Rock recently asked us to take a look at the company's new notebook variant, the CTX Pro.
We've seen iterations of this in various guises throughout the year - first with 7800 GTX and Pentium M then with Core Duo and Radeon X1800 XT.
This version has a Core 2 Duo T7600 chip (at 2.33GHz) and GeForce 7950 graphics, as well as 1GB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive.
Rather than going through and comprehensively benchmark it - you know how fast Core 2 Duo chips are, and you are certainly aware of the 7950 performance - we subjected it to a quick test.
Can I happily game on this laptop over Christmas?
The answer is a resounding 'yes', which will be great relief to anyone picking up the laptop as a sole gaming machine. Company of Heroes, the Chrimbo title of choice, runs happily at 1680x1050 with every detail maxxed out and anti-aliasing turned on.
Counter-Strike and WoW, sure to be popular fixtures this holiday season, all run at maximum at the native 1920x1200 screen resolution - although neither of these games are particularly taxing.
Chances are you'll be getting to grips with Medieval 2: Total War, and there is a caveat with performance here. 'Just' one gig of RAM is cutting it a little fine with games, especially if you're looking to upgrade to Vista in January, and the hard disk is not really fast enough for in-game swapping. Both Medieval and CoH will benefit from another gig to move performance along.
Price differs according to the precise spec you want, but if you happen to turn up a little flusher than usual on Christmas day, have a look over at Rock and see what you can grab.
In the name of in-depth hardware journalism, we'll be bringing you our thoughts on the 7950 after Christmas, having played Company of Heroes all week. We know, it's a tough life.
Let us know your thoughts on the notebook and your Christmas games this year over in the forums.
We've seen iterations of this in various guises throughout the year - first with 7800 GTX and Pentium M then with Core Duo and Radeon X1800 XT.
This version has a Core 2 Duo T7600 chip (at 2.33GHz) and GeForce 7950 graphics, as well as 1GB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive.
Rather than going through and comprehensively benchmark it - you know how fast Core 2 Duo chips are, and you are certainly aware of the 7950 performance - we subjected it to a quick test.
Can I happily game on this laptop over Christmas?
The answer is a resounding 'yes', which will be great relief to anyone picking up the laptop as a sole gaming machine. Company of Heroes, the Chrimbo title of choice, runs happily at 1680x1050 with every detail maxxed out and anti-aliasing turned on.
Counter-Strike and WoW, sure to be popular fixtures this holiday season, all run at maximum at the native 1920x1200 screen resolution - although neither of these games are particularly taxing.
Chances are you'll be getting to grips with Medieval 2: Total War, and there is a caveat with performance here. 'Just' one gig of RAM is cutting it a little fine with games, especially if you're looking to upgrade to Vista in January, and the hard disk is not really fast enough for in-game swapping. Both Medieval and CoH will benefit from another gig to move performance along.
Price differs according to the precise spec you want, but if you happen to turn up a little flusher than usual on Christmas day, have a look over at Rock and see what you can grab.
In the name of in-depth hardware journalism, we'll be bringing you our thoughts on the 7950 after Christmas, having played Company of Heroes all week. We know, it's a tough life.
Let us know your thoughts on the notebook and your Christmas games this year over in the forums.
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