Novatech X1 GTX review

An important ingredient in the gaming laptop recipe is the speakers; the Alienware boasted the best pair we'd ever heard on any laptop. Unfortunately, the Novatech's units are disappointing, with weak bass and a tinny mid-range making bombastic games such as World in Conflict sound thin and insubstantial.

Performance

Performance is better, but not outstandingly so. It all looks good, with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 280M graphics chip - the next step up in the range from the Alienware's GTX 260M - providing graphical grunt. This didn't translate to vastly improved gaming performance, though, with the X1 GTX managing to run our 1,600 x 1,200 high-quality Crysis benchmark at 30fps - playable, but only 3fps quicker than the Alienware.

It couldn't cope with our high-quality test, though. Only the Asus W90 with its ATI Radeon HD 4870 returned respectable results here, managing 30fps - far better than the juddering 17fps scored by the Novatech. The X1 GTX was outpaced in our real-world application benchmarks. The Novatech's 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P9700 processor returned an overall score of 1.36, compared to 1.47 for the Alienware and its 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600.

And, as you'd expect from such a power-hungry machine, battery life wasn't particularly notable. The Novatech's 4,650mAh power pack lasted 1hr 50mins in our light-use benchmark and 1hr 24mins in the intensive test.

Elsewhere, the X1 GTX is remarkably similar to its competitor. The Novatech boasts a pair of 320GB, 7,200rpm hard disks that, like the two 500GB disks in the Alienware, are arranged in a RAID0 array, and both systems include 4GB of DDR3 RAM. Draft-n wireless also features in both machines. The Novatech pulls ahead with its Blu-ray support, though - upgrading the Alienware's DVD writer was an optional extra.

As with the M17x, you can add some more powerful parts to the X1 GTX if you want, and Novatech's site reveals some interesting bargains to be had. Upgrading to a Core 2 Duo T9600, which was actually faster in our real-world benchmarks, would save you £21 exc VAT, and fitting a Core 2 Quad Q9000 CPU instead of the P9700 costs just £1 extra. More extravagant is the upgrade to a Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300, which costs an extra £528 exc VAT, although this is cheaper than the same upgrade to the M17x.

Novatech also offers a broader range of hard disks options, even catering for those who couldn't possibly buy a gaming laptop without fitting three 128GB Samsung SSD drives configured in RAID5 - an upgrade that adds a whopping £345 exc VAT to the cost.

But despite the good-value extras, we're just not as convinced by this Novatech as we were by the Alienware M17x. Alienware's system is better designed, boasts a stunning screen, punchier speakers and a more rounded specification - and it costs only £20 more than the £1,646 X1 GTX. With such quality competition, Novatech has to do more to impress.

Author: Mike Jennings