Toshiba Satellite M645: The Steady March of Progress
by Dustin Sklavos on April 29, 2011 12:50 AM ESTThe Portability Sweet Spot
The 14-inch form factor is often the best place to find a compromise between weight, performance, and price. Dipping down to 13.3" can usually get similar hardware but the price begins to creep up and often GPU performance drops; going up to 15.6-inch can get you a lower price tag but more bulk. A notebook like Toshiba's Satellite M645 can really shine if it hits the right notes in portability and performance. We know the performance is largely there and the weight isn't too bad, so how's the battery life?
Battery life isn't great, but it's not dire either, and the M645 benefits from leveraging NVIDIA's Optimus technology. If there's a real weakness, it's in the mediocre battery the unit is saddled with; there aren't any other full-powered laptops with batteries this small that can still produce four hours of useful running time.
Heat and Noise
While typically we like to use HWMonitor to get a good look at the temperatures of the internals of our review units, in this instance even the most recent version was unable to track anything useful. The temperatures we can report put things into perspective a bit: the processor cores idled at around 46C, and under load bumped up to a still reasonable 77C. For a notebook processor, that's actually a pretty normal load temperature. The GeForce GT 525M did even better: it idled at 43C, and under load only scraped 66C. And finally, regardless of system load, the hard drive hung out at a relatively cool 38C. But it's when I look at those GPU temperatures that I start to feel a little cheated. Did Toshiba have to clock the chip down that badly? Let's see how that heat translates outside of the chassis.
It's by no means the coolest-running notebook, but it's actually not punishingly warm either. In my admittedly anecdotal experience with overclocking mobile graphics (and NVIDIA produces some fantastic little overclockers), raising core clocks doesn't usually produce that much more heat; it's when you start ramping the RAM up that temperatures go through the roof. I don't see any reason why the GT 525M couldn't have been run at spec in the M645; there's thermal headroom here and Optimus ensures the battery life wouldn't take the hit.
As far as noise goes, the fan does whirr up under load but it's not particularly offensive. You'll hear it, but the cooling system really does a fine job of keeping everything running at reasonable temperatures while preventing the fan from producing too much noise. All told, the M645 runs cool and quiet for a 14-inch notebook.
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yyrkoon - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
Sadly, as you found out. eSATA from one device/system to the next is very inconsistent.Personally, I was in the market for something eSATA. But after reading through all the woes on user reviews (newegg) about the current state of eSATA hardware. I was "forced" to realize that USB3 is the only real option. It is a shame though, as eSATA has a few pretty nice options to offer. Connecting to a RAID array through a port multiplier would be one.
USB3 is not however a bad option. 5Gbit/s should be more than enough to keep up with any plater based HDD. Worse case scenario I've read that you double your speed when compared to USB2. Some claim 100MB/s when using one HDD( which I personally find dubious ). I would be happy with a consistent 50-60MB/s though.
Anyway, this might not do you any good now, for your current problem. But keep in mind that in the future, Assuming the state of current eSATA hardware stays the same. You could have used that expresscard on your laptop to put in an expresscard ->USB3 card and bought a USB3 enclosure for under $60 USD. Here, I am assuming your system did come with an expresscard slot ( which many Toshibas do ). Also, for all intents and purposes where performance is concerned, expresscard slots are in effect a mini PCIe slot. 1.5Gbit/s throughput potential.
gte343z - Monday, May 2, 2011 - link
Has anyone reviewed the lenovo e420s, It would seem to be a good competitor to the m645 in terms of price / features, although they haven't released the version with hd6630m graphics yet in the U.S.I'm looking for something in the 13/14" <4.5lbs range and am not that impressed. The mac air / mbp 13 have nice screens but slow processor / no discrete graphics accordingly, not to mention the high price. Still competition is lacking given the subpar screens from other vendors.
Also how usable is the 1366x768 screen size? I'm used to my hp 8530w 15.4" 1920x1200 screen and am concerned this will be a deal breaker.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
NeilBhisma - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link
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