Is clevo dead?

so clevo ... once, it used to be a notebook performance leader and now ... not so much. they didn't do SLI with their i7 D900F series and the laptop itself started shipping sooo late, that now we have a mobile i7 with 90% of the desktop model performance. Then, there is 9850 or 9280 or whatever the number is. lol. the 19' one. looked promising, SLI, QX9300, good build quality and cooling we re used to. But then ... no OC at all. FAIL!! now since voodoo magic is happening at alienware, where they have actually made 2 good new laptops and listed to gamers, is there still room for clevo's come back? I mean, I still remember clevo back when it had the go6800. Alienware back than was rolling with the Radeon 9700m. lol. How could they, not include OC? is it game over for them? especially now that Alienware has the $$ support from Dell. Clevo is a much smaller company and can not survive that well without a killer notebook.
ehhh ... just my 2 cents. what do you think about it?

 

WankelRotor. You need to view each notebook's "problem" individually instead of the whole company as a whole. Clevo did not support native CPU overclocking on the M980NU because the QX9300 and twin GTX 280M's are already packing quite a wallop on the 220W PSU. The M980NU would fail a system-wide power test, and Clevo knows this. Historically, Clevo has been conservative on overclocking, but they won't hesitate to allow it if they know that the system can handle it in vigorous situations. Nevertheless, the CPU on the M980NU can be FSB overclocked in NST, but not very high because of the power constraints. The same goes with the D900F. The desktop i7 draws an incredibly high amount of power and outputs a large amount of heat, so Clevo did not include a second top shelf GPU because it would be too much for the 220W PSU to handle. And I know you know how big the 220W PSU is as you have a D901C. Clevo has launched two amazing notebooks, the W860CU and W870CU. If anything is to be said about Clevo, I would say that they are doing pretty damn well right now. However, if you brought up the argument that Clevo has taken a wrong turn by splitting the business and the gaming sectors by launching a desktop CPU/single GPU notebook and a mobile CPU/twin GPU notebook, then I would agree with you somewhat. But I would still disagree because it is more of an engineering constraint rather than a marketing decision. Everything in this world is arbitrarily compromised to satisfy the majority of the consumers. Engineering a desktop CPU/twin GPU notebook based on the monstrous i7 and two GTX 280M's would mean having to use a beefier power supply, which would be very large in size and weight. Clevo would need to install several fans and heatsinks just to keep the components cool. Cooling a 130W TDP CPU and twin 75W TDP GPU's on a notebook isn't exactly easy. The battery on the notebook will need to contain multiple cells to keep up with the voltage requirement as well as keep the system alive for more than an hour while idle. The cost to produce the notebook and the cost to R&D the notebook would be too great for the small number of sales it would have. Not too many people would go for a system like that until technology progresses and eases the barriers faced with producing a notebook that would satisfy the market. Even Alienware wouldn't dare attempt to build such a notebook because of the extremely small market niche in the already niche gaming community that it would cater to. Alienware hasn't done anything groundbreaking. All they have done is create two quality notebooks that are not too different from the M980NU and the W860CU. They are nobody compared to what Clevo has done since the 1980's. With all this competition for Clevo to gaze down upon, I would say it is for the better. Clevo will still be the pioneer of notebook engineering and will continue to release incredible systems for years to come.

 

I think they've dropped the ball a bit but not as bad as you think and they are definitely NOT dead by any means. They are still a great company with great products. I'm a Clevo fan, but my disappointment in their gaming notebook line recently is what lead me to buy the M17x which had everything important I wanted that the M980NU didn't and then some (great looking design, back lit keyboard, 17" 1920x1200 screen, unlocked bios, and more) Hopefully though Clevo gets back in the lead in the gaming laptop arena and stuns us with a well designed back lit keyboard sporting Core i7/i9 laptop with SLI/Xfire combo. I look forward to buying a Clevo again, providing they have what I need/want.

 

If Clevo does release future notebooks with backlit keyboards, I just hope that there is an option to turn them off in BIOS or something. I really dislike backlit keyboards.

 

For sure they would, what good is a back lit keyboard if you can't turn it off, Clevo knows better than that I hope. Probably wouldn't be in the bios though, probably a hotkey. I personally only use the back lit keyboard on the M17x when I use it in the dark, other than that I have the lights off.

 

backlit keyboards are so childish.
im an entrepreneur who loves playing games and i love the design of clevo/sager notebooks.simple and sylish.
i cant imagine why backlit keyboards could influence a persons decision to buy a notebook. but i guess to each his own.
personally i would never be caught using a backlit keyboard

 

My only problem with Clevo so far is that they didn't make the W860CU that much different from the W870CU. I think that they should have made better use of the W870CU chassis by having better performance and features such as 4 ram slots and perhaps better speakers. Likewise, the W860CU should have been given better battery life. A desktop replacement notebook that doesn't weight 12 lb or cost 3000$, and a portable gaming notebook with battery life of over 2 hours. A Clevo like the HP ENVYbook pro 15 would have been perfect for me... but oh well.

 

Unless you're surfing while watching a movie. Yes, most sager's/clevo's/whatever are too damn big to lap-surf but it's a MUST have in a 15incher or lower. Typing on my wife's macbook which has a wonderful backlit keyboard That's my opinion, take it FWIW

 

I don't really think backlit keyboards add a lot of functionality; the screen is usually enough to illuminate the keyboard. It is nice to have it, though... it does look cool. I like shinny things. Sorry. And, WankelRotor, I don't think the M980NU and the W860CU are simply worse than the M17x and the M15x, respectively. M980NU can be much cheaper, has a bigger and better screen, has capacity for 3 hard-drives + 1 through the ODD, and what I think is better costumer service. The W860CU is much lighter, cheaper, and more powerful than the M15x.

 

i brought a clevo for a couple of reasons

1) it was alot cheaper in the uk then dellenware

2) Had alot of bad experience with guys at AW who know as much as about computers as a hamster

 

refering to joker =p LOL

 

If I had an Alienware I would be the laughing-stock at the business meetings I have to attend.

 

The mobile Nehalem architecture can only support two channels. If you want more RAM, the only way you can get more is to buy the denser 4GB sticks, which are still expensive at the moment. Clevo has already used all of the real estate on the notebook so adding a larger battery would mean making the notebook thicker than two inches. Clevo has gracefully answered my prayers for making the battery smaller in exchange for better cooling and I'm not going to let any of you guys take that away from me.

 

Clevo's decision to drop SLi on the desktop i7 D900F wasn't simply an engineering choice. They were probably planning on it, but Intel and Nvidia were fighting about on board SLi chips/controllers on the X58 chipset and couldn't come to an agreement at the time. So to skip the waiting, Clevo just went with one GPU + desktop i7 and targeted it mostly towards powerhouse mobile workstation users, and targeted the M980NU towards gamers but it used the old core 2 series chipset instead which supported the onboard SLi controller.

Also I have got to agree with Blacky. In a professional environment, you need to fit the look. Flashing lights and alien heads won't look too good in a business environment. It looks awesome at home, however. You'll get no arguments there.

A backlit keyboard would be nice, but like Komrade Sunrise said, it would have to have an option to disable it either via the BIOS or a FN key combo.

 

Yes, that is true. Clevo had to take their workstation notebook to the market but couldn't get a motherboard ready from Intel that supported SLi because of the fiasco between Intel and Nvidia. So they split the market in two making one notebook for business and one for sheer gaming, essentially halting the overall most powerful notebook at the D901C. But it still does not deny the fact that dumping Intel's hottest running desktop CPU ever made into a 17 inch notebook chassis while throwing in twin GPU's, three HDD bays, a big enough battery, and all the bells and whistles that the previous D901C had as well is an engineering barrier. Clevo would either need to build outward onto an 18 inch platform, or build upward making the already thick notebook even thicker. Personally, I think if Clevo is going to make another D900F based on a desktop CPU/twin GPU setup, then they would use the much more workable Lynnfield i7's instead of the Bloomfield i7's again. Then again, this is just me pulling stuff out of my buttcheeks again and Clevo might just keep the current D900F.

 

The ENVY 15 has 4 ram slots. More than 4 gb of ram is useless for me at the moment, but it would still be a nice feature... But my biggest grip is low battery life on the W860CU.

 

Don't worry, that will all come to an end with Arrandale in January.

 

I was going to buy the M980NU but the Alienware ended up being a better buy for me. I wasn't going to by from those Eurocom crooks again, and the M980NU config I wanted which I would have had to order from the US would have costed me around the same with exchange rate and duties. The AW offered me more though, like complete care warranty a 17" screen as opposed to the 18.4 (I don't want 18.4), a higher resolution and an unlocked bios, as well as the bonus (to me) back lit keyboard.

I'm still holding out hope that Clevo will make a 17" D900G with a revised chassis, and SLI/Xfire support.

 

Agree.. This is not the laptop for those who travel. It's fine for my uses (battery usage 10-15 minutes at a time) but people who expect normal battery life are in for a real let down.

 

I'm not talking about the HP or RAM slots. Because the mobile Nehalem architecture can only support dual channel configs, adding more RAM slots and filling all of them up would mean that the memory controller would have to juggle between three or four individual channels and read and write insequentially. Since the memory controller is integrated onto the CPU on the new architecture, the increase in latency from having seperate channels would amplify the performance lost as opposed to previous architectures where only ~5-10% in memory performance would be lost compared to having the memory linked in dual channel. Clevo didn't want to add extra slots as the average user doesn't need more than 4GB. 8GB kits are slowly dropping below the $500 range and continuing to drop.

 

I've never experienced any laughing yet, but the people I work with are decent mature people who aren't really like that. I did however have a guy at Tim Horton's once say that my M570RU looked like it came out of a bargain bin at a low budget computer shop, that got me pretty pissed, tried enlightening him to no avail. So far no insults or laughing with my AW yet, just envy which is a bit of a negative for me, but not too bad.

 

The reaction of it looking "like it came out of a bargain bin" is good because it means the machine doesn't scream "everyone! look at me! please liberate me from my current owner!"

 

Depends how you look at it, to me it felt like an attack on not only me but Clevo as well, which wasn't warranted, especially from an uneducated chump like the guy who said it, also the M17x is not all that flashy with the lights off. It does have a nice design though which could make someone want to steal it, but I have lojack and insurance which I will also have on my next Clevo as well, so I'm not too worried about it.

 

definately not!

 

Indeed, they are annoying, distracting, and wholly superfluous. If your nerdy enough to know you want such an awesome notebook, you probably don't need to look at your fingers to type.

 

You're just too cool for us backlit kb loving kids..snort!

 

I know that 4gb sticks are dropping in prices as time goes by. That usually happens with technology, I think... and the average user doesn't know or care about anything about ram other than capacity and big numbers. They would get excited about 6gb's of ram for a low price, even if they didn't need it... I know I would, and many HP users did with the Envy 15.

 

Fortunately the engineers over at Clevo in Taiwan don't take advantage of the consumer base like that.

 

Yes. It is definitely dead.

 

It all depends on the kind of applications that you want to run fast.
The desktp i7-975 runs multithreaded applications about 60% faster than the mobile i7-920XM.