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my laptop QOSMIO F20

2008-09-14T18:46:00.001-07:00

Review Toshiba Qosmio F20

Are you searching for a pure multimedia laptop? The Toshiba Qosmio F20 could be the best for you. It offers numerous features like a DVB-T/analogue tuner, Harman/Kardon speakers, SRS TruSuround XT technology and much more.
Equipped with a Pentium M 750 and a Nvidia Geforce 6600 Go, the F20 further offers sufficient power.

Case

Concerning the design of the Qosmio F20 the two silver Harman/Kardon speakers and the silver turning wheel for audio volume control are noticeable. Also the high polish painted surface of the mobile computer and the numerous additional keys above the keyboard make the Qosmio exceptional.

As most Toshiba notebooks the quality and workmanship is very good. The chassis consists completely of plastic. Nevertheless we could notice several crunching noises when pressing at the case of our tested laptop. Within the range of the auxiliary keys the plastic tortioned noticeably.
The display proved very stiff torsionally as it measures 16mm at the outside edges. Unfortunately the hinges of the Qosmio F20 permit a slight trembling noise.

The connections are reasonably distributed, the monitor, network and power connections are positioned at left side within the rear range and/or at the back.

In addition the highly flexible power cable was noticeable, which is good compared with conventional, partly much resisting cables.

: interfaces in the front

: interfaces at the left side

: interfaces at the left side

: interfaces at the backside

input devices

The keys can be used very pleasantly and got a clear pressure point and a gentle clicking noise. According to my opinion the shape of the keys is somewhat too sharp-edged, which particularly can be felt during rapid writing.

The Touchpad is inserted somewhat too far into the case. The same applies to the pertinent keys. Nonetheless the touchpad can be used pleasantly, and responds well. The surface feels well and offers good sliding qualities.

I think specially cool is the round rotary button for audio volume control. According to the design this button supports the positioning of the Qosmio F20 as a multimedia-notebook and exhibits special abilities according to sound and image representation.

Also the auxiliary keys indicate, that this is an entertainment notebook. But thus not enough: Also included in the scope of supply is a remote control, which allows to operate the Toshiba Qosmio F20 comfortably from the couch. Apple greets...

Small disadvantage: The WLAN slide switch at the front is somewhat wobbly.

: keyboard

: touchpad

Display

: Color slide diagram of the Toshiba Qosmio F20 display

The display showed an extremely strong illumination. In addition a good viewing angle stability, but also 2 pixel errors were detected.
The "TruBrite" WXGA TFT screen with a maximum resolution of 1280x800 pixel showed a maximum measured brightness of outstanding 424.8 cd/m²!! This is almost the value of 450cd/m², indicated by the manufacturer. The illumination amounted to average 80.2%.
The brightness is sufficient for working at direct sun exposure. However with unfavorable light angles in the free environment the display reflects very strongly.

The diagram of the color representation shows a good positioning of the green and red curves and the usual deviation of the blue curve. This results in a rather warm color representation (red colours dominate). Nevertheless the image is very well.

In the Pixperan readability-test we could achieve level 6, the creation of image diffusity is inconspicuous for a notebook TFT display.

Also the viewing angle stability of the display is very good both in the horizontal and in the vertical range. The colors and the brightness remain constant for a long time during a change of the viewing angle. Depending on the position of the light source(s) reflections may occur due to the display.

Performance

: benchmark comparison 3DMark05

: benchmark comparison PCMark04

The Pentium M750 1.86 GHz and the Nvidia Geforce Go 6600 do not cause any surprises. All benchmarks result are as expected. There is sufficient performance for current games, in the future there could be a lack of performance.
The HDTune benchmark test of the hard disk (Toshiba MK1032GAX) showed better results than the average tesed harddrive.

3DMark 06
1148 points

3DMark 05
2203 points

3DMark 03
5491 points

3DMark 01
14337 points

PCMark 05
2791 points

PCMark 04
3667 points

Quake 3 Arena
The time demo benchmark (Four.DM_68) resulted in 308.4 fps.

Doom 3
The 3D Shooter from ID software can be played without problems with details on "ultra" (without antialiasing). Timedemo demo1 supplied the following results with different resolutions/details:

Detail fps
Low 91,0
Medium 90,8
High 73,9
Ultra 51,7
Ultra 2xAA 37,9
Ultra 4xAA 24,3
Ultra 8xAA 9,2

: Benchmark test HDTune

HD Tune 2.10
TOSHIBA MK1032GAX benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum: 19.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum: 34.5 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average: 28.1 MB/sec
Access Time: 17,3 ms
Burst Rate: 73.8 MB/sec
CPU Usage: 2.1%

Emissions

Warmth
The warming up of the laptop is tolerable at the top (maximally 36,6°C). At the bottom clearly higher temperatures are possible in the range of the ventilator (46,9°C).

The lower surface is highly perforated, which allows a good aeration and skillfully prevents from a blocking of a single opening.

: temperature development at the top side

: temperature development at the lower surface

Noise

In the Idle mode the fan is principally out of operation. Then the Toshiba Qosmio F20 runs with a pleasant volume of 33,6 dB. If the requirements rise, the fan switches itself rapidly on and rises relatively fast and steplessly up to a maximally measured volume of 43,9 DB, but regulates itself rapidly back again.

The DVD drive assembly remains decently in the background with maximally measured 41.3 dB.

Measured volumes

Environment: 30,0dB
Idle, exhaust off: 33.6 dB
All fans running: 43.9 dB
DVD max.: 41.3 dB

: finest: speakers of Harman/Kardon

Loudspeaker

The implemented Harman/Kardon boxes are integrated in the case design by visible resonance accentuations. By right! A clean sound and good basses speak for itself. In addition the Toshiba Qosmio F20 offers SRS Trusurround XT and WOW technology and got a set of setting possibilities for the sound creation.

Battery Runtime

Despite the 15.4 inch widescreen display with good 424.8 cd/m² and an attractive performance by Pentium M 750 and Geforce 6600 Go, the battery runtimes of the Qosmio F20 are pleasing. The running times could be somewhat short during the DVD representation with maximum brightness.

Battery Eater Readers Test - corresponds for instance to the maximum running time (min. brightness, WLAN /Bluetooth off, current savings function P active)
Achieved battery runtime: 3h 12min

Battery Eater Classic Test - corresponds for instance to the minimum running time (all max., WLAN etc.)
Achieved battery runtime: 1h 15min

WLAN Operation (brightness max., WLAN on)
achieved battery runtime: 2h 18min

DVD Representation (max. brightness, WLAN out)
Achieved battery runtime: 1h 32min

Current consumption
Minimum (everything off and/or on minimum): 31.8 Watts
Idle (max. brightness): 42.1 Watts
Maximally (full load inclusive. WLAN): 64,8 Watts

Conclusion

: Toshiba Qosmio F20

Without any doubt the Toshiba Qosmio F20 is an excellent multimedia notebook. The features, which are offered for this purpose are for example good speakers, a lot of multimedia keys and a brilliant display. A further important aspect is the integrated DVB-T/analogue TV Tuner, included antenna and a remote control.

The quality of workmanship is ok except a few crunching noises. We were pleased by the shining painted surface of the case, even if it will be covered by numerous finger marks within a short period of time.

The technical basic equipment with Pentium M 750 and Geforce Go 6600 offers a solid performance in current games and applications, and still places a purchasable alternative to core duo and X1xxx video cards.

If one merges televisions, video recorder and radio with a notebook of average performance and pays attention to quality and design, one receives the Toshiba Qosmio F20.

: In the test: the Toshiba Qosmio F20

Equipment (Data Sheet)

Processor: Intel Pentium M 750 with 1.86 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 Cache

Mainboard: Intel 915PM (ICH6-M)

Memory: 2x 512 MB DDR2 RAM, max. 2048 MB

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600, 128 MB DDR memory

Display: 15,4” Toshiba TruBrite WXGA TFT screen, 1280x800 Pixel

Hard Disk: 100 GB Toshiba MK1032GAX

Sound Card: SoundMAX Digital Audio, Toshiba DVB-T/analogue Hybrid Tuner

Connections: 3x USB 2.0 port, 1 x IEEE 1394a (Firewire) port, TV antenna In, video In, 1x S-video port for TV-out, 1 x RJ-45 port for LAN, 1 x RJ-11 port for modem, VGA out, 1x PCMCIA adapter, Kensington Lock, MicIn, HeadOut (S/PDIF)

Card Reader: 5-in-1 Card Reader (SD Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMedia Card, xD-Picture Card)

Network: Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX, Intel Pro/Wireless LAN 2200BG(802.11b/g), Wi-Fi, int. V.90 modem

DVD Burner: DVD supermulti (Double Layer) drive Matshita DVD RAM UJ-840S

Dimensions: 373 x 274 x 43 mm, weight: 3,3 kg inkl. battery (info of the manufacturer), power supply 0,4 kg

Battery: 4400mAh Lithium-ion

: generous equipment...

: ...and solid workmanship...

: ...characterize the Qosmio F20

: resonance volume of the good sounding Harman/Kardon boxes

: well designed: volume turning button

: elegant reflecting surface, but can get dirty easily

: The keyboard can be used easily...

: ...and is enhanced by some additional keys

: a whobbling WLan-switch

: solid performance by Geforce 6600 Go and Pentium M 750

: average battery runtimes despite the super bright display (4400 mAh battery)

: generous Toshiba equipment, e.g. remote maintenance and antenna cable

Pro / Contra

Positive

pleasent keyboard
bright display
good stability of the viewing angle
full sound
generous equipment
DVB-T tuner
big HDD for video recording

Negative

partially strong warming
quite heavy
reflecting display

similar notebooks

Toshiba Satellite A100-153: Dual Core laptop with similar equipment
Acer Aspire 5024WLMi: 15,4" multimedia laptop, X700 and Turion 64
MSI Megabook 645: identical CPU and video card, 15.4"
MSI Megabook L725: 17" TFT, Pentium M 760, Geforce 6600 Go 256 MB

Rating

Toshiba Qosmio F20
Workmanship	87%
Keyboard	88%
Mouse	88%
Connectivity	90%
Weight	70%
Battery	74%
Display	90%
Games Performance	85%
Application Performance	84%
Temperature	62%
Noise	76%
Impression	94%
Average	82%
83% MULTIMEDIA * Weighted Average

* Weighted Average Multimedia Notebook:
Workmanship 8%, Keyboard 8%, Mouse 6%, Connectivity 8%, Weight 6%, Battery 8%, Display 10%, Games Performance 10%, Application Performance 10%, Temperature 8%, Noise 8%, Impression 10%

AOE2 Unique Technologies

2008-03-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Unique Technologies

Garland Wars - Unique to the Aztecs. Increases infantry attack by +4 (combined with Blast Furnace, they can have +8 attack).
Yeomen - Unique to the Britons. Foot archers have +1 range (when combined with the technology Bracer, they will have +6 range), and towers have +2 attack.
Logistica - Unique to the Byzantines. Cataphracts cause trample damage, meaning they can hit other units near them while attacking.
Furor Celtica - Unique to the Celts. Siege weapons have +50% hit points.
Rocketry - Unique to the Chinese. Chu ko nus have +2 attack, and scorpions have +4 attack.
Bearded Axe - Many believe this is the most useless unique technology in the game. It is unique to the Franks, and gives throwing axemen +1 range.
Anarchy - The Goths are the only civilization with two unique technologies, and this is one of them. Unlike the other unique technologies, it is available in the Castle Age. It allows huskarls to be created at barracks.
Perfusion - The other Gothic unique technology. Barracks units are created +50% faster. Combined with the Gothic team bonus of barracks units created +20% faster, and the technology Conscription, barracks units can be created +85% faster. Combine that with the Goths' cheaper infantry, and the fact that they have +10 population in the Imperial Age, and you can create a very large army of infantry in as little as 10 minutes.
Atheism - An effective technology unique to the Huns. Increases Wonder and Relic victories by 100, and the Spies and Treason research at Hunnic castles cost -50 resources.
Kataparuto - Unique to the Japanese. Trebuchets pack/unpack nearly instantly, and fire faster. "Kataparuto" is the Japanese katakana equivalent to "catapult".
Shinkichon - Unique to the Koreans. Onagers have +1 range.
El Dorado - Unique to the Mayans. Eagle warriors have +40 hit points.
Drill - Unique to the Mongols. Siege weapons move +50% faster, making them about as fast as cavalry.
Mahouts - Unique to the Persians. War elephants move +30% faster.
Zealotry - Unique to the Saracens. Camel riders and mamelukes have +30 hit points; combined with Bloodlines, they can have +50 hit points.
Supremacy - Unique to the Spanish. Villagers have +40 hit points, +6 attack, +2 armour, and +2 pierce armour, which makes them a lot more useful in battle.
Crenellations - Unique to the Teutons. Castles have +3 range (Bodkin Arrow can bring their range up to +5), and garrisoned infantry fire arrows.
Artillery - Unique to the Turks. Artillery(Cannon Galleon, Bombard Cannons and Bombard Towers) have +2 range.
Berserkergang - Unique to the Vikings. Berserkers heal themselves faster; how much faster is unknown, but it seems about +40% faster.

The Basic Start AOe

2008-03-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a BASIC start in AoK, using sheeps, and both boars to advance to the castle age by 17 minutes

BUILD ORDER

At the very start:
Make a villager from your town centre
Make a house with 2 villagers
Make a house with the other villager
Get your 4 sheep with your scout
After the houses are complete, send all 3 villagers to gather food from your sheep inside town centre

Vill 4: Sheep
Vill 5: Sheep
Vill 6: Sheep

You should now have 6 villagers on sheep, plus a scout that is finding your other sheep around town centre.

Vill 7: Make lumber camp near forest
Vill 8: Wood
Vill 9: Wood
Vill 10: Wood

You should now have 6 villagers on sheep in your town centre and 4 villagers gathering wood near a forest and lumber camp.

Vill 11: Send towards location of boar and build a house
RESEARCH LOOM HERE

After Vill #11 builds the house, it will lure the boar back to the town centre, and then gather food from the boar

Vill 12: Build mill beside berries
Vill 13: Berries
Vill 14: Berries

You should now have 7 villagers in your town centre on the boar, 4 villagers on wood, 3 villagers on berries and a scout

Vill 15: Send to location of 2nd boar and build house

After the vill builds the house, it will lure the 2nd boar back to the town centre and gather food

Vill 16: Farm beside town centre
Vill 17: Farm beside town centre
vill 18: Wood
Vill 19: Wood
Vill 20: Farm Beside town centre
Vill 21: Farm Beside town centre
Vill 22: Build House and then wood
Vill 23: Farm
Vill 24: Farm
Vill 25: Farm
Vill 26: Wood
Vill 27: Gold
Vill 28: Gold
Vill 29: Gold

After your 8 villagers in the town centre finish gathering from the 2nd boar, send a few to wood and a few to make more farms, and leave 1 or 2 to finish sheep.

This start is very basic, and is only intended as a practise start for rooks and newbs to get used to how a proper start works. Since it advances to the Feudal Age at 30 pop, it is quite easy and after some practise you will master it. Once you fuedal you just need to build a market and stable to advance to the Castle Age.

I would suggest using Britons for attemping this start, because they are the easiest to do it with

Chapter 1: The First Two Minutes

2008-03-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

Introduction
This is the first of a series of chapters to help players new to AoK get over the initial hurdles, to the point of being an advanced intermediate player. These articles are not written for the experts, they’re designed to get you to the point where you can win at least as many games as you lose when playing on the Zone, or to consistently beat computer opponents on the hard setting.
With that in mind, the focus will be on simple, general strategies, rather than highly optimized strategies that are easy to mess up. For example, Gutter Rat’s Fast Feudal Rush (Flush, see ) is an excellent expert strategy, but likely to be an unmitigated disaster if a newbie were to attempt it, since there are so many opportunities to make crucial mistakes.

When practical, I will include sample games to illustrate the points. The games are not "the ultimate" in perfection, you’ll usually see me make some mistakes or minor blunders, but they will show how the general strategy can work.

So, who qualifies as a newbie? For the purposes of these guides, here's the "newbie test". Play a random game on a continental map against one computer opponent on easiest difficulty at normal speed. Try to get to castle age as quickly as you can, ignoring any military buildup. If it takes you more than 22 minutes to reach castle age, these guides are for you. If you're in the 20-22 range, you'll probably still learn something. If you're able to castle in under 20 minutes, you're out of the newbie class and into the intermediate range.

Since Age of Kings was released, I’ve helped clan-mates and strangers alike get over some of the starting hurdles. Sometimes I’ll play as an ally, sometimes co-op on the same civ, and often I’ll review a replay file and email comments and suggestions. Through this experience, I’ve noticed quite a few things that newer players tend to do that keep them from being competitive. This first chapter is aimed at addressing some of these mistakes.

The Deadly Sins
1) Too few villagers

As a general rule of thumb, your first order of business is to get your population up to 30 (1 scout, and 29 villagers and/or fishing boats) as quickly as possible, before building a military, buying many upgrades, or advancing to the feudal age. And, once you reach castle age, expand to at least 40 and to at least ½ the pop limit in imperial. That’s a lot of villagers, but if you’re trying to compete against a 100-villager economy with your 25 villagers, the game is already over.

These numbers are rules of thumb. Sometimes, it will make sense to go feudal with fewer villagers, to build a military very early, or other changes, but try to stick with these guidelines until you’ve got it down cold…then play with the variants.

2) Forgetting the most important thing: food, food, and food

The number two mistake is to use your first 8 villagers for anything other than getting food or making the initially required buildings. (There are special cases where using your 7th and/or 8th villagers for wood is a good move, but in general, keep the first 8 on food no matter what, right into castle age.)

Your success in a game is going to depend heavily on getting ahead of your opponent’s economic power. Nothing is more important in that respect than the number of villagers. If your opponent makes his 15th villager when you make your 12th, you’re going to be in a world of hurt, and a minute behind in everything from that point forward. The key to making many villagers quickly is to get enough food in the first two minutes to allow your TC to create new villagers literally non-stop from the first seconds of the game. To do this without interruptions, you’ll need at least 6, preferably 8 villagers working on food from the very beginning, or you won’t keep up. I like 8 because, if things don’t go smoothly, it gives you some breathing room, while running with 6-7 on food may cause gaps in villager production.

3) Doing things that aren’t needed yet

If you’re not going to build a military force very early, you have no need for gold in the dark ages, especially before beginning your upgrade to the feudal age. (I refer to this as "hitting the feudal button".) If you’re mining gold this early, you’ve wasted 100 wood on the mining camp, and you have several villagers that could be getting food (and speeding your feudal time) instead of gathering gold that you can’t use. Some very good players will tell you to put 3 villagers on gold very early. This is simple, it is easy, but I find that it hurts your speed enough to make it worth putting off until later.

4) Scouting deep before scouting near

Unless you’re planning an early surprise attack (a feudal rush), it’s usually a mistake to send your scout deep before the eight-minute mark. Again, some good players will disagree, but I find that it takes about eight minutes to thoroughly map your home area, and to find all your resources before going on offense. If you miss four sheep, or don’t find your second gold pile, you could be in a world of hurt later on. Until you’ve mastered the game, keep the scout local until you’ve covered your whole "zone", then go exploring.

5) Using the wrong food

This is a fairly deep topic and deserves its own chapter, so let me just summarize with a few "rules" that are really more like guidelines. They are:

Sheep first, if you possibly can. Period.
Berries next until you’ve mastered the game. Reliable, easy, low management.
Nearby hunting and shore fish next. Boar luring once you’re good at it. Do not run more that a screen or two across the map for hunting, the wasted walk time ins't worth it.
Fish boats are usually a good idea, after you have a food baseline established with sheep and berries. (Requires a map with significant water, of course.) Go for deep-sea fish, ignore the shore fish because boats harvest them slowly.
Farms next. I used to advise people to never, ever farm in the dark age, because of the huge up-front wood costs for farming. After testing repeatedly, however, there are some civs that can do quite well with farming in the dark ages, for supplemental food above the initial baseline provided by sheep and/or berries. Although the farms require a lot of wood and don't produce food at a terribly fast rate, they do have the advantage of requiring no initial walk time. As a result, the net production is competitive with the other food sources. Teutons, Chinese and Franks can make especially good use of farms. Farms should never be your first food source. On water maps, though, I still don't recommend farming until you've really fished out the local seas.
Fish traps? Never. Too slow, a waste of a population unit. Delete the fish boats and add villagers.
As with everything, some experts will argue each of these points, especially when it comes to hunting vs. farms vs. fish boats. Stick with these rules until you’ve mastered the game, then selectively throw them out as you see fit. They may not always be optimal, but they’ll never be too far from the mark.
6) Failing to learn the hotkeys

I’m guilty here, too. I haven’t memorized the hotkeys for military stances and formations yet. (Maybe I should do that today, it would only take a few minutes!) It’s dull, it takes an effort, but it makes a huge difference in how much time you have available to think. Seriously. If you can cut down the time it takes to micromanage your economy by half, and it was taking 80% of your time, you’ll now have three times as much thinking time as before (60% vs. 20%). And that makes a huge difference in how likely you are to make silly mistakes under pressure. Believe me, I’ve been there.

The most important hotkeys are the ones for selecting buildings (H for Town Center, etc.), the ones for building (farms, mills, etc.), and the ones for producing common units in the buildings. In addition, learn the grouping commands for making numbered groups, adding units to them, and selecting them.

The First Two Minutes
In future chapters, I’ll cover the strategy choices you need to make with regard to land vs. water maps, feudal and castle rushing, booming, and so on. Each of these strategy choices will profoundly change your strategy beyond the first five minutes, but the first two minutes should almost always follow the same script.