3. Features

With a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz CPU and one gigabyte of PC2700 RAM, this notebook can go head-to-head with most desktops. The CPU is a full desktop version and not one with which a typical anemic notebook is equipped, with power-stepping. Likewise, the 60 gigabyte hard drive is not your average wimpy notebook hard-drive; rather it spins at 7200 RPM and has an 8 MB cache.

Gamers will like the built in ATi Mobility 9600 graphics chip with 128 MB of RAM. The Mobility Radeon 9600 sports a graphics processor clock of 350 MHz and video memory speed of 284MHz. While not as powerful as the recently released Mobility Radeon 9700, it still turned in good benchmark scores. Paired up with a good game controller, this notebook will serve LAN Partiers well.

Right side of the Mayhem G1 notebook. Notice how close the power connector is to the DVD tray.

To round out the features, you get a DVD +RW burner with the Mayhem G1 notebook. Its position on the right side can sometimes interfere with the power cord. The power connector and DVD drive are next to each other. The DVD caddy can hit the power cord, if you don't run the cord behind the notebook.

Heat

The notebook gets HOT, so don't put this on your lap for too long. With all the power crammed into this thing, I'm surprised it doesn't spontaneously catch on fire. The heat will not be a problem for people who are mainly desk-bound, but may be a concern for frequent travelers.

The notebook is noisy, as the fan is almost always on. How could a notebook sporting a desktop CPU, desktop hard-drive and a desktop-level graphics card be completely silent?

Recoverability

Admit it; sometimes you mess up your computer so badly that you need to run a system recovery operation. Luckily, ABS PC has included a recovery CD that boots a stripped down version of Powerquest DriveImage. DriveImage will recover the operating system to its factory state. The factory installation image is 971 MB and is located on the second partition of the hard-drive.

However, the recovery CD does have some drawbacks. It does not support recovery from a DVD, so you are stuck with having to leave a 971 MB file on the D: drive. Recovery will wipe out the C: so make sure you move all of your important documents somewhere else first.

For those of you who like Norton Ghost, a Norton Ghost 2003 bootable CD works just fine on the Mayhem G1. Norton Ghost allows recovery from USB hard-drives, DVD drives and over a LAN. You can delete the factory image, thus freeing 971 MB of space, if you use Ghost instead of DriveImage.