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So we've started our back-to-school retail roundup of laptops, and while Dan and Scott got their first reviews posted without incident (the HP Pavilion dv7-2185DX and Sony Vaio FW480J/T, respectively), I wasn't as lucky with the Asus G71GX-RX05.

Actually, that's not entirely true. You see, the review was sailing right along until I started reading complaints about the system's Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M graphics adapter basically dropping frame rates to 1-2fps once the GPU temp hits roughly 81 degrees Celsius. So we did a little more testing and, sure enough, the frame rates dropped and we couldn't get them back up without a restart.

Turns out Asus is aware of the problem and has been busily working on a fix. Some hiccup in the BIOS is causing the drop out, and the manufacturer will be issuing a new BIOS version on or about July 9.

As soon as we have a chance to test it out, we'll be revising and rating our review. However, if you've already bought one, rest assured that a fix from Asus is on the way and your frame rates will be back where they belong. (Which, at least in our tests, was very good for the well-configured $1,149 laptop.)

Update: The new BIOS is ready for download. For the easiest updating, use the Asus Live Update app preinstalled on the laptop. It will download the new BIOS and then just follow the onscreen prompt to flash your system.

You can also go to the Asus support site and look up the model number and download the BIOS. Installation instructions are available from there as well.

We'll be testing out the new BIOS today and with any luck refreshing our review with performance results and ratings.

Radically overhauled last year, Apple's MacBook line of laptops moved to aluminum construction, edge-to-edge glass over LED displays, and oversize multitouch-touch pads (with the exception of the lone $999 white plastic model). The latest round of updates is more of a refinement than another revolution, but it adds some much-sought-after features, while lowering prices on many configurations.

Most notable, the 13-inch aluminum unibody MacBook has been promoted to join the MacBook Pro family. It's a move that makes sense, as the differences between the two lines were becoming increasingly blurred. To complete the transformation, the 13-inch Pro regains its missing FireWire port, making it even more useful for creative professionals on the go.

New to the Pro line is something we never thought we'd see on a MacBook--an SD card slot. Standard on the 13- and 15-inch Pro laptops, this corrects one of our main MacBook annoyances. We're also pleased to see the backlit keyboard--previously found in only the more expensive 13-inch versions--filter down to even the $1,149 base model (which is a nice discount from the previous $1,299 entry price).

Some have strong feelings about the nonremovable battery--similar to those already found on the MacBook Air and 17-inch Pro. It's a legitimate concern, but we think the promise of better battery life (Apple claims up to a 40 percent improvement), and three times as many recharge cycles as older batteries is just as important.

There are still a few items on our 13-inch wish list--matte screens, mobile broadband options, Blu-ray--but Apple has done an admirable job in filling in some of the major missing pieces. By offering more features for less money, the 13-inch MacBook Pro remains one of the most universally useful laptops available.

Unboxing: It's New MacBook Day

The experience just doesn't work as well on a Netbook.

(Credit: Universal Pictures)

The future of notebooks added another wrinkle at Computex last weekend: Acer's announcement of an upcoming 3D laptop running Windows 7 raises even more questions than it answers.

According to Campbell Kan, vice president of Acer's mobile computing business unit, the 15.6-inch Aspire 3D Notebook will debut at the end of October, in regions unspecified. Co-developed by Wistron, the same company behind a rumored HP 3D laptop, the screen will require tinted glasses to decode the fuzziness into the impressive pop-out imagery you'd expect. Whether it runs Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision under the hood or some other 3D solution hasn't been revealed yet, but more details aren't likely before the official release of Windows 7.

The Acer Aspire 3D, with glasses.

(Credit: Digitimes)

The Aspire 3D will be able to play 3D movies and games, as well as convert 2D movies into 3D with included software, Acer claims. How will this work? We're curious if the effort on a smaller screen will be worth it. Lugging around tinted shades to play Half Life 2 on the road sounds like a bit of a drag.

Acer says it's working on a version of the laptop that works without glasses, which certainly sounds preferable.

Do you want 3D on the go in a laptop format, or is this tech something best left to big-screen entertainment or mobile goggles?

(Digitimes via Engadget)

The beast from front and back.

(Credit: Alienware)

With E3 around the corner, gaming news is breaking left and right. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that details on Alienware's M17x gaming laptop broke a little earlier than next weekend's onslaught of pixels and polygons. And indeed, Friday morning, the full profile of Alienware's All Powerful laptop has surfaced--ahead of schedule, and ready to steal a little weekend limelight while it can.

It's big. And thick--2.11 inches thick, to be precise. At 11.6 pounds, and 15.98 inches by 12.65 inches, the M17x comes with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo P8600 (which can be upgraded to a Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core) and up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM. And it can be outfitted with dual 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M GPUs (it starts with a single 1GB GeForce GTX260M, but why not dare to dream?). The hard drive capacity goes up to 1TB, or half a terabyte of solid-state. A nine-cell battery, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Blu-ray-upgradable optical drive round out the package. And, of course, there's the 1920x1200 17-inch screen.

It's thicker than Texas toast.

(Credit: Alienware)

In case you're clamoring for audio/video options, the M17x includes HDMI, VGA and DisplayPort, as well as 6.1 audio out.

As you can see, glowing red lighting is everywhere, including the keyboard, trackpad, and considerable grille, fairly screaming, "I'm a gaming laptop" to anyone who dares approach this beast's cooling vents. Carry this one out of your dorm/bedroom at your own risk.

We'll report more on this when we've actually played with one here at the lab. But the All Powerful promise looks to have been kept. Prices start at $1,799, but if you want the maximum upgrades we've listed here, look for a credit card with a line much higher than that.

With a new 40-nanometer manufacturing process behind it, AMD announced the ATI Radeon HD 4770 3D graphics chip this morning. Available now on 3D cards starting at $109 (before a $10 online rebate), the Radeon HD 4770 is the first 3D chip built on the 40-nanometer process, which allows for faster, more power-efficient hardware than AMD's previous 55nm chips.

AMD's new double-wide Radeon HD 4770 graphics card goes for only $109.

(Credit: AMD)

The various enthusiast review sites found the 512MB Radeon HD 4770 fast enough to play most current games at lower resolutions and image quality settings. Think 1,680 x 1,050 or lower and with little-to-no anti-aliasing. The Radeon HD 4770 also outpaced Nvidia's $95 GeForce 9800 GT on almost every test, and competed well with the approximately $130 Geforce 250 GTS (aka the GeForce 9800 GTX+). Its power consumption seems to stand out mostly under load, but its idle results showed little benefit.

If this new card delivers on performance, we still find it interesting that the boxed versions of the card from Gigabyte, Sapphire, and Powercolor each have a bulky fan bolted onto the chip. Each card will thus require the space of two expansion card slots inside a desktop (affectionately referred to as "double-wides").Traditionally, $99 cards have been single-slot designs, making them perfect for adding to smaller desktops or PCs with several other expansion cards. It seems that with the decline of dedicated sound cards, the 3D graphics card is making a PC land grab.

We hope to be able to get to a review of the Radeon HD 4770 (along with the other new 3D cards and CPUs we've missed), but we have a lab full of desktops at the moment, and more on the way. Until we clear the decks (August?), we suggest you check out the following enthusiast sites for in-depth reviews of AMD's new card:

Anandtech

ExtremeTech

HotHardware

PC Perspective

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Last month, I did a first take on the Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision Kit. At the time, I'd only very briefly tested it and not at all thoroughly. Since then, thanks to help from Nvidia (new glasses, video card, and monitors) I've been able to move past the bugs mentioned in the first take.

This time, I did it big with an NVidia GeForce 280GTX, baby! Playing around with this card made me weep, as it's only $330, vs. the $600 ATI card I bought three years ago that's starting to disappoint me.

With the new card, there seemed to be only minor improvements to how well the 3D effect is handled. With Unreal Tournament 3, which seems to scale with hardware pretty well, the new card made for a smoother, more pleasant experience, but not a particularly more/better 3D one.

Right now, as far as PC LCD monitors go, there are two that allow you to take advantage of this technology: the Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ and the ViewSonic VX2265wm.

Both cost about $400, which is quite expensive for a 22-incher, seeing as how the Gateway HD2201 can be found for about $200. Still, when it works, the 3D effect enhances a game's immersiveness. I just feel the technology is a few years off from going mainstream.

If you watch the video after the jump, be aware that we cannot show what the 3D effect looks like on camera. Some of what you see in the video is Unreal Tournament 3 with the 3D effect turned on. You're seeing it as someone would if they didn't have on 3D glasses.

Find about whether the Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision kit is worth shelling out $200 bucks for by reading the full review at CNET Reviews.

(Credit: CNET)

120Hz LCD gaming is now officially here! What? Oh, I'm late to the party? We've been able to do this for years now? Oh. OK. Let me rephrase that then. 120Hz gaming on a 22-inch LCD computer monitor is officially here! Does that satisfy your anal retentiveness? Well, it better.

Last month I reviewed the ViewSonic VX2265wm. The first 120Hz LCD computer monitor CNET's reviewed. I gave it points for its compatibility with the Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision Kit, but its lack of features and overall average performance didn't win my recommendation.

This week, I have its "clone", its "doppelganger", its "same basic technology just released from a different vendor" if you will; the 22-inch Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ.

I'd love to tell you how well it performed compared with the ViewSonic, but then what would be the point of you reading the full review?

With most of the laptops in our Winter 2009 Retail Review Roundup sporting a fairly uniform set of components and features, any entries that break the mold in a significant way have a good chance of standing out from the crowd.

In the crowded Budget category of retail laptops, ranging from $600 to $899, we were pleased to discover the $679 Asus X83VB-X2, a 14-inch system notable for its discrete Nvidia GeForce 9300 graphics. Sure, it's no gaming powerhouse, but casual gamers (and World of Warcraft addicts) will appreciate the extra gaming muscle in such an inexpensive laptop.

Read the full review of the Asus X83VB-X2.

Budget laptop with a little extra graphics muscle: the Asus X83VB-X2

Today Nvidia unveiled the GeForce G102M, a new laptop GPU that will debut in a new 14-inch notebook from Asus called the K401N. The announcement was made at the CeBIT trade show in Germany.

According to Nvidia:

The GeForce G102M is designed to provide a superior graphics experience for thin, affordable notebooks. It uses 8 watts less power when running stressful applications than typical discrete notebook GPUs.

The new GPU has 16 processor cores which provide up to 4 times faster graphics performance than Centrino 2 systems1. The GeForce G102M includes up to 512MB of dedicated graphics memory to accelerate 1080p HD video playback, photo and video editing, and casual games."

There are three models Asus introduced in the K series family: the 14-inch K40IN, which features a GeForce G102M GPU; the K51 15-inch, and the K71 17-inch which will feature the GeForce GT 120M GPU. The GeForce GT 120M performance GPU boasts 32 processor cores, and, according to Nvidia, will, "provide up to 15 times faster graphics performance than Centrino 2 systems and encode video up to 10 times faster than Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz processors."