Toshiba Satellite X205 SLI4 Gaming Notebook

Name: Toshiba Satellite X205 SLI4 Gaming Notebook
Brand: Toshiba

by Jeff Bouton — Monday, March 10, 2008, 12:30 PM EDT

Introduction and Product Specifications

Page 1: Introduction and Product Specifications

Mobile computing has come a long way in the last few years. Notebook manufacturers have been squeezing more power and features into ever more portable packages. As technologies have continued to be refined, shrinking in size and power requirements, manufacturers have been able to expand their creative ideas, bring ever more impressive options to market to fit virtually any budget. In recent months, we have seen excellent examples of both ends of the spectrum, from the budget oriented Asus Eee PC to powerful gaming/desktop replacement systems from Dell, Lenovo and Asus. Today, we're happy to add Toshiba to that list with an evaluation of their Satellite X205-SLi4 Notebook.

The Toshiba Satellite X205-SLI4 is a feature-rich laptop geared toward mobile gaming, with a potent Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, and gobs of memory and storage, while also sporting SLI ready GeForce 8600M GTs. Loaded with Windows Vista Ultimate and coupled with an HDTV ready Tuner, the X205-SLi4 makes a good impression right out of the box. This is one of the top laptops Toshiba has to offer with a host of premium features to position the Satellite X205-SLI4 near the top of its class. In the pages ahead, we'll spotlight the many features this premium laptop has to offer, then we'll run it through its paces to see how its performance compares to several other laptops in its class.

Toshiba Satellite X205-SLi4 Notebook

System Specifications - As Reviewed

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (32-bit)

Processor
Processor Type: Core™2 Duo
Processor Number: T8100
Processor Speed: 2.10GHz
Front Side Bus: 800MHz

Memory Size: 3072MB
Memory Speed: PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM

Display Size: 17.0" widescreen
Display Type: WSXGA+ with TruBrite® Technology
Display Resolution: 1680x1050, Supports 720p content

Graphics Engine: NVIDIA® SLI Dual GeForce® 8600M GT
Graphics Memory: 767MB total: 512MB DDR3 discrete memory
up to 255MB shared memory w/NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology

Hard Drive Size: 160GB
Hard Drive Speed: 7200rpm

Secondary Hard Drive Size: 160GB 2nd HDD
Secondary Hard Drive Speed:7200rpm
Optical Drives: HD DVD-ROM/DVD SuperMulti drive
supporting 12 formats

Toshiba TV Tuner:
TOSHIBA USB HDTV Tuner (External)

Wireless LAN:
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965 AGN (802.11a/g/n)

Bluetooth:
Bluetooth® V2.0 + EDR

Webcam:
Webcam and microphone built into LCD bezel

Input Devices
Internet Launch button
Dual Mode Pad
CD/DVD Buttons
(Play/Pause, Stop, Prev Track, Next Track)
104 key US keyboard with 10 Key Pad
Security
Finger Print Reader
Modem

LAN: 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN

Audio:
Headphone jack (stereo)
Microphone jack (mono)
S/P DIF output port (shared with headphone port)
4 harman/kardon® stereo speakers with subwoofer

AC Adapter
180W (19V x 9.5A) 100-240V AC Adapter

Battery Type
Li-Ion (6000mAh)

PC Express Slot
1-ExpressCard™ Slot
USB Ports
6-USB (2.0)
iLINK
i.LINK™ IEEE-1394
Media Port
5-in-1 Bridge Media Adapter
HDMI
HDMI output port
S/P DIF output port
S/P DIF output port
S-Video
TV-out (S Video)

Software *
TOSHIBA ConfigFree®
TOSHIBA Disc Creator
TOSHIBA HD DVD Player
TOSHIBA Security Assist
TOSHIBA Speech System
Microsoft® Office Trial Home and Student 2007 Edition (60-day trial)
Ulead® DVD MovieFactory® 5 for Toshiba
McAfee® Internet Security Suite (30-day trial)
Google Picasa™
TOSHIBA Games Console, designed by WildTangent®

Weight
Starting at 9.37 lbs.

Color
Flare Carmine

Warranty *
1-Yr Parts and Labor, 1-Year Battery

The Toshiba Satellite X205 comes in several flavors; with the SLi2 and SLi4 models being most similar. The Satellite X205-S9800 comes with Vista Home Premium, a more powerful GeForce 8700M GPU, but doesn't offer SLI and sports only a single 250GB 5200RPM hard drive and 2GB of memory. The next model up is the Satellite X205-SLi2 which also comes with Vista Home Premium while adding a faster processor, two 5400RPM 160GB hard drives and SLI capable GeForce 8600M GT GPUs with 512MB of memory and an additional 255MB of shared system memory. The Satellite X205-SLi4 takes things to the next level, upgrading to Vista Ultimate, dual 7200RPM 160GB hard drives, 3GB of DDR2 memory and an external HDTV capable Tuner for an additional $500.