EUROCOM M570TU MONTEBELLOW REVIEW

Eurocom M570TU Montebello
Key specifications
HDD Capacity (GB): 320
Installed RAM (GB): 2.00
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor Speed (GHz): 3.06
For
1)Great core specification
2)Powerful graphics engine
Against
1)Annoyingly noisy
2)Bank-breaking price tag

High-end gaming
This is the first time we've had the 9800M GT in the PCF Labs, and it's certainly a tasty piece of kit, in mobile terms at least. 96 stream processors is a healthy amount for games to play with, and the core clock speed of 500MHz, backed up by 512MB of DDR3 running at 800MHz through a 256-bit memory interface, is also pretty much on the ball. It's no GTX280 beater of course, but given the lack of serious options for high-end mobile gaming, this is currently the top of the pile.
Which is why it's such a shame that Eurocom has paired this with a 1,920x1,200 resolution screen. It's a great screen for enjoying 1080p movies and general day to day work, but just too much for a G94 core to handle. When you're spending this much cash, 16fps makes for a particularly thorny pill to swallow.

Noisy machine
You can of course play the more demanding games at lower resolutions, but its preferable to play at the native resolution due to poor scaling – particularly where text is involved. Another option is to specify the smaller 1,680x1,050 when you buy it.
Unfortunately this won't do much for the machine's other annoyance – the noise from the coolers. This isn't a discreet machine, and the chance of getting away with the odd game when surrounded by your loved ones is slim to zero.
It's a shame that it is so loud, because it's a capable slice of gaming hardware (at lower resolutions). The keyboard is responsive, the touchpad is comfortable to use, and even the sound is surprisingly passable.
We've seen this chassis on numerous machines, and while it won't be to everyone's tastes, for the most part it does its job well.

Worth the price?
Ultimately though, there is one final point that trips this machine up – price. This is a quantifiably heavy amount of the folding stuff for a machine that can't really compete with the recent price crash that has made desktop gaming so attractive again.
We're not suggesting that every portable machine you consider needs to be a bargain, but you do need to feel that it is worth the money.
When you can get similar performance from a desktop that costs half this, you're going to really need a convincing argument to really want this noisy beast.