I currently am a Systems Administrator for a fairly large corporation, I have been a Network Administrator, an IT Manager and IT Project Manager. I have dealt with hundreds of Desktop and Laptop products ranging in brands from HP to Dell to Lenovo(IBM) and from Intel to AMD. I have to say that I am extremely impressed with this product.

The processor literally screams it’s so fast, the screen is incredibly, I watched a blu-ray on it already and was quite impressed. It is large, and it is quite heavy, but I knew that going into the purchase. The reason I chose such a large and heavy system is because I did need something portable, but I also needed something that would serve in the desktop capacity as well. It has thoroughly met my expectations and exceeded them.

My only honest complaint is that it is a fingerprint magnet…if that’s my only complaint what am I complaining about again….?????
Rating: 5 / 5

This review was originally posted in my blog. You can read it there by googling “Mine is bigger than yours- Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q890 Laptop Review”. I have uploaded the images to this review and included “see uploaded images” for reading it here.

I recently had to buy a new laptop. I’d love to buy a MacBook Pro, but can’t come to terms with the amount of cash you have to lay down.

I needed something fast since mine completely died, so I decided to try to get something prebuilt. I ended up finding this power house on Amazon. I did a comparison of price for the same options on Dell and IBM and the cost was nearly twice the price.

I used to be an HP fan. I could always count on getting good stuff cheap from them, but after two computers completely died on me in the past year I have left HP behind. Both had hard drives go bad and cost me a ton of time getting back on track. Below is the short list of what I had to install and configure.

Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft Project 2010

Microsoft Visio 2010

Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Developer

Visual studio 2010

Expression Studio

Sparx EA

MDG Sparx EA add-ons – Zachman Framework, TOGAF, DoDAF-MODAF, and SysML.

VirtualBox

VMware Player

Windows Virtual PC

Paint.net

iTunes / sync phone

Data wise I am usually pretty good at backing up, so I didn’t lose much there. This new laptop is a monster. I had no idea it would be so big. It will not be traveling to the islands with me. Like I said above I purchased it pre-built so I could get it faster, and actually just ordered it off Amazon. Below are some of the specs and picture of the laptop compared to my old one.

See uploaded images

The Intel Core i7-740QM processor rocks.

See uploaded images

I also needed a new bag since this behemoth would only fit in one of my back packs.

The laptop has a solid state drive as the primary. It is smoking fast. I installed Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition in 23 minutes. A two hour chore on most systems. One thing to note is that Toshiba uses 10GB of the primary to create restore disks. After you create them you can claim the space. Below is the hard drive configuration out of the box.

See uploaded images

The power cord is also crazy large.

See uploaded images

Some of my favorite features are:

– The speakers kick butt.

– Has a Blu-ray player

– Runs quiet and cool

– I can run 2 Virtual PCs at the same time

– The keyboard lights up. At first I thought that was corny, but now I love it. My wife comes into my office late at night to read and hates having the over head light on so she uses a reading lamp and I use a desk lamp. I am not the best typer, especially on a new keyboard, so the lighting up keyboard rocks.

– The big clear screen. It is great for design diagrams and coding.

The only downside is that this behemoth won’t be going on vacation with me. It will be fine for occasional business travel, but we lug so much other equipment on vacation, another 15 pounds won’t cut it.

All in all if you want a power house for a great price this is a great option.

Rating: 5 / 5

I got my Toshiba X505-Q880 in April and love it (as per my previous review). My wife used it and fell in love too, so we bought the newest iteration, the X505-Q890! The processor is a minor upgrade, but the rest of the computer is the same.

For the 5 hours it ran, it was her dream machine. Then, with a flash, the LCD’s lights went out. Either the cables came loose, the lights for the display went out or the power board for the lights went bad, but the result was the same: No video. The Toshiba help desk was thorough and worked with me and her, providing appropriate interaction for each of us based on our individual technical knowledge.

As the computer was so new, the technician decided a whole new computer was in order. He transferred us to a sales representative who got us a return label via email for an overnight return, with an overnight return shipment. Mind you, I originally selected UPS ground, so the FedEx overnight service was a welcome upgrade.

While I was disappointed that we got a computer with a bad LCD, it gave us an opportunity to see Toshiba’s service first hand. If you have your model number, serial number, and provide detail of the symptoms of your problem, Toshiba will take very good care of you.

And yes, when it’s running, the X505-X890 is every bit of a powerhouse gaming/graphics computer you would ever want, overpowering machines from Alienware and iBUYPOWER that are twice the price. Again, if you could have factory installed upgrades to the processor and Solid-State hard drive, it would be nice, but you simply can’t get a better deal at this price.
Rating: 5 / 5

This is my first laptop, so I shopped around quite a bit for one that would do what I need. I must say that this amazing laptop more than meets my expectations! It’s super fast, and as a multi-tasker I really needed that. I ordered it on July 29, and got it on August 4, and I did not pay for expedited shipping, either. Thus far, I have been unable to slow this laptop down. My only complaint is that it’s pretty heavy, and I had a hard time finding a sleeve and bag to accomodate this juggernaut of a laptop. Luckily I found a sleeve through Amazon that will fit, and went to Sports Authority and found a pretty gym bag that will fit a yoga mat, thus fitting my laptop in its sleeve.

Toshiba thought of everything when they built this laptop, and I am thoroughly pleased. I’ll update my review as I learn more about my new laptop.
Rating: 5 / 5

This laptop has pretty much replaced my desktop. It is unbelievably fast and, more important, reliable.

PROS: Huge screen, lighted keyboard, fast processor, HDMI and VGA outputs, OPTICAL! sound ouput (doubles as headphone jack), card reader, boots in 15 seconds.

CONS: The 64 gig solid state drive is small when some programs insist on putting their files on the C: drive instead of the 500 gig drive. No DVI output.
Rating: 5 / 5