No turning back now :) Clevo-W110ER

Hi all,

Currently using an Alienware M11XR2 i7 640UM and tbh very impressed with it, only been playing around with it for a few weeks. Ended up on these forums and learning about Throttlestop, but then after some more research found the barebone clevo with 2gb 650m. Very much another impulse buy but decided to go for the items below.

clevo-w110er £320
Intel i7 3632QM 2.2ghz £130
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance Performance DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-14900 (1866) £55
240gb SSD - already have

Not the best or latest kit but all in all about £500 for the upgrade and should be a nice step up from the M11XR2, will report back once its all been put together.

 

I really can't recall the last time I heard negative feedback about this notebook. Not a powerhouse by any measure, but a good little system that stood up to the adage: "Size matters".

 

Lol, well it is quite a step up in power from the alienware.

 

you will not be dissapointed.
i had a go on this little beauty at the gadget show and its a powerhous for its size. played crysis 3 smoothly.
who did you buy from?

luckily here in the uk its still available as ive heard a lot of suppliers in america have discontinued it ready for the new 13"

 

Why no Haswell? Not that it really makes a huge difference in performance, but 4th Gen Intel Core CPUs use less power so extend battery life.

I have a 650M 2GB. Expect to play most recent games at high at 1366x768. The Witcher 2 is the only game that this GPU really struggles with but it is still playable at Low settings.

 

Where did you find that price? Scan? Just wondering because that seems like a pretty attractive offer, to the point where I might remove the CPU, RAM and SSD from my W550EU then sell the chassis and use the money to buy this as a holdover until the W230ST BIOSes mature, and I can afford to go nuts on wholly new parts sometime after april (msata, low voltage RAM, new CPU).

 

Didn't know the haswell would work in the W110-ER??? the 3632QM at 3.2ghz will do me for now, maybe something I consider if its not powerful enough lol.

I ordered from Scan, £320 seems like a bargain to me since I did the numbers on dell/alienware setups with similar spec was over £600-£700 and not as portable.

Found a buyer for my R2 so will get £400 back from that, £100 upgrade which should last me a while

Been reading up on the Prema bios mod so once I confirmed the throttling issues were all resolved it was a no brainer for me to get this new setup, got the barebone and ram, waiting for CPU and compound then can finish putting it together.

Built all my desktop system since I was a kid but this is my first laptop barebone and already have a feeling won't be the last haha

 

Dont buy W110ER, get the new 13,3" with haswell and profit. Really, its better that way.

 

have you got a link to the website page as its not there now. unless they are just selling off old stock. that is a very good price.

 

Clevo W110ER 11.6" Barebone Laptop With Webcam And 2GB GT-650M + 6235 Wifi - W110ER6506235 - Scan.co.uk

get one while you can, aahh the new 13" W230STmodel is extremely nice with 1920x1080 and Nvidia 765 but how much does it cost?, this recent upgrade only really cost me £100 so couldn't resist.

Since I only going to use it for light gaming and skype I think the W110-ER will last me a while. Then again GTAV is out soon and I did say I would upgrade for that lol.

 

Problem is for me I have all the ivybridge generation parts on hand, so a W110ER costs £320 and that's it. A W230ST would cost me £780, and maybe more on top as I'd like to switch to an mSATA SSD and low voltage RAM. Sure in general don't buy last generation stuff, but this is one situation where it works.

 

Well hope you guys get your W110ER's too as scans batch probably last source in UK available as barebone systems. Hopefully get sometime this weekend to build and tweak it.

Does anyone know if the hdmi can output a 2560x1440 signal to my external mon?

 

thanks for the link. a search for me coldnt find it.
i was going to order one a few months back and top spec was going to be just over a grand but i decided against it as i still have a year old P150EM and a holiday sounded a better plan to me.

 

Just a heads up, I asked Scan about their stock level, they have 5 in stock apparently. Now I'm really worried as I'm gonna have to wait about 4 hours before I order :S

 

what they mean by barebone? is it the full laptop ?

 

It's the laptop chassis, but it comes without a CPU, RAM, or storage. So, add those yourself and it's a full working laptop.

*edit* let me make that a little clearer. What you get with a barebone system is the case, the LCD panel, the webcam and microphone, battery, keyboard, power supply, motherboard, all of that stuff. You typically don't get a GPU (it's soldered on here so we're fine), wifi card (they've added one, so that's fine), CPU, RAM or a HDD/SSD for storage. The system comes assembled so assuming you can buy a CPU, RAM and a HDD and are comfortable installing them you can have a full working laptop. Before you buy and install those parts it's essentially an expensive brick.

 

mine says scan on the lcd cover apart from that its like any other W110-ER, damnit just missing my CPU!!! So much lighter than my M11XR2

Yes you will need to purchase your own CPU, RAM and HD otherwise like CampGareth mentioned its just a brick.

 

will be interesting to see all your final price after youve added all the bits needed.

 

I already ordered everything, last item is the CPU and that should arrive tomorrow, I think its ok value for money.

£320 - W110-ER
£130 - i7 3632QM
£55 - 2x4gb Corsair DDR 1866
£0 - Chronos 240gb SSD - already had from previous system
£4 - Arctic MX-2 thermal compound
£3 - 8 additional copper heatsinks to add to the CPU cooler (no idea when they will arrive from HK)

So around £600 total price if I include a new SSD, got the old laptop on ebay so once that goes all good. I know you can probably get a dell inspiron with similar performance for same price but its no where near as portable.

 

I'd say that's a pretty good deal with your upgrades. If I recall correctly, ours went for about $800 base price (so about £526).

 

ok all built and bios updated with prema v3, only initial concern was idle temps but then read the read doesn't even kick in until it reaches 60'c, been running a few benchmarks and so far highest temp on cpu is 75'c so must have applied the thermal paste correctly. Gaming is a whole different level compared to previous M11XR2

One last thing is to make sure I am getting not getting throttled when playing games, I think the BIOS update fixes that but will have to see.

 

Yes, the prema v3 fixes the cpu throttling while dGPU is on. Before we had to run Throttlestop, but no more after v3! He's a genius Mr Prema!

 

Might look for a 1/2 decent laptop cooler next I think while this heatwave is still going on here in the UK. Very happy with the build, think its more powerful than my main desktop machine lol.

Just removed the screen cover, thought it originally was gloss but turns out these Scan ones are matt finish

 

Clevo notebooks don't tend to get much from notebook coolers unless you apply mods to the casing and add ramsinks.

 

Using my existing logitech cooler at the moment with the bottom laptop cover off, idle around 47'c even with the summer heat, probably wont even need a cooler knowing the british weather, couple more weeks and the rains likely to be back.

Going to try the under volt bios next

 

I've ordered my barebones too, unfortunately because I'm on holiday I'll only get access to it on Friday at the earliest. I'm planning to try and get the most battery life out of it as I'll take it to lectures. Final specs will be i7-3632qm, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3, Intel 335 240GB ssd.

*edit* well that may have been premature, got the following email from Scan:

"I am afraid we cannot fulfill your order for the Clevo Laptop barebone. This item was meant for use only with our 3XS Laptops.

At this point we could either add the parts required to build your laptop and build this for you.

Or alternatively we can cancel the order and issue a refund.

Please advise what you would rather."

That's odd...

 

It's likely an item not meant to be listed on the main page but used for "building" their systems (with each item itemised), a W230ST barebone would be far more interesting to me personally.

 

Yet ady got his :/ Ah well, you're right on the W230ST though, unfortunately cheapest I can find though is £230 higher plus whatever a CPU will cost. I'll just go buy one in April.

 

The graphics and display are so worth saving up that extra though.

 

I know, but finances mean it's quite literally impossible until then. Plus from what I've been seeing the W230ST needs time to mature, to get optimus working properly to reduce the idle power draw and such.

 

hhmm if its meant for their own 3XS systems then why have it listed on their website and allowing you to add to basket? I thought its been listed due to the fact the newer W230ST is out and they were clearing old stock.

League of Legends, CS:Source, Team Fortress 2 and World of Tanks all running very nice, only thing which it struggled with so far was GTA4.

Disabled turbo when not gaming and CPU idles below 50'c result!

Not sure anywhere stocks a W230ST in the UK yet as a barebone, 1080p in 13.3" is pretty damn epic

 

Exactly my thoughts. They're not stocking the W230ST barebones atm though, probably won't for a while. As for where has them now though, best I can find is PWN PCS as they allow you to not have any parts fitted, not the cheapest though, Scan if they stocked it would probably be cheaper (though PWN charge less for a 4700MQ than I can find one for on ebay, haswell can wait till it stops being so darned expensive ).

 

Yea I didn't realise the step up to haswell would cost so much extra, for what I am going to be using the laptop for me more than happy with the performance from the ivy, mostly watching media, surfing and light gaming

 

I tried my very best to get Scan to take my order but nope, they've just refunded me. I guess I'll keep an eye out for deals because the next cheapest at £400 doesn't seem worth it.

 

Which nVidia Gpu driver is best for this machine overall? My friend bought W110ER some time ago and asked me this question. I said "I don´t know, but maybe NBR community knows better".
Sorry for off topic.

 

Unless there is a specific issue going with the latest should see you fine, especially if you want to play the latest titles.

 

I just downloaded something called geforce experience, I am new to it since I have always had ATI gpu's but its pretty handy, keeps your graphics drivers up to date and also optimizes your games for you to ensure smooth fps.

 

It's a pretty good tool for those who are less experienced with or don't have the patience to tweak the settings.

 

I'm on holiday atm, put my 15.6" laptop on the bedside table in our rented cottage and it didn't fit at all, stuff this size of laptop

So, ordered from PWN PCs for £398, I might as well write a mini review and whatnot for it when it turns up.

 

nice!!!! grats on the new toy

 

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made my own budget laptop cooler, the 3632QM now idles at 45'c and in complete silence

 

Lol, nice choice of fan by the way, I used those in my desktop builds back in the day.

 

pushes enough air even at 5v but the main thing is its dead quiet, especially compared with my previous logitech cooler/fan

 

I'm surprised it starts up at 5V. I never had much luck with a 12V fan on a 5V line. But nice simple cooler mod

 

I just assume its 5v cos thats how much usb normally pumps out, useless usb3.0 has more juice maybe.

 

No, same driving voltage though they can deliver more amps on that voltage.

Those fans are designed for quiet setups so they likely are designed to a have a lower threshold voltage.

 

Do you feel like the 11.6" screen is too small? What are your thoughts on the usefulness of the smaller laptops?

 

Hi Valete,

The screen is small at 11.6" but surfing and media use I found its fine also I doubt many people will say this often but I actually quite like the lower res 1366x768 this laptop has. The reason for this is gaming so far has been very smooth on this machine, everything that I generally play has managed over 60fps and high/ultra settings, for a portable rig I can't really ask for much more. Even if I had a higher res panel I tend to adjust settings to get a nice fps. Unless you do a lot of photoshop or video editing on the go then the screen size shouldn't really be an issue.

I have generally always preferred smaller laptops since they are meant to be easy to take around with you, the W110-ER is small and light enough for me to put into pretty much any bag I own so its very practical. I can understand people worried about a high performance laptop as battery life can be a major concern but personally I just take it from point a to b, most the time the destination has power so battery life not a big worry.

Unlike some laptops I have owned in the past one thing I love about the W110-ER is that when under low load the fan doesn't spin up at all, this could be due to the 3632QM slightly lower heat stamp but its bliss. Before even using youtube would kick off fans in other laptops but being able to surf and watch HD movies in silence is a nice change.

 

I can echo ady's sentiments. While the resolution might be a bit low as I can see a screen door effect, and I have trouble keeping two windows open side by side, and the colours aren't great because of the contrast ratio, this screen is absolutely fine for most people. The colours I notice because I have much better and more expensive monitors around me.

As for the usefulness of smaller laptops, the portability is extremely helpful, I haven't yet tried taking this to lectures and back daily as I'm on holiday, but it can be held in one hand because of the size/weight which my previous 15.6" machine couldn't be. It also slips into a bag so easily with plenty of room to spare heck it'd probably fit in a handbag

 

Tried it out on the TV just for curiosity sake, hooked it up via HDMI 1080p and was again getting over 60fps on most games which was a nice surprise. Decided that this kind of spec was more than enough for now so not willing to pay the extra for haswell, managed to pick up an Alienware M14XR2 for cheap, will decide which one to keep over the next couple of weeks, gotta stop this impulse buying! lol