P151EM1B specs - thoughts?

I've had a month or so thinking about my laptop for uni, and realised my previous specs were complete overkill, so I'm going to save a bit of money and get a better desktop in 6months/a years time.

I'm going to be first year engineering next year, but I do play a few games casually (very casually, just stuff like minecraft and so on, the option for more demanding games would be nice, like Fifa 13) and play around with video editing.

Once I realised I was going overkill, I considered the w110er ( Logical Blue One - Horize W110ER Clevo Ultra Portable Notebook PC), but i think its screen may just be too small.

The specs i'm looking at for the P151EM1B ( Logical Blue One - Horize P151EM1B Clevo Notebook) are:

ProcessorIntel Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM 2.3-3.3Ghz Turbo
RAM16GB DDR3 1600Mhz System Memory
Hard Drive 500GB 7200rpm Hard Disk Drive
MSata OCZ Nocti 60GB SSD 280/260 Mbs Read/Write
(is this worth it, it'll be for my OS, and a few programs and games - i'm hardly a serious gamer)
Optical Drive Bluray Reader / DVD Burner Combo
Screen Size15.6-inch FHD LED 95% GAMUT MATTE BACKLIT (1920x1080)
Graphics Card nVidia Geforce GTX660M 1.0GB GDDR5 Dedicated Graphics DX11
Networking802.11b/g/n WLAN, 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth


Just looking for a little feedback and advice, thanks in advance

 

An SSD will always be worth it, though it may be overpriced if you're buying it from a reseller rather than the best-deal shop in your area (which isn't saying much given .com.au). SSDs do more for general snappiness of a machine than gaming or anything else.

If you can afford it, get a 120+gb drive, and get something better than the Nocti. The newest Clevos all support SATA III, so look into Samsung 830/OCZ Vertex 4/Intel 520/Crucial M4. They should all be cheap enough.

 

I agree. Make sure to buy the SSD thirdparty aka not from the reseller

 

I've never done any sort of work with computer hardware. How easy is it to install one myself?

And where's a good place to buy from?

 

Are you from USA? Amazon.com has the 256GB Crucial M4 for $200 right now. Amazon.com: Crucial 256 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT256M4SSD2: Electronics

Piece of cake to install. Remove bottom hard drive bay cover (two screws?), slide out the hard drive, remove the plastic "drive cage" (again, two screws), screw that on the SSD, slide it back into place making sure SATA port is properly aligned, put cover back on, replace screws. Then you'll need to do a clean Windows 7 install.

 

I'm from New Zealand (hence buying from Aus) so shipping will always be a touch problematic. I will look into this though (baring in mind this will only be an mSata drive, which I believe are Sata II slots?)

 

Ah ok, mSATA. Best bet is Crucial. Again, speaking from US, not sure how it is in NZ. Great deals at Crucial.com on their mSATA products too.

 

So is that, once again, a case of simply removing the back and sliding it in and installing windows?

 

The hard drive bay is easily accessed through the bottom panel. You then install Windows just like any hard drive. Be sure to set the SATA type in BIOS to ACHI.

 

See here:

 

Great! So it's really just a case of removing the back and slotting it in?

Also, should I be considering a wifi card? Online gaming isn't of particular appeal to me.

 

I'd go with an Intel 6235 if you want bluetooth (it's part of the card) or 6300 if you don't.

 

So the 6300 offers better range/slightly faster speeds? Which could be important considering I'll be at uni next year (although the uni is only a small part wireless - dorms for example aren't). I don't think I'd need Bluetooth, not once used it on a computer before, and obly very rarely between mobile phones

 

You may also be interested in the W350, its going to be a bit cheaper and use the GTX660m, which is pretty similar to the 670m, but newer and more power efficient. Essentially, if you have no plans for getting anything better than the 670m I would say go for the W350 with the 660m instead, it will be a better buy. It's still 15" and has 1080p, but only supports up to 16GB ram and doesn't support the 3920xm. Plus the W350 can hold 2 HD's + an optical, where as you'd need to step up to the P170EM to be able to do that with this platform. I am not sure if it has mSata, but even a trade of an mSata for a full size bay is worth it IMHO, as regular sata SSD's are far cheaper. You could go with a fast sata III SSD + your 500GB regular drive, and still keep the optical drive.

 

Hmm okay.
So essentially for a lower price, I get similar specs (swapping msata for a full ssd - which I'm not worried about) and a better battery life?
What's the ETA on it? (haven't been following it's progress)

 

RJTech is saying Sept 10th, so I would assume everyone would have it around then. That's not too bad, only about a week and a half. The Clevo W350ET is also known as the Sager NP6350. It looks like many of the resellers are starting to list it, so you can shop around and find the best deal.


Here is an example config:
Sager NP6350 / Clevo W350ETQ - Ships Mid-September
- PRE-ORDER - ( ETA & Specifications are subject to change by manufacturer )
- FREE!! Continental (U.S. Lower 48 - UPS Ground Only) Ground Shipping on ALL Sager Laptops (Enter Coupon Code: "SAGERFREESHIP" during order process)
- SAGER Back 2 School Savings!!! ( Free Hard Drives & Ram Savings ) - See Specials Below *restrictions may apply
- 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glare Type Screen (SKU - S1R319)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3GHz - 3.3GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU - S2N224)
- -Stock OEM Thermal Compound
- nVidia GeForce GTX 660M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 w/ Optimus Technology (SKU – S3R524)
- 12GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (3 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4S433P)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Finish
- FREE! - 750gb 7200rpm (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R306)
- 128gb Crucial M4 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III) (SKU - S6R061)
- 6x Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive - Special! (SKU - S7P557)
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Bluetooth Included (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Sager - Intel® Advanced-N 6235 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - S8R111)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Sager Spare 120Watt AC Adapter
- LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Telephone Support (Labor through XPC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Parts Warranty Repairs (SKU - X9R009)


$1389 @ Xotic

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Due to my location and import duties and whatnot, Australian vendors are the only ones I can viably buy from (especially with support and warranty issues).

But thank your for enlightening me on this, i'll have to ask my preferred reseller when he expects to stock this!

 

Unfortunately it seems that Australian resellers don't currently plan to stock the W350..:/ they do sell the w370, but I think that screen size could be a touch big for carrying around and using at uni (thoughts?)
So I guess my options lie in the w25 (which has an attractive price and battery life, meaning I can save more for uni and a desktop 6 months/a year down the line) but the card is quite low spec - 640m, and there's no SSD option) or back to the more expensive 151B1...
Blergh, really can't make my mind up.

 

There is also the W150ERQ, which has the GT650m (instead of 660m), and is otherwise pretty much the same as the W350

 

For the price, I don't really think the w150 to really be worth it.. and besides the only reseller I found stocking it doesn't ship to NZ..

 

Does anyone know how to know if the W25B GPU is upgradable to the gtx 650m or 660? It's not available on LBO or Horize's website, so does that mean it can't be, or it's to protect the P150EM Series (as this upgrade would nearly make it a cheaper p150em1b with less ram)?

 

The W series laptops have non-upgradeable GPU's (they are soldered directly on).