know those are reliable speeds. This is a pretty good/easy/fast way to increase graphics performance.

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

[cknobman]

Overlcock higher in progress!

[MD470]

Dear Toshiba Tecra M2 users,

I would enormously appreciate if someone of you could tell me the material the notebook is made of. Is it plastic or some sort of metal alloy?

The screen: How would you rank it? Is it bright enough? Are the viewing angles OK? Is there any New technology for the screens that Toshiba used for Tecra M2 (eg. Fujitu- Crystal View, Sony – Xbright etc.,)? Do you find the 14.1” sufficient for work and games?

Thank you in advance for any kind of indication you can give me.

[midnight]

I'm concerned about this to MD....I wear glasses!

[cknobman]

The notebook material is plastic.

The screen is not bad but not the best. It gets very bright if you choose to make it that way and does not ghost much. The text is very readable and clear. There is no xbrite technology or crystal clear tech. like sony and fujitsu but still looks good none the less.

I have xga resolution because I felt for 14 inch screen sxga would be to small and unecessary.

I chose the toshiba over fujitsu for the graphics because fujitsu has integrated shiaty graphics which not matter what the screen looks like it makes the laptop suck.
I chose the toshiba over sony becuase one week before I bought toshiba I bought sony laptop and took it back!! It was the v505 series and it performed slow with shiaty 4200 rpm hard drive and sony had to much proprietary software. I couldnt even load my own windows xp pro on it!!! Called sony they told me I would have to order their version. That was last straw so I took it back and will never own sony again!!