Malibal Nine X570E: Need Advice.

Hi, everyone -

Thanks in advance for your advice! So, before I post the specs of this Malibal Nine that I am really, REALLY tempted to buy (and with the right reassurance from you fine folks, I just might), I just want to tell you about what I intend to use the computer for, how I'll use it, etc.

First and foremost, it will be used for gaming. Gaming to my heart's content. However, I don't like 3D gaming, and I don't intend to game on separate monitors (I only intend to play on the Malibal laptop's screen. But that's where things get complicated. I'm seriously contemplating getting the GTX 680 SLI cards for my laptop, not because I intend to play games on a huge monitor or 3D game, but because I really, really don't want to come to a situation so soon where I can't play my games on ultra settings because a single GTX 680 can't handle it (I've already heard horror stories about people who can't play games like GW2 or TERA online on ultra because the GTX 680 is struggling to keep up). And since this is my first gaming laptop, and gaming laptops can't be as easily upgraded as desktops, I really want to think wisely about what gaming laptop I get. Long story short, I'm considering purchasing a GTX 680 SLI so I can protect my laptop from struggling with games for the next few years. I would love, love, love to buy a single graphic card like the GTX 690 instead of the SLI (so my laptop doesn't overheat and all that), but I don't think the GTX 690 has gone mobile yet on a laptop.

So, without further ado, here are the specs of the Malibal Nine X570E I'm strongly considering purchasing. What are your thoughts about the GTX 680 SLI in regards to how I plan to use it? Do my reasons for buying it make sense/will the 680 SLI serve the purpose I need it to (to help me play ultra games for two years at least? What other suggestions do you have regarding the 680 SLI or any other specs below?

Thanks so much in advance!!

Customizations:
Display: 17.3" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B173HW01 V.4 90% NTSC Glossy Display
Display Upgrades: A+ Grade Display With 45 Day Perfect Pixel Warranty
Display Upgrades: Spyder 3 Elite Professional Color Calibration w/ Profile Disc
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3930K, 12MB L3 Cache, 3.2-3.8GHz (Desktop CPU)
Memory: (16GB) 16384MB, PC3-12800/1600MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: 2 X NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M (Kepler) 4GB GDDR5 (SLI)
Hard Drive: 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 8GB NAND Flash
Hard Drive 2: 240GB Intel® (520) SATA III 6Gb/s SSD2 Drive
Optical Drive Bay: 6X Blu-ray Reader 8X DVD+/-R DL Super-Multi Drive
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional; 64-bit
Wireless: Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 802.11A/B/G/N LAN Card
Cooling: IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU

 

I would avoid Malibal like the plague. There are so many customer service horror stories about them lately. I would go with LPC Digital, Xoticpc, or Mythlogic (a little more expensive than the others, but they are a builder not a reseller, and they're known for excellent customer service.)

The 680m is the best mobile graphics card currently out, and in sli they're more powerful than a desktop gtx 680. I can't say for sure that they will max out games for two years (I have no idea what next-gen games will be like) but it's by far the best mobile setup you can get right now. Go for it!

 

Hi, Failwheeldrive! Thanks for the fast response.

Aww, that's a bummer about MalIibal! I really liked the chunky build of the Nine. I wonder if there are any resellers of the Clevo P570WM? It's funny because I actually considered buying from XoticPC first over a lot of the other resellers, but I'd read so many bad reviews about faulty products and poor customer service that I got too nervous about it. Have you had any experiences with them?

I also looked up Mythlogic, a lot of good reviews from them! I'll definitely check them out.

Thanks! I'm strongly considering it, if I can find a laptop that can handle 680 SLIs without being like 'aaaahh eff this I'm out /explosion', I'll definitely go for it!

 

The P570WM is a niche product as it carries a top-end desktop CPU. However, making reference to the review by Notebookcheck, the hexa-core CPU cannot even sustain Intel-specified turbo limits. To quote the review,

"Turbo Boost

The screenshots below illustrate that the high-end CPU cannot exhaust its full potential. Regardless whether single or multi-core load, the processor settles to 3.6 GHz, so exactly 50% below the maximum Turbo. At least the Core i7-3960X never throttles - not even during full load.

.................

CPU Performance

The limited overclocking is very noticeable in the speed measurements. Although the hexa-core achieved an excellent result of 1.46 points in Cinebench R11.5 single-core rendering, it lags behind the Core i7-3940XM counterpart by almost 10% (1.63 points @ One M73-2N). Owing to the higher core count, the desktop CPU relentlessly takes the lead in multi-core rendering. 10.5 to 7.46 points is a plus of approx. 40%."

Now this is where reviews fail to expose the full extent of the truth: a 3940XM at stock clocks leads the stock 3930K in single-core rendering but lags in multi-core stuff, but what happens when both are overclocked to a reasonable level? The 3930K has zero overclocking headroom due to insufficient cooling/ power supply in the laptop while the 3940XM can be quite reliably bumped up 15-20% in speed. So in a real usage scenario, the 3940XM would slaughter the 3930K in single-core tasks and only fall slightly behind in multi-core benchmarks.

In this day and age where CPU's are hardly ever bottlenecking gaming applications, a mere 3630QM would have been sufficient for a SLi 680M setup for all intents and purposes. A 3940XM is a nice overkill but a 3930K is simply gimped in a laptop. Hence, I'd highly recommend the P370EM-based products which are cheaper, cooler, less power hungry and will serve you better for gaming for years to come.

 

My first recommendation, avoid Malibal and tell everyone you know to avoid them.

My second recommendation, just get a single 680M and just a 3720QM. Saver yourself $1000.

 

Sager should be introducing this same laptop very soon.

And yes, avoid Malibal like the plague. Run away. Run very very far away from them.

 

Yep, I bought two Sagers from Xotic in the past, and they were always great to work with. They are the largest Sager reseller in the country, so the reason there are some negative reviews is because they simply sell so many of them. There are bound to be some unhappy customers with any reseller, and Xotic has more customers than other resellers, therefore more unhappy ones. That's how I view it anyway. If you're uncomfortable with them, you can always go with LPC Digital or Mythlogic, both of which are known to have great customer service. I think Xoticpc would be a great choice, too.

If you're really looking for an sli setup, I would also look at the Alienware M18x. The styling may or may not be to your liking (I love it lol) but the M18x is consistently at the top of laptop benchmarks. An NBR member named johnksss has the highest 3Dmark11 score of any laptop that I know of, and he owns an M18x. It's a beast. If you're worried about pricing, you can get an excellent deal if you call in and speak with an Alieware representative. My M17x was about the same price as a Sager NP9170 with the same specs.

Good luck in your search!

 

yeah dont go with malibal, heard a lot of horror storries about them

 

Oh gosh, I'm so happy I came here first before placing the order! I came so close, haha. Thanks for the advice, guys!

It definitely sucks that the SLI is so expensive! I don't know much about upgrading laptops, but if I got a laptop with a single 680M, could I upgrade it to a 690M if I got my hands on one? Or does it not work that way?

And thanks, HTWingNut! I might just do that, wait for Sager to release the laptop. Also, random question - are 120hz screens exclusively for 3D gaming, or can they be used for 2D gaming? Are there any other benefits of 120hz screens apart from being better for 3D gaming?

Edit: - Wow, thanks for the info, failwheeldrive! That definitely makes sense, Xoticpc definitely seems to sell to a loooot more people, I saw they had nearly a thousand reviews on resellerratings.com. I'll definitely take a look at Alienware too! I like the design too, the lights and everything - but as soon as I saw 'DELL' the flashing red warning signs went off in my head. D: Mainly because the tech support and laptop crashing horror stories. How's your M17x performing since you got it?

 

Trust me, Alienware has the best support and warranty in the business. If something goes wrong, they will send a tech out to your house the next business day to fix it. They have incredible cooling systems, and their build quality is top of the line for performance notebooks. I love my M17x. I'm not a fan of Dell either, but Alienware still has its autonomy from Dell while benefiting from Dell's supply chain.

If you go with a single 680m, you can upgrade to another gpu later down the line. All high-end notebooks use an MXM 3.0 slot, so the gpu can be upgraded later. There probably won't be a 690m, but AMD and Nvidia will probably release their new flagships in around 6 months, so you can get a 780m and install it in whatever you decide to get, whether it be a Sager or Alienware.

And yes, 120hz screens can be used for 2D gaming. The M17x has an awesome optional 120hz screen as well.

 

If you have the money to burn on an Alienware with a 120 hz screen you have the money to buy a comfortable gaming desktop. I canNOT endorse this. You pay out the butt for warranty. I have an M17x R1 and I know Dell support inside and out. Do they replace anything on the machine you want? Sure. Is it worth it? Depends on how tech savvy you are. I'd recommend one of the Sager resellers as stated above. You pay less, and if you know what you're doing, can minimize the costs associated with replacing simple stuff like RAM and HDD's/SDD's for under $100. Now if your graphics card is going to burn out, then Dell is the way to go, but their designs in the past are also part of the blame for the 8800/9800m cards burning out fiasco of years past.

I know nothing about the 680m, by the way. For gaming/viewing videos, I strongly recommend AGAINST a glossy display. If you can find a 120 hz screen, grab it and hold onto it like grim death.

 

Avoid Malibal at all costs, they stopped responding to me when I asked for the bios 05 for P150EM, had to get it through notebookreview's Clevo forum.

 

For the 2 grand is costs to build a Sager, you could also build an insane desktop. What kind of argument is that? Everyone hear knows that we would get more performance out of a desktop, but we all spend more money on laptops because we want laptops. I've price-checked Sagers from Xoticpc, LPC-Digital, Power Notebooks, and Malibal, and they're always within one or two hundred dollars of what I payed for my M17x. Alienwares are only overpriced if you can't call and speak with a rep/install your own ram/hdd. As long as you do those three things, you can get an AW for around the same money as a Sager, and there are many benefits for doing so.

Are you kidding me? That sucks man You should drop the sig and rep a different reseller Be sure to email Malibal and tell them you're doing it, too lol.

 

This is great info! Thanks so much!

Ah! Can't believe I missed this. This is great - I was actually considering the 3940 (even though it is rather overkill presently, lol!) only because I've heard that laptop CPUs can't be upgraded (I think?) So whatever CPU I pick, I need to stick with - so the 3940 might be the way to go! And it sounds like a P370EM laptop would be promising; I'm not too fond of the design (odd trackpad, ghosting on keyboard) but the performance is what I should be most concerned with! If I go with this set up I might take just take failwheeldrive's advice and get the single 680M, with hopes to upgrade it in the future! A 780M would be amaaaazing.

 

You're right about laptop processors to an extent. You can upgrade them, but only to other Ivy Bridge processors. You can't upgrade to Haswell processors when they're released later this year. If got an i7 3630qm or 3740qm, you could upgrade to a 3840qm or 3940qm/xm (depending on the laptop)

 

True. Yeah ditch the sig pic. Just call it a Clevo.

 

as its not been posted yet read this thread from the clevo sub forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/705732-bad-customer-support-malibal-com.html

and heres all the american resellers you will need http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/656776-ask-resellers-questions-reseller-thread.html
a few of them have reps on here who are very helpful.

and finally heres the clevo thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/