TR Forums

Just picked one of these up; my Toshiba will be going on sale soon. Specs:

Clevo P170EM, 17.3" Barebone Laptop, Switchable nVidia GTX /Intel GMA HD GPU, DVDRW

Options: Display: 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) LED Backlit Glare Type Display, Super-Wide Viewing Angles
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M w/2.0GB GDDR5 with Optimus Technology for Power Saving
Monitor Color Calibration: None
Intel CPU: Core i7-3610QM CPU, 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 3.3GHz) , 6MB Smart Cache
Thermal Compound: IC Diamond Thermal Compound (CPU + GPU) -with CPU purchased-
DDR3 Memory: 8GB DDR3/1600Mhz - 2 DIMMs -Special Price-
Primary Hard Drive: 750GB SATA300 7200rpm
RAID: Disable
2nd Hard Drive: No Hard Drive
mSATA SSD Drive: None
Optical Drive Bay: 6X BD Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Blu-ray Drive
Extra Hard Drive Caddy Case: None
External Optical drive: None
Wireless LAN: Intel 6300 802.11ABGN
AC Adapter: 100 - 240V 220W Auto Switch AC Adapter
Battery: 8 Cells Smart Li-Ion Battery
TV Tuner: None
Notebook Cooler: None
OS w/CD: Windows 7 Professional x64
Office Software: None
Carry Bag: Included
Warranty: 1 Year Parts and Labor Standard Warranty
Zero Dead Pixel Insurance: None
Installation: Install Hardware and Software, Free of Charge
Shipping Schedule: Rush Order, Ship out within 3 business days

I'll be looking very closely at the screen- R&J Technology were the only ones that listed a 'Super-Wide Viewing Angles' panel as an option, and they were right in line with the others for the bare-bones pricing, as well as withing $10-20 of Newegg for the add-ins I purchased. I have a 128GB Crucial M4 coming to serve as the OS drive.

Also, the reason I'm replacing my Toshiba (which is still a great laptop for the price) is that I wanted something capable of real mobile gaming, something with greater than standard-fare resolution for school, and something with a panel that can be reasonably used for processing photos and video from my Canon 60D on the go.

Thoughts? I'll have pictures posted when it comes in.

I've received the laptop and been able to get a feel for it over the last week or so.

I'm very impressed with the build quality. It's almost all metal and extremely sturdy, with little flex when picked up from a corner while open. It's heavy, but that's to be expected for a system with its capabilities.

Performance is right in line with what I was needing. The i7-3610QM is a capable CPU, and the laptops cooling system keeps it from throttling under load so that it stays at 3.1GHz, the maximum turbo frequency for four cores. The GTX675m is equally impressive- built off of the GF114 used in the desktop GTX560Ti, with all shaders enabled and all memory channels in use, it flies. Using MSI's Afterburner software I was able to give it a stable +100MHz on the core over the stock 620MHz frequency and +150MHz on the GDDR5, for whatever that's worth. The result is an incredibly smooth experience in Battlefield 3 at the screens 1080p resolution, my benchmark game. It's more than capable of playing Skyrim or any other similarly intensive game with all details and copious amounts of MSAA, and the GPUs 2GB of VRAM is more than enough. I haven't seen >1GB of usage yet while playing BF3, and that's with an external 1920x1200 monitor over HDMI. That may be powered by the CPUs HD4000, though.

The screen is an excellent TN. An oxymoron I know, and I was hoping for an IPS based on the description, but in usage it's one of the best TNs I've seen. I've calibrated it with my Spyder 3 Pro, and I have no problem using it for low-level color sensitive work. I find the 1080p resolution at 17.3" to be just about perfect at the distance that I use it. I put it on a coffee table and sit on a couch, and I feel that if I'd gotten the smaller 15.6" version (Clevo P150EM), the DPI might have been too high, even with my >20/20 eyes.

The keyboard with its excellent back-lighting does take a little time to acclimate to. The keys are a little smaller, but are still well spaced, and have a good typing feel for a laptop. The back-lighting is highly configurable.

The trackpad works well, though I'm still not a fan of them- I use Logitech's Anywhere MX wireless mouse instead, which is great for desktop use and decent for gaming, with Logitech's G500 as a reference.

The built in camera is good for Skype/GTalk video etc., and the built in microphone is excellent for those applications as well as Ventrilo.

The laptops cooling system is top-notch. The CPU cooler is built to handle higher performance CPUs, and it stays silent until the CPU is stressed. At speed the cooler as an unobtrusive noise profile. The GPU cooler spins up higher when stressed with the overclocked 40nm GTX675m underneath, and runs at 100% to keep the GPU at 86c under BF3s gaming load. Still, while noticeable, it's not intrusive, and isn't noticeable when playing BF3 through the laptops speakers.

The speakers themselves are decent though a little tinny. They will require the use of software settings to get them sounding properly; things like setting the speaker output to 5.1 and un-checking individual speakers to get to a 2.1 setting as there isn't a real 2.1 option. After fiddling with them, they are more than acceptable for music/gaming/movie/VOIP use.

The soundcard, while standard Realtek fare, has full 7.1 output capability through four 3.5mm mini-jacks, and also has optical output built in and accessible through an adapter.

Video output options are abundant. There is a full Displayport 'port', DVI with analog pass-through, and HDMI available on the back edge. While HD4000 does support three outputs, it appears to be limited to two TDMS outputs, like AMD cards. This means that the built-in display uses one 'digital' output, and therefore is limited to using either the HDMI or DVI outputs, but not both concurrently. I am making the assumption that the Displayport output may only be used with one of the HDMI or DVI ports when connected to a native DP monitor or when used with an expensive active DP adapter.

The chassis supports a broad level of configuration options directly from retailers, and making your own configuration changes does not affect the warranty. As noted above I added an SSD to serve as the systems boot drive, and aside from having to fiddle with small screws, the process was straightforward and painless.

That's all for now- please feel free to ask questions, and I do intend to post some pictures when I get the rest of my photography equipment in!