Thinking of buying Clevo P650SG...

Hi this i my first post, I'm considering buying Sager np8652/ clevo p650sg because I'll be using it mainly for college and portability is a big issue , but I have some questions:

1. Will heat be an issue when gaming?
2. Is it loud under load?
3. Would 4gb of vram be enough down the road?

If you know of any other machine that has good portability and packs a 980m please let me know.
As a side-note are there any clevo resellers in Mexico?

 

The fans do spin up under load, but it's no worse than other thin laptops. There is heat generated (especially from the CPU), but again, with something this thin it's expected. You'll notice the keyboard area getting a bit warmer, but not uncomfortable.

I would think 4GB of VRAM should be enough for the next few years. As games get more demanding, you can just lower your settings.

Remember that most desktop GPUs still only come with 3/4GB of VRAM.

 

so the fans are not annoying or anything? and the temps will be ok for long gaming sessions?

 

Annoying or not is very personal, if you can, try it out first before buying, look for a lan party happening around you, if you're in college it'll be easier to find those I think.

The CPU does get quite hot, check xoticpc youtube review on 650SE, GPU is ok because it has 2 fans.

I don't think anyone can say whether 4gb of VRAM will be enough for sure, it depends a lot on what kind of games will be produced in the future and whether you'll play them, but if you're concerned about future upgradeability remember that 650Sx has both GPU and CPU soldered to the motherboard, you can't upgrade them period. There are other clevo models with MXM cards for GPU and socketed CPUs which are upgradeable, but of course they are thicker and heavier.

And if you're thinking of importing it into Mexico, be aware that shipping cost for RMA will be expensive, you might want to get a local reseller instead, even if it's not clevo.

 

1. Not an issue, no. This model gets a little warmer than those of bigger chassis, but is not prone to thermal issues.
2. It can be. Since everyone perceives noise a little differently, it's best you discern this for yourself (use the reseller's money back time frame to test the laptop).
3. For gaming? Most likely, but that might depend on how far down the road you're thinking. Chances are that it will be plenty for a few years. For things like AutoCAD or other design programs, that depends on the project.

The P750ZM is another good portable one that can be upgraded to a 980M. As best as memory serves, there are no resellers in Mexico.

 

I'm looking at this model as well. I'm mostly curious about the LCDs.

What model is the 1080p LG IPS? And how does brightness/contrast compare between the LG 1080p and the Sharp 4K?

 

Mmm the p750zm is too heavy for me and a bit out of my price range after seeing it in notebookcheck. If theres no clevo resellers in Mexico do you know of any reseller that sends to Mexico at a reasonable price ?

 

I think most resellers do ship to Mexico, but shipping can get expensive once you factor in insurance. Also check locally for any money due at the time of deliver like taxes or duties etc.

 

You should also consider potential RMA not just initial shipping, it can add up pretty quickly

 

True.

Many of the resellers in the States are likely to have comparable shipping rates, fang12. You would need to touch base with the resellers you're interested to get a personal quote on the shipping and handling rates.

 

1) No. This laptop has fantastic GPU cooling and good-enough CPU cooling for gaming. If you're looking to run extremely CPU-intensive tasks like video-rendering or whatever then the P170ZM would be a better bet. For pure gaming however, the cooling system is more than sufficient.
2) Max fans, yes - you'll want to use headphones or external speakers to compensate for the volume of the fans at maximum RPM (unless you can mentally block out continuous background noise and it doesn't bother you). Auto fans, not so much, you can get away with just using the in-built speakers in most cases, but it depends how sensitive you are to noise. Overall, the fans produce a very similar volume level compared to previous Clevo models such as the P170SM, despite being noticeably thinner and lighter.
3) Yes. Fact is, the raw GPU power will limit what graphical settings you can run in games you way before VRAM amount will. Even the desktop 980 has the same amount of VRAM whilst having much more raw power, meaning that it will face a memory bottleneck way before the 980M will. Devs only focus on desktop GPUs for the most part, so they will need to consider the fact that most desktop gamers still have 4GB of VRAM or less. That situation is unlikely to change for a couple more years. I get the feeling that once HBM GPUs are commonplace then this will quickly change - but with NVIDIA not introducing their Pascal architecture until next year you're gonna get at least two, probably three years before 4GB VRAM becomes extremely limiting - even then the GPU core itself will require you to turn down settings before that happens anyway.