• 15.6-inch 720p (1366×768) glossy panel with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i3-330M dual-core processor (2.13GHz, 3MB L3 cache, 2.5GT/s QPI, 35W TDP)
• Intel HM55 chipset
• Integrated Intel HD graphics w/ shared video memory
• 4GB DDR3-1066 dual-channel RAM (2x 2GB)
• 320GB 5400RPM Western Digital hard drive (WD3200BEVT)
• Broadcom 802.11n wireless LAN card
• DVD burner (Optiarc DVD RW AD-7585H)
• 1 year limited warranty
• 6 cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 48Wh)
• Weight: 5.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 14.8” (L) x 9.8” (D) x 0.7~1.4” (H)

The G560 has a 15.6-inch screen with a 720p (1366×768) resolution and LED backlighting; this is the only available screen. While its glossy mirror surface helps colors stand out and improves sharpness, it also acts as a mirror, especially when there are light sources behind it. It also has HD graphics support and HDMI connector. Unfortunately, the display wasn’t as bright as we’ve seen on other 15.6-inch laptops; plus it had a very narrow viewing angle, and the glossy screen too easily caught annoying reflections. Moreover, cleaning is also difficult.

The Lenovo G560 comes with technologies and features designed to make things easier, including OneKey Rescue System for easy data backup and recovery. The new and improved Lenovo Energy Management provides not only extended battery life and long-term durability, but also keeps noise to a minimum with intelligent fan control, so you can concentrate on your work. It also uses a single-piece touch pad, which integrates the mouse buttons directly into the touch pad. Another added bonus is that one of the USB ports is a combo port that also works with eSATA devices.

Design

Aesthetically, there’s a lot going on with the GT660. Almost too much. Unlike the GT725 and GT627, which lacked the audacious flair of most gaming notebooks, it seems like MSI pulled together as many cool-looking elements as they could while still keeping the GT660 below two grand. So it’s got some funky cuts along the edges and a glossy, beveled lid complete with glowing MSI logo.

Under the hood you start to notice how busy the GT600 looks. There’s a mix of matte and glossy–though the latter dominates–and the piano black of the display bezel and top of the deck fades into a glossy slate color, which then turns into a textured honeycomb pattern on the palm rest surrounding the touchpad.

Two speakers ringed in red sit on the left and right of the upper deck, and between them is a control deck outlined in red and chrome with touch-sensitive LEDs. Though MSI claims this element evokes a Knight Rider aesthetic, it reminded us more of Aquaman’s underwear. A light tap activates each function, including enabling or disabling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or the Windows key, and switching between power modes. There’s even a button users can program to launch an oft-used app. A shield-shaped power button sits in the center. Though we found this strip very useful, it picked up fingerprints.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Open up the lid and you’d be greeted with an extended keyboard that includes an alpha-numeric keypad on the right side. It’s a nice addition but if you’re a regular laptop-user, the orientation is confusing that you always tend to hit the wrong keys when typing. One needs some time to get used to the extra keys and learn to familiarize where the Enter button is. The chiclet-type keys are appropriately sized with special color labels on the gaming keys (asdw) and the arrow keys. And while it’s glossy black on the outside, it’s rough and textured in the inside — the palm rest has this honeycomb finish and the trackpad feels like sand-paper and is somewhat flushed to the left. The left and right click buttons are not separated but shaped accordingly to differentiate the two.

The touchpad is pretty big–3.2 x 1.9 inches–but it could be even larger if the designers had used more of the available space. The slightly rough touch surface and mouse button has a thick chrome outline that flows down into a chevron shape. Under the single mouse button are status indicators for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Battery, Sleep, and the hard drive are appreciated. Plus, our fingers kept naturally gravitating to the bottom edge of the notebook where the mouse buttons usually sit. On this system they’re higher, which took some getting used to.

Display

The 16-inch display is bright and crisp with a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels (I was actually expecting it could be higher, somewhere in the 1600×1200 range, because of the large real estate). The glossy display is also prone to glare in the outdoors and against bright light sources.

Ports and Webcam

MSI was certainly generous with the ports on the GT660. On the left you get two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, a memory card slot, and an Express Card slot. The Blu-ray drive takes up most of the right edge, leaving room for the other USB port, headphone, mic, audio in and audio out ports. Finally, the eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and power ports sit in the center of the notebook’s back edge. The webcam on the GT660 is a surprisingly high-end unit that can capture video in HD: 1280 x 720, 30 fps. Video quality at this size isn’t stunning, but once we adjusted the settings (brightness, hue, saturation, etc.) the resulting images were decent.

Performance

MSI Exclusive TDE+ technology: MSI’s GT660 gaming notebook  is the world’s first NB computer to come with TDE+ technology to enhance both processor and display performance. With MSI’s own TDE+ (Turbo Drive Engine+ technology), you can increase processor, memory, and display chip performance instantly with one touch of the luminescent Turbo hotkey above the keyboard. The power boost gives you crisp response even with resource-hungry graphics applications and more importantly, when you’re slaying orcs or battling baddies on the other side of the galaxy.

Advanced nVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card: The MSI GT660 gaming laptop comes equipped with nVIDIA’s most advanced GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card with 128 3D stream processor and 1GB GDDR3 of display memory and nVIDIA® CUDA™ technology to truly unleash the machine’s image and graphics processing potential, allowing the GT660 to execute such high load tasks as conferencing and ripping with ease. The GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card also supports nVIDIA® PhysX™ Technology, introducing you to a whole new world of extreme playing, courtesy of super dynamic and realistic graphics.

Battery

Autonomy is not really the highlight of the GT660. The laptop took 1 hour 46 minutes during our endurance test, despite its new battery cells 9800 mAh. Finally, its size, 16 inches, and weighing 3.46 kg really does not help to nomadism. We therefore speak more portable, but it is the case for all of these machines, apart from some exceptions including Alienware M11x.

Design

The design of the Inspiron 14 looks like an enlarged version of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 10 netbooks. At first glance you can easily see that Dell designers are trying to establish clearly identifiable designs for all Dell notebooks: all Inspiron laptops look similar, Studio laptops have the same general design as other Studio laptops, and one Studio XPS notebook likewise looks like other Studio XPS notebooks. At this point shoppers should be able to identify Dell’s entry-level products (Inspiron), mid-range products (Studio) and high-end products (Studio XPS) with little more than a glance.

The chassis of the Inspiron is constructed from a combination of exterior plastics and an alloy interior framework for a balance of affordability, durability, and light weight. While the Inspiron 14 doesn’t feel quite as durable as the new Studio 14z, the Inspiron 14 should survive the average use and abuse by college students … although the plastics may start to show some wear and tear after some time inside a book bag.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The full-size keyboard features comfortable, terraced keys that offered good tactile feedback and response. We were able to reach our normal typing speed immediately, and none of the keys were undersized or in weird places, so it was also easy to execute keyboard shortcuts. We appreciated the generous, 3.8 x 2-inch touchpad with discrete left and right mouse buttons. Though it’s multitouch-enabled, the touch surface wasn’t overly sensitive as we’ve seen on some other Dell systems. At first we found the sensitivity too low; two-finger scrolling took more precision than we expected, and it took a few hours to get used to. The Synaptics driver offers settings and tweaks (go to Control Panel > Mouse) for the multitouch gestures and a sensitivity slider to make adjustments.

Display and Audio

14r-1The glossy 14-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel WLED display offered decent color depth, but only within optimal viewing angles. We had to tilt the screen in a narrow 10-degree range to keep washed out or distorted colors at bay. We noticed this regardless of whether we were surfing the web, writing in Microsoft Word, or watching video.

Horizontal angles aren’t that wide, either; two people can comfortably share the screen, but beyond that it’s hard to see clearly. Even at the optimal angles we noticed some slight pixelation when watching a 720p trailer for The Discoverers and a standard definition episode of Lost via Hulu.

The speakers, located just under the front lip of the notebook, pumped out plenty of volume, but their placement compromised the quality. Soft ballads like George Michael’s “One More Try” came through a little muddy at 75 percent volume, and even listening to brash dance tracks like t.A.T.u.’s “Not Gonna Get Us” wasn’t completely satisfactory over just a little background noise. Still, thanks to SRS Premium Sound, bass was acceptably present and we were able to hear a distinct distance between vocals and instruments in high-quality MP3.

Performance and Features

We didn’t have an opportunity to benchmark the pre-production unit of the Inspiron 14, but Dell made it very clear that this notebook is aimed at students who want a good laptop for general use at an affordable price and don’t need all of the features found on the more expensive Studio 14z. For example, the Inspiron 14 lacks FireWire and eSATA and the starting price only includes Intel integrated graphics. On the other hand, the optional 1600 x 900 screen, optional Blu-ray drive, and optional ATI discrete graphics give the Inspiron 14 some impressive bang for the buck.

This is where the $449 starting price of the Inspiron 14 looks extremely impressive compared to the $649 starting price of the Studio 14z. Sure, the starting price of the Studio 14z includes a better processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics and a better selection of ports, but the Inspiron 14 still offers a built-in optical drive and dedicated 7-in-1 media card reader. Bottom line, back-to-school shoppers are going to have two very impressive options from Dell this year.

Design
The design of the HP Pavilion dv5t is simply beautiful. It is sleek and ultramodern, with tasteful accents. The entire notebook is streamlined, and no matter what angle you look at it, it looks great. This notebook has a “soft” design with all corners rounded off. Looking at the side of the notebook, the backside is a semicircle, and the front curves up like the bow of a boat. When the display is shut, the back of the notebook has a raked look to it, which is appealing. The display only has one large hinge, which adds to the sleek look. The chassis is relatively thin, at 1.37 – 1.65 inches thick.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The dv5t’s backlit, chiclet-style keyboard isn’t just attractive, it’s also comfortable. Resting our fingers on the soft keys felt natural, even if the right Shift key is undersized (we couldn’t tell while touch typing). Although it wasn’t distracting, we could see and feel the keyboard panel move beneath our fingers as we typed. Still, we scored a decent 81 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, and quickly raised our score to 88 wpm after some more hands-on time.

Touchpads have recently been HP’s Achilles’ heel, and the dv5t is no exception. When we first started using it, the surface felt smooth, and the two integrated touch buttons were easy to press. In fact, we still like the giant button and the satisfying click it makes, but the touchpad became frustrating to use. Often, we would bring the cursor close to where we wanted to click, and then it would suddenly feel sluggish, making subtle movements with the cursor take effort. The touchpad also supports multitouch gestures, although pinching two fingers to zoom is considerably easier than panning back out.

Screen
With the introduction of the HP Pavilion dv5 series notebooks, HP is finally offering high-resolution displays. The dv5t is currently offered with a WXGA or WSXGA+ resolution. The WXGA screen (1280 x 800 resolution) is what most 15.4-inch notebooks in stores have, and the most common resolution on 15.4-inch notebooks. The WSXGA+ display (1680 x 1050 resolution) is what my notebook has. It has 42% more viewable space than the WXGA display, which is the reason I chose it. Higher-resolution screens allow you to see more and scroll less. For example, if I view a large web page, I could see 42% more content on the WSXGA+ display than on the WXGA display. Another example- while viewing a high-resolution picture, I can see 42% more detail on the WSXGA+ display than on the WXGA. WSXGA+ makes it possible to use larger windows side by side; you would be hard-pressed to practically view two spreadsheets side-by-side with a WXGA display, but with the high-resolution WSXGA+, it is more than possible (you could do it without shrinking the windows too much).

HP offers two display finishes in addition to the resolutions – the standard BrightView or the BrightView Infinity. The Brightview display has the standard glossy finish that nearly all new consumer notebooks come with. The Infinity display is a new option introduced on the dv5 series notebooks. The Infinity display is basically a large piece of clear plastic over the entire display. It makes the display look like it has no borders. I have the Infinity finish on my notebook. While it makes the notebook look sleeker and more modern, it does increase the amount of reflections over a standard glossy finish. I personally do not mind the reflections. If you are used to a regular glossy display, the Infinity display is not that different in glossiness. I would choose the Infinity display again, since it makes the notebook look sleeker.

Ports and Webcam
The dv5t’s ports include three USB ports, one of which doubles as an eSATA port for high-speed transfers; HDMI and VGA output for connecting to high-def and standard-def displays; an Ethernet jack; and headphone and mic ports. It also has a 5-in-1 memory card reader. Pretty standard for a consumer notebook. The VGA webcam won’t deliver sharp photos or videos thanks to its low 640 x 480 resolution. They were brightly lit, which someone on the other end of your video calls will appreciate, but the colors were off. Specifically, there was a bluish tint across the entire picture; even our black sweater appeared navy. In general, image quality was noisy.

HP’s MediaSmart Webcam software offers an easy interface in which you can click thumbnails to review photos and videos you recently shot, as well as add fun special effects. The sound quality was also excellent: we didn’t hear any echoes, and even when we moved farther away from the notebook it was still easy to hear us.

Operating System & Software
HP offers 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista on the dv5t. Home Premium is standard, while Ultimate is available as an upgrade. I have Home Premium 32-bit on my machine. I went with 32-bit because some of the devices I use do not have 64-bit drivers. HP unfortunately pre-loads a good deal of bloatware into the factory hard drive image. Upon receiving the notebook, I immediately wiped the drive and did a clean install of Vista using orev’s excellent Clean Install Guide in the forums. This allowed me to start with a fresh install of the operating system and drivers only.

Performance
Our configuration of the dv5t had a 2.26-GHz Intel Core i5 430M CPU, 4GB of RAM, 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 7,200-rpm, 500GB hard drive. For the most part, this combination proved powerful: the notebook scored 5,725 on PCMark Vantage (a Windows benchmark), which is 1,700 points higher than the average thin-and-light. For its specs, though, the dv5t’s performance is right on the money. The $849 Dell Studio 15, which has the same configuration save for its discrete graphics and lack of a Blu-ray drive, scored an almost identical 5,735. The $829 Samsung R580, which also has identical specs (including a Blu-ray drive) except for a slower 5,400-rpm hard drive, scored even higher (5,804).

The dv5t’s 7,200-rpm hard drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed media file at a rate of 28.8 MBps, while the average notebook in this class does so at a slower rate of 23.4 MBps (the Studio 15 managed a similar 28.3 MBps). Still, the hard drive couldn’t make the notebook boot quickly; its startup time of 1:18 seems sluggish when you consider that the average notebook this size can be up and running within 56 seconds (even the Gateway NV59C09u, which has a slower 5,400-rpm hard drive, booted in 1:03).

The dv5t didn’t hiccup when we ran a full scan using Norton Internet Security in the background while streaming music through Slacker and jumping between open tabs in IE8. As we said about HP’s new Pavilion dm4, however, sometimes this fast laptop felt slower than it should have, thanks to the dragging cursor. We also saw the spinning Windows circle a lot, even when trying such tasks as minimizing our Norton scan or ending a video capture in MediaSmart Webcam. When it came down to more intense crunching, the notebook transcoded a 114MB MPEG-4 file to AVI in 1 minute flat, just 3 seconds faster than the average thin-and-light.

Design
While other brands have reinvented themselves several times over, Fujitsu’s business-oriented LifeBook notebooks look more or less the same as they did a few years ago. Underneath the matte black lid, which has Fujitu’s logo printed in understated gray font, the laptop features a lighter interior, including a white, pillowy keyboard and silvery palm rest (the bezel and area above the keyboard are still black, lending the interior a colorblocked effect). The palm rest is slightly bumpy, which makes the notebook look rugged, although this feature is purely cosmetic. The touchpad has a smaller circular one next to it, which we’ll elaborate on later.

More than anything, what makes the S760 look dated are the half dozen buttons above the keyboard (not to mention five LED lights and two discreet speakers). These buttons are meant to unlock the computer before the OS boots (you can choose one of up to 800,000 combinations). The idea is that these buttons aren’t connected to the keyboard, something hackers can track with keyloggers. The idea is a neat one, although aesthetically we still wish that space above the keyboard were blank.

Keyboard
Its spill resistant keyboard is a pleasure to use, and the quirky ScrollWheel is a ‘take it or leave it’ feature which you can simply ignore if it does not feel right to you. It may, though prove a useful ice-breaker in some client meetings. And you might not want to use the Web camera software in view of clients, unless you have preconfigured it to remove some of the more consumer-focussed elements.

Ports
Connectivity is good comprising VGA and HDMI video out ports, three USB 2.0 ports, and an ExpressCard/54 slot for add-in cards. An optional docking port replicator (£91 ex. VAT) provides a second mains adapter, four USB ports, an eSata port, printer and serial ports, VGA and DVI video outputs, and an Ethernet port.

Graphics & Battery Life

We wouldn’t have expected gaming to be one of this 13-inch business notebook’s strengths, but its discrete Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card and 512MB video memory make it an excellent work-and-play machine. It notched a score of 3,787 on 3DMark06, whereas the average score for an ultraportable notebook is 1,068. Meanwhile, it ran World of Warcraft at an impressive 129 fps at 1024 x 768 resolution and a slower, but still playable 49 fps at 1366 x 768 resolution. Even in Far Cry 2, a more graphically demanding game, the S760 managed an acceptable 33 fps at 1068 x 768 resolution (slowing to 11 fps at 1366 x 768).

Although its fast hard drive, strong gaming performance, and bright display make the S760 a versatile notebook, battery life is its Achilles heel. The six-cell battery lasted just 3:06 on the LAPTOP battery test, whereas the average ultraportable lasts 5:30. The HP EliteBook 2540p and the Lenovo ThinkPad X201s have even better endurance; they lasted 6:54 and 8:31, respectively. You would get more endurance out of this system if you opted for integrated graphics instead or the modular bay battery, but the latter adds another $138 to an already expensive notebook.

Performance
Performance

By most metrics, the S760 offers better than average performance, but we have to wonder if the slight performance boost is worth the price you have to pay. Squeezed into this small machine is a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 320GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive (as a business machine, it runs 32-bit Windows 7 Professional). Thanks to all these components, it blew away the category average (3,243) in the Windows benchmark PCMark Vantage with a score of 5,890. Still, we saw even higher scores from lower priced systems, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X201s ($1,659; 6,106) and the HP EliteBook 2540p ($1,624; 6,002).

The S760’s 7,200-rpm hard drive booted in a reasonable 1:10, and transferred a 4.97GB mixed media folder at a rate of 27.2 MBps, which is slightly faster than the category average (25.3 MBps), not to mention other business-friendly ultraportables, such as the X201s (18.8 MBps), the 2540p (18.2 MBps), and the $899 Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (23.5 MBps).

We had no problem carrying out our usual routine on the S760. We didn’t even notice Norton Internet Security running a full system scan in the background while we streamed music from Slacker and then played clips from Hulu at full screen. At no point did we notice any hiccups in the music or video playback. The notebook was also able to transcode a 114MB MP4 file to AVI in 57 seconds, whereas the average ultraportable takes 2:07.

Quite unlike desktop computers, notebook computers are often moved from one place to another and are even taken for jogs. This is a real challenge for notebook hard drives because shock may cause data loss or even physical damage. To this end, enhanced shock protection technologies have been developed for higher shock tolerance. A 7,200 RPM notebook hard drive can withstand a shock load of over 200 Gs during operation, whereas just half that (100 Gs) is sufficient for failure in desktop hard drives. Notebook hard drive specifications, including capacity, spindle speed, cache, and interface — each have parts in determining the performance of not only the hard drive, but the notebook it is installed into as well. Choosing a notebook hard drive that best suits your requirements and your notebook’s tech specs is easy after understanding them.

Having analyzing the characteristics stated by manufacturers (they can be found on the manufacturers’ web sites), we’ve come to a conclusion that almost all modern drives, which have the same spindle rotation speed and buffer size, show similar productivity. Thus, there is no point in taking productivity as the main criterion. So what HDD characteristics should we consider in making a choice? First of all, it’s a storage capacity you need. Then the reliability comes (pay special attention to the warranty). People trust their very important data to the notebooks (and, hence, to the hard drives) more and more often. That’s why those devices must be effectively reliable. At this point we could have finished looking for the other choice criteria, but, taking into consideration that notebook drives are used in a specific way — they are mobile, we will name one more criterion, which is a power consumption: the higher it is, the less time will notebook be able to run from a battery.

Ideally, your new hard drive will be faster and hold more data than its predecessor, but its most crucial parameter is whether it’s compatible with your laptop’s drive controller. Serial ATA (SATA) and Ultra ATA/IDE are the typical interfaces used in laptop systems. A typical ATA/IDE 2.5-inch laptop drive has a 44-pin edge connector and four jumper pins (resembling a desktop IDE drive), while SATA drives employ SATA-standard slot-style connectors. Some laptops employ a proprietary pin connector that connects the drive to the controller. Usually, this connector is mounted on the drive caddy (a carrier that inserts in the laptop’s hard drive bay) or attaches directly to the drive’s pins; either way, the connector must be detached from the old drive and connected to the new one.

Build and Design
The Iomega StorCenter ix2 is remarkably compact for a network attached storage (NAS) enclosure that contains two 3.5″ desktop hard drives:
• Width: 3.15 in (80mm)
• Length: 7.875 in (200mm)
• Height: 4.92 in (124.97mm)
• Weight: 4.85 lbs (2.2 kg)

The enclosure is all black and has a very simple design with the Iomega logo on both sides. The top, bottom and sides are made of solid metal and the front and rear of the dual hard drive enclosure have vents to keep the drives from overheating. The design isn’t particularly attractive, but we’re talking about a NAS here. Who cares how it looks? You’re going to connect this thing to your network and then stick it behind your router or in your closet.

The back of the enclosure has a dual USB slot, power button, DC plug and a LAN plug along with the cooling fan vent. There is also a security lock slot on the enclosure to deter theft is located on the bottom along with the S/N, Mac address, series code, etc. The construction of the Iomega StorCenter ix2 does make it difficult for accessing the drives inside the enclosure; in fact you would need to remove multiple screws and disassemble the internal framework of the enclosure in order to access the drives, making it less than ideal for do-it-yourself repairs.

Features
One of the main features of the Iomega StorCenter ix2 is that it’s remarkably simple to setup and use. I honestly lack the words to describe just how easy it is to setup this device. The software engineers at Iomega deserve a great deal of praise for creating one of the easiest software installation and setup applications we’ve seen for a NAS enclosure in our office. Simply insert the included software CD, type your desired user name and security password, click a couple of on-screen buttons to confirm the installation and you’re ready to start using your new StorCenter ix2! Network attached storage doesn’t get any easier than this.

The StorCenter ix2′s main configurations are all accessed through the supplied software or via a web browser by simply typing in the IP address. Through web access, users can view all the shared content, add users/groups, and manage RAID settings, network settings, disk backup, etc. from anywhere on either a Mac or PC computer.
The Iomega StorCenter ix2 also has USB connectivity for setting up a print server or adding information directly from other devices, but like most consumer NAS enclosures the built-in USB ports only support USB 2.0 Full Speed (12Mbs).
For those who might be concerned about security, the included encryption from RSA helps secure your data inside the StorCenter ix2 and protect the NAS from malicious attacks during installs and product updates.
Another feature worth mentioning is the low power consumption on the Iomega StorCenter ix2 for users who want access 24/7; the average consumption of this Energy Star qualified system is 12-15W while idle.

Performance and Benchmarks
The Iomega StorCenter ix2 drives are each 500GB separately but the RAID 1 mirroring gives the user a combined total space of a single 500GB drive. The Iomega StorCenter ix2 is rated at a theoretical maximum of 1000Mb (megabits) transfer rate on a 1Gb network which equates to 125MB (megabytes) per second. Atto is one of the standard synthetic benchmarks we use to test the performance of a storage drive. Below you can see the average read and write times for the StorCenter ix2 over a standard 100Mb network connection. In short, the main thing these benchmarks indicate is that the Iomega StorCenter ix2 has more than enough horsepower to push a typical 100Mb network connection (12.5MB) to its limit. Using a 1Gb network switch will allow you to gain even better data transfer speeds. As it stands, this NAS provides transfer speeds similar to a cheap generic USB flash drive connected directly to your computer’s USB port.

Of course, if you’re using a NAS you didn’t buy it for the fastest transfer rates (an eSATA external enclosure is better in terms of raw speed). People buy NAS enclosures so that they can store huge amounts of data in one secure location and access it from any computer with an internet connection. Notebook users should be particularly interested in this because it allows you to store huge multimedia libraries on a secure drive at home and access those files via the internet without having to store those files on your notebook’s hard drive … and without having to pay monthly subscription fees for online storage.

Heat and Noise
The Iomega StorCenter ix2 runs a bit louder than some of the other NAS enclosures we’ve tested. The cooling fan is extremely silent, but both the storage drives inside the enclosure produce a substantial amount of noise when reading and writing files. The twin Seagate 7200.11 hard drives inside the enclosure aren’t known for being particularly loud, so we suspect the noisy “clicks” are the result of the all-metal enclosure and lack of cushioning or sound dampening. Temperatures inside the enclosure remained above 110 Fahrenheit which is still a little hot but isn’t as bad as many other NAS enclosures we’ve tested. Bottom line, long-term stability of the storage drives probably won’t be something you need to worry about.

Conclusion
After everything is said and done, the Iomega StorCenter ix2 is an excellent network storage solution for consumers and small businesses. The amazingly simple software installation and setup combined with the amount of storage and reasonable transfer speeds make the Iomega StorCenter ix2 one of the best stand-alone network storage solutions we’ve tested.

Like almost any networked attached storage enclosure, the Iomega StorCenter ix2 doesn’t offer the same speed as an eSATA drive connected directly to your computer. Likewise, the ix2 suffers from some degree of security vulnerability unless the network is well secured. In other words, if you just plug this drive into your unsecured wireless router at home and don’t use a password on the StorCenter ix2 itself then just about anyone in range of your router could have access to your files. Nevertheless, these minor issues are common to all NAS enclosures.

Overall, the Iomega StorCenter ix2 offers a remarkably easy-to-use stand-alone network drive and gives you lower power consumption than a full desktop running as a networked drive. Road warriors and netbook owners who are either worried about the security of their laptop hard drive or have limited storage space on their netbook might want to consider the purchase of this NAS for their home networks.

Pros:
• Easiest setup software we’ve ever used
• Fast transfer rates over 1Gb Ethernet, acceptable over 100Mb Ethernet
• USB connectivity for more storage
• Solid build quality
• Reasonably compact

Cons:
• Hard drives are a little noisy
• Difficult to access drives inside enclosure if repair is needed

Pricing and Availability
The Iomega StorCenter ix2 ($299.99 for 1TB, $479.99 for 2TB) is available for purchase on the Iomega website or at many retail and online stores.

Design
When you drop almost $2,000 on a notebook, you expect high-end build quality. So when we popped the lid on the Battalion 101, we were disappointed by its look and feel, largely due to iBuyPower’s overreliance on plastic throughout the chassis. Within one day of the unit arriving in our office, an iBuyPower sticker that was on the back of the laptop had fallen off, which came as no surprise to us since the lid has a textured checkerboard pattern, and is probably not a good place to adhere something.

The overall look is handsome but subdued for a gaming notebook. Our unit was dark brown with small, silver-colored accents around the touchpad, hinges, and base of the unit. The back cover has a matte brown finish, which carries over across the wrist pad. Just above the keyboard is a black metallic finished area, which is home to the power button, an e-mail shortcut, a Web shortcut, and a silent/normal mode button. For a 15-inch system, the Battalion 101 isn’t overly bulky, weighing 7.1 pounds and measuring a backpack-friendly 10.6 x 14.3 x 1.9 inches.

Keyboard
The keyboard layout may also disappoint some gamers. While the laptop is wide enough to fit a full sized keyboard with a numeric keypad, it uses a more traditional laptop keyboard design. In addition to this, the left side control button is shifted in to make room for the function key. This breaks the layout that is typically used for navigating through many of today’s games.

Display and Audio
The Battalion 101 has a 15.4-inch screen with a high-definition 1680 x 1050-pixel resolution. Colors were vibrant, both inside games and out: An episode of Heroes played from a DVD looked bright and saturated, and we appreciated the deep blacks that the display offered. The screen was bright enough to display a clear picture even under our fluorescent office lights, but its glossy finish resulted in a lot of glare. Still, viewing angles were good enough that an extra person could comfortably sit in on a ‘frag fest or DVD without losing color quality.

While listening to Eric Church’s “Carolina,” the two speakers (located just above the keyboard) were sufficiently loud for a small dorm room or office, but the audio wasn’t very clear, and there was distinguishable rattling at high volumes.

Port
Those looking to attach a wide range of peripherals beyond gaming accessories may be disappointed to learn that the port selection on the Battalion 101 CZ-10 is fairly limited. While it does come equipped with four USB 2.0 ports, it does not come with either a FireWire or eSATA ports common to many 15-inch laptops. This prevents the system from being used with high speed external storage and digital camcorders unless an ExpressCard peripheral is used to add these ports.

Performance
The Battalion 101 performed well in our benchmark tests. It had a score of 5,189 on PCMark Vantage, which is much better than the category average of 3,789 points, and only about 90 points below the Alienware M17x, which costs more than twice as much. Opening new windows in Internet Explorer 8 was almost instantaneous, and larger programs such as Windows Media Center took about two seconds to open; this speed is likely a direct result of the system’s 4GB of RAM.

Our unit’s 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive completed our LAPTOP Transfer Test (duplicating 4.97GB of mixed media) in 3 minutes and 27 seconds, a rate of 24.6 MBps. That’s better than the category average for mainstream notebooks by about 6 MBps, but about 4 MBps slower than the ASUS G51Vx, which costs about half as much as the Battalion 101.
Graphics

The discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 graphics chip offered more than enough muscle to slice through 3DMark06. We saw a score of 10,726, beating the current average by more than 4,500 points, and falling just behind two other 17-inch systems, the Alienware M17x (13,463) and ASUS W90 (11,310). The only 15-inch system that came close to the Battalion’s heels was the Sager NP8662, which scored 9,767 points. On 3DMark Vantage, the Battalion 101’s score of 5,431 was about 1,100 points above the category average, and about 50 points higher than the MSI GT725.

Design
As a member of Asus’ “Republic of Gamers” line of gaming laptops, the G51J 3D is predictably flashy looking, with glowing lights lining its sides and what looks to be a claw mark etched into its black-and-navy lid. It’s not too gaudy, but by the same token, it’s not necessarily the sort of machine one would feel comfortable taking out at a serious business meeting.

It’s also a bit bulky. Despite its average-sized 15.6-inch screen, it measures 1.6-inches thick and tips the scales at 7.7 pounds. It feels more like a 17-incher than the standard-sized notebook it should have been.

But there’s little else to complain about. The full-sized keyboard with numeric pad is comfortable and quiet, as is the mouse pad, the buttons below which are composed of smooth brushed metal.

Plenty of ports, including four USB, one HDMI, and one E-SATA, ring the edges, and are found in comfortable, non-intrusive locations.

It also comes with some valuable extras, including an excellent laptop backpack branded with the Asus gaming logo, a quality wired Asus gaming mouse, and, of course, those 3D spectacles from Nvidia.

Display

Although it lacks a full HD screen as on the G51J-A1, the 1366 x 768-pixel panel on the G51J 3D still exhibits great colors and definition. Horizontal viewing angles on the 15.6-inch display were excellent—nearly 90 degrees to either side—but the screen washed out a bit when we tilted it too far back or forward.

The Altec Lansing speakers delivered excellent highs when we listened to music streamed from Pandora, but bass-heavy songs (such as Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”) didn’t have their normal thump, and sounded a bit muddy in the middle. Volume was generally satisfying, but when we really wanted to crank the music, we found that the speakers didn’t produce very loud sound.

Keyboard & Touchpad

The premium look of the G51J 3D extends to the keyboard, where a white backlight gives each key a soft halo that can be raised or lowered through the use of the Fn and F3/F4 keys. Because the layout doesn’t extend to the edges, some keys are undersized, such as the right Shift key and the numbers on the dedicated number pad. Nevertheless, the island-style keys are springy, which made for a solid typing experience.

As the G51J 3D is designed for gamers, there are a number of gaming-specific icons scattered across the keyboard: Arrows highlight the WASD keys (which are typically used for movement), and the 1 and 6 keys are highlighted with white circles, so you can quickly tap whatever number you need to switch weapons. Above the keyboard is a grill that houses Altec Lansing stereo speakers, and buttons that let you cycle through visual modes (Gamma Correction, Normal, Soft, Theater, Vivid), and power settings (Battery Saving, Entertainment, High Performance, Quiet Office). To the right of those are three buttons: Express Gate (ASUS’ brand of the Splashtop instant-on operating system), Power, and TouchPad Enable/Disable.

The nontextured touchpad allowed us to navigate the desktop with ease. The brushed-metal mouse buttons look cool, but felt a little stiff.

Ports
The port selection was simply amazing and it has almost everything you may need. There are four USB Ports, an eSATA Connection, both HDMI and VGA to connect external monitor, FireWire 400, Ethernet and three audio jacks. There is also an Express Card 54 Slot and SD card Reader. What else do we need? A Coffee Cup holder would perhaps be the choice!

Performance

The standard system comes with a Intel Core i7 – 720 QM Processor clocking at 1.6 GHz with 6MB cache and 1333 MHz FSB. There are two 2GB PC3 8500 DDR3 memory modules making up a total of 4GB of RAM. Opening more than 30 tabs in internet browser at the same time with a video being encoded in the background and a music playing, switching between the tabs did not show any sign of lag as expected from the processor that can handle 8 threads at the same time. With its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M graphics with 1GB GDDR3 memory, decoding a 1080p video was flawless. High end games like Left 4 Dead pumped out very high frame rates ranging more than 60 frames per second. The two 320GB Seagate 7200 rpm hard disks are really fast and loading games from the HDD showed its high performance benefits. The 1.6 GHz processor can be overclocked to 2.8 GHz but it does not significantly improve the performance benefits.
The good: Built-in Nvidia 3D Vision technology; fast Intel Core i7 CPU; decent gaming performance.

The bad: Expensive; 3D gaming is still niche; small screen for a gaming rig.

The bottom line: The Asus G51J-3D is the first laptop to incorporate Nvidia’s 3D vision technology. If you absolutely love the idea of 3D gaming, this proof-of-concept system will work well for a pricey showpiece.

Spec
CPU 1.6-GHz Intel Core i7-720QM
Operating System MS Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
RAM 4GB
RAM Upgradable to 8GB
Hard Drive Size Dual 320GB
Hard Drive Speed 7,200rpm
Display Size 15.6
Native Resolution 1366×768
Blu-ray discs.
Optical Drive DVDRW
Optical Drive Speed 8X
Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M
Video Memory 1GB
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
Mobile Broadband
Ports (excluding USB)
Dual Headphone; eSATA; Ethernet; Firewire 400; HDMI;Hicrophone; VGA
USB Ports 4
Card Slots 6-1 card reader; ExpressCard/54
Warranty/Support Two-year global; one-year accidental;
Size 14.6 x 10.3 x 1.6 inches
Weight    7.3 pounds

Dell announced the availability of the Vostro V13, a new addition to its small-business Vostro line of laptops. The big news here is that it’s the company’s first ULV thin-and-light for the business sector, an area that seems to be a big focus factor in a down economy when lots of small business entrepreneurs are looking for affordable portables. We had the chance for a quick up-close hands-on look at one, and it’s definitely an attractive little laptop.

The V13 is a collision of high end—the design, angled and thin, heavily echoing the original Adamo’s silhouette, and build quality, as sturdy as any non-unibody laptop we’ve tried to bend—and low rent—the keyboard is straight off Dell’s budget Inspiron line and well, I already told you what’s inside (there’s other spec sparseness as well, like 2GB RAM, VGA out and 2 USB ports, one of which is a combo eSATA number). The 13.3-inch, LED-backlit, anti-glare display is nice enough though, at a resolution of 1366×768. The 6-cell sealed battery is rated for 4 hours and 42 minutes, according to Dell, but expect less actually using it, obviously.For Windows 7 and a Core 2 Duo ULV, the price rises in the range of mid-to-high $600, which is still really good compared with its closest competitors, the HP Pavilion dm3 and Asus UL30A-A1.The Vostro V13 will support up to 4GB of RAM, and can be optionally upgraded with 3G mobile broadband.

An Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU powers the Dell Vostro V13, and its 1.3GHz clock speed and two CPU cores help move things along swiftly. You can multitask, watch high resolution videos or create media-rich presentations without getting bogged down. Helping the CPU are 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a 500GB (5400rpm) hard drive and integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics.

In our WorldBench 6 benchmark suite the notebook scored 67. This means that, in terms of overall system performance, the Dell Vostro V13 is over twice as fast as a typical netbook with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM.

In our iTunes MP3 encoding and Blender 3D rendering tests, which primarily test CPU speed, the Dell Vostro V13 was approximately three times as fast as netbook. The hard drive’s performance was also impressive, recording a speed of 35 megabytes per second in our transfer tests. However, it is a big drive and it will inevitably slow down somewhat once you start to really fill it with files.

The Dell Vostro V13 is one of a number of ultraslim laptops to hit the market in recent times, but its design is a little different to the norm. It actually looks a lot like the Adamo by Dell. The screen is mounted almost 1cm in from the spine of the notebook, so its metal hinges are not located directly on the spine itself.

The spine acts as a handle of sorts. The location of the screen gives the notebook more strength and changes its centre of gravity. It feels beautifully balanced; when the notebook is lying flat on a desk, the screen can be lifted using only one hand (it doesn’t have a latch). The hinges have just the right amount of resistance to allow precise adjustments.

Tailored for discriminating small-business travelers, the Vostro V13 combines robust design and ultra-light mobility at a price that aims to keep you on budget.It may lighten your carrying case, but the Vostro V13 has the productivity-empowering features to keep you working at full capacity. Stay in Touch: With the integrated webcam and microphone, you can use your favorite communication software to make Internet calls, conduct video conferences and remotely exchange files. Always Be Connected: Go wireless with a full range of connectivity options: 802.11g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth, and WWAN mobile broadband (coming soon).When your business demands time, your technology shouldn’t. The Vostro V13 offers a suite ofcustomizable service and support solutions designed specifically for small business.