CLEVO P570WM vs Clevo P170SM Size and speed.

I am debating on maybe going with the larger CLEVO P570WM. I love the idea of having a full desktop processor. I know it is 12 lbs vs the 8lbs but how much larger is it really. How much faster would it be than the P170SM, is the speed increase worth the massive size?

I would really love to hear from those who own this beast.

 

What are you looking to do on the computer? If its mainly for gaming I'd get the NP9380 with dual video cards instead of the P570WM.
If you were looking for more of a workstation computer and needed the stronger CPU power then then P570WM would be a good choice.
For gaming it would be hard to see much difference in the two CPU's as long as you have the same video cards in both of them.

 

I am a .Net software developer. I work mainly in visual studio with ms sql. On a normal day I am running 2-3 instances of Visual Studio, 2-3 MS SQL Server Management Studio, 1-2 VMWare virtual machines, your normal office software and browsers. Then during my down time I will load up some games like World of Tanks, Skyrim and whatever new ones is coming out. So I am really looking for something that does both well. My laptop stays on my desk at work 90% of the time.

Right now I am running an Asus GS74SX with an i7-2670QM and a GTX560M and 16 GB with a 128 GB SSD (750 GB secondary). Honestly it is not a bad laptop, I need more SSD room on the main drive and was going to get me a new 960GB Crucial SSD and that is what has led me down this path of maybe I should just upgrade to a new laptop.

 

It's good if you're not carrying the computer around constantly- as you mentioned- because it is a large unit. It's extremely capable however and could be a fantastic workstation computer for you. If you're looking for something that comes with a lot of customization options then that's a good one- it has a ton of room to add HDD/SSDs but the p170sm is very capable, too and it's quite a bit less of a "beast" as you say haha. I had someone buy a P570WM from us about a month ago who completely bought it without doing any kind of research and he didn't realize it is larger than your average laptop, but he called to say "This thing is pretty big, I had no idea! But I still love it." All the folks seem satisfied with it that I've talked to.

 

Basically how well threaded are your tasks? If you can use an extra 2 core or 4 threads then the 570WM can make a lot of sense, if not then stick with the smaller machines.

 

Are any of those things lagging while they are running? If your current laptop is fine except for the ssd size, then the notebook cpu will be fine. After all it will be two generations better. And if your current gpu is fine, then you will be fine with a single gpu. I would look at the P170/P177, which are not too big, not too heavy, but still powerful.

 

Programming/Working I only get lag when I get more than normal studios and virtual machines running. I am constatly building/rebuilding projects and this works well unless I get a ton of things loaded.

Gaming is a different story. I can play older games fine but anything newer I have to reduce graphics quit a bit. Also at times I will have a game running in the background while doing work and that can cause lag with the work applications.

 

Does P570 have any problem with IVB-E CPUs at the moment?

 

I dont think the investment for the desktop IVY-E would be worthwhile. If you ever go on holiday and decide to take it with you, you will find out just how hard this thing really is to carry around.
Secondly, the battery life would be abysmal.

Get that 370 variant with mobile CPU, it will do the job well and still be a little more portable.
Price would be a lot cheaper too.

 

I am leaning towards going with the P170SM for my workstation at my main location I work out of 90% of the time and then buying a Surface Pro 2 to use when I go mobile and travel.

 

If you do get a more portable device for traveling, why not select the fastest DTR for main work location?

With your highly parallel workload, the 8/12 core with 4 channel RAM can give you a lot of extra power.

 

No, it got updated recently and fully supports all IVY-E consumer and XEON CPUs.