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Toshiba Satellite X205-SLI5 17-inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)
From Toshiba
List Price: $1,949.99
Price: $1,499.00

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from and sold by J&R Music and Computer World

5 new or used available from $1,379.95

Average customer review:

Customer Reviews

This One’s Fast
This is my fourth Toshiba laptop, and I have always found them to be stable and hard-working machines. They are reliable and I’ve never had a single hardware problem in 6 years. That said, Toshibas are usually weighty and can be slower than comparable laptops. This time around, I needed more speed and better graphics, and chose the 17″ X205-SLI5. It’s configured as a gaming computer with Nvidia drivers, and handles my high speed applications with confidence. I didn’t need the surround-sound speakers or subwoofer, but having watched a DVD on this laptop, I’m now sold on them. The Vista operating system is much ado about nothing. It’s like a ramped up XP, and you can easily disable the annoying windows animation. I ordered through Amazon, and the computer was sold and shipped by J&R with no problems. One minor complaint is that the touch pad “button mode” toggle is on the touchpad itself. Frequently I find myself accidentally toggled into that mode, which is irritating. I have not found a way to disable this feature, so am living with it as is. Also, this model is heavy even by Toshiba’s standards, but I knew that when I ordered this computer. So I give it a solid four stars and a high recommendation.

A “luggable” desktop replacement
My daily driver is a tiny VAIO TXN17P - I really like it - it is my fifth in the 10.25 inch screen series - I treat it like a blackberry - it goes everywhere with me - it is lightweight.

And that is also its problem - just short of the performance I need for some creative work.

So I bought the Toshiba Satellite X205 SLI6 so I had a powerful machine, dedicated to work I mostly do at home, but “luggable” for when I want the freedom to move around.

First I should say that the machine came out of the box and worked perfectly in all regards from the start. It is a work of art - nice to touch and nice to look at.

I’m not that much of a “gamer”, so I can’t help by reviewing the machine’s potential for that use

For me, it is dedicated to the Adobe CS3 suite and to MS Visual Studio. I use its monitor and when it is in its normal place a VS 21 inch side by side in dual screen mode. The graphics on both are fast and stunning for my work.

As to performance, I have a love/hate relationship with Norton 360. I believe it does a really good job protecting me, but at the same time, even though I’ve done lots of configuration to improve performance, it hurts a lot on my little VAIO. So you can see how I’d use that as a subjective benchmark on the Toshiba. The result? I don’t even notice it running and I have not tuned it. I rate it at 100 nortstones.

I do have a couple of complaints. I’m sure this first item is my bad for no doing due diligence, but I had thought that the T9300 processor was 64bit, I knew the machine was configure with 3GB, but also had seen the spec that it could go to 4GB, so I made the assumption that I’d be getting a 64bit Vista OS. Not true - it is 32bit. It is not that I need 64bit desperately, but (still assuming it could be upgraded), I was really expecting to get a machine that I didn’t need to do all the driver upgrades and so forth for.

The second complaint is with the power brick. It is a whopping 2 pounds and draws 180W. I’m afraid to use my 130W iGo to charge it. And another Toshiba adapter is $85.

Overall, a good value. Hope this was helpful.

can we buy it with XP preinstalled?
Does Amazon provide this computer with XP preinstalled an Vista Back up disk as announced by Toshiba?
Thanks