Toshiba Satellite X205-S9359 Desktop Replacement Notebook

The Bottom Line

While the Toshiba Satellite X205-S9359 may make for a good gaming notebook, it does fall somewhat behind other gaming specific notebooks including the Satellite P100 series. What it does though is provide a solid overall desktop replacement that will likely stand the test of time better.

Pros

• Fast Direct X 10 Dedicated Graphics
• Lots of Storage Space
• Plenty of Peripheral Ports

Cons

• Really Needs Faster 800MHz Memory
• Screen Resolution Limits HD-DVD Playback
• On The Expensive Side

Description

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 Dual Core Mobile Processor
• 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
• Two 160GB 5400rpm Hard Drives For 320GB Total Space
• HD-DVD ROM/8x Dual Layer DVD Burner
• 17" WXGA+ (1440x900) Wide Screen LCD With Built-In Webcam
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT With 512MB Memory
• v.92 56Kbps Modem, Gigabit Ethernet, draft-802.11b Wireless and Bluetooth
• Six USB 2.0, One FireWire, ExpressCard/54, 5-in-1 Card Reader and Fingerprint Scanner
• 15.7" x 11.3" x 2.1" @ 9.4 lbs.
• Vista Ultimate, MS Works 8, WinDVD, Google Desktop, Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5, McAfee Internet Security

Guide Review - Toshiba Satellite X205-S9359 Desktop Replacement Notebook

7/25/07 – Toshiba's Satellite X205-S9359 is their first desktop replacement notebook to use the new Intel Centrino Duo chipset. For the system, they chose the mid-range Core 2 Duo T7300 dual core mobile processor with the 800MHz bus speed. They provide 2GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 memory that lets it run smoothly with the Windows Vista Ultimate operating system. The memory uses a slower 667MHz bus speed rather than 800MHz. It would be nice to see Toshiba upgrade this.

The Satellite X205 provides plenty of storage capacity thanks to the chassis design that supports two hard drives. Two 160GB 5400rpm hard drives are packed into the system to provide it with a very sizable 320GB of total storage space. This does add some bulk and weight to the system make it slightly larger and heavier than the average desktop replacement. A dual layer DVD burner is included with the system, but it also supports HD-DVD playback for high definition video.

Speaking of video, the 17” LCD supports the common 1440x900 resolution, which isn't quite up to the 1080 resolution needed for the highest level of HD video playback. This puts somewhat of a damper on the HD-DVD video playback. On the other hand, the X205-S9359 comes equipped with the GeForce Go 8700M GT graphics processor. This is one of the fastest Direct X 10 mobile processors on the market. It doesn't quite match what the GeForce Go 7950 can do in current games, but is more future proof.

The biggest surprise with the X205 though is the number of expansion ports. Most desktop replacements feature a total of 4 USB ports, but Toshiba manages to include a total of 6 making it easy to attach peripherals to this notebook.

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