Reviews / Xtreme 770 - What Laptop

In Brief: Fantastic gaming and home office performance, but it comes at a price.

Based in the UK, Rock is known for its high-performance gaming laptops. The Rock Xtreme 770 (£1599 inc. VAT) is a powerful system, with some of the best gaming power we’ve seen in a long time, but, unfortunately, it comes at a price.

Weighing 4.2kg, this is the heaviest laptop in this group test. Combined with its short 95-minute battery life, mobility is almost non-existent. Short journeys are possible, but this is a laptop best used as a desktop replacement or for carrying to and from gaming tournaments.

The advantage of its large chassis is the use of a broad keyboard. Typing is always comfortable and we noticed no errors. A numeric keypad is included alongside the main board, which is essential for gaming and also useful for everyday tasks.

Where the Rock excels is in raw performance. In common with all laptops in this group test, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor is backed by 2048MB of memory. Even when editing video or multi-tasking, there’s more than enough power to keep working quickly and in comfort.

3D power is even more impressive and ideal for gaming. The high-end NVIDIA GPU ensures all games run at full speed and resolution. The only downside to all this power is that the cooling fans are forced to run loudly and constantly, which can prove very distracting.

HD screen

With a sharp 1920 x 1200 pixel screen, high definition videos will run in their native resolution. Games and photos look great, although screen brightness is far lower than we’d prefer. This isn’t a problem up close, but limits visibility when viewed from a distance.

A 160GB hard drive provides plenty of space for all personal files. Its fast rotational speed also means you can quickly run games directly from the hard drive for improved performance. A dual layer DVD rewriter can be used to save up to 8.5GB of data to compatible discs.

With a built in camera above the screen, it’s easy to take photos and add live video streams to instant messaging software and online games. A fingerprint scanner is also included to add personalised security.

Rock is well known for its impressive level of warranty cover and this is no exception. Three years of protection are provided as standard, so your laptop will be collected, repaired and returned to you in the event of a fault. This could be a primary selling point for many users.

For raw gaming and media editing power the Rock Xtreme 770 offers all the performance you’ll need. With its impressive warranty protecting first-time buyers, you can feel safe in your purchase, but the loud cooling fans may well deter more discerning consumers.


VERDICT

Battery life: 95 minutes
Value for money: 7
Performance: 8
Features: 8
Build quality: 7

Overall 7/10