Gary’s 4750 Review
Order Process:
The ordering took a while but it was ok. My cheque had gotten to PCTorque a little late so I got the 2nd batch of 4750’s. That batch came in Thursday 29th I had my laptop Friday 30th at 10 in the morning (next day air). I was overwhelmed by the quick replies and eagerness of all of the employees at PCTorque whenever I need the help. TRUST ME I sent back and forth about 50 emails probably and they answered everyone within an hour(unless I sent one on Friday night then I get the response Monday morning). One thing however, I sent in a change to PCTorque, told them I wanted Bluetooth installed too. It was payed for it using a credit card however when I received my laptop I haven’t got Bluetooth in it(more later in the review). Also I didn’t receive my Targus 312 backpack yet because they were out of stock too. Other then these two things the order process went great.
Delivery:
The delivery was quick and on time by UPS. ONE MAJOR FLAW although everything went alright THEY LEFT THIS $3000 LAPTOP AT THE FRONT DOOR. I know this has been happening with everyone and their ups deliveries because I’ve read a lot about it in the forums but honestly when it happens to you and you see YOUR $3000 sitting on your front porch waiting for someone to steal it, its not a pretty sight.
LCD SCREEN:
I know most of you are waiting to hear about this. NO DEAD PIXELS
The screen is beautiful it is glossy when its off but while its on its not that bad. Black really looks like black not a shade of grayish black or anything it actually looks black its amazing. Colours are vibrant, sharp everything just looks perfect. I’m in love with this screen, cant tell you cause you wont believe me until you see it for yourself.
Left and Right Palm Rest:
Left:
Most people are still wondering what’s under the left palm rest. It is for a fact the hard drive. The TV Tuner as most people say isn’t really that big it fits in about an inch n a half on the far right front side of the laptop. The hard drive does make the left palm rest warm and sometimes the touchpad too a little bit but it isn’t something that will interfere or do any damage to you. Under the right palm rest is the battery and optional TV Tuner. I opted for no TV Tuner because I need this laptop to study, I know I’ve got games on it already but at least TV wont be one of the things that’s getting in the way of me and my university work. Also I guess I’ll mention in here, the top silver part with the buttons and the led’s. The area between the buttons and the led’s gets warm this is because the heatsink for the processor is under that.
Processor and Hard drive Heat:
I got the 4750-V which comes with the AMD64 3400+ CPU. This baby can get hot but right now I’m running on outlet power at 2.23GHz and the temps are running at about 46*C while typing this review. The hard drive is running at about 41*C right now while writing the left palm rest is a TINY LITTLE bit warm but this isn’t very bad. Its what I would expect from a DTR. However I am at work right now I have the laptop raised about … well everyone knows what TicTac’s are ( the candy ) and the tiny little box it comes in I’ve put 4 of those under the laptop one at each corner to raise it. It gets raised a little less then half an inch and the temps seem to be a lot better then they are if I leave the laptop just on a flat surface.
Keyboard:
The keyboard is great is great I love the sound of laptop keyboards. I will have to get used to some of the keys and where they’re placed. I’m so used to my Logitech mx700 cordless duo keyboard and now this its roomy enough its just that some keys are placed at different places then my usual keyboard which I’ve been using forever. It’ll take a little bit but I’ll get used to the keys pretty easily. I don’t feel any flex or bend to the keyboard it seems solid. The whole laptop seems solid. Its overall GREAT.
Touchpad:
The touchpad does get warm sometimes due to the hard drive being underneath it. It doesn’t cause too many problems or anything just letting you know. Under the hard drive is the wireless card, Bluetooth (if u got it) and the modem. So it can get pretty hot with those things down there but it keeps itself pretty cool considering what you’ve got there.
Speakers:
The speakers sound great on this machine. For a laptop these are good speakers, the sound quality isn’t bad (I think its alright for a laptop). I chose the 5.1 settings and it works great. Subwoofer adds it’s little umph and its alright at home I will be using my custom made speakers :P great sound but on the go these speakers are good for a laptop in my opinion.
Camera:
The webcam on the laptop at first seemed a bit dark but now that I'm using it, it doesn’t seem to be as dark as before the colours seem to look like they are all proper and everything is in order. It isn’t the best camera for movement, it doesn’t seem to pick up movement if it’s too quick or things like that but it still works alright.
Wifi:
A lot of people said to switch the antenna wire. I have a black wire coming to the wireless card it’s on the outer clip right now I tried to move it to the inner one last night. When I moved it to the inner clip the signal went down not up like most people have said. I have now moved it back to the outer clip and the signal was back up. It isn’t the greatest signal but I think I can get about 3 or 4 bars in the XP network connection thing.
Battery:
I ran for about 1hr and 40 minz on battery the first day i got this laptop. During that use i was installing windows updates (and downloading wifi connection) playing music for a bit and also installing some programs from cd. Im pretty sure if you dim the screen and keep the laptop on portable/laptop power scheme you can get at LEAST 2+ hours of battery life out of it. I hadn't dimmed the screen very much maybe one or 2 things down from full brightness while i was using it.
Benchmarks:
3dmark03 = 3437
3dmark01se = 12551
PCMark04 = 4056
Aquamark =
Triangles/Sec : 8645988tps
Frames/Sec : 28.72fps
GFX : 3426
CPU : 8870
Overall : 28721
Mobile Meter: (while writing up this review)
CPU Speed: 2.23 GHz
CPU temp: 47*C
HDD temp: 42*C
Problems:
1)The Bluetooth. I ordered the original laptop without Bluetooth but even before my cheque got to PCTorque I emailed them and sent them a request to have Bluetooth installed too. I payed for this using a credit card and all was finalized I received the new invoice via email so I figured everything was set. Right now I don’t see Bluetooth or anything relating to Bluetooth in the device drivers. Opened the hard drive bay and the hard drive is there along with the v.90 modem and the wireless card but nothing else. When pressing FN+F11 the wireless turns on and off, you can tell from the 3 lights on the LCD panel at the bottom the one with the envelope on top it is green when wireless is turned on. When pressing FN+F12 nothing happens. This key combination is supposed to turn the Bluetooth on which would make that same led turn orange. But the laptop I received didn’t have the Bluetooth card installed in it so either they send me it and I’ll put it in, or I’ll have to send it back(really doubt I’m going to be doing that now) or I’ll get my money back for it.
2)The Targus 312(silver/black) backpack wasn’t delivered this isn’t a problem it was just out of stock but I thought I’d mention it anyways. I was notified when receiving my ups tracking number and they gave me the option of taking the Targus 315(blue/black) instead but I told them I’d rather wait for the one that I had ordered.
Pictures:
No pictures yet, havne't gotten a chance to take any but i will do as soon as possible.
If you've got any questions/comments feel free. Any other benchmarks you want me to run let me know (if you can give me a link to the program that'd be great because im on dialup here at work)
Order Process:
The ordering took a while but it was ok. My cheque had gotten to PCTorque a little late so I got the 2nd batch of 4750’s. That batch came in Thursday 29th I had my laptop Friday 30th at 10 in the morning (next day air). I was overwhelmed by the quick replies and eagerness of all of the employees at PCTorque whenever I need the help. TRUST ME I sent back and forth about 50 emails probably and they answered everyone within an hour(unless I sent one on Friday night then I get the response Monday morning). One thing however, I sent in a change to PCTorque, told them I wanted Bluetooth installed too. It was payed for it using a credit card however when I received my laptop I haven’t got Bluetooth in it(more later in the review). Also I didn’t receive my Targus 312 backpack yet because they were out of stock too. Other then these two things the order process went great.
Delivery:
The delivery was quick and on time by UPS. ONE MAJOR FLAW although everything went alright THEY LEFT THIS $3000 LAPTOP AT THE FRONT DOOR. I know this has been happening with everyone and their ups deliveries because I’ve read a lot about it in the forums but honestly when it happens to you and you see YOUR $3000 sitting on your front porch waiting for someone to steal it, its not a pretty sight.
LCD SCREEN:
I know most of you are waiting to hear about this. NO DEAD PIXELS
The screen is beautiful it is glossy when its off but while its on its not that bad. Black really looks like black not a shade of grayish black or anything it actually looks black its amazing. Colours are vibrant, sharp everything just looks perfect. I’m in love with this screen, cant tell you cause you wont believe me until you see it for yourself.Left and Right Palm Rest:
Left:
Most people are still wondering what’s under the left palm rest. It is for a fact the hard drive. The TV Tuner as most people say isn’t really that big it fits in about an inch n a half on the far right front side of the laptop. The hard drive does make the left palm rest warm and sometimes the touchpad too a little bit but it isn’t something that will interfere or do any damage to you. Under the right palm rest is the battery and optional TV Tuner. I opted for no TV Tuner because I need this laptop to study, I know I’ve got games on it already but at least TV wont be one of the things that’s getting in the way of me and my university work. Also I guess I’ll mention in here, the top silver part with the buttons and the led’s. The area between the buttons and the led’s gets warm this is because the heatsink for the processor is under that.
Processor and Hard drive Heat:
I got the 4750-V which comes with the AMD64 3400+ CPU. This baby can get hot but right now I’m running on outlet power at 2.23GHz and the temps are running at about 46*C while typing this review. The hard drive is running at about 41*C right now while writing the left palm rest is a TINY LITTLE bit warm but this isn’t very bad. Its what I would expect from a DTR. However I am at work right now I have the laptop raised about … well everyone knows what TicTac’s are ( the candy ) and the tiny little box it comes in I’ve put 4 of those under the laptop one at each corner to raise it. It gets raised a little less then half an inch and the temps seem to be a lot better then they are if I leave the laptop just on a flat surface.
Keyboard:
The keyboard is great is great I love the sound of laptop keyboards. I will have to get used to some of the keys and where they’re placed. I’m so used to my Logitech mx700 cordless duo keyboard and now this its roomy enough its just that some keys are placed at different places then my usual keyboard which I’ve been using forever. It’ll take a little bit but I’ll get used to the keys pretty easily. I don’t feel any flex or bend to the keyboard it seems solid. The whole laptop seems solid. Its overall GREAT.
Touchpad:
The touchpad does get warm sometimes due to the hard drive being underneath it. It doesn’t cause too many problems or anything just letting you know. Under the hard drive is the wireless card, Bluetooth (if u got it) and the modem. So it can get pretty hot with those things down there but it keeps itself pretty cool considering what you’ve got there.
Speakers:
The speakers sound great on this machine. For a laptop these are good speakers, the sound quality isn’t bad (I think its alright for a laptop). I chose the 5.1 settings and it works great. Subwoofer adds it’s little umph and its alright at home I will be using my custom made speakers :P great sound but on the go these speakers are good for a laptop in my opinion.
Camera:
The webcam on the laptop at first seemed a bit dark but now that I'm using it, it doesn’t seem to be as dark as before the colours seem to look like they are all proper and everything is in order. It isn’t the best camera for movement, it doesn’t seem to pick up movement if it’s too quick or things like that but it still works alright.
Wifi:
A lot of people said to switch the antenna wire. I have a black wire coming to the wireless card it’s on the outer clip right now I tried to move it to the inner one last night. When I moved it to the inner clip the signal went down not up like most people have said. I have now moved it back to the outer clip and the signal was back up. It isn’t the greatest signal but I think I can get about 3 or 4 bars in the XP network connection thing.
Battery:
I ran for about 1hr and 40 minz on battery the first day i got this laptop. During that use i was installing windows updates (and downloading wifi connection) playing music for a bit and also installing some programs from cd. Im pretty sure if you dim the screen and keep the laptop on portable/laptop power scheme you can get at LEAST 2+ hours of battery life out of it. I hadn't dimmed the screen very much maybe one or 2 things down from full brightness while i was using it.
Benchmarks:
3dmark03 = 3437
3dmark01se = 12551
PCMark04 = 4056
Aquamark =
Triangles/Sec : 8645988tps
Frames/Sec : 28.72fps
GFX : 3426
CPU : 8870
Overall : 28721
Mobile Meter: (while writing up this review)
CPU Speed: 2.23 GHz
CPU temp: 47*C
HDD temp: 42*C
Problems:
1)The Bluetooth. I ordered the original laptop without Bluetooth but even before my cheque got to PCTorque I emailed them and sent them a request to have Bluetooth installed too. I payed for this using a credit card and all was finalized I received the new invoice via email so I figured everything was set. Right now I don’t see Bluetooth or anything relating to Bluetooth in the device drivers. Opened the hard drive bay and the hard drive is there along with the v.90 modem and the wireless card but nothing else. When pressing FN+F11 the wireless turns on and off, you can tell from the 3 lights on the LCD panel at the bottom the one with the envelope on top it is green when wireless is turned on. When pressing FN+F12 nothing happens. This key combination is supposed to turn the Bluetooth on which would make that same led turn orange. But the laptop I received didn’t have the Bluetooth card installed in it so either they send me it and I’ll put it in, or I’ll have to send it back(really doubt I’m going to be doing that now) or I’ll get my money back for it.
2)The Targus 312(silver/black) backpack wasn’t delivered this isn’t a problem it was just out of stock but I thought I’d mention it anyways. I was notified when receiving my ups tracking number and they gave me the option of taking the Targus 315(blue/black) instead but I told them I’d rather wait for the one that I had ordered.
Pictures:
No pictures yet, havne't gotten a chance to take any but i will do as soon as possible.
If you've got any questions/comments feel free. Any other benchmarks you want me to run let me know (if you can give me a link to the program that'd be great because im on dialup here at work)
This should be my desktop replacement for many years down the road.
. I'd say the only thing worthwhile about getting a AX7 would be for the accidental damage warranty.
This will really help my decision a lot quicker. I am almost convince 
