Reliability of Clevo vs. MSI?

Can someone assist me regarding the title of this post? Both companies are offering a 15.6" laptop with the Nvidia GTX 680m. Configuring them both on various websites, the prices are about the same for what I'm looking at. I am trying to find out who is a more reliable manufacturer. I have owned a Sager in the past so I'm leaning towards the Clevo.

MSI is showing the GT60 ONE-220 which appears to be a beast and partswise, identical to the CLEVO P150EM. I do not know much about them. Can anyone comment? I appreciate it.

Also, noise levels on these laptops? I've read from other threads that the Clevo has some noticeable fan noise. MSI--no idea.

Thanks.

 

The MSI should be around the same as Clevo in terms of noise and reliability.

 

They are both pretty solid. The Clevo looks more understated, but the MSI has better speakers/audio quality from what I've been reading. Both are equally easy to upgrade as well and the access to the fans/heatsinks are also easy in both.

 

They both seem pretty similar (though the Clevo is built a bit better), but the MSI has touch buttons under the screen. I've had that 'feature' in a previous gaming laptop, and after constantly activating those buttons by simply hovering my hand around them by mistake, I'm telling you - if you can avoid that nonsense, please do.

The only thing you're losing if you'll be choosing the Clevo is the sound quality, and that can be circumvented with a relatively cheap USB-based external soundcard such as the Asus Xonar U3. So, yeah, I say go with a Clevo.

 

They both have their pros and cons.

I would vote for the Clevo (d'oh... we are on the Clevo forum ) but MSI surely has its good sides such as 2 HDD's (I am talking about the 15" version) and a good keyboard (some might argue it's better than the P150EM keyboard) and slightly better speakers

 

msi has a better keyboard and audio. msi also has a less locked down bios

clevo has a better overall build quality. clevo uses alot less plastic. i prefer the cooling system of the clevo units better because they dont have vents on the side to burn my hand. in addition i tend to prefer the classy sleek look of the clevo over the more aggressive gamer look of the MSI

 

I have no experience with MSI laptops. Can you give examples of where there is less plastic in Clevo? To me the Clevo is just one big blob of plastic, rendered somewhat "rigid" by the motherboard, HDD and other components.

If Clevo uses less plastic, e.g. as a measure to cut down on weight and cost of materials, then wouldn't that yield a more flimsy and flexible chassis? Don't go looking for metal stress bearing members, as there are none. I don't see how "better overall build quality" and "clevo uses a lot less platic" are not contradictory here.

 

clevos lids and handrests are brushed aluminum or rubber coated depending on model. they dont have any flex. Its kind of hard to describe, but i believe everyone has picked something up and thought "this is not as sturdy". Clevos are more rigid

 

Both the MSI and Sager in terms of reliability will be very close.

The noise levels will also be about the same, whereas the Clevo will use 2 fans (one for GPU and one for CPU) the MSI only uses a single fan for both.

The speakers in the MSI will beat out the Sager, hands down but that is not to say the Sager has poor audio by any means either.

I think that, regardless of your choice, you would be happy with either one as both are excellent laptops.

 

Hands down my headphones and monitors will destroy both and that is to say, ALL laptop speakers are terrible.

But yeah, I don't reliability and quality being an important factor in deciding between Clevo and MSI since they should be comparable. Just go with whatever you like, appearance, price etc.

 

No you dont understand, the speakers in the MSI are like a set of external 2.1 speakers and smash the clevo ones into the ground, the DAC itself is also far better electrically shielded so crosstalk is much reduced meaning you dont get a hiss with headphones or plugged in speakers.

 

No you don't understand, no 1" laptop speaker can compare to a good pair of headphones or real speakers (monitors). Both smash the MSI cruddy 2.1 into the ground. And my DAC is not even in the laptop. And there wouldn't be cross talk since this is just digital, 0s and 1s... That's what a DAC does, converts digital to analog signal. Unless you are crossing wires on your speakers you shouldn't have crosstalk issues, unless you are a hardcore audiophile who believes every audio myth out there.

 

MSI also have aluminum on lids and handrests (GT70/GT60/GT780xxx)

 

Well if you are using completely external audio equipment then duh, but if all you are doing is using standard headphones via the 3.5mm jack or the inbuilt speakers its noticable how much less noise there is and the lack of squeal in the signal when running 3d games from the interference of the graphics card.

Also it sounds like you have never listened to a set of MSI speakers, of course they are not on a level of some uber 2.1 set costing £200, but they sound as good as a set of £30-50 external 2.1 speakers IMO.

 

Yeah I know a few who have the MSI with Dynaudio speakers. They are awesome. Probably the best notebook speakers out there. Every site that have reviewed the notebooks have praised the MSI about its sound system.
They also have something called "Audio boost" where you get better sound through head phones than normal

 

I'm personally growing sick and tired of people saying I don't know jack when I own/have owned what we are talking about and they never have.

 

I had a ge60 and dynaaudio is very good for speakers on a notebook.

The msi gt60 (w 680m) also has a better standard warranty ( 2yrs plus 1 yr accident ), 12G mem, 750G hd, matte, 2 drive bays +odd, no ghosting ( although spacebar issues ). If you order a 9150 configured the same the price will be the same. The msi is a heavier machine, options cost more, and not as subdued look.

If there were more reviews out confirming no issues I think the msi would be a better bet but it is just too new to tell. There are however plenty of gt60 reviews with other cards to get a idea on the basic machine.

 

So which one would you actually recommend?

The MSI or the Clevo? Say Clevo P150EM vs 16F3 (or say the GT60)

If you had to choose.

 

Easy, the ultimate is the GT60 super raid, especially if price is not a major issue.

3720QM
8GB DDR3
GTX680M
2x256GB crucial M4 msata (in place of original two)

You can even slap in a 1TB mech HDD for data if you needed more storage and still have an optical bay, or a second 1TB HDD and even raid those together.

It's so flexible and the mSATA slots give you full performance.

 

Since we're at it, (should've asked it in the msi forums, but anyway) does anyone know if the 16F3 features the same integrated headphone amp as the GT60? I would say yes, since they supposedly share the same mainboard, but I never saw anyone actually confirming this.

 

The Clevo's a bit more portable than the MSI if that's at all important to you.

 

A tiny bit, but you loose a HDD slot for it and the speakers.

 

As far as I've noticed the P150EM has better cooling than the GT60 and/or 16F3 also it saddens me that MSI does so much with their body, if it was just as "business" looking or just if there was a second version of the laptop
- like the P150EM/P151EM then I would love to have it. Annoys me with all those things on the back and that weird bodykit but oh well

 

Ah I am also hesitating between the two except for the configuration I want I could get the sager plus a 256go m4 ssd for the price of the msi.
On the only benchmark I saw the gtx680m seems to score rather low on the msi with P5856 in 3dmark 11. Is the card in sager more powerful or do people get the same scores.
BTW is it worth it for any of those to take a 0 dead pixels option.
If only the msi was more discrete, the choice would have been easier.

 

I'd say these two are so close as to make price and personal choice the difference makers.
You can't really choose wrong between Clevo and MSI.

I DO have to comment that not all laptop speakers are awful.
Some are definitely better than others, and only the tone deaf or massively inexperienced would lump them all in the same group.
Even non-audiphiles should be able to tell when there is almost no bass or highs...

The concept that you can buy better is just silly. Of course you can... but that 500W half stack or 7.1 theatre surround sound system isn't really necessary and is slightly less than portable and an extra cost.
Honestly, if you do care for the quality and not just the volume of the sound, you can do quite well with a nice set of smaller speakers.

Entertainment laptops that ship with halfway decent 2.1 speaker systems can be extremely convenient. It is very nice to not have to use headphones. Some laptop speaker systems are so good as to make them almost unnecessary. Ones like the MSI speakers make external speakers mostly unnecessary!

I'd say that the speakers should be listed a s a + for the MSI, but I would NOT go as far as to say I'd purchase one just because of that. Consider the MSI to have included, lightweight 2.1 audio comparable to the very best value external 2.1 audio systems and measure how useful that would be for your purposes.

 

Thank you to everyone that posted comments. I appreciate everyone's input. I had an order placed for the Clevo, but when I saw the MSI computer being offered, I was debating whether to cancel it and go with the MSI or a Clevo from another company since the order is going on 3 1/2 weeks now and could take another 1-2 weeks due to backordered parts. But, I think I will just wait it out. Thank you to all. The sound isn't a major deal since I usually use headphones.

 

Yes I was in doubt for a while too, but I'll go with the Clevo as it is more portable and sleek looking and the sound is kinda meh

 

Awesome dude, glad to know you are sensible and use headphones rather than using junk 1" notebook speakers, no matter how awesome they supposedly are.

One thing I noticed with Clevo is the headphone output jack, at least on mine is atrocious. It's the worst I've ever heard. I don't understand it since even my cell phone's headphone output is many times over better...

There are many different dongles out there for portable use and they sound great. I use the X-Fi Go USB, but I know Asus has a Xonar version and Turtle Beach has their own also. They range in price around $25-40. I HIGHLY recommend you getting one if your notebook also suffers that issue. In terms of size and portability, these USB soundcards are just slightly bigger than a thumbdrive, so you can just bring it with you on your keychain. It's awesome considering it sounds better than any headphone output I've heard on any notebook so far.