AVADirect Clevo D900F First Look

by Kevin O'Brien

The AVADirect Clevo D900F is the answer to those who were asking for desktop performance from notebook. It offers up to an Intel Core i7 975 processor, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, an NVIDIA 280M GTX graphics card, three hard drives, and a WUXGA 17" glossy display. While some might contest that this notebook deserves to be called an all-in-one desktop, this beast is definitely the fastest machine we have ever seen at Notebook Review. Checkout our first look to see how this thing performs ... if you think you can handle it.

AVADirect Clevo D900F Specifications:

• Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 64-bit)
• Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition Processor (3.33GHz, 8MB L3, 1066MHz FSB)
• Intel X58 + ICH10R chipset
• 17.1" WUXGA Ultra Bright Glossy LCD display at 1920x1200
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M 1GB GDDR3 memory
• Intel 5300AGN Wireless
• 6GB DDR3-1333 SDRAM (2GB x 3)
• 30GB x 2 OCZ Vertex in RAID 0, 500GB Seagate 7400.4
• DVD SuperMulti /BD-ROM
• webcam, stereo speakers
• 220W (20V x 11A) 100-240V AC Adapter
• 12-cell 95Wh 14.4v 6600mAh Lithium Ion battery
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 15.62" x 11.42" x 2" - 2.36"
• Weight: 12lbs 0.1oz, 14lbs 15.6oz with AC adapter
• 1-Year Standard Limited Warranty
• Price as configured: $3,900

Build and Design
The AVADirect Clevo D900F appears at first glance to be a bit lacking compared to most notebooks on the market, with function being more important than form in the design phase. The look and feel seems dated compared to other notebooks on the market and the quality of the plastics seem underwelming for a notebook with such a high starting price. If this were any other notebook we might say there is no excuse for it, but then you realize it was designed to handle a desktop-class processor, high-end graphics card, and all of the cooling for that equipment.

The build quality of notebook is in the same category as the design, more emphasis was placed on performance than build quality and the end result is flexible plastic and a not-so-durable feeling chassis. The screen lid has some give to it, and the palmrest and keyboard could probably use some additional support. While the outside could use a face-lift the inside looks amazing. After you remove two access panels and the battery you have direct access to multiple heatsinks and cooling fans, the graphics card, processor, RAM slots, dual hard drive bay, and single additional drive bay. You can tell that most of the design went into cooling the notebook, most likely to prevent it from bursting into flames when the Intel Core i7 processor is under significant load.

Screen and Speakers
For high-detail gaming the AVADirect Clevo D900F offers a 17.1" WUXGA LCD, which in our testing is turned out to be quite nice. At full brightness it is easy to view even in a brightly lit office, although with the glossy surface it might not hold up well to outdoor viewing. Vertical viewing angles are average compared to other WUXGA panels we have seen, with about 25 degrees of play forward or back before colors start to distort. Horizontal viewing angles are much better, with colors staying true to roughly 75 degrees to each side. Beyond that angle, reflections overpower the picture displayed on the screen. While gaming we didn't notice any sort of lag or streaking.

Ports and Features
Considering the overall size of the D900F, we expected it to have a greater port selection. That being said, it rates about average compared to other gaming notebooks on the market. In total this notebook has four USB ports, one eSATA, HDMI, DVI, FireWire, TV, modem, LAN, and audio jacks. For expansion it offers an ExpressCard/54 slot and SDHC multi-card slot.

Front: Line-in, digital audio out, microphone, headphones

Rear: AC power, DVI

Left: HDMI, eSATA, CATV, modem, LAN, FireWire 400, ExpressCard/54, SDHC multi-card, optical drive

Right: 4 USB, Kensington lock slot.

Performance and Benchmarks
It is almost difficult to describe how fast this notebook is in normal operation. With the Intel Core i7 975 processor, 6GB of RAM, and OCZ Vertex drives in RAID 0, the Clevo D900F blasts through any task you can think of. Installing software happens abnormally fast, boot and shutdown times are very quick, and game load times are phenomenal. Going back to my ThinkPad T60 to type this review felt like I was transitioning to my parents' 10 year old desktop. To give you an idea of how fast this processor is, the previous "fastest" notebook in our office was an ASUS W90, scoring 23.5 seconds in wPrime when overclocked to 3.3GHz. This system finishes wPrime in an amazing 7.2 seconds! PCMark05 also increased significantly, jumping nearly 6,000 points over the ASUS W90.

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Stay tuned for our full review which will be up very soon!

 

Top specs with way dated chassis style--Clevo can do better.

 

remove 1 hard drive and give us sli

 

Other then loading games fast, how does this computer game? Is that not one of it's strong points?

 

Well technically speaking the location of the hard drives are outside of the motherboard area. One is stuffed below the battery, with the other two paired up below the motherboard. At this point the heatsinks are taking up all the space, not the drives.

 

It packs an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M graphics card with 1GB GDDR3 memory, so of course it handles games extremely well ... but it would be even more impressive if it offered SLI.

 

It's battery would die before Windows finished booting up.

As always thanks for the first look Kevin.

 

Oddly enough battery life so far has been great (well great for something that consumes about 75w at idle).

 

Oh so no Sli support? I bet Alienware fans are laughing.

 

Most AW fans already knew this and have been pulling their horns out trying to explain it to Sager fans.

 

On the other hand, AW fans have also been guilty of constantly comparing the D900F to the M17X. Why they (both sides) won't compare the M98NU to the M17X astounds me. It truly does.

 

they are making m98 with sli

 

not so great for a gaming, d901c would do better, sli 9800m gtx would crush a single 280m. but this would make an excellent workstation, you got a nice screen, uber powerful cpu, fit an fx 3700m in there and you're good to go.

 

Clevo fans started it! ;þ

 

Yes, but how well. Seeing is believing.

People like to see FPS with games to see what this puppy can or can not do. I'm just use to seeing game FPS in reviews on gaming notebooks on NBR.

 

A single GTX 280M will handle gaming well but I'm of the opinion that's not what Clevo has in mind for this machine anymore.

Not only is the hardware not geared towards hardcore gamers the looks aren't either.

 

(3.33GHz, 8MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)

Me thought it was L3?

 

It's actually returning to the original trend for a 17" Clevo notebook to be using desktop CPU + single GPU. There's the >17" which include the 18.4", 19" and 20" models SLI. The D900C was a bit of a outlier.

 

eMachines fan here! The latest one will destroy both of these. O_O

Anyway, you have to wonder if it's for financial reasons that they didn't design it with SLI, instead letting the M98 have that, or because they just simply can't redesign the notebook while keeping SLI.

If they redesigned the notebook, they'd have to start a new line of products; in a sense, that's what is going on with the M98.

 

I love that in the reviewer's video, it mentions this laptop as "all powerful." Perhaps a slight pun against the latest Alienware laptop?

 

*whistles as I slowly walk away*

 

Agreed......considering the likely price range this will sit in, a customer who want to buy probably won't flinch if a high quality exterior pushes the sticker up a bit

 

quality wise, it's up to standard, clevo chassis are very solid. the looks are old, definitely, but that doesn't necessarily mean bad.

 

Hi everyone. I'm a real noob to the gaming laptop scene, and can tell from reading the other posts in this thread that I might start a bit of a flame war by asking this question, but here goes...

I've been looking at this Clevo machine for a while, but, like some of the early posts in the thread, I'm a bit concerned that it's only a single graphics card, not SLi like the new Alienware M17x. But it has the core i7, which should go some way to rectifying this, right? My question really is... If you had to pick between a laptop with a Core2 Extreme QX9300 & SLi GTX 280M, or a laptop with Core i7 975 but only one GTX 280M, which would, in your view, be the best overall buy?

I know this is a bit of a subjective question, and completely depends on the usage, but where would you start to notice the difference between them? Would it be apparent on stuff like Call of Duty 4, or only when you started getting into high quality settings on Crysis/GTA 4? Thanks for your help guys.

 

An i7 processor. Congrats Clevo.

Should be a good rig for those who don't place a high priority on gaming.

With only one graphics card, is the price so high because it uses an i7 processor?

Nice to see Clevo is sticking with their trademark "spartan" and dated looking exterior. It seems many Clevo fans prefer it that way, so I'd say Clevo catered to their target customers.

Great job Clevo, keep up the good work! :wink:

 

/snicker

10

 

Only when you started getting into higher quality stuff. Games like Crysis will benefit more from the two cards, but GTA 4 will absolutely love the desktop processor.

 

Yeah, to chime in, this is not the direct competitor to the APM17x. As expected, this will crush the APM17x in everything except gaming. But this isn't a high-end gaming machine. Three drive bays and an i7 class processor screams a database developer's dream machine or more directed to the professional level.

I can't imagine pulling out a APM17x or Qosmio or something of that ilk at a client's site or a business meeting. This? Yeah, in a Lattitudish/M4400/M6400 (non-covet) utilitarian sense, I can see this in the business world quite easily. It is an aesthetically ow profile higher power laptop where it needs to be and targeted at non-gaming markets. Again, that market is not hardcore gamers. Yet with a 280M under the hood, it will game admirably. But if you're looking for cutting edge, all details to max, "z0mg!" factor with framerates to fuel your hunger, this is not it.

Then again, if you're a fan of CPU intensive RTS games or games that scale equally, if not better, with CPU power like EQII, this machine is going to be a beast. But that is very limited scenarios.

When the M98 drops, then let the claws fly, but as it looks now, the APM17x has the advantage in regards to form factor, AC Adapter, Screen resolution options. If the APM17x is truly a product of Dell, you also get their great service and support (crosses fingers). If the rumored OC options in BIOS for Extreme chips turn out to be true and the M98 is locked, that's just icing on the cake. Unless you're a fan of 18.4" screens (they ARE gorgeous) and true 1080p nativ resolution, I just don't see the M98 being a better machine than the APM17x.

 

I have a feeling that the 18.4" screen will turn a lot of people off. I have trouble lugging my 17" around. It isn't weight, it's just that it's cumbersome. All that and I would still be able to consider another 17" machine. I would never buy an 18.4" machine for my uses at this moment.

 

I'm not sure an RTS has ever existed which pushes a computer's limits, but they have always been notoriously CPU-heavy compared to FPS's. Fingers crossed Starcraft has graphics settings! Ubergamer anyone?

As for screen sizes, I am of the opposite party... I use a 15.4" laptop and can barely tell the difference when moving to my friend's 18.4" Acer. For that much horsepower, I would want as much real estate to watch my pretty Crysis shimmering on-screen as possible.

*on a side note, I have always wished that StarCraft had awesome slow-mo cinematics a la The Matrix or, as a better example, Fallout 3... don't you wish you could voluntarily enter and exit a commandless "watch your units wreak havoc" mode in slow-mo and awesome camera angles? Now THERE's a use for dual 280m's over a single!*

PS: Fanboys, some maturity would be appreciated. I'm glad we have this alongside the M17x, M98 and W90 for competition's sake. The only brand I subscribe to in the laptop industry is CAPITALISM.

 

Very impressive but bleeding edge. How about PC makers do a mainstream version of it:
- Intel Arrandale (now called core i5?)
- Dual drives (256GB SSD for OS/programs + 500GB for files)
- Windows 7
- under $1500 for nearly the same performance & awesome battery life

 

Just because the first i7 notebook isn't great for gamers doesn't mean that the next won't be.

 

Ah, McMurdo Base, have you gone for a ride on the truck operated rope lift to go skiing?

Not too many of us can say they have gone skiing in Antarctica!

 

Good stuff!
Maybe it might not be a "gamer rig" but it certainly can be a player.
Even a single 280 GTX can give very good performance and with the i7 core CPU give just about the same performance of 9800M GT's in SLI.
In the review they did say it got around 14000 in 3DMARK06 and that's pretty amazing.

 

If you want to save, get a D900F with a 920. Nobody wants a mainstream version with an i5 with the mobile Core right around the corner. That is what you want if you're concerned with battery life and cheaper costs.

If you want the absolute, best processor performance out there in an Intel laptop, this is what you get. The same niche previous desktop cpu laptops filled. You don't have to wait for mobile parts playing catchup 24/7.

The drive/OS options are irrelevant, since you can order the D900F in many configurations, even down to a stripped barebones if you want and build it like you want.

 

The single 280M is a capable GPU. Just because this guy doesn't have sli doesn't mean you can't play every game on the market on high settings lol, because it can. The i7 is insanely fast, and those who can take advantage of it will be most impressed.

 

Wait till some guy decides to overclock everything on that haha

 

I'm amazed that the i7 975 is twice as fast as my QX9300 at wprime. That's fast...

Interesting HDD setup in this one too. Goes for the cheapest extreme performance SSD raid setup and a nice fat 7200.4 to go along with it. Can we get a boot time video?

 

the cpu is the major selling point of this machine. now if they allowed overclocking

 

I think the longest section of he bootup time is the RAID setting information page right out of the BIOS. It adds a few seconds popping between that and the startup screen before it starts to load the OS.

 

wooow 14000

pretty nice for single 280

makes u wonder what an sli could do!!!

but still 3900$$ is tooooooooo much....and its not that portable so getting a desktop is better in my opinion

if just the alien had core i7 that would be great

guess you cant have everything perfect in this world...

 

Keep in mind that NBR does not use 3Dmark06 at the standard of 1280x1024.

NBR tests with 3Dmark06 at 1280x 800, so take the 14,000 with a grain of salt.

Also, 3DMark06 is way past it's useful life. 3DMarkVantage is designed to accurately measure graphics performance.

 

Pretty sure you're wrong, based on my score, 14,000 at 1280 x 1024 is easy for the i7.

 

Dual Vertex in Raid, drool... One of those days I'm going to get it +7200.4 in DVD caddy...

i7 does have 8 threads, and scaling in wprime is pretty awesome.

 

Wana see it in wprime 1024, that would be interesting

I like it, in all fareness its expensive, but who knows, i serie processors could be making a move soon!

 

I can't believe Im saying this, but I'll take the Alienware with SLI, thank you! Ridiculous desktop CPU=not needed.

 

Take that Clevo!

 

M980nu?

 

Lol,

Pretty sure I'm not wrong that NBR tests at 1280x800!

IT is NBR's policy to test at this lower resolution.

From JerryJ, reviewer at NBR:

"For at least the last 18 months the screen resolution used for all 3DMark tests done by the team at NotebookReview.com has been 1280x800. The one exception to that rule is "netbooks" because we have to test those with an external display because 3DMark06 requires a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768.

We may change our resolution standard at some point, particularly since the aspect ratio of notebook screens is changing to 16:9 on almost all notebooks, but there is method to our madness.

The reason our editorial team chose 1280x800 is because it has been the standard resolution on most notebook screens that are 12" or larger. This allows us to directly compare the GPU performance of all notebooks from a 12" notebook to a 15" notebook and a 17" notebook regardless of the resolution of the LCD.

Additionally, since most notebooks are available with low-resolution screens (usually starting at 1280x800) and high resolution screen options we felt it was important to use a resolution that any of our readers could use for comparison on their own notebook ... even if they didn't spend extra money on a high resolution notebook panel or an external display."

At any rate, 3Dmark06 scores are useless on today's hardware. The best way to test a laptop's 3D abilities is with 3DMark Vantage. I'd like to see how the D900F does on that.

 

This man knows what he is talking about. The target market for NP9280 goes beyond targeting gamers.