Best place to buy Clevo W230SS? (UK)

Hi guys, new to the forum! I've decided for my next small laptop I'd like a W230SS. The thing is, I'm not sure where to buy from. The only two places I've found so far are these:

Scan (3XS):
13.3" gaming laptop with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics - 3XS

PC Specialist:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusV-13/

For the same config (i5-4210M + 1TB SSHD + 3200x1800 display + 8GB RAM) it works out at £44.52 cheaper at PCS than at Scan. Is there anywhere else I can buy from? How is the support at PCS? I've dealt with Scan many times and their support is fantastic. Thanks in advance!

 

mySN UK mySN.co.uk | XMG | Schenker Technologies - Gaming Laptops

much better warranty compared to pcs

P304 mySN.co.uk | XMG | Schenker Technologies - XMG P304 13.3" Notebook

 

Thanks, sadly the same config from there would cost £175 more! I'm already spending more than I would like really.

Any other places? Or is it between Scan and PCS?

 

have a chat with them on live chat on their site. quote the prices and see if they can help :thumbsup:

 

Will do, cheers! One more thing - is the i7-4710MQ worth the extra £55 over the i5-4210M? I'll be gaming and doing some light programming work.

 

Hi twerk

Please feel free to contact the UK office and ask about your configuration and the price! The XMG P304 with your spec and comparable to the OptimusV 13" you linked to is £37 more expensive, but they have have a special offer on a certain config at the moment.

 

but you have better warranty :thumbsup:

nuff said.

 

Thanks! I've sent a message to customer support.

Just to clarify the prices (configurable stats only):

Scan 3XS Graphite LG136
QHD+ 3200x1800 Screen
Intel Core i7-4710MQ
8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
128GB SanDisk X110 mSATA SSD
500GB Western Digital Blue 5400rpm
Intel Wireless-AC 7260
£802.19

PC Specialist Optimus V
QHD+ 3200x1800 Screen
Intel Core i7-4710MQ
8GB Kingston Hyper-X Impact 1600MHz
1TB Western Digital Blue 5400rpm
120GB Kingston SSDNow mSS200 mSATA SSD
Arctic MX-4 Thermal Paste
Intel Wireless-AC 7260
£776.00

XMG P304
QHD+ 3200x1800 Screen
Intel Core i7-4710MQ
8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600MHz
500GB Western Digital Blue 5400rpm
128GB Crucial M550 mSATA SSD
Intel Wireless-AC 7260
£959.00

 

There are big differences in the warranty options and some other areas which will account for a lot of the price differences, plus I'm sure that the guys will get back to you ASAP to answer your email!

Just one example, as MrDJ mentioned - the Optimus V price looks like it is only with a 1 Year warranty and 1 month collect and return.

 

I've been contacted by mySN via email, definitely very helpful! You guys definitely know customer service.

Now, one last thing. i5-4210M vs i7-4710MQ. Is it worth the £55 difference for gaming?

 

was your above 3 with or without operating system.
just checked and the config without is £909 and with 8.1 £972

i would still recommend upgrading from the 5400 to 7200 western digital black and also the wifi to 6235 which is only £14 more for both.

best wait for the experts to get back to you as i guess theve gone home now for the evening.

edit:

already contacted you. now thats service

and this is why i keep going back to them when i upgrade.

edit edit:

dual verses quad, the i7 is well worth it in my eyes.

 

All the configs are without OS, yeah.

The hard drive is only going to be used for storing films and such, so speed isn't too important. 5400rpm is also quite a bit quieter which is nice.

Is the 6235 actually better? The 7260 supports AC while the 6235 only supports up to N.

The i7 is very, very appealing. Ideally my budget was £750 which is what it would come to with the i5, the i7 would take it to £800 so it's a tough choice.

 

i only mentioned the 6235 as thats what ive got and its not let me down yet. now you mention it ive not used the 7260 so have no idea how much different it is. the experts will advise which is best.

do you ever do video editing or rendering. if so i would say the i7 is a must.

when i bought my lappy below 2 years ago it was just over 2 grand and the guys at mysn actually saved me almost 500 quid as i was going top spec on everything.
when i told them what i would be doing with it they suggested i didnt go for the top end processor as i just didnt need it. was also going to get 32gb ram but after their advice 16gb has done the job for me so far.
so whatever we say their advice would be the best advice as they may say you dont need the i7.

good luck on whoever and whichever you go for.

 

The i7 will help in certain CPU intensive games like SC2, Skyrim, BF4, and Crysis 3. Otherwise it shouldn't bottleneck the midrange 860M GPU.

5400 vs 7200rpm the noise difference really is minimal. Plus I doubt you'll be able to hear it above the laptop fan. I don't know what prices are like in the UK but it might be cheaper to just add an HDD yourself later instead of ordering a laptop with one. I highly recommend the 1TB Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000.

7260AC you won't see any benefits unless you have an AC router. That said may as well just go for the newest technology, but make sure you run the latest drivers as some of the older drives seem to make the 7260AC run worse than its predecessors.

Btw MX-4 is a terrible paste. After just 30 hours of gaming temps went up by 3C already. Gelid GC Extreme is much better, and (if you can afford it), could also try some ShinEtsu paste.

 

Thanks mate, looks like I'm going to be going with mySN if I can sort things out with customer support. I think I'm going to go with the i7 too, it's a huge gain in performance for just £55.

Is the difference in noise between 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives really that small? The WD Black and Seagate Barracuda that I have in my desktop are rather loud. I've never considered a Hitatchi drive to be honest.

I don't have AC capable equipment at the moment, but it's only a couple of £ more so why not eh?

I wasn't aware that MX-4 is terrible, I know it's not one of the top ones but it should be a good upgrade over the stock paste right? I use GC Extreme on my desktop and I have used Shin-Etsu X-23-7762 in the past. Both are great.

 

I can't comment on desktop HDDs, but I can confidently say that 7200rpm drives don't sound much (if any) louder than 5400rpm drives. Truthfully you'd have to have the bare drive running outside the laptop if you want to pick up on acoustic differences. When inside a laptop, the system fan will overpower any other component in terms of noise.

If you've used GC Extreme and ShinEtsu paste before, then even less reason to spring for the MX-4. Just apply some paste yourself and save some money.

 

May have to grab that Hitachi then, I've always viewed their consumer drives as cheap and not worth getting. I guess I was wrong.

One more thing, should I get 2x4GB RAM or 1x8GB? Does it work the same as desktop boards where two DIMMS will run in dual channel resulting in better performance?

Edit: I lied, two more things. 840 EVO vs Crucial M550? Both £77, both amazing drives... I can't decide.

 

Get 2x4GB for dual channel if you're certain you won't need more memory in the future, otherwise grab 1x8GB to leave the room open for upgrading.

840 Evo hands down for SSD.

 

my crucial sure is no slouch but at the time samsung hadnt released a 512gb ssd so i went for crucial. still a great drive if you wanted to save some wonga but if they are the same price its a no brainer, samsung all the way.

 

I think I'm gonna grab the 1920x1080 screen instead of the 3200x1800. I completely missed the fact that the high res screen is glossy which I probably wouldn't be able to stand, that and Windows scaling still isn't great and things would be hard to read. The 1080p screen is matte.

 

if its anything like my 15" matte screen you will love it.

 

The 1080p display is very competent

 

Going to order with mySN, the offer they've given me is irresistible.

Out of sheer curiousity, does anyone know the make and model of the 1080p panel the Clevo W230SS uses?

Thanks for all your help everyone, it's hugely appreciated!

 

see, told you it was worth a look

no idea on this model especially as theres a choice of 3 screens.

 

Ordered! Full spec:

13.3" (33.78 cm) Full-HD 1920x1080 Matte IPS-Panel
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2048MB GDDR5
Intel Core i7-4710MQ Quad Core - 2.50 - 3.50GHz 6MB 47W
Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound
8GB (2x4096) SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM 1600MHz Crucial Ballistix Sport
512GB SATA-III SSD Crucial MX100 (CT512MX100SSD1)
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 (with Bluetooth)

Thanks again guys. I'm someone who doesn't spend that kind of money without researching for hours, it's good to have people helping out. Special thanks to Neil and the rest of the CS team too, couldn't ask for better service.

 

Should last you a nice little while