Clevo X7200 Review Discussion

If you're looking for the highest performance custom notebook for gaming then a company called Clevo has you covered. Clevo notebooks are available from multiple custom-order stores and in this review we took a look at the new Clevo X7200 from AVA Direct.

This 13.4-pound monstrosity might be the world’s fastest laptop. It features a desktop Core i7 Extreme processor with six cores, dual Nvidia GTX 480M 2GB graphics cards, and 12GB of RAM.

Read the full content of this Article: Clevo X7200 Review

 

Behemoth!

 

In the game benchmarks, by "high settings", do you mean the highest possible (without AA of course) or literally the high setting in the game?

 

Thanks for the awesome review, Charles!

 

Since the battery life is so abysmal, I was like thinking: "Why not build a much cheaper and equal performing mini-ITX gaming rig instead?"

 

Because the mini ATX is not going to be the fastest laptop in the planet"

@Charles thank you for the review and how you compare to similar spec machines too

 

Thank you Charles! As always a very thorough review!
__

 

Thanks for the nice review, Charles. As to my opinion of this... have you ever played an RPG that lets you distribute points when creating and leveling up a character or a strategy game that does the same for a technology tree? This laptop reminds me of people who put every single point into a couple of related characteristics to the detriment of everything else.

I can understand the weight and utterly pathetic battery life, although it is rather surprising to see a 78Wh battery last less than half an hour on idle (that's got to be some kind of record). The noise is also borderline understandable (although 60dB is quite likely also a record, at least for machines made in the last 5 years). But to spend nearly $5000 on a laptop with a lousy keyboard, a barely better touchpad and a display with below average brightness? Seriously?

It almost certainly is the most powerful laptop on the planet (for the next month or two at any rate -- new GPUs from both Nvidia and ATI are just around the corner). But most users interact with the really powerful components only for short periods of time whereas the keyboard and display are interacted with at practically any time the machine is in use. I don't understand why they can't improve at least the keyboard (the difference in price will be negligible compared to the total cost of the laptop).

 

The settings for game benchmarks are set to "High" in the game (however the game defines that); that is my standard when I review gaming notebooks so all the benchmarks are comparable with one another. For my own testing I did run all the games I tested absolutely maxed out and saw about 66% of the benchmark performance on "high" (in other words, more than playable).

You have a point. Clevo keyboards are far from the best, especially the recent island-style versions . . . very poor feel. The previous-generation Clevo keyboards were much better and actually enjoyable to use (like the ones on the M570 series/Sager NP579x). The Clevo island-style keyboards vary greatly from notebook to notebook -- not the keyboards themselves, but rather the mounting/installation. On the NP8760 (review here: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5359) I gave the keyboard decent marks. Then I slammed the NP5125, which had an identical keyboard as far as I could see ( http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5849&review=sager+np5125). It must have something to do with how they are situating them in the notebooks.
Something that hasn't changed since I started testing Clevo notebooks is their keyboard layout. I don't understand why they keep the three-column number pad or the embedded home/end/pgup/pgdn keys -- I complain about it in every Clevo review; I'm definitely a broken record at this point. Other sites have blasted Clevo for their keyboard layouts as well -- check out some of Anandtech's Clevo reviews.

If I personally owned this notebook, I would take the keyboard off and do some duct-tape modding to stop the rattling and create better tactile feedback. I did it with my HP 8740w, as a matter of fact -- a couple of pieces of tape in the right spots makes a noticeable difference.

 

Nice review, especially the pictures are very helpfull (I dont like the glossy plastic around the screen).

Also, would it be possible to place it next to an m17x for example? So we could see the difference in size ...

 

"Is that your Clevo X7200 or you're REALLY glad to see me today, honey?"

Althernai, I love your analogy. +1. Great review. As usual.

 

The reason I think a mini-ITX probably wouldn't work for me is the separate monitor. I need a portable computer that I can transport from my home to a vacation resort a few times per year and at the resort I usually keep the laptop on my lap. That isn't possible with a small desktop computer with a separate monitor.

Currently I use a 17" Alienware that is just light enough and definately quiet enough to keep on my lap. I was set on getting an X7200 but now I'm afraid it might be too heavy and noisy. I might not mind the noise but often I am in a living room with my computer on and several others are watching tv. 60db might be too annoying for them.

I can put an x7200 on a little table above my lap but with a mini-ITX I would need a sturdy table for the lcd and maybe also the keyboard. I can't do that in this living room because it isn't my living room.

Maybe I should get a lesser computer for photo editing and a make the switch to console games.

I would love to hear any suggestions about my dilemma.

dt

 

The M17X is not lighter or more quiet than X7200. I had both R1 and R2 and can assure you that there won't be a noticeable difference. If you're ok with the AW, you should be equally fine with the Clevo.

 

This is so cruel, showing me something I will never have!

 

Despite the X7200 being such a monstrosity and personally would say, idiotic, it's still easier to transport than mini desktop, monitor, keyboard and mouse.

But then, a mini-desktop will probably still outperform the X7200 and be much quieter.

Not very appealing, but suppose there must be someone buying it or Clevo wouldn't make these.

This is the second review that says 60db for X7200 and being louder than a desktop air cooled. I have not read a review for the R2 that can boast the same.

 

wow awesome notebook...makes my G73 look like thrash. Just one question... how does the NVDIA cards do on OpenGL gamesish? I use a lot of graphics programs/OpenGL/Java/Matlab so just interested on how the performance it is in them.. really impressed by FPS in BC2.. just one question on that too? Did you use MSAA and HBAO or was HBAO off?

Panther214

 

^^ Yup, you're right, 52db is the max I saw for M17X.

 

ditto. I'm on call once a week in house, and i don't want to haul around a rig and a separate monitor. a lot of time with it will be spent in the call room, on a bed (no desk).

 

how loud would you say the fans are compared to the classic D900C with the 8800M gtx SLI setup of the past, if you remember?

 

Here's my review of the NP9262 from a review years ago:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4391

The X7200 is louder. How important is noise to you? What kind of environment will you be working in?

 

the SLI NP9262 i consider to be very quiet for the power it packed back in 2008, it actually spoiled me. noise is very important to me right now. i have to be able to listen to the household at nights in case my todlers wake up. so having screaming laptop fans running in the background while gaming is something i want to avoid, if was in the market for another powerhouse laptop.

 

Can't say I would recommend the X7200 then; you're going to hear these fans from just about anywhere in the room. It is more than just background noise. I would ask in the Sager forum just to get as second opinion.

You could consider the Sager NP8850; I believe they call it the NP8760-S1 now though:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5812&p=2
Very powerful and rather quiet. In all honesty it won't be much of an upgrade from your current notebook performance-wise; you might as well hold out and see what the Intel "Sandy Bridge" platform brings when it is released in Q1. There should be a lot of notebooks announced with it at CES 2011; I wager a significant portion of them will merely be hardware refreshes of current models though. Still, it is supposed to significantly increase performance vs. current notebooks.