Clevo w860cu with 5870 VS M15x with 5850

Opinions!! I was considering the w860cu with 5870 video card but from what I've read it seems very "boring", "its a plain slab of concrete", "feels very weak", "over heats", "speakers aren't very loud", "bad battery life"

For the owners whats your opinion? And for everyone else what would you choose?

 

You really should post this in the What notebook should I buy? forum, to avoid flame wars.

 

rgr but I was hoping I might gain some insight into specifically clevo. As most clevo users would click the sager and clevo forum - here's hoping.

 

It mostly depends on what you are going to do with your laptop. They make good laptops, that's for sure.

I for instance also had to make a choice (a long time ago) between an M17 or whatever it was back then and my current M570TU (mind you that I owned a Dell before). After a lot of consideration I went with the Clevo because it was lighter, offered better battery life and better performance at the same price point. What I also like now about Clevo is that their laptops are very business like in terms of design and you can take your laptop anywhere without turning heads. For some people this is simply unacceptable, for others (like me) this is exactly what they want. To conclude, for me the M570TU is just want I wanted.

Mind you that Dell (Alienware) is considerably better IMO when it comes to warranty support. If you just want a gaming laptop but you do not enjoy opening it up from time to time just to have a look inside, then I think an Alienware might be more suitable for you. Clevo is meant for people who like to meddle with their hardware.

To conclude, before you ask some questions, think about what you want to do with your laptop and will be its main use.

 

Alienware's warranty is probably better (only because of local support, etc..)
Clevo's price is ALWAYS, BY DEFAULT better than alienware.

I suggest you look into the Clevo's owner lounge and see HOW MANY people have complained of overheating? thats right, like 1 or 0, I don't even know...

About it being boring or a plain slab of concrete? most laptops are, difference is Alienwares are rich boys, they have cool clothes lol...

If Alienware had better pricing, I'd surely go alienware...
But after my Dell Hell experience; Its gonna be until the next NEXT generation of Dells that I'm probably checking them out...
This time around I'm going MSI or Clevo.

 

Well, it's looks are based on personal opinion. I myself very much like the whole design/Alien FX with the M15x/M17x but I do a lot of presentations and community photography work where I take my laptop with me on the go and use it as a station where people can view their pictures before they purchase. The M15X has a very nice "cool" factor but imagine being in a business presentation with a laptop with an alien head looking at you. That is besides the point though, pick the laptop that fits YOU.

As for the "feels very weak", "over heats", "speakers aren't very loud", "bad battery life". Only 2/4 of those statements are true from what I have read. You can not claim that the laptop feels weak because one of two users claim it, you have to look at it from a larger statistical sample. If 100-200 people claim that the laptop feels very cheap and overheats, than there is obviously a problem, but that is not the case. And let's be realistic here, who buys a $1400 GAMING laptop and games on the built-in speakers? I'll give it to the M15X though, the warranty service is very good compared to Sager's and the battery life is quite bigger but it does have it's own set of problems I.E. CPU throttling, etc.

 

whats the performance difference between the 5850 and 5870, i would think that should be the deciding factor.

 

GAH!
This question again.
I'm just going to chime in on the performance, the CLEVO will out perform the M15x that's a no brainer since it has a better GFX card.
As for looks and build it's all in the eye of the beholder, some like it all flashy some like the more understated look, build quality is excellent in both laptops.

 

Anywhere from 12% to nothing, basically. They have the same memory bandwidth, but the core clock speed of the 5870 is 700MHz vs 625MHz, which is a 12% difference.

 

eh so the 5850 could be over clocked to the same performance, but also note the 5870 in the clevo will OC about 20%, and the clevo def has better cooling.

 

I'm not sure that cooling would be the limiting factor in either case, but I would like to see some overclocking figures for both.

I should probably play around with my own 5850 to see what it's capable of, but I'm nervous about it.

 

Being nervous about it is the correct attitude. When you do this stuff regardless of how much experience you have, you always have to be careful, unless of course money has never been a problem for you.

 

it would be nice to see some numbers on the 5850.

 

Wise counsel, Ikas V.

 

The 5850 and the 5870's performance is almost similar. The 5850 can be OCed to perform as well as the 5870. If you think the extra couple hundred of dollars you are paying for the M15X is worth it, by all means, go for it! The 8690 and M15X are very similar in terms of performance.

 

The 5870 is the flagship GPU right now for ATi. Especially in synthetic benchmarks it will out perform it by a good margin. The only area it will fall short of the 5850 is in battery life for obvious reasons of course.

 

i'm surprised to see how close these are in performance, i was under the impression that the Clevo would have been considerably faster than the allenware.

 

The only difference between 5850 and 5870 is the core clock, yes, you can OC the 5850 to stock 5870 levels, then again, you can OC 5870 to higher clock as well, so the difference will still be there.

 

so, about 20% no matter what, not huge. Im still kinda surprised at how close it is, doesn't speak well of the 5870.

 

I wouldn't put it that way. It just means the HD 5850 is a great value card, that's all.

 

It's not that 5870 is bad, it's just that 5850 isn't too bad. Nevertheless, a 12% difference is still a difference, you are paying lesser for a better card still. If you don't mind having the 2nd most powerful card instead of the first, then it's really up to your preference of the design.

 

oh and as far as adding value here, i can say the 860 is very well built, super solid and awesome. One other thing to consider is i believe the aw has a rgb led display and clevo is just led....how ever i have no idea what the difference is, supposedly better coloring, but ive never seen one.

 

M15X uses WLED like Sager, only M17X uses RGBLED.

 

ahh, well is there a noteable difference with rgb?

 

You get richer and brighter colors, though some users reported it of being rather tiring on the eyes.

 

wounder if clevos will get it any time soon.

 

I rather Clevos get IPS panels or something.

 

whats ips? and might i add, i rather think the current clevo panals are nice.

 

If you want a 15.6 " gaming notebook that's roughly the size of a 15.6" notebook then go for the Clevo...but if the extra bulk of the M15x doesn't bother you then I'd go for the HP Envy 17.

 

is the 5850 a DDR3 card or the DDR5 card?

 

No, only W860CU has a decent FHD panel , AFAIK. The rest are mediocre at best. On the other hand not every one needs a pro display in a gaming notebook. RGB LED screens require some calibrating to make full use of their capabilities. IPS panels (especially the new 10-bit per color ones) are the best in color reproduction and viewing angles. However, their lower response times make them not the best option for FPS games. I'll explore this further when/if the 8740w with DC2 arrives. Will make a detailed gaming comparison between the RGB LED and IPS.

 

I thought the 8740 was discontinued?

 

Been at work all day, but now I'm finished so I will reply to the great feedback!

I Like performance and flashiness. Which is why I'm a fence sitter. I mean to me the m15x is like a Porche and the Clevo is like a V8 or V12 Falcon/Holden {Which is I think Pontiac in America? Monaro anywho} car oozing power. So meh Never had a laptop that lights up everywhere based on your mood.

Edited:

This I like. All up I think when I set both laptops up on the same wicket it came too $700AUD difference. Which to a conversion of your currency is still around 1/4 the laptop price. {3100 vs 3800AUD}

Plus tell me about your dell hell experience. I've already had one with my m11x. Which I guess is the only thing slowing me down with m15x.

I bought a m11x online. They delivered it twice the expected delivery time frame - so I canceled the order ON the expected delivery date because it was not ready for a while. (so they dropped it off at my house two weeks late to my non-english speaking house mate). So I opened the m11x used it for an hour did some benchmarks (which p.s. turned out crappy 5.5K 3dmark 06 not the 6100 like on the website) and after it was warmed up I awoken Red Poultry Mites that where living in the laptop and crawled out the microphone hole!!!! (when somethings quarantined they only spray the box and the product. Anything living inside still survives). They are not native to Australia though have been introduced. There bugs I've never seen before that bite, suck your blood and can survive for up to 8 months without food source. (****) So that's my dell hell experience. And I vowed not to go back. Which is why OBVIOUSLY I'm on edge about the m15x even though I like it ha.

What Is the battery life difference? Whats the battery life on yours babyhemi

What is the HP ENVY 17?

DDR5 confirmed by dell reps and some Taiwanese dell websites etc. My theory is Dell USA must have had a small decision on which way they'd go. As it seems odd why they withheld the information.

 

A M15X vs Clevo W860CU poll in a Clevo forum, great idea!
(I know that most people here check out all boards on notebookreview and have had experience with a couple of laptop brands, not just Clevo, but still)

 

Actually I thought about it today...

The only sole reason why I'd get the m15x over the w860cu, is because of warranty, local service, etc...

the outperformer is clearly w860cu @ $1600 with i7+5870, whereas for $1600 m15x I can only get i5-520 + 5850.

3 years on sager, 1 year on m15x.

dang. what do.

 

Was looking at both of these notebooks also. The M15x is a great machine though, just a little overpriced. But in the end it was it's style that made me shift towards Clevo/Sager. Like couple other people that posted, I have to bring my notebook with me in some more professional settings occasionally and I just couldn't imagine the M15x being acceptable for that. Another reason was I was able to stick a SSD in my system configuration for the NP8690 and it came out around the same price of the Alienware without an SSD.

 

^thats an awesome bang for buck right there.
Greatfully i got my w860cu before the 5850 update, cos it would have been a real dilema, im a neutral in the brands but power to me > Built quality and lights and not to mention at a lower cost, im still saving up for my ssd though

 

HP Envy 17-1008tx Notebook PC (WY371PA) specifications - HP Home & Home Office products


It's a 17.3" notebook so if you want a smaller notebook go for the Clevo. Compared to the M15x though the Envy 17 is wider by about 3.8cm but 3.3cm shorter and .67kg lighter....which, to me, makes them about equally portable.

 

The clevo w860cu looks awfull in my opinion which is why I would irrationaly chose for the lesser spec'd, but far better looking aw m15x.

I made a more interesting comparison between the m15x and the kobalt (same as clevo) g870 (which is 17 inch) since they are about equal in price, and since I actually like the look of both laptops.

Left: Kobalt g870 | Right: AW m15x @
€1650 -VS- €1650
2 years warranty -VS- 1 year warranty
17 inch 1920*1080 Full hd screen -VS- 15 inch 1600*900 screen
Ati hd 5870 -VS- ati hd 5850
i5 540m -VS- i5 520m

IMO the g870 is the better deal (more hardware for the same price), and if you select the same cpu as the m15x, you can buy a razor tempest blue mouse and razor speed control mousepad with the money you saved. The only advantage the m15x has, is its superb looks, but the g870 looks good in my opinion aswell.

So, in this poll my vote goes for the m15x, but its not a comparison I would make when deciding to buy a clevo/kobalt/sager or Alienware laptop.

 

^Not a fair judgement plain looking doesnt mean ugly. But everyone has their opinions and requirements.

 

totally anytime i would go for w860cu, unless you are into the looks then AW is definitely for you, raw power performance, SAGER FTW

 

Go the sager/clevo route but get the version without any labels.

 

It's going to be impossible to get non bias poll votes here. You're posting your question in the Clevo forum, the poll results and opinions are going to be heavily bias. For more accruate results and less bias you should have posted this in the "What notebook should I buy" forum.

That's why it exists. To avoid bias and flame wars.

 

nothing wrong with biastism, I'm just enjoying the read and hoping someone can tell me some good info like, "I like mine because it doesn't heat up much" Or maybe it has a good battery life? who knows.

oh and p.s. everyone check this out. It's the ol' wrench into a bee's nest.

http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/Voodoo-Blog/HP-Envy-14-and-17-notebook-Big-Changes-for-Less/ba-p/55842

 

New Idea Can people post me some pictures of your clevo's, I have seen all the media ones. But I'd rather see user ones.

http://www.tekskin.com.au/catalog/index.php?cPath=11&osCsid=06e1b22380365011ec73263b9c80e3f1 and show us your custom skins if you have any!

 

The Clevo has far better cooling, I will go with the Clevo all the way. Alienware just looks like you found it in a cereal box. And that 12% difference is a majoy selling point when you consider price difference lol, why would you pay more and take a 12% decrease in performance, sound like a n brainier to me. Plus you have the option to upgrade hardware with no effect to your warranty. If you so much as tell Dell you changes the resolution on their laptop they freak out. Plus not to mention the whole issue with customer service with dell. If something goers wrong you will be speaking to someone who knows nothing about computers were as Clevo resellers now their products like the tip of their [removed by moderator]

 

Do you have any links showing the Clevo's cooling is far better? I would like to see it.

Just a heads up, you are allowed to upgrade your Alienware like you are allowed to upgrade your Clevo. So that's not an issue.

 

Its quite common knowledge that clevos copper cooling is the best, and as fas as i know in most countries (not US) you are now allowed to change anything inside.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6197724-post13.html

Well, I would like to see an M15X version of this, with 5870MR, or heck, even a 5850MR will do.

 

And change thermal paste ?

I dont just personal opinion, ill dig the tests out for you