What Makes This Machine Unique?

Here are some of the features described that makes the ITC Metabox 740u a world-class leader:

Nvidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX

This outstanding but power hungry video card delivers ground breaking performance, ideal for today's gaming environments and 3D modelling systems. With it comes NVIDIA® Intellisample™ 4.0 Technology and 64-Bit Floating Point Texture Filtering and Blending.

If you’re into gaming check out the NVIDIA® CineFX™ 4.0 Engine, which delivers advanced visual effects at unimaginable frame rates. Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c+ Shader Model 3.0 enables stunning and complex special effects.

With the PureVideo Technology and high precision subpixel processing, videos can be scaled to any size so that even small videos look like HD videos.

Pentium4 3.8GHz, PCI Express, RAID-0, 2GB DDR2 memory

Let’s have a quick look at architecture and processing speed.

The Intel® Pentium® 4 Hyper-Threading CPU with 64bit extensions allows you to perform CPU intensive DVD encoding on the fly whilst sitting back to enjoy a graphically intensive 3D gaming experience with no loss in frame rate or speed.

The HyperThreading allows software programs to "see" two processors and process instruction threads in parallel for applications such as video encoding, digital media and gaming.

PCI Express is Intel’s new high-performance technology that delivers up to 16x AGP graphics bus speeds and low latency for instantaneous response times. Bus performance has always been the bottleneck but the PCI Express x16 graphics interface delivers increased bandwidth and scalability over previous generation AGP8X-based solutions. With up to 4 GB/s of peak bandwidth per direction and up to 8 GB/s concurrent bandwidth, our 740u can handle the most demanding multimedia tasks.

RAID 0/1 SATA Hard Disk

We’ve got two of these beauties installed to make RAID possible: 100GB each and spinning at 7200RPM. This is the fastest hard drive solution currently available for notebooks besides using NAND flash drive technology.

RAID 0, (striping) dramatically increases hard disk performance by splitting data into blocks that gets written across both hard disks. This allows the METABOX 740's RAID controller to talk to both hard disks simultaneously to retrieve the blocks of information that make up your data file. The additional benefit is the doubling of your hard disk capacity making it possible to have a maximum 240GB hard disk configuration. RAID 0 is perfect for video editing and data processing.

RAID 1, (mirroring) focuses on data security by providing an on-the-fly data backup feature. If one of your hard disks fails, no data is lost and it is a simple matter of replacing it and the Metabox's 740 RAID controller will rebuild the RAID 1 facility.

2GB Dual-Channel DDR2-533 Memory.

Our ITC METABOX 740u came equipped with 2GB Dual Channel DDR2-533 memory for the highest performing notebook platform memory architecture available in the market today. Dual Channel DDR2-533 memory architecture balances the bandwidth capability of Intel Pentium 4 with 800 MHz FSB.

It's not just the world's largest widescreen LCD for notebooks but the 17" WUXGA with an ultra-high contrast ratio brings out game graphics with unparalleled vividness. The glossy CSV screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio with 125% more viewing space then a regular WXGA screen and with that much screen real estate you can easily fit two web pages side by side. We've found the native resolution of 1920 x 1200 getting to the edge of readability for most people's eyesight. But for graphics it is absolute amazing!

Virtual 8 Channel HD Audio System

With 4 built-in speakers and the sub woofer underneath the ITC METABOX 740u, this machine does not need any external amplification or loudspeakers. On board we have the new Intel Azalia Compliant Interface (compatible with Sound Blaster PRO). One of the features we like most is the built-in Audio “DJ” Console for Music CD. No need to boot up Windows to play some music…

Digital Hybrid TV Tuner with Remote Control.

The METABOX 740 supports a choice of optional TV Tuners built into the unit such as an Analogue TV Tuner or the Windows MCE TV Tuner but we went for the top of the range HD Tuner.

We haven't had time to test this out as it is only peripheral to the functioning of this notebook. But look for this in our Part II review.

Similarly, the built-in 1.3 megapixel camera provides very smooth video but will be described more fully in our next instalment.

What we do know about the fully featured remote control unit is that not only does it control all the functions of the TV Tuner including volume control, screen capture, station autoscan, station preview but can also power down our Metabox 740.

Dual Optical Drives with LightScribe technology

We could have chosen to equip our METABOX 740 with two optical drives but since we are not exactly lacking DVD drives on our workbench, we just opted for the one.

The multi-format DVD±RW Drive comes with the innovative LightScribe labeling technology. This means that now you can burn custom, silkscreen-quality lasting images directly onto your discs using the very same laser that burns the data.

With this dual format drive and using bundled recording software, users can store and archive as much as four hours of high-quality DVD video, up to 16 hours of VHS video or up to 8.5GB of data, music or photos on a single double layer DVD±R disc.

Key Features

Nvidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX 256MB DDR3 Video Card

Intel 915G + ICH6 - Grantsdale Core with PCI Express

Intel Pentium 4 670 3.8Ghz 800Mhz LGA775 CPU 2MB cache with Hyper Threading

WUXGA 17" Wide-Screen CSV (Super-Glossy) Active Matrix TFT LCD Screen with1920x1200 native resolution

2GB 200pin DDR2-533 SODIMM RAM (Max 4GB)

2 x 100GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA Hard Disk

Lightscribe Dual Layer DVD+|-R/W 8x+R, 8x+|-R, 4x+|-RW DVD writer

Special Features

Built-in 1.3 MP CCD Camera

Dolby Digital 5.1 with S/PDIF and onboard 4.1 Speaker System

Audio DJ Function (Play CD/MP3 Audio without Windows)

Digital Hybrid HD TV Tuner with Remote Control

Connectivity

Built-in 56k v.90 Modem Adapter (v.92 Compliant)

IR 4Mbps Infrared Port

S-Video Output Port

Enhanced Parallel Port

PCMCIA PC Card/ 32-bit Card Bus Slot

PS/2 Port

RS-232 Serial Port (16550 Uart)

10 -1 Card Reader (MS / MS Pro / SD / MMC / CF / Micro Drive / SM / MS Duo / Mini SD / RS-MMC)

10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN Adapter

4 x 440Mbps USB 2.0 Ports

2 x IEEE 1394 Firewire Port (400Mbps)

DVI-Out Port (with converter to CRT Adaptor)

802.11g Wireless LAN adaptor

Bluetooth Class II v1.2 adaptor

Standard Features

Kensington Lock Port

Quick Start Buttons for Internet, email and audio player

100-240V Universal AC/DC Adapter

Widescreen Notebook vinyl carry bag

2 SATA Hard Disk Bays - Supporting Raid 0/1

Physical Dimensions

The ITC METABOX 740u measures 397 mm x 298 mm x 49 mm and weighs 5.8 kg with battery.

Add to this the weight of the power adapter 1.39Kg and you're looking at some serious weight lifting.

- Introduction, Setup

- Specifications, The Ultimate Notebook?

- 3DMark05 & 3DMark03, Overclocking

- The Good, the Bad and the Heavy, More info and pricing