Rock Xtreme X770-T7800 notebook

Even at this resolution it manages an average frame rate of 35fps in F.E.A.R. This was tested with all the detail settings set to maximum, so easing them back a bit should give higher frame rates.

Boosting the gaming experience is integrated 7.1 audio complete with SRS WOW surround sound.

At 5kg, it's not what you'd call lap-friendly

Nothing's very petite with the X770 - even the hard drive is a massive 200GB. The Hitachi drive has a 7200rpm spin speed, a 16MB cache and a 3Gbps SATA interface, so data transfers big or small should pose few if any problems.

Given that the Rock measures 39.7 x 29.4 x 3.7cm and weighs in at 5kg (including the power brick) it's not a notebook you'll want to carry around with you unless you’re having an Arnie moment, but we tested the battery life anyway and a 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.

Housed in the right side of the chassis are two stacked USB ports, a single four-pin Firewire port, Gigabit Ethernet and modem ports, an ExpresCard 54 slot and a seven-in-one card reader. Our review model also had an aerial socket for the optional Digital/Analogue TV-tuner module. The left side of the chassis holds just the optical drive and a Kensington Lock slot. The rear of the chassis has the DVI and S-Video ports, a serial port and two more USB ports. In the middle of the front panel sit four audio ports, and along with the normal microphone and headphone sockets there are line-in and SPDIF output ports. To connect to the outside world wirelessly there is 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Along with the pre-installed Windows Vista Home Premium, the software bundle comprises Roxio Creator 7 and Microsoft Works 8.5. Rock backs the X770 with a three-year collect-and-return pan-European warranty.

Verdict

Rock’s Xtreme X770-T7800 comes with a hefty price tag but it's nonetheless a very impressive notebook. Fast performing, well-built and with a great feature list, including an HD DVD drive as standard, it makes an ideal desktop replacement for gaming or for use as a normal system. You can get a cheaper price tag by removing some of the options the review notebook had, but if you have to keep just one, go for the higher resolution screen – it's just too good to miss.