Every one has an opinion...
View your account
You have no items in your basket
View your basket
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
View your basket
<

Reviews / Xtreme SL Pro - What Laptop
» What Laptop Silver Award

-

IN BRIEF: It’s compromised and expensive, but nothing can touch this machine for power

Rock has forged a name as on of the most prominent laptop manufacturers when it comes to gaming, thanks to a range of well specified machines.

The Xtreme SL Pro (£2499 inc. VAT) is the largest laptop in the group, with a 20-inch display and weighing in at 7.3kg. as such, you won’t want to carry it any further than your desk, but it is more mobile than a desktop system – so it can be taken to LAN parties where you can play against other gamers.

The screen’s glossy super TFT coating results in stunning quality, with deep and vibrant colours, and images appear larger than life. A native resolution of 1680 x 1024 (WSXGA+) is lower than three of the other machines, so you won’t be able to get full resolution in all games.

SLI graphics
Graphics technology is as cutting-edge as it gets, featuring two nVidia GeForcce Go 7950GTX cards in an SLI (Scalable Link Interface) setup. With other SLI machines still using 7900 cards, the rock has a useful advantage when it comes to gaming. This was highlighted in our benchmarking tests where the rock was way ahead of the opposition. In our 3DMark 2003 test, the SL Pro achieved a score of 30, 474 – considerably more than anything we’ve ever seen before, but you do have to pay for the privilege.

Sturdy materials are used throughout the rock’s chassis, allowing for a relatively thin display. After the magnesium-built Dell, the rock offers the strongest chassis in the group. However, the keyboard is cramped considering the size of the chassis. After an hour or so of gaming, the system generated a lot of heat. This is a common problem within this group, due to the high-performance components used, but is nothing to worry about.

Processing is dealt with by an AMD Turion X2 TL-60 chip. With both cores running at 2GHz, there’s plenty of performance on offer. Memory is relatively low at 1024MB, but we experienced minimal lag when running everyday applications. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to record a MobileMark 2005 score, as the battery needed to be recharged before the benchmark completed. At 71 minutes, battery life is the worst in this group. The two 100GB hard drives offer more than enough space for all your games, music and video files. Spinning at 7200rpm, performance is also given a boost

When it comes to out-and-out gaming performance, the rock Xtreme SL Pro is without peer. There are flaws – the lack of mobility is a major disadvantage. However, the huge screen makes gaming a pleasure, and the rock deals with the current crop of games with ease.


© rockdirect 2010 | Descriptions and prices subject to change without notice. | | |
rock, A Division of Stone Computers Ltd, Granite One Hundred, Acton Gate, Stafford, Staffordshire, ST18 9AA
-