Old tech has a way of sending me back to a nostalgic past, and that’s exactly what happened this week when I came across what some are calling “The Master Laptop” that’s straight out of 2006.
I was first (re)introduced to this gargantuan “mobile” gaming PC in a stylized video posted on the PCMasterRace subreddit, which shoots a closeup of the laptop as it spins on a platter. Revealed is a monstrously thick 17-inch frame that is a great reminder of how far gaming laptops have come in recent years.
Is “The Master Laptop” a real PC?
The stylized presentation of the video had me thinking it was AI-generated for a few moments, but this is indeed a real PC in a real shoot.
The OP who originally posted the video clarified that it’s a Clevo 900T, a model that was popular in the early ’00s. Founded in 1983, Clevo remains today a huge supplier of reference designs to laptop brands, which buy the chassis and put their own spin on it.
Alienware is one notable brand that took Clevo’s design and jazzed it up with its own logos and stylings. IGN has a 20-year-old Alienware M7700 review still available to read if you’d like more info.
Image 1 of 4
Several other companies, including Sager, made use of Clevo’s 17-inch design to produce gaming laptops that sound more like a jet engine taking off than a few small fans. Sager’s website includes a user’s manual with a deep dive on how it works.
I spent some time digging around for more info about the PC, and I came across this video from the YouTube channel “J-Tech Workshop” that provides a full teardown. It’s well worth a watch if you’re interested in this sort of thing.
What sort of performance hardware comes in this massive gaming laptop?
It’s always amusing to see how older PC gamers like me react to huge laptops jammed full of ports and hardware. One user in the PCMasterRace subreddit posted a picture of their D900K, an AMD-powered version of the D900T.
Inside, it’s explained, is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ CPU, two sticks of 1GB DDR-400 RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX GPU with 512MB VRAM. That’s some righteous mobile hardware for 2006.
Should we go back to gaming laptops like this?
Are you old wise enough to remember when powerful gaming laptops looked like this blast from the past? Do you yearn for dual disc drives and more ports than you could ever use at once? Please let me know in the comments section!
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
