Clevo M570RU Review (Very Basic)

Well, everyone's doing fancy shmancy reviews with pictures and such. A picture is worth a thousand words. Ten thousand words > one picture.

I've also uploaded some movies done in FRAPS at the bottom of the review.

Where/What Bought

I purchased my computer from R & J Technologies. They have great customer support, and have answered all of my questions promptly and politely. The reason I bought from them is because they are one of the few resellers to sell this Clevo as a barebones system, which saved me about $200 on the entire system. I spent $2000 for:

-- 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 4mb cache
-- 1920x1200 WUXGA Glossy Screen
-- 120GB 7200RPM HDD
-- 1x2GB Patriot 667MHz 1x1GB OCZ (expecting it to arrive tomorrow)
-- Internal Bluethooth/Wireless N
-- Remaining basic setup (GPU, camera, etc)


Why Bought

My newest desktop has a Pentium 4 2.5GHz processor, 512mb of 333MHz DDR RAM, and a GeForce 4 Ti 4200. Another reason is that I'll be constantly moving from work to school to home, sometimes back and forth several times per day. I decided that I needed a notebook, but I could go with a desktop replacement because as soon as I get to my destination I'll be grounded there for a couple of hours. I decided this would be prime time, seeing as this notebook is at the top of the line and will be until the 8800 comes out.


Keyboard/Mouse

There is flex on the keyboard. It is not noticeable when typing, but you can see other keys move if you push relatively hard with your palm on the corners of the board, similar to the Thinkpad T30 I'm typing on right now. I am comparing this to the Dell Inspiron somethingorother (4 years old), which has no keyboard flex at all; no matter how hard you press on the keys, there's no flex. The trackpad mouse is very nice. It's textured, but not rough. The only bone I have to pick with it is that it's a bit overly sensitive. I bet that can be changed in mouse settings, though. The touch-mouse can be turned on and off with the Fn+F1 key.

Another thing about the keyboard is that it's "full-sized". It doesn't really feel like it though. The Backspace key is condensed a bit, and the numpad has some keys which are smaller than they should be. The keyboard is really more like a hybrid desktop/notebook board.


Screen

The thing I love about the screen is that, unlike most notebooks, the backlight can be turned off. That can get you out of a pickle, in case you're trying to hide something on your screen. I got a WUXGA 1920x1200 glossy screen (options are WSXGA+ matte/glossy or WUXGA glossy on RJTech), just because I love high resolutions. Contrary to popular belief, gaming visuals are not brought to their knees if you lower the resolution. I was playing Oblivion last night, and it was automatically on 800x600 resolution. It looked amazing. It was not blurry at all. I thought I was playing on full resolution until I looked at my video settings.

The LCD screen has no visible light leakage at the bottom, sides, or top. The viewing angles from the left and right are very acceptable, but if you try looking from the screen straight on while it is at a 15 degree angle lower than normal, you'll have trouble. Same with 15 degrees higher than normal.


GPU

The M570RU has the third most powerful GPU on the market, and the first non-SLI GPU: Go 7950GTX. This is basically a faster version of the 7900GTX. It runs everything you throw at it, and probably will be able to do so at medium settings for the next year or so. One of the best things is that this GPU is MXM-IV/HE, which means that you should, both technically and theoretically, be able to upgrade it to a later sereies of graphics cards when they come out, be they MXM-I, II, III, or IV. This shoves the M570RU to the "Upgradeable Notebook" line. It is confirmed that you can place an 8700 in it, and it's very possible that even an 8800+ could fit inside. I do not have any benchmarks as of yet, because I still have to do some optimization tweaks. My driver apparently didn't properly install the first time around.


CPU

What can I say? It's a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo. I don't really have anything to compare it to, since I'm coming from a 2.5GHz P4. But it sure opens things fast. It's also confirmed that you can upgrade to a Penryn if you want to in the future.


Hard Drive

You have options for a hard drive up to, I think over 200GB. I may be wrong. Either way, it's a high number. Both 7200RPM and 5400RPM drives.


Memory

My love of this notebook is that it can support up to 4GB of RAM at 533 or 667MHz. I chose to save money and get some Patriot RAM from NewEgg, a 2GB stick for $100, rather than the 2GB stick offered on RJ for $140 (give or take 10)


Audio

The speakers are very nice. They have a built-in subwoofer, and they are much better than any notebook speakers I've ever heard, especially after you do the tweaks to the equalizer that comes with the driver CD. The driver isn't anythin to boast about. It's fine.

Note: some may find it intrusive that every time you plug something into a jack the driver window pops up to aks you what you plugged in, to optimize the audio.


Optical Drive

It comes with a DVD/CD+-RW or something fancy like that. You can swap it out yourself without voiding your warranty for another drive, such as HD or Blu-Ray


Jacks

There are several useful ports on the M570RU. It has four USB ports, which may be uncomfortable for some to use: two are on the back (one on top of another) and two are on the right side (next to each other). The internet connection cables are also on the right side of the computer, along with the antenna/cable adapter for a TV tuner. The Firewire is right next to the USB ports. On the back, we have monitor connectors (I'm not a monitor guy so I don't know what they are). Left side is only the optical drive. In the front there are four jacks: line in audio, line out audio, line in microphone, and another one (dark blue). The microphone is on the right side of the palm rest, and the webcame is smack in the middle of the top edge of the monior.

At the bottom right you will also notice a handful of lights. These include your normal charging/battery light, power light, CPU light, and wLAN light. It also has scroll lock, caps lock, and numlock LEDs.

The seven in one card reader is also a nifty little thing if you ever want to see pictures you've taken on your camera by sticking in your memory stick. It's located on the (?) side. (I've never used a memory reader before, so I have no idea what it looks like).

On the right side is also the ExpressCard.


Accessories

The Clevo comes with a carrying bag. I'm not sure if the Sager does as well. This bag is realy nice, and has a great build quality. It's a briefcase style bag with a sling if you want to hook it on. It has a pocket for your notebook with velcro to strap it tight, a pocket for your books, and a zipped-up pocket for accessories. The accessories that come are (VGA?) to (DVI?) converter, a dial-up connector, and the power brick. The power brick is quite large, but it doesn't really heat up.

One of the things that has really stood out to me is that the power cord is easy to pull out on accident while on your lap. I was playing around with Clevo on my lap for around 3 hours, without getting burned, and the power cord came out about four times. It doesn't go all the way out, only halfway. Don't be surprised if it says "battery low" and you thought you were on AC power. This isn't something major, just something worth noting.


Looks

This thing is really slick. The back of the notebook isn't all glossy or brushed metal or anything which is textured and can get fingerprints all over it or feel bad to the touch, it's just a simple, and surprisingly sturdy, shell. It's like the HP Pavilion notebooks before they had those glossy backs with the desings on them. The only glossy piece is at the very top of the notebook, apparently put there for the lulz. The one thing that is slightly "disturbing", for lack of a better word, is that they do an imitation carbon brush thing around the keyboard and mousepad (I've called it trackpad, touch-mouse, and now mousepad?). It is in fact made of plastic, and seems very cheap. It isn't cheap, but it seems to be so.

One of the most noticeable things is that it has an orange trim all around its side (can be selected to be white in future versions). It isn't neon, but more of a copper tone. When my warranty nears its end, I'm going to try to change the color to an eclectic green or blue. I'll tell you all how it goes.


Heat

Heat is not an issue on the M570RU. After playing some intense Oblivion where I sneak-attacked on some goblins and giant rats, the fans were going and I put my hand at the exhaust. I was very surprised to find that the air coming out was barely warm. The reason is probably that the fans go on every two minutes or so, but they are very quiet. If you were in a library or a shushed up place with your notebook, the fans wouldn't disturb anybody. Yes, they make a more high-pitched noise, but it's not bad at all. By high pitched I mean more of an audible noise.

Note: some argue that the fans are loud. I will try to get a microphone sampling of how loud they are, so you can reall tell.


Battery

The battery lasts a pretty short time as notebooks go. It took be about one hour at full brightness while installing XP to drain. I guess that's not *too* terrible, considering I was doing some pretty "intense" tasks at that brightness, but it could be better.


Upgradeability

It is very easy to open up and change components. It has one door with the fan exhausts, held tight by about 10 screws. Once you take these all out, it's a very easy lift up, and you have access to all of the parts inside. You might have to move some things out of the way, like the heatsink, to get to the parts such as GPU and CPU, but the HDD and RAM are right in front of you.

The CPU is Socket P, which means that you can upgrade from the Merom 800MHz FSB up to a Penryn processor.

The GPU, as I have said, is MXM-IV/HE, so you can upgrade it (might be a bit difficult).

The optical drive is upgradeable.

The HDD is upgradeable.

The RAM is upgradeably.


Conclusion

If there's anything I've forgotten or you want to know about, let me know. I didn't include webcam or microphone, simply because I didn't. I might when I get home.

Pros:

-- Quiet fans
-- Upgradeable GPU and CPU, both which are already good
-- True HD screen, which has a backlight which you can turn off
-- Nice build quality on the back with a great orange trim

Cons:

-- Imitation carbon around the keyboard, which may feel cheap
-- A tiny bit of flex on the keys
-- Relatively low battery life
-- Some might not enjoy positions of ports
-- Power cord is relatively easy to pull out while on lap

Other Thoughts:

-- Audio needs to be adjusted in equalizer to sound good
-- GPU is amazing
-- Great that you can open it up and change parts without voiding warranty
-- Would be better if they had a choice of more colors (like blue) for trim

Bottom Line:

I would recommend this notebook to someone who is due for an upgrade, or who wants the maximum blend of portability and power. The D900C is more powerful of course, but it has a terrible battery life. The Sager 2090 has better battery but isn't as powerful. This is the perfect machine







Media:

<embed style='width:400px; height:326px;' id='VideoPlayback' type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-1875242352498379079&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

Call of Duty 2 on my screen was everything maxed out except for dynamic lighting, which was at medium. It was at 720p resolution. Sadly, I had to cut it down 15 seconds with Windows Movie Maker. This also converted it into normal 4:3 aspect ratio, making things look out of proportion. The framerate should show that the game was very playable at these settings.

<embed style='width:400px; height:326px;' id='VideoPlayback' type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5059117460381058806&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

Oblivion at 720p, with everything turned on 80% and maximum textures/body shadows etc, except for HDR which was only set at bloom. This was running at about 10 FPS faster. FRAPS took a chunk out of the framerate, so it looks a bit slower.

<embed style='width:400px; height:326px;' id='VideoPlayback' type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2155590535105830403&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 (Unreal Engine) at 720p, everything set to maximum. Again, FRAPS took a bite out of my FPS. It also looked smoother before the upload. Don't know why it looks more skippy now.

 

Thanks for the rundown! It's great to see that a lot of people are happy with their machines. The NP5790 truly is the best single-GPU 17" gaming notebook on the market.

 

concise, without all the frills. I like it!

 

Great review.
I think you are the only one that purchased from RJTech that also reviewed it.
My question for you after seeing all the Sagers...
Are there any differences that you can see?

I was going to buy 570u before I found out about the 570ru with the new Directx 10 graphics card. I hope I will not be waiting too much longer than December.

 

I don't think you'll be waiting much later than September.

The main difference is that the Clevo doesn't have any stickers, save the SRS-WOW Audio sticker. There's no "INTEL CORE 2 DUO OMFG" or "nVidia: Better than ATI." stickers on the wrist-rest. That leaves it a lot cleaner, and nicer looking. I'll post a picture tonight.

 

BIG BIG THANKS FOR THE REVIEW!!! Give me ur account number i ll send u some money

 

Another thing that I forgot to mention was that it is very easy to open up and change components. It has one door with the fan exhausts, held tight by about 10 screws. Once you take these all out, it's a very easy lift up, and you have access to all of the parts inside. You might have to move some things out of the way, like the heatsink, to get to the parts such as GPU and CPU, but the HDD and RAM are right in front of you.

 

Thanks for the review man!

 

very nice review but I would just like to make some notes.

the fans are considerably loud, definitely not quiet and the hard drive has a 250 GB option, not 200 gigs. The 200 gig is 7200 RPM while the 250 is 5400 RPM.

nice review all in all.

 

Sweet... This IS the perfect machine! Still waiting for mine to arrive (probably will take another 3-4 weeks since I ordered the WSXGA glossy screen and I'm in Australia... )

 

not perfect, ports on the wrong side, other SMALL things, but it's near perfect indeed....

 

OH YEAH! I forgot all about the ports!

There are several useful ports on the M570RU. It has four USB ports, which may be uncomfortable for some to use: two are on the back (one on top of another) and two are on the right side (next to each other). The internet connection cables are also on the right side of the computer, along with the antenna/cable adapter for a TV tuner. The Firewire is right next to the USB ports. On the back, we have monitor connectors (I'm not a monitor guy so I don't know what they are). Right side is only the optical drive. In the front there are four jacks: line in audio, line out audio, line in microphone, and another one (dark blue). The microphone is on the right side of the palm rest, and the webcame is smack in the middle of the top edge of the monior.

Now, for some screenies.

 

The optical drive is on the left side of the laptop. The external video ports are the s-video and DVI port.

 

Fixed, thanks. Mind was on something else. On the notebook, that is

I've uploaded a video of Call of Duty 2 at 720p with all settings max except for dynamic lighting at medium. It's uploading to Video.Google.Com right now.

 

sweet, I'll look forward to it.

 

<embed style='width:400px; height:326px;' id='VideoPlayback' type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-1875242352498379079&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

Got it

It probably doesn't look as good as it did on my screen. It was fullscreen, 720p, everything maxed out except for dynamic lighting which was only at medium. Another thing is that I'm widesreen but Windows Movie Maker converted it to standard aspect ratio when I cut down the movie. You can see that the framerate was playable. Questions? Comments?

EDIT: I'll try to make a better video of this tomorrow, to give a better idea.

Upcoming videos:

CoD2 Widescreen
Oblivion Widescreen
Jazz Jackrabbit 2

 

Nice video Romanian - it is definitely not as good of quality as what you are seeing on your display (the resolution of online videos is usually isn't that great), but I can tell you are getting a very smooth framerate. Thanks for taking the time to do all that.

 

Nice... Does 720p means a resolution of 1280x720?

 

I didn't know it was Socket P...considering I already ordered it, that just made my day I saw somewhere that the first Penryn procs are supposed to be something like 3.2ghz with a 1033mhz fsb and 12mb L2 cache! Crazy.
Nice review by the way

 

Maksin: basically, yes.

 

The LCD screen has no visible light leakage at the bottom, sides, or top. The viewing angles from the left and right are very acceptable, but if you try looking from the screen straight on while it is at a 15 degree angle lower than normal, you'll have trouble. Same with 15 degrees higher than normal.

Updated with Oblivion and Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45.

<embed style='width:400px; height:326px;' id='VideoPlayback' type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5059117460381058806&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

<embed style='width:400px; height:326px;' id='VideoPlayback' type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2155590535105830403&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

 

Does this PC have memory card reader slots?

 

Yes, 7-in-1 (I haven't tested it.)

 

I have yet to get mine to work with either an SD card or a memory stick pro duo (w/adapter).

I think it's a driver/vista thing, though. The reader on my zd8000 worked fine until I installed vista on it, then it worked about 20% of the time, saying 'need to format' the rest of the time. On my new np5790, it either says the same thing, 'would you like to format the drive, or else it locks the computer up and I have to reboot.

Still, it would be interesting to know if anyone else has this problem.

 

remember that there could be a toggle for it or it needs to be enabled in the BIOS.

 

Vista 32 or 64bit? I know they come 64bit Vista installed. That means if you installed 32bit Vista, there's a driver installation sequence to follow. After each driver installation, there's a reboot for the first couple including the card reader/expresscard slot driver.

See section 4-5 of the manual.

You may try uninstalling the driver and see if that fixes the problem. The driver may not be necessary. Check to see if dvd drive works after doing that.

The other thing you could try is the XP driver. Warnings will come up though.

 

if there is no issues in the Device Manager, then the drivers are fine.

if you see multiple removable drives in My Computer, then its working.

 

i don't want to be a nag or anything
but where are the pics?
outside, and if possible inside as well
if it's not 2 much rouble
pretty please? =)

 

there are pictures of it at joga's review of it and also in my review.

my link is my signature.

 

Oh, I've forgotten to take a picture of what it looks like compared to Sager. I'll be sure to do that when I get home.

 

There's a card reader on the right side. I've tried an SD-card and a Memory Stick Pro, and they both work beautifully (and much, much faster than using a USB cable connected to the camera).

As lawls mentioned, there are pictures in his and my reviews.

 

Joga and lawl (and Romanian as well of course): 3 excellent reviews
I looked at the pics as well
but, I want/need more: I just can't figure out whether I like the orange or not sometimes I think "ok, that looks great" and then I see some other pic and think "EWWWWW"

 

That's what I thought about the orange trim at first. Like I said in my review, no picture can justify how it looks. This is one of those things when you have to see it to believe it.

 

what is everyones battery life on this laptop is it like 2 hr or more/less?

 

lawlz: could be ... but it ever hurts to get as much info as possible
i KNOW I like the silver screen better ... but I won't be looking (a lot) at the back of the screen, so I decided to not let that play
at the moment, I'm inclined to just leave it to Rock: they can ship me whatever comes first ... but, with more info, i could of course change my mind

TechIsCool: approx 1.5 hours office use
1 hour max gaming
(or so i've read )

 

TechIsCool/Kwakkel, yes approximately 1.5 hours. If you undervolt your CPU it should last longer. Gaming... maybe one hour. Haven't really tested battery gaming. It's kind of disappointing, having this great all-around computer, and then you can't really use it outside of the plug. I'm somewhat reconsidering getting a laptop... I might just sell it to someone and buy a desktop.

 

This isn't an all around computer. It's meant towards the gaming crowd. If you cared so much about battery life then this type of laptop isn't for you.

 

By all-around I mean it can do everything. It's a powerhouse. But yeah, as lawlz_xD says, don't expect much of a battery life in this thing. Two hours tops, and that's if you're idling at lowest brightness or something.

 

Well then I'm glad I almost never use battery

 

i won't be using it a lot either
i'll just try to keep it from destroying itself
i believe Vista power management has the option to set "charge from" and "stop charging at" %levels?
if i set those at 30% and 80%, should that keep the battery optimal? (and once in a month a full discharge and full charge)
i believe that's what's recommended somewhere in some battery guide

 

The closer you get to being a true desktop replacement, the more the battery becomes an UPS. That's the price of mobile performance.

Consider also that in the near future there usually are third party battery manufacturers which offer higher density batteries for any given laptop. I've bought one for one of my Dell's and increased my runtime by about 25%.

 

Hey, after reading the reviews on this laptop i was thinking about getting it. Here's my specs isplay:
17 WUXGA w/SCGF
Video Card: nVidia 7950 GTX 512MB
CPU: T7500
DDR2 Memory: 3GB DDR2/667 - 2
Memory Brand: Major
HDD: 160GB SATA 7200rpm
CD: 8x DVD+/-RW DL
External FDD: None
Battery: 8-Cell Li-Ion Battery
AC Adapter: Standard
Network Adapter: Integrated GBLAN
WLAN: Bluetooth
OS: Windows XP Home
Software: None
Carry Bag: Included
TV Tuner: None
Warranty: 1 Year
LCD Protection: None
Installation: Install
Ship Schedule: Regular

Would you chage anything? I'm pretty much using it for gaming and school use.

 

I ll need the battery ... when I go to toilet with the laptop ... hope it lasts that long hahahahahhahahahhah

 

haha, I use it when I go to the restroom too...it's size makes it kinda hard to use though...

 

Welcome to the NBR forums.

Looks like great specs.

I would just suggest to bring down the CPU to T7300 if you want to save some cash... but its no big deal.

 

+1..I personally have the T7500 and it's blazing fast...multi-tasks very well.

P.S.hey gophn, when are you getting this beast? ^_^...

 

I ll need the battery ... when I go to toilet with the laptop ... hope it lasts that long hahahahahhahahahhah

AHAHHAHAAHA

Welcome to the NBR forums:
Thanks, i have about $2500 to spend on my laptop. I know my way around with computers as far as parts go. After that i'm pretty much lost. I'm hoping that its not a hassle ince i get the compute. By the way, how long will it take for them to build it?

 

The 7950GTX is currently on back order until mid september so you have a bit of a wait. If you don't want to wait though you could always get the 8700GT.

 

I would love this get a new notebook, but I am a poor college student that had to pinch every penny to even build my Clevo D900K last March.

My notebook is still faster than most... but the videocard can only upgrade up to 7950GTX (old Clevo module). I want an MXM-IV.

 

Jeesh, Gophn. Poor college student? I had pictured you as some geeky ol' fart who knew everything.