Im looking to buy a laptop to replace my desktop, so the portability factor does not matter. I will use my laptop mostly for video (watching and editing), sound (listening and editing mp3s) and software development (I'm a programmer). I'm not a gamer, but my theory is that a laptop that is built to support memory-intensive, graphic-intensive and performance-demanding games would be able to handle everything else with ease.
I have been looking at two Toshiba gaming laptops:
X205-S9359
$1600, 2GB DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU, one Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT video card, two 160GB 5400rpm hard drives
X205-SLI4
$2500, 3GB DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM, new 2.1GHz 45nm "Penryn" Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU, two Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics cards operating in SLI mode, two 160GB 7200rpm hard drives.
Those are the only differences it seems and all other specs are the same b/t the two laptops. I read that Toshiba might be trying to phase out the X205-S9359 to introduce their SLI counterparts to the market, that's why there's a price drop. The MSRP price for both are around $2500.
What I want to know is will there be a noticeable difference in speed and performance between the 5400rpm and 7200rpm harddisks? My desktop currently runs two 10000rpm SCSI harddisks in SCSI-RAID 0 configuration because I really dislike lagging disks...
Also, the fact that the SLI one uses dual graphics cards is pretty cool, but again, will it be noticeable for my purposes of watching HD-DVD movies and some graphics editing? And why is the SLI one using the lower-model 8600GT instead of the 8700GT?
Lastly, I notice conflicting facts from online sources: one saying the SLI laptop does NOT have the ExpressCard slot and another saying it does. The X205-9359 does have an ExpressCard slot. Can someone please verify for me?
The price difference between the two is pretty big and choosing the older model is very tempting if the difference in performance is not that big. However, if you guys think the SLI will kill the x205-9359, then I would be willing to shell out the extra $$. Thanks.
I have been looking at two Toshiba gaming laptops:
X205-S9359
$1600, 2GB DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU, one Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT video card, two 160GB 5400rpm hard drives
X205-SLI4
$2500, 3GB DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM, new 2.1GHz 45nm "Penryn" Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU, two Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics cards operating in SLI mode, two 160GB 7200rpm hard drives.
Those are the only differences it seems and all other specs are the same b/t the two laptops. I read that Toshiba might be trying to phase out the X205-S9359 to introduce their SLI counterparts to the market, that's why there's a price drop. The MSRP price for both are around $2500.
What I want to know is will there be a noticeable difference in speed and performance between the 5400rpm and 7200rpm harddisks? My desktop currently runs two 10000rpm SCSI harddisks in SCSI-RAID 0 configuration because I really dislike lagging disks...
Also, the fact that the SLI one uses dual graphics cards is pretty cool, but again, will it be noticeable for my purposes of watching HD-DVD movies and some graphics editing? And why is the SLI one using the lower-model 8600GT instead of the 8700GT?
Lastly, I notice conflicting facts from online sources: one saying the SLI laptop does NOT have the ExpressCard slot and another saying it does. The X205-9359 does have an ExpressCard slot. Can someone please verify for me?
The price difference between the two is pretty big and choosing the older model is very tempting if the difference in performance is not that big. However, if you guys think the SLI will kill the x205-9359, then I would be willing to shell out the extra $$. Thanks.
