Same as the Novatech own brand.. init. Just a hell of a lot more money for all of that X-Factor crap..

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NNB-578

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NNB-579

How much is the review model?

Oh and BTW " ... a reasonable 110 minutes' battery life while watching a DVD - a bit short for a Peter Jackson film maybe, but not too shabby. When using it to do normal notebooky things like office work, it produced a battery life of just under two hours." implies to me that the battery life is just under two hours, no matter what you're doing.

Who uses that anymore?

What did it score on 06? I'd like to compare it to the Dell XPS 1710 or even the 1730...

Might be an idea to actually compare the laptops before trying to have an opinion.

The Rock laptop has different (better) specs compared to the ones you posted.

5Kg. Not a laptop. Portable PC. Move it from the living room to the dining room but forget the train or a plane... in which case, no one should care about battery life...

I'm sure there are rugby players out there who have alternate views !

"got a reasonable 110 minutes' battery life while watching a DVD - a bit short for a Peter Jackson film maybe, but not too shabby. When using it to do normal notebooky things like office work, it produced a battery life of just under two hours."

So... 110 minutes when watching a movie or just under 120 minutes when not watching a movie... Either that's a massively efficient DVD drive or a woeful motherboard, your pick.

I bought a barebone Clevo M570RU (on witch this laptop is based) and while the specs are a bit different (A 7950GTX, T7300 cpu, 1680X1450 LCD, 4 Gb) I can say it trully is a fantastic machine for gaming. It plays everying I throw at it at max resolution, the keyboard and overall build quality is great, and after I got a Targus backpack I can go everywhere with it. Of course, it's not something to use on the train/bus, and as for the weight, I use it 99% of the time on my lap with no problems. It's a bit noisy, with fans always on when playing/using Vista and while it does warm up the room the heat dissipation is well done so there are no scalding hot spots you get on other laptops. If you want a gaming machine you can take around the house, to a mate's, even to double as a workstation (I have it dualbooting XP pro for when I'm at work) It's a great laptop for you. Of course the 17' behemoths are not for everyone.

But the rock comes with the latest 2.6GHz T7800 processor, they give you 3 years insurance backed warranty and a nice X on the back of the lid for free!

Here's the T7700 version:

http://www.rockdirect.com/configureNotebook.php?pName=XTREME%20770&pSku=X770-T7700&bID=2

The reviewer recommends upgrading to PC2-6400 memory so that it can "match the processor's FSB speed". Actually, this is twice as fast as the processor needs, as the FSB will communicate with the standard PC2-5300 memory (PC2-5300 = DDR2-533 = 266MHz effective speed) after downclocking in a 1:1 ratio with the memory controller; the memory will essentially be run as PC2-3200 (PC2-3200 = DDR2-400 = 200MHz effective speed) so that it synchronises with the FSB. This is because the FSB actual speed is 200MHz, quad-pumped to 800MHz as is the fashion with current Intel CPU schemes. There is no _noticeable_ performance gain in running the FSB with a 2:1 memory ratio, something that would need to be changed in the BIOS by someone buying this laptop with the upgraded memory.

In short: save your cash, the PC2-5300 is literally more than enough.