Toshiba Satellite X205-SLI5 17-inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

List Price: $1,949.99 Discount Price: $1,369.95

Features:

• Portable multimedia powerhouse for HD video enthusiasts and PC gamers--17-inch LCD and four Harman Kardon speakers with subwoofer
• 2.40 GHz "Penryn" Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 processor, dual 160 GB hard drives (for 320 GB capacity), 3 GB RAM (4 GB max), dual-layer DVD burning (with Labelflash disc printing)
• Quad-band Wi-Fi LAN (802.11a/b/g/n); Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; Gigabit Ethernet; Nvidia SLI Dual GeForce 8600M graphics (up to 767 MB of available memory)
• Connectivity: 6 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 HDMI, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, 1 ExpressCard 34/54. 5-in-1 memory card reader
• Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (with Media Center capabilities)

Customer Reviews:

Giant. Heavy. Awesome! [Posted on 2008-09-13]
If you want a desktop PC sitting in your lap, get this. If you want a laptop PC, don't get this. You may think like I did, "Oh, it can't be that big. And, it's a laptop, so I can use it anywhere."

Not. You can't easily lift it with one hand. Once you put it down somewhere, you'll need to be motivated to take it somewhere else.

Do yourself a favor and invest in some killer hardware for your desktop.

Don't waste your money [Posted on 2008-09-20]
If you're reading this review right now, then chances are you want to make sure you are making the right choice.
Let me assure you, if you're planning on purchasing a Toshiba laptop, you are not.

Please, google "toshiba laptop complaints" and get the REAL reviews.
As for my input...
this is a conversation that took place in an authorized toshiba shipping store:
me: "Man, let me tell you something... NEVER buy a Toshiba laptop."
clerk: "With the ammount of them that we ship back every month, I never would."

..just in case you were wondering how many laptops this authorized postal service receives from customer and ships out for repair every month - "..about 30" is the answer that I got

Good luck.

Great gaming laptop - at least for casual gamer.... [Posted on 2008-09-26]
I purchased the x205-s9810 back in July to replace a Dell Inspiron I had. I did it primarily to play WOW and get more than 12 FPS ;-). I haven't tried any other heavy duty games like Crysis or anything, although I hear that it runs very well with it. (I did try Star Wars Galaxies, but that game's graphics suck anyway....)

Pros:

[...]

Ports: All major inputs and outputs (6 USB, HDMI, etc...).

Touch Pad: Touch pad is very cool (especially the volume control).

Keyboard: Keyboard layout rocks. Ilove the silver matte finish.

Speakers: the Sound!!! WOW. Best sound out of a laptop I've heard.

Media keys and camera are a cool feature. Overall aesthetics are nice.

OS: Vista is fine if you turn off all the annoying admin pop-ups, configure the windows and views, etc... I've only ran into problems doing heavy networking, WebDav, etc.. But then again, it's not for business, but pleasure and gaming.

Fingerprint Scanner: I use this everyday to log in. Very nice feature.

Cons:
These are MINOR cons (and why I gave it 4 stars; wish they had 1/2 stars....):

Glossy Finish: As others have said the glossy finish, both on the monitor and cover, grab finger prints like nobody's business. BUT did I buy it for looks? No. So that's not a big deal to me. I wouldn't pass this computer up just beacause of looks...

Fans: The fans blow out to the right and left. This means that if you use a mouse a lot (like I do), your hand will burn up in no time. I have resorted to taping a piece of folded paper to the right side to deflect the heat away. This heat really only comes into play when you're gaming. They should have made the fans blow out the back instead.

DVD Drive: I've only used the DVD drive once to install something and it was VERY loud; vibrated like crazy. I'll have to try another soon to get a better idea. The laptop was, however, sitting on a stand at a 30 deg. angle so that might have had something to do with it.

Standby: For some reason, every now and then, when I put the unit on standby, and try and unplug a USB device, it shuts down. Now, this is probably my fault due to the pulling of the USB device andnot stopping it first. If I pull it out first, and then put it on stand by, everything is fine.

Power Brick: Yep...it's a brick. Heavy and hot especially when gaming. BUT AGAIN, what do you expect from a gaming laptop! Doesn't bother me a bit.

Weight: Heavy, heavy, heavy. But I don't care as I would expect that from a gaming laptop. Not a big deal to me. I'm not a wimp so I can handle carrying it around the house and to the local gaming coffee house.

Conclsions:
For the money and features, and especially if you're a casual gamer, this is the best gaming laptop on the market so far. If you are a intermediate to advanced computer user, the computer will end up working like a charm once you configure Vista like you need it (I had bought a copy of XP in case Vista was as bad as people said, but I didn't need it). I am very happy with the laptop so far.

Laptop [Posted on 2008-10-06]
Fast shipping.......few problem with the CD directory (common with Toshiba laptops) but overall I am pleased.

Great Computer [Posted on 2008-10-09]
This laptop is good for its price level This thing has worked well for me since I bought it 3-4 months ago, although not from amazon.(I got it for $1250 after looking a bit)

Pros:
Its got plenty of memory.

Processor speed is good, while 2ghz is not the best out there, having 2 of them makes up for this.

Great videocard, the video card in this thing is petty good.

Plenty of ram; it can support up to 4gb of ram but only has 3 istalled which should be plenty for most people.

Good screen size


Cons:
It says 320gb total for two hard drives, however mine say they are only about 150(oddly enough) each instead of the promised 160, this is only a minor annoyance to me really.

Heavy, another minor annoyance, I dont carry this everywhere so it doesnt bother me too much; this is really a desktop replacement though.

Keyboard took some getting used to.

Now, the only major thing here is lack of battery life, at mabe an hour to a couple hours depending on what your doing this thing will not be far from the wall for long, but like I said this is really supposed to be a desktop replacement.

Overall, if you need a laptop to replace a desktop then this would definitly be for you, I find its a good computer and can run anything I use, the games Dawn of War and Rome Total War will run very well on it with graphics most of the way up. I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 mainly due to battery life.

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