Rock Pegasus P665-T76 Core 2 Duo laptop

Review Rock may not be up there with the Dells and HPs of this world, but this UK laptop manufacturer has been around for almost 15 years and has a proven track record of producing high-performance notebooks, especially for gamers. The Pegasus P665-T76 isn't a hardcore gaming laptop per se, but with a top-of-the-range Core 2 Duo processor, it's gunning for the performance crown. It's certainly not going to win any beauty awards...

That said, the Pegasus P665-T76 does have a good selection of components and the build quality is generally quite good. Besides the Core 2 Duo T7600 processor, which is clocked at 2.33GHz, you also get 1GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory and a 120GB 5,400rpm SATA hard drive as standard.

The chipset is the Intel 945PM, which indicates that the Pegasus P665-T76 uses a discrete graphics chip. Rock has gone for an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB of memory, which offers reasonable 3D performance for most games. Our review unit came with a 15.4in widescreen 1,680 x 1,050 display, an optional extra if you order this model online - the base spec is a 1,280 x 800 display, and is £58 cheaper. Both screens feature Rock's X-Glass reflective coating, great for games and watching movies in the dark, but not so good for outdoors usage.

The laptop also incorporates an 8x DVD writer that supports all the common formats, although dual-layer discs are written at only 4x. You also get an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Wi-Fi adaptor and a Realtek Gigabit Ethernet controller as part of the package. There's no Bluetooth on board, but Rock offers an external dongle as an upgrade at the time of purchase.

The Pegasus P665-T76 supports HD audio, although only via an S/PDIF digital output, as there's only a stereo headphone and microphone socket - the headphone socket doubles up as the S/PDIF port. There's a volume control wheel fitted to the front left-hand side, a feature many laptops lack these days but one that's far better to use than function keys or on-screen controls.