Jul 16 2011 - The CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 is a fully customizable laptop PC using the Compal PBL21 whitebook chassis. The Xplorer X6-9600 sports a full HD display which is suitable for 1080p gaming. Unfortunately, the NVIDIA GT 540M graphics card is better suited for gaming at medium settings rather than maxed out settings at a high resolution. There are a few recommended upgrades, such as more memory and a faster hard drive, but the CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600's starting price of $949 makes it easier on the wallet.
Pros
•Quad Core Processor
•Full HD Display
Cons
•Battery Life
•Design
Description
•Intel Core i7-2630QM Quad Core Processor
•4GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory
•Compal PBL21 15.6 Inch Full HD 1920x1080 LED Display
•NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 2GB Graphics Card
•500GB 5400RPM SATA 300 Hard Driver
•8x DVD Burner
•MSI Wireless 802.11 b/g/n Network Card
•6 Cell Battery Pack
•HDMI, 2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0 Port
•Built-in Media Card Reader
•14.82" x 9.8" x 1.37" @ 5.51 Pounds
Review - CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 15.6 Inch Gaming Laptop
The CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 is a 15.6 inch laptop PC that utilizes the Compal PBL21 whitebook chassis. Equipped with an Intel Core i7-2630QM quad-core mobile processor, this system offers decent performance for a relatively low price tag. Starting at $949, the system is fully customizable, and CyberPower has good prices on upgrades.
Starting with the display, the full HD 15.6 inch screen offers good color gamut, and the high resolution works well while playing games. Opting for a 1080p screen nowadays is a definite asset as the price point has come down substantially making it a great value. However, the design is still a bit underwhelming with a glossy bezel and loud keyboard.
As noted above, the sub-$1,000 CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 has a quad-core Sandy Bride processor, which is quite fast with a 2.0GHz base clock speed and TurboBoost functionality up to 2.9GHz (or 2.6Hz for all four cores). For a laptop under a grand, you can't beat the Core i7-2630QM chip.
Gaming on the CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 is smooth, but the NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M is a bottleneck when trying to play games in 1080p. The card simply cannot compete with the GTX 460M, but you can play with medium settings using the GT 540M. It all depends on what your primary oal is. If you want to game casually and maxed out settings aren't necessary, then the CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 is a good value. However, if you plan on spending a significant time gaming on the laptop and yearn for extreme frame rates at higher settings, you are better off buying a machine with a more powerful GPU.
One upgrade worth considering is adding another 4GB of memory to the base configuration. The standard Xplorer X6-9600 comes with 4GB DDR3 1333MHz memory, but upgrading to 8GB is an additional $69 and is worth it for smoother performance while multitasking.
The same holds true for hard drive space. The standard configuration sports a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive. To improve performance, I recommend upgrading to a 7200RPM drive for $34 more. If you wish to veer away from mechanical drives entirely, CyberPower has a variety of SSD options available.
Battery life was also disappointing, and competing notebooks, such as the Dell XPS 15, have a clear advantage in this regard. However, the CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 did run cool and quite which is a must in a portable notebook.
Overall, the CyberPower Xplorer X6-9600 is a nice midsized laptop for the price. At under $1,000, it's nice to find a quad-core processor and full HD display. Gaming performance is somewhat sacrificed by the NVIDIA GT 540M graphics card, and many games run best at medium settings. In conclusion, the Xplorer X6-9600 is great for budget-conscious individuals who are looking to game casually.
