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PORTABLE POWERHOUSE Xtreme CTX Pro T76

Imagine a mobile processor faster than an FX-62 working alongside a 7000GTX,
and you’ll get an idea of this monster’s power…

Just I case you’ve been hiding under your metaphorical rock of choice lately, Intel is back on top. Forget the Pentium 4 – Intel certainly hopes you do – and instead turn your head to its lovechild of the Pentium M and Pentium D: Core 2 Duo. The mobile rendition of the chip is mildly less pant wetting, but it’s still the ultimate choice for mobile junkies, and slots straight into nominally older Core Duo laptops, too.

Not a company to beat around the bush when it comes to new tech, rock has gone straight for the jugular and used the fastest rendition of the Core 2 Duo in this Xtreme CTX Pro. At 2.33GHz, this chip will happily take on most desktop processors and leave them clutching their caches in pain.Intel claims a 20% performance improvement over a similarly clocked Core Duo, and our benchmarks can’t argue. Rock has married this processor with 1Gb of DDR2 667MHz memory for a powerful core specification, and the 7,200rpm hard drive continues this attention to performance detail.

PIXEL SHIFTER
CPU aside, the large footprint means that there is enough room for NVIDIA’s GeForce Go7900 as well, complete with no less than 512Mb of memory.

This machine was built for gaming, and it’s up to the task. The 3Dmark06 score of 4,845 is impressive from a machine that can be thrown over your shoulder (providing you’re a gym-goer), and you can expect over 100pfs in Quake IV too. The screen’s default resolution f 1680 x 1050 may not be supported by every game out there, but the graphics engine can throw most title to this panel without a whimper.

We do have a couple of reservations, mind. The silver finish exudes spray-painted plastic tackiness rather than the exclusive class. Our unit’s keyboard was also unresponsive when tasked, but neither of these detract from the performance offer.

This machine isn’t cheap. Sure, £1,749 will buy you a second-hand car with a big boot, as well as a similarly powered desktop system to put into it, but if you’re in the market for a portable gaming system, the rock CTX Pro T76 defines the standard.

PCF say… 87% “Gaze past the standard exterior, and you’ll discover a beast of a machine.”


Alan Dexter