M680XL mini-review

Recieved my m680XL (2.13 P-M, 1GB DDR2, 6800 go, 60GB 7200RPM HD) earlier this week, and decided I'd just throw some initial observations out, both good and bad. I always like to hear good news before bad news, so that's the order i'll put this in.
Good Things
- The ultrabrite 1680x1050 screen is incredible. Beautiful colors, wide viewing angle, very little motion blur, even in gaming. Yes the reflective nature takes getting used to, but after a few days I don't even notice it.

- Gaming performance is above and beyond what I expected. The 6800 Go came clocked at 350/700, i have it at 426/807 and it has lots left, but I like the compromise between heat level and performance. I'm running Far Cry at 1680x1050 with 8xAF and getting totally fluid gameplay. Dungeon Siege 2 at 1680x1050 with 4xAA and 8xAF, no hiccups whatsoever.

- Overall system performance is likewise amazing. General Windows use seems almost as fast as my desktop (AMD FX-55). The 7200RPM hard drive makes a big difference here certainly, as does the 1GB of ram.

- The keyboard is very nice, I love the layout and the number pad. The arrow keys take getting used to, but in general, this is a part I have no complaints with.

- Overall, the fit and finish seems very good, there is very little flex anywhere, and nothing seems flimsy or cheap.

- The computer, as a whole, is gorgeous. It looks like a sports car next to my friends Dell 9200. Its thin, but not so thin that it feels flimsy, and the blue lighting on the power button and status lights looks very nice.

Now the Problems
- The fan is on, all the time, it stays on low speed as long as I'm not doing anything intensive, but it isn't particularly quiet. I know I probably should have expected this with the processor and graphics system this computer has, but it is still somewhat dissapointing.

- As a whole, it runs very hot compared to my buddy's Dell 9200. Sitting here right now, his is at 29 degrees Celsius, mine is at 46. Using the same program (CHC) for monitoring, both at max battery power settings. My processor is undervolted pretty significantly(.764V for lowest multiplier) and his is at stock voltage. (I know there can be some variance between temp readings, and he has a 1.6 P-M and a mobile radeon 9700, which obviously has a lot less heat output) But his fan isn't even running, whereas both of mine are chugging away. I've heard applying AS5 to my various heatsinks might help, but I haven't read any good instructions and i'm hesitant to start randomly poking around in a computer that cost this much.

- Battery life is pretty underwhelming. The extended battery (12 cell) gives me a little over 4 hours of Windows usage. Again, I know my choice of video card plays alot into this, but its still somewhat dissapointing. Speaking of which, the auto underclocking doesn't seem to work right. When i set max power savings, and monitor the clocks with RivaTuner, they are all over the place, at once point it said it was running 800/12, which obviously can't be right, so I hope that's a problem with rivatuner, not with the card or the drivers.

- There was a lot of crap preinstalled all over the place. 2 Antivirus suites?? I mean I know pre-built computers come with a lot of junk these days, but this was pretty ridiculous. Then again, I just set up a new Dell 6000 for my girlfriends dad, and it was about the same, so i guess its just the norm.

Overall
- I feel like i made a good choice. On AC power, it is an incredible performer, and the price was decent for what I got. The only thing comparable would be the new XPS Gen II, which is even hotter and has even shorter battery life.

- It is a beatiful, fast computer, and I would recommend it to anyone looking in this class. Be aware that it is large and somewhat heavy, but very reasonable for a 17" widescreen with the equipment that it has.



On another note, if anyone has any suggestions on the issues I mentioned, please post here. Thanks for reading.

3dmark05 score of 4790 with the clocks I mentioned above (426/807). Like i said, the card will go higher, i had 445/820 stable but i just don't want to push it.

UPDATE: AS5 applied

so, i'll admit it, i have a serious problem. I am competitive. I got sick of looking at my buddy's dell running so much cooler with no fans on. So I pulled off the maintenance cover today (the big one on the bottom) and removed the heat pipe assemblies and the main fan. The thermal pads cooling the processor, north bridge, gpu, and graphics memory were all intact, but looked to be very low quality, and the thermal material for the processor was very shoddily applied. So i pulled it all out and put AS5 on the processor, the northbridge, the gpu, and the graphics memory chips, and put everything back together. On battery power (minimum speed processor) where it used to be 40's with both fans running, it is now mid 30's (fluctuating between 34 and 36 and i write this) with neither fan running. Silence. Can't say how much of a difference this makes for me in overall satisfaction. Hopefully they won't give me crap about it if I have to send it in for warranty work . I'd imagine this will give me some more headroom with the graphics overclock, so I will experiment with that and post some more 3dmark scored later.

Okay, I understand the suspicion, so here are a few screenshots. First, my latest 3dmark05 score. Unfortunately my memory seems to have decided around 798Mhz is as high as it wants to go. This isn't too bad considering that, as i discovered when i looked at the chips, this is samsung DDR1 2.0ns ram, which is rated for 700Mhz operation. So I can deal with that. The AS5 has helped the core a bit, I can get it to 445 happily now, and 450 might be possible after it settles in a bit. Another good thing is that under 100% load, the cpu now goes up to the high 50's, maybe low 60's, where is used to be high 60's to 70 every time. Here is a screen of the latest 3dmark score, not the specifications visible in the background (go 6800, pentium M) proving this is not from another computer....



not too shabby eh?

and here is a screen of the temp (monitored by CHC) at idle, the fans run at low speed on AC power, and do not run at all on battery.



note from the hosting, that i am a university student in southwest VA, i most definitely do not work for gateway. There is nothing related to Gateway for hundreds of miles.

As for the instructions, it would have been great if I could have taken pictures, but I left my digital camera at home and I need to go back and get it. Honestly though, its very very easy...here is step by step instructions.
1.) remove large maintenance cover on bottom (the one over the 2 fans)
2.) remove spring screws (3) from processor/northbridge heatpipe assembly
3.) remove screws (4) from the graphics heatpipe assembly
4.) REMEMBER which screws go where, they are not all the same
5.) remove the 3 screws near the edge of the case that hold the larger fan in
6.) lift out the processor/northbridge heatpipe assembly (main fan is attached to this)
7.) lift out graphics heatpipe assembly (attached to large copper heatsink)
8.) remove thermal pads for all chips, and replace with a thin layer of AS5 on both the chips and the mating surface on the heatpipe assemblies
9.) reassembly is reverse of removal

There you go, not even ten steps. Another note real quick, the left palm rest feels virtually identical as the right palm rest now. I am very satisfied with my modifications. Maybe I just got lucky, I don't know, but I'm just relating my experiences

I will, but it will be a few days. I'm probably going back in there to just unplug the smaller fan altogether, after looking at the way it operates, it serves no purpose whatsoever. So when I do that, i will also pull everything back apart to check on it and do a picture tutorial.

Oh, and one more thing. The odd thing is, many people have been complaining about the warm left palm rest, so I put that observation in there. But you know what is right under the left palm? The wireless lan mini-PCI card. Regular intel prowireless, so if you are feeling heat, that's where its coming from, more likely than not, and its not Gateway's fault, every computer I've used with internal wireless has a hot area around the card when it is active. The GPU is actually under the touchpad, approximately, and the processor and northbridge are under the right middle part of the keyboard.

thanks for the heads-up, that's dissapointing. All the smaller fan really does is blow a small amount of air over the graphics card area, which is cooled by the heatpipe/heatsink assembly anyway. Has to be something I could do...i'll work on it and let you guys know. Should have that pictorial up tommorow evening.

One more thing...does anyone know if doing what I've done so far (removing stock thermal material and replacing with artic silver 5) will void my warranty? Because if so I need to know so I can change it back if anything ever goes wrong. I have 3-year coverage with ADP.

this evening, am going to do that picture tutorial, and look more closely at the smaller fan. I may be able to slap a resistor on it and cut its speed down a little. It really serves very little purpose, but some airflow is always good. If it just moved a little slower.... Stay tuned. And Cromo, you have a good idea in the replacement idea, but I'll have to see when i go back in tonight if the fan is any sort of standard size replaceable unit in a shroud, or if it is a one-piece proprietary thing.