Novatech X50

[BarryB]

To BarryB -

What put me off the Rizeon was the lack of GDDR3 memory for the graphics card, which the X50MV has. Of course whether it justifies the extra £200 is as you've both stated down to the person. Would buying a P9500 and an extra gig of RAM be worth that much?

Fair comment, the appearance seems to put most people off

As I don't intend to use it for games I don't think the DDR3 or CPU will be of much consequence to me. I think it's a lot of laptop for the money and worth paying the extra couple of hundred quid over a fairly basic spec laptop. My main concern is how noisy it will be, they told me it was quiet when compared to other laptops in its class, I'm hoping it will just whisper

[henrybutt]

As for noise, I didn't notice any fan noise while i was using it (for about an hour). This also included running 3DMark06 which is quite graphics / cpu intensive. (Just incase you are wondering, it scored 5005 on AC Power because I forgot to plug it in first :S)

@ Shroomy, Sorry I didn't take any pictures of it but I should be getting a forum review unit in about two weeks so if you want to hold off until then, I can get some pictures for you As for Windows SideShow, I had a very breif play around with it but as the unit I was using was a sample, the choice of SideShow applications was limited although i did try out solitare

@ Oiad, The notebook isn't actually in their showroom at the moment but I guess it will be soon . Also, most of the pictures I posted were from another laptop which uses the same chassis with a different paint finish so the Novatech actually looks quite different. Also, the novatech photos I posted do not really look much like the laptop does in the flesh to be honest. I think cameras really struggle to capture the 3D paint effect.

[Shroomy]

@ Shroomy, Sorry I didn't take any pictures of it but I should be getting a forum review unit in about two weeks so if you want to hold off until then, I can get some pictures for you As for Windows SideShow, I had a very breif play around with it but as the unit I was using was a sample, the choice of SideShow applications was limited although i did try out solitare

Two weeks? I'm getting mine in 4 days!

Solitare on slideshow? hell yes that's awesome! I thought it was emails only!

[Oiad]

Hey Shroomy, looks like you'll be posting those pics first then. Do us proud and show us some better photo skills than the one's we've seen so far.

@ Oiad, The notebook isn't actually in their showroom at the moment but I guess it will be soon . Also, most of the pictures I posted were from another laptop which uses the same chassis with a different paint finish so the Novatech actually looks quite different. Also, the novatech photos I posted do not really look much like the laptop does in the flesh to be honest. I think cameras really struggle to capture the 3D paint effect.

Ah, that must be the fabled Pegasus 680. Was gonna say, doesn't the X50 have a really lush, black finish?

[henrybutt]

The pictures weren't actuall from the Pegasus 680 - they were from a notebook from a german company called "one", who offered it with santa rosa, however, looking at their website it seems they have replaced it with the JHL90 from Compal now.

The X50 doesn't actually have a black finish. It is a lovely shade of dark blue, however this might change slightly in the final product as the one i saw was a pre production sample.

[Shroomy]

Hey Shroomy, looks like you'll be posting those pics first then. Do us proud and show us some better photo skills than the one's we've seen so far.

Hehe, no bother mate I'll have em up on Tuesday afternoon/Wednesday morning with a review soon after, will take videos of Cryis and whatnot being played!

The wait is killing me, everyday is SOOO long waiting for it! The Novatech website has a 3D view of the X50, which gives you a better look at it.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/r...c=gaming&r=X50

Look at the tabs, on the left side below the main picture!

[Oiad]

Don't worry only, what *counts* 50-72 hours to wait then.
Hehe, interesting little gimmick btw. But I think I'll wait to have a good look in person and test out the build quality before I want to make any further judgments, you pictures aside too. It at least think it looks better than the Compal equivilent which brings me to...

The pictures weren't actuall from the Pegasus 680 - they were from a notebook from a german company called "one", who offered it with santa rosa, however, looking at their website it seems they have replaced it with the JHL90 from Compal now.

The X50 doesn't actually have a black finish. It is a lovely shade of dark blue, however this might change slightly in the final product as the one i saw was a pre production sample.

..uck, the JHL90. I guess they must have felt the same way about the chassis as Rock did. Rock replaced it with an Asus model (I don't know the name, it's like the C90S without the huge, quad-fan on the back) which is also highly rated on the chassis list, IMO. Yet again their photography isn't exactly great, choosing some awful angles.

The fact that it's also only DDR2 with the 9600M GT is a bit of a put-off and I don't know why you'd give it 1GB memory, which it will never be able to fully access with the 128-bit interface. It's the same thing as with the C90S 8600M DDR2/GDDR3 cards all over again I swear...

Anyway, too off track. You'll have to excuse my eyesite really dark blues and greens can look black to me and sometimes blacks look like dark colours too. I any case, it wouldn't bother me, whichever shade they choose.

[henrybutt]

I think that the JHL90 looks pretty bad. I would say that ONE went for the compal because it is probably cheaper. As for Rock, I would say that they switched for a couple of reasons - they have been taken over by Stone Computers who sell business laptops, and the Pegasus 520 (Asus Z97V) is much more business like than the 680. Also, I would imagine that the parts for the Asus barebone are easier to get hold of which would fit in the the onsite warranty that stone offers. Also, I think after all the trouble Rock had with the build quality of the previous vestal (P670), they were probably put off vestel slightly :S. Apparantly, the Pegasus 520 will have a feature which will set it apart from the competition, however more information hasn't been released because apparantly it is under NDA until next week .

I would have said that in the pictures it looked grey / dark blue. I think it would look good in most colours though!

[Shroomy]

Don't worry only, what *counts* 50-72 hours to wait then.

Soo close, yet so far! :d

That Rizeon JHL90 is one ugly Laptop, so plain looking and not eyecatching at all! :/

Henry, I misunderstood your last comment, you mean to say that they replaced the X50 with the same chassis as the JHL90? please god no!

[Oiad]

Think he meant that it is a replacement in their lineup for what the Vestal (X50) model use to fulfill. A 15" with the strongest, mid-level GPU card available and most recent mobile chipset.

Also, I think after all the trouble Rock had with the build quality of the previous vestal (P670), they were probably put off Vestel slightly :S.

Correct me if wrong, but I'm betting you visit the Rockforum a lot. I've browsed through and you're right, none of them seem satisfied with the P670's quality. This of course makes it very hard because then no-one bought the P680 to say whether the new Vestal model was a vast improvement or not, based on the older models problems. And now they've stopped selling it altogether no one will know until the X50MV arrives on Shroomy's doorstep.

Apparently, the Pegasus 520 will have a feature which will set it apart from the competition, however more information hasn't been released because apparently it is under NDA until next week

Learning to love those NDA's. Wonder what it could be though - 'we have... a slideshow screen too!'