I only saw one CX6 review on here, so here's mine to help all those who are weighing their options.
So I got my CX6 a little over a week ago, and I must say, this thing is awesome. It shipped about 8 days after the “estimated” ship date, which isn’t too bad for a custom-built laptop. Here are the system specs:
Pentium M 770 2.13ghz
ATi X700 Mobility 256MB
2 GB Ram
8x Dual-layer DVD-RW
100 GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
Integrated 802.11 Super A/G 108mbps Wireless
Internal Bluetooth
Initial impressions were that it was a very stylish notebook. It’s subdued but it definitely make an impact – someone at school commented on how high-tech it was before I even powered on. It has a matte screen, which although it doesn’t look as cool as the gloss, it’s much easier to see without the reflections caused by the gloss. And any self-respecting gamer knows that performance comes before aesthetics.
The keyboard is fairly firm, although it’s a much different feel than a desktop if you’re used to that. It takes some getting used to; you have to push more firmly and really tell the keyboard who’s boss. Overall I like the feeling, considering it is a laptop keyboard and it must be slim.
The touchpad seems to be sensitive enough, but I prefer my Razer Diamondback mouse for fragging. Yes, you can do some serious fragging with this thing. It pulled a 3DMark05 score of about 2800. Most modern games should be playable with medium to high details enabled. I can play FarCry on high (but not very high) settings without problems. This yields more than enough power for a notebook designed to be small.
A feature I really like is the CPU throttling. I use Mobmeter to monitor it, and it’s very effective. Battery life increases without losing the power you sometimes need. With games it will throttle up to the full 2.13ghz, but when I’m just surfing the net or listening to music, it will throttle down to 800mhz. This is nice not only for battery life but for heat – less heat means a longer life for the components. According to AtiTool, the video card throttles as well. This notebook is heavy on power-saving features, without sacrificing the performance aspect.
The fast 7200rpm hard drive seems to be very effective – FarCry loads its giant environment faster on my laptop than on my desktop (which runs a RAID 0 configuration), which is probably due to the giant 2GB of RAM onboard the laptop.
The outside audio controls along with the clock have really come in handy. On long trips I can see using an MP3 CD with these controls, not wasting the battery life to fire up the whole notebook. The hotkeys for the camera, wifi, and Bluetooth are great features – turn them off to save battery life until you need them. The application keys next to the power button are nice – I can open Firefox, Thunderbird, and any other application all at the touch of a button.
This notebook can also support a second monitor, which is very useful when playing games. I put my Trillian chats on one screen while I game on the other. The graphics card takes a bit of a hit, but depending on you needs, this is a very effective solution.
My only criticism so far is that I can’t change volume in-game, with neither the dedicated audio controls nor the keyboard hotkeys. This is sometimes a problem when using headphones and the sound level goes up and you need to turn down the volume before causing permanent damage to your ear.
Overall, this system rocks. Hypersonic seems to be very good with support – all of my emails regarding shipping and a question I had about the onboard Mic volume were answered within 24 hours. Try that with Dell.
I highly recommend this laptop if you’re looking for something that’s portable but you still want to be able to indulge in some FPS action. A desktop replacement this is not, but for the gamer who needs to take a computer with him, this is the perfect system
So I got my CX6 a little over a week ago, and I must say, this thing is awesome. It shipped about 8 days after the “estimated” ship date, which isn’t too bad for a custom-built laptop. Here are the system specs:
Pentium M 770 2.13ghz
ATi X700 Mobility 256MB
2 GB Ram
8x Dual-layer DVD-RW
100 GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
Integrated 802.11 Super A/G 108mbps Wireless
Internal Bluetooth
Initial impressions were that it was a very stylish notebook. It’s subdued but it definitely make an impact – someone at school commented on how high-tech it was before I even powered on. It has a matte screen, which although it doesn’t look as cool as the gloss, it’s much easier to see without the reflections caused by the gloss. And any self-respecting gamer knows that performance comes before aesthetics.
The keyboard is fairly firm, although it’s a much different feel than a desktop if you’re used to that. It takes some getting used to; you have to push more firmly and really tell the keyboard who’s boss. Overall I like the feeling, considering it is a laptop keyboard and it must be slim.
The touchpad seems to be sensitive enough, but I prefer my Razer Diamondback mouse for fragging. Yes, you can do some serious fragging with this thing. It pulled a 3DMark05 score of about 2800. Most modern games should be playable with medium to high details enabled. I can play FarCry on high (but not very high) settings without problems. This yields more than enough power for a notebook designed to be small.
A feature I really like is the CPU throttling. I use Mobmeter to monitor it, and it’s very effective. Battery life increases without losing the power you sometimes need. With games it will throttle up to the full 2.13ghz, but when I’m just surfing the net or listening to music, it will throttle down to 800mhz. This is nice not only for battery life but for heat – less heat means a longer life for the components. According to AtiTool, the video card throttles as well. This notebook is heavy on power-saving features, without sacrificing the performance aspect.
The fast 7200rpm hard drive seems to be very effective – FarCry loads its giant environment faster on my laptop than on my desktop (which runs a RAID 0 configuration), which is probably due to the giant 2GB of RAM onboard the laptop.
The outside audio controls along with the clock have really come in handy. On long trips I can see using an MP3 CD with these controls, not wasting the battery life to fire up the whole notebook. The hotkeys for the camera, wifi, and Bluetooth are great features – turn them off to save battery life until you need them. The application keys next to the power button are nice – I can open Firefox, Thunderbird, and any other application all at the touch of a button.
This notebook can also support a second monitor, which is very useful when playing games. I put my Trillian chats on one screen while I game on the other. The graphics card takes a bit of a hit, but depending on you needs, this is a very effective solution.
My only criticism so far is that I can’t change volume in-game, with neither the dedicated audio controls nor the keyboard hotkeys. This is sometimes a problem when using headphones and the sound level goes up and you need to turn down the volume before causing permanent damage to your ear.
Overall, this system rocks. Hypersonic seems to be very good with support – all of my emails regarding shipping and a question I had about the onboard Mic volume were answered within 24 hours. Try that with Dell.
I highly recommend this laptop if you’re looking for something that’s portable but you still want to be able to indulge in some FPS action. A desktop replacement this is not, but for the gamer who needs to take a computer with him, this is the perfect system
